The Night Market is amazing. I had a lot of fun so far. I also did like 90% of what the event offered.

The problem: there’s way too much friction. It takes a lot of time and effort to get used to how the event works. The flow of the event is not organic. It feels hard (in a bad way) to start and make your progress.

The map is very confusing, mechanic to progress is way too complex, the blocked areas (without the artifacts) is unnecessarily annoying.

The Night Market in my opinion should be all about dopamine. The idea of an arena map for 12+ people, filled with bosses and crazy buffs/debuffs, it makes a lot of sense in my head to be a huge source of dopamine.

Currently, the dopamine exists and I had a lot of it. But it is heavily restricted and “gated”.

I like to compare it to the Infinite Archive. The Infinite Archive has a similiar concept (but for one or two players). Yet, the IA gives a lot more dopamine than the NM.

Why is that:

1. Unnecessary Friction: it’s too hard to do things that should be really simple, like walking on the map, exploring, getting back to where you died, progressing the bosses page, getting to the terraces, returning to the main square, finding out in which map your group is, when do the events spawn (!). Finding a group is not organic (the only reasonable way to find a group is through group finder). If you don’t have a build built with more resistance, you won’t enjoy the event.

2. Not enough rewards (it specially lacks a currency - to pop like crazy at your screen). The coolest thing in Imperial City, Infinite Archive and Cyrodiil is numbers going up (and hoarding the big fortune). We need currencies to drop (it doesn’t need to necessarily be a currency exclusive to the event) AND more stuff to acquire. Right now, there’s absolutely no incentive to push past the daily quests. And if you reach the milestones (10.000 favor, dungeons done, trial done, golden pursuit done, achievements done), there’s nothing else to pursue. The loop HAS to be endless.

3. There’s room for more crazy, action packed stuff and there should be less puzzle/minigames. The minigames are so dissonant to the other part of NM (bossing and killing stuff). They feel out of place and instantly boring. I get that it’s optional and I appreciate the effort the devs put into developing these but I honestly feel they don’t go well with the rest of the event. IMO we should have more crazy buffs for killing bosses and participating in the skirmishes, like the visions and verses from the IA. I also believe there’s room for more crazy, random encounters, specially when you are in the middle of fights with the regular bosses.

Also, minor complaint: I also believe that the whole dungeon-trial thing is very out of place. They are basically rooms with bosses. Why not place them in the actual districts? Make the gilded and opulent bosses spawn in the actual map and available to everyone that shows up (or at least that have the key). (I understand that removing the trial and the dungeons messes with the whole concept of the event but I find it still needed to share this opinion here)

SO. TLDR: I believe the Night Market is (or should be) all about dopamine. It needs to be faster, more thrilling, more straightforward in the future.