My 16 year MMO background and why I chose ESO now

xellink · January 2016

Introduction
I have created this thread to try to understand the community better. Basically i would like to share my MMO experience and to understand the MMO experience others have. I would also like to find out how this has influenced you to choose other games instead of ESO. I am 28 and have been playing mmos for many years, i will only mention a few notable ones that i have played at least 2 years for.

Yr 2000+
at 12. I started off with MUDs. later as a teenager. I din't have much cash so I had to play free mmos. eveyone knows thats MUDs are more social than any mmos around and nothing has beat aardwolf in terms of imagination, rp and socialising. there were no guilds, only about 30 clans, and every clan must submit an application form to the devs/GMs to ensure their existence had a theme/purpose before they are given a clan hall. joining a clan was an expression of your personality. In fact there are pseudoclans that have existed for quite a while but not been approved by the GMs. I joined a clan that primarily supported new players.

there were a lot other MMOs that came along. maple story, fairytale, priston tale, knight online. but they didnt stop me going back to Aardwolf MUD for over 15 years.

Yr 2006+
subsequently in my late teens, I had a tiny income of my own and started gw1 and wow. these two games destroyed any competition out there. I decided to play gw1 because of a b2p model and I was also more pvp orientated. I believe in paying for games but I cannot commit a monthly fee. I played gw1 for 6-7 years. at some point. I was in a guild with single digit ranking. there was so little lag and coordinated spike damage had a new meaning to it. it was split second accuracy. we timed our pings and used emotes to check for split second delays in order to ensure we are 100% coordinated. PVP in MMOs had never achieved such a high standard since GW1. I would have continued to play the game another 6-7 years if not for GW2.

GW1 is still the best game i have experienced and would use it as a bench mark for many other games. Guild loyalty was a big thing, we had nice and flashy capes.

I did enjoy organised PVP (GVG and TA) in GW. Being in a top ranking guild with excellent instruction and tutorial to PVP, it was easy for me to get into teams using my guild tag. Of course i like to meet new faces and often go into random arenas, where Ihad no difficulty helping my team get 10 consecutive wins each time. It is good to meet new people and demonstrate a playstyle that can lift the power of the team, inspiring other new players to do the same.

Yr 2012+
I preordered gw2 and played the game for 1-2 years. I was mildly disappointed as a lot of the changes were those that i had pushed for in GW2. I was sad that the Devs listened to me. it had everything I advocated for, huge support for hybrid builds with a few specialised niche builds, I was one of the many idiots. I was mildly disappointed until i reached end-game and decided to quit the game entirely. The world was beautiful though, almost as good as ESO.

i have a 1080p version of the screenie.

Dynamic events are also cool, at first. Eventually, even these became repetitive. Mediocre voice acting and repetitive lines did little to help. Changing the world occurs in such an insignificant way that events quickly recur and change the things back to what they were. Sometimes you wonder what your role was.

Everyone can do anything and that is the problem, everyone was expected to do DPS + hybrid in some way. There is no dedicated healing or tanking. GW2 was good, and then headed the wrong way such that if it went any further, u might as well play counterstrike with melee weapons and different skins. It became so balanced that choosing a race was just cosmetic. It had little meaning to be a charr or human. Elitism was rife. WvW is considered noob pvp.

It was also quite unbelievable how long they took to implement guild halls. Hell, there are no guild vs guild battles, the very gamestyle that made the first game successful (guild wars... hello? isn't that what the game is called?). In fact, the players took it into their own hands and decided to start unofficial GVG battles. There is even an unofficial scoreboard.

we lost our flashy capes so we had to dye our armor the same color. Some people can't tell the difference between yellow and gold!

Other notable mentions
MOBAs like DOTA are great for teamwork and coordination. One that really is really great in terms of mmo-esque teamwork is Monster Hunter. I played every MH from MH2 to MH4. MH was great for teamwork but there was little room for socialising and text chat only existed in the guild hall.

Anime 2013-2014
Sword art online was a very popular anime that described how being OP in a game would be. However, I preferred log horizon as it kindled the explorer in me and soon i wanted to play a game with exploration. Moving away from the GW franchise (after 7 years), i decided to play ESO because of my experience with previous ES games.

ESO, the most horrible game i ever seen (on paper)
On paper, ESO was the most horrible MMO i had ever seen in my life. There was incorrigible lag on certain hours and memory leak made the game unplayable sometimes. After two hours in cyrodiil on a brand new iMac, i had to restart my client as the game started to experience horrible memory leaks and crashes (fixed, thanks ZOS). The lag has now improved and my ping is 250 but it is still impossible for organised split second accurate pvp spiking.

PVP was unbalanced as hell. There is no incentive to diversify due to the lack of soft caps and NBs can OHKO with little teamwork in too many situations. Broken builds are literally broken, not in terms of balancing, but function as well. There was no need for coordinated split-second accurate play. The system didn't allow it anyway. The first time i got into teamspeak for PVP, it was about organising a zergball.

The pet system is rudimentary and i wondered why are there even pets in the game. Overally ESO sucked so bad, I was going to quit at first sight.

Why i stuck with ESO
Roles
ESO is a game that allowed class flexibility and had expectations for roles in PVE. Even the group finder is based on having different roles. Having such roles is the basic of ESO.

