The ESO have ton of content, that's for sure - but the quality is poor. Combat system is boring, repeating , difficulty of the overland is so small it is insulting adult players, everything valuable or fancy is behind the paywall and the monetization of the game is predatory. The game is flooded with critical bugs making PVP and endgame PVE content unplayable and it suffers drastic changes every couple of months as there is not clear direction or strategy from the Zenimax studio after 10 years of development. Game management is arrogant and the communication with the player base is non existing at all. I lost half of my friends in the game after the patch 35 and everybody knows ESO sucks, because Bethesda management is deluded and after MIcrosoft bought them it even worsened..
To be honest, no. With the loss of the long term players back in patch 35, the crown store peaked two years ago no matter how hard they try to push the new shit.
I still like to go fight the dragons just for fun but not many people in the zone so it's tough solo. When i first started playing there was an event in that zone but i just barely caught the end of it. It was so much fun slaying dragons with like 20 people there. Hopefully they'll do another event one day. Honestly i think it would be cool if they picked one zone each month that they focused on with enhanced loot, drops crafting nodes etc. They don't have to give out event tickets just better loot to gather the community in one zone and help newer players like myself to farm some of the zone motifs and furnishings.
Eso always just (badly) copied features of successful mmos. It really doesn't offer new experiences/ideas. The game always focused on money making first, for example the inventory is limited on purpose to force players to also pay for eso+. Instead of game design focused on fun, making players want to play, eso focused on drop-limitations, constant events, login rewards and daily research to keep their players numbers up artificially. Bugs don't get fixed, new problems get added constantly, lots of paywalls, no gms/moderation, the newest chapters always have broken op stuff to sell the chapter, core combat design broken, no balancing, mmo but no mulitplayer-focus, etc. Bad decisions started before 10 years. Eso is all about the greed and fast money-making, not long-term business and fun. All of that adds up over the years, resulting in todays Eso that is really far from a great game - but still expensive as hell
I completely agree with you about the difficulty progression. I've been playing since the initial release, but for the first few years, I mostly stuck to overland content, with delves being the most challenging thing I tackled. Eventually, I made some friends and started venturing into harder content, and I vividly remember how jarring the jump from overland to dungeons felt. You go from dominating everything to getting completely wrecked. The unfortunate part is that dungeons, especially on normal and veteran difficulty, aren't inherently that hard, they just feel that way because the game doesn’t really prepare you for them. Another major issue for me, and one of the reasons I’ve stopped playing as much, is the lack of meaningful in-game rewards. Outside of a few exceptions like trials, the rewards you get from actually playing the game are pretty lackluster. Most of the cool cosmetics are locked behind the crown store or gamble crates, which is really disappointing.
I'm super casual, and by the time you hit CP 150 it doesn't matter. I'm not running a build, I only have crafted gear sets, I haven't "optimized" anything. And I can still solo Pub Dungeons with regular content being boring. The game badly needs back the Silver and Gold overland difficulty settings.
Good video azura! The driving point for me is that all of this sounds great for them on paper and I truly hope they make things to make the current player base happy. The issue is, that's expecting them to do something and work in a way with which they've never done before. Not that it can't be done, but it's doubtful in my eyes. I'm hoping for the player base that I am wrong though. Happy holidays!
I whole-heartedly agreed with you that the storywriting was terrible and chidish. I could not tolerate those stupid dialogues and behaviours of the main npcs. I was so disappointed with Gold Road.
The game has been on a slow & steady downward spiral for a while, I left 2 years go out of frustration. I think they're just treading water & keeping the lights on for the time being while people keep pumping the crown store. Once that drops low enough with the player base leaving over time, they'll eventually just make the call & turn off the servers just after a major new game release of some kind. In the meantime I expect only minor changes & only half-finished content to limp along.
I feel similar. I personally had great experiences with the Necrom expansion, and a lot of happy memories of running around doing Bastion Nymic dailies with friends, but even then some of the larger ecosystem issues were weighing heavily on it all. So little is working right now, and so many decisions that were messed up years ago have set deep into the bones of ESO and started to poison the foundation. I'd also argue the game needed real overhauls in a few areas and systems, and where its graphics once felt premium (at least for an MMO), many characters, scenes, and situations are starting to look worn out. Remember: some games evolve to be clearly better with time. It should be treated as abnormal when a game consistently declines for preventable, short-sighted reasons.
You all are so dramatic with that “turn off the servers” bs… stop scaring people. It’s the third largest and most popular mainstream MMORPG, in worst case scenario it will run on maintenance mode for at least a decade after that decision. Enough to actually zero their profit vs maintenance cost and for people to move on.
ESO writing template. NPC: The objective is (description). Player Choices 1. The objective is (description)? 2. Tell me the objective again. 3. Goodbye This is basically the entire issue with the writing imo. The whole treating the player like a child thing boils down to them not respecting player intelligence (likely not intentionally). On seasonal content: FOMO and monetization is exactly the goal.
@edc6172 It's near the end of the main questline if I recall. You're in someone's house and the armor is just sitting there in the house and your character and the npc's notice it, act confused, pretend it didn't happen, and move on really fast lol.
They need more creators or developers. Because they should not ever be in a time crunch. They have had 365 days in a year. That's a bull excuse that they gave. I believe that they spent all their extra income on the ESO 10 years celebration in Europe. They did that because that was their lifetime vacation. They probably never were in Europe. Now they don't have money for the hyped up America 10 year celebration. And they suddenly have no time. Bull. They want to provide a little content for the same price but times 4 times a year, meaning now 4 times the cost for us.
You know, reading that Director's Letter was what finally got me to unsub from ESO+... It's just like what you said, once the rose tinted glasses fall off... it's like breaking out of the Matrix. I was already thinking about unsubbing it before, but that letter was what really pushed me to do it. They keep dangling the keys and saying they'll fix Cyrodiil... Calling it now, watch them "fix" it by making it even worse than it already is, and then they'll just abandon it... again! They already abandoned their NA playerbase and their console players by canceling the in-person celebration that was supposed to happen next year, it won't be long before the developers end up abandoning their own game.
A little bloody shock factor goes a long way. Wrothgar and Dark Brotherhood got it right somewhat. Even in Skyrim the npcs will share some heavy, though not intellectually layered, stories of their pasts that make Skyrim look like the Godfather compared to ESO's Dr. Seuss style of storytelling.
I don’t always agree with everything you say, Azura, and I’d like to make that very clear. There have been moments when I strongly disagreed with many of your perspectives, but I’ve always appreciated seeing your point of view. Honestly, after spending a few minutes in forums where there’s either toxic positivity or negativity about the game, it’s refreshing to see someone share opinions that are actually grounded. That said... I also have a story with ESO, starting from the game’s beta. And I love this game. I love the world, the characters, and its overall story. I love it enough that, for the past six years, I’ve been working on translating the game into my own language. It’s almost 500,000 lines of dialogue - in terms of word count? It must be close to ten million. It’s a colossal game. And even now, as I write these words, I’m doing so after deciding to stop reviewing dialogues in the game. I’m feeling a little sad right now, I won’t lie. It’s because, well, yes, the game is losing players. And I see this letter, and I swear - I REALLY want to hold onto the idea that things will get better... The base game is my passion. I love the base game, I love the DLCs that came afterward - Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, I love everything up until Murkmire with all my heart. But what if things don’t get better? This isn’t Zenimax’s last chance; their last chance has already passed. If things don’t improve, this year will just be the final nail in the coffin of something I once loved so fervently. The way they described next year feels more experimental to me, like 2015, 2016, and 2017 were - when they were releasing new things over time, testing their game, and pushing its potential. But... what if it’s not? What if it’s just a smokescreen to make it seem like everything is fine while they’re actually dismantling the game that, honestly... changed my life? I’m genuinely sad. I still hope things will improve, but it’s hard to trust Zenimax these days. After so many disappointments.
I haven't played a lot of MMOs myself. I cut my teeth on Guild Wars 1, which I still love to this day. It still has the best necromancer class of any game I've played imo. Besides ESO, my other 2 were AION, which was the most visually amazing game I've ever seen. These days it's been dialed back substantially. Another favorite was Age of Conan, which is morphed into something different now. I brought these up because they contain what you were talking about regarding difficulty progression. In Aion, I think it was every 10 levels you would move up into another zone scaled for those levels. In AoC, it was every 20, up to 80 max, and at the end of every zone maxing, you would have to fight a story boss to progress into the next level zone. That's a huge glaring difference between ESO and pretty much anything else I've played. Short of going to Craglorn, there's zero overland challenge. But I understand the flip side. When I first tried ESO way back when, I remember being on Stros Mkai with my level 2 char, level 1 sword, and I couldn't kill or hardly even damage a level 3 wolf or automaton. I thought this is stupid and I quit right then.
Let's just be frank, there is too little time and too many games (good games) to be messing around with a game like ESO (the game ESO has been allowed to turn into, not the game it almost was). That's just the bottom line. Edit: This whole situation with ESO is like when someone leaves their shitty partner that they've been with so long because they didn't see how shitty they really were. They didn't want to hear everything their friends and family were saying, but one day something triggers in their head and all of a sudden they see it all, and so they leave. Then the shitty partner starts to apologize for everything, listing everything they're going to change, and making excuses for how shitty they've been. But guess what, by then it's TOO LATE. They've taken them for granted and now it's time to live with the consequences.
