The Magic of Being New

UGotBenched · July 2019

So, I started a Stam DK and I was going through some quests when I was hit with the realization that the game was missing something.

It seems I miss the magic of the game. And by magic I mean that feeling you got first exploring Tamriel and questing for the first time. Your first dungeon, world boss, and pvp experience. There’s nothing like it.

I still enjoy the game unfortunately it just lacks that “awe” feeling it use to have for me. Anyone else ever feel like this?

Red_Feather · July 2019

I think about it often now.

For example, when I think of the spatial aspect of a zone I am thinking of the map. I am moving through that drawing. When I first started I never thought that way and I'd get turned around and confused so much. The zones felt like a maze of magic and mystery back then because I'd never see myself as facing east on a map and having to go north to reach an icon.

Rev Rielle · July 2019

I absolutely agree.

That feeling of something new and the 'unknown' brings a lot of mystique and magic to these games (and is in part why some ESO expansions have perhaps been so lackluster; they're just more of the same, but that's another story).

"You can only experience something for the first time, once." Is often something myself and friends say to new players we meet/quest/dungeon with. Take your time, and enjoy that feeling of awe. For when it's gone that certain magic in the game is gone too, forever.

Thorvik_Tyrson · July 2019

I think the Op is saying that after playing ESO for some time, when he started a new character, he was missing that feeling. As the OP did not give us any more information for his background, it's hard to make any further assesment of the situation.

I'll also note that he used the past tense for his second paragraph that makes me assume that this is not his first character in ESO.

I started MMO gaming back in 2006 I think it was, and after playing several MMO's over the years, you kinda get used to and have expectations of a game to meet or exceed your previous experience. It's never the same as the first time that you tried an MMO.

Razzledazzle_dar · July 2019

I started playing at console launch (on PC now) and there really was magic to it. I played EP at first, because I was excited to revisit Morrowind (although not Vvardenfell). It was new, it was exciting, and I didn't know left from right. It was also a lot easier to wander somewhere that would get me killed because 1T hadn't dropped until much later.

I remember the first time I ran through Stonefalls on that very first character in the EP, I thought, "This zone is HUGE! And there are four more just for this faction!". I don't even think at the time I knew about Coldharbour and then that I'd be able to run Silver and Gold to do the other two factions.

Stonefalls was beautiful and mysterious. I took things slowly. I died a lot. I loved it.

It's a bit more stale now, of course...but I still enjoy overland questing because I just love the plots. I don't worry about how 1T has made everything so much easier now. But the magic, mystery, and fun of journeying to Tamriel for the first time in its second era and learning about this faction war was great.

I don't feel as much of this with newer content now because I'm not experiencing all of the mechanics for the first time. It's not the same but I still like when there are new areas to be explored.

West1389 · July 2019

It's been like this for years now, all the nerfs really bring the game down.

generalmyrick · July 2019

UGotBenched wrote: »

So, I started a Stam DK and I was going through some quests when I was hit with the realization that the game was missing something.

It seems I miss the magic of the game. And by magic I mean that feeling you got first exploring Tamriel and questing for the first time. Your first dungeon, world boss, and pvp experience. There’s nothing like it.

I still enjoy the game unfortunately it just lacks that “awe” feeling it use to have for me. Anyone else ever feel like this?

i thought this yesterday!

i just wanted to rewind life back 5 years to get that feeling.

barney2525 · July 2019

I think about penguins

ArchMikem · July 2019

I was having oohs and ahhs on Bleakrock alone, then it threw me onto the mainland and my eyes widened.

What was really fun was the fact you could travel by foot directly from Stonefalls to The Rift and you went from Lvl15 mobs suddenly to Lvl45 mobs that completely destroyed you. This was before One Tamriel.

Mettaricana · July 2019

Eso definitely lost alot of that new car smell after 1 or 2 characters andnwhen ya hit max cp etc its just dailies and boredom

Grandma · July 2019

Every game does this. Skyrim was the same way. There's something intangibly amazing.. irreplaceable about experiencing a whole world like that for the first time.. It hit me the other day when i was looking at the world map with all my wayshrines, wondering what to do at the moment since I had so many end game tasks I had set up a list to do. And i chuckled, looking at how huge the world was; the me who started playing this game all those years ago would have been wide eyed and ready to pull an all nighter exploring any one of those zones. I miss that feeling.

it's no fault of the game. Like i said, every game does this. Some games have it stronger than others; Classic wow is almost entirely a product of this, but that's a debatable topic. Once you realize you miss that, it's only a matter of time until you put the game down for good. I hope i get at least 2 more years of mileage out of this game first though.

LegacyDM · July 2019

I never had that feeling of excitement or immersion with this game. Right out the gate it just felt like the same old mmo clones that we’ve seen since the release of eq2 and wow. Just with a different skin. That feeling of immersion was lost after meridian 59 and eq1 when wow set the standard. It just became another cookie cutter wow clone with prettier graphics and more theme parked quest lines with no real feeling of challenge and progression. Coming off the thrill of Skyrim it just feels bland in comparison.

