How's the server "dead"?

Raudgrani · December 2018

Been playing since late 2016. Been seeing a lot talk last months about Xbox EU server being "dead". I can't really tell when it started, but half a year or so at least. Comments are often "happy", kind of malicious - about how dead the server is. In various Facebook groups, some people go on about that same thing. I must be blind, because I really can't see it. Some people I used to play with doesn't really show up no more, but checking the guild roster shows they are at least online every few days. I know some of them are waiting for ZOS to "fix bugs" etc. Most of them being PVP players.

Anyway. I was playing early today, and I went to every major city looking for gear at traders, and every one of these had about the same activity as I remember them always having. I went to Eastmarch and the festival, and there were literally ***Tloads of people everywhere; did a couple of the quests - and at each of these locations, there were dozens of people; just like every year I've done these.

When going to Craglorn, Alinor, Brass Fortress or whatever, you see people calling for random people to do trials; just like they always did. Almost any time of day.
I went farming materials too today - also early in the day, European time. Basically started from Hakkvild's Hall, and went by foot all the way to Alik'r Desert's western coast. On the way, there were people like always, a sound mix of fresh low levels and everything in between up to max levels. In the middle of nowhere. Ran into a few delves, a few people in most of them. Like always.

ONE place I can see obvious less numbers in these days, is Cyrodiil. And frankly, I'm surprised there are even two bars online anytime now, given the sad frustrating state of the game there. Game freezing, loadscreens, disconnects etc. really doesn't appeal to many. I'm still there pretty often, but admittedly, it's in a sad state. It needs to be fixed. Seriously.

Some months ago too, you saw a number of people you know have played the game since launch. Well known ones, openly declaring in Facebook groups that they were leaving for the NA server, trading their gold etc. for stuff on the NA server. Now I'm somehow killing them in Cyrodiil, again. I see them call for people for trials on Facebook, I see them wanting to "buy kutas" or whatever - on the EU server. Like they always did. So it seems most of them are back? The grass wasn't greener on the other side of the ocean, or what? Maybe they enjoy dead servers?

I have a character on the NA server too, not even lvl50, I admit. One day I went there during what's daytime in NA. Went to Riften. Saw three guys "hang out" at the stairs outside the inn opposite to the forge, listening in area chat to some kind of crappy typical American goth music. Nobody in the forge, some random people going between the bank and the wayshrine. Checked Mournhold out. A few in the forge, 2-3 guys checking traders out. Some 10 people hanging out outside the Undaunted Enclave. Went to same places I check out on the EU server. Same thing. Not dead, not filled with people. Went on same day, on what's "prime time" for NA. More people than previously of course, but really - I can't see the difference? What am I missing, seriously? Explain, I don't get it. I honestly don't.
Guild activity seems more lively and outward on the NA server, always calling for members on Facebook etc. That's obvious. It might be partly a cultural thing, I don't know.

And in general, "game is dead/dying" for the whole of ESO, really? I mean, check out the stats at Steam. The general trend is an obvious INCREASE in player numbers, ups and downs from month to month. Compared to like 2016 when I was new, there's several times as many players as back then. I don't know how accurate this is for Xbox/Playstation and the different servers, but really? Saying "Oh the game was PACKED with people in 2016! Now it's dead!", I mean - look at the numbers. It's a lie, speaking in numbers it's a big lie too.

And yeah, we got several new big game titles out right now, and more coming. We have had seeerious trouble with glitches and bugs, failing servers, events going down the drain because of bad programming and bad server performance, and that sure affect player numbers too. But game dead, how? I don't get it.
I can see there's a tendency to a "generation shift" in ESO. Some old players actually leaving the game, selling their stuff for real money, or selling their entire account. But I guess every game has times like that. Everywhere I go, I see people of all levels. Not just new ones, not just max level ones.

A wall of text here. But this talk has been going on for a long time now. And I've been checking out the number of guild members online now and then, and I really can't see that the game is dead.

kathandira · December 2018

Ignore it. There is a trend on the internet, especially in gaming forums that there are only 2 sides to any story. Either the servers are too full that they need to be split, or they are completely empty.

Just like how people look at Gear or Skills, there is BiS, and there is trash. There is no in between.

Nestor · December 2018

People have been stating the servers are dead and people are leaving the game in droves since the second week of release. Ignore them. They were wrong then, they are wrong now.

All you can say is, the population ebbs and flows.

Tan9oSuccka · December 2018

Nestor wrote: »

People have been stating the servers are dead and people are leaving the game in droves since the second week of release. Ignore them. They were wrong then, they are wrong now.

All you can say is, the population ebbs and flows.

But what about the guy that says the game is dead and too full at the same time??

Sheesh, game forums are something else. I agree with you.

Haashhtaag · December 2018

Nestor wrote: »

People have been stating the servers are dead and people are leaving the game in droves since the second week of release. Ignore them. They were wrong then, they are wrong now.

All you can say is, the population ebbs and flows.

To be fair the only thing that saved this game was console release because up until that point they were on the verge of filing for bankruptcy and many of the employees, specifically the original devs either jumped ship or were let go. If my memory serves me correct.

There are a couple of threads showing poor performance of the servers being linked to a couple of different thing such as their anti DDOS partner and the way oceanic players are routed to NA servers.

Elsonso · December 2018

Statements about the megaserver being dead are often reflections of what they want to see, not what is actually happening.

Raudgrani · December 2018

It's like some people are like fed up with the game in general, and/or annoyed with all the bugs and ZOS inability to fix them, and want some kind of "revenge" by trying to spread the word that "the game is dead" just to make it so?
I don't know really. I really can't see this as a "dead" game, since it became a growing trend to say so, I've been trying to see signs of this "death", but I really can't. And the NA server, well - maybe more populated, I can't tell really. At least there's no obvious visual difference.

Sometimes it's hard to see a difference. When you are working with a knife getting ever more dull, you don't think it's dull until you sharpen it or switch knife. You get used to it, and don't spot the difference. But here, well. I really can't tell a difference. And I'm looking sometimes at the number of guild members online etc. It's all the same as it used to be. More or less.

eso_lags · December 2018

@Raudgrani Im not sure about any other servers besides xbox NA, but i would assume they are all similar. But for some reason I see a lot more posts and threads about EU dying than anything else..

But if you cant see that this game is declining then you haven't been paying attention. Compared to one tamriel, or even morrowind, there is so much less life in this game. I miss one tamriel to be honest, the game was so populated and fun. Even as a pvp player in the proc meta, it was a great time to play.

But now things have changed, especially in cyrodil. Sure you can go to any zone in the game and run around and find people out and about. But this is nothing like it used to be. Cyrodil, at least here, is dead most of the time. Last year you would sometimes see a 250 que for vivec and a 60+ que for shor. You dont see that now. I havent waited in a que for shor in god knows how long. Maybe vivec will get a que at prime time on the weekends, but im not sure i try to avoid vivec at that specific time because its unplayable when its 3 bars..

And the under level 50 campaign is completely dead all the time. Back in morrowind, and even more so before, that campaign was very popular. I think this specifically says a lot about what zos has done to pvp. People used to re roll into that camp to pvp because the azuras star, or sotha sil, is dead on xbox and always has been... I think pvp has lost a great many players and i think that really shows in how dead the under lv 50 camp is now.

