My views on the game so far

Menetheran
With the server downtime, I'm reflecting on my first weeks in ESO and while I feel excited about the possibilities of spending years playing as I did with WOW, I'm left thinking this is unlikely. I've already downgraded my 6 month recurring sub to 1 month because I'm just not as sure as I was on day 1 that I'll be playing that long. So, I figured I'd write my thoughts about the game in the hopes that those of you who have reached the higher ranks can tell me that it gets better.

Pros:
- The game is absolutely beautiful
- Response times on attacks and abilities are perfect (except for dodging which seems to be slightly unreliable)
- The classes are all fun to play and relatively balanced
- Skill lines make each character feel somewhat unique (ie I like that I can make a dragonknight mage or a sorcerer tank and they're not only viable but excellent)
- The towns feel alive
- Player base at the moment is strong everywhere making finding groups easy
- Efforts are being made by the devs to do unique things like the implementation of treasure maps, quests that actually require you to READ the quest text to know how to proceed, intimidate / persuasion allowing steps to be bypassed in quests, etc.

Cons:
- No centralized AH - now I've read several threads about this and I hear what you all are saying about gold farmers, but seriously? I've never been in a game that has as much gold farm spamming so having no AH is IMHO having no appreciable effect on this.
- as above, gold farm spamming is INSANE. I spend so much time reporting / ignoring rather than playing I've just given up and accept that every minute or so my text window will be full of gold spam nonsense. I shouldn't have to install an addon to avoid seeing this, and from what I understand the addons aren't working well anyway.
- There are just too many uncommon and rare drops. I am pretty much at all times equipped with as good or better equipment than I need to succeed at everything my level. I occasionally find myself seeing a link to something someone is selling and think...maybe I could use that. Most of the time, however, it just isn't worth the time responding because I know as long as I just keep doing quests I'll have leveled past that new equipment anyway. Making dungeon blues BOE makes them a dime a dozen and purples are just not worth obtaining because I'm leveling so fast they'll be obsolete in hours. I'm sure at end game itemization will be important but in the leveling process my experience tells me that I will obtain gear all by myself that is as good or better than what I need.
- Bag space is insanely low for the amount of crap I have to lug around. I am constantly running / porting back to town to deconstruct crap. GW2 had a nice system where things could be deconstructed in the field, collectibles could be stored in an endless bank account. I'm not sure this is the answer, but I know that running back to a workshop (which has no merchant) or porting / running to a city to empty my bags is a PAIN.
- The guild system is a mess. Say what you want about the benefits of being able to join 5 guilds, it's total crap. Everyone I've spoken to who is happy with the guild system is in 1 guild they really like. GW2 seems to have popularized this multi-guild system and it by and large prevented the sense of community that many of us experienced playing EQ, AC, DAoC and WOW in the earlier days of MMOs. Why would we want to replicate that here?
- There seem to be (and I'm not at max level so maybe this is wrong) too many skill points. Consequently, I have so many skill points I'm spending them on multiple trade skill lines and I anticipate by the time I'm done I'll be so self sufficient I won't need to interact with anyone except for very brief periods of time for group content.
- Solo'ing is the name of the game 99% of the time. I grouped with a RL friend last night who was my EXACT same level but who had done a lot of different quests than I had (he had previously gone around the north end of the map we were both on and I had gone around west) The problem is that we are both so overpowered due to the content being tweaked for a soloable difficulty that we didn't need the other at all. If it sped up my questing to have him along I couldn't tell, but half the time I was doing quests that he needed and I didn't. By the end of the evening I came to the realization that while I could have gained 2 levels solo'ing, I had gained 1 in the group. There was definitely a social value to grouping, but the fact that advancement was slower in the group makes me feel like I'm being influenced NOT to group rather than rewarded for it (which I feel like I should be.)
- This last point is really the thing that bothers me the most. I think Zenimax has created a game that feels like a single-player game that I'm paying an mmo price for. With no centralized AH, an elusive guild community and the majority of content that is not only soloable but actually kind of a pain to do as a group, I find I feel like an island. I'm working my way toward self-sufficiency just like I would if I were playing another Elder Scrolls single-player game, but I'm being asked to pay $15 a month to play.

I've only been playing now since the beginning of early access and I already feel like the luster is wearing off. This feels like Diablo3 all over again but for different reasons. The game seems amazing on the surface but I just don't see myself playing it for very long.