I'm 100% certain ESO is slowly heading into Maintenance Mode. All their talent has gone over to the new MMO in development. Studio Lead Matt Frior takes his lead from Todd Howard when it comes to BS.
I think they lost talent to other studios like intrepid . Steven has said he has devs that came from eso . Sometimes the thing holding a team together is just one or two solid people and if their lost the team is done for ,to me that's what eso looks like now.
It is still funny for me, that the most recognisable thing for non-eso fans, is Ascended Knight from the High Isle ESO trailer. This badass cool-looking fighter. They plaster him everywhere, he's the icon of that Chapter, and blud shows up only once in the base High Isle chapter, and it doesn't even address you directly lol. Way to go ZOS
the spikes of player-numbers on steam is when the game was available to play for free. These numbers include btw lots of players with several (storage) account to get inventory space
When I first played Morrowind I fell in love...with the Daedric Princes. I enjoyed the Tribunal but goddamn the Princes were my jam. That's why when I found out that Bethesda was letting a long lost Daedric Prince resurface in ESO my hopes were uncontrollably heightened for the Gold Road chapter. While some of the details around the Forgotten Prince did give me chills...SPOILER ALERT...turn back now if you haven't finished Gold Road and appreciate uncovering a story on your own...just the fact that the player knows she doesn't appear in games that take place after the Era ESO is set in made the way they just let her walk off into the memory of Hermaeus Mora and the player only, felt so lazy. It fucking crushed me. It was just hey, plot said this has to happen. Ithelia bad now. Disappear like Jygalagg. The one redeeming quality is that it made us (the player) feel like we were actually the bad guy this one time. Are we the baddies?
The plot made me think Hermaeus Mora is a snowflake with a fragile heart. Ithelia has done nothing at all and was banished simply bcoz Hermaeus "believes" she is a threat. Such an idiotic and worst written story. Someone may argue with certain blah blah blah reasons but the story just did not impress and convince me at all.
the good news is on the forums they clarified re: seasons it wouldn't be a FOMO thing, so assuming new seasonal content they put out can be completed at your leisure.
I'm totally on the same page as you when it comes to the writing quality. I felt like Gold Road was okay but I haven't really been wowed by the writing since Markarth :(
There was so much potential Gold Road could have had story wise... I think I talked about it a bit in my other video but they had such a HUGE opportunity and blew it
Oh yea, I agree, Summerset is my favorite chapter. Granted I haven't played any chapters past Greymoor. As long as they can make good content im all for getting rid of chapters. I'm so far behind on story contents it basically doesn't matter to me. Doesn't help that I haven't properly played the game in 2 years, almost 3, not like I used to anyways. I'd love to start playing again but all my friends left back then, I then made new eso friends and they left too lol
A positive I can see from this is that they will probably do more “story” content and not standalone chapters with the usual predictable story and underwhelming plots but instead the characters we already know and love and hopefully they do more story arcs like the base game zone stories where there is continuity and well written characters. I’m all for that.
The thing that gets me the most i legit remember watching a trailer and being like YES thats exactly the type of mmo I'm looking for . I got in had a friend who had been playing for a little bit before me make me up some gear and I got into cyrodiil and my first seige / counter seige i was hooked . Now you fast forward 10 years and I haven't felt that thrill in years . Now I'm someone who yeah the lag bothers me somewhat but I could look past it if every other update changed something in pvp to where it just kept that excitement going of oh crap what are they going to do next ? Like pvp specific skills could've been something they lowkey tested YEARS ago for a season then went to non proc sets for the next season . Like these things if done in moderation and presented as season features could've been cool and they could've gotten good active testing / data in . The best thing it could've been repeatable over a long period of time . Leaving non proc as a campaign for years briefly switching it back to proc then switching it to test something else out it just honestly screams negligence or worse incompetence. At this point in time I honestly just think they should shut down cyrodiil and ic and release ic as battleground maps with monsters and have it always have its boss monster on beginning of match . And turn cyrodiil into a guild v guild v guild mode and remove the pve quests and side monsters from it . Just have a very condensed cyrodiil map so battles happen often . I think cyrodiil and ic died already and they are kicking the dead horse seeing if it'll work again . Salvage what you can from it and let us move on to something a little different . Name a world War ( because effectively thats what the cyrodiil war is) where the battle lines remained exactly the same for 10 years , there's been 2 and the lines shifted very fast . Frankly put i can't ever trust a word this company says again.
The denial in game, on reddit, etc. is insane. People don't get that we criticize the game because we enjoyed it in some capacity and put countless hours into it. For whatever reason the criticism was always ignored and the game doesn't do anything good enough to keep me playing--it feels like the only strength of ESO now is monetization or the bandaid attempts at addressing over monetization by throwing out candy to players. People defend the crown store saying it "saves time, reduces grinds, etc..." Man, why are MMORPG players across the board this brainwashed--whether you have time or not you should always want a fulfilling experience where the dopamine is not delivered via your wallet but from the experience itself. I can't imagine how ESO will make a comeback. Rant over, lol. Thanks for making the video o7
The PvP is not their servers. They have left a lot of combat mechanics unchecked and mitigated properly that the calculations are causing a problem. A lot of that stress can be fixed with properly handling balancing and hard caps on skills/mechanics. It will greatly reduce the calculations and reduce the lag issue.
I still remember submitting videos both in tickets and on the official forums of multiple button clicks straight up not working (going off into the void without a skill actually firing) and being gaslit by the community itself and ignored by the developers. This was at least 5 years ago. The fact that you just now talked about it still working that way assures me my decision to depart was a good one.
You hit the nail on the head when you talked about the difficulty. Yea the overland content is piss easy that's for sure. As a veteran player, end gamer (or I used to be anyways), it hard for me to even comprehend anymore how the overland content could possibly be hard for anyone. I mean specifically questing content. I have to nerf myself so much, remove cp, wear set-less white gear, etc. Still too easy. I could play bad intentionally but then im not having fun am I? Once you learn how to play well in ESO, 90% of the game's content becomes trivial. This is the MAIN reason why I'm so far behind on the story content. It bores me to death how easy it is, rather spend that time running veteran dungeons or trials. At the same time, this is why ESO feels incredibly hollow at times, theres only so many times I can run the same vet dungeon before it loses all meaning.
also a complaint about the game from many new players as well. The devs finally realized that it was a problem because they kept hearing it from everyone and not just endgame / veteran players
Agree. It's weird as meanwhile, half of the relevant games of the last decade have proven that gamers want high difficulty with the option of a slightly easier mode (or to be able to grind out levels to come back and overpower something that gated them). The feeling that gamers want is so clearly: 1.) defeating something challenging that 2.) they must learn the systems and moves/timing better to overcome to 3.) receive rewarding loot. It is inclusive to have some easier zones, bosses, and things to help players. But, it's foolish to make all your core content so easy that no one enjoys it and 1,000 hours of material feels pointless. A game can be made accessible without abandoning the core audience.
I agree, I want to like this game. Played it since Beta, loved it, tried to get all my friends into it, guild led for a while. Overtime time though it feels more and more like passionate people get sequestered into a corner to shut up and produce, while executive level decision makers have just settled on milking a community they hate for not shutting up and taking a good hard monetization while the game erodes around them.
I agree, there is a certain order you should play the game in, from an overland perspective. I've tried to get people into it and these days, I recommend against it because there is no way for them to follow the plot without a veteran literally holding their hand through it because they throw 10 years worth a compass markers at you right out of the gate. It's one thing to be able to do anything at any time, and then there is zero guidance.
k I never leave long comments like this, but i am so glad that you are just coming out and saying THAT THE WRITING IS SO ASS NOW. Everyone who is responsible for handling the Elder Scrolls IP has fucked up big time in allowing a company like Microsoft anywhere near it. I used to LOVE ESO back when summerset and clockwork city were coming out and it seemed like they really cared about quality, but now it seems like business as usual the focus has shifted to capitalizing on new players, and FOMOing old ones into buying stuff. It sucks. I miss old Elder Scrolls. You cannot compare Morrowind Tamriel Rebuilt mod's level of writing to ESO. Its like comparing the Lord of the Rings to Clifford the Big Red Dog. I don't understand why it must be this way.
Honestly, I like the off the cuff unscripted video format. I've never played ESO, but I sub to you because of a video that I saw about Jeremy Soule when I learned about allegations against him and you struck me as someone who has their finger on the pulse of Elder Scrolls. So yeah, free style it away.
The point that it's all too late now is exactly it IMO. I'm in a really similar boat with all of my friends having quit a long time ago as well. I'm a roleplayer, quester, endgame contenter, basically everything; but I would estimate I haven't done more than 24hr of any content other than housing and questing since 2019 when most of my friends quit from bad performance and all that stuff. (other than MYM as well I guess which I've done alone since that same year my friends quit) I'm obsessed with TES, they're almost the only games I play ever for the past well over a decade, and that's the only reason I'm still playing. It's also the only reason I ever started, but still.
