ESO is having an identity crisis and IT NEEDS YOUR HELP!

Pr0Skygon
Pr0Skygon
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WOW, FF14 have superb story telling.
GW2 has Living Story with new maps, new stories.
BDO, Blade and Soul have action-packed combat.
ESO has... a truckload of DLC?

Don't get me wrong, I love ESO for what it is (with a few complaints here and there). That being said, ESO is like a highschool kid, it tries to do everything, but excels at nothing.
Story? Nope, the writing is good, but nowhere near the scope of WOW or FF14, also, the presentations are sometime just laughable.
Combat? Nope, nowhere near BDO, some might even say GW2 has more fluid combat (I personally still like ESO better than GW2).
PvE? Maybe, Maelstrom Arena and the new Asylum Sanctorium are the most fun i've had in ESO so far, and beloved by a lot of PvEers.
PvP? Also a maybe, since combat just feels so clunky and awkward these days; but I'm gonna be honest: I love both Cyrodill and BG.
The RPG aspect? I think this is where ESO's potential truly shines. Crafting, housing, NPC interaction, zone interaction, character builds with tons of option in skills, sets, appearances. But (And there has always had this but), the quality and balancing is just acceptable at times, or just plain broken. Many crafting motifs looks outdated and ugly, the combat balancing has always been a debate, with so many useless sets and skills (or should I say utterly garbage), housing and decorating are overpriced with no clear advantage, quest choices may have different outcome, but most of the time just feel underwhelming due to terrible presentation and disappointing consequences.

That being said, ESO has no much potential to become one of the best game out there, not just MMORPG. It's 4 years now, but ESO has not yet to know what it wants to be. What makes Skyrim great? It's the freedom, sandbox RPG style of game with epic tales to be told and exciting location to discover. What makes World of Warcraft so great? Epic story of wars, heroes, evils and superbly designed PvE contains. What about ESO? A Skyrim-ish game build on the foundation of World of Warcraft? Yeah that doesn't sound cool at all.

Even worse, if you look back at ESO trailers (launch trailer, DLC trailer,... ), it doesn't seem like ZOS has any idea why newcomer should even play the game. Heck, even the reviewers for ESO Morrowind seems to have no clue what ESO is about. Don't get me wrong, the game is still selling well, but it is criminally underrated, and there's no reason for ESO to be like this.

Ok, here's the fun part: Solutions. We need some solution to get ESO out of this identity crisis. A similar game had suffer this fate before, it's called "Destiny". But after 1 year, when The Taken King expansion comes around, Destiny knew what it's meant to be, a looter shooter game. So it's marketing the heck out of it. Ask any Destiny players, and they'll tell you what makes the game great is the gunplay, the loots, lots and lots of loots. ESO needs this kind of treatment. It needs to focus on fewer things, and excel at it.

My own solution:
1. Improve the combat flows. It's been feeling really clunky these days, and to be honest, some skill animation looks boring and weak af. ESO is suppose to be an M-rated game, so what's with the PG-13 level of violence? There's no satisfaction in using skills, except for some cases, such as Dizzying Swing, or Dragon Leap. But most of the time, it's just bad.
2. I don't think we can ever achieve the "balance" in such a huge game like ESO. But what I've seen is, ZOS can't different themselves between "balancing" and "nerfing". They always try to nerf the most OP set to the ground, but then leave the 2nd most OP set untouched, and so it become the most OP, and then so on and so forth. Here's a bright idea, how about we stop nerfing OP sets to the ground, and start to buff useless sets to match their power? Same thing for skills, please at least consider buffing templar first, before nerfing sorc and DK again, and how about make DK healer and sorc healer a viable option?
3. Making gear grind and character build customization become the core endgame content. This is what makes ESO unique, the sheer amount of sets, skills. The fun of optimizing DPS rotation, maximizing group DPS with buffs and debuffs. PvE and PvP is just contents, what matters is the reward. ZOS needs to emphasize how an endgame should be like. You can create new and exciting challenges for players, but without motivation, they will all be just "addon". Make your players actively want to do those content, not just provide them with fun and enjoyment, but fill them with determination and satisfaction for completing the challenges.

I myself can only think about these solution so far (in like 15 minutes), but I know there're tons of veteran players with different point of views, and I'd love to hear those vision. PLEASE KEEP IN MIND, this is not about "OMG this game sucks", or "This game should be like this, or like that". This is about helping ESO realize what's great about it, and spread the word to everyone else.

