The unnoticed secret of ESO that could change everything...

kevjon74_ESO · June 2014

As much as find distasteful the idea of people skipping all the hard work that was put into this game, to each their own... as long as those people also realize that their preferred way of playing is not how the devs intended it, and adjust their perspectives accordingly.

Tamanous · June 2014

FrauPerchta wrote: »

adamrussell52_ESO wrote: »

Ragnar_Lodbrok wrote: »

SWTOR had story too, guess story doesnt sell all that well.

SWTOR story was really awful though. None of the dialogue rang true to me.

Story depended on class. I loved the Agent story line

That was the pain I had in Swtor. My first class was Agent. When I tried any other class their story was so boring I couldn't play. Sith warrior was good too but I refused to play that class due to it being the "one-build only" fotm class and melee bores me.

c0rp · June 2014

HandofBane wrote: »

c0rp wrote: »

Ones attitude towards something can determine much. I dont play VR content thinking "i cant believe i have to play this faction blah blah blah". I play it thinking "I wonder what story the next town will bring when I get there, etc." I realize this a hard thing for many new gen gamers who need everything now though.

While I do agree to a point about the newer generations of gamers, something to keep in mind for the attitude going in is that we get factions and loyalty (as well as showing the worst sides of the other factions) pretty much from day one, especially starting in the Pact. The main questline holds a more neutral stance, then we get Cadwell after all that telling us "guess what you get to go work for the guys you have viewed as bad guys for the past 50 levels!" For someone who appreciates immersion, especially in a game where the devs like to throw that "immersion above all" concept around, that tends to break hard with the idea. There is only so much I, as a moderately-loyal Argonian, can do to impede the Covenant while everyone there imagines I am really a loyal member of their faction.

Veteran content in general was not a well thought out idea, the implementation leaves much to be desired.

I agree. The whole concept of going to the VR factions could have been better somehow..maybe. I feel that same way. But it doesnt take away the quality of the lore/questing this mmorpg provides.

c0rp · June 2014

kieso wrote: »

yesterday I read how the lusty argonian maid was polishing this guys spear.

Haha yep...Ive read so many good books in true TES fashion!

hk11 · June 2014

I like voice overs and lore and stuff in single player games, but I cant do it in MMOs. Dunno why. That may be why I get less enjoyment than others with ESO.

I have not even seen the opening cutscene. I skip all reading and voiceovers.

I guess I am weird but I like 3 things in MMOs: Leveling, loot, and raiding. Also needed are diversions like fishing.

Crisscross · June 2014

Tamanous wrote: »

FrauPerchta wrote: »

adamrussell52_ESO wrote: »

Ragnar_Lodbrok wrote: »

SWTOR had story too, guess story doesnt sell all that well.

SWTOR story was really awful though. None of the dialogue rang true to me.

Story depended on class. I loved the Agent story line

That was the pain I had in Swtor. My first class was Agent. When I tried any other class their story was so boring I couldn't play. Sith warrior was good too but I refused to play that class due to it being the "one-build only" fotm class and melee bores me.

I kind of love SWTOR to this day, but... jeez you're so right. v.v

ebondeath · June 2014

HandofBane wrote: »

While I do agree to a point about the newer generations of gamers, something to keep in mind for the attitude going in is that we get factions and loyalty (as well as showing the worst sides of the other factions) pretty much from day one, especially starting in the Pact. The main questline holds a more neutral stance, then we get Cadwell after all that telling us "guess what you get to go work for the guys you have viewed as bad guys for the past 50 levels!" For someone who appreciates immersion, especially in a game where the devs like to throw that "immersion above all" concept around, that tends to break hard with the idea. There is only so much I, as a moderately-loyal Argonian, can do to impede the Covenant while everyone there imagines I am really a loyal member of their faction.

Veteran content in general was not a well thought out idea, the implementation leaves much to be desired.

I rationalize the trip into other faction territory with a bit of fancy RP footwork (something about being devastated after the losses during the closing of the Planemeld and disappearing into the world to get away from the memories, but inexplicably being drawn into helping people again, regardless of faction). It works for my main, but notsomuch with my alts. I can make it it work with mental gymnastics, but I can see how other people wouldn't want to see it like that.

kieso · June 2014

Crisscross wrote: »

Tamanous wrote: »

FrauPerchta wrote: »

adamrussell52_ESO wrote: »

Ragnar_Lodbrok wrote: »

SWTOR had story too, guess story doesnt sell all that well.

SWTOR story was really awful though. None of the dialogue rang true to me.

Story depended on class. I loved the Agent story line

That was the pain I had in Swtor. My first class was Agent. When I tried any other class their story was so boring I couldn't play. Sith warrior was good too but I refused to play that class due to it being the "one-build only" fotm class and melee bores me.

