What does a casual player do?

ArchangelIsraphel · September 2022

I'm going to be honest- I feel like the definition of "casual" changes from person to person depending on the topic being discussed and whether it is convenient to the individuals point to call a certain play style "casual". I have seen multiple contradicting definitions of casual thrown around in the same thread (including this one) to the point where I no longer use the term to describe anyone or anything, including myself.

I've been called a "casual" due to my interest in RP, Questing, and Housing content, and yet my interest in these things run much deeper than that. Although I am not chasing meta builds by any means, I find I have a deep interest in refining both my PVP and PVE play style to satisfy my desire to play my characters as I see them, to walk in their shoes for a few hours a day, if you will. My drive is not competitive, it is story driven, but I am never the less devoted to it in a way that has brought me much deeper into the game and its mechanics, awakening an interest in learning to play better so that I can accomplish more and further my character's personal story. The game and it's inner workings inspire me on a creative and artistic level. I play daily, I try out different gear- I reach for the new adventures having these abilities promises me. When I am defeated in PVP or PVE, I want to know why, and how, and what I can do better. Yet I am not chasing scoreboards or aiming for perfection.

And then again, I've also had the label "hard core" applied to me -because- I like to quest and pursue story, with the implication that a "casual" is not interested in the lore or story of the game.

I don't feel any of these labels suit me or much of anyone else for that matter.

In short, I have no idea as to what a casual is or what that really means, since the spectrum of how a person plays can vary so widely. Some say that a casual player is one who only dips their toes into the game on the surface level, some say it's someone who doesn't pursue the meta. I'm honestly not sure ZOS actually understands the definition of "casual" either, or that any of us really do, since it is, once again, a term I see thrown around in the most contradictory sense all the time. One day x type of game play is "casual", one day x type of game play is "Hard core".

I specifically recall, in the Account Wide Achievement's thread, where debate on the topic was hot, the term "casual" being redefined every few posts depending on what one person deemed a "casual" vs what another person deemed a "casual". This thread honestly feels no different. I do not say this to incite argument or to appear negative towards other posters- I say it because the use of the term is so subjective depending on who you speak to that I feel it's almost useless to define it.

Parasaurolophus · September 2022

I'm not a casual player, and to be honest, I never understood and don't understand now what this game can do for a casual player? Don't get me wrong - I'm a big fan of the Elder Scrolls series. Sometimes I even wonder if I would play this game if it wasn't part of TES. However, I admit that eso is not "Skyrim with friends" at all. This is a completely different game, a completely different genre and a completely different pace. And one of the main problems with this game is that it's being sold as Skyrim Online. And we discussed this many times, how many players come to this game and leave it because they find the gameplay is too empty and boring, unlike Skyrim. No, it's not Skyrim with friends. Fallout 76 is much more like Skyrim with friends than it is.

I also go through quests every new plot addition. I don't go through them right away. I'm waiting for some time to pass so that there are no other players around. I animately listen to every dialogue and read every note and book. And even at such a leisurely pace, it takes me no more than 3-4 evenings to complete all the dlc. I have 9 characters. I have a furnished house. I have a grand overlord and a master angler. And I can’t imagine what else you can do in this game if you basically don’t want to do even normal content.
You can't discuss other games on this forum, but for comparison - The Sims and Minecraft. Both games open up a huge number of activities and do not require any skill from the player at all. There, in principle, there can be no concept of beginners. But the situation is completely different for the eso. We have either primitive as Cookie clicker questing and overland. And a content that already requires a skill from the player.

Here's what I think. Yes, the ZoS said, I think it was at PAX 2016, that they noted a large number of returning and new players during the release of new DLCs. And that they are now going to concentrate on this audience. And so it goes. There is very little content, but there are a lot of releases and events. It seems that the game has formed a whole layer of players who play only a few days at the release of new DLCs and events.

Honestly, I'm tired of the fact that there are so few players in the game. You say most casuals, but the overland is almost always empty and people often cannot find a party in order to defeat the world bosses. Queues to the dungeons can last a couple of hours during prime time on a weekend. And it's better not to talk about pvp.

Parasaurolophus · September 2022

ArchangelIsraphel wrote: »

I'm going to be honest- I feel like the definition of "casual" changes from person to person depending on the topic being discussed and whether it is convenient to the individuals point to call a certain play style "casual". I have seen multiple contradicting definitions of casual thrown around in the same thread (including this one) to the point where I no longer use the term to describe anyone or anything, including myself.

