One of the biggest issues I always have with the MMO genre as a whole is the insane levels of inventory micro management that are often needed. Devs tend to throw a crazy amount of gear, crafting materials, foods, cosmetics, toys and general junk at the player and expect players to waste a lot of time dealing with it, which is usually not much fun and represents time better spent in other ways.

Some games are better then others, some games provide good tools for dealing with it and some don't. ESO is one of the worst offenders, sadly and always has been since launch. Too much clutter and too few ways to deal with it and manage it, with a clunky housing, banking, mail and guild vendor system making the situation worse.

The main thing that makes it semi-bearable is the crafting bag. But locking this behind ESO+ is pure exploitation of a poor game design that punishes players for actually playing (the more you play, the more junk you have to manage).

The game is essentially unplayable without ESO+ because of the crafting bag and the extra bank space. So, personally, I *only* play the game when I am prepared to subscribe. And every time I do this I totally resent feeling like I'm being forced into subscribing simply to make the game playable.

I'm no freeloader, II have the Imperial Edition, all expansions and most of the DLC unlocked. I don't mind subscribing for the right reasons. I would probably subscribe MORE if the crafting bag was taken out of the equation, simply because of how much I resent it. I want to subscribe to support the game in return for some nice benefits. I resent having to subscribe to make the game actually function in a playable and pleasurable manner. This drives me away.

ESO+ should be all about carrots, not sticks. The crafting bag is a very big stick with which they beat players into subscribing. ZOS have painted themselves into a bit of a corner with this now, but I'm sure they could devise a decent carrot to replace this stick with if they tried.

Pretty sure that's like 90perc of why people sub to begin with. The other benefits are pretty garbage compared to what the bag offers

GarnetFire17 wrote: »

Davor wrote: »

Where is the Other option? Of course I would like to see it not be subscription locked. But if the crafting bag is giving us more content then why not.

Funny I wouldn't pay Zenimax a subscription fee to play ESO, but I have ESO+. I guess what I am saying is we are getting more worth from having a pseudo subscription. Take away the crafting bag, what is going to replace it to keep getting more bang for our buck?

Metafae wrote: »

To be honest, if it wasn't part of the subscription, I'd probably drop the sub.

But is the game even worth playing without the craftbag? It's basically not. Your inventory management is nightmare. You will waste so much time rearrange stuff having to go from mule toon to mule toon which also means you have less slot for characters for actual content playing. The subscription gives enough, you get crowns you get all dlc access, you get discounted items, and gold and xp buffs. Yeah people would not sub since they have accepted the extortion tactics. But the game would overall be better and the populations would grow and more subs would be sold in the long run. People want appreciate the game more and want to support them with a subscription as opposed to being forced to. Believe me it does turn people off from subbing.

No, more subs would not be sold without the crafting bag. Are you not aware that they had a voluntary sub before the crafting bag was introduced? They know the numbers.

I don't like playing without the crafting bag, but I would play without it if I didn't have the disposable income to sub. Also, I take months off on principle. I don't feel like paying for crafting bag when they aren't delivering new content. I feel like these continual events are their way to counter people like me who come and go.

But there are a lot of active players who don't sub. They are just better at de-cluttering. All the style mats can be sold. No need to keep gear not being used. Sets worth saving can be worn by alts or stored in their inventory.

The sub was useless to me before the crafting bag. The buffs are negligible. Crowns provide no value to me as I have 32k crowns just sitting there already from subbing. More crowns are worthless. I own all DLC except CWC and the dungeons because it was much cheaper to buy them outright with crowns bought from the original sales rates (and I bought the DB when it was 75% off). It is all about the crafting bags and double bank, apart from the one month when they release a DLC that isn't a dungeon and isn't given away for free. Sub is junk apart from that.

GarnetFire17 wrote: »

Wrekkedd wrote: »

I don’t understand why, if you don’t have $15 a month to support something you enjoy, you really shouldn’t be sitting at home playing games in the first place.

Tell that to Fornite players. You don't need a subscription model to even have a good game and make millions. Make the game fun and the game will profit. And don't let tedious things like inventory managment become a pain in the first place. Not only should it be part of the base game. It should have been in from day 1.

You can afford to buy everything. There are other players who can afford to buy 400 crates and every house. So you can do it too.

And there are people who manage their inventory without crafting bags, so it is fine.

