So I asked people why they are quitting ESO

A few weeks ago, some significant ESO combat changes were announced for the upcoming update: Lost Depths. These proposed changes sent the Elder Scrolls Online community into a frenzy. Many players widely and vehemently opposed the direction that the game was taking, while many others passionately argued against anyone who criticized these changes (see: "toxic positivity"). The initial Update 35 changes exposed not only some of the arguable weaknesses of ESO's development process but also the weaknesses within the community, as many different groups of players with different beliefs concerning the game butted heads across all forms of social media.
Although there have since been many revisions to the proposed combat changes in light of all of the feedback and backlash from the community, an extensive amount of damage has already been dealt to the game's player base. For many, this occurrence has completely severed their trust in the game's development. A substantial amount of players are dissatisfied with the direction and state of ESO and are subsequently choosing to take a break from the game; some, for good.
When the U35 combat changes dropped, my community largely fell into the camp of players that were greatly alarmed and disappointed by the direction of the game. As a result, many have since decided to take a break from ESO. As disheartening as it has been to observe many of my community regulars choose to put the game down for a spell, I'm determined to try to continue to foster a space that encourages fun and engaging ESO gameplay.
Although this patch may be unfavorable for many, I believe that a strong community can be reason enough for players to want to stick around. In this video, I pick the brains of some of my community members in regards to why they are considering quitting or actually quitting ESO and what we as players can do to potentially reignite their interest in the game and keep our communities happy and healthy.
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Preface; what’s going on with the community?
6:36 The questionnaire
Reading Some Of Your Answers:
9:33 unit220
10:52 Anonymous
11:39 MusCle420
12:14 Remolachapodrida
13:21 Anonymous
13:46 Jam941
14:28 LimboTheTrader
14:54 telephonewire
15:50 LargeSpud
17:00 Vnmmm-YT
18:07 Emb1em
19:12 InTheD4rkness
19:32 Anonymous
20:26 Euphonia
21:36 Sirius
21:57 Anonymous
22:53 norman
23:33 Anonymous
24:44 TheManabuSan
25:22 Anonymous
26:26 Anonymous
27:10 Anonymous
27:37 The Gnib
28:42 Concluding thoughts; what we can do
PROJECT VITALITY:
Join the ESO U discord server and access the “Project Vitality” category of channels: / discord
READ ALL OF THE SURVEY ANSWERS:
docs.google.com/forms/d/1aw5d...
Join this channel to get access to perks:
/ @arttea
⋅ ─ ⚞ ✧WEBSITE✧ ⚟ ─ ⋅⊰
Check out my website about making gold on ESO here:
Tamriel Trade Secrets: tamrieltradesecrets.com/​
⋅ ─ ⚞ ✧DISCORD✧ ⚟ ─ ⋅⊰
​Join my discord:
/ discord
/ discord
Join ESOU:
/ discord
⊱⋅ ─ ⚞ ✧SOCIALS✧ ⚟ ─ ⋅⊰
/ artteaeso
⊱⋅ ─ ⚞ ✧OTHER LINKS✧ ⚟ ─ ⋅⊰
Music In This Video:
- Purrple Cat - Lunar Eclipse
- Provided by Lofi Records
- Watch: • Purrple Cat - Lunar Ec...
- Download/Stream: fanlink.to/DistantWorlds
Eric Godlow, Miss You
• (FREE) Lo-fi Type Beat...
Eric Godlow, Alone With You
• (FREE) Lo-fi Type Beat...
Eric Godlow, Memories Of You
• (FREE) Lo-fi Type Beat...
Eric Godlow, No Love
• (FREE) Lo-fi Type Beat...
Zeeky Beats, Crush
• (free) Lo-Fi Type Beat...
Zeeky Beats, Dates
• (Free) LoFi Type beat ...
Eric Godlow, Love Tonight
• (FREE) Lo-fi Type Beat...
Zeeky Beats, Memories
• ((FREE)) LoFi Type Bea...
- Kupla - Serenity
- Provided by Lofi Records
- Watch: • Kupla - Serenity
- Download/Stream: fanlink.to/kingdom-in-blue-EP
- Kupla - In Your Eyes
- Provided by Lofi Records
- Watch: • Kupla - In Your Eyes
- Download/Stream: fanlink.to/kingdom-in-blue-EP
Eric Godlow, After Hours
• (FREE) Lo-fi Type Beat...
Thank You To My KZbin Members!
MERCHANTS
Aaron S
Alex Faaborg
Billy Wilson
Bob Davies
Complicated Mike
Courtjester1474
Crooksy Collins
Grafted
Hubert
Jake
jcrodd7776
Jennifer Leigh
Jérémie St-Amand
J-M Erlendson
Lorraine H
Rudy Kraft
Sean Hamilton
Sofa 2010
x_Luna-x
MOGULS
Bathroom Activities
Bosmer1701
Blitz Canuck
Clawesome_crab
DDIII3
Degonyte
DiggyDiggyHole92
Emblem
facistdic
GrampsD63
James OKeefe
Jaren Bowling
Laetnir
LMirinac
luther smith
MeridiasBacon
Muscle420
Parash
Praetorian
Sean Whitaker
|Scoopz|
Spektre
TechnicalKO
Terence Carter
TheOverMaster
Ven
VuickB6
Zygmunt Nadratowski
#ESO #ElderScrollsOnline

[@Arttea]

On the topic of community initiatives, I highly recommend checking out the following ones if you're looking for something fun to do in ESO: PROJECT VITALITY (accessible raids for all; PC AND CONSOLE): Check out the Project Vitality category: discord.gg/esou Learn more about this initiative: eso-u.com/articles/project_vitality OMH'S PC NA/EU HOUSING COMPETITION (200+ mil in prizes until Sept 17th): Submit your entry form here: forms.gle/zf3bidJqbLHskD2t9 Learn more about the contest: discord.gg/A4nZUrXzXr And of course, I'd like to insert a cheeky lil' promo for my community discord server! Players from all platforms are welcome, but we also have a PC NA trading guild with 0 dues that you can join as well! discord.gg/tamrieltradesecrets

[@nilborne1]

Have seen a few of these types of commentary. Chasing the meta in ESO is a pointless waste of time and always has been in my opinion. But i am just a filthy casual. I will still enjoy the game.

[@HostileRespite]

Hey Artie! I'm returning to ESO! Literally logged in for the first time in a year yesterday. I saw this and thought you'd like to hear at least one person return. Need an invite sent to Nadya Bizniz, please!

[@jimbog4873]

GREAT video! I'm new to your channel but I've been playing ESO daily on XB1 since its console launch in 2015...I mostly play for the quests, not for PvP or min/max builds...and until recently I never touched the 4 player dungeons (that changed with Oakensoul...I finally felt that I could hold my own in normal dungeons and not be a burden on the 3 matchmade randoms the game puts me with...I'm a shy introvert so I don't use chat and I tend to play ESO solo so matchmade dungeons was outside my comfort zone and yet I'm enjoying them with Oakensoul)! I'm not happy with Update 35 (Oakensoul changes worry me) BUT it's not the end of the world and I'll keep enjoying ESO! Lately, on KZbin, I see two camps...those upset over the Update 35 lemons and those willing to make lemonade from Update 35 (BrahWeGotThis seems to be in the sour camp while HackTheMinotaur, and your channel, seem ready to make lemonade), as a viewer who also plays ESO, I prefer to watch the channels, like yours, that acknowledge the lemons but try to make lemonade (keep up the good work)! 😃

[@IlseMulAuthor]

@@jimbog4873 I think Deltia's Gaming gave a good insight into the changes, what was initially changed, what was adjusted, what was changed back and what could be expected to be final changes. If I interpret it correctly, there will indeed be changes, but it's not that bad as many people from the negative camp seem to suggest I'm with you on making lemonade from the lemons 😁 Especially since I'm still a low level newbie (highest base level is 25 😁) so those vet trials and dungeons are far out of league. But it's all in the eye of the beholder, I guess.

[@jimbog4873]

@@IlseMulAuthor ... Good points! Speaking of Deltia, I remember when he stepped away from ESO for a long while and now he's back and seems more energized than ever...it might be a good idea for some of the negative camp to do like Deltia did (take some time off and then return in the future)! As for the positive camp, I noticed HackTheMinotaur is testing out Werewolves with Update 35, he's actually found that werewolf builds might be pretty good in the new update...examples, like that, are the silver lining I think everyone should look for in Update 35 instead of dwelling on the things that are changing that we may not like! :-)

[@DagothDaddy]

It feels like their weird self imposed "One expansion a year" system is biting them in the ass in terms of ZoS's ability to rework some of the flaws in alot of the core systems. I really wouldn't mind of High isle lasted 2 years if it ment we gotore substantial fixes and reworks of things like crafting.