Played 4 years. Pvp'd about 2. Pvp can be an absolutely miserable experience due to lags and bugs like stuck in combat etc but when it's good it's super fun and exciting. It does seem this game,especially since Microsoft took over, is headed to maintenance mode. Maybe it already is and I'm just realizing
There has been a steep decline since 2020. The Reach was the last good zone. And yes, the world-ending-threat crap feels lazy and juvenile. I'm assuming budgets have been slashed and they're disguising it as a change in direction. Also, you're absolutely right on the toxic positivity, particularly in housing which is my favourite content, it is infused with this passive-aggressive insincerity.
Eso didnt deliver but you surely did with this video. Its saddening to see a team/game we all supported for, being infected with its current deliverance. They may make the content, but the community makes the game. Well spoken, was refreshing to hear it from somebody else instead of myself or mutuals. Moon and star upon you, fellow Azurite✌️🌛⭐ P.s.; since you said you are a houser! Maybe you like my primary; its Azura's Realm. Gotta support the real deal aye! ua-cam.com/video/LMEBdHxV-8I/v-deo.htmlsi=lemb_W1If_pztqH9
Whenever they decide to shut the servers down (hopefully not for another 10 years at least), I wonder if they'll add an offline mode update or a peer to peer mode where you can still play with friends... I'm currently playing with a family member and he's loving it, and tbh I'd hate for people to lose that in the future. Eventually this game will become unsuitable to keep online due to low player numbers, but the game itself is still extremely fun solo or with friends, and is still a valuable experience that shouldn't simply disappear whenever some executive decides its time to pull the plug on it...
I just recently came back to the game after taking a little more than a year break and I was shocked at how much had changed. First thing I noticed was the economy has tanked and I wondered whether it was a supply or demand issue but it's probably both. Then I noticed my favorite YT creators weren't there anymore, or just phoning it in. It's clear to me after doing more research and listening to vids like this that ZOS has shot themselves in both feet and one hand and is bleeding badly. The only question is whether they realize just how badly and if it's too late. 10 years is a good run, I'd like to see another 10 but it's a real low point for sure. So sad.
If they want to fix Cyrodiil performance, step 1 is killing ball groups' effectiveness. They did that once, and lag got better, but they reverted the change. Absolutely worth trying again. If that doesn't help, take a look at what sets are doing. It's just too much for the server(s) to do at once.
I'm actually in the same boat. Took a break from ESO and oddly enough switched over to Guild Wars 2 and been having a blast.. The story has been so good in my opinion. I just needed to take a break from ESO and hope it goes in a more positive direction.
I've invested so much into ESO. I've played since before there was a dungeon queue and myself and two others ran banished cells 1, barely made it through the first hallway before we stopped but it was amazing. Or when I finally left Auridon for the first time around level 20 or so. It was incredible. Personally, I was never a fan of the One Tamriel update which I know I'm in the very small minority with that. But it shrunk the world imo, I love my house so much, I used to love TES lore so much... but I can't stand the stale content, the boring writing, the terrible gameplay loop that has not changed in ten years. The stiff animations, the jank of a lot of content, the absolute unbelievable overwhelming feeling of confusion if you come back after a break and you're bombarded with a million things at once and wonder where everyone went because now you're alone in a zone. I miss the game but every time I log on, it all comes flooding back and makes me not want to play anymore.
I wish one MMO specific content creators at least dipped their toes into other MMOs from time to time. It gives you a better sense of scale and perspective. No one can deny that ESO is trending downwards right now but the doom talk is absolutely silly when you put it into perspective. The things that are happening now in ESO are not in a state that can't be recovered from. Plenty of MMOs have survived much bigger drops in players before. Of course it all amounts to nothing if the things they say in the letter don't come to pass. But regardless, at this moment ESO isn't nearly in as dire straits as some people seem to think. I think a lot of the doom talk stems from genuine frustration with ZOS, which is fair in itself. ZOS has a lot to prove in the coming years.
would love to get back into eso been playing since 2015 on xbox and switched to pc last year and just cant bring myself to start again after thousands of dollars being waste and just sitting there on my console account.
They got my ass with the Gold Road Ultimate Collection thinking i was buying majority of the DLC only to find out i still have to fork over more money to buy almost ALL the dlc dungeons and more. Down with Zenimax
Even if they do everything right and solve most problems, it'd take several years to revert the downward trend, if it is indeed possible to revert it at this point. I'd assume at this point they already have a plan B in the works (maybe a new MMO, as you said.) I personally completely stopped playing in 2021, but I had already stopped doing serious content by 2020 before that, so it's been too long for me already. The reason I stopped playing was the constant messing around with abilities and weird gameplay changes, but ultimately what drove me totally away was the uncapping of the CPs. I think the last good content I've played from ESO was Summerset. Even then, I was subbed almost to the end because I couldn't let it go and I still miss my characters and friends from that time.
They do not treat ESO like Skyrim and Morrowind. I am going to be honest here: A multiplayer Elder Scrolls 6 Version that is not an MMO but more like a : you equip yourself like in Skyrim run around, explore and kill other players just like you would in Skyrim with a crosshair to shoot your arrows, spells at the target would be fun. I hope there will ever be a online, multiplayer Elder Scrolls game that is not an MMO. A Skyrim like game with new technology and insane graphics but in multiplayer.
The floaty combat and navigation, the Egregious cash shop, the crafting bag in the Subscription, and the latency (especially in Cyrodill) did it in for me :( Was so excited for ESO back in 2014 and the betas were fun. The first year or two were pretty fun. But ZOS hasn't been able to retain me. I've kept coming back, hoping it's better. And it has better, but not heaps. And with the cash shop. Nope..
back there around 2014 game difficulty was same super easy in solo-pve content? game story quests are nice bout story...but sooooooo easy like omg...literally impossible to die ( It's just boring (
@@Groboman, when the game came out , before One Tamriel you got slammed really hard if you entered a higher zone. Pretty much instant death. There were only a few armour sets and you needed to collect a set before moving into a new zone. No champion points. No one soloed a map boss or anchor. I only defeated Molag Bal on my drunken Argonian thief build...it was a thing..( Argonians had a pot buff). You buffed yourself by drinking pots, burst damaged, and stealthed up fast, then tried to repeat . You had limited time stealthed and sometimes Molag would just spot you. A slight hesitation on a mechanic and Bal would just grab you, crush you, and toss your broken body to the side. A lot of players just quit the game. Lag and the early game bugs just added to the challenge, lol.
@@Poor-gecko i think its possible to raise difficulty even with auto-level system...but seems it was fun to play before that update,and there been lotsa reasons to coop together. Just they don't need make enemies like sponges,just raise them damage,and ALOT to raise this at solo content or worldmap...
After 13k hours in ESO all the "New Content" feels the same. Rins & repeat re-skinned items etc etc. As much as I loved ESO I just can't bring myself to play anymore. I recently got Baulders Gate 3 and absolutely Love it!! I'll come back for ES6
I've been complaining about how easy the main campaigns are. The end bosses should be a challenge. Not brutally so. Just make it more of an accomplishment to complete.
I agree with you on downwards trend, and Steam is definetely the place to see how game does. However I somehwat dislike changes to difficulty of overworld content. ESO was always super casual game for me, where I just dominate with immortal builds, solo world bosses, solo dungeons, etc. Basically like in single player Elder Scrolls games, a God simulator, and I liked it about ESO
I know it's a longshot to even ask a question. I've been wanted to get into ESO, I've never played the game before, what would you recommend for a new player?
If you are new player, there isn't that much you can do wrong. There are hours and hours of old and newer questing content and much of it is quite enjoyable. 1. Play the original storyline (Coldharbour) at least once and rather early on. 2. Choose one character as your main and really learn how to play that class. Learn the skills and the morphs and find a method to arrange your bars. 3. Join a casual guild early on and participate in things like world boss runs and normal dungeon or initiate them. 4. Don't worry too much about gear before you reach cp 160. Maybe ask a guild member if they can craft a set of training gear for you that you can also later use for new characters. 5. If you don't want to play with ESO plus, you will get inventory issues. So you should create mule characters early on for the more valuable things like flowers, alloys etc. 6. Once you reach CP 200-300 you can think about what to do later and your role (tank, healer, dps) and start collecting gear you need. It is a great game when you start playing. Later on, not so much anymore. Most of that is ZOS' fault. I quit in 2022 after 5 years of playing. But all of what I said should still be valid.
Biggest corporate BS in that letter was "millions of players who return the game every year...." just F off that is utter BS if anything... last MMO I waste my time too unless GTA 6 brings something... I will never spend another euro on anything coming from ZoS.
Far as pvp goes. Lags one thing, but 8 years of watching bugs and performance issues primarily and often solely affecting Imperial City and Cyrodiil, coupled with the obvious rift and tension between ZOS and the Pvp community I feel like its not even server or hardware at this point. Feels more like weaponized incompetence.
