Potential returning player: Is ESO worth a third chance?

Jollygoodusername · November 2017

It's been several months since I've logged in to ESO, or had the game installed. Morrowind DLC nearly broke my trust in Bethesda altogether but I decided to give the company and the devs some time, to hopefully come to their senses

With much needed bug fixes and some of the worst latency of any modern MMO, has any of that been improved since Morrowind DLC release?
Would love some honest replies here, as I'm getting burnt out on all the other titles I'm currently playing, maybe ESO can fill the upcoming void

Tan9oSuccka · November 2017

Right now (after CWC) is probably not a good time to come back if you had latency issues before.

My understanding is all platforms are struggling at this time.

Katahdin · November 2017

Morrowind is still a pay for expansion which probably won't change so if you can't swallow that, you may not be able to deal with it still.

As for latency. I'm getting some more frequent lag spikes lately (last 2-3 patches) and loading screens are sometimes a tad longer sometimes but it hasn't impacted me too much.

VaranisArano · November 2017

If you had problems with the Morrowind release, I'm not sure what you are hoping for. The changes that Morrowind brought to the base game have not been reversed, PVE is still very much in the style of Post-Morrowind with some gear changes in HotR, PVP is still very much in the style of Post-Morrowind with a few new sets from HotR with the same loading screens or worse depending on who you ask.

Horns of the Reach released 2 new DLC dungeons. Clockwork City is about 10 hours of content that's a good followup to Morrowind's storyline, with repeatable dailies very much in the same style as Morrowind.

For the most part, if you didn't like ESO after Morrowind, not much has changed in the broad scheme of things.

The only truly beneficial change I can think that ZOS made to the game with Clockwork City was reworking the Group Finder so that the random dungeons unlock progressively according to their difficulty, not zone. Now, normal dungoens have the 2 and DLC dungeons unlock at level 45, sparing level 10 ESO+ members from being forced into DLC dungeons disproportionately. For Veteran dungeons, DLC dungeons, City of Ash II, and Crypt of Hearts II now unlock at CP 160. This change makes leveling new characters, alts, or just running random dungeons so much nicer than it was before.

Tonturri · November 2017

I won't deny that they've been steadily improving the game, and if they keep at it they'll eventually have something worth being at least somewhat dedicated to. However, at the moment, I would not say it is worthwhile to log in and play (vs. the option of playing a different game) if you're looking for something med-long term to enjoy.

If you just want something to play short-term while you wait for burnout for other games to fade, then yes I'd say you could use ESO for that.

pod88kk · November 2017

No go away, if you're not going to put some time into it & play regularly then don't bother coming back

Dredlord · November 2017

Its a *** *** show atm.

Every cyro campaign is empty on consoles as it is unplayable...

Tandor · November 2017

It depends entirely on your playstyle (and possibly platform/server). Not everyone has any performance or balancing issues etc, but work on the assumption that if you got worked up about it before then you'll probably get worked up about it again. However, you've bought the game anyway so it's effectively free to play for you unless and until you decide it's worth subbing, so what's wrong with having a look? That alone makes it worth voting "Yes" in my book, as you've nothing to lose.

Danikat · November 2017

You already own the game and the subscription is optional now. If you want to know what it's like why not log in and find out? If you don't like it all you've lost is your time.

Especially if you're concerned about performance. No one else can tell you how the game will run on your machine and your internet connection. I can't remember the last time I got disconnected while playing, other people tell me they can't go 30 minutes without it happening and others say it happens maybe once every 4-5 hours. That tells me there's huge variation in how the game runs for different people, and it's really impossible to assume your experience will be identical to any random stranger on the internet.

Defilted · November 2017

I have played the game since Xbox launch June 9th 2015. This is the game I play 90% of my gaming time since June 9th 2015.

Over the last 2 years there has been a overall improvement in performance in my experience. This includes PVP and PVE. Is it the best it can be, no. Are there issues, yes. Is PVP performance top notch? , no. Up until this last patch PVP was running really well for me and completely playable and fun. ESO suffers from the same issue that every MMO I have ever played since the early 1990's suffers from. Balancing.

PVE is fun. I do not get to run many trials just becasue I choose to spend my time elsewhere. Activity finder works fine for me and very usable. I enjoy the questing/Dungeons and the trials that I have run.