And the same goes for malestrom. Every time i look at the leader boards for vma they are never full. Even a day or so ago when i checked and there was a couple hours left, no class was full. And warden, dk, and templar, if i recall, were all under 40 players. If i had to guess id say its similar, but not as bad, with trials but i cant say for sure because i dont really look at it. Im sure theres more to it though. We have BGs now which im sure plays a part in the cyrodil decline.. And there are many more arena weapons now.

Also the undaunted areas. In one tamriel, and in morrowind, you could go to mournhold, eldenroot, or wayrest, and see tons of people waiting for ques, LFG for dailies, and dueling. This is not the case anymore. No one duels anywhere, on xbox, besides wayrest. Sure, some people hang in auridon and duel, and maybe even in riften although i dont think so. But wayrest seems to be the popular place now. And even then on many nights it seems to be dead everywhere. Not like a year or two ago. Im sure there could be multiple reasons but this is just what i see..

But i still believe somethings that play a big part in it are that a lot of people are just sick of the ongoing decline in performance, especially in cyrodil, constant nerfs, boredom, and zos not seeming to care. I base my opinion of this on seeing many, many, friends leave the game since morrowind. Many of them who were small scale pvp players who just cant play because of performance. I also base that on how many people i see in game running around.

For example, last night was sunday. A slow time for the game. During the event. But every instance i went to in every alliance capitol city was dead. I went to eastmarch on 4 characters and it was always dead. Same with craglorn and same with cyrodil. Everywhere was a ghost town. I mean so dead that when i ported into wayrest i thought i crashed because there wasnt one person...

This seems to be more common at slow times now a days, where even a year ago I could still find many players around on a sunday night at 8pm est. Also, i was doing this to find a duel to test a build, not just for the sake of doing it. And i even notice it in my guilds too. Many people just not logging on anymore for long periods. Im not saying the game is dead but, from my perspective of playing for a few years, it seems there are a hell of a lot less players than morrowind.. And many, mannnyy, less players than one tamriel..

Raudgrani · December 2018

eso_lags wrote: »

@Raudgrani Im not sure about any other servers besides xbox NA, but i would assume they are all similar. But for some reason I see a lot more posts and threads about EU dying than anything else..

But if you cant see that this game is declining then you haven't been paying attention. Compared to one tamriel, or even morrowind, there is so much less life in this game. I miss one tamriel to be honest, the game was so populated and fun. Even as a pvp player in the proc meta, it was a great time to play.

But now things have changed, especially in cyrodil. Sure you can go to any zone in the game and run around and find people out and about. But this is nothing like it used to be. Cyrodil, at least here, is dead most of the time. Last year you would sometimes see a 250 que for vivec and a 60+ que for shor. You dont see that now. I havent waited in a que for shor in god knows how long. Maybe vivec will get a que at prime time on the weekends, but im not sure i try to avoid vivec at that specific time because its unplayable when its 3 bars..

And the under level 50 campaign is completely dead all the time. Back in morrowind, and even more so before, that campaign was very popular. I think this specifically says a lot about what zos has done to pvp. People used to re roll into that camp to pvp because the azuras star, or sotha sil, is dead on xbox and always has been... I think pvp has lost a great many players and i think that really shows in how dead the under lv 50 camp is now.

And the same goes for malestrom. Every time i look at the leader boards for vma they are never full. Even a day or so ago when i checked and there was a couple hours left, no class was full. And warden, dk, and templar, if i recall, were all under 40 players. If i had to guess id say its similar, but not as bad, with trials but i cant say for sure because i dont really look at it. Im sure theres more to it though. We have BGs now which im sure plays a part in the cyrodil decline.. And there are many more arena weapons now.

Also the undaunted areas. In one tamriel, and in morrowind, you could go to mournhold, eldenroot, or wayrest, and see tons of people waiting for ques, LFG for dailies, and dueling. This is not the case anymore. No one duels anywhere, on xbox, besides wayrest. Sure, some people hang in auridon and duel, and maybe even in riften although i dont think so. But wayrest seems to be the popular place now. And even then on many nights it seems to be dead everywhere. Not like a year or two ago. Im sure there could be multiple reasons but this is just what i see..

But i still believe somethings that play a big part in it are that a lot of people are just sick of the ongoing decline in performance, especially in cyrodil, constant nerfs, boredom, and zos not seeming to care. I base my opinion of this on seeing many, many, friends leave the game since morrowind. Many of them who were small scale pvp players who just cant play because of performance. I also base that on how many people i see in game running around.

For example, last night was sunday. A slow time for the game. During the event. But every instance i went to in every alliance capitol city was dead. I went to eastmarch on 4 characters and it was always dead. Same with craglorn and same with cyrodil. Everywhere was a ghost town. I mean so dead that when i ported into wayrest i thought i crashed because there wasnt one person...

This seems to be more common at slow times now a days, where even a year ago I could still find many players around on a sunday night at 8pm est. Also, i was doing this to find a duel to test a build, not just for the sake of doing it. And i even notice it in my guilds too. Many people just not logging on anymore for long periods. Im not saying the game is dead but, from my perspective of playing for a few years, it seems there are a hell of a lot less players than morrowind.. And many, mannnyy, less players than one tamriel..

Don't really know the difference between platforms, servers, when they were officially declared open and so on. But compare June 2016, when One Tamriel was released to the numbers now. Can you see the difference? I can: https://steamcharts.com/app/306130

Tell me how there were more players active back then? Please explain, and I am not being sarcastic. I want to know how you think, what you mean.

I THINK you are being somewhat melancholic. You are the ones not paying attention. It's easy to get stuck in a feeling of "good old days"; no matter what we speak about. "Back then" kind of always feels better than right now, most often at least. Maybe the people YOU played with don't play anymore? It's an old game after all. Maybe it's not as fun anymore - for you - because you've seen and done like everything, it's not a "thrill" anymore. But still, tell me how the game is dying. Because I don't understand what people mean. There's like nothing to support the statement, except highly subjective personal opinions.

We can both agree Cyrodiil has been depopulated, but that's a given fact. It doesn't work. Only hardcore PVP'ers still go there, the PVE'ers have had their Spell Strategist gear now, so it's back to 1-2 bars, and mostly same old faces when you meet any kind of real resistance. Sad, but true. It doesn't however make the game neither "dead" nor "dying".

Latios · December 2018

I have taken a few year-long breaks, and I’ve been around since beta. Anyone who has paid attention to the population can say that it has undoubtedly increased or, at worst, remained the same. Just this week I helped 2 beginners with crafted gear.
The population is healthy and the game is definitely not dying. Just PvP in cyro is unbearable, while BGs are heavily unbalanced.

eso_lags · December 2018

Raudgrani wrote: »

eso_lags wrote: »

@Raudgrani Im not sure about any other servers besides xbox NA, but i would assume they are all similar. But for some reason I see a lot more posts and threads about EU dying than anything else..

But if you cant see that this game is declining then you haven't been paying attention. Compared to one tamriel, or even morrowind, there is so much less life in this game. I miss one tamriel to be honest, the game was so populated and fun. Even as a pvp player in the proc meta, it was a great time to play.

