Wayshuba wrote: »

If you just want to do an analysis from Steam Stats, which is probably a good indicator of trends, ESO now is doing about as well as they did in 2018. So it isn't all bad and the game is not showing signs of dying.

However, prior to the last four patches with the out-of-control sledge-hammer approach combat team, ESO reached the highest peak if ever had with players earlier this year and has since lost ALL of that growth and gain.

So, they are not in a bad situation, as they still appear to have the population trends of 2018, but they have lost all of the gains they made in 2019 and, most if not all of that can be attributed to two things - the on-going poor server performance and the nonsensical changes and wild buff/nerf swings the combat team has been making the last year.

ZoS has put a plan in place for the performance fixes but it seems they have no desire to reign this out-of-control combat team in. That being said, in looking at the previous metrics wiping out all the player gains of 2018, if this team keeps going the will wipe all the gains of 2018 and so forth.

Waseem wrote: »

personally i don't play anymore because the slowness introduced in dark brotherhood patch years ago
i dont even think people remember that anymore, but it was a global 10% movement speed (and mounted speed) reduction

ever since then, doing dungeons or trials especially felt extremely slow, the characters moves in a clumpy slow way that is not on par with the mechanics of the trial or dungeon or even the large environment of the game itself

and the silly recent jewelry crafting "trait" that let you compensate for the lost global movement speed reduction is useless since nobody cares about what you do except "DPS" "HPS" or whatever to support the team

The slowness of the game overall is a psychologically disturbing way, making any player "lazy" doing anything in the game

besides that, performance gets worst every single DLC/Chapter/Story/Event/Quest/Advertisement about cats

Vlad9425 wrote: »

Because getting nerfed every single patch is getting really old.

xandervalo wrote: »

Vlad9425 wrote: »

Because getting nerfed every single patch is getting really old.

bingo

Kahnak wrote: »

Wayshuba wrote: »

If you just want to do an analysis from Steam Stats, which is probably a good indicator of trends, ESO now is doing about as well as they did in 2018. So it isn't all bad and the game is not showing signs of dying.

However, prior to the last four patches with the out-of-control sledge-hammer approach combat team, ESO reached the highest peak if ever had with players earlier this year and has since lost ALL of that growth and gain.

So, they are not in a bad situation, as they still appear to have the population trends of 2018, but they have lost all of the gains they made in 2019 and, most if not all of that can be attributed to two things - the on-going poor server performance and the nonsensical changes and wild buff/nerf swings the combat team has been making the last year.

ZoS has put a plan in place for the performance fixes but it seems they have no desire to reign this out-of-control combat team in. That being said, in looking at the previous metrics wiping out all the player gains of 2018, if this team keeps going the will wipe all the gains of 2018 and so forth.

I think you hit the nail on the head with this. I'm not under the impression that the game is dying, but it is clear that they squandered a great deal of their Elsweyr hype with the sweeping changes implemented in the Scalebreaker patch.

FierceSam wrote: »

tgrippa wrote: »

When it comes to raiding end game, yes that player base has been decimated by ZOS, there are only a couple “full” end-game groups still raiding seriously across both PCEU and NA. This is where the player base has been hit the hardest and where ZOS has cut its losses. It is a real problem and ZOS has to decide if it wants a game with a serious end game when it comes to raids or not.

There is little new content, basically a couple of new raids a year at best, DPS has been nerfed so there is less motivation to push scores since you are always competing against last patch DPS.

It’s purely down to poor combat management by ZOS and a lack of content. Maybe some people would return if a new raid were to come out soon, but for now this group of players have no content to do that they find interesting so they move onto Destiny 2 or something else.

Edit: Forgot to mention long reported but ignored bugs and the worsening server performance of late, that has also been the last straw for a number of veteran players, and this especially should be of concern to current and new players.

I’m not sure any game can sustain endgame raid players. ESO produces 1 new trial and 4 DLC dungeons a year, which seems like a lot for most players, but if you’ve completed the trial, and got all the achievements in, say, 2 months, and that’s your thing, you are going to move on because there really isn’t anything else for you until the next trial comes along. At which point you may or may not be back. You might snack on DLC dungeons when they come out, but fundamentally, once you’ve done the content, there isn’t anything to satisfy your need for gaming challenges. And that’s what drives you just as much as any love for a particular game.

That doesn’t mean ZOS has failed, rather that this playerset is very driven, highly promiscuous, and game mobile, just as many single player gamers are with single player games. You finish a game, you move on, you come back when the next instalment is out. It doesn’t mean you don’t like it, you have simply finished it.

Unless ZOS want to divert all their energies into satisfying a very small proportion of their playerbase, they’re never going to create enough trial content to keep them constantly challenged and there really isn’t a lot of point in making a mmorpg just for the top 1% of players because first, it’s not economically viable and second who wants to make a game that only appeals to 1% of their potential audience?.

In terms of recruitment of endgame guilds, maybe the perception that you need stupid DPS to even be considered is a factor.

I’m still not convinced that numbers are significantly lower than they were this time last year. I’m just seeing a natural turnover of players who outgrow the content for whatever reason and move on to be replaced by new players.