Lengthy Rant Parental Advisory

I've been debating with myself over the last couple of days about whether to write this or not, and I think I'll just give it a shot. Think of it as a tired review. Or a rant. Or a filthy casual complaining. Take it as you will. I only want to preface this by saying that I do not write any of this out out of hate. Except the Crown Store section.

I'm going to start by giving the Devil his due, with the positives. ESO is by far one of the most immersive MMORPGs I have ever played. The amount of attention to detail and that of condensed quality content in each zone, both vanilla and DLC, is astounding. The consistent voice acting, the level design, the delves and public dungeons, the gathering system, the bards and the inns, the lore books, the characters, they all put most other MMOs to shame. Even Final Fantasy 14, which is my personal favorite MMO doesn't hold up to the level of immersion that ESO has, despite the quality of its story. The cat girls running around in maid outfits and the mechanical feel of the vast majority of areas certainly don't help its case.

The quality of the stories in DLC zones has only gotten better over the years, if perhaps despite the constant looming threat of world-ending proportions that somewhat loses its impact after a few times. The graphical fidelity has gotten a lot better. The lighting and the color palette have always confounded me with how gorgeous they are in ESO. I can easily jump into the game for hours on end and feel like I'm playing a very, very good single-player RPG. I haven't felt this connected with an MMO in a very, very long time.

This being said, however, I'll just jump to the real reason for writing this. A few days ago two things came as news to me that were the "cherry on top", if you will. I had discovered how the companion system locks you out of your companions on separate characters despite the differentiation between how content is accessed through ESO+ and individual DLC purchases. I will get to this later. I also stumbled upon a video of the new gathering animations they plan to monetize through even more loot boxes, which made me laugh uncontrollably for several minutes to hide the massive amount of cringe causing my soul to unravel painfully within me.

The Number of DLC packs.

A few years ago, purchasing a DLC gave you access to either one or two extra story zones like Wrothgar and Vvardenfell, or gave you access to one of the niche guild systems of the Dark Brotherhood and the Thieves' Guild. That is fine. The base game is massive in itself and, while the story content in it isn't quite as well-done as the one in the aforementioned areas, I don't think many people batted an eye because of it. Years passed though, and the amount of DLC zones has increased enormously. I believe that the amount of DLC content that ESO has today is comparable to the amount of its vanilla content. Dungeons were also launched as a separate short story, a few cool achievements and maybe a fancy hat to unlock. That is FINE.

I believe my issues began after Summerset. The fact that the Clockwork City was a separate DLC from Summerset that was also interconnected with Vvardenfell and the Summerset chapter itself in an overarching story didn't sit quite right with me and with the fact that I had to spend an extra buck on it, despite its significantly smaller size. Being a lore geek also didn't help since my OCD would have gone nuts if I hadn't completed CC as well for the continuity aspect, but that's just me. Again, all that was (somewhat) fine. Perhaps I'm being a bit unreasonable.

Once Elsweyr launched however, a plethora of fragmented "optional" DLC content began to launch with it. Dungeon DLCs, a separate Chapter, a small Zone DLC, more dungeons. Today we have Summerset, Elsweyr, Greymoor, Blackwood and High Isle. Each of these is fragmented into its own chapter, its own interconnected dungeons, its own 'optional' smaller zone DLC that concludes the overarching story, and even more dungeons in between. It's easy, for me at least, to see that what was optional a long while ago has been turned into an unnecessarily lengthy amalgamation of various avenues for monetization. This is particularly harsh when you realize that these 'optional' additions to the game come with some of the more polished group content there is, and with some of the better sets of gear you can collect through pure gameplay, instead of sitting on an external website to hunt the pieces off various Guild Traders.

DC Universe is the prime example of this kind of content fragmentation. There is a point at which enough content gets added to a game where it becomes a tangled web of what's what, at which the question of which content is more 'worth it' arises, and at which you might as well just grab a subscription and spare yourself the hassle. And even that is fine. My biggest problem, and one I've had with most MMORPGs, is when the base game is a separate purchase, when there is an 'optional' subscription that becomes less optional over the years as more premium content gets added to the game (and don't even get me started on the crafting bag, that's just low hanging fruit), and when, on top of that, the game also launches expansions every year that cost as much as a triple-A RPG which get added next year to the optional subscription as well to make space for the new one, which I have always been against because it feels like a metaphorical slap in the face for anybody who actually does purchase the Chapter at full price.