[@TheGravityShifter]

You'd think One Expansion per year would be more reason to fix and overhaul the much needed changes given how cookie cutter they are, and how other MMOs tend to do more than one Major Zone in a single expansion per year. This to me only proves they are merely just trying to do low effort with high prices.

[@DavidSantos-ix1hu]

Especally considering a huge set of sets and story content is lockrd behind a paywall, like damn they really want only whales around.

[@kie9683]

I don't understand why the devs are so disconnected from their players. It would be so easy for them to listen just a little bit. This seemingly intentional self destructive behavior is really disheartening.

[@nb_rich9314]

They aren’t disconnected from their players. Everyone always thinks its always about “them” and everyone thinks their opinion is everyones. People don’t leave games because of an update lol no game stays the same so if your leaving a game because of an update you would leave any game anyways.

[@IowaRonin]

Quit in 2017. Pay to play Pay to win Everything that should be basic and useful was behind a pay wall. Nickel dime me to death. Screw 'em

[@neilorourke71]

It's kind of BS that They blocked Oakensoul behind a paywall. And to add insult to injury you can still get the scry leads for it lol. At the end of the day it's all about the money, i.e. catering to whales. I don't think people quite realize how much game companies rely of whales. It's honestly shocking. In any game, even mobiles (perhaps esp mobiles) there is a microscopic fraction of the player base that generates the vast majority of the revenue. The balancing act for the devs is trying to keep the whales happy and their cash flowing while not driving away the rest of the player base with bullshit pay to win.

[@OaksieDoaksie]

It's hubris. They will learn if or when people vote with their wallets.

[@hellcamino198]

Oh, they do listen, but they only listen to the casuals who suck at the game. They should be listening to the hard-core daily players.

[@vetman548]

I am a WOW vet and found this video very well done. You and others sound like you feel the same way a lot of us do about WOW and the way its going. Had a guild and really enjoyed it for about 2 years . It broke up and I have been solo for the last 4 expansions, shows how long its been since I have been in a guild. I really enjoy solo play and pvp. This last expansion was the very first time I only leveled 2 characters up instead of my usual 8. I also stopped playing which I have not done since November 23, 2004. I did not cancel my sub, I don't know if I could do that. I am hoping our new expansion can make it interesting again. Good luck with ESO.

[@boomermorgan]

Damn, had no idea this was going on as I’m just here playing every once and a while and notice “oh this animation is different” or “hey my dots are longer now cool”. Glad I don’t deal with all this MMO drama. Thank you WoW for teaching me a valuable lesson.

[@chloe-historyandgames]

same, I don’t really understand anything she is reading out in the vid, i just play the game solo enjoying the environment and stories, just wish i could experience it all without having to join a group (for hard dungeons/trials)

[@swickster]

@@chloe-historyandgames i think it applies to people who play this game like its their job, most of these people probably have 15 max out characters and they're salty because they ran out of shit to do, like ofcourse you did you LIVE in this game fucking touch grass lmfao

[@NorthernGrim]

​@@chloe-historyandgames Skyrim ....

[@gaspo2880]

@@NorthernGrim2011.... At this point everyone has done everything there is to offer in that game we only have mods to look forward to, of which the big story ones would only be released by the time of the elder scrolls 6 even. A lot of people come to ESO looking for more elder scrolls content, I don't blame them but I do disagree with the 'I just want to solo everything' take. The essence of ESO is multiplayer and it's been challenging for me too, but overcoming that challenge is a story and quest in itself. The only reason I'm disagreeing with you too is I think it's better to encourage them to enjoy that challenge and find ways to get through it, instead of telling them to go play something else. For a lot of those players something else is out of the picture.

[@caramelfrappe402]

I quit ESO because of: - Way to many paywalled content being strong then immediately nerfed just to sell chapters. - Meta changes so much why even farm gear or practice anything? - Nerfing my DPS but not making harder content easier just makes trials take longer. - Changes to combat for no reason and ignoring feedback from everyone Yeah, ZOS killed ESO for me. Time to move on. Great video btw loved how professional and on point you were without being biased.

[@sneezyfido]

These reasons, plus how every new area is a small amount of story content followed up with an endless grind on daily fluff quests that are extremely repetitive chores. For reference, I tend to keep a maximum number of alts to enjoy different builds, but also to offer a variety of well built roles. Gearing all of them after each "balance update" stalled to the point that my DD's were behind 2 updates. It felt like daily fluff and scramblingb to update my fear was all I was doing anymore.

[@alexnorth3393]

PTW are always junk.

[@Bigmanstyling101]

I feel you on that I'm half in half out right now , leaning more towards out.

[@Violetbunnyfish]

ESO making balance changes is like them smashing a sledgehamer through a glass greenhouse. They never want to make tiny changes. Nope. They have to make either massive nerfs or massive buffs to everything and completely change our playstyle every three or four months. I've played for six years and it's maddening. Part of that is their refusal to balance PvP and PvE separately. It's still a great game, but I started playing Guild Wars 2 three weeks ago and this is part of why. Other reasons were that playing had started to feel like a chore with all the "daily" things I felt obligated to do (but didn't have to do), and also that I just wanted something new after six years. They'd also ignore repeated player requests for better looking horses and other niceties. Mostly I just wanted to try something new. ESO is still awesome, though.

[@Sensei-from-BlueArchive]

so, its basically suffering a case of WoW? No longer playing ESO, stopped long ago but started playing it back during the alpha all the way up to a few months before the 1st expac. For irl reasons I had to stop playing the game and couldn't come back until a few years later. That being said, what people describes sounds familiar to what happened to wow

[@GXKA2191]

Reasons why I am considering leaving eso. 1. Everytime I finally start to improve my rotation and get sets I need, The entire meta changes cause of some new set or they nerf some skills, or the change how things scale. And then I'm back to the drawing board while I work on a new rotation or back to farming a different set. This probably isn't an issue for most people, but I maybe get an hour or two to play a day and it's really not how I wanna be spending my time. Farming and parsing. 2. I'm really tired of them not balancing pvp and pve separately. Thinks that are fine in pve are nerfed cause they are broke in pvp. Just use battle spirit to balance skills and passives separately. 3. This kinda ties into the first one, but I've spent quite a considerable amount of time getting my parses up to 80k. (I know it's not God tier but that's not the point) my damage I've worked hard trying to achieve is now getting nerfed to make the game more accessible to me. Go ahead and reread that. You can't make this shit make sense. I'm gonna stick around and try to achieve those numbers again after the patch, but I'm not gonna invest a crap ton of time just to have it be meaningless again.

[@Hadeswolf]

FACTs!

[@tselacky4117]

This is how I felt two years ago when I quit. Ever since I’ve honestly looked for a reason / kept up with serious creators and looked for a reason to come back and every update I’d look into just pushed me further away than the last. All the builds I spent time grinding for becoming more and more irrelevant with every patch. All the hard work I put in just thrown in the barrel. Spending hours grinding, or fighting my heart out in vet solo arenas for specific items just to find out it was for nothing is disheartening entirely.

[@bilidru8662]

No 1&3 are exactly my points too. If I cared about PvP, I‘d totally agree with you. It‘s a shame they keep on changing things at least twice a year.

[@RubyJamez]

For sure can relate, I only play on weekends but I'm interested in hard content like vets, trials, trifectas so on. Imagine spending every Saturday just grinding fkg gear because devs decided that it's time to turn old gear into pumkin. I can only handle grind for so many days before I think that id rather actually go and play something I enjoy.

[@colonian83]

Grats on the 80k+ :P

[@QsPracticalNonsense]

I played eso religiously for almost a year (about 2k hours) and can say it truly is heartbreaking to see so much potential wasted. As sad as it is to say, it is best to move on... Companies really shouldn't be rewarded for lazy practices.

[@Tamamo-no-Bae]

I feel like I am different from most other players, while yes the combat problems are annoying, they're not enough to make me quit. What made me quit was the fall in quality of the content. Not only are new quests becoming more generic, your characters feels less and less...well, like a character. You don't even get those choices that gave you some initiative, instead you're along for the ride doing what the quest tells you without any input whatsoever. Forexample: My character is a follower of Meridia, and it annoyed me a ton in Hjaalmarch where you had a quest where the Kilkreath temple of Meridia got infected with monsters, and the priestess of Meridia you were helping lost faith in her because she didn't help. I had no option to remind her that Meridia was limited, that the Colored Rooms had been assailed before cutting her off from helping, and that perhaps me coming there was her way of helping. No, nothing, instead I just had a generic answer that didn't change her disposition at all. Adding to this, the expansions are also increasingly going in a direction I care little for and they rarely introduce new things to the world. Blackwood could have introduced new things in Blackwood, perhaps even surviving Lilmothiit...But nope, it was just an Oblivion redo. Greymarch had some potential but so much was unexplained. Forexample: A LOADING screen told me the vampire castle predated the dwemer cities...This is damn important information could it not...you know, have been in a book with more information? And High Isle... It's just an island with medieval Breton culture. I was actually hyped for Pyandonea since it seemed it was going that way from the trailer, so the whole Breton thing was just meh. They really need to get better at the story. The Morrowind and Summerset chapters were brilliant compared to more modern chapters. It's like they are afraid to take chances and expand the game world. The most important thing for me in a game is the story and immersion. Excellent gameplay goes a long way to make an amazing experience, but if the gameplay was crap and the story was good and immersion epic, I would still enjoy myself big time. Final Fantasy XIV has an epic story, very good immersion, and the gameplay and mechanics are consistent and good. So I for one stick with that as my main MMO.