Good upload! I was curious how ESO was doing, even though Update 35 was when they lost me for good. ESO had just got done peddling that card minigame as the main xpac feature, and were on the even of pushing Titanic bad balancing, changes that any and everyone were fiercely opposed to. A patronizing tweet from Rich Lambert, "I get it, changes are tough but don't be so knee-jerk and just wait" (changes like your game going down the drain), helped me realize how much these are just industries jobbers who talk big and dgaf. It had became too clear that guys like Firor and Lambert have no idea whats going on, and don't listen at all. One key example will be a hill I die on about this game. I get they eventually 'fixed it' but gtfo- This game badly needed to realize the difference between a Dungeon Finder and a Public Group Finder, and why an MMO whos main evergreens are big random raids or events might require one to flourish. It needed to do that years ago, before the raiders tired of scraping together guild and town runs quit. ESO is a game where guilds are already impossibly fractal, its mind blowing how long it took them to connect interested players with raid groups. Who knows how many guilds or communities would be rocking out today, if ESO wasn't so far behind the social tech of every other major MMO? They needed a PF long long ago, and so much more. More to showcase how cool it was when big PVE clicked, and the potential to have a whole account of super geared alts- with a player friendly PF to help it go smooth. The fact all your alts could raid and gear quickly was a huge selling point at the time, when alts took a lot in most MMO systems. At some point I honestly loved having all these sick characters to deploy. Instead, ESO were so stuck on making this a DAoC clone, pushing an abysmally stale content blueprint, and nerfing crucial kit that took forever to grind, with casual contempt. They wanted guilds and communities to do everything on the social front, even run the Auction House. Designers with a passion and skill for pve development- who understand how to attract and encourage people to support MMO communities- COULD have saved this game. But, as we've said here.. its too late! There are so many better games out here anyway.
I think i have been saved from total hatred and quitting has been never main'ing ESO. I have always played some other things as a "main game", like OSRS, TF2 or something completely different. I have been getting more harder content with ne grouping tool, which was a good adding for the game. I have always been very mixed on story writing in ESO. It has its moments but i pretty much never could take it seriously and the best moments have been rather humorous content, like when your dumb player character asks "what is an oblivion" and Laramiel goes "Wtf you really don't know?!". High isle's main story was so bad that i at first couldn't even realize the plot; like seriously WOW THIS CHARECTER WHO I JUST MET IS THE ASCENDEND LORD!!! What a betrayal. On the other hand story with Argonian slaves in Morrowind chapter is genuinely heartbreaking and good. Hopeful but not surprised if these are just more hollow words from Zenimax.
36:00 amen, or the maurader in IA that the companions cannot target or taunt. Hopefully they get their shit together, after Gold Roads rush and lack of quality I didn't plan to buy the next chapter anyway. 40:00 I bet creators that do build vidoes it is super annoying spending hours building the setup and then the video only to have the build nerfed and be outdated after a few months.
I agree the story writing is bad 😢 and the foundatuon of stories is soo good! Thats what is so aggravating!!! I totally agree with the concerm of pasting things into the old zones. 100% agree with diffoculty, i hope they can fix overland to scale with dungeons. Or at least give us an option or toggle or something. Turns qiests into snooze fest, and i love exploring overland and doing quests for story. Im trying to be optimistic, but if another year goes by without real Cyrodiil changes i think im really gone. Hope they take it easy on the crown crates crap but i know thats a pipe dream. Thanks for sharing your perspective!
I played ESO since beta, and truly had hopes this game would turn out right - that the devs would be passionate and dedicated enough to know where to navigate this game, but they've been failing over and over again, taking the community and their patience for granted and this is the final result we've got: More promises and especially promises to fix things (on paper thus far) while a larger portion of people have moved on. I quit this game a couple of months ago and finally moved (back) to Guild Wars 2. I haven't looked back and don't plan to no matter how many promises ZOS spew out. ESO is ultimately an mmo facade hiding it's true purpose: Crown store, Crown crates and gambling. It's ZOS' main focus. What I find truly fascinating is how people still believe and especially hope ZOS will direct this mmo on a better path, but after so many years with constant broken promises I do wonder what keeps the remaining portion still onboard this sinking ship.
Coincidence that Bethesda has ESO and Fallout 76. Which has got alot of the same complaints. My two favorite games. Guess I like the abuse.....great video. And Happy Holidays! Shoutout from Vegas_PAN
I think the burnout is real. For me, I got tired of chasing the meta. They intentionally buff paid classes and then nerf them after a year, and they do it over and over. They buff armor sets to get people to use them, then when they get used, they nerf them and say damage is too high… it’s just a continual cycle of cash grabbing and nerfing, and I finally got sick of it. I barely play anymore. There’s only so many years people will work hard to parse in the .01% just to be nerfed and punished for it by the dev team. It’s honestly like the devs don’t want people to be good at their game. Because every time dps gets “good”, they nerf it. I really think they made some of these trial trifectas with the goal of people Not Getting them, and then when we do, they get mad about it and nerf dps again. Smh. I’m just over it.
They have tried to appeal to everyone and the problem with that is if no one hates it then no one will love it. Like yea everyone can just be kinda like meh or whatever but there is no passion. You have to focus on your hardcore players who are passionate about the game. Others will come and go and if they don’t like it and it’s not for them that’s okay.
Modern game devs want players' time & money just like most companies want consumers' attention and money. But, offering good value in exchange for equal value is fairly rare in any business where profit is king The concept of pursuing the highest profit that can be gained at the lowest cost, or, maximizing personal gain at the least cost to self has been part of human behavior since time immemorial.
I've heard many times that their stories for their quest lines are really good. The problem is the actual quest is so boring. Almost everything seems like an escort mission or just a fetch quest where you're running back and forth to the same places. They just make me want to rush through everything so fast that I don't even bother with the story I have music on and I just skip through all the dialogue because it's just mindless work.
So, MMOs in general are in decline. The bottom line is, I play BECAUSE of the social aspect. I also am on Console (PS NA). I will continue to play only as long as I have friends to play with. It has Killed PVP and my Guild (est 2018) with the number of people leaving the game. But, I do still have enough to play with. That said, I play LESS. We meet up every Friday night for group content. Sometime it's more of just CHATTING without playing, but we still get together. IF the player base turns around, it will affect my time spent on the game. But I don't see that happening anytime soon. I think all the content creators are seeing the same thing. The people they play with are leaving making it a game to spend very little time on. Thank you, Azura for all the content you have given me and hopefully, there will be more in the future.
Mmos are meant to play for the social aspects so as long as you have friends to play (or randoms) with you're fine. Problem starts where most of your friends are leaving the game, you can't find new ones and completing content with random players is impossible. Sounds familiar right?
Agree with you on the DLCs. Since Morrowind it seems they just copy paste their typical design, and just put on a different skin. It gets repetitive, chasing a baddie around the zone.
I have never seen the appeal of this game I played it at release with friends and by the time we got to the end game it just felt like it was riding on the name of the IP without actually resembling the IP at all.
One of the problems for the writers is that the ESO world is static. So High Isle could have changed things dramatically, with the loss of 1 or more faction leaders. We already know the Daedra aren't going to win, but mortal antagonists can't either.
Just dont overthink it lol. Take breaks, come back when feel like it. Thats what i do. Have "played" since launch but i take 6+ month absence all the time xD
two azura videos in a week? it's a miracle!! discord.gg/p4gePVpRDx
By Azura! By Azura! By Azura!
The ESO have ton of content, that's for sure - but the quality is poor. Combat system is boring, repeating , difficulty of the overland is so small it is insulting adult players, everything valuable or fancy is behind the paywall and the monetization of the game is predatory. The game is flooded with critical bugs making PVP and endgame PVE content unplayable and it suffers drastic changes every couple of months as there is not clear direction or strategy from the Zenimax studio after 10 years of development. Game management is arrogant and the communication with the player base is non existing at all. I lost half of my friends in the game after the patch 35 and everybody knows ESO sucks, because Bethesda management is deluded and after MIcrosoft bought them it even worsened..
Maybe more crown crates will solve the problem 🥲
or more skill styles for 2.5k crowns 🤣
Sure .lure more players to the eso store
To be honest, no. With the loss of the long term players back in patch 35, the crown store peaked two years ago no matter how hard they try to push the new shit.
@samuraichicken2315 what new shit in the crown store .its the same shit they had in there last year lol.
I got ouroboros crates homey, how many you need ? lol
Southern Elsweyr was the coolest story for me with the two Dragons battling at the end. I really liked that one.
I don't always judge a chapter by the story, but I did enjoy the dragons.
elsweyr was peak, both in quality and in game balance
I still like to go fight the dragons just for fun but not many people in the zone so it's tough solo. When i first started playing there was an event in that zone but i just barely caught the end of it. It was so much fun slaying dragons with like 20 people there. Hopefully they'll do another event one day.
Honestly i think it would be cool if they picked one zone each month that they focused on with enhanced loot, drops crafting nodes etc. They don't have to give out event tickets just better loot to gather the community in one zone and help newer players like myself to farm some of the zone motifs and furnishings.
I hated it and loved other chapters. So it really is a matter of taste.
This game could have easily been the top mmo if they made 10 years of good decisions and garnered more good will with their player base…
Eso always just (badly) copied features of successful mmos. It really doesn't offer new experiences/ideas. The game always focused on money making first, for example the inventory is limited on purpose to force players to also pay for eso+. Instead of game design focused on fun, making players want to play, eso focused on drop-limitations, constant events, login rewards and daily research to keep their players numbers up artificially. Bugs don't get fixed, new problems get added constantly, lots of paywalls, no gms/moderation, the newest chapters always have broken op stuff to sell the chapter, core combat design broken, no balancing, mmo but no mulitplayer-focus, etc.