The wonder of the game is that despite promoting role-play, the player-base encourages healers to do dps whilst they are not healing, tanks to do off-healing or dps, dps to play support or have use the second bar for damage mitigation. The aspect of this beats GW1 hands down. The only time hybrid builds became popular in GW1 was after the devs started major balancing and revamping skills, splitting pve and pvp skills. That was in 2010, that is when the game is 4-5 years old!!! GW2 tried to accelerate this process by shafting weapon skills and a heal skill down your throat, it didn't turn out very well.

Lore and exploration
Nothing beats it hands down. Quests are fully voiced and nothing felt out of place or forced. The lore is deep. There are books to discover and the lusty argonian maid is a good read even after the second or third time. Skyshards make discovering every nook and cranny interesting and i don't understand why some people need to use a helper to dig for skyshards. I mean... isn't there enough skill points to distribute among all your passives and 12 potential skill slots?

Community
I have never been called a n00b, loser or any kind of derogatory term in this game. During my first VET dungeon run, i was called a novice, a term i would prefer, and the group gave me instructions on the mechanics. Naturally, we had a good time and managed to proceed past the boss. I'm onto my fifth gold key now, but i'm sure there are many to come. Guilds are mature and most people are >18.

We have a good looking community and a large number of ladies. MMORPG no longer means many men role playing girls. I actually changed my main into a male as i had difficulty explaining why i was playing a sexy female dunmer. The game is also friendly to the LGBT community. The only thing the game needs is a 'gossip' channel for people from all alliance in cyro, and in PVE all zones to to talk. This will be particularly fun for thrash talking in AvAvA.

Unfortunately, people are not as forgiving to the devs. Just because most people are >18 and pay from their own pockets, they treat the game as some form of investment and aim to get some form of return from it. To those people who say that other game forums are as toxic, i would the ESO forums is one of the worst. Perhaps it is due to the vent up hate for many unfixed bugs but such bugs exist in many games too, even more so for f2p games.

Atmosphere
The music in the game is amazing. It has a Jeremy Soule type of feel to it. The world large and the lighting and shadows are one of the best i ever seen. A shadow shone on your body will be casted on a distant rock, even on low settings.

Not the best screen i had taken in eso but look at the shadow casted on the tree!!

I spent 130 hours in skyrim, 100 hours in oblivion, and i'm 200 hours into ESO and not done yet!

Dungeon design
I have played many MMOs and many dungeons. Few have design like ESO. The normal and vet mode storyline are different yet related. There is a meaningful ending in most cases and background storyline. Boss and environment design do not break the game. I still remember taking down Selene the other night and the floor just broke. I thought that only existed in fighting games! lol.

PVP
PVP in ESO is lax, there is a lot of forgiveness and flexibility to how much you want to contribute and what you want to contribute. I am sure that will change when team based arenas are implemented and more organised PVP is established. No longer are you kicked because you lack a certain skill. Instead there are things everyone can do (like siege) and things people can learn to do (like taking an outpost with only two players). I find people in ESO make do with what they have and don't expect everyone to be V16 or be *** about it.

Crafting
Possibly the only 3d game that made crafting enjoyable. Probably the only game which i felt was more fun when it came to crafting was a MUD game.

Direction
ESO has great direction. From when it first started till now, i saw how the new justice system came in place to IC and orsinium, vet ranks and then champion points. ESO is a doing a lot of new things in the right way.

I am not a person who defends a system if its wrong. But all I can say is the majority of people here did not see the point of many changes but they are good and thats why so many people are sticking to the game. AOE caps and Vet points are essential, removing them is also essential. Replacing them with the champion system and moving soft-caps is also an essential step. I'm sure a lot of thought had been placed to each decision, I can take my time to explain them if anyone wants to hear, but that is for another thread. ESO development has seen further than what my eyes could see and some points i had criticised before i have to take a step back and eat humble pie. i have played enough MMOs to know that after the last ESO live, things can only get better from now on, except there's no ETA before players start seeing that ingenuity.

I would like to hear your story as well, please share. even better if you had played some of the games i played before, maybe we had even met in the previous games!

Aimora · January 2016

xellink wrote: »

Introduction
I have created this thread to try to understand the community better. Basically i would like to share my MMO experience and to understand the MMO experience others have. I would also like to find out how this has influenced you to choose other games instead of ESO. I am 28 and have been playing mmos for many years, i will only mention a few notable ones that i have played at least 2 years for.

Yr 2000+
at 12. I started off with MUDs. later as a teenager. I din't have much cash so I had to play free mmos. eveyone knows thats MUDs are more social than any mmos around and nothing has beat aardwolf in terms of imagination, rp and socialising. there were no guilds, only about 30 clans, and every clan must submit an application form to the devs/GMs to ensure their existence had a theme/purpose before they are given a clan hall. joining a clan was an expression of your personality. In fact there are pseudoclans that have existed for quite a while but not been approved by the GMs. I joined a clan that primarily supported new players.

there were a lot other MMOs that came along. maple story, fairytale, priston tale, knight online. but they didnt stop me going back to Aardwolf MUD for over 15 years.

