How are all the old school Beta testers doing?

stombrewerb16_ESO · March 2020

Except a sixteen month break in 2015-2016, I have been around constantly since the beta days. Always being a casual player advancing at my own pace - I did not venture into veteran content until late 2018(!) - combined with years in a well-forged guild, has kept the game fresh and alive for me through the years.

On returning in 2016, I was glad to see that Cyrodiil was no longer the godawful, buggy mess I had left the year before (ok, it is still buggy, but that first year after release? Jeez.), and I have since enjoyed PvE and PvP equally.

Not planning on going anywhere else soon. Nor is my beta monkey.

SilverIce58 · March 2020

My little Naari is sitting pretty in my Psijic Villa. I thought it was fitting for my imgakin monkey to have a name that resembles bosmer names.

Anyhoo, I'm sitting here as well, with just 4 cp shy of 810, but I've been here since the beginning when I started the game with a magsorc and I still have him now.

Sanctum74 · March 2020

Wait what? This isn’t beta?

adirondack · March 2020

Closed beta tester, haven't taken a break from the game. My primary activities are writs, PvP, and leveling new chars for no reason.

I like getting caught in the rain and I'm not into yoga.

ItsMeToo · March 2020

adirondack wrote: »

Closed beta tester, haven't taken a break from the game. My primary activities are writs, PvP, and leveling new chars for no reason.

I like getting caught in the rain and I'm not into yoga.

Isn't Yoga, Yoda's sister?

xXMeowMeowXx · March 2020

Still playing, Still having lots of fun, and I found out my monkey is the one causing all the lag....your welcome

Delphinia · March 2020

Hello @Shadowfox , nice to meet you!

I'm still here along with my husband.. we have been playing since beta, and only took a few months off to attend to our lives outside the game, but we too are owners of the notorious beta monkey..

I never thought a game would draw me in and make me forget about the other games I loved, but this one definitely did.
For about the first year, I just mostly focused on leveling my character and enjoying all the game had to offer..
I finally decided to (at the request of my husband) get my feet wet in pvp.. at first, I had a lot of fun.. no hate tells, no "tbagging" (which I had never even heard of until this game)..

my husband was never really one too interested in the pve side of games, but did it for me.. and basically, I play for him.. just to have one more thing we can do together..
He got me started on the crazy mmo ride (before him, I didn't even know what an mmo was)..

Unfortunately, through the years, I've had more encounters with players who do try to ruin the good times for others... and with the added issues (don't get me started on the combat bug and not being able to mount in Cyro), I've started to slowly remove myself from something I really want to still love.. I've put so much time, effort, and money into supporting this game, but I'm not sure how much longer.. I do still enjoy the housing as well and enjoy filming my little creations as well as the work of others.

There are so many wonderful people I've met along the way (even with the attempts of some to poison the fun)..
I truly hope that, at the least, we will stay connected and continue to play together for years to come.. for the most part, the people in this community have been a large part of the best times I've had playing any game.🥂

deepseamk20b14_ESO · March 2020

Still alive. A few breaks here and there but still going.

Idinuse · March 2020

Feels like my soul is tired. I've devoted so much to this game, not least my sleep due to playing from Sweden on NA, and I'm usually very dedicated to my friends and guilds. I was hoping biggly on the two latest performance patches, but it's not like it was late 2014 and 2015, 2016 still enjoyable despite degrading performance.

Ah well, I'm hoping for patches to the performance patches and on the future performance patches and their fixes. I wish ZOS would do a total remake of the client/server load and use a proper anti-cheat. Maybe also an UDP recode of the protocols. Yeah it'd be tedious labor but and investment for the future.

At least update our monkey to HD skin so that it doesn't look like something from a 90s game, like Tomb Raider III or something. We've stuck with you guys for 6 years by now... -.-

Strike_Maximus · March 2020

Another beta monkey checking in, I was in closed beta and the computer I had at the time hardly ran beta but I enjoyed it. Once the full game came out I could not play it because of my PC at that time. I could not get a new one at that time so the game slipped my mind for a few years I always knew it was around but i did not think much about it then I built a new PC and started playing for the 1st time since beta in late December 2017, I have been playing consistently since then.

DaveMoeDee · March 2020

During most of my participation in beta, I really had no interested in buying the game. I'm not an MMO player and gameplay felt so awkward. By the last 2 weekends though, I started to really like the game. I thought it was amazing at launch, but quit when I finished all the base game content and had no interest in Craglorn. As a non MMO player, I also have no interest in paying a monthly sub to repeat the same content over and over again, whether PvP, dungeons, or whatever. I returned for Tamriel Unlimited and have enjoyed playing through all the DLC.

I still enjoy the game, but I feel it is so cluttered not with busywork.

superfluke · March 2020

Beta monkey here. Today was the first day back in the game since March 2015. List of mail 59 months old. Spent most of the afternoon just figuring UI out, how to interact, how to set up skills, etc.

Best part, the little raiding guild I was guild master of still exists, and had one person still active lol.

jazsper77 · March 2020

The funny thing is all these players will be coming to this thread saying they were beta and they’re wasn’t that many of us that I recall.

It’s like that here in Boston when it gets mentioned that Ted Williams hit a home run in his last at bat . All New Englanders will they they were there and the attendance for the game was 6,000.

Curious how many players will say they that they were there. It’s funny this thread popped up today cuz I was going thru some old mail Folders and found my ESO Beta folder.

yodased · March 2020

Yup

jircris11 · March 2020

Shadowfox wrote: »

I've lurked a long time.
Been here checking everything out since 2013.
I Was wondering if any of you old school beta testers are still out there? I never really talk to anyone from back then. Never made any real connections with any players in the game so to speak. Just found myself part of a great testing community. It was the wild west back then and finding those bugs was a sweet endeavor.
Any old school CMs/CSRs still around? You guys were pretty awesome.