PVP is a good time. I am with a good PVP guild and we enjoy playing. I enjoy PVP each time I play up until last night PVP has been a positive experience. Infinite load screens have killed PVP on XBOX NA. This will get fixed.

Over-all I enjoy the TES universe and lore.
I give this game a thumbs up.

ishilb14_ESO · November 2017

Not if you primarily PvP, please find an alternative and post for the rest of us.

geonsocal · November 2017

if you're in to exploring and questing - the game still seems outstanding - beyond that, it's a little frustrating at the moment...

Turelus · November 2017

Honestly it depends what you want out of the game and what your expectation are.

Strong Points

Story and questing
World and lore
Mechanics
Dungeon design
Visual and audio design

Weak Points

Competitive play
PvP stability
Game balance

The weaknesses by no means make it bad in those areas, just not as strong as other game games offer right now.

Something I learnt after a six month hiatus and has made me much happier is the following.
The game is very enjoyable if you don't take it seriously. The moment you start to take it serious and expect more than the game is then you'll start to run into frustrations.
This means don't imagine "what it could be" but just enjoy it for what it is and chat to ZOS about ideas of what it could be with no expectations.

Megabear · November 2017

At this point only reason why I still play are due to left over subscription I have (regret) and large amount of Crown I still have (much regret).

It's a good game, but the devs have been too focused on short term gains and neglected the players.

MythrialDrow · November 2017

I play on PC and PS4 and the loading screens are horrendous since CWC patch. I tried to go to Cyrodiil today (PS4) and had a infinite loading screen travelling each and every time. I had to close application and restart. I gave up after the 3 time

PVE is a slightly better experience, but still the same issues.

Zaldan · November 2017

game is good it's just the way it's run is ....bad, I'll leave it there before I get banned

Turelus · November 2017

Megabear wrote: »

At this point only reason why I still play are due to left over subscription I have (regret) and large amount of Crown I still have (much regret).

It's a good game, but the devs have been too focused on short term gains and neglected the players.

You know there is a gifting system with Crown purchases and I know a trashy forums poster who would accept gifts.

Oakmontowls_ESO · November 2017

Well allegedly they improved performance with the CWC patch so if eso was maxing out your cpu before it might run better. I haven't noticed any big changes and was still dropping to 15fps in vAA but there allegedly was changes. Obviously pvp is having some problems as everyone else in this thread is complaining about but I haven't noticed any of these problems in PVE or in the PC NA Shor campaign so the problems might be isolated to Vivec.

Edziu · November 2017

not worth, I also stpped playing ESO short time after morrowind hit because this game lack with everything in compare to any other big MMO
lack of good content, in ESO every new DLC...even expansion! can be dont in jsut 1-2 days of playing while in other games you wont have done new content atlest in 1 week doing only m,ainstory and just exploring maps. 1st DLC's was good because was big but then ZO$ started creating every next DLC smaller and smaller with not to mention 1st expansion isnt bigger than 1st DLC and even in content have less quests than in 1st DLC

ESO lack of diversity builds per classes...for now we have 5 classes split to magica and stamina and here we have 1 build for all 5 stamina classes, 8/10 same skill, rest 2 skills are just class which also vary only in animations/color (similiar situation of magica, 1 build for 5 classes, just class skills have different colour)

lags lags and lags...just enter to cyro and you wil get lag from just 20-30 man zerg even if they are 1-2 keeps away from you and if they all are in hide you will get lag and then you know not far away from you its zerg
trials for 12 players...also big lags, bad performace, only 12 players and that many effects form skills droping you FPS from40 to 10, 5 if not less with not the best net/computer

and now to compare with gw2 which I started play...9 classes...every class have atlest 3-4 different builds pve or pvp, every class is different, EVERY
an expansion in gw2 for compare is big as in ESO next cyrodil with also much more content to do
and ofc crafting isnt that easy and with simply logic missing as in ESO, you need to get some different mats to craft single simple weapon, wood, metal and miscellaneus mats while to eso yu need get only wood to shield which is not only looking from skins as metal but even with wood shield skin its always sounds like metal lol logic

tldr
ESO at all ahve potential to be good game but with ZO$ hands it will never be used and no, ESO isnt worth to get back, there are many other MMO games with much larger and better content with also much better performace and balance ofc and diversity between classes

HungryMonkey007 · November 2017

The game is almost unplayable since the update on console. You will dc a lot less, however you will not emerge from a load screen about 75% of the time requiring you to force close and restart the game.