[@tickeypl6974]

Yup, it is kinda the same for me. I tried questing in ESO but it never felt too... Good? Stories were pretty generic, and I burned myself out on stupid Alliance questline (The one from basegame) I never did summerset but Morrowind was kinda good and nice. Definitely made me want to Quest there, some stories were really interesting. In the end, I am full glad my other friends convinced me to try FFXIV. The Story is Wonderful, the gameplay is solid and there is a lot of quite interesting side-content to do!

[@cracmar03]

Kilkreath was in Greymoor, that's Western Skyrim. Eastmarch is on opposite end of Skyrim .. Castle predating dwemer. Hmm but you did had it somewhere in texts, but all of it was tucked away in corners - as usual TES is merciless when it comes to paying attention. And we still don't know how long time ago Essenia overtook Greymoor, but it was pretty much said that Greymoor Castle was belonging to an even older vampire. ZOS would not get greenlit for Pyandonea. And they admitted in interview as much - Bethesda forbade them touching sloads, they were already at odds with them for Summerset. Pyandonea is in sload territory ... What I am mostly salty about is that Systres ... only time TES mentioned it, and it was TES Adventures Redguard if I recall was that it was announced to belong to Hammerfell. Meaning - it obvioulsy had lots of redguards for Septims to greenlit claims towards Hammerfell for it. Furthermore Pankor (since that was name of High Isle) is very close to Yokuda from map. And ZOS clearly put more and more antiquities hinting to Yokuda. But noooo ... it's breton. Somehow. You know Bretons had Rivenspire, Stormhaven, Glenumbra - all 100% bretony, and 80% of Bangkorai. Meanwhile orcs - Betnikh a small island. Redguards - just Stros M'kai small island, Alik'r 100% and 20% of Bangkorai. Orcs at least got justice with Orsinium dlc, but redguards ? Last dlc they had was about Thieves and not them. I've been waiting for years for some Redguard content, and thus far only content of importance I had was .. well Rada al-Saran and his story. And they wasted him ! Honestly with Meridia ESO has tendency to ride on her since base game. In Summerset by end you have letter from outside time from betrayed Darien by her. In Elsweyr there is some poor dead fool who tried to do her wishes, and mentions how her 'champion' had betrayed her - clearly again Darien. And then Kilkreath she failed to intervene to stop Reachmen from foiling her, and Greymoor was having task of basically 'explain why Kilkreath was abandoned by everyone by times of TES V' ... so it did.

[@Tamamo-no-Bae]

@@cracmar03 Oh sorry, yes meant West Skyrim! XD But no this wasn't hidden in a text, it was just a random loading screen tip. This would have been the chance to add some cool books exploring this but from what I could see there was nothing. 1. No, Pyandonea is Maormer. If there are Sload there then their presence is as limited as it was in Summerset. You're confusing it with Thras. I wanted to see the homeland of the Sea Elves and what their civilization is like, we've seen some hints but not much. The redesign they got in Summerset was really good too. 2. True... Although honestly, I care little for the human races, but Redguard are the most interesting of them with their vastly different culture. I believe ZOS may have been vetoed on going too far with Redguards, as all hints seem to be that ES6 will be in Hammerfell. 3. No Daedra is perfect, but it is up to the player if you align with a character or not. And considering how long ago ESO is compared to Skyrim, explaining it now was definitely not necessary.

[@fireraid9173]

they went downhill so hard when we left summerset, the dragons ruined the entire thing for me in the next one. It was time to settle with a civil conflict or something for once, but the writers for these late expacs can't seem to pull their heads out of their asses to make a half decent story and instead rely on overloaded theatrics and unwanted fan service with returning characters. It's like the stakes have to be high enough to make the prior expac completely pointless cause they cannot for the life of them write well enough to not need the Ooos and aahs they think we are impressed with. It's the most directionless writing i've seen in a game besides warframe and it sucks they would rather rake in filthy money then do some quality control on their muddled and expensive fanfic

[@MidnightArcade404]

in regards to your first part, yeah its really frustrating how bland the vestige can be. especially in regards to deadra. i have a werewolf character who dealt with being bit by throwing everything into faith in Hircine. was so stoked to do the reach and when you get to the quest where yall call on hircine for advice the only dialog option was something really anti deadra like " we are calling on an EVIL god?! how will that help?" all so that the npc can give us a witty retort back. its frustrating tbh. like i know most rp character stuff just needs to be headcannon but just another dialog option would have been nice. speaking of the reach i went through that whole thing never even getting acknowledged for being a werewolf except ONE off hand comment late into the quest. i did greymoore on a vamp and while still not great at least there was SOMETHING. like i said i just headcannon my own dialogue to keep some sanity. im not even an rp player.

[@aarons3014]

Hi Arttea, as a former active commenter in TTS, I left because real life got too busy, in a good way. I kept my membership to your channel active, even though I doubt I will ever return to ESO, because your content helped me, and I think it's unique, and could help other people. But, bottom line: it's a game. It is never wrong to leave a game. Reality is always more important.

[@FightOstinFight]

For some people (not me) these games ARE their reality. It’s actually sad

[@o.siouxsie]

@@FightOstinFight as someone nearly bedbound with no hopes to get better, yes, that's the reality to some.

[@seipher_8334]

ZOS could eliminate 90% of these problems if they would finally realize that PVE and PVP are two totally different games! Quit making each side of this game pay for something the other one did! Make all updates and adjustments to pvp take place with the battlespirit system they already have in place and leave PVE the hell alone!

[@connorwelsh2658]

This is absolutely true all pvp balance could be done through nudging the sets up and down just a little and then address everything else through battle spirit.

[@ESO_PRIME]

as a day #1 pvp player i agree with these sentiments. We have the armory system now which makes all the content in game way more accessible too.

[@nepoznali]

Copy and paste the PVE and PVP system from Guild wars 1 (ONE), 90% of the problems disappear.Two different servers, the same skills have different values for PVE and PVP..

[@omooers]

A agree. It’s painful for people at both ends.

[@aka-47k]

plenty of games had alrd in 2010 same abilitys/items have different stats/behavior on pvp. so if you entered pvp map that ability didnt do 100 dmg but only 50 but back in pve and it does 100. all of this is solved since more then a decade.

[@cgsweat]

Life and death. Even MMO's are subject to it. I first experienced this when NCSoft officially closed the servers for City of Heroes/Villains. It had been around for 7 or 8 years up to that point, and was the first MMO I ever played. Needless to say it hit me hard. I had put thousands of hours into that game, and just like that it exists now only in my memories. On a side note, yes I realize a group of fans managed to resurrect CoH on a server of their own. I tried playing it but it just wasn't the same. All my characters and all my friends are still gone. All I can do is start everything over from scratch.

[@hairyharoldthumb9457]

I have lost so many friends. And this is the patch that will lose me. Thanks ESO for absolutely driving your long time players to quit. 2017-2022

[@takofili3520]

It's really sad actually, my friends are quitting it too. We're playing different games together but we miss going into ESO and doing stuff there together, and that's how we all met, but with such bad updates lately we just don't wanna break our backs anymore.

[@terminalvelocity4858]

ZOS: We are aware of the thousands of long-standing issues and bugs in our game that constantly frustrates you, the players for years now. *Also ZOS: We've released an emergency hot-fix for Tales of Tribute and Crowns are on sale for a limited time!*

[@aceslycer]

Last time I played I played as healer on a trial for the first time. It went really well. When I excitedly talked about it later some people responded that unless I'm healing hardmode vet stuff I'm insignificant. From then it went downhill fast.

[@NorthernGrim]

Just keep away from people like that man, and just find people to enjoy experiences with!

[@DeimosThea]

This was such a good watch. I have found myself drifting from the game over the last 10 months TREMENDOUSLY and really enjoyed hearing others' opinions displayed like this in such a respectful manner. I love ESO and only hope some of these points will be taken onboard by ZOS in the coming patches.