I think it's fair to say that all the optional content present in ESO today is a lot less optional than it was years ago, and combined with how fragmented it is and with the different ways of purchasing it, it raises the question of "well, is ESO a buy-to-play game with extra story, or is it a monthly subscription MMO"? FFXIV is subscription based with an initial purchase that also acts as a first-month sub, and sells its expansions somewhat yearly for a consistent price and for a consistent amount of content without fragmenting it. WoW works on the same principle. Guild Wars 2 sells its expansions separately but doesn't have a monthly sub, and makes its money off a plethora of directly purchasable cosmetics. ZOS has been very careful to blur the line between the two approaches and treads very lightly along them so that you can't really make a case for either, but while both are somehow true, which brings me to my next point.

The New Companion System

I think it's necessary to say before I go any further, and perhaps I should have mentioned this earlier, that I have only recently got back into the game, about more than a month ago. I'm not a new player by any means, I just have a tendency to come and go between MMOs and cycle between them regularly. As I've mentioned in the first section, I have discovered a while ago the way the companion system works. You go do a quest, you unlock him or her in your collections, and summon them without any mention of you having done the mission together. It's a very cool addition, though it feels a little impersonal due to how they don't mention the little adventure you've had not so long ago, as if you've just bought a mercenary rather than bonded with a fellow adventurer.

Anyway, since I'm playing exclusively on ESO+, I was hyped to get to have some companions to use even in case I return to the game one day without a sub. Ah - but...yeah. As it turns out, the companions unlock in the same manner as you unlock a pet, a collectible or a mount, but they are not usable in the same manner as a pet, a collectible or a mount. You must unlock each individual companion on each individual character that you have. I was saddened by this, because it felt to me like an unnecessary gatekeeping mechanism for a very niche addition to the game due to how the payment model of ESO and all of its DLCs works. What made it worse (if perhaps a bit insulting as a consumer) was the options one has to work around this. You can buy ESO+ and just play without those restrictions for as long as you want, and accept the fact that at some point in the future there may come a time where, for one reason or another, you won't be able to use a companion on one of your new characters. Or you can simply buy that one Chapter separately despite not purchasing the others, for one ten minute quest to unlock something you already own once more, on top of the game also showing that companion as being already unlocked on that new character. This creates another problem further down the line, because if one chooses to go for the separate purchase approach then there is no way to guarantee a consistent ownership of your companions from all the other future Chapters and zone DLCs that might come due to the extreme fragmentation I've mentioned above. So the question is raised again: is the monthly subscription optional or is it not after all? I don't have to unlock a pet, or a house, or a mount on every character. Why must I do so for a companion?

On a different note, I also gave some thought to the fact that I'm simply complaining about, like I said, a very niche addition to the game. You could argue that it's not a needed mechanic at all, and it is of little use other than having a dress-up mannequin that follows you around. But then the thought of recent balance changes and the overall complaint I've read in various places came to mind, that of "they're trying to make the open world combat take longer on purpose". Now don't get me wrong, I believe ESO has only two difficulty levels: trivial and hardcore, but I find it difficult to not be at least a bit suspicious of why some nerfs are being done, if not to make space for an additional source of DPS in the open world, since group content is not so easily affected to the same extent. On top of that, there is also the thought of "are companions really needed if the game is this easy in the first place?". You can see where my skepticism comes from.

It's a combination of slightly increased artificial difficulty in certain bits of content by nerfing the players consistently, and a very bizarre and dodgy gatekeeping mechanism put in place to limit your access to that which might be "needed" for things like soloing World Bosses and some of the more accessible Dungeons, a.k.a the companions themselves. It feels like composing your own song and being asked to pay to listen to it. Speaking of difficulty...