Yr 2006+
subsequently in my late teens, I had a tiny income of my own and started gw1 and wow. these two games destroyed any competition out there. I decided to play gw1 because of a b2p model and I was also more pvp orientated. I believe in paying for games but I cannot commit a monthly fee. I played gw1 for 6-7 years. at some point. I was in a guild with single digit ranking. there was so little lag and coordinated spike damage had a new meaning to it. it was split second accuracy. we timed our pings and used emotes to check for split second delays in order to ensure we are 100% coordinated. PVP in MMOs had never achieved such a high standard since GW1. I would have continued to play the game another 6-7 years if not for GW2.

GW1 is still the best game i have experienced and would use it as a bench mark for many other games. Guild loyalty was a big thing, we had nice and flashy capes.

I did enjoy organised PVP (GVG and TA) in GW. Being in a top ranking guild with excellent instruction and tutorial to PVP, it was easy for me to get into teams using my guild tag. Of course i like to meet new faces and often go into random arenas, where Ihad no difficulty helping my team get 10 consecutive wins each time. It is good to meet new people and demonstrate a playstyle that can lift the power of the team, inspiring other new players to do the same.

Yr 2012+
I preordered gw2 and played the game for 1-2 years. I was mildly disappointed as a lot of the changes were those that i had pushed for in GW2. I was sad that the Devs listened to me. it had everything I advocated for, huge support for hybrid builds with a few specialised niche builds, I was one of the many idiots. I was mildly disappointed until i reached end-game and decided to quit the game entirely. The world was beautiful though, almost as good as ESO.

i have a 1080p version of the screenie.

Dynamic events are also cool, at first. Eventually, even these became repetitive. Mediocre voice acting and repetitive lines did little to help. Changing the world occurs in such an insignificant way that events quickly recur and change the things back to what they were. Sometimes you wonder what your role was.

Everyone can do anything and that is the problem, everyone was expected to do DPS + hybrid in some way. There is no dedicated healing or tanking. GW2 was good, and then headed the wrong way such that if it went any further, u might as well play counterstrike with melee weapons and different skins. It became so balanced that choosing a race was just cosmetic. It had little meaning to be a charr or human. Elitism was rife. WvW is considered noob pvp.

It was also quite unbelievable how long they took to implement guild halls. Hell, there are no guild vs guild battles, the very gamestyle that made the first game successful (guild wars... hello? isn't that what the game is called?). In fact, the players took it into their own hands and decided to start unofficial GVG battles. There is even an unofficial scoreboard.

we lost our flashy capes so we had to dye our armor the same color. Some people can't tell the difference between yellow and gold!

Other notable mentions
MOBAs like DOTA are great for teamwork and coordination. One that really is really great in terms of mmo-esque teamwork is Monster Hunter. I played every MH from MH2 to MH4. MH was great for teamwork but there was little room for socialising and text chat only existed in the guild hall.

Anime 2013-2014
Sword art online was a very popular anime that described how being OP in a game would be. However, I preferred log horizon as it kindled the explorer in me and soon i wanted to play a game with exploration. Moving away from the GW franchise (after 7 years), i decided to play ESO because of my experience with previous ES games.

ESO, the most horrible game i ever seen (on paper)
On paper, ESO was the most horrible MMO i had ever seen in my life. There was incorrigible lag on certain hours and memory leak made the game unplayable sometimes. After two hours in cyrodiil on a brand new iMac, i had to restart my client as the game started to experience horrible memory leaks and crashes (fixed, thanks ZOS). The lag has now improved and my ping is 250 but it is still impossible for organised split second accurate pvp spiking.

PVP was unbalanced as hell. There is no incentive to diversify due to the lack of soft caps and NBs can OHKO with little teamwork in too many situations. Broken builds are literally broken, not in terms of balancing, but function as well. There was no need for coordinated split-second accurate play. The system didn't allow it anyway. The first time i got into teamspeak for PVP, it was about organising a zergball.

The pet system is rudimentary and i wondered why are there even pets in the game. Overally ESO sucked so bad, I was going to quit at first sight.

Why i stuck with ESO
Roles
ESO is a game that allowed class flexibility and had expectations for roles in PVE. Even the group finder is based on having different roles. Having such roles is the basic of ESO.

The wonder of the game is that despite promoting role-play, the player-base encourages healers to do dps whilst they are not healing, tanks to do off-healing or dps, dps to play support or have use the second bar for damage mitigation. The aspect of this beats GW1 hands down. The only time hybrid builds became popular in GW1 was after the devs started major balancing and revamping skills, splitting pve and pvp skills. That was in 2010, that is when the game is 4-5 years old!!! GW2 tried to accelerate this process by shafting weapon skills and a heal skill down your throat, it didn't turn out very well.

Lore and exploration
Nothing beats it hands down. Quests are fully voiced and nothing felt out of place or forced. The lore is deep. There are books to discover and the lusty argonian maid is a good read even after the second or third time. Skyshards make discovering every nook and cranny interesting and i don't understand why some people need to use a helper to dig for skyshards. I mean... isn't there enough skill points to distribute among all your passives and 12 potential skill slots?

Community
I have never been called a n00b, loser or any kind of derogatory term in this game. During my first VET dungeon run, i was called a novice, a term i would prefer, and the group gave me instructions on the mechanics. Naturally, we had a good time and managed to proceed past the boss. I'm onto my fifth gold key now, but i'm sure there are many to come. Guilds are mature and most people are >18.