If you're reading this line, then I'm thank you for spending your time listening to me "talking *** about the game". I'm not though. I legitimately want the game to reach its full potential. But then again, these are only my opinions. They are all correct in my eyes, but I understand you might feel different. If anyone has any suggestion, or disagreement, please let me know. I'd love to answer them all :D

And to @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom @ZOS_RichLambert , please consider about this?
  • T4T2FR34K
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    Pr0Skygon wrote: »
    Ok, here's the fun part: Solutions...
    Milk it for all you can while developing Fallout Online.

    p.s. dont forget to add all the stuff you've learned through ALL the games, hardcore mode, housing, families, factions, crafting, etc...
  • stewhead2ub17_ESO
    stewhead2ub17_ESO
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    The majority of your initial comments are speculative. What you find as "superb story telling" or "action packed combat" is all your opinion. I myself find the writing and quests in ESO to be top notch. Furthermore, I enjoy the combat style and the aesthetics of the game over some of the others you mentioned. A matter of personal taste.
  • Rohamad_Ali
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    It would be awesome if we could have BDO's combat and graphics , GWII open world , Secret World quest writers in ESO's Lore . That would be the all star MMO .
  • Pr0Skygon
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    The majority of your initial comments are speculative. What you find as "superb story telling" or "action packed combat" is all your opinion. I myself find the writing and quests in ESO to be top notch. Furthermore, I enjoy the combat style and the aesthetics of the game over some of the others you mentioned. A matter of personal taste.

    Well I did said those are my personal thought.
    But in all seriousness, those are not just my opinions, those are common opinions. It's not only about personal taste, but to actually accept the great achievement.
    For example: My GOTY 2017 is Nier Automata. It's an universally praised game. But most gaming outlet, and even The Game Award gave Legends of Zelda GOTY 2017. And you know, I actually agree with that, for how big it is as a monument for gaming industry.

    You can say the same for WOW and ESO in story telling. You might find ESO story is be superb, that's great actually. But WOW is well known for its story telling and lore, and once you've actually experience it, I believe you'll understand why it is universally loved. At that point, you don't actually need to like WOW story better than ESO, you just need to accept how great it is. Same goes for BDO and its combat.
  • Pr0Skygon
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    It would be awesome if we could have BDO's combat and graphics , GWII open world , Secret World quest writers in ESO's Lore . That would be the all star MMO .

    That's too much to ask for mate :wink:
  • Vimora
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    The first four lines were funny. The wall of text that came after wasn't necessary. I agree, though.
  • Pr0Skygon
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    Vimora wrote: »
    The first four lines were funny. The wall of text that came after wasn't necessary. I agree, though.

    If it's funny, then it works :D
  • Mettaricana
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    Story is a train wreck nothing advances the story once molag bal was beaten the game ceases relevancy the story falls into a slump and dies there. Plenty of mmos have stories that advance the plot without ruining they game but eso is at a halt.

    Dlcs are meh at best none actually offer anything housing was pointless til dragon bones dlc. new delves i hate to do while looking for a shard all the gear in overland sucks new crafted sets suck old sets still suck except a few select ones. And once they make a set good they neef everything the set benefitted so the set ends up sucking anyway.

    Cp incrents are so small its meaning less until 3 dlcs later.

    Combat we have this assbackwards animation cancelling that looks twitchy and glitchy when inreality is a poor job at combat mechanics that should've been fixed day one instead of becoming a feature we cant live without.

    Only thing they got majority right was character creation no gender race locked classes and huge customization features failed at makeup and facial hair classification horns and facial hair are a no go wth zos?

  • Pr0Skygon
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    T4T2FR34K wrote: »
    Pr0Skygon wrote: »
    Ok, here's the fun part: Solutions...
    Milk it for all you can while developing Fallout Online.

    p.s. dont forget to add all the stuff you've learned through ALL the games, hardcore mode, housing, families, factions, crafting, etc...

    We really can use a lot less cruel reality here :'(
  • T4T2FR34K
    T4T2FR34K
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    Pr0Skygon wrote: »
    T4T2FR34K wrote: »
    Pr0Skygon wrote: »
    Ok, here's the fun part: Solutions...
    Milk it for all you can while developing Fallout Online.

    p.s. dont forget to add all the stuff you've learned through ALL the games, hardcore mode, housing, families, factions, crafting, etc...

    We really can use a lot less cruel reality here :'(

    Whats cruel is that someone thought Elder Scrolls would translate better into an MMO than Fallout...fire that person.
  • Pr0Skygon
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    Story is a train wreck nothing advances the story once molag bal was beaten the game ceases relevancy the story falls into a slump and dies there. Plenty of mmos have stories that advance the plot without ruining they game but eso is at a halt.