I’m waiting for the day when mmorpgs becomes more player driven and the worlds truly become adaptive. Something between gta no pixel, action oriented challenging and dark like dark souls, mysterious and exciting like Diablo II. This go do x complete y listening to an npc sob story with no real reward or challenge is a grind.

Nestor · July 2019

It took me almost a year to get my first character to Vet Ranks as I explored every nook and cranny of each zone. I would set aside an evening to do one or two delves, after they were expanded. I would read every book, talk to NPCs before during and after each quest. I wonder how many people have heard all the difference dialogs that the NPCs have based on where you are in a quest?

ArchMikem · July 2019

LegacyDM wrote: »

I never had that feeling of excitement or immersion with this game. Right out the gate it just felt like the same old mmo clones that we’ve seen since the release of eq2 and wow. Just with a different skin. That feeling of immersion was lost after meridian 59 and eq1 when wow set the standard. It just became another cookie cutter wow clone with prettier graphics and more theme parked quest lines with no real feeling of challenge and progression. Coming off the thrill of Skyrim it just feels bland in comparison.

I’m waiting for the day when mmorpgs becomes more player driven and the worlds truly become adaptive. Something between gta no pixel, action oriented challenging and dark like dark souls, mysterious and exciting like Diablo II. This go do x complete y listening to an npc sob story with no real reward or challenge is a grind.

You're describing a Singleplayer game.

zaria · July 2019

ArchMikem wrote: »

I was having oohs and ahhs on Bleakrock alone, then it threw me onto the mainland and my eyes widened.

What was really fun was the fact you could travel by foot directly from Stonefalls to The Rift and you went from Lvl15 mobs suddenly to Lvl45 mobs that completely destroyed you. This was before One Tamriel.

Yes, remember the tunnel from grathwood to reaper march, its a bit hard to spot but is next to the Elsweyr gate now.
Same effect

Yes lots of memories, remember using AoE against 3 bandits at the beach and pulled a pack of mudcrabs and was killed.
Killing an troll and I felt so good.

AbysmalGhul · July 2019

I miss the new game smell of ESO.

MartiniDaniels · July 2019

I had that feeling in the beginning, looking at the huge map and all this places, about which you read in books, but never dreamed of visiting until TES10 or whatever. I was not using fast travel and wayshrines, since I never use them in Skyrim.
There was one big problem, it was lack of feeling of danger and lack of dps. Killing mobs felt tiresome, I tried to level faster to increase damage output and hoping that mobs will scale with me like in Skyrim and they will become more fast, dangerous and start dropping something useful. Tough luck, dps was only getting weaker with levels and mobs were still unable to scratch me. Still I was doing ok on my NB with complex combos in fast mob elimination like hidden blade from stealth on one, then ambush on second, cloak+SA on third, one more hidden blade and then finish them with spin. I was soloing some WB and trying to solo dungeons (I thought that they scale to number of players, so until I can finish it solo no point to try it in group). That soloing of dungeons was real fun, though i usually can make it only to the middle.

Then anniversary event dropped and I started creating alts. I created Dragonknight and fell in love with class, which I run with S&B and fire skills. It was working great in the beginning, but ~ at level 20 dps fall drastically. Good thing that main was developing as crafter in parallel, so I could "buff" my DK regularly with renewed seducer set. Sustain was tough even with seducer so I was tempted with "chains" morph which allowed to spam it for free. Idk how it happened, but in some moment I caught a grasp that I can use chains even on not-finished light attack. DPS jumped immediately. From that point all I wanted is MOAR damage to deal with that mob pestilence, I went on a real mob vendetta to clear whole areas of that stupid pointless *** as fast as possible.

DK was too tank-specific for that, so I went with redguard warden with 2H and everything into stamina. Damn that thing was dealing absurd damage with dizzying. Also I liked doing 2H heavy attacks. Shalks+heavy attack+shalk+brawler+reverse slash, even big groups of mobs in dungeons start falling like leaves. LA+dizzying was good in eliminating big mobs, boss fights were more like running around trying to outheal and sustain while slowly wearing boss off, but that was real fun. And then ZOS DAMN NERFED 2H HEAVY ATTACKS. I was furious and even bypassed all the obstacles in obtaining forum account and created my first whine/nerfsorcs thread:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/414398/why-nerf-2h-melee-while-buff-2h-staves/p1

In a week I knew from forum and recommended sites everything which I probably shouldn't knew. DPS race. Grind to maxCP. Crafting writs on multiple alts. Nerfs. PUGs as main activity. No fun allowed.

TL;DR
1. game was fun at the beginning but dps too low
2. discovery of LA weaving
3. creating effective build
4. NERF of effective build
5. creating forum account
6. end of fun, start of heavy-duty mmo gameplay

UGotBenched · July 2019

I’m glad others have felt the same way. This stam DK is technically my 4th character and he’s only lvl 25 but I’m struggling. The worlds just not as engaging to me as it once was. But, I’m determined to get him to 50 so I can experience endgame as a dps and not healer.