I kind of love SWTOR to this day, but... jeez you're so right. v.v

I still think SWTOR had the best singe player story missions, infact i made one of each class except for the smuggler.

Gern_Verkheart · June 2014

I play video games to enjoy interesting and entertaining gameplay. Good story is always a welcome bonus, but if it was my primary concern, I would go watch a movie instead.

AlexDougherty · June 2014

adamrussell52_ESO wrote: »

Ragnar_Lodbrok wrote: »

SWTOR had story too, guess story doesnt sell all that well.

SWTOR story was really awful though. None of the dialogue rang true to me.

I loved the stories, the trick for everything was to play as the class would actually be.

Play sith as Evil, Jedi as Good, Trooper as Good, Smuggler and Bounty Hunter as Neutral, and Agent as anything, and the stories were decent.

And there is a similar trick to the factions in this game.

Elirienne · June 2014

Absolutely. People tend to forget about the RPG part, just try to play it as WoW, rushing to endgame and getting your stats up.

There are beautiful stories here and many of them. To me the aldmeri dominion line is the nicest, but I am also really liking the coventant line so far (in stonefalls for now).

They're trying to tell us a story, I pity those who skip through the dialogue. Those are the ones who will burn out and leave when there are no more levels to gain and no more loot to upgrade.

kaosodin · June 2014

Excellent post.

Being honest, I check how many pages the book is before I read the whole thing. There are a few books that go on for like 20 pages.

wrlifeboil · June 2014

GrimlockSaves wrote: »

After reaching V12 in a kind of vanity crazed rush, I decided to play the game differently... Two things:
I started listening to quest givers and learning the story of what is going on.

I started to read lore books.

As if it were some kind of untold secret, and to my surprise, the stories behind quests are incredibly good and entertaining! The lore books are well written and full of entertaining drama and humor. I was reminded of the fact that this is an RPG, not just an MMO.

I then went on to think, maybe there are a lot of bugs and issues, but maybe ZOS had a strong focus on delivering a beautiful MMO world with a rich RPG lore.

Perhaps ZOS has paid attention and realized in all MMOs, class balance and bugs are a constant, but good stories are few and far between. Have you noticed how fixing quests and story progression has taken a priority in many instances?

Maybe they DIDN'T expect fans to superficially disregard quests and story lines (except for when they are broken) to such a monumental degree.

For all the haters and power levelers who are rocking this like an MMO FPS, I highly recommend trying to play it like an MMORPG. Yes, there is no immediate "look at me and my shiny gear" rewards, but there are good stories.

Like ANY relationship in the entire world, if you focus on the negative seek to find faults, you will find them and they will make you a negative and unhappy person. If you focus on the positive and seek good things, you will find them and they will endow you with the patience to weather any puny storm of negativity.

Sounds like something a New Age guru would have said in the 1980s.

MrDenimChicken · June 2014

Okay I tried to play this game "the way it was meant to play" some some of these ESO die hard fans say.

Sure it works for some quests and you get really into them. But then there are SO many quests in between that, for the most part, are filler quests, with regurgitated plot lines covered in different wrapping paper. There are moments when you are so engaged and then the VERY next NPC quest giver has the EXACT same voice as the previous one (like the voice of Jowan from dragon age origins...seriously, WHY do they choose voice actors whose voices are so incredibly recognizable???), and the plot is the just another version of "go find my *** family member who got lost or kidnapped" or "go fill/smash these crystals/wards".

It will get to the point where if I actually try to take these quests more seriously than I would other MMO quests, I get annoyed with the game, and I feel like they were so bad at hiding how much they were half-assing things. So after I get to this point, which happens about every other night, I will either get off, or play the game like most other mmo's and just mindlessly grind through quests.

Now I know you can't make every quest in an MMO a home run...but there is nothing to do other than quest grind in this game, unlike other MMO's, so anytime there is a poor quest you notice and mind much more than you would another game where you can ACTUALLY GROUP with people and experience an online environment.

poodlemasterb16_ESO · June 2014

adamrussell52_ESO wrote: »

I honestly think this is the best of the ES series.

Me too. The quests are sometimes very funny. Involvement appears to be a foreign concept in the MMO crowd.

Just did, for the second time, I have a full roster, the one where the incredibly stuck up Altmer is in a dungeon after something or other. Her servant Stibbens send you after her because dinner is ready and you make a deal with a ghost to take the cursed crown and free the ghost, by swapping him for the Altmer. All this backfires and you end up swapping Stibbens instead. The ghost with nothing to do and being a servant anyway takes Stibbens place and the stuck up Altmer goes on her merry way. Hilarious. Yes, you do run into her later.

