That was way too much to cram into a 50 minute stream. Also, for what it's worth, my crates seemed to bug and only gave me the 15 minute reward in spite of being tuned in for the whole thing. Honestly, I don't know that it was a good idea to have a twitch reward that required more than 50% of the stream to be watched. That sort of begs for technical difficulties.

I've been reviewing the announcement pages and sitting with the news for a while, to make sure I'm really sorting through my thoughts and feelings and not just reacting on impulse. It's mixed. Everything is mixed.

For reference, I am the kind of player who pays a sub, buys crowns, and plays a few hours every day. I dabble in just about all kinds of content, everything from vet trials to battlegrounds to trading to ToT, though I consider myself more of a roleplayer type of player in terms of my game priorities.

The Good:

1. My top concern this year was furnishing limits, and those are getting increased across the board, with a gentle hint that notable homes are due for some love later. I said last year that increased furnishing limits would win my confidence back. Alright, I'm back on the bandwagon.
2. I didn't know I wanted a female werewolf model. I'll have to roll a werewolf now.
3. I don't play a werewolf (currently,) but for my friends, they're feeling how werewolf has been left behind by the new meta. I am happy they are getting improvements.
4. Weapon line refreshes weren't on my bingo board, but it's great to see Zenimax is getting ahead of development demands instead of playing catch up.
5. Account-wide outfit slots were my second highest concern and a drum I've been beating since I started playing. The entire outfit system is now functional content. There's a point now to all these style pages and crafting motifs and weapon skins. ESO is finally a dress up game. ESO finally has parity with other MMOs on the market. This was a major flaw in the game for the longest time, made especially bitter because the system was actually really well-designed, except for the total lack of slots. I wonder how badly the old system did that Zenimax was willing to make this change. I did not see this coming.
6. Backbar xp is a small tweak, but it shows an awareness of the actual friction that comes with playing the game. This very small improvement shows Zenimax understands something about the feeling of playing the game. It's savvy.
7. It sounds like incursions and seasonal events *might* get revisions along the lines of what GW2 takes for granted in its world content. That would breathe a lot of life into the game.
8. Are we getting legitimate own-a-ship, sail-a-ship gameplay with the High Seas of Tamriel? Some kind of sailing abstraction? BDO has this, and I love it desperately and wish for it in a better game. I would go feral if sailing was brought to ESO as a feature-complete system. I would spend obscene amounts of money. There are friends I have that would start playing just for this.
9. I don't strongly have an opinion on the length of guild trader listings, but a lot of my friends do, so I'm glad for this.
10. I've trained all my horses and am running out of character slots for new characters, so I'm not personally affected by faster mount training, but I'm glad for this for others who will be.
11. Transmute crystal limits are the bane of my existence. I love to see a boost here.
12. Were the antiquity lead times a problem for anyone? I mean, it's nice to get a boost, but I'm interested in knowing if anyone asked for it.
13. Not a (serious) guild leader, but my guild leaders get sanctioned all the time for trying to communicate via mails with their guilds. Happy for this for them. Ditto for the guild bank improvements.
14. Guild housing is another example of getting ahead of development demands. No, we don't have a pressing need for guild housing, but it is a bloody clever thing to add to the game, and guaranteed to make good money for Zenimax. Clever, clever, clever.
15. Wow, finally finishing hybridisation. The project was before my time, but I know a lot of people have a big chip on their shoulder about this. This feels like someone is reading the forums and giving serious considerations to the pain points of veteran players. Theoretically, I'm happy about this, too. One of the things that often kills me in solo content is running out of my secondary resource. Alchemy changes could fix this.
16. More mounts available for gold is great. We can stop dunking on the Vivec City stablemaster for selling horses when he's got a guar right next to him.
17. Removing the scammy vampire/werewolf curse purchases from the store is huge.The degree to which Zenimax is willing to take advantage of new, uninformed players for financial gain is indefensible. It's embarrassing. I feel just better about ESO and Zenimax as a company now that these straight up scams are getting removed from the cash shop. And making these systems, that are some of ESO's unique features compared to the general MMO market, more readily accessible is just clever. Savvy. Well considered. I have friends who don't play who are curious about ESO just because of the inclusion of vampire and werewolf as gameplay systems.
18. I've fully upgraded my storage, but I'm happy to see bag and bank costs getting reduced for newer players. The cost is genuinely prohibitive for someone in their first two months of playing. Also, again, super savvy to allow upgrades from player menus.
19. Hiding any part of an outfit is excellent. Again, seems like low hanging fruit, but shows a shocking amount of savviness I just didn't associate with Zenimax. Now I can take off my gloves in the middle of a roleplay.
20. The length of crafting research is not super relevant to me anymore, but still, happy for newer players. This sucked when I did it.
21. Moving more expansions to the base game is great.
22. Treasure maps do need work. So... It's good Zenimax knows that.
23. I don't care about overland difficulty, but it's good it's coming for the people who do want it. I like that the only reward difference it offers over the vanilla difficulty is experience and gold, so I won't feel like I'm being punished for not engaging with it. I wouldn't mind seeing this system get title rewards for bragging rights, like in LOTRO.
24. Solo dungeons are long-requested and I'm glad to see them for the people who want them. I might actually be able to read dungeon quests now. That's novel.
25. Glad that there's some organisational changes in how Zenimax receives, processes, and delivers feedback. I know myself and a lot of people have felt like we've been screaming into the void about PTS problems. I hope it actually works.
26. Nick comes across very well when he communicates with the community. He gives concrete information. He seems both well-informed and well-considered.