I've been called a "casual" due to my interest in RP, Questing, and Housing content, and yet my interest in these things run much deeper than that. Although I am not chasing meta builds by any means, I find I have a deep interest in refining both my PVP and PVE play style to satisfy my desire to play my characters as I see them, to walk in their shoes for a few hours a day, if you will. My drive is not competitive, it is story driven, but I am never the less devoted to it in a way that has brought me much deeper into the game and its mechanics, awakening an interest in learning to play better so that I can accomplish more and further my character's personal story. The game and it's inner workings inspire me on a creative and artistic level. I play daily, I try out different gear- I reach for the new adventures having these abilities promises me. When I am defeated in PVP or PVE, I want to know why, and how, and what I can do better. Yet I am not chasing scoreboards or aiming for perfection.

And then again, I've also had the label "hard core" applied to me -because- I like to quest and pursue story, with the implication that a "casual" is not interested in the lore or story of the game.

I don't feel any of these labels suit me or much of anyone else for that matter.

In short, I have no idea as to what a casual is or what that really means, since the spectrum of how a person plays can vary so widely. Some say that a casual player is one who only dips their toes into the game on the surface level, some say it's someone who doesn't pursue the meta. I'm honestly not sure ZOS actually understands the definition of "casual" either, or that any of us really do, since it is, once again, a term I see thrown around in the most contradictory sense all the time. One day x type of game play is "casual", one day x type of game play is "Hard core".

I specifically recall, in the Account Wide Achievement's thread, where debate on the topic was hot, the term "casual" being redefined every few posts depending on what one person deemed a "casual" vs what another person deemed a "casual". This thread honestly feels no different. I do not say this to incite argument or to appear negative towards other posters- I say it because the use of the term is so subjective depending on who you speak to that I feel it's almost useless to define it.

You just play at your own pace. I like these players. You don't shut yourself off from any piece of content like other players hiding behind the "casual" label. Although when you come to wet content with other players, you are of course responsible for your result.

Cazador · September 2022

Captain_Devildog wrote: »

My conclusion what i get from this is. Zos is telling us they focus more on new players and casual players.
So they only focus on the smallest amount of players in the whole community,

This is completely inaccurate. Not only are casual players not the minority, they are a substantial majority. This there are countless players who care primarily about questing, writs, outfits, RP, housing and so on who never or almost never do dungeons on veteran or pvp. They probably aren't concerned about the endgame, they play at their own pace. You are part of a much smaller demographic of the game than you realize.

Enundr · September 2022

Captain_Devildog wrote: »

Zos is saying things like we focus more on new and casual players. But what are those kind of people?

When i started the game i was new but after 2 months i was doing vet content.
Am i still a new player if i do that?
(When i do veteran content the patches effect me alot, offcourse like everybody else and it is clearly to see the gap becames bigger.)

I can understand that someone who plays casual does alot of zone content and questing because they like the lore.
BUT HOLD YOUR HORSES!!!
Litterally every person i met in this game, doesn't matter if they are new or doing questing all day. Or they are casual or whatever.. Litterally all of them did veteran and pvp maybe hm sometimes even when they did questing all day they still played all the other aspects of the game.

My conclusion what i get from this is. Zos is telling us they focus more on new players and casual players.
So they only focus on the smallest amount of players in the whole community, the people who played like less then a month probably and most of them leave before or after that.
Because it's not their cup of thea.
These last updates are meant for new players and casual players, and i heard something about accesability a few hundred times.
What about the community ?
Do we get attention,, does the team of Zenimax see their actual community?

Change my mind.

It makes me feel that they are not seeing us at all the players who play this game.
What is a casual player?
What is a new player?

before this update drove me away from the game id say i was relatively casual , just doing overland content and on occasion a battleground and a vet (not that often) , but this update felt like a slap to the face for me. [snip]

[edited for bashing]

boi_anachronism_ · September 2022

Kingsindarkness wrote: »

Remember you asked...and I'm going to try and say this as respectfully as possible.

The devs still aren't sure what type of game this is, they insist it is not a MMO, yet it has a hyper competitive (and very unhappy) raiding and PVP culture

If ESO focused on the same things that all the other Elder Scrolls games focus on( albeit with multiplayer) we wouldn't have 80% of our problems, the vast majority of people use ESO as Skyrim with friends.

Now that might make some folks angry but it's true, and that is what is profitable, it attracts the vast majority of customers. Raids, diametrically are the single most expensive content in the game to design and it has the least return in profit because so few people do it.

I think the only reason it is still in ESO is because the developers (not the player base aside from a small percentage) adores raiding.