We have a good looking community and a large number of ladies. MMORPG no longer means many men role playing girls. I actually changed my main into a male as i had difficulty explaining why i was playing a sexy female dunmer. The game is also friendly to the LGBT community. The only thing the game needs is a 'gossip' channel for people from all alliance in cyro, and in PVE all zones to to talk. This will be particularly fun for thrash talking in AvAvA.

Unfortunately, people are not as forgiving to the devs. Just because most people are >18 and pay from their own pockets, they treat the game as some form of investment and aim to get some form of return from it. To those people who say that other game forums are as toxic, i would the ESO forums is one of the worst. Perhaps it is due to the vent up hate for many unfixed bugs but such bugs exist in many games too, even more so for f2p games.

Atmosphere
The music in the game is amazing. It has a Jeremy Soule type of feel to it. The world large and the lighting and shadows are one of the best i ever seen. A shadow shone on your body will be casted on a distant rock, even on low settings.

Not the best screen i had taken in eso but look at the shadow casted on the tree!!

I spent 130 hours in skyrim, 100 hours in oblivion, and i'm 200 hours into ESO and not done yet!

Dungeon design
I have played many MMOs and many dungeons. Few have design like ESO. The normal and vet mode storyline are different yet related. There is a meaningful ending in most cases and background storyline. Boss and environment design do not break the game. I still remember taking down Selene the other night and the floor just broke. I thought that only existed in fighting games! lol.

PVP
PVP in ESO is lax, there is a lot of forgiveness and flexibility to how much you want to contribute and what you want to contribute. I am sure that will change when team based arenas are implemented and more organised PVP is established. No longer are you kicked because you lack a certain skill. Instead there are things everyone can do (like siege) and things people can learn to do (like taking an outpost with only two players). I find people in ESO make do with what they have and don't expect everyone to be V16 or be *** about it.

Crafting
Possibly the only 3d game that made crafting enjoyable. Probably the only game which i felt was more fun when it came to crafting was a MUD game.

Direction
ESO has great direction. From when it first started till now, i saw how the new justice system came in place to IC and orsinium, vet ranks and then champion points. ESO is a doing a lot of new things in the right way.

I am not a person who defends a system if its wrong. But all I can say is the majority of people here did not see the point of many changes but they are good and thats why so many people are sticking to the game. AOE caps and Vet points are essential, removing them is also essential. Replacing them with the champion system and moving soft-caps is also an essential step. I'm sure a lot of thought had been placed to each decision, I can take my time to explain them if anyone wants to hear, but that is for another thread. ESO development has seen further than what my eyes could see and some points i had criticised before i have to take a step back and eat humble pie. i have played enough MMOs to know that after the last ESO live, things can only get better from now on, except there's no ETA before players start seeing that ingenuity.

I would like to hear your story as well, please share. even better if you had played some of the games i played before, maybe we had even met in the previous games!

Really great post - thank you

daemonios · January 2016

Nice to see you're having a good time!

I also had a very good experience when first doing dungeons. I decided I wanted to be a tank, but didn't have the first clue about what that meant in ESO - in other games tanks would hold agro by doing the most damage, so there I was with a 2-hander trying to hit everything as hard as I could. Naturally, we were doing... poorly

Then my team mates explained that I needed to use taunts, and that the only taunt available to me required a sword and shield. I didn't have any, so they gifted me the gear and we proceeded to clear the dungeon without any major hiccups.

Alucardo · January 2016

I still play MUDs to this day. The fact they are text based and run directly from my console makes it look like I'm actually doing work

I really need to find a proper MUD client though. tintin is nice, but you get newlines while typing text if one of the NPCs speak or the weather changes xD

Only played the Discworld MUD so far, but I've heard great things about Aardwolf and need to try it out.

Elsonso · January 2016

Ahh, yes... text based MUDs. The way MMOs are supposed to be.

VincentBlanquin · January 2016

wanna hear my story?

meeting players who are artificially protected by damage caps, lags, broken cc system in many ways, zerging, spamming skills, only few builds pvp viable, no aoe caps etc etc

dev who is responsible for combat at pvp has no clue what is pvp

if you sum this all together i cant play eso pvp for more than 2 hours in a row. at the latest after 2 hours i get serious headaching when think about state of the game and ragequit

xellink · January 2016

Alucardo wrote: »

I really need to find a proper MUD client though. tintin is nice, but you get newlines while typing text if one of the NPCs speak or the weather changes xD.

Try mushclient, it separates the maintext from the dialogue.

JD2013 · January 2016

Great post, man. Seriously.

Well I'm here because it's Elder Scrolls. I've played them since Arena and they're my favourite game series.

Played some MMO's before. EQ, SWTOR, GW, GW2, and of course World of Warcraft. I like how MMO's work. Big fan of large and persistent games.

Been here since January 2014. No plans to stop even if another game comes that takes my fancy. I get seriously lost in the world and the lore. Storytelling is outstanding. I enjoy PVP.

Game does have problems, exacerbated by a slightly petulant minority on the forums.

RatedChaotic · January 2016

My eyes hurt.

Buffler · January 2016

Good post and nice to hear other peoples mmo history.

I was a hardcore WOW player from start through until WOTLK expansion was released. Ran a guild on the server and we were always achieving "server firsts" when it came to raiding. If you think co-ordinating is tough on eso, try leading a 40 man raid through Naxraamus!!