[@blitzcanuck1120]

Community is everything. I still have massive nostalgia for the time i spent in certain games going back 25 years. But all my fondest memories are in the context of who i was grouped with when playing the game, not the game itself. 15 years ago I was in a very tight-knit group playing the original Guild Wars, for example, and to this day i still miss those people. And i am constantly trying to replicate that experience in the games i play today (without much success unfortunately). I took it for granted back then, at the time not really appreciating how great it was. I've been in the same WoT clan since 2014 just because of the friends i made there. Unfortunately, i outlasted everyone and there is none of the OG left and now my friends list is a veritable wasteland and it's no coincidence that my passion for WoT has waned to the point i rarely play it. So yeah, for me personally, community plays a crucial role in determining my enjoyment of and longevity in a game. Apologies if this wasn't exactly on point. But seeing that those inactive names in your roster really stirred me up as i can relate.

[@Arttea]

This is a concept that I have only just started to become familiar with as I reflect on my own past fond experiences in the only game whose community I've ever really participated in: ESO. Like yourself, I too feel like I took a lot of my experiences with old friends and guildies for granted and didn't really get to appreciate the time I had with them. It's nice whenever they still check in on discord or what have you but man, their absence from the game makes it just a little less fun than it used to be :') 100% agree with you that the community is absolutely integral to how enjoyable a game is for me

[@blitzcanuck1120]

@@Arttea Speaking for myself, although i have a couple of very good friends, i've never found it easy to 'make friends' due to my introverted nature, but when i do, they are very meaningful.

[@cheshirecat8118]

Sigh, I feel this so much. I lost 3 good friends I have played with for forever. I too am and introvert and so this game helps me make friends and have fun too. I hope one day my friends will come back. I still talk with them in discord but it seems not as much now. I love eso and I hope this negative impact doesn't cause more friends or myself to quit. Thank you for posting this all too real video.

[@Clint_Yeetwood]

I don't play ESO anymore, but I know what this feels like when a game you love and everyone quits. I feel for you. The empty feeling everytime you log on potentially for the last time.

[@TM-oy9qo]

Two person content is an odd thing to be missing in most MMOs Short 10-15 minute dungeons able to be done with two friends would be absolutely amazing, as a way to spend time if you can't find a larger group, or want to hang out with another person I know a lot of people who would not have quit if there was something like this, cause running around overland is awful, and forming up a competent group at all times is near impossible without large guild support

[@SuperMontsta]

You can pretty much 2 man most dungeons already. I've soloed a lot of the vet dungeons, except the ones where you NEED multiple people for mechanics. Most I can think of the top of my head for that is 2 people need. (Pulling 2 switches at once, standing on blocks at the same time etc)

[@OldSaltySean1]

Man I was waiting for this one. Seeing the names of people I've come to know from the Discord or events over the past couple of months since joining up was definitely rough to see since I dont want to see them go, so I can only imagine how you feel having known them all for way longer. Really well executed video, and the point about being constructive in criticism is something I've heard echoed a lot by SkinnyCheeks and is the biggest take away for me. Great idea for B roll btw, not just saying that cause my character and house made it in. Great job gamer.

[@Arttea]

Oh man, believe me, I knew that *some* homies were considering dipping from the game but MAN when the responses came pouring in and I was recognizing SO MANY of the peeps that answered the form... feltbadman :'( And yeah, as much as I understand everyone's frustration, nothing good will ever come from people just being assholes lol. Was a little cringe to see how some parts of the community reacted and I'm sure it only fueled the anger from the other side of the floor. Hope this can at least get some gamers to consider the consequences the next time they plan on unironically writing up a god-tier copypasta on the forums or discord or something :') And thank you!!

[@terminalvelocity4858]

I've seen this day coming years ago and spoke up many times over that period about what I instinctively felt was happening to this game, so many ridiculed me and said that maybe ESO wasn't for me. Now a lot of those same players are still here to see that happening. This latest abomination from ZOS just feels so bad and truly makes me sad to see a game with such AMAZING potential be driven into the dirt. I really don't understand how a company could have such a shining diamond only to turn it into a flat rock sinking in a river of despair. U35 really does seem to be a downward spiral that will never recover.

[@barkley611]

FFXIV is the most fun with friends. I’ve played most all except ESO, in depth. After 10-15yrs of FFXI, last segment being in 2019, 15yrs in WoW, 8yrs in FFXIV. My recommendation is FFXIV. The best MMO is hands down XI, but it’s severely outdated.

[@taylon5200]

@@barkley611 14 is incredible, and has my full attention for over 2k hours now. It's a masterpiece in a lot of ways.

[@davidhujik3422]

Same here I warned so many people especially those in higher clans. But hey what do I know? Not like I do the research every few days! Fucking dumb player base will never listen. Ever.

[@davidhujik3422]

@@barkley611 good news ff14 accepts wow refugees lol

[@xSanityControlx]

Almost no one you meet in an mmo will be around forever, it's often very fleeting. Enjoy what you can, and hold on to your most treasured moments.

[@allroadsanywhere449]

Hold on tightly , Let go lightly

[@smorts3496]

For about 5 years straight I practically lived and breathed ESO, starting around the One Tamriel-update. I used to log in every day, I loved the world and lore, collecting motifs/achievements and questing was generally alright, and I was an avid Roleplayer who'd very regularly host events for the wider EU-RP community. Hell, I was even head of said community for a while, and I recognize some people in this video. But over time, EVERYTHING about the game just became exhausting... Forgive me for my rant, but I've got a lot of baggage with ESO. - I could never be arsed to fix my character build, because they'd always be broken the next update. - The stories and quests felt more and more shallow and formulaic. There was so much to do, but nothing to gain from it. - I hate the Crown Store with a burning passion, and the fact that nearly all good customization-options are locked behind gambling, grinding and paywalls. I felt like ZOS was always trying to reach into my wallet and choke me for every last penny. Every. Fucking. Day. ...We used to say that the way you get loot in ESO was by working an IRL job. It's as predatory as it can get, and they use every trick in the book to create whales. Especially in the RP Community. - There was always some drama of the day blowing around in the community. All discourse around the game, from gameplay to lore-elitism, felt like a constant stream of negativity. - The game is a hot, broken mess... The game kept randomly kicking people out, poor optimization, random holes in the world, bugged quests and systems. ...Which brings me to the boulder that broke the camel's back for me. - I finally got perma-banned out of nowhere back in December. I struggled with customer support for months, but they never explained to me what actually happened other than "Hacking/Exploitation", until finally and suddenly closing the ticket without addressing any of my questions in February. Again, I was only a Roleplayer for the longest time. I could never get into the game further than quests, achievements and dungeons, so I never even touched any systems that could break the game... So this whole debacle just left me stumped. I poured so much of my life into ESO. I made so many friends, spent so much money, love and time, and now looking back, it all feels wasted. The game was wide as an ocean, but shallow like a puddle. You could do what you want, but it never felt like it had any deeper progress or meaning. And ZOS would try and pouch you for a little extra cash every turn they could. Leaving ESO felt like a terrible, terrible breakup. After my 'fallout', I moved on to FFXIV and it felt like I had traded an abusive relationship for a loving one. The epic storylines, the balanced and rewarding gameplay, the loving community... The grass felt so much greener. I still sometimes miss the world of Tamriel, but there's so much bad baggage with ESO that I don't think I could come back even if they let me.

[@ronanow4047]

Wasnt it around December 2021 that they had that huge ban wave that falsely banned thousands of players for using approved addons? In case you are wondering they many people who got hit with that ban wave had the same issue. ZOS apologized publicly and acknowledged the problem, but never unbanned the people who they admitted were falsely banned. Honestly, if I had gotten falsely banned after investing any money in the game, I would file a report with the Better Business Bureau. Then I'd either get unbanned or watch the state ZOS works in sue ZOS. Either way I'd get my money back.

[@KiddDaPhoenix]

I'm glad you have found a new home in ffxiv (which datacenter? I'm on light), but it's too bad that you felt you had to switch in the first place when you used to love eso.

[@Emblem13235]

Hey hey, I saw your post on Twitter and I do have to say 100% on that I agree with you. I too was like a RPer somewhat but I did do content that was more demanding of me like being in a Dawnbringer group. Lots of the problems came with ESO. All of them as you have said and also some more that I explain in my part of the video. Going to XIV has been such a relief. The people are so nice and the game is actually more polished and more playable than ESO. For God's sake, it has a photo mode, which I love.