With a wall of praise that tall, why are my feelings mixed? Well...
The Mixed:

1. What's the deal with notable homes? They're the homes most in need of higher limits, and many of them need more than a 100 furnishing bump. The psijic villa back this month realistically needs 1k or more furnishings to properly decorate.
2. I don't actually know what's up with High Sails. Nor if revised world events are intended to mirror GW2 zone events. Purely speculation on my part.
3. I'm trying to avoid criticising the things we'll presumably get answers about come Monday, but "improved treasure maps" tells me nothing. Are you going to put an x on the map so people can find them? Are their drops going to be better? Come on, you could have shared one concrete change. Why be this stingy?
4. Theoretically, the Gold Coast Bazaar is good because it makes currently unobtainable rewards available again, but practically, whether or not it's good or a gamekiller depends on the actual pricing. Yes, like everyone else, I disliked the event ticket system and the entire event system, but one thing you could say for sure about it is that it was transparent. You knew how long it would take to get a reward and how much work it would take. How can I be excited for 9k Trade Bars if 1) I don't know what 9k can buy me and 2) I don't know how much work it'll take to get them. Does 9k buy me a notable home? Four mounts? Does it only get me a handful of tripots? I bet you're still hammering out the whole pricing list, but come on. Will a notable home cost me, for example, 10 hours in trials, 20 hours in IA, and another 6 doing zone dailies? Banana for scale, people! All I know is that getting 9k from seasonal rewards makes the 100 each event ticket is worth look pathetic and ungenerous. Because that is my only point of comparison.
5. ESO plus membership free items should be sold for less than other offerings because you need to pay a sub to buy them. I don't know if you've done this because, again, we've been given no prices for scale.
6. Trade bars are not a "free" currency earned purely by in game actions if you can get a bonus amount of them by buying the whale passes. I'm generally suspicious of assurances about the fairness of "play to earn" schemes. I know Zenimax has a lot of data about how people use seals of endeavour and ouroboros crate gems, and what makes them eventually break down and pull out a credit card.
7. Seals of endeavour will continue to exist as a currency... But won't be tied to endeavours anymore. So why will they continue to exist? It seems like gems, trade bars, and tome points are intended to replace their general function.
8. Again, these news articles quote the generosity of "tome points" in terms of "you get 2000" for making purchases and subbing but these numbers are literally meaningless without a price to compare them to. What are crown tripots going to cost? 5k tome points per 20 tripots? Don't even bother implementing the system in that case. You might think that's a ridiculous supposition, but IA vision rerolls start at 500 archival fortunes and multiply upwards from there. Zenimax makes bad pricing decisions. I have no context to judge this system and I think you could have given me at least three examples for scale, even if they were still subject to changes.
9. I would have liked to have seen some news about the bugs you were promising to fix last year. I suspect you are doing the work on them, and just didn't include it in the news because it doesn't seem exciting, but I would have felt relieved to hear about it.
10. I'm still hugely concerned that this new development model will mean that secondary and tertiary systems in the game won't receive further attention. I would have loved to hear that a new TOT deck is in the works, or that IA is getting some new bosses on the boss list, just because they are lesser-loved systems with plenty of room left to grow and become the best versions of themselves. They're systems that help make ESO a unique MMO on the market. People have to come play ESO if they want the TOT or the IA experience. They can't go anywhere else to get that fix.
11. "A season could include a new zone, a new questline, a new class, a new skill line, *or* a new system?" Oh, so at any point, you might add some kind of content? That's not an announcement, my friends. At any point, I could win the lottery. These two sentences convey the same amount of information.