The Group Finder Structure and the Difficulty Curve

I don't think its controversial to say that anything but the DLC veteran content in ESO is completely trivial. The game enforces this strange equality-of-outcome approach to its open world content, to the point that a vast majority of it is insultingly easy for anyone over 300CP. The game is only ever remotely 'difficult' to new players who have not yet unlocked their Champion Points system. This falls into a very strange relationship with how endgame content is accessed. On one hand, the non-DLC dungeons, both veteran and non-veteran, are extremely easy, to the point where the Normal Difficulty ones are no more than easily solo-able glorified Delves. On the other hand, the Normal Difficulty DLC Dungeons are as difficult as a non-DLC Veteran, while the Veteran DLC Dungeons are in a league of their own, requiring properly optimized builds and proper gear sets to tackle reasonably. Though for some reason they are combined under the same queues for the Daily Reward. This system worked years ago when the only difficult dungeons placed under the same queue as non-DLC ones were those from the Mazzatun DLC, Dragon Bones and Blood of the Reach and the chances of one of them popping was significantly lower. Today this creates some issues.

A new player, assuming ownership of ESO+ for the sake of this argument, put in a Normal or Veteran Non-DLC Dungeon will have an awful time trying to touch an enemy or a boss before the other two or three likely experienced players in the group have already managed to obliterate the entire bloodline and all its future generations of poor tiny spiders guarding the Whisperer with one rotation. This makes the game appear outdated and cheap and the power creep significant, and makes for one of those "just run through bro" situations which I'm confident a good number of people have experienced a few times in their gamer lives.

By the same approach, a new player dropped in a Normal or Veteran DLC Dungeon will likely hold the entire group back due to them not having a properly developed build at that point. This inevitably leads to a waste of people's time, to harsh bans and toxicity and possibly a messed up incomplete Daily Pledge for whoever else happens to get dropped in at the wrong place and time.

I think there are enough DLC dungeons at this point to say that they number the same as what the entire roster was a few years ago, while the chances of one of the harder Dungeons popping is significantly increased. Just a week ago I happened to get Earthen Root Conclave for my Veteran, and due to the Tank being low CP and one of the DPSs dying constantly, we just wiped once at the first boss and everyone left without a word. This is all very unpleasant. Endgame content should be a challenging and (if possible) constant experience, not a daily lucky wheel of "I hope everyone is 900CP+ this time in CASE we get the hard stuff!".

Aside from the discrepancy of the difficulty of the content put under the same queue, there is also something to be said about the process of gearing up itself that a new player must go through to be able to do well in the 'proper' content. Like I said, ESO is either trivial or hardcore, and the tedious slog that everyone must go through to farm the gear sets they need by spending days or weeks running through the dumbfoundingly easy Normal Dungeons just so they can hope to stand a chance in the content that's actually fun and groups of enemies can't be one-shot by a guy spamming Whirlwind is unacceptable. Not to even mention that the actual difficulty of anything BUT the 'proper' endgame content does absolutely nothing to prepare a player for the mechanics they might encounter later. Normal Dungeons may give you the gear but they won't give you the experience, and I think this is a problem that's gotten out of hand.

As for the Difficulty Curve of the game overall, I wish the devs could introduce something like a World Tier system, tied to the player's CP level. I'm not going to pretend I know how they'd do that, but I think it would be very nice if they somehow did. I would love to be able to play within a WT where my story bosses were at least Normal Dungeon difficulty with actual damage that can kill me. As of right now, I doubt there's a single thing in ESO's open world that can actually kill me, and I find it rather sad that some devs spend so much time making animations for new enemies in newer DLCs just so that players can shoot them with a fireball out of a glowing stick and not see any of them. I have to purposely unsummon my Warden's Bear and get rid of my companion whenever I get to a boss just so I can run around and hope they do some cool stuff. It kills immersion like nothing else I've ever seen, and I think it's a massive waste of potential and a bit insulting to the animation team.

The Crown Store Content (or lack thereof???)

