State of the game? (Player participation)

moleculardrugs · October 2022

I have a lot of friends who stopped playing ESO but that might just be because life comes first and they’re higher CP so they moved on from the game or took a break like a lot of players do. But I have friends who have been inactive for more than a month on my FL…

A lot of people in Zone chat complain about the U36 update but then again, people will always find something to complain about.

Guild sales for are down for my guilds. The only thing that sells now are usually mats or items that can be resold by other traders for a higher price. Previously, things like gear were highly sought after but now it seems like people don’t want to buy gear that used to be BiS.

PvP in Cyrodiil has less people participating than in recent months. This may be because of the amount of people the server lets into Cyrodiil though.

I’m just wondering the state of the game?

I play on Stadia and recently it was announced that Stadia will close in January. I do have a PC but I will probably need to upgrade it for a better one to play the game with better visual settings.

What do you think? Is the game set for growth or are we seeing a decrease in player growth or participantion?

Kingsindarkness · October 2022

The state of the game depends on what you want...

For the vast majority of players, the game is perfectly fine....Raiders "disagree"

And we get at least Ten "State of the game threads a week" Most of which end up getting locked over bickering.

FluffyBird · October 2022

Well... It's only my personal opinion, but with that amount of sloppy work and formulaic reskinned content I doubt that there's growth.

Eiregirl · October 2022

I think the game is fine.

The guilds are doing well.
Plenty of things to do in the game with my high CP characters and my latest fresh character (i love all the quests).
No matter what I am doing I see plenty of other people playing around me.
I don't PVP so I can't comment on that but others in my guilds do and I have not heard any complaints from them.
It is easy to get into trials when I want to so I have no problems there but I can't speak to leaderboard chasers because I could care less about chasing leaderboards.

It is a fun game in my opinion, but you know what they say about opinions and...

Tandor · October 2022

The game is fine for most players, as you will see if you read a selection of the doomsday threads that have appeared regularly since March 2014 when the game launched and was first said to be going to be killed off by what at that time was an unreleased game which has itself long since closed down. Hardcore PvPers and competitive PvEers will in some cases take a different view, but for most players it continues to do well in terms of both content and population.

SaffronCitrusflower · October 2022

moleculardrugs wrote: »

I have a lot of friends who stopped playing ESO but that might just be because life comes first and they’re higher CP so they moved on from the game or took a break like a lot of players do. But I have friends who have been inactive for more than a month on my FL…

A lot of people in Zone chat complain about the U36 update but then again, people will always find something to complain about.

Guild sales for are down for my guilds. The only thing that sells now are usually mats or items that can be resold by other traders for a higher price. Previously, things like gear were highly sought after but now it seems like people don’t want to buy gear that used to be BiS.

PvP in Cyrodiil has less people participating than in recent months. This may be because of the amount of people the server lets into Cyrodiil though.

I’m just wondering the state of the game?

I play on Stadia and recently it was announced that Stadia will close in January. I do have a PC but I will probably need to upgrade it for a better one to play the game with better visual settings.

What do you think? Is the game set for growth or are we seeing a decrease in player growth or participantion?

If you look around and google post U35 builds and how to's for new trials and dungeons you will see there basically aren't any.

End game players, for the most part, have given up on the game. ESO has moved too far toward being solely for casual questers who are not interested in challenging content. Now days ESO caters almost exclusively to crown store shinies for the rp'rs, casuals and not much else. Most end game trial and PvP leads have moved on. They still play some, but they don't take the time to write tutorials or posts builds. U35 was, in many ways, the straw that broke the camels back for the end game community.

It doesn't help that anyone who posts about this on the forum gets dog piled for pointing out this reality.

Cazador · October 2022

The game is still doing fine, despite the what the doomsaying threads that basically copy paste from each other say.
There are plenty of new players but I think people forget how overwhelming the game can be if you're new and how unlikely new players are to speak up in in zone/ in guilds. Plenty of new players don't have a background with mmos and may not be used to the social aspect of them.
As for what you said about gear sales, you kind of answered that one yourself. That gear used to be best in slot, but no longer is, plus with the stickerbook the need to farm gear has decreased considerably.
As for pvp, if you recall we had a midyear mayhem a couple months back. Cyrodill hits its peak during those and drops off in months following.

Kingsindarkness · October 2022

SaffronCitrusflower wrote: »

moleculardrugs wrote: »

I have a lot of friends who stopped playing ESO but that might just be because life comes first and they’re higher CP so they moved on from the game or took a break like a lot of players do. But I have friends who have been inactive for more than a month on my FL…

A lot of people in Zone chat complain about the U36 update but then again, people will always find something to complain about.

