There is something that I have been thinking about for a few months now, and was curious if you all had picked up on it too. And that is in regards to ESO’s fun factor. You see, ESO is a wonderful game. It has its ups, it has its downs, and it has its points in the middle where you’re playing and just are going along for the ride. But 1 thing in particular that has always stood out to me was out I tend to have more fun playing this game solo. As that tends to be where I find the vast majority of my entertainment regarding this game. Playing by myself.

Now then. A few polls both in the past and as of recently have come up asking if players tend to play this game by themselves, with others, or a mix of the 2. And the results of these said polls always seem to indicate that players usually find themselves playing this game solo for the most part. With a mix of playing with others and solo coming in second, and playing strictly with others last. This should be very informative to the devs when these types of polls arise, and said results reveal themselves. Why? Because it should in a sense assist with helping the devs come to a decision about how to create and steer their content to come. After all, you do want to make the most amount of cash as a developer. Yes? You do want to keep people playing your game, and hopefully get others to get their friends to join in on the game. Yes? You play into the hands that show to be the most favorable, and then gather the profits of said successful dealings with said hands.

But! Here is what has me confused... If the devs are truly paying attention to said polls, and studying the data provided by said in-game samples gathered... Why are we not seeing more things that deal into players playing by themselves? Now yes, I’m fully aware that this is a pseudo-MMO game. Or as a few players I’ve heard say, “An online version of Skyrim.” But still, wouldn’t you want to as a dev make more and more content that appeals to solo players? Maelstrom Arena was a good thing, but the problems then came from the content being far too long and a tad bit new challenging for casual player. Throw in lag and glitches, and the content left a bad taste in a lot of player’s mouths. But then on the other side of the coin, you have overland content which is far too easy (with the exception of certain World Bosses) for even the most casual of players. And don’t reallt engage players as a whole. This results in the content at hand being viewed as a place to just grind toons and farm gear. Not as something to be thoroughly embraced and absorbed.

So in analyzing all of this, I have come to a solution of sorts to propose. A solution that has actually been provided numerous times, but tweaked upon a bit. The concept of a “difficulty slider”. Similar to how we can choose between normal and veteran difficulties, why not have another option that is labeled as “solo” for enabling dungeons and trials to be solo’d that aren’t soloable. Thus completely eliminating the whole stress and unpleasant aspects of PUGs. But, still leaving a tad bit of challenge from the veteran versions of dungeons to a degree. But toned down a bit. Mobs having less resistances and less damage output than the group veteran versions. While still not being a complete snooze-fest like the normal versions of dungeons and trials. Of course this will be in tandem with the previous normal and veteran versions still in existence for those who are passionate about playing the given content at hand with their peers. As for the overland content, why not give a slight boost in difficulty? Or artificial difficulty I suppose. Make things have a tad bit more resistances (like VMA resistances), and hit a tad bit harder as well. Maybe not as hard as VMA, or maybe as hard. I don’t know. I suppose some internal testing can find a nice balance of the 2.

What are you all’s ideas about this? Because the money is definitely in making content accessible to everyone. Why? Because it is being proven time after time that players enjoy spending the vast majority of their time alone. Or a mix of between being alone and with others. So why not play into that? I mean ZOS has already shown they can mix things up with the launches of both 1T and Morrowind. Introduce solo options for players with the Orsinium DLC. And so on. Why not take it all to the next level, and finally complete the trinity that is just waiting to be finished?