Tamanous · June 2014

kieso wrote: »

Crisscross wrote: »

Tamanous wrote: »

FrauPerchta wrote: »

adamrussell52_ESO wrote: »

Ragnar_Lodbrok wrote: »

SWTOR had story too, guess story doesnt sell all that well.

SWTOR story was really awful though. None of the dialogue rang true to me.

Story depended on class. I loved the Agent story line

That was the pain I had in Swtor. My first class was Agent. When I tried any other class their story was so boring I couldn't play. Sith warrior was good too but I refused to play that class due to it being the "one-build only" fotm class and melee bores me.

I kind of love SWTOR to this day, but... jeez you're so right. v.v

I still think SWTOR had the best singe player story missions, infact i made one of each class except for the smuggler.

Swtor still has my fav class of any class-based mmo: Gunslinger/Sniper!

Bloody loved playing that class. Best "archer" style (in it's own sci-fi way) game play of any mmo imo.

The whole light and dark mechanic was overly simplified but fun. It would be sweet for ESO to add alignement choices and penalties to the justice system but I do not think that will happen.

DeLindsay · June 2014

OP you hit it on the head. ESO is actually a great game and ZoS WILL fix the bugs as they have the time to do so. The story is quite good and if more people PLAYED the game instead of crying on the internet about this or that they too might find joy in it.

boogie95 · June 2014

Amen to a real thread so sick of reading about people not liking the end game when its all about the quest and story

steveb16_ESO46 · June 2014

I do all these things. ESO is great 1-49. After your faction quest finishes it just stops being fun and starts being a boring combat grind for reasons that make no sense.

jeradlub17_ESO · June 2014

GrimlockSaves wrote: »

After reaching V12 in a kind of vanity crazed rush, I decided to play the game differently... Two things:
I started listening to quest givers and learning the story of what is going on.

I started to read lore books.

As if it were some kind of untold secret, and to my surprise, the stories behind quests are incredibly good and entertaining! The lore books are well written and full of entertaining drama and humor. I was reminded of the fact that this is an RPG, not just an MMO.

I then went on to think, maybe there are a lot of bugs and issues, but maybe ZOS had a strong focus on delivering a beautiful MMO world with a rich RPG lore.

Perhaps ZOS has paid attention and realized in all MMOs, class balance and bugs are a constant, but good stories are few and far between. Have you noticed how fixing quests and story progression has taken a priority in many instances?

Maybe they DIDN'T expect fans to superficially disregard quests and story lines (except for when they are broken) to such a monumental degree.

For all the haters and power levelers who are rocking this like an MMO FPS, I highly recommend trying to play it like an MMORPG. Yes, there is no immediate "look at me and my shiny gear" rewards, but there are good stories.

Like ANY relationship in the entire world, if you focus on the negative seek to find faults, you will find them and they will make you a negative and unhappy person. If you focus on the positive and seek good things, you will find them and they will endow you with the patience to weather any puny storm of negativity.

If I want a story, I'll read a book. People are very aware of this "secret" of yours called a story in the game. The only secret is that a focus only on that may have lead to their doom before launch ever happened due to a lack of ability on anything else. When they took this online they entered the realm of mmorgs which aren't about the rpg aspect especially given they made a big hooplah about their DAoC derived RvR system. Mmorgs are about the game play, mechanics, and balance especially for the pvp. Fail at that, you fail period. Doesn't matter what a nice story you wrote. I don't see them as telling a great story anyways as half their quests are pushing some social agenda anyways. If I want a good read I'll grab Martin or Brooks. This is an action oriented video game. Who ever says boy I hope I get good story next level? LOL no it's skills, abilities, items, fun things to do, etc. It has to work as it should.

RoCoL · June 2014

ebondeath wrote: »

HandofBane wrote: »

While I do agree to a point about the newer generations of gamers, something to keep in mind for the attitude going in is that we get factions and loyalty (as well as showing the worst sides of the other factions) pretty much from day one, especially starting in the Pact. The main questline holds a more neutral stance, then we get Cadwell after all that telling us "guess what you get to go work for the guys you have viewed as bad guys for the past 50 levels!" For someone who appreciates immersion, especially in a game where the devs like to throw that "immersion above all" concept around, that tends to break hard with the idea. There is only so much I, as a moderately-loyal Argonian, can do to impede the Covenant while everyone there imagines I am really a loyal member of their faction.

Veteran content in general was not a well thought out idea, the implementation leaves much to be desired.

I rationalize the trip into other faction territory with a bit of fancy RP footwork (something about being devastated after the losses during the closing of the Planemeld and disappearing into the world to get away from the memories, but inexplicably being drawn into helping people again, regardless of faction). It works for my main, but notsomuch with my alts. I can make it it work with mental gymnastics, but I can see how other people wouldn't want to see it like that.

