itscompton wrote: »

lordrichter wrote: »

OrphanHelgen wrote: »

Last two patches have been the most complained patches I have seen. Many endgamers quitting.

New end-gamers take their place. These will be people who grow up in the game.

The biggest issue with end-game these days isn't people leaving, it is that ZOS has made decisions that make it more difficult to transition to it. A lot of these decisions were actually intended for the end-game players, and I think it was done at the expense of everyone else. What I see when I look at the game is people leaving before they get to the end-game, simply because it looks like an impassible mountain. It doesn't block everyone, but it certainly shortens the game for what I have to consider might be the majority of the players.

You are correct in that the learning/power curve in the game turns off many new players. In the nearly three years I played it was actually pretty stunning how many people quit the game within a month of trying it for the first time. Even with experienced players in our guild willing to craft armor, explain mechanics, and run content with the newbies it was still too much for them. And there's the rub. If current end gamers leave then new players don't have anyone to turn to for help making it up that mountain and the end game population will continue shrinking. Just remember those previously dedicated end game players who are leaving had more invested in the success of the game and so were much more motivated to try to bring in and help retain new players than the casuals replacing them who will likely pick up the game for a month or two then move on.

So true!

Reason for 1-2 years: Each major patch seems to favor nerfing. Nerfing is bad. Nerf makes game harder. Nerf discourage.

Right after EVE has died

I'm not holding my breath.

In it's current incarnation, I give it a few more years.

This is based on the fact that there are MMOS like Camelot Unchained, and Ashes of Creation (which uses unreal 4) coming out that cater to the MMO community that currently jumps from game to game like myself.

While this behavior should indicate to studios that the methods they employ to attract gamers are unsuccessful (especially at retention), instead they only notice that the activity ebbs and flows, with major content bringing back players, which they eventually lose, and then blame their poor retention on the "nature of the market".

The two MMOs that I mention, especially Ashes of Creation, have a huge potential to retain players and keep them busy rather than a RNG grind with vertical gear-based content progression that burns people out pretty quickly. If something like that comes about and disrupts the ebb and flow, essentially drying up the playerbase for all the EQ clones, the companies that finance those clones will have to adapt or shut down. There may be a lot of loyal customers, or people who just invested so much that they don't want to risk doing it again, but everything I've seen in all the MMOs I've played indicate that the developers notice when retention is so poor. What usually follows are events like double xp/free items/exclusive content/new content, and anything else to gain new players or bolster the ones who kept playing. My hypothesis is, if something like this "new chapter" hit, but the product failed to achieve the intended result, the studio would be forced to take a radical approach.

You can see this phenomena in action in this very game. It was released, was subscriber based, but because it offered nothing new, and didn't even offer the base-line quality gamers expect from a MMORPG, it went free to play.

Basically we've got some winners coming up, who will replace the losers who keep doing the same thing over and over, blaming everything else rather than taking the proactive route.

However, this doesn't mean that I predict the game will die; it's current incarnation will die. Then, the development will change to copy, mutate, and extend what ESO has to offer. They'll still call it ESO, but it won't be an Everquest clone anymore.

They could also shut down. I was pretty shocked to see what happened with Everquest Next and Landmark, but it's evidence that these financial institutions that fuel the game industry have a huge amount of power over the studios, and they have little understanding about gaming or gamers. It's all about risk and probability with them, and rather than invest in blind potential, they want something that has made money before, hence all the clones. Really, trying to talk to some of the suits is frustrating. You can make an entire presentation with all kinds of evidence, charts, and factors to show why a product should take a different direction that results in more profit, and all they will respond with is "That's not being done by Activision/Blizzard... they still make the most money, we should continue trying to do what they do".

This is why developers themselves have been praying for a WoW-killer. That game literally dictates what they get to do.

/endrant

Obvious.

I honestly hope never, but even if ESO does die, I hope they put out a single player version of this with multiplayer online options. I love the combat feel.

Sunset will come when management wants to invest the resources into something else.

I'm a relative new player myself. Only play now for a couple of weeks after playing the free steam weekend during easter. Then decided to buy the gold edition, retail version then. It has indeed a bit of a steep learning curve. But what frustrates me most is that you seem to be on your own as a newbie. No one is willing to help or form groups with you. It plays like a singleplayer game. The guilds who are there are rather closed. Now i'm in one after a while, but it seems to be a trade guild. The dungeons they seem to do are all high levelled. They have answered my questions so far though. Still, it feels pretty lonely. And that is also a problem with this game. Newbies don't get help and you don't help them by answerring their questions alone and nothing more. Now i don't say you have to hold their hands, but putting them in the right direction and team up with them when required would help alot. And i don't see that. Also, the chatchannel is kinda quiet, which ain't help also. The only thing you will see frequently is about the price of an item. If this continues in this way, then the game would probably die sooner then expected. The long time players should be more open and more willing to help the newer ones instead of being closed.