Guild sales for are down for my guilds. The only thing that sells now are usually mats or items that can be resold by other traders for a higher price. Previously, things like gear were highly sought after but now it seems like people don’t want to buy gear that used to be BiS.

PvP in Cyrodiil has less people participating than in recent months. This may be because of the amount of people the server lets into Cyrodiil though.

I’m just wondering the state of the game?

I play on Stadia and recently it was announced that Stadia will close in January. I do have a PC but I will probably need to upgrade it for a better one to play the game with better visual settings.

What do you think? Is the game set for growth or are we seeing a decrease in player growth or participantion?

If you look around and google post U35 builds and how to's for new trials and dungeons you will see there basically aren't any.

End game players, for the most part, have given up on the game. ESO has moved too far toward being solely for casual questers who are not interested in challenging content. Now days ESO caters almost exclusively to crown store shinies for the rp'rs, casuals and not much else. Most end game trial and PvP leads have moved on. They still play some, but they don't take the time to write tutorials or posts builds. U35 was, in many ways, the straw that broke the camels back for the end game community.

It doesn't help that anyone who posts about this on the forum gets dog piled for pointing out this reality.

27 Dungeons of Multiple Difficulties for group only 12 trials of multiple Difficulties for Group only Countless World bosses for group only, a Guild System that none can sell if they are not part of the group...Casuals get a few hours of content a year nothing more.

Yep all about the casuals.

The problem is it's never enough...vets won't be happy until all overland content is Group required...

radiostar · October 2022

Getting kicked by game from some group content where skills are used "too fast" and have to wait to get back in because games says "account already logged in".

PapaTankers · October 2022

27 Dungeons of Multiple Difficulties for group only 12 trials of multiple Difficulties for Group only Countless World bosses for group only, a Guild System that none can sell if they are not part of the group...Casuals get a few hours of content a year nothing more.

Yep all about the casuals.

The problem is it's never enough...vets won't be happy until all overland content is Group required...

2350 quests completable for a solo player, 42 zones all with their own storylines, countless world bosses that you can solo

Believe me, vets are perfectly fine with solo players and casual players doing their own thing.

Have you participated in dungeon ques lately? 27 dungeons where you have to wait a hour to get into , because noone bothers to do them anymore, due to lack of rewards.

rpa · October 2022

I only can commit time to play casual and soloable content out of prime time and the game works mostly just fine. (Some hiccups happen, nothing which a /reloaui, relog, restart or logging off and coming back later have not resolved.)

Shadesofkin · October 2022

While I will admit that I'm tired of Crown Store stuff being offered to us, I think the game's largely fine...Both my guilds are operating actively and we have plenty of chatting on discord about events, and people show up for the things they wanna show up for.

But there's definitely been a loss of raiders and competitive pve players...not a huge one, but enough to notice.

I can't comment on pvp because if tomorrow Cyrodil turned into an entire pve zone I'd rejoice

Arcanasx · October 2022

Kingsindarkness wrote: »

SaffronCitrusflower wrote: »

moleculardrugs wrote: »

I have a lot of friends who stopped playing ESO but that might just be because life comes first and they’re higher CP so they moved on from the game or took a break like a lot of players do. But I have friends who have been inactive for more than a month on my FL…

A lot of people in Zone chat complain about the U36 update but then again, people will always find something to complain about.

Guild sales for are down for my guilds. The only thing that sells now are usually mats or items that can be resold by other traders for a higher price. Previously, things like gear were highly sought after but now it seems like people don’t want to buy gear that used to be BiS.

PvP in Cyrodiil has less people participating than in recent months. This may be because of the amount of people the server lets into Cyrodiil though.

I’m just wondering the state of the game?

I play on Stadia and recently it was announced that Stadia will close in January. I do have a PC but I will probably need to upgrade it for a better one to play the game with better visual settings.

What do you think? Is the game set for growth or are we seeing a decrease in player growth or participantion?

If you look around and google post U35 builds and how to's for new trials and dungeons you will see there basically aren't any.

End game players, for the most part, have given up on the game. ESO has moved too far toward being solely for casual questers who are not interested in challenging content. Now days ESO caters almost exclusively to crown store shinies for the rp'rs, casuals and not much else. Most end game trial and PvP leads have moved on. They still play some, but they don't take the time to write tutorials or posts builds. U35 was, in many ways, the straw that broke the camels back for the end game community.

It doesn't help that anyone who posts about this on the forum gets dog piled for pointing out this reality.