Sharee · July 2019

I think the main culprit is the homogenization of one Tamriel.

To feel excited, you need to feel some kind of danger, challenge that you can overcome, and you need a sense of progression, where you get more powerful and are now able to survive content that was impossible before.

This all disappeared when all areas of Tamriel became identical level-wise, and you got a huge invisible buff at level 1 so you could play the same content as a level 50. There is nowhere to go(note: talking overland zones, not VMA etc.) that would be more challenging than where you already are (not being challenged at all), and the sense of progression is completely destroyed when you get weaker as you level.

All sacrificed on the altar of "play wherever you want" (be bored wherever you want

)

UGotBenched · July 2019

Sharee,

I agree with you. When I first started it was before one Tamriel. I enjoyed the progression but I took a long break and returned to one Tamriel. It’s nice to be able to visit other areas but I miss how it was before. It’s exciting to wonder about what the next area will look like but knowing you have to earn the levels to get there.

Plus, I enjoy grinding mobs over questing ( I come from Lineage 2) and it just feels weird doing it now.

Thorvik_Tyrson · July 2019

As others have pointed out, you loose this newness and awe feeling with all MMO's out there. The first character is new. after that its the same old grind and repetition.

When I first played ESO 3 months ago, I was reminded of Age of Conan because of the music in the background and the style of the graphics on the loading screens.

UnseenCat · July 2019

New chapters still do this for me. In particular, Wrothgar (might as well have been a chapter), Summerset and Elsweyr all had that feeling of being somewhere wide-open to discover upon entering.

Existing content becomes comfortably familiar, which isn't all bad, and the new chapters spice things up. It keeps me coming back.

Starlock · July 2019

Nope, because I've been role-playing for years and treat this game first and foremost as an RPG. For each character I create, the world is new. For each character I create, they react to the world differently based on who they are. Good role-players are able to suspend what is called "meta gaming" or using player knowledge in ways that ruin the freshness of the experience (among other things). And as I said, I've been role-playing for years, so this comes about as easy as breathing for me.

ArchMikem · July 2019

zaria wrote: »

ArchMikem wrote: »

I was having oohs and ahhs on Bleakrock alone, then it threw me onto the mainland and my eyes widened.

What was really fun was the fact you could travel by foot directly from Stonefalls to The Rift and you went from Lvl15 mobs suddenly to Lvl45 mobs that completely destroyed you. This was before One Tamriel.

Yes, remember the tunnel from grathwood to reaper march, its a bit hard to spot but is next to the Elsweyr gate now.
Same effect

Yes lots of memories, remember using AoE against 3 bandits at the beach and pulled a pack of mudcrabs and was killed.
Killing an troll and I felt so good.

For me my biggest arch enemy were the Wisp Mothers. They were some hard times.

dennissomb16_ESO · July 2019

The best time in any MMO I have ever played is the first character. While the games may continue to be fun for years, for me they are never quite as fun as the first toon (even if I mess up the first toon)

Tandor · July 2019

I think you get quite a lot of that initial magic back if you start over with fresh characters on a different server. No CPs, no achievements, no mats to begin with, and no gold.

Unlike starting over on the same server with a second account you can't mail across gold, mats and gear, and unlike rolling a new character on the same server and account you don't start with a gazillion CPs, a full crafting bag and sets of gear in the bank.

You really do start completely anew, and I've found it quite refreshing. It encourages you to play the game rather than grind the progression, and it's in actually playing the game that you're most likely to experience the magic again.

Jayman1000 · July 2019

UGotBenched wrote: »

So, I started a Stam DK and I was going through some quests when I was hit with the realization that the game was missing something.

It seems I miss the magic of the game. And by magic I mean that feeling you got first exploring Tamriel and questing for the first time. Your first dungeon, world boss, and pvp experience. There’s nothing like it.

I still enjoy the game unfortunately it just lacks that “awe” feeling it use to have for me. Anyone else ever feel like this?

yes every game I played ever, always the same route. Same with every job I had, every girlfriend, every meal, always crawing the new fresh experience. The fact of the matter is that one day we die and we stop existing. Just like ESO will too one day too die and stop existing. There never was a better time to enjoy the wonders of the now, than now. ESO is still alive, enjoy it while it last.

jainiadral · July 2019

Heh, I may be a weirdo but I never feel "being new" magic in MMOs. I think I had a few fleeting moments of wonder in Khenarthi's roost a few years ago when I got out of the Wailing Prison during a free trail on Steam. In my haze of "oooo shiny," I bought the game. Then when I fell into the MMO Pit a day later-- no gold, no inventory space, degraded gear I couldn't afford to repair or replace, and no way to dig yourself out-- I quit

I usually have a fall into every MMO's pit-- GW2 was the exception since ok gear is everywhere. If the shiny is still kind of shiny, I might sub and follow a detailed walkthrough until I sort of find my legs. My second toon, when I'm established enough to gear properly and have a vague handle on systems is when I finally begin to feel the magic. When I can slow down, destress, and actually appreciate the world around me.

Kotter · July 2019

i'm relatively new, so it's still magic for me.