PVP was just a experiment that didn't work...they keep throwing budget at it and it still just dosen't work. They could easily end the war and focus PVP to arena's and the vast majority of their issues would be solved.

Raiders and PVP players have the most issues because the devs are trying to hammer square pegs into round holes.

When a game knows what it is and isn't that game succeeds.

Look at the original Guild Wars; that game dose one thing and one thing only and it dose it great...and years after so called maintenance mode it is still packed. Of course few people want to hear this... every game that is vaguely MMO has to focus on End Game raiding and PVP.

Even if it will never be successful, even though there are literally thousands of vertical progression raid or die mmo's as competitors.

Hard to just get rid of cyro and imperial city as a pvp zone. I mean it encompasses one major part of the actual main quest line which involves you making peace talks happen between warring factions. even the epilogue, Caldwell's silver/gold focuses on that. You have entire skill lines focused on it. The war of the 3 banners is a huge plot point. It's the whole reason molag bal chooses this particular time to attempt his takeover- because tamriel is so unstable with the war. It would under cut the entire story. It's just not viable in any way shape or form. Not only that you have towns and cities that are hostile or friendly to you based on your affiliation as well. How would you even do such a thing?

BlueRaven · September 2022

Kiralyn2000 wrote: »

Captain_Devildog wrote: »

BUT HOLD YOUR HORSES!!!
Litterally every person i met in this game, doesn't matter if they are new or doing questing all day. Or they are casual or whatever.. Litterally all of them did veteran and pvp maybe hm sometimes even when they did questing all day they still played all the other aspects of the game.

Been playing since 2016. I've never done a trial, I've never had a character step a single foot in Cyro or IC, I've run less than 10 dungeons in normal mode, and never done anything vet. Never joined a guild or sold anything to another player or used a target dummy. I quest, zone, craft, house, thief, gather, explore, do holidays that aren't PvP or dungeon. I've got 8 characters.

I would say players like you are the norm. Other than “not joining a guild (obviously)” or not sold anything, most of the people in my guilds are exactly like you.

BlueRaven · September 2022

I don’t know what I am.

My typical day is to do writs on one character, do endeavors both weekly and daily, do the pve tot daily, and the other high isle dailies.

And then I spend the rest of my evening tweaking fashion on my toons, and decorating houses. Maybe do some questing on an alt.

That sounds casual, right?

Last week an old friend whispers me to fill in on a hKA run (we killed the final boss, my first time). We also got the achievement for not doing the fight in a standard way.

That does not sound casual.

My favorite thing about completing the trial? I have access to the boat furnishing which costs 250,000 gold. Which sounds both casual and not casual at the same time.

I would personally consider myself a casual player, but I guess I am not? I just happen to follow sites like “Hack The Minotaur” and try to follow the guides there as best I can, with the gear I have access to. (I hardly ever do dungeons on my own, and my sticker book is not that filled. And my monster helm collection is limited to what the golden vendor has.)

Hamfast · September 2022

I read all of the posts so far and agree with most of the points made, but I don't think our definition of "Casual" matters at all, it is the ZOS definition that matters, I have done trials some vet content, but I am going to sweat not having top end gear or DPS, I am content to just have fun doing what I like to do...

But perhaps, if we are lucky, @ZOS_GinaBruno or @ZOS_Kevin can chime in and get us the proper ZOS definition of a "Casual" player...

SeaGtGruff · September 2022

Captain_Devildog wrote: »

Zos is saying things like we focus more on new and casual players.

I haven't seen that. Can you link to where they said that, so I can go read it?

Kingsindarkness · September 2022

boi_anachronism_ wrote: »

Kingsindarkness wrote: »

Remember you asked...and I'm going to try and say this as respectfully as possible.

The devs still aren't sure what type of game this is, they insist it is not a MMO, yet it has a hyper competitive (and very unhappy) raiding and PVP culture

If ESO focused on the same things that all the other Elder Scrolls games focus on( albeit with multiplayer) we wouldn't have 80% of our problems, the vast majority of people use ESO as Skyrim with friends.

Now that might make some folks angry but it's true, and that is what is profitable, it attracts the vast majority of customers. Raids, diametrically are the single most expensive content in the game to design and it has the least return in profit because so few people do it.

I think the only reason it is still in ESO is because the developers (not the player base aside from a small percentage) adores raiding.

PVP was just a experiment that didn't work...they keep throwing budget at it and it still just dosen't work. They could easily end the war and focus PVP to arena's and the vast majority of their issues would be solved.