When I play an MMO, I want a great combat system, a living world and great character development and ESO has these things in abundance. But, I also want to feel like I belong to something, that I contribute to the economy in a meaningful way and that I rely on other players' contributions to that economy. This is where the game is lacking in my experience. Relying on anyone other than myself for anything other than explicit group content is inconvenient and generally unnecessary.

Flame away... :-)

  • nerevarine1138
    nerevarine1138
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    Feel free to use the /feedback feature in-game to provide your feedback to the developers, because there's no guarantee they'll read it here.
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    Murray?
  • Menetheran
    Thanks, I will. I suppose by the time I finished writing this it was more for the devs, though it started as more of a "tell me I'm wrong about all of this because I want to really like ESO" kind of thread.
  • nerevarine1138
    nerevarine1138
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    Oh, then you're wrong about all this.
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    Murray?
  • Menetheran
    Can you elaborate?
  • crowfl56
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    I feel very sorry for anyone that played WOW much less spent years wasting time in that game. There were many better game's through out the years to play.
  • cubansyrusb16_ESO
    cubansyrusb16_ESO
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    spending years playing as I did with WOW

    This is where i stopped reading, why do people who played WoW feel the need to mention they played WoW for X amount of time ?

    Like playing WoW for X amount of time gives them some kind of god like insight into MMO's as a whole and proves they know what they are talking about, WoW is one game ... It is not an achievement to have played one game for a long time, its really not.

    Maybe I should start all my posts and threads with I played .....
    [insert huge list of MMO's]
    Edited by cubansyrusb16_ESO on April 15, 2014 3:12PM
  • tommipalub16_ESO
    tommipalub16_ESO
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    "- There are just too many uncommon and rare drops. I am pretty much at all times equipped with as good or better equipment than I need to succeed at everything my level. I occasionally find myself seeing a link to something someone is selling and think...maybe I could use that. Most of the time, however, it just isn't worth the time responding because I know as long as I just keep doing quests I'll have leveled past that new equipment anyway. Making dungeon blues BOE makes them a dime a dozen and purples are just not worth obtaining because I'm leveling so fast they'll be obsolete in hours. I'm sure at end game itemization will be important but in the leveling process my experience tells me that I will obtain gear all by myself that is as good or better than what I need."

    Yes rare drops are quite often , but..remember..they are not just meant for using , they are also used for crafting. Or even mainly used and meant for crafting. Your rare drop bow is not as good as the one i craft on same lvl with the trait and enchan i choose. To make it that good i need at least 5 blue stuff ( is it turpen? i forgot) which means i need at least 5 rare drops...For me, as a cafter those rare drops are not of good quality

    Still...ur feedback is usefull in the end. Most points i can agree to, at least partially. It's nice to see some feedback and not just flaming about what should have been added.
  • nerevarine1138
    nerevarine1138
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    - No centralized AH means more social interaction in-game, which is exactly what you argued for in a later point. Also, for those who do want a universal AH, it forces cooperation between alliance members in PvP.
    - Gold spammers become few and far between once you hit level 15. That said, this is an issue with every MMO. The developers will constantly be banning and updating their filters, and the spammers will find ways around it. Security is reactive, not proactive.
    - Again, the utility of rare drops changes as you get to higher levels, but the main point of having low-level purple drops is for you to be able to deconstruct them down the line.
    - If you're running out of inventory space, buy more. Also, if you're trying to hoard crafting mats for every profession, this is why you're running out of space. The inventory is limited specifically to prevent you from mastering every crafting skill on one character.
    - Guild systems will be updated and improved constantly, but the multi-guild setup is perfect, considering that it encourages trade networks, etc.
    - There are not too many skill points. You can only feasibly master 2-3 crafts and still have a viable number of points put into combat skills.
    - Quests are generally meant to be soloable, but there's more than enough content in the game which demands grouping. World bosses, anchors, group dungeons, etc. cannot be completed without a group. As mentioned before, the crafting system is specifically designed to make it near-impossible for one person to master everything, and crafters are already teaming up to help make high-level set gear. The lack of a centralized AH actually forces socialization, because you can't sell/buy everything through a faceless, automated system.

    So, there you go. You're wrong about everything.
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    Murray?
  • Zorak
    Zorak
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    spending years playing as I did with WOW

    This is where i stopped reading, why do people who played WoW feel the need to mention they played WoW for X amount of time ?

