Why is so much of the games "newer" dlc content sounds so cringe?

Ordinator199 · May 25

The game is rated 17+, but the dialogue and writing are so cringy in some parts that they feel like they cater to an 8-year-old at best. I just finished the Southern Elsweyr questline, and I had to skip most of it and turn off the audio—especially because of that crowned "Night Mother" cat character, who spoke like she had substance abuse issues. On top of that, the game throws constant "horse simulator" fodder at you. You have to run to one place just to speak to someone, and then immediately run another 2km to the next spot because there is no nearby wayshrine. Teleporting to guild peers fixes the travel time, but it still breaks your immersion. The dragon battles are equally underwhelming and formulaic; the dragon lands, you beat it down by 5% to 10% of its health, it flies up while you fight its adds, and then it lands to repeat the whole cycle (lair of maarselok is the most boring/least played dungeon for a reason). It all felt incredibly low-effort, especially since the game already has artillery present that could have been used in the questline to actually force the dragon to land.

moo_2021 · May 26

I just don't like being forced to play heroes in every quests. Why can't we side with whoever want to destory the world, scam antique collectors, go house to house with scary looking companions to collect protection fees, or take a heavy bag of gold from some shady merchant to murder a good honest judge?

AScarlato · May 26

I actually really enjoyed Southern Elsweyr, and I love Clan Mother Tadali.

Also found the dragons fun.

I do believe we have had writing issues in more recent stories which have been discussed here before, but to each their own.

Blood_again · May 26

Ordinator199 wrote: »

especially because of that crowned "Night Mother" cat character, who spoke like she had substance abuse issues

Jajo human saj +oh kor ahzirr an kujith ahzirr.
Khajiit honor that outlander by speaking his strange language, while they could always speak their native Ta'agra in their motherland and simply use the help of a translator, yes.
Though the outlander doesn't appreciate the hospitality. This one is sharpening one's claws in order to answer the insults.

PrinceShroob · May 26

Your own writing would be significantly improved by using paragraphs.

I'm afraid I just don't think your criticisms of the writing are particularly salient--you're mainly just leveling an accusation of being "cringy" and "for 8-year-olds" without any elaboration or specifics. There's excellent media "for 8-year-olds," like Paper Mario, a personal favorite of mine, and atrocious media for adults that's full of violence and sex and has all the depth of a saucer.

Southern Elsweyr has one of my absolute favorite quests, "Chiaroscuro Crossroads," which I found to be an emotionally compelling story about terminal illness and the capriciousness of Daedric Princes.

moo_2021 wrote: »

Why can't we side with whoever want to destory the world, scam antique collectors, go house to house with scary looking companions to collect protection fees, or take a heavy bag of gold from some shady merchant to murder a good honest judge?

Firstly, a cursory examination of discussions around story-driven single-player games like Baldur's Gate 3 shows that people typically choose the "good" path first. It makes sense to invest the most development time in that path, since the majority of people will see it.

Secondly, due to the reality of this game being a MMO, you can't have huge departures from the status quo. You destroy the world, you're stuck with it that way. What, you want Mehrunes Dagon to atomize Tamriel and then do writs in the rubble? Sometimes it's interesting to have an evil option available if only to make your choice to be good more poignant--but the game doesn't usually offer those because you can't just reload to "see what happens."

Thirdly, there's no shortage of petty nastiness you can get up to, such as robbing roadside merchants or doing the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood questlines. Hell, if you've never met Darien Gautier before Solstice, you can tell him to kill himself.

Ordinator199 · 7:53AM

PrinceShroob wrote: »

Your own writing would be significantly improved by using paragraphs.

I'm afraid I just don't think your criticisms of the writing are particularly salient--you're mainly just leveling an accusation of being "cringy" and "for 8-year-olds" without any elaboration or specifics. There's excellent media "for 8-year-olds," like Paper Mario, a personal favorite of mine, and atrocious media for adults that's full of violence and sex and has all the depth of a saucer.

Southern Elsweyr has one of my absolute favorite quests, "Chiaroscuro Crossroads," which I found to be an emotionally compelling story about terminal illness and the capriciousness of Daedric Princes.

moo_2021 wrote: »

Why can't we side with whoever want to destory the world, scam antique collectors, go house to house with scary looking companions to collect protection fees, or take a heavy bag of gold from some shady merchant to murder a good honest judge?

Firstly, a cursory examination of discussions around story-driven single-player games like Baldur's Gate 3 shows that people typically choose the "good" path first. It makes sense to invest the most development time in that path, since the majority of people will see it.

Secondly, due to the reality of this game being a MMO, you can't have huge departures from the status quo. You destroy the world, you're stuck with it that way. What, you want Mehrunes Dagon to atomize Tamriel and then do writs in the rubble? Sometimes it's interesting to have an evil option available if only to make your choice to be good more poignant--but the game doesn't usually offer those because you can't just reload to "see what happens."

