The year is 2023. The proc sets have taken over the game and lag has driven everyone out of the playing fields. You login to the game on a chilly Saturday evening and visit an empty belkarth wayshrine crowded only by the handful of NPCs. You let off a soft sigh reminiscing all the raid parties and silly role plays you had here. “You want to cry me a river? maybe you can float out of Craglorn” goes Corentin Clavarie.

Snapping back into reality, you decide to go visit your main house, Princely Dawnlight Palace. As the load screen goes off after 53 seconds, you lay your eyes on your years of work, your crown jewel. You are home!
As you enter the Palace, your gaze upon the large table in the middle. With it, number of familiar faces stare at you. All 17 of your other characters, nod in acknowledgement of your presence.

“It’s been a long a time” says the Orc stamina sorcerer.

“Yes it has been. Times have been tough. You were waiting for me all this time?”

“Always have been.

Are we going on adventures again? Cyrodil perhaps?” says the eager Magicka warden.

“I’m afraid we can’t. I logged in one final time before saying goodbye. There is no one left here anymore”

“Well we had a good run eh? One final drink for the good old times?”

“One final drink”

*crashes for the final time*

SirAndy wrote: »

ArchMikem wrote: »

Irnskar went through an entire reconciliation arc. He's not that minded anymore.

You are assuming that people pay attention to the quests they rush through.

Indeed. I once played Oblivion, then Skyrim. Now that I have discovered my first MMO, real life players have become far more important than quests. For those of us who stick with the game for a long time (5 years and counting), ZOS are missing the point. The only thing that interests me about housing are the creative ideas other players come up with. The only interesting toons I want to place in my house are my own characters - who I think of as living there - and those that offer functionality (target skeletons, banker etc.). The only thing I still appreciate about the world is the art design and those monsters that are a challenge to kill. The only thing I appreciate about BGs are the players and the terrain, not the incomprehensible scoring system nor the fancy game modes beyond Deathmatch. NPCs yammering on about their meaningless problems are a distraction at the end of dungeons when you want to talk to the other players in chat or in Discord. I certainly don't want them in my house and I have taken to turn the dialogue audio down to zero as of late. My banker already keeps going on about laurels that I earned in some nebulous past. I don't want more of that. It's time to let it go. The worst, though, are the NPCs that follow you around in some places, because you never did the quest there. It's cute and immersive only when you first play the game, but not after 5 years.

<Sigh>. I am still here! This is what it means to be a long-term player of an MMO. I guess there are people who actually care about the year-long storylines and who play the game for the PvE expansions. Perhaps that's the majority, I don't know. This would only work for me if ZOS substantially upped their game in the writing department, e.g. to Bioware levels - and I mean pre-Dragon Age Inquisition levels. The writing in ESO is extremely stilted. It lacks all subtlety and ambiguity as characters simply declare who they are and what the mechanics of their quest are. The rest of the writing is mostly filler an 11-year old child could come up with. The exceptions are few and far between. Naryu comes to mind, but I can't even remember why.

MajThorax wrote: »

There are certain NPCs that project interesting personalities despite the fact most of us rush through quests and don't pay attention to everything they say. It's hard not to love Cadwell but even the most interesting NPCs become boring when all they do is say idly some phrases when you talk to them. House guests have no depth so far and definitely are not worth so much money.

I'm not a fan of Cadwell. I liked Heem-Jas and thought the writing in that expansion was quite funny. You're right, if characters display some personality that helps. Unfortunately, much as I wanted to like her, Lyris is a total bore as is Sai Sahan. Abnur Tharn is grating.

There is a minor character in the Mass Effect games, Tali Zora. I say minor, because she comes and goes and never seemed to be given top-billing. Nonetheless I found her one of the most memorable and this established itself at the beginning of Mass Effect 1 for me. I am not alone. There is / was a Tali Zora fan club or a forum thread to that effect - a long one.

When I played the first game a second time I tried to figure out what made her so memorable. She doesn't actually have that much dialogue, but I think I figured it out. She is not one-note. When she first joins the crew she is kind of mopey, but it turns out she is just young and homesick. After a mission or two, her spirits pick up and her attitude changes. Now that is good writing. Most game writing, when a character is given a personality at all, has them stuck in a single mode. There is no development, no mystery. There are no facets to their personality. I guess it's just easier to handle it that way when you have a team of writers. Cadwell is always wacky, Abnur Tharn always pompous, and so on. With Heem-Jas at least there is a contradiction between what he says and what he does. That alone is rare in ESO. Or perhaps the NPC-typical incompetence matching up with the writing, for once, is what endeared him to me.

I like the medieval ambience idea. There are dance moves in the game already. Could be added to pathing, if not already.

I would simply like more slots for my mounts and pets. I have the Aldmeri Grotto, where some of my animals roam. I'd put a herd of horses in there, if I could. Currently I have various scenes, which were made before pathing. Unfortunately these also involve inanimate objects, which I assume are excluded from pathing.

I have the dino chicken and a dog playing football with a depleted dwarven sphere.

I have one of my mounts on a flying carpet on a rescue mission to save her cub. This involves a skyshard search-light and sconce rocket boosters on the carpet. If I could make that move, it would be cool.

Heck, if inanimate objects could be made to move that would make for some really interesting parkour.