But now things have changed, especially in cyrodil. Sure you can go to any zone in the game and run around and find people out and about. But this is nothing like it used to be. Cyrodil, at least here, is dead most of the time. Last year you would sometimes see a 250 que for vivec and a 60+ que for shor. You dont see that now. I havent waited in a que for shor in god knows how long. Maybe vivec will get a que at prime time on the weekends, but im not sure i try to avoid vivec at that specific time because its unplayable when its 3 bars..

And the under level 50 campaign is completely dead all the time. Back in morrowind, and even more so before, that campaign was very popular. I think this specifically says a lot about what zos has done to pvp. People used to re roll into that camp to pvp because the azuras star, or sotha sil, is dead on xbox and always has been... I think pvp has lost a great many players and i think that really shows in how dead the under lv 50 camp is now.

And the same goes for malestrom. Every time i look at the leader boards for vma they are never full. Even a day or so ago when i checked and there was a couple hours left, no class was full. And warden, dk, and templar, if i recall, were all under 40 players. If i had to guess id say its similar, but not as bad, with trials but i cant say for sure because i dont really look at it. Im sure theres more to it though. We have BGs now which im sure plays a part in the cyrodil decline.. And there are many more arena weapons now.

Also the undaunted areas. In one tamriel, and in morrowind, you could go to mournhold, eldenroot, or wayrest, and see tons of people waiting for ques, LFG for dailies, and dueling. This is not the case anymore. No one duels anywhere, on xbox, besides wayrest. Sure, some people hang in auridon and duel, and maybe even in riften although i dont think so. But wayrest seems to be the popular place now. And even then on many nights it seems to be dead everywhere. Not like a year or two ago. Im sure there could be multiple reasons but this is just what i see..

But i still believe somethings that play a big part in it are that a lot of people are just sick of the ongoing decline in performance, especially in cyrodil, constant nerfs, boredom, and zos not seeming to care. I base my opinion of this on seeing many, many, friends leave the game since morrowind. Many of them who were small scale pvp players who just cant play because of performance. I also base that on how many people i see in game running around.

For example, last night was sunday. A slow time for the game. During the event. But every instance i went to in every alliance capitol city was dead. I went to eastmarch on 4 characters and it was always dead. Same with craglorn and same with cyrodil. Everywhere was a ghost town. I mean so dead that when i ported into wayrest i thought i crashed because there wasnt one person...

This seems to be more common at slow times now a days, where even a year ago I could still find many players around on a sunday night at 8pm est. Also, i was doing this to find a duel to test a build, not just for the sake of doing it. And i even notice it in my guilds too. Many people just not logging on anymore for long periods. Im not saying the game is dead but, from my perspective of playing for a few years, it seems there are a hell of a lot less players than morrowind.. And many, mannnyy, less players than one tamriel..

Don't really know the difference between platforms, servers, when they were officially declared open and so on. But compare June 2016, when One Tamriel was released to the numbers now. Can you see the difference? I can: https://steamcharts.com/app/306130

Tell me how there were more players active back then? Please explain, and I am not being sarcastic. I want to know how you think, what you mean.

I THINK you are being somewhat melancholic. You are the ones not paying attention. It's easy to get stuck in a feeling of "good old days"; no matter what we speak about. "Back then" kind of always feels better than right now, most often at least. Maybe the people YOU played with don't play anymore? It's an old game after all. Maybe it's not as fun anymore - for you - because you've seen and done like everything, it's not a "thrill" anymore. But still, tell me how the game is dying. Because I don't understand what people mean. There's like nothing to support the statement, except highly subjective personal opinions.

We can both agree Cyrodiil has been depopulated, but that's a given fact. It doesn't work. Only hardcore PVP'ers still go there, the PVE'ers have had their Spell Strategist gear now, so it's back to 1-2 bars, and mostly same old faces when you meet any kind of real resistance. Sad, but true. It doesn't however make the game neither "dead" nor "dying".

I mean im not saying any of this is fact. Im saying that based on my experience as a player who has played on a daily basis, on xbox, for around 3 years, I see a lot less people than i used to. This is all my experience. Anecdotal. But i listed to you what i honestly see.. Like i said, just my experience but im not making it up out of nowhere...

I never said the game was dying either. I agreed with you on the point that it wasnt. Cyrodil is 100% dying, thats a fact and it will probably never change because zos doesnt seem to care about it. But again, something we agree on.

And i can also agree that a lot of the time "back then" might feel better than right now.. But thats not always the case. Im saying, i think, back then the game was more populated. Back then I could go to mournhold or eldenroot and find 20+ people dueling, today i cannot. Back then i had to wait in a 60 que to get into shor at prime time, or a 200+ que for viv, on a weekday, today i do not.

Back then i knew 50 people who i would see on a regular basis, today maybe 2 of those same people are left. Back then the under lv 50 campaign used to be 2-3 bars on a regular basis, today it is not... Back then i didnt lag nearly as bad as i do today.. And on the other hand, back then there was a proc meta that was pretty bad with proc sets that crit. Back then we didnt have jewelry crafting, and back then we didnt have transmutation. There are good and bad things about "back then" its not such a black and white issue.

And once again, this is just my experience on xbox NA.. I love this game. I enjoy this game. Even with a few solid issues that i have with it, if pvp performance was decent then i would be happy. Many others would be happy. A lot of people just want to small scale pvp but cant because the performance is terrible. And the performance also makes more people ball up. Its a terrible cycle that is killing pvp.

As for the steam chart... From what i understand one tamriel was released in october 2016, which is third highest player count on the chart you linked at 29,305. The highest player count is march 2017, at 29,979 and the second highest is july, 2018 at 29,547, which is right around the time summerset came out...

Now im not sure what happened in march to get all those people playing but i do know that homestead came out February 2017 and was a pretty big deal.. And the player count peaks at its highest in march so im guessing it has something to do with the homestead update? Or maybe it was just people playing more. Who knows.

Either way that chart tells me a few things... 1, More people play when a new update is released, and im sure thats obvious to most of us. 2, player count peaks at its highest around one tamriel, homestead, and summerset. And 3, there are a lot of ups and downs in player count but for the most part it doesn't look like the game is losing people on steam. The game goes up in count around those certain updates, and then crawls back down. But honestly none of that matters to me. Im pretty sure the steam chart you linked is the only data anyone has on player count... So while its interesting to look it, it doesn't change my mind. Its just steam. And the console community and the PC community are very different.

In the end im not sure that chart does much for either of us. One tamriel was a more populated time than today, and overall, the numbers of players are not in decline.. But once again, what im talking about just my experience on xbox. I never gave my opinion as fact. Im not trying to get into a massive debate over it, this is just what ive noticed playing every day for years. And i highly doubt we will ever get numbers from zos on player count anyway.. For console or PC. Anyway, we can both agree that the game itself is not dying.

Sandman929 · December 2018

In general people think that if their personal interest is waning, and some people they hang out with feel the same way, then it's universal truth that the game is dying. Because after all, how could it go on without them? They're just that important.

wolf486 · December 2018

I always see the "this game is dead" posts a lot after nerfs to someones builds (I suppose frustration posts?). PvE wise the game seems more active today than a year ago tbh (pc/na and even eu).

But don't forget, there were posts about how WoW was dead two years after it's release, and a million since. It might be slowly dying, but still far from dead.