[@smorts3496]

@@KiddDaPhoenix I moved to Chaos Omega, where I had a lot of friends and there's an active RP community. I've honestly been pleasantly surprised, people there are super nice! 👌

[@Nick-cs4oc]

The store is so bad it made me nauseous. Nothing I like more than having a massive part of the game be played out through a shop… the value proposition is non existent

[@HackTheMinotaur]

This is a fantastic idea for a video and really well executed! Thank you 🙏

[@llawlied6902]

Maybe if more content creators would make videos like this Zen would finally notice I don't get why they keep making the same mistakes and ignore the community

[@RudeSaiyan]

it's just so crazy to me that they have this amazing fantasy world and epic scale but continually fall short. I'm a relative outsider to ESO, played a tiny bit at launch and several times over the years but it just never really stuck for me. I grew up with Morrowind, Oblivion and eventually put thousands of hours into Skyrim. ESO never captured the same feeling of escape and wonder all of those games gave me and I never stick around long enough to figure out exactly why. Videos like this one are important and thank you for making it. I learned a lot based on the replies.

[@rahovartiv3464]

For one thing imo the combat is boring af compared to those games. I understand it's an mmo and can't operate the same way but it's easily the #1 thing that killed this game for me. The world is beautiful and the quests are amazing but everything else just feels meh.

[@blessfulnukie]

Welp there's always Final fantasy 14 and Phantasy star 2

[@n3tw0rk_n3k0]

@@rahovartiv3464 Black Desert has fun combat

[@stephenfuller965]

These combat changes are good. Less janky light attack weaving and animation canceling to produce more dps is a step towards better combat like the solo games have. It won’t be perfect but it is a step in the right direction. You’ll hear a few complaints online from the vocal try hards but for the majority the changes are good.

[@blessfulnukie]

@@stephenfuller965 Sorry but ESO has nothing on Final fantasy 14

[@Lorkynn]

Great video! It was interesting to see how the game has been since I left. I quit two years because I was just getting tired of bad experiences. I had some major drama unfold in the guild I was in which made me extremely sour towards the game. The other problem was ZOS only really caring about the Cash Shop, they were more willing to add items to the cash shop and battle-passes than they were to fix game breaking bugs. PvP was a hacked mess, and the servers were nightmare fuel with the frequency of crashing/booting . This was all a shame because it was starting to recover from the horrendous beta and launch. It has a good sandbox, I absolutely enjoyed my time doing the Thieves Guild missions, because it was something unique that only ESO was offering--at the time. It is sad to see that a great number of these problems either stayed the same or have gotten worse. Sadly, the end-game elitism is a problem for almost all MMOs, some are worse than others, but it doesn't excuse the behavior of not letting people learn.

[@Jasoncruze.]

I'm a little late to this video. But I was away from eso for over a year three different times. Each time I come back and realize why I've continued to come back. I love the story. I love the farming. I love how open the world is for exploration.

[@bigred1554]

Yeah I've just came back created a new character and I'm having a blast

[@nolabel7705]

Arttea, introvert here. Thank you for your hard work. I've played games since the 80's. I lived through the fires that were the " New Game Enhancements " in Star Wars Galaxies, 2003. Overnight entire servers quit and the game never recovered due to sweeping combat changes no one was asking for. I fear ESO is going to repeat history.

[@crabscrabscrabs]

ESO is a strange beast to me, I'm a massive elder scrolls fan and I've tried so many times to make myself enjoy the game, but honestly it's the combat that holds me back. I haven't been keeping up to date with the game since just before the addition of npc followers, but I've done ample veteran content, earning a few skins in the process, but never touched trials. I looked up the recent combat changes and I can't help but feel like they make sense? ESO's insistence on 'slot 7 different 10 second DoTs and keep them in perfect rotation while weaving light attacks and keeping your eyes on the field for all the assorted oneshots coming your way' didn't feel fun to me despite actively trying to force myself into enjoying it. Playing from Australia I deal with a certain small (and I mean small, in the region of .3 to .1 seconds) amount of unavoidable input delay, which completely annihilates any chance I have of maintaining a perfect rotation despite having far less issue doing so in other MMOs. Bar swaps don't register fast enough, inputs get duplicated, weaving gets inconsistent; all because I'm forced to go at breakneck speed to keep every spinning plate I've set up going at the same time. I understand that ESO has a playermade skill ceiling as a result of weaving and razor's edge rotations, but I can't help but feel like it's to the game's detriment as a whole; and yet it seems like the vast majority of the playerbase is intensely against the change. Ultimately, I don't play the game and I'm not sure if I'll return to see if these changes are impactful enough to sway my thoughts on the matter (disregarding my issues with performance entirely), but from the point of view of someone who was forever unwilling to play floor AoE wack-a-mole and struggled to keep up with the playerbase's insane demands for damage output, it seems like a positive step to me. High end players are always going to rally against things that impact their parses, this just seems like one of those issues that might take some time to normalise.

[@Sheelahization]

Agreed. I quit just after the npc companion patch. The parsing was what eventually got to me. Spending hours at a dummy trying to click at optimum. Broke a few mice...just to get into even harder content to get the gear needed. It still stops me from rejoining the ESO community. My favorite part of ESO was PVP. Made some friends and had great times on the battlefield. Never laughed or smiled during end game trials. What a chore!

[@garlottos]

I played ESO for the first time the other day. Got to the combat part of the tutorial and quit the game. It felt horrible swinging the axe, no weight or momentum behind any attack, fighting like I'm twirling a ribbon. Literally made it 5 minutes before I stopped playing

[@tobybll]

same for me brother

[@dissident1337]

The skill ceiling isn't player-made. You only have to balance all those plates because One Tamriel made the game a slog.

[@dogmilk9651]

I've always felt like ESO's combat was unintentional. Weaving doesn't make any sense to me, I've designed a couple of games in Unity, so I'm not an expert but I have some inkling on how it all works, and attack weaving just felt like the devs overlooked including a delay between attacks. I tell myself that's what happened because I refuse to believe any human mind designed that system and thought it was fun. This latest update feels like a (too) late attempt at finally fixing that. How many years did our mounts have unlimted stamina? Not really surprising considering the buggy state of everything Elder Scrolls and Fallout.

[@ebrano]

A great video! From a player who has already left the game, here are a few quotes that stuck out to me: "I don't want to relearn the game every few months!" & "I realize at this point that Zos most likely won't change!"

[@CarolinaGuy]

Very well done. I'm just a casual CP 400 something scrub and have tons of content to complete. The community since I started playing has been mostly positive for sure and I have had an occasion or two where I asked for help and was given it freely even though I tried to pay them in gold. It's probably just me but I find myself logging less and less. It's like I miss it but then not sure if I do. Anyway,I appreciate what you've put together here,I could relate to a lot of it.

[@moodydunmer910]

Hearing all these is pretty upsetting. As someone who's has relied on the game to have any kind of social life for so long, so many people leaving is.....scary. I understand completely that its a video game but, its my only form of being social. Its already so hard to get a trial group together and it's only going to get worse, I likely won't quit.....but I'll miss eso so much...so so so much

[@LameMule]

Try FFXIV. It's a breath of fresh air with devs that are still deeply connected to the community. Most people are there just happily playing the game in whichever way they choose and with so many different things to do, there's legit something for absolutely everyone. It's a hell of a journey and it's by far my favorite community across all MMOs. And with the latest expansion it's become even my top favorite RPG over all. I used to play the shit out of ESO and WoW too but no more. That game has earned it's players' hearts and the community is strong as a result.

[@lazyfrogeyes5949]

if a video game is your only means to a social life that is just sad. Maybe it's time to seek professional help. And ff14 is just as toxic as other mmos.

[@moodydunmer910]

@@lazyfrogeyes5949 I have anxiety and have been completely out of the social system for years now, I am already very very slowly getting help

[@mateoignacio9670]

Thank you for voicing exactly how I feel about ESO. You're amazing.