    Dlcs are meh at best none actually offer anything housing was pointless til dragon bones dlc. new delves i hate to do while looking for a shard all the gear in overland sucks new crafted sets suck old sets still suck except a few select ones. And once they make a set good they neef everything the set benefitted so the set ends up sucking anyway.

    Cp incrents are so small its meaning less until 3 dlcs later.

    Combat we have this assbackwards animation cancelling that looks twitchy and glitchy when inreality is a poor job at combat mechanics that should've been fixed day one instead of becoming a feature we cant live without.

    Only thing they got majority right was character creation no gender race locked classes and huge customization features failed at makeup and facial hair classification horns and facial hair are a no go wth zos?

    I know those are true, and i'm totally with you on this. But we need some constructive solution my friend. Complaining has shown to be not very effective (unless you're playing Battlefront 2).
  • Pr0Skygon
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    T4T2FR34K wrote: »
    Pr0Skygon wrote: »
    T4T2FR34K wrote: »
    Pr0Skygon wrote: »
    Ok, here's the fun part: Solutions...
    Milk it for all you can while developing Fallout Online.

    p.s. dont forget to add all the stuff you've learned through ALL the games, hardcore mode, housing, families, factions, crafting, etc...

    We really can use a lot less cruel reality here :'(

    Whats cruel is that someone thought Elder Scrolls would translate better into an MMO than Fallout...fire that person.

    Well there's a game called "Destiny", which is a Half-Ass attempt to do Fallout Online.
    I'm emphasizing the "Half-Ass" part.

    But seriously though, anything you wanna add or change in ESO?
  • Thunderknuckles
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    T4T2FR34K wrote: »
    Pr0Skygon wrote: »
    Ok, here's the fun part: Solutions...
    Milk it for all you can while developing Fallout Online.

    p.s. dont forget to add all the stuff you've learned through ALL the games, hardcore mode, housing, families, factions, crafting, etc...

    You made me weep softly into my hands. Fallout Online should become reality. =D
  • T4T2FR34K
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    Pr0Skygon wrote: »
    T4T2FR34K wrote: »
    Pr0Skygon wrote: »
    T4T2FR34K wrote: »
    Pr0Skygon wrote: »
    Ok, here's the fun part: Solutions...
    Milk it for all you can while developing Fallout Online.

    p.s. dont forget to add all the stuff you've learned through ALL the games, hardcore mode, housing, families, factions, crafting, etc...

    We really can use a lot less cruel reality here :'(

    Whats cruel is that someone thought Elder Scrolls would translate better into an MMO than Fallout...fire that person.

    Well there's a game called "Destiny", which is a Half-Ass attempt to do Fallout Online.
    I'm emphasizing the "Half-Ass" part.

    But seriously though, anything you wanna add or change in ESO?

    Bring all the awesome features from all the other ZoS games...why the f do we have to keep reinventing the wheel...

    p.s. I knocked the boss off the edge with my fair share of grenades and murdered cave dwellers by the thousands...it was NOTHING like Fallout
    Edited by T4T2FR34K on January 4, 2018 4:16AM
  • Turbotailz
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    WoW used to have story telling up until the end of Wotlk, but after that it went downhill. Only when Mist of Pandaria came out is when it had another decent storytelling. Don't knock ESO short because I believe their story telling is pretty good since you have choices along the way to decide how "you" want it to end. Swtor is up there as well since you didn't list that.
    Friend: This one has a cool joke to tell. Want to hear?
    Me: Sure okay.
    Friend: What can a frozen band-aid be applied on?
    Me: This one don't know. Tell me.
    Friend: A cold cut. Get it?? hehehe
    Me:.... *activates Grim Focus!*
    Friend: No wait! it's a joke! please!
  • EmEm_Oh
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    Story is a train wreck nothing advances the story once molag bal was beaten the game ceases relevancy the story falls into a slump and dies there. Plenty of mmos have stories that advance the plot without ruining they game but eso is at a halt.

    Dlcs are meh at best none actually offer anything housing was pointless til dragon bones dlc. new delves i hate to do while looking for a shard all the gear in overland sucks new crafted sets suck old sets still suck except a few select ones. And once they make a set good they neef everything the set benefitted so the set ends up sucking anyway.

    Cp incrents are so small its meaning less until 3 dlcs later.

    Combat we have this assbackwards animation cancelling that looks twitchy and glitchy when inreality is a poor job at combat mechanics that should've been fixed day one instead of becoming a feature we cant live without.