Raiders and PVP players have the most issues because the devs are trying to hammer square pegs into round holes.

When a game knows what it is and isn't that game succeeds.

Look at the original Guild Wars; that game dose one thing and one thing only and it dose it great...and years after so called maintenance mode it is still packed. Of course few people want to hear this... every game that is vaguely MMO has to focus on End Game raiding and PVP.

Even if it will never be successful, even though there are literally thousands of vertical progression raid or die mmo's as competitors.

Hard to just get rid of cyro and imperial city as a pvp zone. I mean it encompasses one major part of the actual main quest line which involves you making peace talks happen between warring factions. even the epilogue, Caldwell's silver/gold focuses on that. You have entire skill lines focused on it. The war of the 3 banners is a huge plot point. It's the whole reason molag bal chooses this particular time to attempt his takeover- because tamriel is so unstable with the war. It would under cut the entire story. It's just not viable in any way shape or form. Not only that you have towns and cities that are hostile or friendly to you based on your affiliation as well. How would you even do such a thing?

All of that is very very thin as far a content goes...End the war, and start the process of rebuilding that content can be replaced with new better written content FFXIV does it every year.

merpins · September 2022

Casual player since beta here. I've done trials, but that was before the sticker book and I have no good trial gear. I don't like trials. I do vet content sometimes, but I can do top-end DPS. If I run vet content without my wife, I only run it with guilds and only if they ask me. I generally do crafting, questing, solo bosses and arenas, material gathering, and just doing stuff with my wife who also enjoys playing the game like this. When I do run vet dungeons, we usually duo them and can do any content that doesn't have mechanics that require more than 2 people.

Vevvev · September 2022

Everything

PvP, PvE, fishing, card games, etc.

The casual just doesn't take any of these things to the extreme. They do what comes to mind, or what the game pushes them to do, and have no goals at becoming the best.

Sometimes one of them actually gets really good at something, but you won't see them pursuing leaderboard positions and the like.

SeaGtGruff · September 2022

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

You don't shut yourself off from any piece of content like other players hiding behind the "casual" label.

The thing I love most about ESO is the incredible variety of content, both in terms of the types of activities and the difficulty of the content. There is something for just about anyone to do, and it's okay for each player to focus on the type of content they enjoy the most while bypassing the content that doesn't appeal as much to them.

And if you think that only the "players hiding behind the 'casual' label" are shutting themselves "off from any piece of content," then you might want to search through this forum for comments from veteran players who have made it quite clear that they will never, ever play the Tales of Tribute card game.

Personally, I don't care which parts of the game anyone else wants to focus on, and which parts they want to-- as you put it-- shut themselves off from, because it's none of my business. It's none of your business, either. Let each player enjoy the parts of the game they love best, and please stop criticizing them because their preferences don't happen to align with yours.

Rampeal · September 2022

Majority of this game is Casual. PvP, Vet, and Trials are just a small portion of the game. Questing, Achievement hunting, Delve runs, Public Dungeons, Events, Fishing, Thievery, Assassination quest, world bosses, dolems, housing, and guild trading are big parts of being a casual player. I am not saying that the "Hardcore" scene doesn't have It's place, but it should by no means take the lead role of the game.

Been playing since 2015 and I can tell you one thing. Trial dungeons are only completed by a small percentage of the population base. Let us not forget about DLC Vet dungeons. ZoS catered to the Hardcore players when it came to DLC Vets, Now casuals avoid them like the plague. There are countless threads of people wanting separate ques because of the DLC Vet Dungeons. I personally know a few that will not get plus so they will not be in the Random Vet Dungeon lineup.

If anything catering to the Hardcore is what is killing ESO. Not saying Hardcore should not have their place, Because they do. Furthermore the Hardcore players base is rewarded for it. All the special Skins, Emotes, Personalities, and Mount are locked behind hard achievements that casuals can just only dream of. Not to mention that the Hardcore players make a premium selling runs to the casuals.

I personally would love to see normal trials come to the dungeon finder just so I can experience the story without having to mold my character to the Hardcore standard and submit it for their approval. I mean God forbid I make my own build and go against what the almighty Meta deems worthy am I right?

Klingenlied · September 2022

Kingsindarkness wrote: »

Remember you asked...and I'm going to try and say this as respectfully as possible.

The devs still aren't sure what type of game this is, they insist it is not a MMO, yet it has a hyper competitive (and very unhappy) raiding and PVP culture

If ESO focused on the same things that all the other Elder Scrolls games focus on( albeit with multiplayer) we wouldn't have 80% of our problems, the vast majority of people use ESO as Skyrim with friends.

