From all of my experiences in playing MMOs, some of the most arduous feats, or impossible quests I completed were to obtain something that might have seemed ridiculous to some, but unique and valuable to the everyone else. In some games, unique items are difficult to obtain, some items are only available prior to a specific patch, but it's these items that motivate some players to continue playing. However, with the advent of the crown store the only barrier to unique/interesting items is the value I place on my own money, which honestly, given these circumstances, I'd rather go out to a decent dinner than buy 4-5 items I can look at occasionally.

I reconsidered my convictions at times and I wondered if, maybe my frustration is a result of where I come from? I first played Ultima online for a tiny bit, then asherons call for a few years, then DAoC for a few years as well and what I loved about those games was the unique experiences I had while playing them. Now I play ESO and I love it, been playing since PS4 launch. I was really hopeful for the justice system, but I guess I can accept that it's gone. However, the crown/gem/crate store is becoming too much. The store is removing all of the valuable PVE experiences we should be having for having purchased the game, and by playing. First, consider imperial city, what I thought to be like darkness falls in DAoC doesn't function the way it was intended to(or as I assumed it to), and instead has slowly fallen into a cateogry of perceived 'useless content' as the willpower and agility jewelry has been replaced by newer content. I guess this doesn't have to do with the crate store, but it's along the same line of thinking; make things easy and obtainable. If you pvp you know what I mean. As for PVE, the unqiue items you may have put effort in to obtaining are a click (and a paycheck [if you live in zimbabwe {is this inappropriate? what's that 1800 number again? i feel terrible, now. first world problems}]) away... but to reiterate or be more emphatic, why in the heck are you guys making everything that would make me play your game for hours an easily purchasable item in your crown/gem/crate store? I think to myself, sure I could log in and buy these items, and have them, and gawk, but once I receive them, they won't hold any value because there's no meaning in my efforts to obtain them; in essence I spent some time doing something other than playing the game to get them. Which, I guess its great that you can use that money to create new content, but how does that help me, the player, if you're not creating new content that actually interests me? I hope you guys don't think that I am going to willingly continue to purchase my satisfaction from playing your game. Maybe if you could get all of the qualities of PC into consoles I would, but until then, I rely on my gameplay experience, and your crown/gem/crate store has been making that experience fall short.

Maybe it's just me? Genre's always shift; is having the items enough for people to purchase them? I hope not. I play RPGs because my character is a representation of how I have chosen to navigate the experience that developers have created for me. However, I currently feel that developers are choosing to omit the entirety of what makes an RPG enjoyable for me, somehow. I don't know if it's entirely their fault; they rely on other people to pay for things, sometimes. Those other people want money. I get it, but like, can we move just a little back into the direction of what makes an RPG good?