I think it's on a steady course without much change in sight. The majority of players only engage in vanilla content, so they don't encounter the game breaking stuff that is plaguing PvP and end game PvE right now. They're building houses and roleplaying with their crown store costumes and cosmetics on their crown store mounts, and occasionally wandering into base game dungeons (presumably on normal the majority of the time). They're doing quests and exploring maps and unlocking overland achievements. These types of activities rarely encounter big issues, and this is what the bulk of the game's spenders are doing. I don't think the game is going anywhere.

Those of us pushing hardmode content and going for the big titles, and pushing Cyrodil ranks in high traffic campaigns are the ones who deal with the migraine inducing lag and bugs, but we are the population minority, so our frustration and displeasure with the quality of the game isn't going to really make or break it. Yes, many of us drop excruciating amounts of money too (PvPers love their fancy mounts, and PvEers love their fancy costumes, not to mention what I personally drop on target dummies), but because of our smaller numbers, we are not enough to affect the financial health of the game for the investors. Even if we did all decide to leave en masse and take our subscriptions and crown store spending with us, the influx of new players attracted by dragons and talking kitty cats would soon make up for our absence.

The only thing that could eventually cause this game to fully collapse is if the real humans who work on this game finally get sick of having their artistry and skill wasted on a soulless, money hungry machine and leave for a company with actual scruples and pride in the overall product.

Unclear. If they fix performance in the Q4/Q1 updates, good. If not, not good.

If the mega server gets upgraded and the bugs fixed and the game gets some fresh new ideas it'll be great. *cross fingers*

As someone who is only interested in new features, I consider 2019 a very bleak indicator of things to come. Despite the massive amount of hype that came with this year's Season of the Dragon, feature-for-feature 2019 is objectively ESO's weakest year yet.



When looking at every new feature of the last few years, a consistent trend of diminishing new content each year is apparent. Note this comparison includes this year's third quarter features (source) but doesn't yet have any 4th quarter features. That means ZOS will surely fill in a few of those blanks, but they'd have to add a massive amount of new features at the end of the year to catch up.

It should be emphasized that 2019 has been completely devoid of major new features on par with 2017's Player Housing or 2018's Outfitting system. Additionally, no new crafting systems were added this year; compare to two years ago when they added 3 new crafting systems.

Paazhahdrimaak wrote: »

Im always scared for the future of this game.
I believe it could be good again if they stop trying to cater to the new players and remember their fans

I'd say there is nothing wrong with sticking to the people you have and making quality content for them so everyone has a good time and the company makes profit. Too bad investors want to see growth... That kind of throws a wrench in everything...

TequilaFire wrote: »

Eraldus wrote: »

You know what's funny? Every single person that says stuff like "game is dying" across all MMOs ever made, where all proven wrong in the end.

ESO has its issues, just like every single MMO out there (gasp!), but it will surely keep going for years, and naysayers will keep pestering or even insulting anyone that enjoys the game, again, like every naysayer present in every MMO community.

The genre is littered with quite a few dead MMOs.

True, WIldstar is probably the latest.
However that is different situation.

For ESO its more like the: Don't go to that club, nobody goes there as the lines to get in is an mile long, don't understand how they stay in business