As for Cyro? Well a year ago I was constantly waiting in queue (usually 50+). Now, at most I have to wait in queue 5, but most of the time I'm in right away. Could be 'cos most pvp'ers are playing bg now?

Siohwenoeht · December 2018

These numbers need a large grain of salt but according to leaks PS4 has 3.9 mil players for ESO. Apparently based off unique achievements.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/12/sony-inadvertently-leaks-player-counts-for-ps4-titles/?amp=1

I imagine it's closer to 1/3 of that in active members...

Follow the link to and the top of the article about the independent website, listed under The elder scrolls online...

russelmmendoza · December 2018

Raudgrani wrote: »

eso_lags wrote: »

@Raudgrani Im not sure about any other servers besides xbox NA, but i would assume they are all similar. But for some reason I see a lot more posts and threads about EU dying than anything else..

But if you cant see that this game is declining then you haven't been paying attention. Compared to one tamriel, or even morrowind, there is so much less life in this game. I miss one tamriel to be honest, the game was so populated and fun. Even as a pvp player in the proc meta, it was a great time to play.

But now things have changed, especially in cyrodil. Sure you can go to any zone in the game and run around and find people out and about. But this is nothing like it used to be. Cyrodil, at least here, is dead most of the time. Last year you would sometimes see a 250 que for vivec and a 60+ que for shor. You dont see that now. I havent waited in a que for shor in god knows how long. Maybe vivec will get a que at prime time on the weekends, but im not sure i try to avoid vivec at that specific time because its unplayable when its 3 bars..

And the under level 50 campaign is completely dead all the time. Back in morrowind, and even more so before, that campaign was very popular. I think this specifically says a lot about what zos has done to pvp. People used to re roll into that camp to pvp because the azuras star, or sotha sil, is dead on xbox and always has been... I think pvp has lost a great many players and i think that really shows in how dead the under lv 50 camp is now.

And the same goes for malestrom. Every time i look at the leader boards for vma they are never full. Even a day or so ago when i checked and there was a couple hours left, no class was full. And warden, dk, and templar, if i recall, were all under 40 players. If i had to guess id say its similar, but not as bad, with trials but i cant say for sure because i dont really look at it. Im sure theres more to it though. We have BGs now which im sure plays a part in the cyrodil decline.. And there are many more arena weapons now.

Also the undaunted areas. In one tamriel, and in morrowind, you could go to mournhold, eldenroot, or wayrest, and see tons of people waiting for ques, LFG for dailies, and dueling. This is not the case anymore. No one duels anywhere, on xbox, besides wayrest. Sure, some people hang in auridon and duel, and maybe even in riften although i dont think so. But wayrest seems to be the popular place now. And even then on many nights it seems to be dead everywhere. Not like a year or two ago. Im sure there could be multiple reasons but this is just what i see..

But i still believe somethings that play a big part in it are that a lot of people are just sick of the ongoing decline in performance, especially in cyrodil, constant nerfs, boredom, and zos not seeming to care. I base my opinion of this on seeing many, many, friends leave the game since morrowind. Many of them who were small scale pvp players who just cant play because of performance. I also base that on how many people i see in game running around.

For example, last night was sunday. A slow time for the game. During the event. But every instance i went to in every alliance capitol city was dead. I went to eastmarch on 4 characters and it was always dead. Same with craglorn and same with cyrodil. Everywhere was a ghost town. I mean so dead that when i ported into wayrest i thought i crashed because there wasnt one person...

This seems to be more common at slow times now a days, where even a year ago I could still find many players around on a sunday night at 8pm est. Also, i was doing this to find a duel to test a build, not just for the sake of doing it. And i even notice it in my guilds too. Many people just not logging on anymore for long periods. Im not saying the game is dead but, from my perspective of playing for a few years, it seems there are a hell of a lot less players than morrowind.. And many, mannnyy, less players than one tamriel..

Don't really know the difference between platforms, servers, when they were officially declared open and so on. But compare June 2016, when One Tamriel was released to the numbers now. Can you see the difference? I can: https://steamcharts.com/app/306130

Tell me how there were more players active back then? Please explain, and I am not being sarcastic. I want to know how you think, what you mean.

I THINK you are being somewhat melancholic. You are the ones not paying attention. It's easy to get stuck in a feeling of "good old days"; no matter what we speak about. "Back then" kind of always feels better than right now, most often at least. Maybe the people YOU played with don't play anymore? It's an old game after all. Maybe it's not as fun anymore - for you - because you've seen and done like everything, it's not a "thrill" anymore. But still, tell me how the game is dying. Because I don't understand what people mean. There's like nothing to support the statement, except highly subjective personal opinions.

We can both agree Cyrodiil has been depopulated, but that's a given fact. It doesn't work. Only hardcore PVP'ers still go there, the PVE'ers have had their Spell Strategist gear now, so it's back to 1-2 bars, and mostly same old faces when you meet any kind of real resistance. Sad, but true. It doesn't however make the game neither "dead" nor "dying".

TYVM FOR THE LINK.

I am always boggled this f uck heads keep saying the game is dead.

Please for the love of all the divines, and all the deadric prince if you want, dont project your deadgaminglife to the game.

Bhaal5 · December 2018

russelmmendoza wrote: »

Raudgrani wrote: »

eso_lags wrote: »

@Raudgrani Im not sure about any other servers besides xbox NA, but i would assume they are all similar. But for some reason I see a lot more posts and threads about EU dying than anything else..

But if you cant see that this game is declining then you haven't been paying attention. Compared to one tamriel, or even morrowind, there is so much less life in this game. I miss one tamriel to be honest, the game was so populated and fun. Even as a pvp player in the proc meta, it was a great time to play.

But now things have changed, especially in cyrodil. Sure you can go to any zone in the game and run around and find people out and about. But this is nothing like it used to be. Cyrodil, at least here, is dead most of the time. Last year you would sometimes see a 250 que for vivec and a 60+ que for shor. You dont see that now. I havent waited in a que for shor in god knows how long. Maybe vivec will get a que at prime time on the weekends, but im not sure i try to avoid vivec at that specific time because its unplayable when its 3 bars..

And the under level 50 campaign is completely dead all the time. Back in morrowind, and even more so before, that campaign was very popular. I think this specifically says a lot about what zos has done to pvp. People used to re roll into that camp to pvp because the azuras star, or sotha sil, is dead on xbox and always has been... I think pvp has lost a great many players and i think that really shows in how dead the under lv 50 camp is now.

And the same goes for malestrom. Every time i look at the leader boards for vma they are never full. Even a day or so ago when i checked and there was a couple hours left, no class was full. And warden, dk, and templar, if i recall, were all under 40 players. If i had to guess id say its similar, but not as bad, with trials but i cant say for sure because i dont really look at it. Im sure theres more to it though. We have BGs now which im sure plays a part in the cyrodil decline.. And there are many more arena weapons now.

Also the undaunted areas. In one tamriel, and in morrowind, you could go to mournhold, eldenroot, or wayrest, and see tons of people waiting for ques, LFG for dailies, and dueling. This is not the case anymore. No one duels anywhere, on xbox, besides wayrest. Sure, some people hang in auridon and duel, and maybe even in riften although i dont think so. But wayrest seems to be the popular place now. And even then on many nights it seems to be dead everywhere. Not like a year or two ago. Im sure there could be multiple reasons but this is just what i see..