These examples horrible, but their are no worse than Fortnite. Give realistic examples or don't give any.

Even if they made the cost 100,000 gold, 500,000 gold, or even a freaking 1,000,000 gold, it would be better than not at all!

theyancey wrote: »

I want to go back to a mandatory reduced price sub.

I will not play a game where it's mandatory to keep playing. Funny enough I subscribe to ESO+ because it's OPTIONAL. I CHOOSE or NOT CHOOSE to do so. So if ESO goes to mandatory subscription, then I CHOOSE not to get it and play any more.

There are already enough games that are already FREE TO PLAY and no subscriptions, why bother keep playing a game that you need to keep paying?

ESO already tried the mandatory sub. It failed. Failed big time. ESO is not that great of a name that they can pull off a WoW. In fact is there any other game that can pull a WoW? None that I know of. Mind you I don't know much, but what I do know, there are games that are free, so no money up front, still free to play, and never have to pay a dime.

Skwor wrote: »

Poppycock, no way any reasonable person will believe you would pay more to get less. Your post is just about getting more benefits in game without paying for them.

Craft bag is a nice benefit so subscribe already, the game functions just fine without the craft bag, it is just a "super convenience," and there is nothing wrong with paying for convenience.

I didn't say I wanted to pay more to get less, those are your words not mine. I said I would be likely to subscribe more often if I didn't feel compelled to do so in order to make the game playable (for me, I craft a lot) and that I wanted to see the crafting bag replaced with something that is more of a carrot than a stick. So this wouldn't be paying more for less, rather it would be paying because I'm being encouraged to subscribe for perks and not forced to do so in order to make the game playable.

Locking important game elements such as inventory space behind a subscription and then throwing heaps of items at the player and expecting them to try and micro mange this or pay to make it easier is a cheap marketing tactic. Yes, a lot of F2P games use this tactic too (but not all). However, ESO isn't F2P, it's B2P and to get the most out of it you need to have bought the core game and expansions, plus a number of the important DLCs. I'm happy to do this.

As I said, I only play when I subscribe. I am subscribed currently. I'm happy to subscribe for what I feel are the right reasons. But I'm probably going to drop my subscription and stop playing again after the anniversary event. Firstly because I've resented the fact that ESO+ was necessary to get any enjoyment out of the anniversary event (because of the huge pressure all the anniversary rewards places on inventory and bank space). Secondly because the lag and server performance on PC-EU has been worse than ever (and this has been happening for some time, not just during the anniversary event).

xxthir13enxx wrote: »

Should I make a poll that asks if:

Do you want ZoS to pay you for your time played?

That holds true in regards to the test server (free testers), however maybe you should go make that thread then, instead of suggesting it to me for approval. You do you, I will do me, I am not your mom/dad.

Lol another craft bag thread , it's just not going to happen its zoe's cash cow

Sure Crafting Bags across the board for everybody as long as me and the rest of the subscribers get unlimited inventory space as a compensation we should definitely get this going.

xxthir13enxx wrote: »

Should I make a poll that asks if:

Do you want ZoS to pay you for your time played?

Well, yeah... don't you? That would be awesome!

I'd quit my stupid job.

Remember when there was no crafting bag?

I voted yes, but, not really. Well, kinda.

So, ESO+ subscribers get crowns, bag, zones, perks etc.

What I'd like to see is Craft Bag (No zones or crown or perks) as something an ESO+ member can purchase for another for $$. They do not get crowns, zones or anything else. Tradeable for gold. 3 or 6 month duration.

I also want to see this done for Chapters too. You can purchase a 3 / 6 month Craft Bag token, or a Chapter token, which can be sold on guild stores / traded. The buyer then consumes it for the reward. Primary reason is, it would take a huge dent out of the gold farmers. People selling gold for cash needs people willing to spend money for cash. If there was a method of players being able to spend money on a token (Chapter / Craft bag) then selling it for gold, it will destroy the gold bot trade, as those that want to spend money on gold will just do it in game, and buy it off an actual player that plays the game rather than some bot that spends its days in farming bot congo line in Deshaan.

ZOS doesn't care if 100 people buy the Chapter or 1 person buys 100 copies of the Chapter and sell them for gold. Their books look the same regardless. More people that otherwise may not have gotten the chapter will get the chapter that way.