MMORPG.com Elder Scrolls Online Column

[Mithoron]

These are always interesting editorials 3 months into a game.  I tend to agree with this one...although I haven't had much time this summer to play, I am definitely still interested in the game, and when I log in, I can easily kill 3+ hours.  It definitely appeals to me from the TES point of view, with MMO elements, and am biting at the bit when Fall comes and I have a bit more time to play!

 

Elder Scrolls Online Column: Is ESO Dying or Just Carving a Niche?

By Ryan Getchell on July 02, 2014

At the time of writing this, The Elder Scrolls Online is just shy of being three months old. Three months isn’t very old for an MMO, especially since they are supposed to be played for years, but it’s long enough for players to know if they like the game or not. Which means do they continue to pay the subscription fee or cancel their account and look for the next greatest thing. In this week’s column I’m going to look at the question that has been plaguing the community for the last few weeks. Is ESO dying?

As one of the largest privately held gaming companies, Zenimax/Bethesda has no obligations to release any form of official numbers. Unlike Blizzard and other large publicly traded corporations that are required to release their quarterly financial statements which includes number of active subscribers.

 

Obviously, I won’t be providing you any numbers on active subscribers but I will be discussing what I see happening in the game every single day. 

Prior to ESO being released I used to preach about how Zenimax is attempting to balance on the edge of a blade, creating a game that attracts both the MMORPG crowd and the Elder Scrolls gamers. I believe they did an excellent job showcasing their features and ensure they are demonstrating the key points to grab players from each side. Now that the game has been released for some time, I don’t feel they balanced on that edge as well as they portrayed. Which has a direct tie to why people are asking if the game is dying.

ESO is a fantastic game, it has the best graphics that have ever been in a MMORPG, and the story lines far exceed any expectations that I had for it. Star Wars: The Old Republic did an amazing job with their story, but they didn’t have the emotion that ESO has, or the incredibly hard choices. I spent over 30 minutes starring at my screen trying to decide which option I wanted to pick for the main story line.

Is story enough to keep the game active and alive? Yes and No. Remember this game needs to draw both the MMORPG and Elder Scrolls crowds, and rich story lines is a sure fire way to bring in those Elder Scrolls fans, however MMORPGs players tend to skip a lot of dialogue and race to the infamous “End Game”. 

End Game, this is where we start to see a slight decline in player interaction. Those MMORPG players raced to this content, missing out on everything else that ESO has to offer and were faced with slight disappointment. Mostly because their expectation got the better of them. End Game in ESO isn’t what a lot of MMO gamers expected, it’s a bit lack luster. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Trials in Craglorn, and I really enjoyed Crypt of Hearts, but it isn’t what a lot of players were expecting. They wanted the competition of End Game, they wanted a race to the finish line. Instead they were given content that can be completed within 15 – 30 minutes. A far cry from the World of Warcraft raids which sometimes take weeks to complete.

Then of course we have PvP, Cyrodiil, and the primary reason why I really enjoy ESO. Even though you’re able to go into Cyrodiil at level 10, to be truly effective it is recommended to be Veteran Rank at the very least, anything below that you might as well consider yourself cannon fodder.

However, as much as I enjoy Cyrodiil, there have been times that have made me completely question if I want to do it. One thing that I have noticed in Cyrodiil is that the Campaigns don’t seem to be as populated as they once were. When the game first game out, my guild chose Dawnguard as our campaign and it was completely over run with AD. Zergs with 50 – 100 people in it, so of course we switched campaigns and went to Volendrung. This campaign when it first started was very balanced between all three factions. A week later it appeared EP had left, and some DC as well. AD was dominating the map. After some time DC pushed back and eventually won the campaign. Now since the reset Volendrung's DC population has drastically dropped. The population has decreased so much to the point that a DC fighting force is non-existent. DC had their scroll taken by 4 EP players and we were unable to prevent it. Yeah, it’s that bad.

Is this why people are saying ESO is dying? Possibly, however it could also be that players have switched to one campaign, Wabbajack. Wabba seems to be the most populated campaign, also the one with the most lag issues due to the amount of people on it. Players could have gotten tired of their previous campaign having population balance issues and all went to Wabba in order to find some form of combat. Again without Zenimax/Bethesda releasing some form of official numbers this is just a guess.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying no one has left ESO, because that couldn’t be further than the truth. Hundreds, possibly thousands of players have left the game. Our guild alone has lost almost 80 people.

The loss of players some time after an MMO is released is normal though. When a game is first released, players see this new and shiny thing and they have expectations that it will be everything they love from their current game and also have everything they hate about it fixed. Which is never the case.