12. The Night Market could be good, but genuinely, it's one of those things where it's impossible to tell until it's out. The writhing wall should have been better than it was. It was somehow worse than holiday events nearly as old as the game itself. I sure hope it has a genuine self-contained story with no spoilers, because I hadn't caught up to Solstice when the WW event activated, and it sure gave me spoilers in spite of assurances it would not. I am glad to see Fargrave is getting more love. It is a very cool space in the lore, and we don't spend a lot of time there in the story. Theoretically, event zones could be very good. Other games have zones tied to specific recurring events, and they're very exciting and make the game feel bigger and more alive. (STO's winter wonderland, COH's ski chalet.) But that's just theory. Execution is everything here.
13. Jeeze, ESO+ is about to lose a lot of value in this new system as old content is added to the base game and no new content is specifically added for plus. They say they're going to be adding things to plus benefits in a later announcement, so... Again, it's another matter where I have more questions than answers, so I can't say it's a good thing, and I obviously dislike uncertainty about things I spend money on. Why was this incredibly important stream only 50 minutes? I feel for Gina and company.

Then The Bad.

1. Battle (whale) passes are going to be 30 USD, 4 times a year, for the right to do in game activities to earn cosmetic rewards? I am paying you to give me a to do list? You've done the math, and you estimate that people will be willing to spend 120 a year for battle passes and 140 a year for a sub, for a total of 260 USD a year? I don't think I've played a more expensive MMO in my life. Is the point of the highest tier of battle passes to make the normal paid tier look reasonable? Because 60 USD a year seems... fine... to me. I mean, it's not cheap, but everyone needed to raise prices because of inflation. The 120 price tag makes me genuinely worried for the game and its players. It is a number with no relationship to reality. And, look, I'm the person you're trying to sell the new system on! I'm someone who is comfortable spending money on the game!
2. What financial incentive does Zenimax have to develop actual content now? How long are they going to be developing content for free? When are we going to find ourselves in the SWTOR position, where we're getting 3 hours of story content every 4 years?
3. Three years for pure classes to reach parity with arcanist and multiclassing is hard to swallow. I mean, yeah, if that's all the resources and manpower you can allocate to it without harming other parts of the game development, okay. But it feels very much like a debt borne of ignoring everyone who told you that this work needed to be done before multiclassing was implemented.
4. What do you mean in addition to the new tome points currency and trade bars currency, we're getting a third premium tome token currency? We're going currency crazy. Players are going to get extremely confused.
5. Golden pursuits feel redundant when the game is adding a full battle pass. And, honestly, I expected to like golden pursuits a lot more than I did in practice. They have not given me confidence I'm going to enjoy the new system.
6. It was probably time for daily rewards to be retired, but... I don't think these new systems will do the job daily rewards did for a long time, which was helping newer players passively get resources of a kind with serious players, if over a longer timescale. I think I made my first cp160 gold equipment all with gold mats I earned from daily rewards. New players have no inkling of what's valuable and what's worthwhile in the game. They don't know it's worth going a little out of their way to get crown fortifying meals, and crown fortifying meals make such a big difference for someone's first and only level 6 character.
7. Really? ESO plus gets you so little in the new whale pass system? A single whale pass a year?
8. What's the plan if battle passes completely fail because you've priced out people like me? Is the game going to be kept afloat by crown purchases alone? Can the game be kept afloat that way? Will you consider a (perhaps temporary) return to chapters if this falls through? Look, I'm not happy, but I don't want the game to fail.
9. There's three different listed launch dates for the Gold Coast Bazaar on its announcement page. March 9th, March 25th, and April 2nd. You know this is going to confuse players, and confused players get upset easily. Don't explain it to me because I get it, but I get it because I'm the kind of self-important obsessive who will write an essay of this length on the forums. Today I had to spend 15 minutes explaining to a guildie that Zenimax isn't releasing chapters anymore. I still don't think she understood me in the end.