Bad decisions started before 10 years. Eso is all about the greed and fast money-making, not long-term business and fun. All of that adds up over the years, resulting in todays Eso that is really far from a great game - but still expensive as hell
I completely agree with you about the difficulty progression. I've been playing since the initial release, but for the first few years, I mostly stuck to overland content, with delves being the most challenging thing I tackled. Eventually, I made some friends and started venturing into harder content, and I vividly remember how jarring the jump from overland to dungeons felt. You go from dominating everything to getting completely wrecked. The unfortunate part is that dungeons, especially on normal and veteran difficulty, aren't inherently that hard, they just feel that way because the game doesn’t really prepare you for them. Another major issue for me, and one of the reasons I’ve stopped playing as much, is the lack of meaningful in-game rewards. Outside of a few exceptions like trials, the rewards you get from actually playing the game are pretty lackluster. Most of the cool cosmetics are locked behind the crown store or gamble crates, which is really disappointing.
I'm super casual, and by the time you hit CP 150 it doesn't matter. I'm not running a build, I only have crafted gear sets, I haven't "optimized" anything. And I can still solo Pub Dungeons with regular content being boring. The game badly needs back the Silver and Gold overland difficulty settings.
Good video azura!
The driving point for me is that all of this sounds great for them on paper and I truly hope they make things to make the current player base happy.
The issue is, that's expecting them to do something and work in a way with which they've never done before. Not that it can't be done, but it's doubtful in my eyes.
I'm hoping for the player base that I am wrong though. Happy holidays!
Yep we will see what happens I guess 🤔 happy holidays to you too!!! 🙏
I whole-heartedly agreed with you that the storywriting was terrible and chidish. I could not tolerate those stupid dialogues and behaviours of the main npcs. I was so disappointed with Gold Road.
The game has been on a slow & steady downward spiral for a while, I left 2 years go out of frustration. I think they're just treading water & keeping the lights on for the time being while people keep pumping the crown store. Once that drops low enough with the player base leaving over time, they'll eventually just make the call & turn off the servers just after a major new game release of some kind. In the meantime I expect only minor changes & only half-finished content to limp along.
I feel similar. I personally had great experiences with the Necrom expansion, and a lot of happy memories of running around doing Bastion Nymic dailies with friends, but even then some of the larger ecosystem issues were weighing heavily on it all. So little is working right now, and so many decisions that were messed up years ago have set deep into the bones of ESO and started to poison the foundation.
I'd also argue the game needed real overhauls in a few areas and systems, and where its graphics once felt premium (at least for an MMO), many characters, scenes, and situations are starting to look worn out.
Remember: some games evolve to be clearly better with time. It should be treated as abnormal when a game consistently declines for preventable, short-sighted reasons.
You all are so dramatic with that “turn off the servers” bs… stop scaring people. It’s the third largest and most popular mainstream MMORPG, in worst case scenario it will run on maintenance mode for at least a decade after that decision. Enough to actually zero their profit vs maintenance cost and for people to move on.
Except this game made 2 billion dollars over all and averages 15mil a month still.
@@MoogleMom Currently it is making a pittance compared to what it could easily be making. Would you argue there haven't been a lot of major missteps?
@@MoogleMom Yeah, because this game puts almost everything into the store. You barely get anything from achievements.
ESO writing template.
NPC: The objective is (description).
Player Choices
1. The objective is (description)?
2. Tell me the objective again.
3. Goodbye
This is basically the entire issue with the writing imo. The whole treating the player like a child thing boils down to them not respecting player intelligence (likely not intentionally).
On seasonal content: FOMO and monetization is exactly the goal.
Morrowind and Summerset were excellent, and I hope Z expands on their stories in the future.
Hope Is a hard thing to hold on to after 10 years of brokon promises
This game is like being in a abusive relation ship .all lies aslong as you keep spending money
"What is the Ascendant Lord's armor doing here?! Oh well, moving on. Who could the Ascendant Lord be?!" -ESO
I’m doing high isle right now 😂where is the armour?
@edc6172 It's near the end of the main questline if I recall. You're in someone's house and the armor is just sitting there in the house and your character and the npc's notice it, act confused, pretend it didn't happen, and move on really fast lol.
They need more creators or developers. Because they should not ever be in a time crunch. They have had 365 days in a year. That's a bull excuse that they gave. I believe that they spent all their extra income on the ESO 10 years celebration in Europe. They did that because that was their lifetime vacation. They probably never were in Europe. Now they don't have money for the hyped up America 10 year celebration. And they suddenly have no time. Bull. They want to provide a little content for the same price but times 4 times a year, meaning now 4 times the cost for us.
You know, reading that Director's Letter was what finally got me to unsub from ESO+... It's just like what you said, once the rose tinted glasses fall off... it's like breaking out of the Matrix. I was already thinking about unsubbing it before, but that letter was what really pushed me to do it. They keep dangling the keys and saying they'll fix Cyrodiil... Calling it now, watch them "fix" it by making it even worse than it already is, and then they'll just abandon it... again! They already abandoned their NA playerbase and their console players by canceling the in-person celebration that was supposed to happen next year, it won't be long before the developers end up abandoning their own game.
A little bloody shock factor goes a long way. Wrothgar and Dark Brotherhood got it right somewhat. Even in Skyrim the npcs will share some heavy, though not intellectually layered, stories of their pasts that make Skyrim look like the Godfather compared to ESO's Dr. Seuss style of storytelling.
I don’t always agree with everything you say, Azura, and I’d like to make that very clear. There have been moments when I strongly disagreed with many of your perspectives, but I’ve always appreciated seeing your point of view. Honestly, after spending a few minutes in forums where there’s either toxic positivity or negativity about the game, it’s refreshing to see someone share opinions that are actually grounded. That said...
I also have a story with ESO, starting from the game’s beta. And I love this game. I love the world, the characters, and its overall story. I love it enough that, for the past six years, I’ve been working on translating the game into my own language. It’s almost 500,000 lines of dialogue - in terms of word count? It must be close to ten million. It’s a colossal game. And even now, as I write these words, I’m doing so after deciding to stop reviewing dialogues in the game.
I’m feeling a little sad right now, I won’t lie. It’s because, well, yes, the game is losing players. And I see this letter, and I swear - I REALLY want to hold onto the idea that things will get better... The base game is my passion. I love the base game, I love the DLCs that came afterward - Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, I love everything up until Murkmire with all my heart. But what if things don’t get better? This isn’t Zenimax’s last chance; their last chance has already passed. If things don’t improve, this year will just be the final nail in the coffin of something I once loved so fervently.
The way they described next year feels more experimental to me, like 2015, 2016, and 2017 were - when they were releasing new things over time, testing their game, and pushing its potential. But... what if it’s not? What if it’s just a smokescreen to make it seem like everything is fine while they’re actually dismantling the game that, honestly... changed my life?
I’m genuinely sad. I still hope things will improve, but it’s hard to trust Zenimax these days. After so many disappointments.
You’re translating the entire thing into your own language and it’s reached over 10 MILLION lines??? wtf
@@Kitkatklaws 10 million words*, lines are 500k
I haven't played a lot of MMOs myself. I cut my teeth on Guild Wars 1, which I still love to this day. It still has the best necromancer class of any game I've played imo. Besides ESO, my other 2 were AION, which was the most visually amazing game I've ever seen. These days it's been dialed back substantially. Another favorite was Age of Conan, which is morphed into something different now. I brought these up because they contain what you were talking about regarding difficulty progression. In Aion, I think it was every 10 levels you would move up into another zone scaled for those levels. In AoC, it was every 20, up to 80 max, and at the end of every zone maxing, you would have to fight a story boss to progress into the next level zone. That's a huge glaring difference between ESO and pretty much anything else I've played. Short of going to Craglorn, there's zero overland challenge.
But I understand the flip side. When I first tried ESO way back when, I remember being on Stros Mkai with my level 2 char, level 1 sword, and I couldn't kill or hardly even damage a level 3 wolf or automaton. I thought this is stupid and I quit right then.
Let's just be frank, there is too little time and too many games (good games) to be messing around with a game like ESO (the game ESO has been allowed to turn into, not the game it almost was). That's just the bottom line.
Edit: This whole situation with ESO is like when someone leaves their shitty partner that they've been with so long because they didn't see how shitty they really were. They didn't want to hear everything their friends and family were saying, but one day something triggers in their head and all of a sudden they see it all, and so they leave. Then the shitty partner starts to apologize for everything, listing everything they're going to change, and making excuses for how shitty they've been. But guess what, by then it's TOO LATE. They've taken them for granted and now it's time to live with the consequences.
Performance isn’t necessarily a hardware issue. If it was, it probably would have been solved by now
Dropped my subscription just the other day.
me too i cancelled my today 1-5-2025 eso plus, i dont want to give them money
Same
This gave me tears of joy. The community is waking up to the greed
I'm 100% certain ESO is slowly heading into Maintenance Mode. All their talent has gone over to the new MMO in development.