Now that might make some folks angry but it's true, and that is what is profitable, it attracts the vast majority of customers. Raids, diametrically are the single most expensive content in the game to design and it has the least return in profit because so few people do it.

I think the only reason it is still in ESO is because the developers (not the player base aside from a small percentage) adores raiding.

PVP was just a experiment that didn't work...they keep throwing budget at it and it still just dosen't work. They could easily end the war and focus PVP to arena's and the vast majority of their issues would be solved.

Raiders and PVP players have the most issues because the devs are trying to hammer square pegs into round holes.

When a game knows what it is and isn't that game succeeds.

Look at the original Guild Wars; that game dose one thing and one thing only and it dose it great...and years after so called maintenance mode it is still packed. Of course few people want to hear this... every game that is vaguely MMO has to focus on End Game raiding and PVP.

Even if it will never be successful, even though there are literally thousands of vertical progression raid or die mmo's as competitors.

I actually think you are very much at the wrong here.

Do you watch ESO stuff on YouTube? About builds? Raid Guides? Do you know about ESOU? There is a whole "world" of players out there - not casual - that doesn't just feature hundreds or thousands, more like ten or hundreds of thousand active players across the globe.

I don't know "casual" people. I get annoyed at times by [snip] players that seem to neither understand their class or role and are absolutely not suited for the type of content I find them in. That is the "casual player" in my mind - the only one visible to me. But questing only people? People only playing for themselves? I guess those Forums are the only place you hear about them, because they are invisible in the game itself.

What I do know: Hundreds across hundreds of players making up raiding and and active PvE guilds. Specific language ones at that. Same for trading guilds. You don't join these when you are not active, otherwise it is too expensive. And this is me talking about the "invisible" guilds. Not those shouting day in and out to find members. Those closed to anyone outside who is not at least friend of a friend.

Do you have any idea of how many raids are run? Of how many dungeons are run? Across my guilds alone, there is a double digit amount of raids that gets run daily. Some fill up over Craglorn. Many don't need to. And I am not touching dungeons yet.

Some time after the undaunted event, we will get some numbers I guess. Those will once again prove that PvE is really active. And a lot of those people actively playing dungeons will actively play raids. Because raids and the gear from it are part of a lot of builds. Simple truth.

Now for Guild Wars - the original one. It is still active enough for the servers to run. It is not active enough for players to run content in player groups outside of a few still existing Guilds / Discords. This game however did some awesome things. It combined a lovely PvE experience with good world building, varied landscapes and races with pretty much one of the best PvP systems at that times - interesting skills allowing for varied builds all in a fully balanceable ecosystem. I loved that game. And I enjoyed plenty of GW2. And that is one topic to close this: Guild Wars 2 right now is seen rather favorably by its community and could get in a lot of fresh players due to good publicity. The MMO crowd is talking - cross-MMO. One knows how other games are doing - at least generally. And as people do know ESO is NOT doing well in terms of catering to their "core" communities, other do better - Guild Wars 2, FFXIV. This is why the more active PvE community is bleeding some players. A lot of stuff we disliked - for some it was enough to take a break or maybe leave forever. Maybe to GW2. Maybe to FFXIV. Maybe to somewhere else.

And yea, by no means I could imagine casuals keeping the game alive. I can't. As I can't imagine there is more players "soloing" the game then there is playing enjoying more parts of it. What I can imagine though is a lot of casual players quitting due to the lack of good tutorials, the amount of complexity, the store that gets showed in your face whenever you log in. Due to the difficulty of setting foot into communities that help you into content, help you understand the game, help you find enjoyment in playing what is - in my opinion - good raid content and the best 4man dungeon content in any MMO out there.

[edited for baiting]

Kiralyn2000 · September 2022

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

You don't shut yourself off from any piece of content like other players hiding behind the "casual" label.

Hmm. I don't think that I "shut myself off from content by calling myself 'Casual'". I just only play the content I'm interested in. I know from past experience with other games that I don't enjoy PvP, group dungeon running, or Big Boss Fights. So I don't do them. No "hiding behind labels" involved. /shrug

(seriously, why would you do things you don't like?)

Klingenlied wrote: »

And yea, by no means I could imagine casuals keeping the game alive. I can't. As I can't imagine there is more players "soloing" the game then there is playing enjoying more parts of it.

I think you'd be surprised.