But i still believe somethings that play a big part in it are that a lot of people are just sick of the ongoing decline in performance, especially in cyrodil, constant nerfs, boredom, and zos not seeming to care. I base my opinion of this on seeing many, many, friends leave the game since morrowind. Many of them who were small scale pvp players who just cant play because of performance. I also base that on how many people i see in game running around.

For example, last night was sunday. A slow time for the game. During the event. But every instance i went to in every alliance capitol city was dead. I went to eastmarch on 4 characters and it was always dead. Same with craglorn and same with cyrodil. Everywhere was a ghost town. I mean so dead that when i ported into wayrest i thought i crashed because there wasnt one person...

This seems to be more common at slow times now a days, where even a year ago I could still find many players around on a sunday night at 8pm est. Also, i was doing this to find a duel to test a build, not just for the sake of doing it. And i even notice it in my guilds too. Many people just not logging on anymore for long periods. Im not saying the game is dead but, from my perspective of playing for a few years, it seems there are a hell of a lot less players than morrowind.. And many, mannnyy, less players than one tamriel..

Don't really know the difference between platforms, servers, when they were officially declared open and so on. But compare June 2016, when One Tamriel was released to the numbers now. Can you see the difference? I can: https://steamcharts.com/app/306130

Tell me how there were more players active back then? Please explain, and I am not being sarcastic. I want to know how you think, what you mean.

I THINK you are being somewhat melancholic. You are the ones not paying attention. It's easy to get stuck in a feeling of "good old days"; no matter what we speak about. "Back then" kind of always feels better than right now, most often at least. Maybe the people YOU played with don't play anymore? It's an old game after all. Maybe it's not as fun anymore - for you - because you've seen and done like everything, it's not a "thrill" anymore. But still, tell me how the game is dying. Because I don't understand what people mean. There's like nothing to support the statement, except highly subjective personal opinions.

We can both agree Cyrodiil has been depopulated, but that's a given fact. It doesn't work. Only hardcore PVP'ers still go there, the PVE'ers have had their Spell Strategist gear now, so it's back to 1-2 bars, and mostly same old faces when you meet any kind of real resistance. Sad, but true. It doesn't however make the game neither "dead" nor "dying".

TYVM FOR THE LINK.

I am always boggled this f uck heads keep saying the game is dead.

Please for the love of all the divines, and all the deadric prince if you want, dont project your deadgaminglife to the game.

When i get on eso, ghratwood or many major trading hub has around 10 people at tops. Group finder takes over 30 minutes to find a 'random' group. And cyrodiil.... Vivec has the only popluation bar and on side will have 2 bars and every other colour none. (The other campaigns have no bars what so ever). So that doesnt really scream 'active' to me.
(Ps4 gmt +10 NA)

Elsonso · December 2018

Bhaal5 wrote: »

When i get on eso, ghratwood or many major trading hub has around 10 people at tops. Group finder takes over 30 minutes to find a 'random' group. And cyrodiil.... Vivec has the only popluation bar and on side will have 2 bars and every other colour none. (The other campaigns have no bars what so ever). So that doesnt really scream 'active' to me.
(Ps4 gmt +10 NA)

So, you are in Russia? What time are you playing? (in Eastern Time if you care to do the conversion)

Sanctum74 · December 2018

Bhaal5 wrote: »

russelmmendoza wrote: »

Raudgrani wrote: »

eso_lags wrote: »

@Raudgrani Im not sure about any other servers besides xbox NA, but i would assume they are all similar. But for some reason I see a lot more posts and threads about EU dying than anything else..

But if you cant see that this game is declining then you haven't been paying attention. Compared to one tamriel, or even morrowind, there is so much less life in this game. I miss one tamriel to be honest, the game was so populated and fun. Even as a pvp player in the proc meta, it was a great time to play.

But now things have changed, especially in cyrodil. Sure you can go to any zone in the game and run around and find people out and about. But this is nothing like it used to be. Cyrodil, at least here, is dead most of the time. Last year you would sometimes see a 250 que for vivec and a 60+ que for shor. You dont see that now. I havent waited in a que for shor in god knows how long. Maybe vivec will get a que at prime time on the weekends, but im not sure i try to avoid vivec at that specific time because its unplayable when its 3 bars..

And the under level 50 campaign is completely dead all the time. Back in morrowind, and even more so before, that campaign was very popular. I think this specifically says a lot about what zos has done to pvp. People used to re roll into that camp to pvp because the azuras star, or sotha sil, is dead on xbox and always has been... I think pvp has lost a great many players and i think that really shows in how dead the under lv 50 camp is now.

And the same goes for malestrom. Every time i look at the leader boards for vma they are never full. Even a day or so ago when i checked and there was a couple hours left, no class was full. And warden, dk, and templar, if i recall, were all under 40 players. If i had to guess id say its similar, but not as bad, with trials but i cant say for sure because i dont really look at it. Im sure theres more to it though. We have BGs now which im sure plays a part in the cyrodil decline.. And there are many more arena weapons now.

Also the undaunted areas. In one tamriel, and in morrowind, you could go to mournhold, eldenroot, or wayrest, and see tons of people waiting for ques, LFG for dailies, and dueling. This is not the case anymore. No one duels anywhere, on xbox, besides wayrest. Sure, some people hang in auridon and duel, and maybe even in riften although i dont think so. But wayrest seems to be the popular place now. And even then on many nights it seems to be dead everywhere. Not like a year or two ago. Im sure there could be multiple reasons but this is just what i see..

But i still believe somethings that play a big part in it are that a lot of people are just sick of the ongoing decline in performance, especially in cyrodil, constant nerfs, boredom, and zos not seeming to care. I base my opinion of this on seeing many, many, friends leave the game since morrowind. Many of them who were small scale pvp players who just cant play because of performance. I also base that on how many people i see in game running around.

For example, last night was sunday. A slow time for the game. During the event. But every instance i went to in every alliance capitol city was dead. I went to eastmarch on 4 characters and it was always dead. Same with craglorn and same with cyrodil. Everywhere was a ghost town. I mean so dead that when i ported into wayrest i thought i crashed because there wasnt one person...

This seems to be more common at slow times now a days, where even a year ago I could still find many players around on a sunday night at 8pm est. Also, i was doing this to find a duel to test a build, not just for the sake of doing it. And i even notice it in my guilds too. Many people just not logging on anymore for long periods. Im not saying the game is dead but, from my perspective of playing for a few years, it seems there are a hell of a lot less players than morrowind.. And many, mannnyy, less players than one tamriel..

Don't really know the difference between platforms, servers, when they were officially declared open and so on. But compare June 2016, when One Tamriel was released to the numbers now. Can you see the difference? I can: https://steamcharts.com/app/306130

Tell me how there were more players active back then? Please explain, and I am not being sarcastic. I want to know how you think, what you mean.

I THINK you are being somewhat melancholic. You are the ones not paying attention. It's easy to get stuck in a feeling of "good old days"; no matter what we speak about. "Back then" kind of always feels better than right now, most often at least. Maybe the people YOU played with don't play anymore? It's an old game after all. Maybe it's not as fun anymore - for you - because you've seen and done like everything, it's not a "thrill" anymore. But still, tell me how the game is dying. Because I don't understand what people mean. There's like nothing to support the statement, except highly subjective personal opinions.