Colecovision · November 2017

It's definitely worth pressing play. If you had to spend money, I can see wondering, but you just have to login and see if things are going your way. I highly recommend you do it unless you use a limited mobile plan for your internet connection.

JUSTAPHELLA · November 2017

Tan9oSuccka wrote: »

Right now (after CWC) is probably not a good time to come back if you had latency issues before.

My understanding is all platforms are struggling at this time.

Co sign.

dennissomb16_ESO · November 2017

If you have to ask about returning then I am guessing that you really are not into the game anymore. Good chance that the reasons you left in the first place still exist.

ParaNostram · November 2017

If morrowind broke your trust then really there isn't anything to rebuild that trust. Honestly come back if you enjoy playing the game but if you cannot without ZOS rebuilding that broken trust, it'd be best to stay away.

Bhaal5 · November 2017

If you are looking for only console, sure its the only decent mmo on a console.

But PC? Well their are mmos that are so much more stable and diverse player base out there.
Yes eso has one of the best single player storys for a mmo (maybe swtor has it beat there). But lets be honet, we all didnt get eso for the single player experience.

Trials are done better and not glitchly AF else where. (Wow)
Pvp (battlegrounds) is done better and runs smoother else where. (Gw2)
Pvp (cyrodiil) is done better and runs smoother else where. (Gw2 hands down)
And other mmos have more end game content and guild social activities available to enrich their player base,(both wow and gw2, even swtor has more extra content) which eso havent even bothered looking at yet.

Good luck in your quest and search.

ereboz · November 2017

I vote yes because I've been playing since first beta, and I am back after at least 5 breaks. It's different from other mmos, that's what keeps it interesting. Sure there's bugs that still need to be addressed. But it's improving all the time and lots of content being added regularly

Pendrillion · November 2017

And there I must digress... I definitly got me ESO for single player purposes. Or at least to explore Tamriel with some buddies... If you are into competitive playing you have your choices, which can be laggy. All depending also on what rig you have and if your ISP lives up to its service promises. I couldn't imagine trading ESO against SWTOR WOW Guild Wars 2 or Black Desert...

Arobain · November 2017

if you didnt enjoy the game then and left, you wont enjoy it now, very few changes can make people enjoy a game again, now if you left because you were burned out, thats another story

Jarryzzt · November 2017

I am not certain I understand what precisely had caused the OP to quit in the first place. The only three things mentioned specifically are a) bugs; b) latency; and c) Morrowind-related "trust issues", whatever those may be.

Well, logic would dictate that: a) in the past few months a few bugs have been fixed but more shall always be found; b) latency is a combination of multiple factors not necessarily related to the game itself...in fact, let's stop there for a moment. In the past month I myself, personally, have not encountered any noticeable bugs nor latency issues (once actually in the game and omitting the infinite-loading-screen issue I had to deal with recently), although to be fair I haven't really touched Morrowind or Clockwork City yet. Does that mean Zenimax magically fixed things relative to three months ago? Or that the OP's ISP and/or rig are less efficient than mine? Or that we do different content and builds and hence have different bug encounter ratios? I don't know. But you see how "have they fixed latency so that I can come back" can be a puzzling question to put it mildly.

I'm not even mentioning the fact that, in general, large IT projects change slowly and incrementally since you can't just rewrite so many thousands of lines of code (put in by up to dozens of different people at various points over the past few years). On the whole, ESO today versus ESO three months from now (past or future) is substantively the same, in all probability.

Bottom line. I would suggest the OP just logs in and sees if whatever had been bothering them before is still there. It probably is, but how in Sheogorath's hairy thighs am I supposed to know? Unless there is a hyper-specific issue they want feedback on in advance (e.g. "have devs fixed NVIDIA driver compatibility causing BSD errors when running content X", which incidentally has been a specific reason for me not to run certain MMOs).

RGFors · November 2017

I ate pizza once and someone told me I liked it. Should I eat it again? I want to find out if you all think I will like it. I can’t make a decision like this on my own, I must follow YOUR opinions!

ccfeeling · November 2017

Come back but dont sub eso plus , dont spend any money on crown store
That's what I regret
Huge lag in cyrodiil , yes almost hit 2018 but not yet fixed , technically its impossible .

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Potential returning player: Is ESO worth a third chance?

Potential returning player: Is ESO worth a third chance? 115 votes