Soon, real life caught up and I got married and had a few kids and could no longer spend 12 hours a day on a game.......that and Id done so much grinding, finally completed Black Temple raid and blizzard released wotlk and just made everything id worked for pointless!!

Started playing eso after i loved skyrim and loved it, felt myself sucked in really got into it. Play everyday but times vary depending on home stuff that needs to be done.

LFG system needs total revamp and there are a fair few bellends who lead dungeons and expect people to know all the mechanics when its their first run but everybody starts somewhere.... even they did once! Really looking forward to txt chat on console as part of mmo social side is talking nonsense and having fun....many hours i wasted running around the tree in a wedding dress outside Stormwind bank lol

All in all, thats me!!

Grunim · January 2016

Alucardo wrote: »

I still play MUDs to this day. The fact they are text based and run directly from my console makes it look like I'm actually doing work

I really need to find a proper MUD client though. tintin is nice, but you get newlines while typing text if one of the NPCs speak or the weather changes xD

Only played the Discworld MUD so far, but I've heard great things about Aardwolf and need to try it out.

I stopped mudding several years ago, with Aardwolf being my last MUD. I used MUSHclient since the late '90s and was quite happy with it. At the time I last played Aardwolf, it came with a special version of MUSHclient which really enhanced play.

And I always wanted to try Discworld back then, but I kept saying I needed to read all the books first before trying the MUD out. Well I read all his books and I never returned, is Discworld still around and is anybody playing it?

Tabbycat · January 2016

I've never played a MUD so I can't really comment on that. The first computer game I played was on a Commodore 64. The first MMO I played was Guild Wars 1. I've played several MMOs, WoW being one of them.

I played ESO because I enjoy MMOs and I love TES games. My first TES game was Morrowind.

Knootewoot · January 2016

I played so many mmo's. I love the TES series. As a mmo, i like TESO but i have played better. PvP wise there is currently not any good AvA(vA) game and the reason i play TESO.

I liked other mmo's better because (my opinions)

- player housing (SWG, Vanguard, EQ2, sage of ryzom)
- better crafting (SWG, Vanguard, sage of Ryzom)
- better roleplay environment (SWG for me the best)
- overall more to do in the world by giving player toys to play

But sadly all these mmo's where killed. Sage of Ryzom still exists after 2 times a shut down. The second time i quit trying because it also ment a wipe. It's now just called Ryzom. It is the only mmo which had an actual season system. Some animals moved to warmer area's when it became winter and certain craft materials only grow in autumn.

Why do i stick with TESO. Well, for the PvP. The PvE i do is still in SWTOR. The overall stories of each and every fully narrated quest (except one expension) are far better then any quest series in TESO. Every planet story arc or class story is better then TESO's main story. But the PvP in the game stinks. I do occasionally a battleground but it's not as fun as TESO's PvP

BUT..... TESO has some future expectations. Not only the new area's which can be very good (I loved Wrothgar's quest serie and the map itself) but also the thievesguild, dark brotherhood and of course the announced player housing. I don't know what it is. I just enjoy having a house and decorating it. I just don't hope it's like SWTOR's, which is an instance you cannot see from outside. I want to live in Daggefall and stand in front of the door where I and other players have their own living space. Around the same what EQ2 had.

I loved SWG's housing, but the planets where littered with buildings. I loved Vanguards, because the plots actually made nice cities but plots are limited. Same as ArcheAge.

I really hope they put good though in it instead of rushing it out and releasing something dreadfully. There are other mmo's coming this and next year with probably most of these features on launch. Yes, i understand Black Desert Online is already 2 years out in Korea. But even then they had it on launch. And TESO is also almost 2 years old and has little to do once you complete all quests. (and no, i am not an achievement hunter so i have almost none. I only do what i really like which is currently only PvP)

Alucardo · January 2016

Grunim wrote: »

And I always wanted to try Discworld back then, but I kept saying I needed to read all the books first before trying the MUD out. Well I read all his books and I never returned, is Discworld still around and is anybody playing it?

Yep, it's still going - http://discworld.starturtle.net/lpc/
Saw a few people on there, but I've only just started getting back into it so can't really comment too much on the population yet.

xellink · January 2016

Buffler wrote: »

LFG system needs total revamp and there are a fair few bellends who lead dungeons and expect people to know all the mechanics when its their first run but everybody starts somewhere.... even they did once! Really looking forward to txt chat on console as part of mmo social side is talking nonsense and having fun....many hours i wasted running around the tree in a wedding dress outside Stormwind bank lol

lol, Yes, LFG needs a total revamp, I hope when the tag system starts, its toggle on button press, and players can tag themselves whether they are [newbie] or [veteran] or [helper]. That will allow casuals to help each other.

Knootewoot wrote: »

- player housing (SWG, Vanguard, EQ2, sage of ryzom)
- better crafting (SWG, Vanguard, sage of Ryzom)
- better roleplay environment (SWG for me the best)
- overall more to do in the world by giving player toys to play

Didn't the NGE kill off SWG? I heard people complaining. Didn't jump onto the SWG bandwagon. Who would think "New Game Enhancements" could kill a game. lol. Better to have no ETA yet. lol I rather an MMO die slowly than be stabbed in the chest, at least last long enough till the sequel comes out.

