Hot Take: The Alliance Hero Costumes Should Be Free For All Players
folder_rats
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For those that don't know, earlier in the year ESO did a series of golden pursuit events giving out the various Alliance Hero costumes as seen on the game website and key art and trailers for the game. Some years before this, another variant of these outfit styles were available for purchase in the crown store but were not available for many years. These two ways have been the only path to acquire these sets, and there is no way to acquire them currently.
As someone who was completely not tuned into how games industry marketing works, I bought the collector's copy of the game back in 2013 based on how cool the key art and cinematics were, and I was darn disappointed that you can never look like the badass dudes in the trailers -- which are meant to represent the player characters. In retrospect, it was a clear case of deceptive advertising. The game doesn't look like those trailers at all, and you cannot even acquire the armor (used in the main marketing imagery for over a decade now) through regular gameplay.
In my opinion, the costumes should be a main reward for having completed an Alliance questline, or be made aquireable somehow for regular players who purchased the game. I really don't mean to be scathing the studio over this, since it is a small complaint all things considered and the game is really very good, but I think something like this would be a nice gesture.
As someone who was completely not tuned into how games industry marketing works, I bought the collector's copy of the game back in 2013 based on how cool the key art and cinematics were, and I was darn disappointed that you can never look like the badass dudes in the trailers -- which are meant to represent the player characters. In retrospect, it was a clear case of deceptive advertising. The game doesn't look like those trailers at all, and you cannot even acquire the armor (used in the main marketing imagery for over a decade now) through regular gameplay.
In my opinion, the costumes should be a main reward for having completed an Alliance questline, or be made aquireable somehow for regular players who purchased the game. I really don't mean to be scathing the studio over this, since it is a small complaint all things considered and the game is really very good, but I think something like this would be a nice gesture.
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theskymoves✭✭✭✭folder_rats wrote: »For those that don't know, earlier in the year ESO did a series of golden pursuit events giving out the various Alliance Hero costumes as seen on the game website and key art and trailers for the game. Some years before this, another variant of these outfit styles were available for purchase in the crown store but were not available for many years. These two ways have been the only path to acquire these sets, and there is no way to acquire them currently.
It is incorrect to say that the three original 'Hero' costumes 'were not available for many years'.
They have appeared in the Crown Store on a fairly regular rotation since introduction.
Breton Hero Armor
Elven Hero Armor
Nord Hero Armor
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CatoUnchained✭✭✭✭✭I think the best idea would be for ZOS to give away a hero armor outfit for getting each race to level 160, when the toon of that race reached CP160.
ZOS really misses a lot of good PR by not giving away much of anything at all as in game achievements.4 -
folder_rats✭✭✭theskymoves wrote: »folder_rats wrote: »For those that don't know, earlier in the year ESO did a series of golden pursuit events giving out the various Alliance Hero costumes as seen on the game website and key art and trailers for the game. Some years before this, another variant of these outfit styles were available for purchase in the crown store but were not available for many years. These two ways have been the only path to acquire these sets, and there is no way to acquire them currently.
It is incorrect to say that the three original 'Hero' costumes 'were not available for many years'.
They have appeared in the Crown Store on a fairly regular rotation since introduction.
Breton Hero Armor
Elven Hero Armor
Nord Hero Armor
Those pages list 2021 as the most recent year they were available. That was four dang years ago. And even still, the main armor sets featured in the main marketing of the base game (which you have to pay for to start with) really shouldn't have to be bought with digital currency.1 -
folder_rats✭✭✭CatoUnchained wrote: »I think the best idea would be for ZOS to give away a hero armor outfit for getting each race to level 160, when the toon of that race reached CP160.
ZOS really misses a lot of good PR by not giving away much of anything at all as in game achievements.
Yeah as long as players can acquire the armor imagery that was used to sell the game through normal gameplay, something like this would totally be fair.Edited by folder_rats on August 11, 2025 10:18PM0 -
theskymoves✭✭✭✭folder_rats wrote: »theskymoves wrote: »folder_rats wrote: »For those that don't know, earlier in the year ESO did a series of golden pursuit events giving out the various Alliance Hero costumes as seen on the game website and key art and trailers for the game. Some years before this, another variant of these outfit styles were available for purchase in the crown store but were not available for many years. These two ways have been the only path to acquire these sets, and there is no way to acquire them currently.
It is incorrect to say that the three original 'Hero' costumes 'were not available for many years'.
They have appeared in the Crown Store on a fairly regular rotation since introduction.
Breton Hero Armor
Elven Hero Armor
Nord Hero Armor
Those pages list 2021 as the most recent year they were available. That was four dang years ago. And even still, the main armor sets featured in the main marketing of the base game (which you have to pay for to start with) really shouldn't have to be bought with digital currency.
The pages I linked show the costumes as available in April 2025, April 2024, April 2023, and April 2022.
These are the Crown Store Showcase articles since 2019 highlighting the availability of the costumes:
Crown Store Showcase April 2025
Crown Store Showcase April 2024
Crown Store Showcase April 2023
Crown Store Showcase April 2022 (Breton Hero only)
Crown Store Showcase May 2022 (Nord Hero only)
Crown Store Showcase June 2022 (Elven Hero only)
Crown Store Showcase April 2021
Crown Store Showcase April 2020
Crown Store Showcase April 2019
All three costumes have also been available (as recently as June 2024) from Dwarven Crates.
Edited by theskymoves on August 12, 2025 1:53AM2 -
folder_rats✭✭✭theskymoves wrote: »folder_rats wrote: »theskymoves wrote: »folder_rats wrote: »For those that don't know, earlier in the year ESO did a series of golden pursuit events giving out the various Alliance Hero costumes as seen on the game website and key art and trailers for the game. Some years before this, another variant of these outfit styles were available for purchase in the crown store but were not available for many years. These two ways have been the only path to acquire these sets, and there is no way to acquire them currently.
It is incorrect to say that the three original 'Hero' costumes 'were not available for many years'.
They have appeared in the Crown Store on a fairly regular rotation since introduction.
Breton Hero Armor
Elven Hero Armor
Nord Hero Armor
Those pages list 2021 as the most recent year they were available. That was four dang years ago. And even still, the main armor sets featured in the main marketing of the base game (which you have to pay for to start with) really shouldn't have to be bought with digital currency.
The pages I linked show the costumes as available in April 2025, April 2024, April 2023, and April 2022.
These are the Crown Store Showcase articles since 2019 highlighting the availability of the costumes:
Crown Store Showcase April 2025
Crown Store Showcase April 2024
Crown Store Showcase April 2023
Crown Store Showcase April 2022 (Breton Hero only)
Crown Store Showcase May 2022 (Nord Hero only)
Crown Store Showcase June 2022 (Elven Hero only)
Crown Store Showcase April 2021
Crown Store Showcase April 2020
Crown Store Showcase April 2019
All three costumes have also been available (as recently as June 2024) from Dwarven Crates.
You are totally right. My phone only showed me the top paragraph of that page that lists 2021 as most recent, which is what I thought you were referencing. Apologies.
Even still, my point about it being deceptive advertising is still more than fair; the video game requires you to pay extra (and/or jump through excessive hoops like literal loot boxes and grind events) to get the product as advertised.0