I don't think, ultimately, these systems are going to be that complicated, but the announcements aren't doing them any favours, and all of these changes hitting at once are going to overwhelm a lot of players. Even in a best case scenario where everything is implemented perfectly, I predict the community is going to be confused and upset immediately, and it will take work to recover from the bad first impressions.

Seriously, though, 30 USD 4 times a year? Where did you get those numbers from? How did you get those numbers?

Seraphayel wrote: »

LalMirchi wrote: »

Seraphayel wrote: »

LalMirchi wrote: »

Sorry to say but increased prices combined with a lack of new story and questing content do not make this one happy at all.

There are no increased prices. In fact, all future content is free. There's a new battle pass for cosmetics, not for content.

"They basically announced zero additional content except a time-limited zone made from old assets and a whole lot about an expensive battle pass system that has not one but two paid tiers."

Quoting a post from another player. If there are no new stories or questing content I'm seriously underwhelmed.

And that statement is simply not true. Why aren’t people looking on the roadmap. I don’t get it. There is one picture with all stuff coming this year and there’s listed a lot and people still go like there‘s no new content. The lack of reading comprehension is mind-boggling.

They flashed the slides pretty quickly. I think they should add them to this thread. I have some of them in this thread, as well as their interview with WCC, and some of their reddit comments all collected in 1 spot. This reading material really clears up a lot of stuff that was confusing only watching the stream.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/687216/reddit-and-wcc-news-article-about-the-2026-eso-reveal-stream-includes-additional-information#latest

Don't we think the animation reworks are practically all for naught? What is the point of refreshing animations if the game has turned into animation soup combat. Back in the old day you would have basic spammables like surprise attack have simple clean toned down animations because they were spammed skills cast all the time. Now adays we have multiple animations and particle effects and sound effects tied to every proc or skill event.

It used to be that only ultimates were flashy, drawing attention to their game changing impact. However now even generic basic skills do insane animations. I think this is just a forgotten design philosophy, but the higher tier spells should be the flashy and more impactful feeling.

Any spammable.......................................Should be a simple arm swing animation
An ult that took 2 mins to build up.............flashy
A big CC that turns the tables....................flashy
A proc set that does 1k dmg every 5s.........SHOULD NOT BE FLASHY

Bloat like this translates to the combat portion of skills too. Generic spammables used all the time should not have multiple paragraphs of mechanics. All these design flops yet we still wonder why the server lags.

Given that respecs will be free and in UI, are people going to be reimbursed or rewards given in some way for respec scrolls that people may have had banked?

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Seraphayel wrote: »

LalMirchi wrote: »

Seraphayel wrote: »

LalMirchi wrote: »

Sorry to say but increased prices combined with a lack of new story and questing content do not make this one happy at all.