So is ESO dying? No, I don’t think it is dying. I think the player base is starting to level. Those that got the game expecting it to be something that it isn’t have already left, and moved on to games such as Wildstar, and Archeage. Those who are still playing it are the Elder Scrolls fans, and the MMO gamers that are tired of same old game structure. Sure ESO has its bugs, it has its issues with lack luster End Game, but with it only being three months old there is plenty of time for Zenimax to release more challenging elder content and bug fixes.

ESO is a game that hasn’t truly been done before, it’s a game that is designed around its leveling experience, and those who rushed through the content to get to level cap and “End Game” essentially skipped what the same is designed on. ESO isn’t trying to be the next World of Warcraft, it’s trying to be itself, and for some people that’s not enough, but for the thousands of players who are still playing it, it’s enough.

To put it into a different perspective, for those of you who say ESO is going to go F2P in a couple of months. Even if there is only 200,000 (which I believe to be a low estimate) people playing the game, they are all paying the $15/month fee. Which equates to $3 million dollars a month or $36 Million dollars a year. Of course that is nothing compared to WoW’s $112,500,000 a month, but ESO isn’t WoW and we shouldn’t expect it to be.

What do you think, is ESO dying? Did you quit ESO? If so, why? Let us know, because well… if nothing else, it’ll give us something to argue about.

 

[ESOSecret]

Before I start, I like this game or I wouldn't be playing it so... 

Well, I am going to make some counter points.

First and foremost, ESO is not a real MMORPG. This is a MMOPvP and Single Player game with multiple people in it, despite the ability to group and play in some dungeons and Craglorn. Grouping is in fact discouraged w/ Solo dungeons which is counter productive to MMO games.

This game lacks variety. Dungeons are the same across all the zones and alliances (generally speaking). Pretty much if you have seen one, you have seen them all. Quests are pretty much the same over all as well. Don't get me wrong there are some very unique ones as well, but that is not the norm. Though on the positive side it makes it easier to go from one class to the next since all classes play similarly.

ZO has yet to fix several bugs that have been in the game since BETA. Why? No idea.

Also, the graphics are awesome yes, but they are buggy as well. And they are pretty much the same as Skyrim, just slightly enhanced. Nothing really new.

Furthermore, I completely disagree with the statement about story lines. This goes back to lack of variety and not saying some of them are really cool. The story lines, though interesting proved discouraging. EVERY character you play has the EXACT same story lines, just in a different order thanks to VR levels.

Do I think this game is dying? No. But I agree they failed miserably to balance the Elder Scrolls Game and MMO Game "Gamers", where it shouldn't have been hard at all in my opinion.

And lastly ESO type game has been done before. They are just putting two game types together. Everquest has WAY too many similarities. Even early game in EQ there was all the things ESO lacks. EQ just didn't have the story. Then there is Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 for the PvP. Put EQ and GW's game types together and you get ESO.

Which brings me to the point: After all of the MMO's that have been made and ran, why did ZO make sooooo many of the same mistakes? Lack of true content, and lack of variety? And then, failing to come through with the expectations they gave us.

[Hamfast58]

I can agree with some points, disagree with others...

First, I am still enjoying myself, the Graphics are awesome... and so on...

Lets look at what ESO is not - It's not an MMORPG - RPG = "Role Playing Game" and ESO does not lend itself to role playing unless you are roleplaying friends, sure, you can talk in funny voices and act out things, but roleplaying is limited at best...

ESO is not always ready for prime time, but at 3 months they are still interested in trying to fix bugs and respond to their players... Bug fixes are good, listening to players is not always... Secret mentioned bugs in the game since beta, and while I have run into bugs, I have not noticed a lot that others complain about... I have run into a few that others don't seem to see... this tends to lend itself to a issue every MMO has, hundreds or thousands of players with different systems, drivers, and so on... I remember Meridian59 running into this issue in the mid 90's with less then 100 players on a server...and a lot less choices then we have now.

ESO does not have a varied story line, we each choose which faction we belong to, and then follow 4 storylines, 3 are identical, the Main, Fighters and Mages guilds quest lines are the same across all factions... the 3 faction story lines are... I was going to say similar, but that's not correct... Each zone has an internal threat, the Sea elves in KR, the Heritance in Auberon, the blacksap in Gratwood and so on, they also have an external threat, the Pact and Covenant in the Dominion, the Dominion and Pact in the Covenant and so on... and they have some side quests... Almost every new town you come to has a problem, bad guys run the city, raiders are taking it over, evil is running amok, slay the bad guys, save the town.

Quest in MMO's are always limited by what can be asked, get x of these, kill y of those, run to this location or talk to that person, ESO is not different in this, but they seem to have tried to vary it up some...but they are all get x of these, kill y of those and so on. Toss in a boss or two and off to the next one.