Studio Lead Matt Frior takes his lead from Todd Howard when it comes to BS.
i hate them both so much now
what new mmo is in development?
@@honorabilis1 some new IP in preparation for when TES6 comes out and ESO loses a Lot of players
What's the new mmo?
I think they lost talent to other studios like intrepid . Steven has said he has devs that came from eso . Sometimes the thing holding a team together is just one or two solid people and if their lost the team is done for ,to me that's what eso looks like now.
It is still funny for me, that the most recognisable thing for non-eso fans, is Ascended Knight from the High Isle ESO trailer. This badass cool-looking fighter. They plaster him everywhere, he's the icon of that Chapter, and blud shows up only once in the base High Isle chapter, and it doesn't even address you directly lol. Way to go ZOS
the spikes of player-numbers on steam is when the game was available to play for free. These numbers include btw lots of players with several (storage) account to get inventory space
When I first played Morrowind I fell in love...with the Daedric Princes. I enjoyed the Tribunal but goddamn the Princes were my jam. That's why when I found out that Bethesda was letting a long lost Daedric Prince resurface in ESO my hopes were uncontrollably heightened for the Gold Road chapter. While some of the details around the Forgotten Prince did give me chills...SPOILER ALERT...turn back now if you haven't finished Gold Road and appreciate uncovering a story on your own...just the fact that the player knows she doesn't appear in games that take place after the Era ESO is set in made the way they just let her walk off into the memory of Hermaeus Mora and the player only, felt so lazy. It fucking crushed me. It was just hey, plot said this has to happen. Ithelia bad now. Disappear like Jygalagg. The one redeeming quality is that it made us (the player) feel like we were actually the bad guy this one time. Are we the baddies?
The plot made me think Hermaeus Mora is a snowflake with a fragile heart. Ithelia has done nothing at all and was banished simply bcoz Hermaeus "believes" she is a threat. Such an idiotic and worst written story. Someone may argue with certain blah blah blah reasons but the story just did not impress and convince me at all.
@@tsukuyomisama001 Agreed. It turned one of my top 3 Princes into an insecure little bitch. I remain heartbroken~
Ngl I thought there was no saving eso when i quit five years ago! Came back a year ago and gotta say ive loved it alot since
the good news is on the forums they clarified re: seasons it wouldn't be a FOMO thing, so assuming new seasonal content they put out can be completed at your leisure.
I'm totally on the same page as you when it comes to the writing quality. I felt like Gold Road was okay but I haven't really been wowed by the writing since Markarth :(
There was so much potential Gold Road could have had story wise... I think I talked about it a bit in my other video but they had such a HUGE opportunity and blew it
Oh yea, I agree, Summerset is my favorite chapter. Granted I haven't played any chapters past Greymoor. As long as they can make good content im all for getting rid of chapters. I'm so far behind on story contents it basically doesn't matter to me. Doesn't help that I haven't properly played the game in 2 years, almost 3, not like I used to anyways. I'd love to start playing again but all my friends left back then, I then made new eso friends and they left too lol
broooo Agalloch shirt? hard to tell. i subbed back when i saw your Harakiri for the Sky shirt
Hell yeah brother!!!
A positive I can see from this is that they will probably do more “story” content and not standalone chapters with the usual predictable story and underwhelming plots but instead the characters we already know and love and hopefully they do more story arcs like the base game zone stories where there is continuity and well written characters. I’m all for that.
Eveli Sharp Arrow ? lol
All worries from so many.. We'll just have to wait and see. It definitely sounds good
The thing that gets me the most i legit remember watching a trailer and being like YES thats exactly the type of mmo I'm looking for . I got in had a friend who had been playing for a little bit before me make me up some gear and I got into cyrodiil and my first seige / counter seige i was hooked . Now you fast forward 10 years and I haven't felt that thrill in years . Now I'm someone who yeah the lag bothers me somewhat but I could look past it if every other update changed something in pvp to where it just kept that excitement going of oh crap what are they going to do next ? Like pvp specific skills could've been something they lowkey tested YEARS ago for a season then went to non proc sets for the next season . Like these things if done in moderation and presented as season features could've been cool and they could've gotten good active testing / data in . The best thing it could've been repeatable over a long period of time . Leaving non proc as a campaign for years briefly switching it back to proc then switching it to test something else out it just honestly screams negligence or worse incompetence. At this point in time I honestly just think they should shut down cyrodiil and ic and release ic as battleground maps with monsters and have it always have its boss monster on beginning of match . And turn cyrodiil into a guild v guild v guild mode and remove the pve quests and side monsters from it . Just have a very condensed cyrodiil map so battles happen often . I think cyrodiil and ic died already and they are kicking the dead horse seeing if it'll work again . Salvage what you can from it and let us move on to something a little different . Name a world War ( because effectively thats what the cyrodiil war is) where the battle lines remained exactly the same for 10 years , there's been 2 and the lines shifted very fast . Frankly put i can't ever trust a word this company says again.
these updates are like 3-5 years late these updates should have been happening
Right on. Thanks for sharing.
The denial in game, on reddit, etc. is insane. People don't get that we criticize the game because we enjoyed it in some capacity and put countless hours into it. For whatever reason the criticism was always ignored and the game doesn't do anything good enough to keep me playing--it feels like the only strength of ESO now is monetization or the bandaid attempts at addressing over monetization by throwing out candy to players. People defend the crown store saying it "saves time, reduces grinds, etc..."
Man, why are MMORPG players across the board this brainwashed--whether you have time or not you should always want a fulfilling experience where the dopamine is not delivered via your wallet but from the experience itself.
I can't imagine how ESO will make a comeback. Rant over, lol. Thanks for making the video o7
yes you are spot on!!!
The PvP is not their servers. They have left a lot of combat mechanics unchecked and mitigated properly that the calculations are causing a problem. A lot of that stress can be fixed with properly handling balancing and hard caps on skills/mechanics. It will greatly reduce the calculations and reduce the lag issue.
it's the neglect. The neglect is soooo hard
I still remember submitting videos both in tickets and on the official forums of multiple button clicks straight up not working (going off into the void without a skill actually firing) and being gaslit by the community itself and ignored by the developers. This was at least 5 years ago. The fact that you just now talked about it still working that way assures me my decision to depart was a good one.
Yeah that's insane omg
Thank you and i agree with everything ur amazing/ i thought u were from America !
You hit the nail on the head when you talked about the difficulty. Yea the overland content is piss easy that's for sure. As a veteran player, end gamer (or I used to be anyways), it hard for me to even comprehend anymore how the overland content could possibly be hard for anyone. I mean specifically questing content. I have to nerf myself so much, remove cp, wear set-less white gear, etc. Still too easy. I could play bad intentionally but then im not having fun am I? Once you learn how to play well in ESO, 90% of the game's content becomes trivial. This is the MAIN reason why I'm so far behind on the story content. It bores me to death how easy it is, rather spend that time running veteran dungeons or trials.
At the same time, this is why ESO feels incredibly hollow at times, theres only so many times I can run the same vet dungeon before it loses all meaning.
also a complaint about the game from many new players as well. The devs finally realized that it was a problem because they kept hearing it from everyone and not just endgame / veteran players
Agree. It's weird as meanwhile, half of the relevant games of the last decade have proven that gamers want high difficulty with the option of a slightly easier mode (or to be able to grind out levels to come back and overpower something that gated them). The feeling that gamers want is so clearly: 1.) defeating something challenging that 2.) they must learn the systems and moves/timing better to overcome to 3.) receive rewarding loot.
It is inclusive to have some easier zones, bosses, and things to help players. But, it's foolish to make all your core content so easy that no one enjoys it and 1,000 hours of material feels pointless.
A game can be made accessible without abandoning the core audience.
@@MoonRegolith 100% everything you said
Yeah I refuse to do quests until the overland difficulty revamp comes. What’s the point? Everything dies in 1 hit 🤦♂️
@AngrySaul i wanna make babies with you
I agree, I want to like this game. Played it since Beta, loved it, tried to get all my friends into it, guild led for a while.
Overtime time though it feels more and more like passionate people get sequestered into a corner to shut up and produce, while executive level decision makers have just settled on milking a community they hate for not shutting up and taking a good hard monetization while the game erodes around them.
I agree, there is a certain order you should play the game in, from an overland perspective. I've tried to get people into it and these days, I recommend against it because there is no way for them to follow the plot without a veteran literally holding their hand through it because they throw 10 years worth a compass markers at you right out of the gate. It's one thing to be able to do anything at any time, and then there is zero guidance.
k I never leave long comments like this, but i am so glad that you are just coming out and saying THAT THE WRITING IS SO ASS NOW. Everyone who is responsible for handling the Elder Scrolls IP has fucked up big time in allowing a company like Microsoft anywhere near it. I used to LOVE ESO back when summerset and clockwork city were coming out and it seemed like they really cared about quality, but now it seems like business as usual the focus has shifted to capitalizing on new players, and FOMOing old ones into buying stuff. It sucks. I miss old Elder Scrolls.