Anyhow *tiphat* Just sort of starting a conversation. Hope everyone has a wonderful day.

Still here as well, still subbed too.

Reverb · March 2020

Account has been active since Feb 6 2014 so I came later in beta for the open weekends. I still play eso 3-4 days a week, far less than the several hours each night (combo of declining pvp population and performance, and irl changes over the years), but still active nonetheless

Path · March 2020

Present!
If you want to find us (Beta testers) just look for the monkey.
Most of us have a hard time replacing our flea eating, scraggly pet. At least on our mains.

Path
Beta
Monkey keeper

Path · March 2020

ItsMeToo wrote: »

Hello from the longest running ESO Guild, House Nyssara and no, I'm not recruiting.

IThe tiger is my favorite mount and the one I ride.

Same! My tiger! Original!

SirAndy · March 2020

Shadowfox wrote: »

I've lurked a long time.
Been here checking everything out since 2013.
I Was wondering if any of you old school beta testers are still out there? I never really talk to anyone from back then. Never made any real connections with any players in the game so to speak. Just found myself part of a great testing community. It was the wild west back then and finding those bugs was a sweet endeavor.
Any old school CMs/CSRs still around? You guys were pretty awesome.
Anyhow *tiphat* Just sort of starting a conversation. Hope everyone has a wonderful day.

I'm still here but haven't played the game in a while. Was going to come back after this update but i'm holding back for now since it seems ZOS managed to open up a large can of bugs (again) with their latest "improvements".

Those early beta days and the 6 months of 24/7 Psijic Order testing before PC launch truly were the good old days ...

HalvarIronfist · March 2020

Shadowfox wrote: »

I've lurked a long time.
Been here checking everything out since 2013.
I Was wondering if any of you old school beta testers are still out there? I never really talk to anyone from back then. Never made any real connections with any players in the game so to speak. Just found myself part of a great testing community. It was the wild west back then and finding those bugs was a sweet endeavor.
Any old school CMs/CSRs still around? You guys were pretty awesome.

Anyhow *tiphat* Just sort of starting a conversation. Hope everyone has a wonderful day.

Beta monkey here as well.

I loved the concept of the game, but hated the gameplay (combat/scaling) of the game at beta/launch, I also didn't like P2P too much when the game released. Gave it a bit of time, came back just before morrowind. Hooked ever since.

Bradyfjord · March 2020

I started during the stress test weekends. I didn't join the forums until much later because I didn't realize this was the real endgame. Still having a blast, with sensible breaks from time to time. I really like this game, and if they'd just fix the random lag spikes I wouldn't ever consider playing anything else.

caperb · March 2020

Started in January 2014. Gave my e-mail to ZOS long before that, but was not.chosen to participated in the previous testing sessions. The monkey is still my pet on most of my characters. I guess that will never change, it's too exclusive for that.

I started playing casual, doing all the PvE story content, before I did anything of the group content (PvE and PvP). Of course that took some time, but after I discovered how fun the group content actually was and started playing more and more.

Now I don't play that much anymore. This has multiple reasons. One was to be expected, I am not a student anymore. The other reasons are mostly of ZOS their mismanagement of the game and their money grab schedules. Lag has made Cyrodiil unplayable over the time, game breaking bugs have existed for too long and will probably never be fixed. I also despise their money grab schedules, although I've fallen for it multiple times. The last event is a perfect example. Event collectibles should always be possible to collect with normal gameplay and not be locked behind bad RNG, something I've done in MMO's for over the last 15 years, and I've almost never missed something. The previous events I bought some feathers to get the base indrik again, but this time, no murkmire reward for me.

If ZOS continues too mismanage their game, I will slowly retreat from the game until I don't care anymore. Something I see a lot of veterans do right now.

For the social part, I never expected it to be a success. When I started ESO I was still in highschool and not very good in English, so I expected that the language barrier would be a bit too much outside of forming groups to kill a boss. The opposite has become true. I now spend my days with a small PvP focused guild with some crazy people in it. It is a mix of some of the best trolls in cyro atm, good solo players and some casual zerglords. Of course every day is different in cyro, but this group makes it even more fun! Just a pity it is unplayable right now.

SmukkeHeks · March 2020

Also took part in the beta. Don’t know if I’m a monkey though..

But I’m still here on and off. More and more off, than on, I’ll admit - but it’s not me, it’s all them....

SosRuvaak · March 2020

i wont play or pay for eso+ until zenimax fixes their game.

this game has come soo far since beta, but its become increasingly bad with each patch lately.

Magenpie · March 2020

*waves*

I've dipped in and out over the years since. There are some aspects which make me want to throw it into the fire, but for the most part, I think the game is the best it's ever been, and I hope it'll get better. I've just subbed for a year so I flipping hope so!

Beta monkey waves too. ^^

Sinhalis · March 2020

Another (open) beta monkey here, never stuck around much after the launch, just started actively playing a couple of months ago. I understand the game is far from being perfect with all the bugs, balancing issues etc but I'm having a great time so far

Malmai · March 2020

And i paid for Imperial edition 90€ SMH...

Magenpie · March 2020

Malmai wrote: »

And i paid for Imperial edition 90€ SMH...

Yeah, me too. And my Collector's Edition Molag Baal statue is an absolute pig for gathering dust. Our hopes and dreams, eh?

Garish · March 2020

Beta monkey here; taken a couple of breaks, usually just a week or two, but one 6 month break. Still enjoying the game though these days mainly for housing.

Darkhorse1975 · March 2020

I sometime wonder if the beta monkey is my pet or if I'm the beta monkey's pet?