Why do i stick with TESO. Well, for the PvP. The PvE i do is still in SWTOR. The overall stories of each and every fully narrated quest (except one expension) are far better then any quest series in TESO.

I liked the fact that u can be a dark side jedi or light side sith. I do have a minor quirk. They should revert to the dnd style of good neutral and bad, whilst dark or light side should determine the power you get.

South_of_Heaven · January 2016

A shame that most haven't known Shadowbane and Ultima Online.

xellink · January 2016

South_of_Heaven wrote: »

A shame that most haven't known Shadowbane and Ultima Online.

I did touch ultima online for a couple of hours before moving on. did not delve deeper into it as I was 10 yrs old and too busy playing ff7-> ff8. we gotta pay for every second we are connecred to the net so its not a luxury to have.

moesmaker · January 2016

Great post OP. Totally agree

Flameheart · January 2016

I agree to the OP.

My journey was a similar. Everquest -> Everquest 2 -> WoW -> LotRO -> SWTOR -> LotRO -> ESO.

ESO has technical issues at moment (fps drops, lag), lacks balance especially in PvP, has bugs, but I rate

1) the character developement system one of the most addictive I ever enjoyed. The Everquest AA system was already great, but does not come even close to that here.

2) the combat system with lots of movement, dodge rolling, blocking even for healers and DDs etc. as revolutionary. Intelligent healing so that I am able - as a healer - to play in max zoomed out 3rd person view without the necessity of aiming the heals (or using an addon to evaluate healing the whole time), and therefore being able to watch the whole fight and the instance visuals ? -> Priceless. Healer as a hybrid role by adding support dps ? -> I love it. It's a must for a DD to avoid inc damage by movement and maybe even self shielding to prevent oneshots, so that the healer has not to lift the weight alone ? Healer's revenge after over 10 years of MMO experience, adapt or die.

3) the freedom in character creation concerning builds and roles not perfect, but by far the best I have ever seen yet. No skill tree prison, not even a real holy trinity. I would even abolish classes in total and just use generic skill lines.

3) this the first MMO with pretty stunning visuals. I play on ultra+ settings, using a 28'' display with a native WQHD (2560 x 1440) resolution, but I get to almost Ultra HD by using Nvidia DSR -> with other words: Just awesome.

KaleidoscopeEyz · January 2016

Anyone remember Zork? ZZZZZOOOORRRRKKKK!!!!!

gw2only1b14_ESO · January 2016

KaleidoscopeEyz wrote: »

Anyone remember Zork? ZZZZZOOOORRRRKKKK!!!!!

Yep sure do and playing Lord British on the apple O so way back...........

Robbmrp · January 2016

Great post op and welcome to the game!

Zerok · January 2016

I never really was a MMO player before, but I love RPG games, particularly the Baldur's Gate series.

The closest thing to a MMORPG I've played was Diablo 2, back in the days. I could have gotten into WoW because I had friends playing it back in 2003 or so. In the end, I didn't because I was a college student and I feared it would have a negative impact on my grades

When Pillars of Eternity came out last year (which is the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate), I bought it and made myself a rogue. I rushed through the content so fast and felt I needed more.

That's when I started looking at what MMORPGs were currently available (in September 2015).

I checked the video gameplays and reviews for all these games: GW2, Tera, FF14, ESO(TU), WoW, ArcheAge, D&D Online, and LoTR Online

In the end, I chose ESO(TU) because of:
- B2P model
- Crafting
- Holy trinity PvE
- Any class, any role
- Visual look

Except a few annoyances (I'm looking at you Laggyrodiil), this is a great game.

Takes-No-Prisoner · January 2016

Flameheart wrote: »

2) the combat system with lots of movement, dodge rolling, blocking even for healers and DDs etc. as revolutionary. Intelligent healing so that I - as a healer - am able to play in max zoomed out 3rd person view without the necessity of aiming the heals, and therefore being able to watch the whole fight and the instance visuals ? -> Priceless. Healer as a hybrid role by adding support dps ? -> I love it. It's a must for a DD to avoid inc damage by movement and maybe even self shielding, so that the healer has not to lift the weight alone ? Healer's revenge after over 10 years of MMO experience, adapt or die.

Not sure about the healers in the MMOs you mentioned, but in Ragnarok online, if you built a healer. You couldn't kill anything at all. Like, seriously. You would need a group to get -any- EXP. They had no offensive skills to speak of, just buffs and heals. I definitely feel what you mean though in your quote.

Shelgon · January 2016

best post 2016, i feel exactly the same way.

Flameheart · January 2016

Zerok wrote: »

In the end, I didn't because I was a college student and I feared it would have a negative impact on my grades

Let me say, you were absolutely right about doing that. I studied law and was finished with my study before I started to play MMOs. I am pretty sure I would have never completed my study otherwise.

I installed Everquest, I created a character, I logged in and from then on I was on virtual cocaine. It was 2001 and this stuff was so absolutely new and amazing. 72-men raids with dial-up-connections, imagine the lag, but the experience was stunning awesome.

JaJaLuka · January 2016

KaleidoscopeEyz wrote: »

Anyone remember Zork? ZZZZZOOOORRRRKKKK!!!!!