There are no increased prices. In fact, all future content is free. There's a new battle pass for cosmetics, not for content.

"They basically announced zero additional content except a time-limited zone made from old assets and a whole lot about an expensive battle pass system that has not one but two paid tiers."

Quoting a post from another player. If there are no new stories or questing content I'm seriously underwhelmed.

And that statement is simply not true. Why aren’t people looking on the roadmap. I don’t get it. There is one picture with all stuff coming this year and there’s listed a lot and people still go like there‘s no new content. The lack of reading comprehension is mind-boggling.

They flashed the slides pretty quickly. I think they should add them to this thread. I have some of them in this thread, as well as their interview with WCC, and some of their reddit comments all collected in 1 spot. This reading material really clears up a lot of stuff that was confusing only watching the stream.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/687216/reddit-and-wcc-news-article-about-the-2026-eso-reveal-stream-includes-additional-information#latest

They could’ve communicated the whole stuff better, but even by simply watching the stream or just looking at the roadmap everybody gets an idea of what’s coming. I mean they listed a lot of content / feature stuff.

And people are still out claiming no new content or features are coming. That’s what my problem is. These people either don’t have informed themselves or are just deliberately ignoring information they were given.

Honestly ,I like most of what was talked about and look forward to them.

I've supported the game by buying the new chapter every year and subscribed to ESO+ since I've been playing.

But ,paying pretty much double what the deluxe chapter was for the premium+ pass ,makes no sense to me.

I think what should done with the premium passes ,is have the lower priced one included with ESO+ and have the premium+ pass at $20. That way ESO+ people won't feel that they are losing out with content now being free and the FOMO people won't complain about having to pay double what a deluxe chapter used cost.

Don't get me wrong ,I love the game and am looking forward to what's coming.

But ,raising the price for people to get what they used to get for half the price ,isn't a good thing and can cost you in the long run.

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Cruxanero wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

The Night Market, the new event zone, will return. We have that noted on the roadmap. It is designed to come back.

Thanks for the clarification!
May I still ask for a detail that was said in the stream? There it sounded like "if the players like the new event zone (I don't know if it was the night market, but I think so - there were so many topics that were only brushed over...) we will bring it back in the future, possibly even make it a permanent addition to the game". That implies the possibility though that "if the players don't like it, we will just never bring it back". Is that also a possibility?

Yes, that is true. But the assumption is, if players overwhelmingly did not like the activity, you would not want to play it again anyway. We don’t want to force you to play a thing you don’t like. That isn’t fun for you and creates a negative play experience. But we envision those cases being outliers. If there is an aspect to something that we can change to make better, we would rather do that with player feedback. Again, going back to something Nick said, “building the game together with the players.”

For the Night Market, why not make it your guys testing ground? Hear me out here.

You guys get a game mode, some new mechanic, and then put it in NM and see how it lands with us. Frame it as new enemies invading or whatever. Have general rewards like IA does but refresh the mechanics at whatever interval works. That way it stays as a zone with rewards, but you can rotate events and mechanics to keep it fresh and test things.

Lastly, there's so many things that create negative play experiences. I'm going to keep harping on it - horse training. 180 days to get my horse fully functional. Meanwhile you guys are charging $40 for a new mount in the store. Think about that Kevin. Why is someone clutching so hard to that product when it's just not fun? Honestly, I'm not trying to be baiting on that, but why? Why are things like that so important to you guys even though players loathe them. Make it purchasable in one go like bags and banks. Simple compromise. The solution of purchasing 3 levels isn't enough. It's not.

Seraphayel wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Seraphayel wrote: »

LalMirchi wrote: »

Seraphayel wrote: »

LalMirchi wrote: »

Sorry to say but increased prices combined with a lack of new story and questing content do not make this one happy at all.

There are no increased prices. In fact, all future content is free. There's a new battle pass for cosmetics, not for content.

"They basically announced zero additional content except a time-limited zone made from old assets and a whole lot about an expensive battle pass system that has not one but two paid tiers."