Dresses. Plenty of dresses. ESO's Crown Store can be easily described as a Drag Queen's paradise. I've been looking for something, anything to spend my ESO+ monthly Crowns on and I simply cannot find anything worth it aside from DLCs, and I've already mentioned the gripes I have with that. The outfits are all either some ugly Argonian attire or a dress. The mounts are so unbearably 'normal' that it's fascinating to me that they are in fact Cash Shop content and not obtainable in-game. The latest "black horse with white mane" they added recently didn't make things better with how much of a spit in the face it felt like. The dyes feel like atrocious random color combinations. The Skyshards, Skill Lines, Convenience Item Packs, Name and Race Changes are such on the nose new player bait that I have difficulty being as respectful as I am right now.

I'd be willfully naive not to acknowledge how all this is intended so that people buy more Crown Crates. I don't think there's anything more to that. There is no complex issue here. Just loot boxes. I believe the devs are not trying to hide this fact anymore either, especially with how casually they've presented the new and exciting 'bird pick flower' animation toggle that may find its way inside a loot box or two. It still makes me laugh just thinking about it. The Crown Store is drier than the Alik'r and the party is being held under lock and key in a purple glowing cave (you know what I mean).

I want to also add something about the Houses and the Housing System in general, since it's directly related to Crowns. Houses are incredibly expensive. Most of the ones worth buying cost almost as much as a whole triple A trilogy. On top of that, the Housing System itself is very gatekeep-y, to the point that it was one of the things that made me as mad as the whole companion thing. Housing Items vendors do not sell the most basic items. You cannot buy a stupid table and two chairs for a default little shoe box in the middle of a swamp without either raising your crafting level and finding designs yourself or by hunting the items you want through, again, an external website that was made BY THE COMMUNITY. There is certainly something to be said about how the community seems to care more about the game's ease-of-access than the devs, clearly shown by the amount of add-ons there are and the work put into the TTC.

If you so choose to not engage with either ways of purchasing or crafting housing items, there is also the third option, the Crown Shop! [snip] You can buy absolutely every housing item in the game with Crowns, except for some exclusive ones from achievements and scrying. With Crowns. Call me unreasonable but, as I understand it, a lot of work goes into designing the 3D assets that populate an MMORPG. The fancy white marble pillars from Summerset take time and resources on the part of the devs to build, that much is obvious. What fails to make sense to me is why, despite already having paid through one means or another for that content, must one spend external currency again on those very same assets for which the player does the placing themselves inside a separate private instance? And why Crowns? What exactly decides the value of an in-game housing item that has already been designed and paid for in the past? It's not like you can make an argument about immersion and how "well, some high elf spent a lot of time building this, so it's expensive!" because we're not spending gold on the items. We're spending Crowns, [snip] [snip] Not even DC Universe or SWTOR sell basic housing items on their Cash Shops, only exclusive items and occasional event ones. [snip] A Breton Table with 4 fancy corners that looks identical to one without the 4 fancy corners is 410 Crowns. For a table. A table that would otherwise cost about 30.000 gold, or that is obtainable with a certain high combination of three different crafting skill trees to make yourself.


Overall, I think that ESO is trying to be a bit of everything and, in turn, sacrifices everything. It wants to be a monthly-subscription MMORPG, but it also wants to be buy-to-play. It wants the subscription to be optional, but it makes the game impossibly tedious with some of its systems plain impossible without it (such as crafting). It gives people ways to unlock content and then finds ways to lock it away or make it harder to access in exchange for more money. It wants to be trivial and hardcore at the same time with no in between. It wants people to be prepared for endgame content without giving them something to prepare with for that content. [snip]

I love ESO, and I find myself always coming back to it, every time with some new Chapter and a few more of the well-written characters that people love. The quality of the new content itself is exceptional, that is without a doubt. The style motif additions just keep getting better (please let me hide my shoulder pads ZOS!). [snip] There are ways to be more transparent and fair to your community without fragmenting a game's system and trying to monetize all of them separately as much as you can. I'm happy the game endures, but I'm sad by how it endures. Thank you.

TL;DR: Game gud, maybe too easy. [snip]
[edited for bashing]