MMO also implies multi-players as in groups, but with the phasing groups are a bit hard to come by at times, and somewhat over powered in most cases, I do think ESO tried to walk the edge on play styles, but my have shuffled their feet a bit... in making Cyrodiil so large and with the objective system, they have tried to cater to the PvP folks, but with the lag and the skill imbalances, they still have a lot of work... the rest of the zones are all PvE only, no duels, no PvP at all, this is to cater to the hardcore PvE people (like me), I don't care to be a measuring stick for others to measure their ePeen with, but that is just me... that I can play from 1 to VR12+ and never have to deal with PvP is good for me, that someone else can go play in Cyrodiil is also good... that a Zerg of level 45-50 PvPers can come upon a solo VR 12 Dragon Knight and get wiped out is a real problem, that a hardcore PvP player leaves because he did not even have the time to activate a skill before he was dead... several times... is a problem... everyone should have a chance, perhaps only a snowballs chance in Hell, but a chance.

ZOS is still actively working on fixing issues, they may not be as adept at their fixes as we would like, but until we look into the Code, we can only point fingers and guess... when they swing the Nerf bat, do they swing too hard? yes, way too often... do they seem to try to cater to the lowest point of views (VR Nerf)? so it seems... do they exhibit a clear understanding of the problems they have? not always... but when you have several hundred people in several languages all telling you different things... who do you listen to?

enough of a rant from me... feel free to go back to your daily lives and enjoy what you can.

[Kjerag]

ESOSecret wrote:

Also, the graphics are awesome yes, but they are buggy as well. And they are pretty much the same as Skyrim, just slightly enhanced. Nothing really new.

Am I the only one that thinks that Skyrim had better graphics? I mean, even without mods, I found Skyrim's character creator more detailed. But that's me.

I guess I'll throw my two cents in on the subject.

I've read both comments and I agree with both parties that this game is not a MMO. It's honestly felt like a sensory deprivation experience in the group game play as they have taken a lot of measures to insure you do not group together with the phasing and what not and only add dashes of group content to throw you for a loop. An example, Lorb and I went to Silsailen(SP?) we completed the storyline, entered the manor, discovered the culprit, went to look for him only to have some group advance our quest before we get to confront him. WTF is that? I didn't complete the quests for someone else to gain the glory.

Not only that but the faction stuff worked in DAoC because DAoC was built to be for PvP. I really am left scratching my head as to what ESO was built for. We can have cross faction guilds but guildies can't group together and help each other unless they're the same faction? That has got to be the most counterproductive thing I've seen to guilds since AC2 having the chat client crash for a couple of months. At least with that I could use voice chat and still play with guildies.

Honestly, I think it should of been Faction chooses your Story but your guild is what you fight for in Cyrodil.

Just my thoughts though.

 

-M

[Llyww]

 In response to Maleph, 

The graphics in ESO are not new but they are the best Ive seen in any ONLINE mmo.

Im I the only one that thinks that Skyrim had better graphics? I mean, even without mods, I found Skyrim's character creator more detailed. But that's me.

 

Yes Skyrims is better any good boxed computer game is going to be better then any online computer game. The reason is simple, you would not be able to play a online game with Skyrims graphics. The fps would be, hmm well very very bad. 

A mmo has to balance graphics with playability over the internet which comprises of infrastructure from all places around the world. So the quality and capacity of players differ from region to region. I, in Lansing Michigan, live in an area of very old and not well maintained roads, power lines phones etc. 

Skyrim played on my I7 8gig of ram system on the other hand is great, but it only has to deal with whats in my computer box, not the rest of the world outside of it.

 If you didn’t realize from the wall of text I just posted, I think comparing Skyrim graphics to ESO is very unfair and not apples to apples.

 I very much agree with the DaoC and ESO factions comparison. I like that you can be any player race in any player faction. But I do not like the cross-realming. Player guilds should not be across faction lines, when we do VR content it should not be from the point of view of that other factions heros'. This has me really irked and my biggest gripe about the game. The VR content has been done in a lazy, un-fun grinding way.

 We are AD goddamn it I want to remain AD not Cadwell's Universal Hero. When I want to play another faction I want to see the quest lines from that perspective so I want to enjoy as I did as and AD fresh new and from that factions PoV.

[Alabyn Tsuga]

Here's bizarre for ya. After wading through the endless variety of humanity each day, I look forward to picking up that next predictable quest (oh, your poor town, and what's that? Your hubby went missing?).  It's Pac-man, the little ghosts start in the same place each time.  Whatta relief.

[ESOSecret]

Alabyn Tsuga wrote:

Here's bizarre for ya. After wading through the endless variety of humanity each day, I look forward to picking up that next predictable quest (oh, your poor town, and what's that? Your hubby went missing?).  It's Pac-man, the little ghosts start in the same place each time.  Whatta relief.

LOL

Well, to each our own.