You cannot compare Morrowind Tamriel Rebuilt mod's level of writing to ESO. Its like comparing the Lord of the Rings to Clifford the Big Red Dog. I don't understand why it must be this way.
apparently they must cater to the lowest common denominator, and talking to us like children - despite the game being rated M for mature
Honestly, I like the off the cuff unscripted video format. I've never played ESO, but I sub to you because of a video that I saw about Jeremy Soule when I learned about allegations against him and you struck me as someone who has their finger on the pulse of Elder Scrolls. So yeah, free style it away.
The point that it's all too late now is exactly it IMO.
I'm in a really similar boat with all of my friends having quit a long time ago as well. I'm a roleplayer, quester, endgame contenter, basically everything; but I would estimate I haven't done more than 24hr of any content other than housing and questing since 2019 when most of my friends quit from bad performance and all that stuff. (other than MYM as well I guess which I've done alone since that same year my friends quit)
I'm obsessed with TES, they're almost the only games I play ever for the past well over a decade, and that's the only reason I'm still playing. It's also the only reason I ever started, but still.
Played 4 years. Pvp'd about 2. Pvp can be an absolutely miserable experience due to lags and bugs like stuck in combat etc but when it's good it's super fun and exciting. It does seem this game,especially since Microsoft took over, is headed to maintenance mode. Maybe it already is and I'm just realizing
There has been a steep decline since 2020. The Reach was the last good zone. And yes, the world-ending-threat crap feels lazy and juvenile. I'm assuming budgets have been slashed and they're disguising it as a change in direction. Also, you're absolutely right on the toxic positivity, particularly in housing which is my favourite content, it is infused with this passive-aggressive insincerity.
Completely agree, the people who made ES great are gone and its clear.
Eso didnt deliver but you surely did with this video. Its saddening to see a team/game we all supported for, being infected with its current deliverance. They may make the content, but the community makes the game. Well spoken, was refreshing to hear it from somebody else instead of myself or mutuals.
Moon and star upon you, fellow Azurite✌️🌛⭐
P.s.; since you said you are a houser! Maybe you like my primary; its Azura's Realm. Gotta support the real deal aye! ua-cam.com/video/LMEBdHxV-8I/v-deo.htmlsi=lemb_W1If_pztqH9
Ive always wanted a continuation of the msq... Why not do that?
Whenever they decide to shut the servers down (hopefully not for another 10 years at least), I wonder if they'll add an offline mode update or a peer to peer mode where you can still play with friends... I'm currently playing with a family member and he's loving it, and tbh I'd hate for people to lose that in the future.
Eventually this game will become unsuitable to keep online due to low player numbers, but the game itself is still extremely fun solo or with friends, and is still a valuable experience that shouldn't simply disappear whenever some executive decides its time to pull the plug on it...
I agree that the writing has become abysmal as time goes on. It's something I really hope they improve asap.
Whoa, whoa. How did that happen?
I just recently came back to the game after taking a little more than a year break and I was shocked at how much had changed. First thing I noticed was the economy has tanked and I wondered whether it was a supply or demand issue but it's probably both. Then I noticed my favorite YT creators weren't there anymore, or just phoning it in. It's clear to me after doing more research and listening to vids like this that ZOS has shot themselves in both feet and one hand and is bleeding badly. The only question is whether they realize just how badly and if it's too late. 10 years is a good run, I'd like to see another 10 but it's a real low point for sure. So sad.
If they want to fix Cyrodiil performance, step 1 is killing ball groups' effectiveness. They did that once, and lag got better, but they reverted the change. Absolutely worth trying again. If that doesn't help, take a look at what sets are doing. It's just too much for the server(s) to do at once.
I'm actually in the same boat. Took a break from ESO and oddly enough switched over to Guild Wars 2 and been having a blast.. The story has been so good in my opinion. I just needed to take a break from ESO and hope it goes in a more positive direction.
I've invested so much into ESO. I've played since before there was a dungeon queue and myself and two others ran banished cells 1, barely made it through the first hallway before we stopped but it was amazing. Or when I finally left Auridon for the first time around level 20 or so. It was incredible. Personally, I was never a fan of the One Tamriel update which I know I'm in the very small minority with that. But it shrunk the world imo, I love my house so much, I used to love TES lore so much... but I can't stand the stale content, the boring writing, the terrible gameplay loop that has not changed in ten years. The stiff animations, the jank of a lot of content, the absolute unbelievable overwhelming feeling of confusion if you come back after a break and you're bombarded with a million things at once and wonder where everyone went because now you're alone in a zone.
I miss the game but every time I log on, it all comes flooding back and makes me not want to play anymore.
I wish one MMO specific content creators at least dipped their toes into other MMOs from time to time. It gives you a better sense of scale and perspective. No one can deny that ESO is trending downwards right now but the doom talk is absolutely silly when you put it into perspective. The things that are happening now in ESO are not in a state that can't be recovered from. Plenty of MMOs have survived much bigger drops in players before.
Of course it all amounts to nothing if the things they say in the letter don't come to pass. But regardless, at this moment ESO isn't nearly in as dire straits as some people seem to think. I think a lot of the doom talk stems from genuine frustration with ZOS, which is fair in itself. ZOS has a lot to prove in the coming years.
would love to get back into eso been playing since 2015 on xbox and switched to pc last year and just cant bring myself to start again after thousands of dollars being waste and just sitting there on my console account.
They got my ass with the Gold Road Ultimate Collection thinking i was buying majority of the DLC only to find out i still have to fork over more money to buy almost ALL the dlc dungeons and more. Down with Zenimax
Even if they do everything right and solve most problems, it'd take several years to revert the downward trend, if it is indeed possible to revert it at this point. I'd assume at this point they already have a plan B in the works (maybe a new MMO, as you said.)
I personally completely stopped playing in 2021, but I had already stopped doing serious content by 2020 before that, so it's been too long for me already. The reason I stopped playing was the constant messing around with abilities and weird gameplay changes, but ultimately what drove me totally away was the uncapping of the CPs. I think the last good content I've played from ESO was Summerset. Even then, I was subbed almost to the end because I couldn't let it go and I still miss my characters and friends from that time.
They do not treat ESO like Skyrim and Morrowind. I am going to be honest here: A multiplayer Elder Scrolls 6 Version that is not an MMO but more like a : you equip yourself like in Skyrim run around, explore and kill other players just like you would in Skyrim with a crosshair to shoot your arrows, spells at the target would be fun. I hope there will ever be a online, multiplayer Elder Scrolls game that is not an MMO. A Skyrim like game with new technology and insane graphics but in multiplayer.
I just bought the game yesterday.
The floaty combat and navigation, the Egregious cash shop, the crafting bag in the Subscription, and the latency (especially in Cyrodill) did it in for me :(
Was so excited for ESO back in 2014 and the betas were fun. The first year or two were pretty fun. But ZOS hasn't been able to retain me. I've kept coming back, hoping it's better. And it has better, but not heaps. And with the cash shop. Nope..
back there around 2014 game difficulty was same super easy in solo-pve content? game story quests are nice bout story...but sooooooo easy like omg...literally impossible to die (
It's just boring (
@@Groboman, when the game came out , before One Tamriel you got slammed really hard if you entered a higher zone. Pretty much instant death. There were only a few armour sets and you needed to collect a set before moving into a new zone. No champion points. No one soloed a map boss or anchor. I only defeated Molag Bal on my drunken Argonian thief build...it was a thing..( Argonians had a pot buff). You buffed yourself by drinking pots, burst damaged, and stealthed up fast, then tried to repeat . You had limited time stealthed and sometimes Molag would just spot you. A slight hesitation on a mechanic and Bal would just grab you, crush you, and toss your broken body to the side. A lot of players just quit the game. Lag and the early game bugs just added to the challenge, lol.
@@Poor-gecko i think its possible to raise difficulty even with auto-level system...but seems it was fun to play before that update,and there been lotsa reasons to coop together. Just they don't need make enemies like sponges,just raise them damage,and ALOT to raise this at solo content or worldmap...
After 13k hours in ESO all the "New Content" feels the same. Rins & repeat re-skinned items etc etc. As much as I loved ESO I just can't bring myself to play anymore.
I recently got Baulders Gate 3 and absolutely Love it!!
I'll come back for ES6
Yo Agalloch is sick!
I've been complaining about how easy the main campaigns are. The end bosses should be a challenge. Not brutally so. Just make it more of an accomplishment to complete.
I'm less discerning regarding writing. I still don't understand the difference between "good" vs "bad" writing.
I agree with you on downwards trend, and Steam is definetely the place to see how game does. However I somehwat dislike changes to difficulty of overworld content. ESO was always super casual game for me, where I just dominate with immortal builds, solo world bosses, solo dungeons, etc. Basically like in single player Elder Scrolls games, a God simulator, and I liked it about ESO
I know it's a longshot to even ask a question. I've been wanted to get into ESO, I've never played the game before, what would you recommend for a new player?
If you are new player, there isn't that much you can do wrong.
There are hours and hours of old and newer questing content and much of it is quite enjoyable.
1. Play the original storyline (Coldharbour) at least once and rather early on.
2. Choose one character as your main and really learn how to play that class. Learn the skills and the morphs and find a method to arrange your bars.