27 Dungeons of Multiple Difficulties for group only 12 trials of multiple Difficulties for Group only Countless World bosses for group only, a Guild System that none can sell if they are not part of the group...Casuals get a few hours of content a year nothing more.

Yep all about the casuals.

The problem is it's never enough...vets won't be happy until all overland content is Group required...

So joining a random group for normal fungal grotto 1 has you lose "casual" status and puts you in the vet category now?

FluffyBird · October 2022

Kingsindarkness wrote: »

27 Dungeons of Multiple Difficulties for group only 12 trials of multiple Difficulties for Group only Countless World bosses for group only, a Guild System that none can sell if they are not part of the group...Casuals get a few hours of content a year nothing more.

Yep all about the casuals.

The problem is it's never enough...vets won't be happy until all overland content is Group required...

1 casual difficulty (normal), where some dungeons even a casual can solo
1 vet difficulty that's still pretty casual for base game dungeons
1 vet HM for non-casuals
Seems fair.

Then, bringing up WBs is silly, that's overland. Most of them are easily soloable, all of them are doable in a group.

I don't understand that one about guilds. Are you talking about casual or strictly solo? That's like comparing soft and warm. Different things. Also guilds have nothing to do with "hours of content".

ESO is very casual-friendly and very solo-friendly and I'm saying that as a casual who legit panicked when first wrote "LFG" in Craglorn chat. We all get the same "few hours of content", we just consume it differently. I don't count thousands of runs for some vet HM trifecta as additional content (unless I'm learning new swear words while watching those runs on Twitch)

SeaGtGruff · October 2022

As far as Cyrodiil, the population can vary wildly depending on time of day, day of the week, and which server you're on.

Earlier this weekend there were so many players in Cyrodiil that both CP campaigns had long queues to get in, so I ended up having to play in the no-CP campaign. And it looked like one PvP streamer ended up playing BGs because he couldn't get into Cyrodiil. IIRC this was Friday night for USA time zones, or Saturday morning for European and Asian time zones, so it was a time when a lot of people were awake and wanting to play.

At other times there are very few players on and you can get into Cyrodiil without waiting in queue.

So depending on what you want to go to Cyrodiil for-- PvP action or PvE questing-- you can do either one pretty successfully as long as you choose your time carefully, although you might not be able to do it whenever you want.

FeedbackOnly · October 2022

It was update 35. The fact is it was poorly implemented not to mention that Twitter post that wasn't appropriate.

Dr_Con · October 2022

Some reasons to explain the state of the game

there is some U35 hysteria still

People suffer from confirmation bias- people see one part of the game is failing or not doing so well (maybe some Craglorn instance being empty) or looking for a vamp bite and no response and they add it to their pile of "Game is dead" reasons.

PVP-
Cyrodiil meta changing to a meta that damages the servers and makes other unable to play even with less players. Dev response is to make sets that remove stacking debuffs and grant flat healing, but they do nothing to address stacking HOTs and how this leads to crashing and instability. Players may want less lag go to other campaigns, but see that the meta is similar or the same there. This meta is on console as well as EU and now more than ever people are crying for server upgrades and saying there's latency and stability issues.
If I could demonstrate to ZOS that healstacking is crashing players without getting a ban I'd do it.
Cap on players will not be increased since this stability issue will not be addressed. People have cognitive dissonance and reasoning that if ZOS didn't want heal stacking to be possible they wouldn't have it in the game, "and if you can stack damage why can't I stack hots" completely ignoring that DOTs can be cleansed, damage can be mitigated, but nothing can be done about vigor hitting 12+ people in one cast and 12+ people casting it on the same spot in 1 GCD to have 144+ outputs and all the stress they are causing to the server that causes people to crash. these people should enjoy it while they can, and ZOS needs to implement some healing changes (either how it is processed or lower the number of heal statuses received).

BGs-
BG meta for Crazy King/Domination/Capture the Relic overwhelmingly favoring people with unkillable tank sets leading to less participation there.

Trials-
I do trials just fine, there are many people switching from console who need to get their CP up but they know how to play the game and are doing very well. Others could do with learning their dps roles a bit better or reading about encounters ahead of time for vet content.

SilverBride · October 2022

PapaTankers wrote: »

2350 quests completable for a solo player, 42 zones all with their own storylines, countless world bosses that you can solo...

2350 quests completable for everyone, 43 zones all with their own storylines for everyone, countless world bosses that you can solo for everyone.

kargen27 · October 2022

"If you look around and google post U35 builds and how to's for new trials and dungeons you will see there basically aren't any."