    Only thing they got majority right was character creation no gender race locked classes and huge customization features failed at makeup and facial hair classification horns and facial hair are a no go wth zos?

    Yeah I observe a lot of dungeon content, and I think the play is great...but it could be so much better if solo dungeon options were available. I'm really getting tired of having to find players, they get dropped for technical reasons or just leave because they've waited so long. I realize it's difficult to make everything perfect for everyone who join a dungeon group, but this is where doing it solo would benefit. At least let the players do the dungeons by themselves, and since ESO is all about scale-ability, then make the dungeons scale to one player. It really is nice to do something on your own without having to rely on a bunch of others, hoping they show up as well as praying they convey their play styles properly.

    As to the Molag Bol thing...why not allow him to come back? Sure he's more vicious in the Imperial City, but most don't know about that area, and why not make a DLC that brings back Molag Bol or at least bring a new group of Molag Bol generals we haven't heard about. Molag Bol mentions there are many others who are worse than him at the ending, so I'd bring that prediction into the game.

    I'd also like to see something where the superbosses from Imperial City show up at the dark anchors occasionally, giving those fights something to have fun with. The dark anchors are getting boring, and need to be more intuitive when a lot of players are there.
    Edited by EmEm_Oh on January 4, 2018 4:20AM
  • DosPanchos
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    I agree with a lot of what you say, and I also think build customization with passives, gear, cp, etc. is this games best feature. The theory crafting potential is huge! Maybe a practical next step is to significantly adjust many of the meaningless sets in this game... so much potential.
  • Arobain
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    BDO's combat is trash
  • Tasear
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    It's customization and exploration, with a touch of social media feel.
  • Tannus15
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    Sometimes doing everything well is better than doing one thing fantastically.

    ESO might not be the best at any one thing, but it's definitely the best at everything.
  • Ruckly
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    WOW is for little children. Why would you compare it to ESO?
  • Acrolas
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    ESO doesn't have an identity crisis.
    It's a prequel.
    Its purpose as a prequel and its success as a prequel are certainly up for debate.

    But the way I see it, sometimes it's just nice to stop thinking so much and escape the dumpster fire outside and sit around the dumpster fire you created in the game with a clockwork crate and a new life bonfire.
    signing off
  • Publius_Scipio
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    I can’t comment on the other games mentioned, but what’s happened to the Final Fantasy franchise beginning with FFX is a real disgrace and bastardization of what made FF great and a hallmark of the RPG genre. The characters and storytelling are what gave FF its charm.

    For over a decade now FF is all about anime emo Japanese teens with dragon ball z haircuts fighting weird creatures, while the player is dragged along overly long convoluted stories.

    Does no one remember or respect the opera scene from FF6 anymore? Does no one remember when we found out Cecil and Golbez were brothers in FF4? Does no one have an ounce of nostalgia left in them for emotion provoking 16 bit era midi music?
  • monktoasty
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    I like the story in eso and the quests are unique.

    ZOS should balance better the loot crates with game rewards..this is the chasm that is causing the game to get rather stale..any new cool rewards are put in crown loot crates

  • CombatPrayer
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    Pr0Skygon wrote: »
    WOW, FF14 have superb story telling.
    GW2 has Living Story with new maps, new stories.
    BDO, Blade and Soul have action-packed combat.
    ESO has... a truckload of DLC?

    What you talkin' bout willis? This game has amazing, gloriously immersive MAPS. I bet it does that better than any other game out there.
  • MinarasLaure
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    Whoever say ffxiv story is great never played ffxi
  • Nemesis7884
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    imo what makes eso interesting for a wide variety of people is that while it doesn't outperform in a specific area it also doesn't underperform - it does everything just good enough to be attractive for just about anybody
  • Pr0Skygon
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    Whoever say ffxiv story is great never played ffxi

    I said it's great, not the best :wink:
  • Pr0Skygon
    Pr0Skygon
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    Pr0Skygon wrote: »
    WOW, FF14 have superb story telling.
    GW2 has Living Story with new maps, new stories.
    BDO, Blade and Soul have action-packed combat.
    ESO has... a truckload of DLC?

    What you talkin' bout willis? This game has amazing, gloriously immersive MAPS. I bet it does that better than any other game out there.

    HOLY *** YOU'RE RIGHT!
  • Pr0Skygon
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    Ruckly wrote: »
    WOW is for little children. Why would you compare it to ESO?

    I compared the story, not the whole game.
    And I posted this on an ESO forum, not a WOW forum :wink: There's a reason for that.
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