Thirdly, there's no shortage of petty nastiness you can get up to, such as robbing roadside merchants or doing the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood questlines. Hell, if you've never met Darien Gautier before Solstice, you can tell him to kill himself.

Thanks grammar grandma

You’re proving my point without realizing it. You wrote three paragraphs defending the concept of simple writing instead of addressing why ESO’s actual dialogue constantly sounds sanitized, predictable, and emotionally weightless.

Nobody said media aimed at younger audiences can’t be good. Paper Mario works because it has charm wit timing, and confidence in its tone. ESO writing often sounds like it was filtered through five layers of corporate HR review until every character speaks with the same safe, Marvel-style cadence z generation style.

And pointing to one decent questline out of years of content doesn’t really refute the criticism. Every long-running MMO has isolated moments of good writing. The issue is the overall pattern: endless “quirky” dialogue, zero meaningful player agency, and villains who monologue like they’re auditioning for a Saturday morning cartoon.

Your BG3 comparison also kind of hurts your argument. People choosing the good path first doesn’t mean evil paths shouldn’t exist or shouldn’t matter. BG3 is praised precisely because it respects player choice enough to let people roleplay beyond “generic helpful adventurer #482.”

The world doesn’t react in a meaningful way, your character doesn’t meaningfully diverge, and five minutes later the game shoves you back onto the same rails anyway.

Silaf · 10:48AM

It's not a recent problem. Our character is treated as a mentally challenged individual in many quests.
Npc feel the need to repeat the same thing over and over and give you false choices that lead to the same result.

ZOS people that rush trough quest will simply not bother give the ones that follow the feeling of being heroes not fetch dogs.

The_Drop_Bear · 11:10AM

Ordinator199 wrote: »

PrinceShroob wrote: »

Your own writing would be significantly improved by using paragraphs.

I'm afraid I just don't think your criticisms of the writing are particularly salient--you're mainly just leveling an accusation of being "cringy" and "for 8-year-olds" without any elaboration or specifics. There's excellent media "for 8-year-olds," like Paper Mario, a personal favorite of mine, and atrocious media for adults that's full of violence and sex and has all the depth of a saucer.

Southern Elsweyr has one of my absolute favorite quests, "Chiaroscuro Crossroads," which I found to be an emotionally compelling story about terminal illness and the capriciousness of Daedric Princes.

moo_2021 wrote: »

Why can't we side with whoever want to destory the world, scam antique collectors, go house to house with scary looking companions to collect protection fees, or take a heavy bag of gold from some shady merchant to murder a good honest judge?

Firstly, a cursory examination of discussions around story-driven single-player games like Baldur's Gate 3 shows that people typically choose the "good" path first. It makes sense to invest the most development time in that path, since the majority of people will see it.

Secondly, due to the reality of this game being a MMO, you can't have huge departures from the status quo. You destroy the world, you're stuck with it that way. What, you want Mehrunes Dagon to atomize Tamriel and then do writs in the rubble? Sometimes it's interesting to have an evil option available if only to make your choice to be good more poignant--but the game doesn't usually offer those because you can't just reload to "see what happens."

Thirdly, there's no shortage of petty nastiness you can get up to, such as robbing roadside merchants or doing the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood questlines. Hell, if you've never met Darien Gautier before Solstice, you can tell him to kill himself.

Thanks grammar grandma

You’re proving my point without realizing it. You wrote three paragraphs defending the concept of simple writing instead of addressing why ESO’s actual dialogue constantly sounds sanitized, predictable, and emotionally weightless.

Nobody said media aimed at younger audiences can’t be good. Paper Mario works because it has charm wit timing, and confidence in its tone. ESO writing often sounds like it was filtered through five layers of corporate HR review until every character speaks with the same safe, Marvel-style cadence z generation style.

And pointing to one decent questline out of years of content doesn’t really refute the criticism. Every long-running MMO has isolated moments of good writing. The issue is the overall pattern: endless “quirky” dialogue, zero meaningful player agency, and villains who monologue like they’re auditioning for a Saturday morning cartoon.

Your BG3 comparison also kind of hurts your argument. People choosing the good path first doesn’t mean evil paths shouldn’t exist or shouldn’t matter. BG3 is praised precisely because it respects player choice enough to let people roleplay beyond “generic helpful adventurer #482.”

The world doesn’t react in a meaningful way, your character doesn’t meaningfully diverge, and five minutes later the game shoves you back onto the same rails anyway.

And you failed to comprehend the other persons point, you sre just dropping buzzwords used by 'influencers whi hate fir a living' rather than actually explaining what you didn't like about the writing.

Sure from Blackwoods onwards the writing especially of the mains story really went down hill, but not in Elsweyr.

Yes the world doesn't meaningfully react because it can't. Its an MMO prequel.