[@RxsetintedEyes]

Hello, I am a Roleplayer, PvE & PvP player from ESO-NA ( Been around since 2016, 7 years of ESO activity. ) I wanted to place my comment here, to give people my view on why I quit ESO 2 years ago today. I quit ESO back in 2021 I used to have a bunch of friends who did Roleplay, Player vs. Environment and Player vs. Player I genuinely started to lose interest after Greymoor as the content to me story wise became repetitive with world ending threats coming along via daedra, vampires or so on, while High Isle went away from that, it was already too late as the damage was already done and not to mention every time I started to get good with a build, it became nullified within the next patch which always made me upset and not to mention the upcoming combat changes also drove me away from ESO. But the main driving factors is the community and direction ESO has gone, as a Roleplayer we've lost so many hubs because of toxic PvPers and PvE players, our major hub was Riften, then it was Fell's Run & now it's Evermore, and everyday the Roleplay community had dwindled since then, as most of former roleplayers went into PvP or PvE because of the constant attacks against us Roleplayers who just wanted to escape the real world for a moment, and nowadays we've began to either return to World of Warcraft or switch over to Final Fantasy XIV and I can only assume that most of the PvE or PvP players who have been around ESO for a while started to do the same, return to WoW or switch to FFXIV. Now for the direction ESO has gone? While it's nice they try to 'fix bugs' they end up messing with things that shouldn't be messed with, which end up causing more bugs than what the bug was already doing. Then we have them looking into builds and ruining people builds they use for PvP or PvE content by nerfing or releasing a new 'mythic' item which is blocked by paywalls. I honestly do not see ESO recovering within the next few years as to me it will die off which to me is upsetting as I met many good friends from Roleplay, PvE and PvP hell I even met my boyfriend on ESO -- but I know we a player base smaller than WoW or FFXIV won't be able to voice our opinions which is sad to come to terms with. ESO was once a game I loved playing, but now... I just have regrets on playing it as I was too attached to see it falling apart and not being able to help it. I just hope one day your community can save it for all of us, Roleplayers, PvE players, PvP players and when that day comes, just maybe I will return to ESO. Now when I said I quit ESO I mean the day I stopped doing PvP, PvE, Economy and so on and just finished DLC stories before uninstalling the game completely. I will not return for the next chapter or the finale of High Isle -- I will be more invested into the Dragonflight Expansion for WoW and the Endwalker Expansion for FFXIV.

[@tomiokasam2242]

the same thing happen to my friends and me. like 6 of us played Division 1 and 2 and after 2 sucked we went to Destiny 2. after 6 years of Destiny and creating a discord of lil over 100 ppl it started to take off. the memories and fun and friends were such great time, during this time i was in recovery for herion addiction and video games became my safe place again, now 7 years sober and a great support group of friends, Destiny started to get old and the clan started to disband ppl went there ways and now its just 4 of us who moved over to ESO, all about a month and half ago. i get we all wont play the same game forever, but it def sucks cuz i not only love playing and everything with them, some of them are part of my recovery and helped me through it and ill never forget that. we all still talk but the not playing together sucks. so i understand your feelings even 8 month ago

[@alucard8433]

Was in a small guild which consisted mostly of a core raid group and some friends, One of the members of raid group passed away and the 2 friends who knew him irl quit playing the game altogether. We tried to fill in the spots but it was just to much of a hassle and the guild slowly fell apart. Then it was basically just 4 of us left and 2 left for a new mmo, after that it felt like i was just running around endless mat farming while trying to find a group to do basic vet dungeon content to fill out a sticker book and got tired of having to wait 2-3+ hours to do 1 dungeon. I easily made gold and had 30+ million then decided to call it quits. ESO used to be my favorite game but constantly having to find a new group to do everything ruined the experience, tried joining other guilds but they just didn't feel like a community and only felt like people were trying to use others for their own gains and would never actually help me when i needed help.

[@Arttea]

I'm sorry to hear about the passing of your friend. I definitely get what you mean about how difficult it can be to find a new group to run content with. I had a 4man that I did *everything* with years ago and I truly had some of my best ESO experiences with them. One left the game for good (@Yosev in the video, whom I briefly showcased haha), one only really would log in to raid, and the other (@DrakarSnow, another homie in the video) rarely logs on these days as he prefers to play other games. I have not been able to find a core squad like that ever again, and it has definitely changed how I play and enjoy the game. If it weren't for the community that I have now, I'm not even sure that I'd still be playing myself! If you do give ESO another shot, I hope that you can be more successful in finding a new group of friendos to run content with!

[@maedhrosprime3889]

This is happening to me right now, i was a playstation player and i was part of a great guild(Guerreros de Akatosh).End up playing in PC and try to find a similar guild but cant find the same enthusiasm as Guerreros de Akatosh. It breaks my gaming exp. Thanks god my PC broke so i can take a break of the game. I'm sure i going to get back and play because i have like 40k crowns. But a break away from playing is neccesary. Sorry about your loss mate.

[@krazykhajiit8406]

Can I have your 30 million gold then?

[@capolean2902]

damn sum1 i played wit (dc universe online or dcuo) had passed in my league i was only 12 at the time so i thought they were roleplayers but no

[@scorpiowarrior7841]

Thing is this is what happens when devs don't know what their doing. As a new ESO player, I'm just seeing an exact repeat of events of what blizzard does and I'm genuinely very weary about the game rn yet still wonna play because ESO has amazing combat (specfically tanking, ESO's take on how tanks work is the best version of tanks that I've seen imo). And yet I see wide spread hatred and vitral over changes that maybe deserve pushback but most certainly not to this degree. it feels like I'm going through BFA/shadowlands's alpha cycles all over again. In fact, ESO is the game that has finally made me just give up on any notion of community in mmos aside from smaller ones. And yet I still enjoy eso...yet with U35 all I see is the same cycle over and over again: devs fuck up and make the game worse by making changes that are extremely unessisary, community gets pissed off and points out very very obvious ways to get to the goals the devs actually want, devs either don't listen at all and throw in the changes that made people pissed off witch makes then quit anyways or the devs made token gestures that still fuck over the playbase and make changes too little too late, then the game starts to die and the devs start fixing their mess only to do it all over again within a few months....This is exhausting and I love MMOs. It's my favorite genre and I adore it to death but holy shit....devs need to stop doing shit like U35.

[@LyricalViking]

I do not miss being a guildmaster, kicking inactive players with whom you created amazing friendships with is always really hard. When I still played ESO the most back on PS4 I had to do this quite often. The onboarding process for new players was excruciating, stressful and most of them would leave. Then the veterans who kept getting burnt out and quitting for large sums of months at no end didn't help either. I decided to finally shutdown my guild altogether before eventually quitting the game myself. If I were to ever go back I would only have a roleplaying guild, no more big guilds of 100's of players, nope, never again.

[@keihndeth]

As a former content creator for TESO Elite and playing in Alpha... a lot of these problems have been present since before this game released. The Devs seem to have complete contempt for player input (like many Western game devs do). Only when issues become impossible to ignore will it be addressed. Weaving and animation cancelling was a bug initially. In private conversations with Brian Wheeler, Paul Sage (who has long since left) and Nick Konkle (the Dev originally behind the scrapped Spellcrafting - also long since gone), I and other content creators warned them that if they allowed the bug to exist that they would not be able to remove it later without angering the community later. Worse than that, they would have to design the game and sets around it. They ignoring our feedback. In fact, they kind of scoffed at us at the time. It only took them a couple years to realize how right we were. They've been trying to unravel this mess since then (almost 8 years!!). It created a larger and larger delta between the skilled sweatlords and the unskilled casuals. We are living out the consequences of developer arrogance from a decade ago. All of that said, this too shall pass. The developers will no longer be able to use weaving/animation cancelling as a combat crutch. They are going to have to come up with better combat design. It may be bumpy, and may take a while for this to be figured out. You can see examples of them testing out new combat concepts with the new class in Necrom. The removal of this bugged combat style is actually what has brought me back to ESO after abandoning it entirely for 7 years. A lot of this is similar to what WoW went through after a decade of changes. The Devs are definitely going through an existential crisis of what they want ESO to be. To me it seems they want to return to the original vision for the game. For players like me that is great. For players that came in and loved the weaving/cancelling combat system, they won't. There will be others like me who return that like these changes as well. Unfortunately, not all parties can win in these scenarios. All we can hope is the Devs come up with something cool and new that works that they can build on. We can't go back in time. We can only go forward.

[@tiffskin3209]

Really appreciate the thoughtful and rational approach you're taking on all of the drama Arty, you're spot on. I can sympathize - in the 6 years I've been playing my list of OG frendos has dwindled to 1, pretty sadge! Also, and I know I keep saying this, but your editing is so engaging and stylish! Was really fun seeing you RP around guildies homes too :pogupoint: ❤

[@Arttea]

Thanks Tiff!! Was really fun to finally get a chance to check out your guar sanctuary

[@Masheen]

I can really relate with the lack of rewards. The latest dungeons in lost depths gives a memento and body marking for completing it in veteran. Challenger literally give nothing and tri fecta only gives a title...

[@mariusfelder7438]

First of all very nice and interesting video thanks. I admit i didn't play ESO long but I played a lot of other mmos like WOW, GW2, Neverwinter etc. and what instantly discouraged me was the class and skill system. It felt very restricted for me in comparison to the other games I played, for me it wasn't interesting and lacked depth. If this would be adjusted i might consider giving ESO another go but as of right now i rather play other games. Just wanted to give a perspective from someone who doesn't have a lot of ESO experience but has a lot of experience with mmos in general.