I wish I didn't lol... please no XD

bryanhaas · January 2016

xellink wrote: »

Introduction
I have created this thread to try to understand the community better. Basically i would like to share my MMO experience and to understand the MMO experience others have. I would also like to find out how this has influenced you to choose other games instead of ESO. I am 28 and have been playing mmos for many years, i will only mention a few notable ones that i have played at least 2 years for.

Yr 2000+
at 12. I started off with MUDs. later as a teenager. I din't have much cash so I had to play free mmos. eveyone knows thats MUDs are more social than any mmos around and nothing has beat aardwolf in terms of imagination, rp and socialising. there were no guilds, only about 30 clans, and every clan must submit an application form to the devs/GMs to ensure their existence had a theme/purpose before they are given a clan hall. joining a clan was an expression of your personality. In fact there are pseudoclans that have existed for quite a while but not been approved by the GMs. I joined a clan that primarily supported new players.

there were a lot other MMOs that came along. maple story, fairytale, priston tale, knight online. but they didnt stop me going back to Aardwolf MUD for over 15 years.

Yr 2006+
subsequently in my late teens, I had a tiny income of my own and started gw1 and wow. these two games destroyed any competition out there. I decided to play gw1 because of a b2p model and I was also more pvp orientated. I believe in paying for games but I cannot commit a monthly fee. I played gw1 for 6-7 years. at some point. I was in a guild with single digit ranking. there was so little lag and coordinated spike damage had a new meaning to it. it was split second accuracy. we timed our pings and used emotes to check for split second delays in order to ensure we are 100% coordinated. PVP in MMOs had never achieved such a high standard since GW1. I would have continued to play the game another 6-7 years if not for GW2.

GW1 is still the best game i have experienced and would use it as a bench mark for many other games. Guild loyalty was a big thing, we had nice and flashy capes.

I did enjoy organised PVP (GVG and TA) in GW. Being in a top ranking guild with excellent instruction and tutorial to PVP, it was easy for me to get into teams using my guild tag. Of course i like to meet new faces and often go into random arenas, where Ihad no difficulty helping my team get 10 consecutive wins each time. It is good to meet new people and demonstrate a playstyle that can lift the power of the team, inspiring other new players to do the same.

Yr 2012+
I preordered gw2 and played the game for 1-2 years. I was mildly disappointed as a lot of the changes were those that i had pushed for in GW2. I was sad that the Devs listened to me. it had everything I advocated for, huge support for hybrid builds with a few specialised niche builds, I was one of the many idiots. I was mildly disappointed until i reached end-game and decided to quit the game entirely. The world was beautiful though, almost as good as ESO.

i have a 1080p version of the screenie.

Dynamic events are also cool, at first. Eventually, even these became repetitive. Mediocre voice acting and repetitive lines did little to help. Changing the world occurs in such an insignificant way that events quickly recur and change the things back to what they were. Sometimes you wonder what your role was.

Everyone can do anything and that is the problem, everyone was expected to do DPS + hybrid in some way. There is no dedicated healing or tanking. GW2 was good, and then headed the wrong way such that if it went any further, u might as well play counterstrike with melee weapons and different skins. It became so balanced that choosing a race was just cosmetic. It had little meaning to be a charr or human. Elitism was rife. WvW is considered noob pvp.

It was also quite unbelievable how long they took to implement guild halls. Hell, there are no guild vs guild battles, the very gamestyle that made the first game successful (guild wars... hello? isn't that what the game is called?). In fact, the players took it into their own hands and decided to start unofficial GVG battles. There is even an unofficial scoreboard.

we lost our flashy capes so we had to dye our armor the same color. Some people can't tell the difference between yellow and gold!

Other notable mentions
MOBAs like DOTA are great for teamwork and coordination. One that really is really great in terms of mmo-esque teamwork is Monster Hunter. I played every MH from MH2 to MH4. MH was great for teamwork but there was little room for socialising and text chat only existed in the guild hall.

Anime 2013-2014
Sword art online was a very popular anime that described how being OP in a game would be. However, I preferred log horizon as it kindled the explorer in me and soon i wanted to play a game with exploration. Moving away from the GW franchise (after 7 years), i decided to play ESO because of my experience with previous ES games.

ESO, the most horrible game i ever seen (on paper)
On paper, ESO was the most horrible MMO i had ever seen in my life. There was incorrigible lag on certain hours and memory leak made the game unplayable sometimes. After two hours in cyrodiil on a brand new iMac, i had to restart my client as the game started to experience horrible memory leaks and crashes (fixed, thanks ZOS). The lag has now improved and my ping is 250 but it is still impossible for organised split second accurate pvp spiking.

PVP was unbalanced as hell. There is no incentive to diversify due to the lack of soft caps and NBs can OHKO with little teamwork in too many situations. Broken builds are literally broken, not in terms of balancing, but function as well. There was no need for coordinated split-second accurate play. The system didn't allow it anyway. The first time i got into teamspeak for PVP, it was about organising a zergball.

The pet system is rudimentary and i wondered why are there even pets in the game. Overally ESO sucked so bad, I was going to quit at first sight.

Why i stuck with ESO
Roles
ESO is a game that allowed class flexibility and had expectations for roles in PVE. Even the group finder is based on having different roles. Having such roles is the basic of ESO.

