So....is ESO worth it?

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From what I have noticed those who play casually and take their time tend to like it more then hardcore gamers who rush to end content. I like it but I take my time. I am following the stories and trying to complete each zone before moving to the next. It also seems to be getting a bit more popular with those that prefer PvP. Cyrodiil is finally getting enough players to fill two PvP campaigns and those numbers haven't been seen since the first few weeks after launch. IMO the only way to know if you will be in the love it or hate it camp is to try it.

If you're looking for a TES game, no. The only really good aspect is PvP, but it's impossible to be of any use essentially until you reach veteran ranks. And even then, as Cyrodiil is full of vet 12 people you will be of Little use still and will need help to face up against most people. If you want a fair chance there, you have to grind up to Vet 10-12.

I'd recommend not getting it at all, even as an MMO it's painfully average.

Though saying that as mmorpg's go the story lines are much more enjoyable than any other I have played and it looks great visually for a mmorpg.

It's a good game, but only for a few weeks. It had to much hype, and didn't live up. I would hate to call it a TES game...

Plus it was always in the back of my mind about that it broke the lore.

"If you can name one good thing about this game, I can show you another Free-to-play MMO that does it better." -Shoddycast

(July 19th 2014, 05:52 AM)HAple2769 Wrote: Yes, I was amongst the people who were hyped for this games release. However, around the release date I got a new computer which allowed me to play a modded Skyrim, and I was busy with real life stuff as well. Just had a look on Steam today, and found ESO had arrived and it was on special. Wondering if its worth trying after it's been weeks since release? I know a lot of YouTubers who were stoked for it but quit there sub like a week or two after haha. I can afford a sub, but can't really be a dedicated player.

You can't be a dedicated player? That's cool! You'll actually be able to accomplish things and have a fulfilling experience nonetheless, providing you enjoy the game respectively.

I've been playing since early access, joined a guild before the game launched, had a blast, met some great people and game content has been fun also. I have all eight character slots full, one VR12, one VR1 and my current level 24 "main" which is the illustrious Dunmer Jhael'vyll Do'vir, loyalist of Boethiah, enthusiast of Mephala, advocate of Hermaeus Mora. Excited to introduce her into the story of two of my other characters more than anything else in-game currently, but I'm bizarre so yeah.

TESO introduced me to role-play, so I no longer make alts, I make creative writing projects, It's great.

Now, let me keep this on-topic, pertinent and relevant.

Through my experience I've found The Elder Scrolls Online to be an enjoyable game, one which is potentially enjoyable to many, many that don't have much time to play where they can have fun, accomplish stuff in a group like dungeons, fun-times in Cyrodiil where they can go level 10 or VR12 and still be effective. There's a method to the madness in Cyrodiil, you can either go against the tide or flow with it, thus becoming effective and helpful but of course, if you're not a Veteran, don't expect to carve through swaths of enemies in melee range.

Crafting is fun and continues to get better with time, I have all crafting fully levelled except for Enchanting which is on its way. With regards to crafting in the near, far future depending on your disposition comes Spellcrafting so, you'll find components out in the world, then you'll craft spells. Summon Fire Atronach, single target, area-of-effect based, "normal" ability for your action bar or even an ultimate. That said, crafting as a whole doesn't really take that much time, not a stressful amount of time but still, you won't have everything levelled in a day, a month? If you concentrate and don't mean to level fast, sure. Gold and guilds can help out hugely in shaving of hours and even days to.

Hopefully we'll be able to summon animals, like snakes, for glorious role-play, but I digress.

The Elder Scrolls Online is worth it, whether you enjoy it or not comes down to you. I dislike Marmite, but I acknowledge it to be worth it as many people enjoy it, I'll never partake but whatever, besides the point.

Cyrodiil is great fun, more-so if you don't mind rounding up people and directing them as a group. Dungeons are cool to, I'll never forget when I was going through City of Ash, through the group finder, downing the first boss, I was a vampire and he was more-or-less all fire damage so it stung, repeatedly, anyway he died. Get to the ledge, inspect the drop, this guy looks to my character and "Aim for the bushes" he says, It was a long day so this caught of me guard. Ran through another dungeon with the same group after, was so fun, died so many times but yeah, was great. You will get groups with people that don't feel comfortable to type, nor motivated to, not forgetting their combat abilities are not to incredible, you notice it heavily as a tank but yeah, that's what communicating is for.

That said, I'll end this post here. You get out what you put in, there are various platforms for you to put in through entertaining quests, stimulating and sometimes disheartening group content in dungeons, Cyrodiil happy-fun-siege-times, crafting that's not mandatory to have but helps out an extreme amount and is necessary say if you want 10 minute Trial completion times or be able to solo-pvp reliably and consistently, or anything for that matter, potions and food are law.

I bought Skyrim and all of its downloadable content, on Xbox and PC, hardly ever played them both. I've been waiting for The Elder Scrolls Online since 2002 and I'm enjoying the direction it is progressing in. You should check it out, you may enjoy it, the potential is there.

I bought the game a week ago, and I have enjoyed it so far. I'm a Skyrim fan and I am not dissapointed (Yet).

Its a good game for casual players. If you don't mind paying the sub and playing it once in a while, you should be fine. The story and dialogue are in line with TES types, satisfying.