Quoting a post from another player. If there are no new stories or questing content I'm seriously underwhelmed.

And that statement is simply not true. Why aren’t people looking on the roadmap. I don’t get it. There is one picture with all stuff coming this year and there’s listed a lot and people still go like there‘s no new content. The lack of reading comprehension is mind-boggling.

They flashed the slides pretty quickly. I think they should add them to this thread. I have some of them in this thread, as well as their interview with WCC, and some of their reddit comments all collected in 1 spot. This reading material really clears up a lot of stuff that was confusing only watching the stream.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/687216/reddit-and-wcc-news-article-about-the-2026-eso-reveal-stream-includes-additional-information#latest

They could’ve communicated the whole stuff better, but even by simply watching the stream or just looking at the roadmap everybody gets an idea of what’s coming. I mean they listed a lot of content / feature stuff.

And people are still out claiming no new content or features are coming. That’s what my problem is. These people either don’t have informed themselves or are just deliberately ignoring information they were given.

What content? Besides the two story lines(thieves guild/sheogorath), 1 trial, and sage's vault. That is a full year! (Note: and technically the new event zone that may or may not be present at certain times of the year)

Keep in mind, we are paying three times a normal chapter(expansion) price for this! Normally we get a full zone + new feature with a chapter for 40€, now we get practically nothing for 120€. And we have to earn the cosmetics from the battle pass in-game ourselves, instead of getting these automatically added to collections with the chapter's deluxe editions or something like that.

PS: The QoL mentioned isn't adequate and should have already been in-game years ago. Does not count as content to me! (neither do the class refreshes)

Edit: And for a stream that was supposed to show the future of ESO, they haven't shown any longterm plans or longterm systems to sustain longterm players. They basically only showed the new payment model.

Those that do not like the added cost of Battle pass for ESO+ membership: Would having the cost spread across the year make it more palatable? Say, instead of 14.99 a month, the cost of ESO+ membership would be 19.99 per month with Battle Pass included? It could also be an added on: ESO+BP for 19.99.

Seems 5.00 extra per month would be easier to come up with for those that have tight entertainment budgets. 30 at once sounds like a lot. 5 a month sounds like one less burger. Are you willing to trade one burger or latte a month for a Battle Pass?

Destai wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Cruxanero wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

I'm sorry for your loss. I'm glad to hear that the game was able to bring you so much. Just wanted to clear up that the battle pass is just cosmetics, and you'll keep what you earn, afaik. The thing that will go away is the event quests/zone but that's always been the case with events.

The difference is that with the old event quests you could be certain they'd return at some point. I was very busy the last weeks so I couldn't play a single of the newly added new life quests, but I can be sure they'll be around next year, waiting for me. Same with Jester, Witches quests etc.
The writhing fortress quest? Gone after a week (even though they'll bring it back, but only because it was completely bugged). The new event zone? Might be brought back, might as well not.
This is a serious issue for me as well. It was very refreshing that ESO never had these big "limited, once in a lifetime story events" other games like to do, and a major reason I've been a subscriber and bought every chapter for more than 10 years, while many other games came and go in the same timeframe.

The Night Market, the new event zone, will return. We have that noted on the roadmap. It is designed to come back.

But I thought the overwhelming feedback was that less FOMO was desired? That's the thing. There's already so much, and now with an exciting new feature, we gotta wait for it to come back. It creates pressure. People are asking for less pressure. Reconsider this, please. Find a way to make it permanent and just update it.

People need to be responsible for themselves. I don’t get all this pandering and catering that’s requested for a game nobody forces you to play. There is a limit of what ZOS can and cannot do.

We get the zone for 7 weeks in Spring and we get it again for 7 weeks in Winter. If you miss it the first time, you can do it the second time. If you miss it both times… that’s entirely your fault. There is also no pressure. If you don’t find time in 7 weeks to experience or play it, your time management or expectations are the problem, not an event that was for almost four months available.

agelonestar wrote: »

Too little new content for altogether too much money.