The wonder of the game is that despite promoting role-play, the player-base encourages healers to do dps whilst they are not healing, tanks to do off-healing or dps, dps to play support or have use the second bar for damage mitigation. The aspect of this beats GW1 hands down. The only time hybrid builds became popular in GW1 was after the devs started major balancing and revamping skills, splitting pve and pvp skills. That was in 2010, that is when the game is 4-5 years old!!! GW2 tried to accelerate this process by shafting weapon skills and a heal skill down your throat, it didn't turn out very well.

Lore and exploration
Nothing beats it hands down. Quests are fully voiced and nothing felt out of place or forced. The lore is deep. There are books to discover and the lusty argonian maid is a good read even after the second or third time. Skyshards make discovering every nook and cranny interesting and i don't understand why some people need to use a helper to dig for skyshards. I mean... isn't there enough skill points to distribute among all your passives and 12 potential skill slots?

Community
I have never been called a n00b, loser or any kind of derogatory term in this game. During my first VET dungeon run, i was called a novice, a term i would prefer, and the group gave me instructions on the mechanics. Naturally, we had a good time and managed to proceed past the boss. I'm onto my fifth gold key now, but i'm sure there are many to come. Guilds are mature and most people are >18.

We have a good looking community and a large number of ladies. MMORPG no longer means many men role playing girls. I actually changed my main into a male as i had difficulty explaining why i was playing a sexy female dunmer. The game is also friendly to the LGBT community. The only thing the game needs is a 'gossip' channel for people from all alliance in cyro, and in PVE all zones to to talk. This will be particularly fun for thrash talking in AvAvA.

Unfortunately, people are not as forgiving to the devs. Just because most people are >18 and pay from their own pockets, they treat the game as some form of investment and aim to get some form of return from it. To those people who say that other game forums are as toxic, i would the ESO forums is one of the worst. Perhaps it is due to the vent up hate for many unfixed bugs but such bugs exist in many games too, even more so for f2p games.

Atmosphere
The music in the game is amazing. It has a Jeremy Soule type of feel to it. The world large and the lighting and shadows are one of the best i ever seen. A shadow shone on your body will be casted on a distant rock, even on low settings.

Not the best screen i had taken in eso but look at the shadow casted on the tree!!

I spent 130 hours in skyrim, 100 hours in oblivion, and i'm 200 hours into ESO and not done yet!

Dungeon design
I have played many MMOs and many dungeons. Few have design like ESO. The normal and vet mode storyline are different yet related. There is a meaningful ending in most cases and background storyline. Boss and environment design do not break the game. I still remember taking down Selene the other night and the floor just broke. I thought that only existed in fighting games! lol.

PVP
PVP in ESO is lax, there is a lot of forgiveness and flexibility to how much you want to contribute and what you want to contribute. I am sure that will change when team based arenas are implemented and more organised PVP is established. No longer are you kicked because you lack a certain skill. Instead there are things everyone can do (like siege) and things people can learn to do (like taking an outpost with only two players). I find people in ESO make do with what they have and don't expect everyone to be V16 or be *** about it.

Crafting
Possibly the only 3d game that made crafting enjoyable. Probably the only game which i felt was more fun when it came to crafting was a MUD game.

Direction
ESO has great direction. From when it first started till now, i saw how the new justice system came in place to IC and orsinium, vet ranks and then champion points. ESO is a doing a lot of new things in the right way.

I am not a person who defends a system if its wrong. But all I can say is the majority of people here did not see the point of many changes but they are good and thats why so many people are sticking to the game. AOE caps and Vet points are essential, removing them is also essential. Replacing them with the champion system and moving soft-caps is also an essential step. I'm sure a lot of thought had been placed to each decision, I can take my time to explain them if anyone wants to hear, but that is for another thread. ESO development has seen further than what my eyes could see and some points i had criticised before i have to take a step back and eat humble pie. i have played enough MMOs to know that after the last ESO live, things can only get better from now on, except there's no ETA before players start seeing that ingenuity.

I would like to hear your story as well, please share. even better if you had played some of the games i played before, maybe we had even met in the previous games!

Nice post.
If you do want to see how hostile a gaming forum can be check out bungie.net (the forum for Destiny). It is one of the most toxic out there.

sirrmattus · January 2016

MAC IS WAK

Hand_Bacon · January 2016

Nice post. Good to read something like this.

My own journey. Daoc - WoW Vanilla through to Cata - A few randoms - ESO

kevlarto_ESO · January 2016

I started playing during the BBS days and dial up on my commodore 64 there were a few text based games hosted on some sites, when I moved on to pc, then Muds, my first graphical online game was Meridian59, I played EQ, for a very long time, Earth and beyond, swg, lotro, I am a grizzled mmo veteran, for many many years and many many games.

Plus I have worked in the computer industry doing everything from a lowly tech, to a Enterprise Administrator to a Systems Computer Specialist for a large State organization, I was a nerd before there was such a word for it..LOL

I love my single player games as well played Daggerfall, which got me hooked on Elder Scrolls, played them all, when I heard about ESO thought that was great now I could play in a Elder Scrolls World with my friends, and the three faction warfare was exciting, since I did not get a chance to play much DAOC, and my friends were always telling me about it.

I think they did a great job with ESO, bringing the feel of an Elder Scroll game to an online world, at least for me, I just hope they can get some of the major issues fixed, I like staying in my mmo's for years, I am not a content locust, that moves from game to game for the next new shiny. I have been playing ESO now since early beta.