Due to the difficulty of setting foot into communities that help you into content, help you understand the game, help you find enjoyment in playing what is - in my opinion - good raid content and the best 4man dungeon content in any MMO out there.

I can only speak for myself, of course, but lack of tutorials isn't what's keeping me out of raids & dungeons. Or "communities" for that matter. I have no interest in those things. I didn't in WoW 15 years ago, or City of Heroes / SWtOR / Star Trek Online / TERA / Neverwinter / Secret World since then, or in ESO now.

(personally, I see the fact that modern/big/"theme park" MMOs keep making plenty of 'solo' & non-raid/non-dungeon content/minigames/etc as a sign that there's a large population out there with a desire for those things. I also remember back in the Wrath/Cataclysm era of WoW, the devs trying to make raiding "more accessible" because something like 1 or 2% of players had stepped foot in the 'big raids' back then.)

disintegr8 · September 2022

FluffyReachWitch wrote: »

My definition of casual is just "non-competitive". I do plenty of everything in this game. Questing, housing, dungeons and trials, PvP, you name it. I just don't focus on meta builds, vet trial trifectas, or scoreboards.

I'll go along with this. Been playing 7 years but am really still a casual. I have 18 characters the NA server, 5 or 6 on EU, along with alt accounts. I've spent time in PVP and done a lot of the earlier vet trials and all of the non-DLC vet dungeons, but ganking and trying to meet certain expectations, in a video game, is not my thing.

When it comes down to it, I'm not here to be as good, or better, than anyone else. I prefer to do what I want, when I want to, not caring about what anyone else does.

P.S. I also have auto decline set for duels, I'm not here to see who's got the biggest or strongest weapon.

Mik195 · September 2022

I've been playing since 2016 and have never completed even Fungal Grotto on veteran, never completed a DLC dungeon (and frankly haven't got close enough to think that completing is going to happen anytime soon), max skill level in PVP on a whooping 13 kills, and never considered doing a trial. My dps is somewhere around 20k on a good day. So I do questing, dailies and work on bosses in my capability (right now Gold Coast, have only soloed 1 dlc), and still trying Dragonstar and base game level 2 dungeons, on normal of course.

theoriginalpickle · September 2022

Filthy casual here ive been playing on and off since the sub requirement was dropped so easily 4 years or more. I've done trials and some basic vet content, but i do things at my own pace, i am only just now trying to solo World Bosses in base game with my companion.

I don't chase meta i found a love of pvp thanks to a healer but drop in once a week when i can join a group via my pvp guild even then its only for an hour or so to get some AP.

I really dont want to do vet content i've never even tried normal Maelstrom Arena it just seems to hard to even bother trying, i can't weave to save my life and my main crafter is my only damage dealer (i'm thinking about respecing it for a tank or something more interesting)

I don't really need to change your mind, because the fact is there a lot of people who live this game all day but do not bother with the impossible hard content. Hell i had a friend who did nothing but fish and would keep people company fishing for the master angler title.

I must admit though even as a casual i've noticed my damage overall has gone down and i struggle to kill anything now in dungeons even just the easy ones which gives me less incentive to do those trials and content at all.

ArchangelIsraphel · September 2022

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

ArchangelIsraphel wrote: »

I'm going to be honest- I feel like the definition of "casual" changes from person to person depending on the topic being discussed and whether it is convenient to the individuals point to call a certain play style "casual". I have seen multiple contradicting definitions of casual thrown around in the same thread (including this one) to the point where I no longer use the term to describe anyone or anything, including myself.

I've been called a "casual" due to my interest in RP, Questing, and Housing content, and yet my interest in these things run much deeper than that. Although I am not chasing meta builds by any means, I find I have a deep interest in refining both my PVP and PVE play style to satisfy my desire to play my characters as I see them, to walk in their shoes for a few hours a day, if you will. My drive is not competitive, it is story driven, but I am never the less devoted to it in a way that has brought me much deeper into the game and its mechanics, awakening an interest in learning to play better so that I can accomplish more and further my character's personal story. The game and it's inner workings inspire me on a creative and artistic level. I play daily, I try out different gear- I reach for the new adventures having these abilities promises me. When I am defeated in PVP or PVE, I want to know why, and how, and what I can do better. Yet I am not chasing scoreboards or aiming for perfection.

And then again, I've also had the label "hard core" applied to me -because- I like to quest and pursue story, with the implication that a "casual" is not interested in the lore or story of the game.

I don't feel any of these labels suit me or much of anyone else for that matter.