Alcast, Hack the Minotaur, Dottz Gaming, Arzyel and skinnycheeks all have Lost Depths updates for builds.

markulrich1966 · October 2022

Had bought 10 golden Mothers Sorrow rings not long before U35, they now are golden junk, as my crit setups result in very weak heavy staff attacks. I have to replace the gear on many of my 72 characters, so yeah, U35 can be frustrating.

On the other hand, once a character is "updated" (I currently favour heavy attack builds), I enjoy playing them MORE than before U35.

So U35 was a mix of frustration and excitement for me, and I guess many others will have a similar experience.

On xbox, the situation is as usual: EU in coma, NA overcrowded.
Guild sales went down for me, but I guess this has other reasons, like that we got no free houses lately (I mainly sell structural furnishings). And there is more competion, other underbid me more often, an indicator of an *increased* amount of players.

Steamcharts seem stable so far, a slight decline over the last 3 months, despite event marathon, but not enough decline to be "dramatic". Might still be an aftereffect of covid, people spend less time at home now gaming.

auz · October 2022

SilverBride wrote: »

PapaTankers wrote: »

2350 quests completable for a solo player, 42 zones all with their own storylines, countless world bosses that you can solo...

2350 quests completable for everyone, 43 zones all with their own storylines for everyone, countless world bosses that you can solo for everyone.

Trust me, those 2350 quests and 42 zones are not for everyone. You can keep them. I moved from console to pc, have played for 5 years, I think, since one tamriel, and have still not completed all the quests in any zone. But, I have done the majority of hms in the game. I have most of the trial skins and have spent way to much of my life in Cyrodiil and bgs, way too many hours in front of a test dummy.

If the overland content and quests and zones are for everyone, then so is pvp and trials and dungeons.

As for is the game dying, it depends on what you want. If you want to quest and rp, the game seems fine, based solely on what others are saying, I haven't experienced that side. Zos definitely seems to cater to this part of the game, unsurprisingly, it is an rpg, after all. I haven't run trials for a long time either, but I hear they are bleeding players.

From a pvp perspective, it seems like less players than before update 35. That doesn't necessarily mean the game is dying. I still have faith, zos can turn it around with a few well thought out changes, but if they get it wrong again, it will be hard. In my opinion.

SaffronCitrusflower · October 2022

kargen27 wrote: »

"If you look around and google post U35 builds and how to's for new trials and dungeons you will see there basically aren't any."

Alcast, Hack the Minotaur, Dottz Gaming, Arzyel and skinnycheeks all have Lost Depths updates for builds.

You must not check those pages very often. Those are all the same builds that were posted prior to U35. They just changed the titles on their web pages.

In other words, there is no way to get back the dps/performance that was taken away with U35, so there are no changes to the pre U35 builds for the most part.

SilverBride · October 2022

auz wrote: »

Trust me, those 2350 quests and 42 zones are not for everyone. You can keep them. I moved from console to pc, have played for 5 years, I think, since one tamriel, and have still not completed all the quests in any zone.

That is by choice, not by design. These things are available for everyone to experience. Some players will choose to do them, others won't, but they were still designed so everyone could do them.

auz wrote: »

If the overland content and quests and zones are for everyone, then so is pvp and trials and dungeons.

That is partially true. Every player has the ability to experience these if they choose but the difference is that these were designed specifically for those who seek a challenge.

auz · October 2022

It is all choice. Pvp can be played and enjoyed by anyone that chooses too. As can dungeons and trials. I am not sure how can say one is choice by design and the other is not. The mantra of the game is play how you want. If I had not discovered pvp and dungeons and people to play them with, I would not have made it out of glenumbra. If the game was only questing I never would have bought my first MMO. People not engaging in pvp are making the same choice made when I abandoned quests to farm skyshards.

Billium813 · October 2022

auz wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

PapaTankers wrote: »

2350 quests completable for a solo player, 42 zones all with their own storylines, countless world bosses that you can solo...

2350 quests completable for everyone, 43 zones all with their own storylines for everyone, countless world bosses that you can solo for everyone.

Trust me, those 2350 quests and 42 zones are not for everyone. You can keep them. I moved from console to pc, have played for 5 years, I think, since one tamriel, and have still not completed all the quests in any zone. But, I have done the majority of hms in the game. I have most of the trial skins and have spent way to much of my life in Cyrodiil and bgs, way too many hours in front of a test dummy.