3. Join a casual guild early on and participate in things like world boss runs and normal dungeon or initiate them.
4. Don't worry too much about gear before you reach cp 160.
Maybe ask a guild member if they can craft a set of training gear for you that you can also later use for new characters.
5. If you don't want to play with ESO plus, you will get inventory issues. So you should create mule characters early on for the more valuable things like flowers, alloys etc.
6. Once you reach CP 200-300 you can think about what to do later and your role (tank, healer, dps) and start collecting gear you need.
It is a great game when you start playing. Later on, not so much anymore. Most of that is ZOS' fault.
I quit in 2022 after 5 years of playing. But all of what I said should still be valid.
Biggest corporate BS in that letter was "millions of players who return the game every year...." just F off that is utter BS if anything... last MMO I waste my time too unless GTA 6 brings something... I will never spend another euro on anything coming from ZoS.
soooooooooo..... with "experiments" the main server is basically becoming PTS?
I quit this game 7 months ago with 5 months still on my sub. I don't think I will ever come back....
Buy more. Buy more. Buy more.
Buy, buy, buy.
Seen a lot of producer's letters from EQ onward. Game being put in maintenance mode. #RIPESO
Far as pvp goes. Lags one thing, but 8 years of watching bugs and performance issues primarily and often solely affecting Imperial City and Cyrodiil, coupled with the obvious rift and tension between ZOS and the Pvp community
I feel like its not even server or hardware at this point. Feels more like weaponized incompetence.
Good upload! I was curious how ESO was doing, even though Update 35 was when they lost me for good.
ESO had just got done peddling that card minigame as the main xpac feature, and were on the even of pushing Titanic bad balancing, changes that any and everyone were fiercely opposed to. A patronizing tweet from Rich Lambert, "I get it, changes are tough but don't be so knee-jerk and just wait" (changes like your game going down the drain), helped me realize how much these are just industries jobbers who talk big and dgaf. It had became too clear that guys like Firor and Lambert have no idea whats going on, and don't listen at all.
One key example will be a hill I die on about this game. I get they eventually 'fixed it' but gtfo- This game badly needed to realize the difference between a Dungeon Finder and a Public Group Finder, and why an MMO whos main evergreens are big random raids or events might require one to flourish. It needed to do that years ago, before the raiders tired of scraping together guild and town runs quit. ESO is a game where guilds are already impossibly fractal, its mind blowing how long it took them to connect interested players with raid groups. Who knows how many guilds or communities would be rocking out today, if ESO wasn't so far behind the social tech of every other major MMO?
They needed a PF long long ago, and so much more. More to showcase how cool it was when big PVE clicked, and the potential to have a whole account of super geared alts- with a player friendly PF to help it go smooth. The fact all your alts could raid and gear quickly was a huge selling point at the time, when alts took a lot in most MMO systems. At some point I honestly loved having all these sick characters to deploy.
Instead, ESO were so stuck on making this a DAoC clone, pushing an abysmally stale content blueprint, and nerfing crucial kit that took forever to grind, with casual contempt. They wanted guilds and communities to do everything on the social front, even run the Auction House. Designers with a passion and skill for pve development- who understand how to attract and encourage people to support MMO communities- COULD have saved this game. But, as we've said here.. its too late!
There are so many better games out here anyway.
I think i have been saved from total hatred and quitting has been never main'ing ESO. I have always played some other things as a "main game", like OSRS, TF2 or something completely different. I have been getting more harder content with ne grouping tool, which was a good adding for the game.
I have always been very mixed on story writing in ESO. It has its moments but i pretty much never could take it seriously and the best moments have been rather humorous content, like when your dumb player character asks "what is an oblivion" and Laramiel goes "Wtf you really don't know?!". High isle's main story was so bad that i at first couldn't even realize the plot; like seriously WOW THIS CHARECTER WHO I JUST MET IS THE ASCENDEND LORD!!! What a betrayal. On the other hand story with Argonian slaves in Morrowind chapter is genuinely heartbreaking and good.
Hopeful but not surprised if these are just more hollow words from Zenimax.
36:00 amen, or the maurader in IA that the companions cannot target or taunt. Hopefully they get their shit together, after Gold Roads rush and lack of quality I didn't plan to buy the next chapter anyway. 40:00 I bet creators that do build vidoes it is super annoying spending hours building the setup and then the video only to have the build nerfed and be outdated after a few months.
I agree the story writing is bad 😢 and the foundatuon of stories is soo good! Thats what is so aggravating!!! I totally agree with the concerm of pasting things into the old zones. 100% agree with diffoculty, i hope they can fix overland to scale with dungeons. Or at least give us an option or toggle or something. Turns qiests into snooze fest, and i love exploring overland and doing quests for story. Im trying to be optimistic, but if another year goes by without real Cyrodiil changes i think im really gone. Hope they take it easy on the crown crates crap but i know thats a pipe dream. Thanks for sharing your perspective!
I played ESO since beta, and truly had hopes this game would turn out right - that the devs would be passionate and dedicated enough to know where to navigate this game, but they've been failing over and over again, taking the community and their patience for granted and this is the final result we've got: More promises and especially promises to fix things (on paper thus far) while a larger portion of people have moved on.
I quit this game a couple of months ago and finally moved (back) to Guild Wars 2. I haven't looked back and don't plan to no matter how many promises ZOS spew out. ESO is ultimately an mmo facade hiding it's true purpose: Crown store, Crown crates and gambling. It's ZOS' main focus.
What I find truly fascinating is how people still believe and especially hope ZOS will direct this mmo on a better path, but after so many years with constant broken promises I do wonder what keeps the remaining portion still onboard this sinking ship.
Coincidence that Bethesda has ESO and Fallout 76. Which has got alot of the same complaints. My two favorite games. Guess I like the abuse.....great video. And Happy Holidays! Shoutout from Vegas_PAN
I think the burnout is real. For me, I got tired of chasing the meta. They intentionally buff paid classes and then nerf them after a year, and they do it over and over. They buff armor sets to get people to use them, then when they get used, they nerf them and say damage is too high… it’s just a continual cycle of cash grabbing and nerfing, and I finally got sick of it. I barely play anymore. There’s only so many years people will work hard to parse in the .01% just to be nerfed and punished for it by the dev team. It’s honestly like the devs don’t want people to be good at their game. Because every time dps gets “good”, they nerf it. I really think they made some of these trial trifectas with the goal of people Not Getting them, and then when we do, they get mad about it and nerf dps again. Smh. I’m just over it.
>"the writters treat you like a child"
Immediately I know everything about the writers and their political views just by that statement alone.
I want PVP to be more fun
the devs do not give not one "F" and we all know it .
They have tried to appeal to everyone and the problem with that is if no one hates it then no one will love it. Like yea everyone can just be kinda like meh or whatever but there is no passion. You have to focus on your hardcore players who are passionate about the game. Others will come and go and if they don’t like it and it’s not for them that’s okay.
Modern game devs want players' time & money just like most companies want consumers' attention and money. But, offering good value in exchange for equal value is fairly rare in any business where profit is king
The concept of pursuing the highest profit that can be gained at the lowest cost, or, maximizing personal gain at the least cost to self has been part of human behavior since time immemorial.
I've heard many times that their stories for their quest lines are really good. The problem is the actual quest is so boring. Almost everything seems like an escort mission or just a fetch quest where you're running back and forth to the same places. They just make me want to rush through everything so fast that I don't even bother with the story I have music on and I just skip through all the dialogue because it's just mindless work.
So, MMOs in general are in decline. The bottom line is, I play BECAUSE of the social aspect. I also am on Console (PS NA). I will continue to play only as long as I have friends to play with. It has Killed PVP and my Guild (est 2018) with the number of people leaving the game. But, I do still have enough to play with. That said, I play LESS. We meet up every Friday night for group content. Sometime it's more of just CHATTING without playing, but we still get together. IF the player base turns around, it will affect my time spent on the game. But I don't see that happening anytime soon. I think all the content creators are seeing the same thing. The people they play with are leaving making it a game to spend very little time on. Thank you, Azura for all the content you have given me and hopefully, there will be more in the future.
Mmos are meant to play for the social aspects so as long as you have friends to play (or randoms) with you're fine. Problem starts where most of your friends are leaving the game, you can't find new ones and completing content with random players is impossible. Sounds familiar right?
Agree with you on the DLCs. Since Morrowind it seems they just copy paste their typical design, and just put on a different skin. It gets repetitive, chasing a baddie around the zone.
Zenimax has lost their way a very long time ago.
I have never seen the appeal of this game I played it at release with friends and by the time we got to the end game it just felt like it was riding on the name of the IP without actually resembling the IP at all.
One of the problems for the writers is that the ESO world is static. So High Isle could have changed things dramatically, with the loss of 1 or more faction leaders. We already know the Daedra aren't going to win, but mortal antagonists can't either.
If ESO goes to the "2nd job" stile like F76 with the season pass I'm stopping playing.
Drinking tea
but there are ppl that read that letter and think a TRUCKLOAD of content is coming!
My concern is, do they have the people to improve the content?
Just dont overthink it lol. Take breaks, come back when feel like it. Thats what i do. Have "played" since launch but i take 6+ month absence all the time xD