The graphics are amazing, provided your system can manage.

It's not a TES game. You can't customize as much as you like. I find myself going back to Skyrim often just to remind myself why I like TES so much. It really is just a MMO with TES skins, but as such, it works for me as a fix.

I can say that future updates are going to make this game the best in the world. I'm confident in that. If this is vanilla ESO, then tricked out ESO will be something to see.

Hmm, a bit disappointed in ESO. But that's bc I played Skyrim (among other tES titles), and also ESO requires A LOT of non-fun time to take proper care of inventories, sometime crafting grinds, and time receiving "hireling" mail attachments. Unfortunately, if you do not do all these things you will never be real powerful in the game - perhaps even weak - especially >Lv20. I have all 8 chars, 5 of them are just inventory mules, since ESO doesn't give a single char even a quarter enough inventory slots and bank space for the vast amount of varied things you can acquire. I also leveled them to 16, so I could get better stuff (daily) from their hirelings. So there is a real problem with time invested/reward ratio: If you aren't one that is patient enough and has enough time to invest in it, then this definitely is NOT the game for you. Otherwise, just maybe. There are lots of other games out there that give much better time invested/reward ratio, just not in the tES MMO category. It took me two months just to level my 5 mules to Lv16, but I did so just like I was going to play them on from there, and I could easily do so at any time without any caveats.

The fact that it is tES is really a bit irrelevant, since as other ppl have said the lore has been broken - in order to let the programmers do what they wanted. Also the whole NPC touting "you are the hero" stuff is quite transparent as you see other players all around you that are just as much of a hero, it really makes that whole facet seem quite a transparent facade, unlike the other tES games where you are the only hero present.


The biggest prob, in my opinion, is in the "endgame." Cyrodiil is underpopulated, on game launch they had dozens of Cyrodiil campaigns to pick from, and a few got full at times. Now, there is only one of each time period (week, 15day, and 30day), one non-vet, and one vet only campaign. And it is rare that any of these fill up! That's bc Cyrodiil was so bugged at launch, and the PvP hardcore have moved on to different games, leaving Cyrodiil often a ghost-town area as far as players go. The exception is weekends, and even then I don't see much fun to be had there. Again, the time invested/reward ratio bites you there too, and it helps to be part of a dedicated group of friends there (on a weekly schedule) - if you have them in ESO. IDK about Craiglorn and the group delves (multiplayer PvE co-op) yet, but they would get tiresome after a while without a better Cyrodiil experience; and again that depends on having a good group for you. That's my opinion.

go to Thornblade for pvp.

the "ghost town" campaigns are for faction buffs. There really only needs to be two pvp campaigns, they need to raise the population cap and have two 30 day campaigns and call it a day.

PVP is garbage in every mmo, its a tack on feature that ruins the pve balancing to no end.

i see this in every mmo i play, pvpers complain complain complain then thigns get nerfed, they are still unsatisfied and then they leave the game within 3 months of launch - yet we keep catering to them - WHY?!

oh i know, its because they twitch stream and bring free publicity to ZOS so they get supported no matter what. Take Mostly Harmless for isntance - i keep seeing them pimped out on the ESO facebook page, if you go to their website its OBVIOUS theyve all moved on to Archeage!!!

PVP = biggest joke i know.

(September 25th 2014, 08:19 AM)Rickter Wrote: go to Thornblade for pvp.

the "ghost town" campaigns are for faction buffs. There really only needs to be two pvp campaigns, they need to raise the population cap and have two 30 day campaigns and call it a day.

PVP is garbage in every mmo, its a tack on feature that ruins the pve balancing to no end.

i see this in every mmo i play, pvpers complain complain complain then thigns get nerfed, they are still unsatisfied and then they leave the game within 3 months of launch - yet we keep catering to them - WHY?!

oh i know, its because they twitch stream and bring free publicity to ZOS so they get supported no matter what. Take Mostly Harmless for isntance - i keep seeing them pimped out on the ESO facebook page, if you go to their website its OBVIOUS theyve all moved on to Archeage!!!

PVP = biggest joke i know.

Yeah Rickter, I can't argue that, and I think you "hit it right on the head" with your assessment, on both these threads. Agreed. That said, they didn't need to make the game take so much time doing non-exploration, non-combat, and non-questing things. If they cut that stuff down, and/or made lots of optimizations (like auto-loot distribution to mules, better interface sorting of items - sub-categories, and a drastic reduction of the vast array of items) the game would be a lot more fun.

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(November 14th 2014, 01:07 AM)HAple2769 Wrote: Thanks for all your replies, even though it's been like 3 months since I started this thread haha. Decided to hold off on it, at least for the moment. Right now i've been getting into some other games and when i'm bored with them i'll probably pick this up. Tbh my main concern is nostalgia; the ESO community was so lively before and now it's apparently almost dead xD

The Reddit ESO community is still pretty active and both guilds (merchant guild and a girl's social guild) I belong to are still active. There is still active communities out there. I think some have taken a break and are waiting for the justice system to drop. I took a few weeks off due to wrist pain and burn out but I do plan to dive back in now that I got the Razer Orbweaver (Thanks to Orbweaver's ergonomic grip I can play as long as I like without crippling wrist pain).