    Like playing WoW for X amount of time gives them some kind of god like insight into MMO's as a whole and proves they know what they are talking about, WoW is one game ... It is not an achievement to have played one game for a long time, its really not.

    Maybe I should start all my posts and threads with I played .....
    [insert huge list of MMO's]

    OR....

    just mean he wants to ESO for years to come, just like he did with WoW.
  • Menetheran
    spending years playing as I did with WOW

    This is where i stopped reading, why do people who played WoW feel the need to mention they played WoW for X amount of time ?

    Like playing WoW for X amount of time gives them some kind of god like insight into MMO's as a whole and proves they know what they are talking about, WoW is one game ... It is not an achievement to have played one game for a long time, its really not.

    Maybe I should start all my posts and threads with I played .....
    [insert huge list of MMO's]

    If you read what I actually wrote you'd realize I didn't do it to brag. The point is that many people including myself subbed wow for an extended period which is precisely what the devs want and what anyone who plays ESO would want because more players means a more active economy and community. Go play LOTRO and see what a reasonably good game with very few players looks like. I'm in no way proud of playing wow for a long time and didn't say that I was.
  • Shimond
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    Most if not all of these complaints boil down to "this is different from what I'm used to". The gold spamming is the only thing I can really agree with being an issue - but I've found this to be an issue in every single MMO I've ever played. It's an annoyance in the starter areas/capital city and largely irrelevant elsewhere.
  • Menetheran
    "- There are just too many uncommon and rare drops. I am pretty much at all times equipped with as good or better equipment than I need to succeed at everything my level. I occasionally find myself seeing a link to something someone is selling and think...maybe I could use that. Most of the time, however, it just isn't worth the time responding because I know as long as I just keep doing quests I'll have leveled past that new equipment anyway. Making dungeon blues BOE makes them a dime a dozen and purples are just not worth obtaining because I'm leveling so fast they'll be obsolete in hours. I'm sure at end game itemization will be important but in the leveling process my experience tells me that I will obtain gear all by myself that is as good or better than what I need."

    Yes rare drops are quite often , but..remember..they are not just meant for using , they are also used for crafting. Or even mainly used and meant for crafting. Your rare drop bow is not as good as the one i craft on same lvl with the trait and enchan i choose. To make it that good i need at least 5 blue stuff ( is it turpen? i forgot) which means i need at least 5 rare drops...For me, as a cafter those rare drops are not of good quality

    Still...ur feedback is usefull in the end. Most points i can agree to, at least partially. It's nice to see some feedback and not just flaming about what should have been added.

    Thanks for taking the time to actually read what I wrote. I think you're exactly right about deconstruction and it does take large number of greens and blues to gain the materials to make that bow. The problem I see is that I've used crafted weapons and my experience so far has been that the materials used to make that blue bow and the cost you'll have to charge make it so expensive that I wouldn't be likely to buy it. Why? Because I know that in two levels I'll find or gain as a quest reward a green that will be as good or better AND the added advantage of having that bow is unlikely to have made me very much more effective during those two levels. PvP maybe, but not PvE.
  • Menetheran
    Shimond wrote: »
    Most if not all of these complaints boil down to "this is different from what I'm used to". The gold spamming is the only thing I can really agree with being an issue - but I've found this to be an issue in every single MMO I've ever played. It's an annoyance in the starter areas/capital city and largely irrelevant elsewhere.

    This isn't accurate. I'm not looking for what I'm used to. I'm looking for a structure that encourages community and economy. My experience to this point has indicated that I'm instead being influenced toward solo'ing and self-sufficiency. I'm not asking for a DDO-style mandated group mechanism, but I also don't want to be playing Skyrim with a built-in chat server.
  • nerevarine1138
    nerevarine1138
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    Menetheran wrote: »

    Thanks for taking the time to actually read what I wrote. I think you're exactly right about deconstruction and it does take large number of greens and blues to gain the materials to make that bow. The problem I see is that I've used crafted weapons and my experience so far has been that the materials used to make that blue bow and the cost you'll have to charge make it so expensive that I wouldn't be likely to buy it. Why? Because I know that in two levels I'll find or gain as a quest reward a green that will be as good or better AND the added advantage of having that bow is unlikely to have made me very much more effective during those two levels. PvP maybe, but not PvE.

    1) That doesn't apply to endgame.
    2) Crafting gear on your own is still going to give you better stuff than most green/blue drops you'll find and then outlevel. But the leveling process is always about constantly replacing gear.
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    Murray?
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