[@fireraid9173]

1. I would say I was a beta player had I been accepted into the closed beta, but nonetheless I have played since the day the game launched on xbox long ago. I was in love with everything in the game, the stories in every zone from side quests to the main story, and everything in between. I was a teenager at the time and started extremely casual before I learned more and more to play actual content into harder stuff, so I'd say I am a bit of everything. This was also my first mmo, so it was a beginning for me on many things and I have so many cherished memories even when I started fresh on pc and built my way from the ground up. 2. It isn't just the recent changes, summerset was the peak of the game for me, the story was at its best, the classes had real identity and all had amazing, unique flavor in their own special ways, it felt so rewarding just to have been a part of it all, I was having a blast. Once the next expac came out, the game began to deteriorate on every single front, slowly but so surely. The story telling was falling downhill at a steady pace, balance changes got worse and worse, performance seemed to be dropping further by the patch in many places, and the devs just seem to have gotten so stingy and greedy that even as a fanboy I couldn't defend the direction it was all going even when all my friends were leaving so early on. By that point, I began playing ff14 and I have to say my god that game has spoiled me in every way compared to the downfall eso has been experiencing. The biggest part for me is the deathly loss of true class identity, where I feel like I'm playing one for its passives than anything else, and where ff14 has almost all the class identity I could ever ask for, this game feels like it's becoming more of a book cover to the contents to everything else than what I chose in the character creation screen. 3. I could list an absolutely endless list of things, but it crushes me to say this but it would need to be an overhaul of what we have now, there is so much wrong with where they have been taking this game in so many departments that it has adamantly discouraged me from coming back from the glory of ff14 when the fate of this beloved title is sadly on its way to the chopping block. The story telling, the balance direction as a whole in its entirety, the level of shameless greed and borderline money laundering with more and more aspects of this game to a point it has become embarrassing for any new players to witness, everything would have to have a complete overhauling on scale to ff14's change from 1.0 to 2.0 for me to have any faith restored in this game to where it once was. 4. The community has always been incredibly mixed for me, I delved in every side of it from an organized rp community, the trade community, pve, pvp, casual, to the most invested to the least invested, and I have to say hell yes it has its problems, but they are much farther and fewer in between in the mass of a fantastic community it has been as I have played it from the beginning to now. I know there is plenty of division but we all share in common that we loved this game for a reason, and the only thing I would ask from the community is to make our voices heard on all of our concerns than to try and yell over eachother louder and louder. In the end we are all fans of this game, and do not wanna see it die or for less people to play it on any front or any parts of the community.

[@arvetzu]

I am very comfy thank you!

[@Arttea]

Bless

[@catalonia7126]

Thank you for making this video Professor. It is not outlandish to say most players have been impacted negatively by the upcoming patch. I know for myself, I have had 2 trifecta progs ended because of quitting (One of them was super close to GS) and my main source of income in the game (OMC) has closed its doors. I will be interesting to see how the game and community feels once this mass exodus is done. I know I have some guilds that will always be around, but it is going to be strange missing guilds that have completely disbanded in result of the patch. I can only hope that they all come back at some point, but we will have to see what the future holds for the game.

[@joydivision2112]

As a former class Rep and having sat in numerous meeting with the devs on the game's development, Update 35 and it's reaction/reaction was 100% predictable. The Devs do care about the game, but they very much see it as *their* game, which is why PTS has always been just a matter of fine tuning, no matter how misguided their changes have been. Some of what I consider the best friends I ever made have played this game for 8 years, but at some point getting killed by gear locked behind a paywall or completely revamping the combat system (and making it worse) every single patch is too much.

[@coorbin]

This is an awesome and sad video at once, conjuring a lot of emotions I feel all too often. I'm also a long time ESO-er, but rather than running content like you, most of what I do is roleplaying. My activity is super consistent because I've just kept coming back to be part of my RP guild year after year, since late 2017. I hope they don't give up on the Mac client like they keep threatening to - I run a Mac and really enjoy that this game runs natively. As a senior member of the guild I'm in, I do my best to foster a long-lasting, stable community with as few "dame da ne" moments as possible -- but even then, people get consumed by life, school, work, etc. at an alarming rate. Recruiting is the best medicine, but you still have to sigh and realize that people won't be around forever. Enjoy them while you have them.

[@CreativeExcusesGaming]

I like the focus point at the end of the video. There is stuff WE can do as the community to make the game better even if we don’t like the direction the devs are taking certain aspects of the game

[@gf1917]

It was great to see that most ESO content creators I follow tried to be diplomatic and just make the most of this mess. Nice change compared to generating enrage and clickbaiting out engagement that I see with many other games. Arttea went even beyond that and actually used her power as a content creator to not only give voice to community members but also suggest what steps can WE take to make the most of it. And it's amazing. Honestly, I was also considering quitting but I might just hold my senches for a bit. Thanks to the community, nothing else.

[@telephonewyre]

Great video as usual Arttea! Thanks for including my opinion! I hope Z0S hears out the community and finds a middle ground for everyone so we can all get back to enjoying Tamriel.

[@Arttea]

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with me!

[@hardlyaaron]

I get empathize with this. I had friends who quit wow, and 2 years ago I quit wow. I don't really see myself playing any mmo exclusively anymore. I play ESO and GW2 for the outdoor world content and FFXIV for the raiding and high end content. It's never been easy to watch friends leave.

[@Akab]

Same here, although i didn't play gw2 because they didn't let me create an Account until i created a yandex email which was funnily enough the only one going through their spam filters

[@pain_weaver]

Play project ascension

[@Leondragon06]

I randomly stumbled upon this video for interesting title =) I had quit playing long time ago High isles got me back into playing due to card game (tried the card game did not card for after all) and new companions. Love having the companions from High Isle and Blackwood available making it easier to do quests by myself as I mostly play casual just doing quests. I use to do dungeons yrs ago back when game 1st came to console (PS4) with people who starrted with same time but they quit long time ago so I don't do dungeons anymore. With this Undaunted event that just started thoug apparently I will need to find me some groups because I want that dragon mini pet. Hopefully will be easy enough to get into a group to do.

[@Miakutog]

I love this take. I had to stop watching the majority of CCs videos from the eso community because they were negatively impacting how I see other players. I've been a die-hard player for 6ish years and that isn't going to change much for me. I've seen the forums, I've seen the discords, and really my heart just hurts for myself and all the other people who enjoy the game casually that are watching it fall apart because of things that don't affect why we play.

[@jmh31890]

I've run into this exact issue regarding some content making me view other players negatively without even really knowing them as opposed to allowing everyone a clean slate from the outset. Of course, when we make this realization we can quickly fix it, but I truly don't think people stop and think about this mentality enough. Nowadays, I absolutely love coming across a brand new player. It has become my endgame to attract and help newbs stay engaged and captivated. U35 likely won't help the population, but I absolutely love this game and I hope I'm wrong about the problems I see with what comes next.

[@michellepartridge8558]

Thank you, lately ESO has just made me feel stressed and depressed, losing so many friends, and as a mid game player with issues using my hands, unsure I will be able to continue completing content I can now, let alone improving. I just want to go back to enjoying my time here, and escaping stress.

[@Timmy9384]

I wish I was on PC sometimes because I'd love to play with people like you, Nefasq, and a few others. I understand how you feel. I had my own guild on Playstation and when it came to kicking inactive members, I'd see a name; someone who I was in chat parties with or just had a blast with then I notice they haven't been on in months! Suck feeling it is.

[@PunkRockZombie205]

I haven't played in a couple years. I was gonna come back this year when the new class dropped, but when they broke with tradition and didn't have one I couldn't find a reason to come back. If they have one next year I'll probably come back at least long enough to try it out. But I must say, even 2 years ago, ESO was constantly changing everything every 3 months and that was the main cause for everyone quitting. The devs didn't care and were 100% dedicated to new players only, since they were the only ones still buying all the crownstore items. Has that changed? I have too large of a backlog to ever commit to an MMO again, but I did enjoy my couple of years playing ESO. I don't regret this being my one and only ever MMO game. Lifes just too short for a full time unpaid job these games turn into. Single player, story driven games are just so much better. I just stopped by this video out of curiosity I suppose to see if it was still the old same old same old. Appears so, with even more grind which is insane. Enjoy it while it's still fun I guess. Good luck

[@jcm2606]

I left shortly before Greymoor for a few reasons but back then they were still on that path of "streamlining" the game through constant changes to the fundamentals of the game every 3 months. Based on what I'm hearing with Update 35 it seems like they're still dead set on that path, even if it's costing them their player base. It does sadden me to see the game that I once loved bleed out due to it constantly shooting its own own, but boy am I glad I just walked away from the game because I just couldn't deal with this.

[@OliveDr0ps]

The “weaving aspect” of the combat kept me at arms length with this game. I played at the beginning of 2022 and I loved it but I hit end game and had to start learning to weave. And I frankly think it’s the dumbest “only for morons on the internet” thing gaming has nuanced into your required play style for this game to do certain content. I’ll probably check back in a year or so.