C'mon folks. Cadwell, the pot head, asks us if wed like to see how things turn out should we washed up on another shore. You are not betraying your alliance, its as if you were never a part of it.
I actually like the way the VR levels were implemented. Your not 'forced' to roll a new toon just to experience the other areas.

Paladin_echo1 · June 2014

Ya, the Amalexia teachings kinda made me question myself for a bit. I know I posted bout that mudcrab earlier, but I have to constantly watch myself that I don't sound like that. Not that Im worshiping some game, but a lot of the lessons in the story are well worth the read. Im going to clean my house after this.

steveb16_ESO46 · June 2014

RoCoL wrote: »

C'mon folks. Cadwell, the pot head, asks us if wed like to see how things turn out should we washed up on another shore. You are not betraying your alliance, its as if you were never a part of it.
I actually like the way the VR levels were implemented. Your not 'forced' to roll a new toon just to experience the other areas.

I'm a Breton. I was born part of the Alliance. And my answer to Cleese is 'no'. Especially if involves wearing a dress and carrying 2 sticks to fight inexplicably super-powered mud-crabs and skeevers thank-you very much.

Daethz · June 2014

If i wanted to have good readable content, I would browse the massive 1,000,000 lifetime library of books the human race has already written.

If i wanted to play a videogame where said content is displayed in a projected physical way, i would play a videogame.

Class balance is of no issue at this moment, the real issue is stamina based weapons/spells are simply trash in comparison to magicka based weapons such as Destruction Staff.

Ragefist · June 2014

I must agree. Disappointed by lack of stamina build viability in Trials, I rolled an alt and im having much more fun slowly enjoying the content. Im sure they will fix the build by the time I get my alt to endgame

And no, im not being sarcastic. I really enjoy it

Cimos · June 2014

Ragefist wrote: »

I must agree. Disappointed by lack of stamina build viability in Trials, I rolled an alt and im having much more fun slowly enjoying the content. Im sure they will fix the build by the time I get my alt to endgame

And no, im not being sarcastic. I really enjoy it

It's pretty obvious you have to run and dodge in trials. If those mechanics used Magicka as a resource for stamina builds, would that resolve things?

Is the problem with stamina builds resource driven or damage driven?

Daethz · June 2014

Cimos wrote: »

Ragefist wrote: »

I must agree. Disappointed by lack of stamina build viability in Trials, I rolled an alt and im having much more fun slowly enjoying the content. Im sure they will fix the build by the time I get my alt to endgame

And no, im not being sarcastic. I really enjoy it

It's pretty obvious you have to run and dodge in trials. If those mechanics used Magicka as a resource for stamina builds, would that resolve things?

Is the problem with stamina builds resource driven or damage driven?

Both

Sidney · June 2014

I am almost level 47 (first play through) and im so happy I read the stories and everything. It's been more fun playing this any any other mmo I've played by far.

To be honest, I'm almost upset about hitting 50 soon because I just want to play through again. I think I may just do that sooner rather than later. Glad to see someone who raced to 50 is taking the time now to enjoy it.

I have some level 50 friends who whine and complain that they are bored but all they do is race race race to max level so they can pvp and they learn nothing along the way and they don't even enjoy it. Sad. Yes, I'm mostly talking about you, DJ.

brandon · June 2014

GrimlockSaves wrote: »

After reaching V12 in a kind of vanity crazed rush, I decided to play the game differently... Two things:
I started listening to quest givers and learning the story of what is going on.

I started to read lore books.

As if it were some kind of untold secret, and to my surprise, the stories behind quests are incredibly good and entertaining! The lore books are well written and full of entertaining drama and humor. I was reminded of the fact that this is an RPG, not just an MMO.

I then went on to think, maybe there are a lot of bugs and issues, but maybe ZOS had a strong focus on delivering a beautiful MMO world with a rich RPG lore.

Perhaps ZOS has paid attention and realized in all MMOs, class balance and bugs are a constant, but good stories are few and far between. Have you noticed how fixing quests and story progression has taken a priority in many instances?

Maybe they DIDN'T expect fans to superficially disregard quests and story lines (except for when they are broken) to such a monumental degree.

For all the haters and power levelers who are rocking this like an MMO FPS, I highly recommend trying to play it like an MMORPG. Yes, there is no immediate "look at me and my shiny gear" rewards, but there are good stories.

Like ANY relationship in the entire world, if you focus on the negative seek to find faults, you will find them and they will make you a negative and unhappy person. If you focus on the positive and seek good things, you will find them and they will endow you with the patience to weather any puny storm of negativity.

thank you finally someone who gets it

PSLAnimal · June 2014

I enjoy reading the little notes that come along with my emailed loot from the hired help. They never fail to bring a smile.