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... :-)