Currently, I cant simply see it, until next major MMORPG comes.

zaria wrote: »

candesco wrote: »

I'm a relative new player myself. Only play now for a couple of weeks after playing the free steam weekend during easter. Then decided to buy the gold edition, retail version then. It has indeed a bit of a steep learning curve. But what frustrates me most is that you seem to be on your own as a newbie. No one is willing to help or form groups with you. It plays like a singleplayer game. The guilds who are there are rather closed. Now i'm in one after a while, but it seems to be a trade guild. The dungeons they seem to do are all high levelled. They have answered my questions so far though. Still, it feels pretty lonely. And that is also a problem with this game. Newbies don't get help and you don't help them by answerring their questions alone and nothing more. Now i don't say you have to hold their hands, but putting them in the right direction and team up with them when required would help alot. And i don't see that. Also, the chatchannel is kinda quiet, which ain't help also. The only thing you will see frequently is about the price of an item. If this continues in this way, then the game would probably die sooner then expected. The long time players should be more open and more willing to help the newer ones instead of being closed.

Solution here is to dump guilds and get in some better ones. You can be in 5 so dump the worst ones and join new.
And trade guilds is primary for trading even if they are also used for looking for group, not to be social.
As an new player you hardly need an trading guild at all, its not the guild you are looking for.

And where do you find one if they all are so closed. That is the problem. By the way; i was invited first to a little guild as soon as i left the prison. However, that guild was just silent, so i left that one. Then over in the chat it happened then i got an inventation to the one where i'm in now. They seem to be social trade guild, not solely trading. You say now that new players don't need a trading guild. How does a new player know that if nothing is told. Also, on some websites it is stated that you should join a trading guild, even as new player.

Drachenfier wrote: »

BDO pc servers are dead, why would a console release matter? Nobody plays it

They aren't dead. But in the week it's more quiet then in the weekends. And some channels are less crowded. BDO have seen better days yes, especially with the launch. Though i have the feeling there are more players coming and some guilds are reviving as well, like levithian. I'm a long time BDO player myself, playing since the second closed beta. Bought the conqueror pre-order pack then. But what has BDO to do with ESO?

zaria wrote: »

candesco wrote: »

zaria wrote: »

candesco wrote: »

I'm a relative new player myself. Only play now for a couple of weeks after playing the free steam weekend during easter. Then decided to buy the gold edition, retail version then. It has indeed a bit of a steep learning curve. But what frustrates me most is that you seem to be on your own as a newbie. No one is willing to help or form groups with you. It plays like a singleplayer game. The guilds who are there are rather closed. Now i'm in one after a while, but it seems to be a trade guild. The dungeons they seem to do are all high levelled. They have answered my questions so far though. Still, it feels pretty lonely. And that is also a problem with this game. Newbies don't get help and you don't help them by answerring their questions alone and nothing more. Now i don't say you have to hold their hands, but putting them in the right direction and team up with them when required would help alot. And i don't see that. Also, the chatchannel is kinda quiet, which ain't help also. The only thing you will see frequently is about the price of an item. If this continues in this way, then the game would probably die sooner then expected. The long time players should be more open and more willing to help the newer ones instead of being closed.

Solution here is to dump guilds and get in some better ones. You can be in 5 so dump the worst ones and join new.
And trade guilds is primary for trading even if they are also used for looking for group, not to be social.
As an new player you hardly need an trading guild at all, its not the guild you are looking for.

And where do you find one if they all are so closed. That is the problem. By the way; i was invited first to a little guild as soon as i left the prison. However, that guild was just silent, so i left that one. Then over in the chat it happened then i got an inventation to the one where i'm in now. They seem to be social trade guild, not solely trading. You say now that new players don't need a trading guild. How does a new player know that if nothing is told. Also, on some websites it is stated that you should join a trading guild, even as new player.

Yes an trade guild is nice to have but not needed at low level as its pretty social its ok.
That you have an active core in guild who only do high level content is an issue in many guilds today.
However you might not be the only one, ask if someone want to do normal easier dungeons and its good chance you get plenty of response in prime time.

If it's an issue in many guilds, then they should change that. But probably due to being selfish it's not gonna happen. And there is the problem then and also the cause new players quit. I don't know if i get response if i ask for a normal dungeon. But one can try.

I voted 5-6, but It will likely be around for at least another 10-12 years.

"Other" ESO died brutaly in march 2015 with the initial and real vision of what was supposed to last at least five year.

Since then what we have been playing was ESO : TU , then ESO OT next ESO morrowind .

If they don't fix PvP before the next major update, I am sure the remaining of the PvP community will leave. We need skill-based competitive PvP.

Die out? Guess would be a long time from now.

ESO has a few major issues on the horizon, though distant horizon. ESO VI will hurt the game since ESO games are so great at replayable, it won't be like when games like Witcher/MassEffect release and the game suffers for a couple weeks tops. The other major event for the game will be when new generation consoles are released. Both are a few years away, and even if ESO became PC only, the game could survive for a long time.