We can both agree Cyrodiil has been depopulated, but that's a given fact. It doesn't work. Only hardcore PVP'ers still go there, the PVE'ers have had their Spell Strategist gear now, so it's back to 1-2 bars, and mostly same old faces when you meet any kind of real resistance. Sad, but true. It doesn't however make the game neither "dead" nor "dying".

TYVM FOR THE LINK.

I am always boggled this f uck heads keep saying the game is dead.

Please for the love of all the divines, and all the deadric prince if you want, dont project your deadgaminglife to the game.

When i get on eso, ghratwood or many major trading hub has around 10 people at tops. Group finder takes over 30 minutes to find a 'random' group. And cyrodiil.... Vivec has the only popluation bar and on side will have 2 bars and every other colour none. (The other campaigns have no bars what so ever). So that doesnt really scream 'active' to me.
(Ps4 gmt +10 NA)

That's exactly what I'm seeing everyday at primetime even on weekends, but I guess the fan boys think that 10 people in a pve instance or 2 bars in Cyrodiil is a thriving population. But then again they read a link on the internet so it must be true

wolf486 · December 2018

Bhaal5 wrote: »

When i get on eso, ghratwood or many major trading hub has around 10 people at tops. Group finder takes over 30 minutes to find a 'random' group. And cyrodiil.... Vivec has the only popluation bar and on side will have 2 bars and every other colour none. (The other campaigns have no bars what so ever). So that doesnt really scream 'active' to me.
(Ps4 gmt +10 NA)

Ghratwood on PC-NA on a quiet day in off-peak hours has far more than 10 people. Probably explains why many console players are jumping ship.

WildRaptorX · December 2018

I’ve been playing on Xbox EU since launch. The servers are definitely not dead. They’re just as full as launch. Just that now more people are spread out through more zones. Also consider time zones. When we’re asleep in the UK, Eastern European’s are now finishing work and logging on.

Bhaal5 · December 2018

lordrichter wrote: »

Bhaal5 wrote: »

When i get on eso, ghratwood or many major trading hub has around 10 people at tops. Group finder takes over 30 minutes to find a 'random' group. And cyrodiil.... Vivec has the only popluation bar and on side will have 2 bars and every other colour none. (The other campaigns have no bars what so ever). So that doesnt really scream 'active' to me.
(Ps4 gmt +10 NA)

So, you are in Russia? What time are you playing? (in Eastern Time if you care to do the conversion)

Gmt +10 is eastern Australia (well thats what google tells me

also why i used gmt rather than AEST.. That gets people confussed)

Bhaal5 · December 2018

wolf486 wrote: »

Bhaal5 wrote: »

When i get on eso, ghratwood or many major trading hub has around 10 people at tops. Group finder takes over 30 minutes to find a 'random' group. And cyrodiil.... Vivec has the only popluation bar and on side will have 2 bars and every other colour none. (The other campaigns have no bars what so ever). So that doesnt really scream 'active' to me.
(Ps4 gmt +10 NA)

Ghratwood on PC-NA on a quiet day in off-peak hours has far more than 10 people. Probably explains why many console players are jumping ship.

Yeah jumped ship, jumped all the way back to guild wars.... Zero population issuesb hardly any lag issue and best of all no 'maintenance' in my prime time (i love seeing my ping down near and below the 200's again)

AzraelKrieg · December 2018

Haashhtaag wrote: »

Nestor wrote: »

People have been stating the servers are dead and people are leaving the game in droves since the second week of release. Ignore them. They were wrong then, they are wrong now.

All you can say is, the population ebbs and flows.

To be fair the only thing that saved this game was console release because up until that point they were on the verge of filing for bankruptcy and many of the employees, specifically the original devs either jumped ship or were let go. If my memory serves me correct.

Citation needed

Raudgrani · December 2018

Bhaal5 wrote: »

russelmmendoza wrote: »

Raudgrani wrote: »

eso_lags wrote: »

@Raudgrani Im not sure about any other servers besides xbox NA, but i would assume they are all similar. But for some reason I see a lot more posts and threads about EU dying than anything else..

But if you cant see that this game is declining then you haven't been paying attention. Compared to one tamriel, or even morrowind, there is so much less life in this game. I miss one tamriel to be honest, the game was so populated and fun. Even as a pvp player in the proc meta, it was a great time to play.

But now things have changed, especially in cyrodil. Sure you can go to any zone in the game and run around and find people out and about. But this is nothing like it used to be. Cyrodil, at least here, is dead most of the time. Last year you would sometimes see a 250 que for vivec and a 60+ que for shor. You dont see that now. I havent waited in a que for shor in god knows how long. Maybe vivec will get a que at prime time on the weekends, but im not sure i try to avoid vivec at that specific time because its unplayable when its 3 bars..

And the under level 50 campaign is completely dead all the time. Back in morrowind, and even more so before, that campaign was very popular. I think this specifically says a lot about what zos has done to pvp. People used to re roll into that camp to pvp because the azuras star, or sotha sil, is dead on xbox and always has been... I think pvp has lost a great many players and i think that really shows in how dead the under lv 50 camp is now.

And the same goes for malestrom. Every time i look at the leader boards for vma they are never full. Even a day or so ago when i checked and there was a couple hours left, no class was full. And warden, dk, and templar, if i recall, were all under 40 players. If i had to guess id say its similar, but not as bad, with trials but i cant say for sure because i dont really look at it. Im sure theres more to it though. We have BGs now which im sure plays a part in the cyrodil decline.. And there are many more arena weapons now.

Also the undaunted areas. In one tamriel, and in morrowind, you could go to mournhold, eldenroot, or wayrest, and see tons of people waiting for ques, LFG for dailies, and dueling. This is not the case anymore. No one duels anywhere, on xbox, besides wayrest. Sure, some people hang in auridon and duel, and maybe even in riften although i dont think so. But wayrest seems to be the popular place now. And even then on many nights it seems to be dead everywhere. Not like a year or two ago. Im sure there could be multiple reasons but this is just what i see..

But i still believe somethings that play a big part in it are that a lot of people are just sick of the ongoing decline in performance, especially in cyrodil, constant nerfs, boredom, and zos not seeming to care. I base my opinion of this on seeing many, many, friends leave the game since morrowind. Many of them who were small scale pvp players who just cant play because of performance. I also base that on how many people i see in game running around.

For example, last night was sunday. A slow time for the game. During the event. But every instance i went to in every alliance capitol city was dead. I went to eastmarch on 4 characters and it was always dead. Same with craglorn and same with cyrodil. Everywhere was a ghost town. I mean so dead that when i ported into wayrest i thought i crashed because there wasnt one person...

This seems to be more common at slow times now a days, where even a year ago I could still find many players around on a sunday night at 8pm est. Also, i was doing this to find a duel to test a build, not just for the sake of doing it. And i even notice it in my guilds too. Many people just not logging on anymore for long periods. Im not saying the game is dead but, from my perspective of playing for a few years, it seems there are a hell of a lot less players than morrowind.. And many, mannnyy, less players than one tamriel..