???

The content doesn’t cost any money.

Sarannah wrote: »

Keep in mind, we are paying three times a normal chapter(expansion) price for this! Normally we get a full zone + new feature with a chapter for 40€, now we get practically nothing for 120€.

You don’t pay anything for the new content.

Faerugue wrote: »

Destai wrote: »

For the Night Market, why not make it your guys testing ground? Hear me out here.

That's exactly what it is .... ?

Oh my bad, maybe I misunderstood. Was watching this while working.

Seraphayel wrote: »

Destai wrote: »

But I thought the overwhelming feedback was that less FOMO was desired? That's the thing. There's already so much, and now with an exciting new feature, we gotta wait for it to come back. It creates pressure. People are asking for less pressure. Reconsider this, please. Find a way to make it permanent and just update it.

People need to be responsible for themselves. I don’t get all this pandering and catering that’s requested for a game nobody forces you to play. There is a limit of what ZOS can and cannot do.

We get the zone for 7 weeks in Spring and we get it again for 7 weeks in Winter. If you miss it the first time, you can do it the second time. If you miss it both times… that’s entirely your fault. There is also no pressure. If you don’t find time in 7 weeks to experience or play it, your time management or expectations are the problem, not an event that was for almost four months available.

That's fair, I don't disagree. I was coming more from a broader sentiment perspective than my individual perspective, maybe that's not fair on my end.

Adding some other thoughts after reading the full thread:

The QoL stuff would've been nice to get when the game was still popular... And I'm sorely disappointed that seemingly there won't be anything like Chapters released any longer. I bought every Chapter up until Gold Road, and even tho their quality (and quantity) of stuff to do shrunk towards the end, I still got immense joy of exploring the new zone(s) each year, getting all the skyshards, doing the delves and public dungeons, questing, fishing and doing the museum collections (I'm still sad they did away with those...). ESO used to be my home, a place I went to have fun and do whatever I pleased each day, and I had over 50k achievement points, most PvE solo content was completed at the point I quit. I had played since 2016, so almost 9 years with some breaks here and there, but I can't make myself be hyped anymore, not after I tried out Solstice on PTS last year. After that, I made my home in another MMO which I had been playing on and off since 2020, and I've soon been playing that game for a year with no breaks.

Everybody saying there is no new content, system or features coming:



Season 1 contains basically everything a regular Chapter for $40 would contain. And this time you get it for free.

Hate the Battle Pass idea - already paying too much for this game with two of us playing and both playing on 2 different servers with Plus. Also the only thing I care about is a new area - last decent update was Necrom. All recent updates have been disappointing - Subclassing, Scribing, West Weld, A card game (???) and now more gacha and cash grab with Battle Pass and seasonal content. I have been with ESO since the very beginning and maybe it's time to move on.

As I want to give constructive criticism; one thing that came to my mind: The main problem that makes people disappointed or wary seems to be that the stream made it look like there will be not much new content this year. The presentation almost entirely focused on how to spend money and what to do with in-game currencies, and on a few quality of live or bugfix things, but there was basically nothing deeper on what's actually there to play. We only got very vague keywords (mostly on those charts which were only visible for a second so they were barely readable): some sea related event, some Sheogorath story, some Thieves Guild story. But that really can mean anything, including some tiny quest that's over in 15 minutes.

It would have helped a lot to actually tell us about these things. Something as simple as "The Sheogorath story will take place in zone X and will have Y hours of playable content." or "In lore we will explore the topic Z this year." would have already helped.

And if the content might not even be that different compared to other years, why not draw comparisons? Something like "Instead of the usual 4-person dungeons of Q1, we want to try one more open and bigger dungeon for spontaneous, unorganized groups of people instead this year", "The Q2 summer story content will take place in an updated base game zone this year" or something like that.

If the only thing spoken about in detail is how to spend real and virtual currency, it's not surprising many people will wonder what else there still is.