In short, I have no idea as to what a casual is or what that really means, since the spectrum of how a person plays can vary so widely. Some say that a casual player is one who only dips their toes into the game on the surface level, some say it's someone who doesn't pursue the meta. I'm honestly not sure ZOS actually understands the definition of "casual" either, or that any of us really do, since it is, once again, a term I see thrown around in the most contradictory sense all the time. One day x type of game play is "casual", one day x type of game play is "Hard core".

I specifically recall, in the Account Wide Achievement's thread, where debate on the topic was hot, the term "casual" being redefined every few posts depending on what one person deemed a "casual" vs what another person deemed a "casual". This thread honestly feels no different. I do not say this to incite argument or to appear negative towards other posters- I say it because the use of the term is so subjective depending on who you speak to that I feel it's almost useless to define it.

You just play at your own pace. I like these players. You don't shut yourself off from any piece of content like other players hiding behind the "casual" label. Although when you come to wet content with other players, you are of course responsible for your result.

I don't consider choosing not to do something you don't enjoy to be shutting one's self off from it or hiding behind a label. A player would only be shutting themselves out of content if they wished to do it, but chose not to. If a player has no desire for certain pvp or pve content, then they aren't shutting themselves out of a door they never wanted to open to begin with.

I thoroughly enjoy my delve into pvp and pve and gearing myself, but I can completely understand why one might find it uninteresting. Truth be told I would find no pleasure in it if it weren't for the fact that it has become a part of how I play my characters and assists me in creating their stories.

As for veteran content- perhaps someday I'll pursue it, but for now I'm content to admire it from a distance until I feel I've learned enough to walk down that road.

WinterHeart626 · September 2022

Wait. That’s actually a solid point. What DO casuals do……..
I consider myself “casual”, yet I jump in on trials, Vet Dungeon runs, the occasional Vet Trial when the opportunity arises, however I also go hunting for lore, skyshards, delves (skyshards), public dungeons (skill point), crafting research (oh so close to master crafter, yet so far), crafting, writs, quests.

Actually, I’ve done more dungeon runs than quests by this point.

Again, what’s a Casual 🤭

Kingsindarkness · September 2022

Klingenlied wrote: »

I actually think you are very much at the wrong here.

Do you watch ESO stuff on YouTube? About builds? Raid Guides? Do you know about ESOU? There is a whole "world" of players out there - not casual - that doesn't just feature hundreds or thousands, more like ten or hundreds of thousand active players across the globe.

Yes Streamers are mostly Vet Raiders or PVPers...it still dosen't make a majority or even close to a fraction from what I can tell....and sadly none of their view numbers are that large even when you add them all up together. All the tens of thousands of other player are too busy with their own thing to care about streaming...that has always been a more Hyper-Competitive thing I think which really isn't most of the ESO community.

As for the rest...well you are more than welcome to your opinion...we can agree to disagree

AvalonRanger · September 2022

People accept or not, ESO is totally casual game. But more concentrate RPG essence
like old school "Skyrim". I think it's OK. ESO is the game which is doing "Skyrim with your friend or
other players".

On the contrary to "some hard-core Ver's" opinion, I can't feel any of hard-core aspect against ESO
from 2014. Basically, the ESO combat is totally retro game level quality compared with contemporary AAA
PVP or solo action game. (<ref> BattleField, Apex, Horizon zero Dawn, Ghost of tsushima)
ESO is hard-core game? Well, it's a bad joke.

ESO is extremely casual game.

I hate every combat of ESO. Because, every combat of this game is too much shallow. No hard-core essence at all.
But it's OK for me. Because ESO is still "Skyrim"+ little bit something MMO option. Major people of ESO players can
enjoy current situation of this game.

boi_anachronism_ · September 2022

Kingsindarkness wrote: »

boi_anachronism_ wrote: »

Kingsindarkness wrote: »

Remember you asked...and I'm going to try and say this as respectfully as possible.

The devs still aren't sure what type of game this is, they insist it is not a MMO, yet it has a hyper competitive (and very unhappy) raiding and PVP culture

If ESO focused on the same things that all the other Elder Scrolls games focus on( albeit with multiplayer) we wouldn't have 80% of our problems, the vast majority of people use ESO as Skyrim with friends.

Now that might make some folks angry but it's true, and that is what is profitable, it attracts the vast majority of customers. Raids, diametrically are the single most expensive content in the game to design and it has the least return in profit because so few people do it.

I think the only reason it is still in ESO is because the developers (not the player base aside from a small percentage) adores raiding.