IMO, ESO is an RPG questing game, with additional PvP content. Just because you may not want to play PvE doesn't mean you can fault ESO for having not enough content. Those 2350 quests and 42 zones are a massive piece of content and the main selling point of the game! This isn't New Worlds where the game is centered around PvP, with PvE elements added. I have played since 2014 and have completed nearly all the quests. But that's because I enjoy that MASSIVE part of the game. Don't fault a game just because it doesn't entirely cater to your specific taste

auz · October 2022

Billium813 wrote: »

auz wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

PapaTankers wrote: »

2350 quests completable for a solo player, 42 zones all with their own storylines, countless world bosses that you can solo...

2350 quests completable for everyone, 43 zones all with their own storylines for everyone, countless world bosses that you can solo for everyone.

Trust me, those 2350 quests and 42 zones are not for everyone. You can keep them. I moved from console to pc, have played for 5 years, I think, since one tamriel, and have still not completed all the quests in any zone. But, I have done the majority of hms in the game. I have most of the trial skins and have spent way to much of my life in Cyrodiil and bgs, way too many hours in front of a test dummy.

IMO, ESO is an RPG questing game, with additional PvP content. Just because you may not want to play PvE doesn't mean you can fault ESO for having not enough content. Those 2350 quests and 42 zones are a massive piece of content and the main selling point of the game! This isn't New Worlds where the game is centered around PvP, with PvE elements added. I have played since 2014 and have completed nearly all the quests. But that's because I enjoy that MASSIVE part of the game. Don't fault a game just because it doesn't entirely cater to your specific taste

To be fair, Cyrodiil was a big selling point when I bought the game. The ads on tv were full of hype for 100 v 100 battles and vids of castles being seized. I am not begrudging any questers or overflow of overland content. You do do you. And what you do, and what you enjoy doesn't effect me in the slightest, so I am happy for you, that you have the game you want. But... I have put thousands of hours and dollars into a game, because I enjoyed it. I am a paying customer, and I am not saying zos owes me, because they don't, but I am allowed an opinion on the game. I am allowed to voice my opinion, concerns and dissatisfaction of the game I bought and invested in. Saying otherwise is ridiculous. And I really don't see how me saying, from my perspective, the game is not as good as it used to be, effects you.

Play how you want, means I can play my way and you can play yours. Each should be valid. Questing and rp are obviously bigger crowd pleasers and should validly be treated as such. But it feels like pvp is completely ignored, and that sucks.

spartaxoxo · October 2022

PvP is in maintenance mode right now because it's getting a huge and very expensive string of fixes. It's not being ignored, it's just not going to get new content until performance is fixed. Nobody is saying you have no right to complain, but expecting new content when they can't add it right now and explicitly stated as much is just gonna lead to disappointment.

Amottica · October 2022

Kingsindarkness wrote: »

SaffronCitrusflower wrote: »

moleculardrugs wrote: »

I have a lot of friends who stopped playing ESO but that might just be because life comes first and they’re higher CP so they moved on from the game or took a break like a lot of players do. But I have friends who have been inactive for more than a month on my FL…

A lot of people in Zone chat complain about the U36 update but then again, people will always find something to complain about.

Guild sales for are down for my guilds. The only thing that sells now are usually mats or items that can be resold by other traders for a higher price. Previously, things like gear were highly sought after but now it seems like people don’t want to buy gear that used to be BiS.

PvP in Cyrodiil has less people participating than in recent months. This may be because of the amount of people the server lets into Cyrodiil though.

I’m just wondering the state of the game?

I play on Stadia and recently it was announced that Stadia will close in January. I do have a PC but I will probably need to upgrade it for a better one to play the game with better visual settings.

What do you think? Is the game set for growth or are we seeing a decrease in player growth or participantion?

If you look around and google post U35 builds and how to's for new trials and dungeons you will see there basically aren't any.

End game players, for the most part, have given up on the game. ESO has moved too far toward being solely for casual questers who are not interested in challenging content. Now days ESO caters almost exclusively to crown store shinies for the rp'rs, casuals and not much else. Most end game trial and PvP leads have moved on. They still play some, but they don't take the time to write tutorials or posts builds. U35 was, in many ways, the straw that broke the camels back for the end game community.

It doesn't help that anyone who posts about this on the forum gets dog piled for pointing out this reality.

Casuals get a few hours of content a year nothing more.

Most of the content we get every year is well-suited for casuals. There are many story quests and zones to explore on top of each dungeon and trial has a normal version that tends to be ideal for casual players who are not up for more challenging content.

spartaxoxo · October 2022

Normal mode of dlc trials and dungeons is mid-tier content moreso than casual imo, the casuals complain a lot about those dungeons in their queue. And the queue time and need for bribes tells me that they aren't doing that stuff.

WiseSky · October 2022

The state of flute playing was amazing yesterday.

barney2525 · October 2022

The State of the game... for me ... is Alaska