Don't really know the difference between platforms, servers, when they were officially declared open and so on. But compare June 2016, when One Tamriel was released to the numbers now. Can you see the difference? I can: https://steamcharts.com/app/306130

Tell me how there were more players active back then? Please explain, and I am not being sarcastic. I want to know how you think, what you mean.

I THINK you are being somewhat melancholic. You are the ones not paying attention. It's easy to get stuck in a feeling of "good old days"; no matter what we speak about. "Back then" kind of always feels better than right now, most often at least. Maybe the people YOU played with don't play anymore? It's an old game after all. Maybe it's not as fun anymore - for you - because you've seen and done like everything, it's not a "thrill" anymore. But still, tell me how the game is dying. Because I don't understand what people mean. There's like nothing to support the statement, except highly subjective personal opinions.

We can both agree Cyrodiil has been depopulated, but that's a given fact. It doesn't work. Only hardcore PVP'ers still go there, the PVE'ers have had their Spell Strategist gear now, so it's back to 1-2 bars, and mostly same old faces when you meet any kind of real resistance. Sad, but true. It doesn't however make the game neither "dead" nor "dying".

TYVM FOR THE LINK.

I am always boggled this f uck heads keep saying the game is dead.

Please for the love of all the divines, and all the deadric prince if you want, dont project your deadgaminglife to the game.

When i get on eso, ghratwood or many major trading hub has around 10 people at tops. Group finder takes over 30 minutes to find a 'random' group. And cyrodiil.... Vivec has the only popluation bar and on side will have 2 bars and every other colour none. (The other campaigns have no bars what so ever). So that doesnt really scream 'active' to me.
(Ps4 gmt +10 NA)

No need to discuss Cyrodiil. EVERYONE agrees it's in a horrible state, no one every denied that. It's a sad truth. Judging the state of the game by bars in Cyrodiil is just wrong. Many do Battlegrounds instead now. It takes seconds up to a minute to get into Battlegrounds these days, just a year ago you even forgot you were in queue when you finally got a ready check.

But for dungeon activity finder? Seriously? How is it worse now than it ever was? Queuing as a DD has always taken a long time. If I go with my tank or healer, I need to have my armor fixed, weapons charged and inventory emptied BEFORE I queue, because it literally takes seconds to get into group. Same as always.
Here's also where you can see a bit of indication of a "generation shift", there are sooo many really, really bad players in group. Who doesn't know basic mechanics of non-DLC dungeons, who have awful skill loadouts, who do less damage than me as a tank; and so on. This wasn't the case like 1½ year ago, it's gotten way worse. If I go with a DD, tank is at least 60% of the time not a tank, and they go like "What do you mean, tank the boss? Taunt? What's that?".

And this "xxxxx (city) has maximum 10 players, it's so dead". I can't see that. I see so many names I can't even count them, if I go there in the afternoon. People are not dueling around wayshrines these days, that's true. I can't really say I miss it, I hate when people do. But the numbers in cities. I dunno, I must be in another instance than you guys? It's the same numbers or MORE than it used to be, I'm being totally honest here. I can't see what you mean, I just can't.

DirkRavenclaw · December 2018

Well, Im living in Germany/Dutch Border and have 10 Toons on PC/NA and 4 on PC/EU, i know that it is hard to say reliable Numbers of Players online as we download over 80 GB and have multiple Instances of Places in Tamriel depending on our personal Story Progression but what i did notice is, for example, the difference beetween EU and NA Server on PC, on EU it quiets done a lot under the week at 10 pm to midnight, same time on PC/NA, what would be in my Time 4 am to 6 am, that is still primetime on NA. NA begins to go quiet a tat later i have to say, i often now start on EU and go later in the Night over to NA

drguild · December 2018

I used to play Guildwars 2 and that was fairly active everywhere from the towns to zone.
I have screenshots of events with 100 people zerging the bosses etc.

For this game with it being called dead, I want to know how Sharding works in relation to that.
When I am in Summerset quite often there are hardly anyone around especially in Alinor and I believe it's the shard.
I have ported to guildies shards and it was like 3 times the population of the shard I was already in.

Also do we know the shard caps for a area like the Summerset overland?
If the caps were higher or shards were merged more when players wayshrined etc to try to maintain a minimum player count per shard that could improve things.

As I know I have been in shards moved to another and it seemed like both shards could just be 1 shard with the amount of people I saw in both of them.

Also when I have been in Vvivec and Alinor, you go to the bank and craft stations and there packed, in the actual zone however are very few people playing in those areas.

So I could take it the population of a zone is in the main towns.

Cpt_Teemo · December 2018

Yeah that's the shady thing its like hiding the actual player base by not allowing to see how many shards of each instance there are, even Swtor had the option to flip to different shards of the same instance and now it only has 5 mega servers from nearly 100 servers at launch but it still doesn't hide the true player base.

Raudgrani · December 2018

drguild wrote: »

I used to play Guildwars 2 and that was fairly active everywhere from the towns to zone.
I have screenshots of events with 100 people zerging the bosses etc.

For this game with it being called dead, I want to know how Sharding works in relation to that.
When I am in Summerset quite often there are hardly anyone around especially in Alinor and I believe it's the shard.
I have ported to guildies shards and it was like 3 times the population of the shard I was already in.

Also do we know the shard caps for a area like the Summerset overland?
If the caps were higher or shards were merged more when players wayshrined etc to try to maintain a minimum player count per shard that could improve things.

As I know I have been in shards moved to another and it seemed like both shards could just be 1 shard with the amount of people I saw in both of them.

Also when I have been in Vvivec and Alinor, you go to the bank and craft stations and there packed, in the actual zone however are very few people playing in those areas.

So I could take it the population of a zone is in the main towns.

Shard, is like same as "instance"? Or what? I have some experience of that. There's this freak guild with pretty bad reputation (for reasons) on Xbox EU, that have been holding traders in Mournhold on and off. They used to throw "rave parties" around the merchant area there. Yelling in zone chat that people should come and join, I went there just to take a look, and there was no party at all - as far as I could see. Afterwards, they thanked people that "showed up" in area chat, saying 100+ people danced there, and how awesome it was etc.
I also saw them telling people to travel to them through guild roster, so that they should end up in same instance, hoping they would "crash the server" etc.

drguild · December 2018

Instance and sharding is the same thing pretty much.

Guildwars called it instancing in the first game as you went in with a team and the areas was your own team with caps at team size 4-8 depending, Gw2 had instances / shards also but you couldn't select in the zone both games you could change the town instance,

WoW and other games call it sharding as WoW has merged a lot of servers into a shard system now once the landmass started getting massive with expansions.

You technically cant crash a shard with players as they have a max player count.
They are however usually designed so people would be spread out around the map, but having all players all in one place is the same processing backend on their servers its just the clients that would be affected.
Some games mitigate this if there was too many in one areas by culling players from the client renderer so that's why some games in busy towns a lot of times players say other players are invisible even if they are in the same shard.

How ESO handles player rendering and culling excess in a single area I don't know.

Cpt_Teemo · December 2018

drguild wrote: »

Instance and sharding is the same thing pretty much.

Guildwars called it instancing in the first game as you went in with a team and the areas was your own team with caps at team size 4-8 depending, Gw2 had instances / shards also but you couldn't select in the zone both games you could change the town instance,

WoW and other games call it sharding as WoW has merged a lot of servers into a shard system now once the landmass started getting massive with expansions.