PVP was just a experiment that didn't work...they keep throwing budget at it and it still just dosen't work. They could easily end the war and focus PVP to arena's and the vast majority of their issues would be solved.

Raiders and PVP players have the most issues because the devs are trying to hammer square pegs into round holes.

When a game knows what it is and isn't that game succeeds.

Look at the original Guild Wars; that game dose one thing and one thing only and it dose it great...and years after so called maintenance mode it is still packed. Of course few people want to hear this... every game that is vaguely MMO has to focus on End Game raiding and PVP.

Even if it will never be successful, even though there are literally thousands of vertical progression raid or die mmo's as competitors.

Hard to just get rid of cyro and imperial city as a pvp zone. I mean it encompasses one major part of the actual main quest line which involves you making peace talks happen between warring factions. even the epilogue, Caldwell's silver/gold focuses on that. You have entire skill lines focused on it. The war of the 3 banners is a huge plot point. It's the whole reason molag bal chooses this particular time to attempt his takeover- because tamriel is so unstable with the war. It would under cut the entire story. It's just not viable in any way shape or form. Not only that you have towns and cities that are hostile or friendly to you based on your affiliation as well. How would you even do such a thing?

All of that is very very thin as far a content goes...End the war, and start the process of rebuilding that content can be replaced with new better written content FFXIV does it every year.

Sorry if the dev team won't fix an old bug in vhrc because old code is too hard to rebuild and saying it's easier to start over (yes they said that in an interview with nefas, it's available on his YouTube channel) then how exactly do you imagine they would rework or even want to rework the entire main story. We are talking about pulling framework, npcs, dialogue, entire swaths of coding and quests from all over the game while keeping others intact? From a programming perspective its a nightmare. Im not sure you know what you are asking realistically.

... And also it won't happen. Why? It will drive all the pvp players off while not replacing them. the development time which would be at least 6-8 months conservatively speaking. Meaning no new content and that doesn't make them money. Beyond that they would have a lot to figure out creatively and how to tie that in to everything which is more development time.

Eldartar · September 2022

Bouldercleave wrote: »

I've been in game for the entire time it has been live and I have yet to set foot in a trial, or do any significant vet content - it just doesn't interest me. I also ONLY go into Cyrodil to get the training quest done and get the mount boost from the passive.

I harvest all my own materials to be self sufficient and run with gear that I can make on my own or acquire on my own through questing or soloing content.

I have run through Cadwell's gold on all 15 of my characters and STILL read the books, listen to most of the quests, and really try to FEEL the game while I play (if you know what I mean}.

I am hardly alone in playing this way.

I would be what ZoS considers a casual player.

This is so me, couldn't of said it better myself.

AlanTheStarLord · September 2022

M_Volsung wrote: »

Hardly "everyone"...

I've been playing since 2017 and I have never once done any pvp, I loathe it to a depth you wouldn't believe.

How can you loathe something you've never experienced?

dmnqwk · September 2022

ghastley wrote: »

dmnqwk wrote: »

Here's a good definition to use:

Casual players complete content in a way that is neither regularly scheduled nor rigorously enforced'.

Oh dear, does that disqualify me as a casual, because of our monthly guild meetings? Or are we saved, because a lot of the members don’t turn up? I suspect a lot of players wanted “Skyrim with friends” when they signed up, and that is still something the game does well. You can play solo, or with just a companion’s help, or you can run a dungeon with a friend and two companions, or …

There is content for every play style, and I don’t blame ZOS for making the mixture of content match the mixture of players. Now if they could just keep the people who annoy me out of PUGs …

You are saved. Hallelujah!

blacksghost · September 2022

I’m the definition (imho) of a casual player. I casually crash too often to get vet content done or keep up with the speed freaks. I casually accept I’m never going to dressed in the best gear of the moment. And I casually cannot treat eso like a job of work.
I get bored I get frustrated and I get left behind but I still, weirdly, keep playing.

goldenarcher1 · September 2022

Bouldercleave wrote: »

I've been in game for the entire time it has been live and I have yet to set foot in a trial, or do any significant vet content - it just doesn't interest me. I also ONLY go into Cyrodil to get the training quest done and get the mount boost from the passive.

I harvest all my own materials to be self sufficient and run with gear that I can make on my own or acquire on my own through questing or soloing content.

I have run through Cadwell's gold on all 15 of my characters and STILL read the books, listen to most of the quests, and really try to FEEL the game while I play (if you know what I mean}.

I am hardly alone in playing this way.

I would be what ZoS considers a casual player.

No.