You do realize WoW has been losing players ever since WoD came out ?

Bhaal5 · December 2018

Raudgrani wrote: »

Bhaal5 wrote: »

russelmmendoza wrote: »

Raudgrani wrote: »

eso_lags wrote: »

@Raudgrani Im not sure about any other servers besides xbox NA, but i would assume they are all similar. But for some reason I see a lot more posts and threads about EU dying than anything else..

But if you cant see that this game is declining then you haven't been paying attention. Compared to one tamriel, or even morrowind, there is so much less life in this game. I miss one tamriel to be honest, the game was so populated and fun. Even as a pvp player in the proc meta, it was a great time to play.

But now things have changed, especially in cyrodil. Sure you can go to any zone in the game and run around and find people out and about. But this is nothing like it used to be. Cyrodil, at least here, is dead most of the time. Last year you would sometimes see a 250 que for vivec and a 60+ que for shor. You dont see that now. I havent waited in a que for shor in god knows how long. Maybe vivec will get a que at prime time on the weekends, but im not sure i try to avoid vivec at that specific time because its unplayable when its 3 bars..

And the under level 50 campaign is completely dead all the time. Back in morrowind, and even more so before, that campaign was very popular. I think this specifically says a lot about what zos has done to pvp. People used to re roll into that camp to pvp because the azuras star, or sotha sil, is dead on xbox and always has been... I think pvp has lost a great many players and i think that really shows in how dead the under lv 50 camp is now.

And the same goes for malestrom. Every time i look at the leader boards for vma they are never full. Even a day or so ago when i checked and there was a couple hours left, no class was full. And warden, dk, and templar, if i recall, were all under 40 players. If i had to guess id say its similar, but not as bad, with trials but i cant say for sure because i dont really look at it. Im sure theres more to it though. We have BGs now which im sure plays a part in the cyrodil decline.. And there are many more arena weapons now.

Also the undaunted areas. In one tamriel, and in morrowind, you could go to mournhold, eldenroot, or wayrest, and see tons of people waiting for ques, LFG for dailies, and dueling. This is not the case anymore. No one duels anywhere, on xbox, besides wayrest. Sure, some people hang in auridon and duel, and maybe even in riften although i dont think so. But wayrest seems to be the popular place now. And even then on many nights it seems to be dead everywhere. Not like a year or two ago. Im sure there could be multiple reasons but this is just what i see..

But i still believe somethings that play a big part in it are that a lot of people are just sick of the ongoing decline in performance, especially in cyrodil, constant nerfs, boredom, and zos not seeming to care. I base my opinion of this on seeing many, many, friends leave the game since morrowind. Many of them who were small scale pvp players who just cant play because of performance. I also base that on how many people i see in game running around.

For example, last night was sunday. A slow time for the game. During the event. But every instance i went to in every alliance capitol city was dead. I went to eastmarch on 4 characters and it was always dead. Same with craglorn and same with cyrodil. Everywhere was a ghost town. I mean so dead that when i ported into wayrest i thought i crashed because there wasnt one person...

This seems to be more common at slow times now a days, where even a year ago I could still find many players around on a sunday night at 8pm est. Also, i was doing this to find a duel to test a build, not just for the sake of doing it. And i even notice it in my guilds too. Many people just not logging on anymore for long periods. Im not saying the game is dead but, from my perspective of playing for a few years, it seems there are a hell of a lot less players than morrowind.. And many, mannnyy, less players than one tamriel..

Don't really know the difference between platforms, servers, when they were officially declared open and so on. But compare June 2016, when One Tamriel was released to the numbers now. Can you see the difference? I can: https://steamcharts.com/app/306130

Tell me how there were more players active back then? Please explain, and I am not being sarcastic. I want to know how you think, what you mean.

I THINK you are being somewhat melancholic. You are the ones not paying attention. It's easy to get stuck in a feeling of "good old days"; no matter what we speak about. "Back then" kind of always feels better than right now, most often at least. Maybe the people YOU played with don't play anymore? It's an old game after all. Maybe it's not as fun anymore - for you - because you've seen and done like everything, it's not a "thrill" anymore. But still, tell me how the game is dying. Because I don't understand what people mean. There's like nothing to support the statement, except highly subjective personal opinions.

We can both agree Cyrodiil has been depopulated, but that's a given fact. It doesn't work. Only hardcore PVP'ers still go there, the PVE'ers have had their Spell Strategist gear now, so it's back to 1-2 bars, and mostly same old faces when you meet any kind of real resistance. Sad, but true. It doesn't however make the game neither "dead" nor "dying".

TYVM FOR THE LINK.

I am always boggled this f uck heads keep saying the game is dead.

Please for the love of all the divines, and all the deadric prince if you want, dont project your deadgaminglife to the game.

When i get on eso, ghratwood or many major trading hub has around 10 people at tops. Group finder takes over 30 minutes to find a 'random' group. And cyrodiil.... Vivec has the only popluation bar and on side will have 2 bars and every other colour none. (The other campaigns have no bars what so ever). So that doesnt really scream 'active' to me.
(Ps4 gmt +10 NA)

No need to discuss Cyrodiil. EVERYONE agrees it's in a horrible state, no one every denied that. It's a sad truth. Judging the state of the game by bars in Cyrodiil is just wrong. Many do Battlegrounds instead now. It takes seconds up to a minute to get into Battlegrounds these days, just a year ago you even forgot you were in queue when you finally got a ready check.

But for dungeon activity finder? Seriously? How is it worse now than it ever was? Queuing as a DD has always taken a long time. If I go with my tank or healer, I need to have my armor fixed, weapons charged and inventory emptied BEFORE I queue, because it literally takes seconds to get into group. Same as always.
Here's also where you can see a bit of indication of a "generation shift", there are sooo many really, really bad players in group. Who doesn't know basic mechanics of non-DLC dungeons, who have awful skill loadouts, who do less damage than me as a tank; and so on. This wasn't the case like 1½ year ago, it's gotten way worse. If I go with a DD, tank is at least 60% of the time not a tank, and they go like "What do you mean, tank the boss? Taunt? What's that?".

And this "xxxxx (city) has maximum 10 players, it's so dead". I can't see that. I see so many names I can't even count them, if I go there in the afternoon. People are not dueling around wayshrines these days, that's true. I can't really say I miss it, I hate when people do. But the numbers in cities. I dunno, I must be in another instance than you guys? It's the same numbers or MORE than it used to be, I'm being totally honest here. I can't see what you mean, I just can't.

Om comparing recent experiences to my now recent ones in guild wars 2
-Trading hubs in eso, i can only compare to crafting hub as gw2 has an awesome trade house. But its always packed with players and feels like a mmo not a glorified downscaled version of solo skyrim.
-I can queue for a dungeon and be in it with in minutes (dd or not)
-I can go to wvw and instantly find a group and be immersed
-In can jump into pvp and again grouped up and playing within minutes
-overland pve meta events (closes thing are dolmens, thats only a fart in the wind compared to a gw2 meta)
-Not to mention the content eso just doesnt provide that gw2 does.

So yeah, eso feels dead in the oceanic times. But maybe because of the treat of players in this timezone aswell most cant be bothered sticking around.
But hey, i guess people like the solo experience.