[@llawlied6902]

For me it keeps the combat interesting without it you see ppl just spaming the same skill over and over I remember when ESO was out and ppl would just spam uppercut 10x in a row

[@VoidBiscuit]

I love weaving, and it's part of the reason I was still playing, up to u35 :) Personally I think the game would be horrendously dull without it.

[@louisking3459]

When I first started trying to get into endgame content, I thought weaving was the most retarded thing to add. There's other kinds like bash weaving and medium weaving. Lag and other server issues especially during events would mess with your weaving and mess up parse numbers.

[@greenrecon9711]

I'm actually curious why this is? if you played the game by hitting one ability after another, why is it such a massive stretch to hit a light attack after an ability? its effectively the same thing as going down the list of abilities on your bar.

[@Gala-yp8nx]

The kicker is that weaving is a bug.

[@theravennightsong]

I have been playing since the beta days of ESO, and I am a "casual" player. The changes are disappointing and I wish the devs would listen to the players. I agree with many of the comments made in the video and here in the comment section. For myself, I wish they would return to telling great stories. Morrowind and Elsweyr are hands down the best story lines in the game, and I would love to see them return to that. Plus give better rewards. With each expansion the rewards seems to become less useful and not worth the effort. Ember was the only reason I bought High Isle, and if she wasn't such an awesome companion, I would not have bothered purchasing it. Even after all these years, I tend to stay away from most group content and pvp due to the elitists' who look down on us casuals. It is not that I do not want to do them but the toxic attitudes takes the fun out of it. I have yet to find a good guild that truly welcomes us casuals and helps us learn and/or improve.

[@user-tp5yb4hr4w]

if enough people leave or quit, they will make the proper changes needed to get people to come back to their cash cow. otherwise it might as well waste into obscurity and become a massive loss.

[@deathstar6998]

I am suprised this is happening, especially in a time where there is supposed to be a massive growth with regards to MMO's. Its actually quite sad, I stopped playing ESO 2 years ago only because I was interested in multiple MMO's and I couldn't find the time to really get into it. But as a game its still one of my favourite MMO experiences ever and its sad that it has become so disconnected from its community. They should probably take a page out of other MMO's that are starting to rise in popularity like Guild Wars 2 and Final fantasy 14. Or they might find themselves in trouble soon. But thank you for this video, it reminded me how much fun I had in this game and it might make me consider coming back when I get free time again.

[@ThreeHundredandThirtyThree]

“If it ain’t broke, break it” -ZOS probably

[@UniDeathRaven]

That's capitalism for ya. If there's no problem, create it, then offer solution to capitalize on.

[@chrismarple]

@@UniDeathRaven such a dumb statement

[@joemama9457]

@@UniDeathRaven what are u going to try and sell communism

[@ChimpRiot]

@@joemama9457 No thanks, not buying.

[@bomcstoots1]

Facts lmao

[@stormgeist1766]

I feel you... ESO has always had an ebb and flow of players quitting and returning. I don't know exact numbers, of course, but it feels like people who love ESO play for about 2-4 years, and then quit for 2-4 years before returning and repeating... Roughly... But as you said, this time feels different. Along with all the honest (and excellent) reasons cited in excerpts from your survey, I would say there is a deep imbalance between so-called casual and so-called hardcore players and the devs are having a hard time making both sides happy, and are instead just further alienating BOTH sides. All of it is deeply complicated, but in-short, my hard core friends feel the the game is trying too hard please casuals, and my casual friends feel the exact opposite. Part of this, I feel, is being caused by Zos not leaving mechanics the hell alone for awhile and just focusing instead on fixing the many bugs and performance issues. Implementing long held community desires (working out the details of upping the furniture cap, for example) instead of milking us like literal cash cows would be nice too. But something that hasn't much been talked about is how the real actual world (EARTH, not Tamriel) is in an ever-increasing state of total shit, and that is making video games feel quite petty in comparison, as well as financially unjustifiable. The gap between the wealthy and the poor is reaching the point of wide scale society collapse and that is affecting the game, as the real life people behind the avatars are facing actual annihilation. Its awful hard to work on your fantasy house, when your real house is in foreclosure, or feel happy about getting that trifecta skin when your power gets cut off tomorrow. Not to even mention War, plagues, etc... I would wager that the entire game industry is in a heap of shit right now, and if not, it certainly will be soon. Hard times are hard times. I love eso and the people I play it with, and I hope things get better. In Tamriel, and on Earth.

[@thalmoragent9344]

Yeah, as a Hardcore gamer, it's a shame seeing the Community falling out

[@davidevans7477]

Probably nothing realer ever said. I personally think everything plays better than ever. Note that I just came back from the day before Summerset Isles DLC released, due to your mentioned real life issues. Game is funner than ever. I think the current state of the world is so bad, that their mindset is warping with it. Especially the whole must have more rewards thing. Shit is ridiculous. You don't need a boat load of rewards to complete content The content itself should be fun. Has been for me.

[@thalmoragent9344]

@@davidevans7477 Well Summerset Isles DLC was released a while ago so clearly the game may feel better than it was all those years ago to you. For players who have stuck with the games for so long... they notice the good and the bad. And ESO does need to fix bugs more than just change mechanics every other update. I don't think the outside world has as much to do with the in-game issues mate

[@davidevans7477]

@@thalmoragent9344 Maybe i will see it eventually, but sometimes it feels like people ask for a bit much sometimes.

[@tidalview1]

I always loved the way this game looks and plays, just could never quite get to end game on this one. IS your guild recruiting? Maybe playing with some good folks would keep me going.

[@Jason-yp9df]

ESO isn't my main MMO but holy cow you set this video up so well!

[@siraulu1]

One of the things that history does is repeat itself. I started out back when Everquest was in Beta in the 90's and EQ did a similar thing with game mechanics/combat. EQ base died and thus EQ died only to bring back the original version many years later. Dark Age of Camelot is where I went after that. Then DAOC did the same thing, and it also died 4 or 5 years later only to bring back the original version. They never got their base back and they still try and charge $14.95 a month SUB. I went to WOW, lol and that went to shit. Then went to ESO. been playing since its inception and now update 35 hmmm makes me wonder if some of the same DEVS were on board all of those. The community is fine. The lack of clear judgement or direction and the way the community is basically ignored by the DEVS is annoying. I can't believe for one second that the DEVS did not take into account that these changes would have an adverse effect on the base and community. They just do not care or they certainly give that impression.

[@chrismaser7477]

I miss everquest

[@MrToomuchfunk]

I also played those games and pretty much followed the same trail you did, Devs are the most out of touch with the player base as ever in all those games. Why do they keep regurgitating the same crap over and over again is mind boggling. Makes me wonder if they ever played all those games as a kid when they were growing up only to do the same shit that probably made them quit back then just to do the same crap in their adult life and wonder why the player base is quitting on them in droves.

[@brianm3849]

Arttea, I think I've mentioned to you how I'm taking a break from ESO a while back. My reason for leaving is that I'm tired. I'm tired of chasing after this meta gear and that meta build. Tired of running myself into the ground to chase after Champion Points so that my toons will be "powerful enough". In general, I'm just tired of ESO. I don't see myself as completely leaving. Hell, I'm currently only logging in to get my daily rewards and check on items that have sold via my guild (IGNH, baby!) and to level my mount skills on my latest toon. Other than that, I don't really play any more. Leveling is a slog for me (both 1-50 and CP) as I'm not the fastest nor do I like grinding (I get bored after 10 minutes). For me, it's the constant chase to "git gud" enough to solo PVE content that ironically has me worn out. I'm tired of doing the same stuff over and over again. I needed a break. For now, I'm checking out GW2 but I've already slacked on that as what free time I do have (weekends) I find I'm not logging in there much either. So tl;dr - it's like what your guildies and discord folks have said. The community is alright. It's the game that has me burnt out. It's not fun anymore. Great video as always!

[@Arttea]

That was absolutely a sentiment that was shared a LOT on that questionnaire and one that I've heard on just about every single form of social media: that people are completely burnt out from farming for the best pieces of gear every patch because of how frequently sets and metas change. I totally feel ya. I think I stopped giving a damn about being meta in PVE back in the "Flames of Ambition" patch I was just so tired of having to farm for new shit all of the time. Fortunately, I run trials with people now that aren't super picky about what sets you are wearing as a DPS, so that at least has not hindered my raiding experience. I can't speak on behalf of the solo PVE experience as I am not well-versed in it but I can only imagine how it must feel to have to completely rework a build so frequently because you are no longer durable enough to be able to do the content that you know and love :/

[@brianfox771]

@@Arttea Yeah I've done the same. I found that if I run meta-adjacent sets and set up my skills and skill bars to work with/feed those sets I don't have to readjust my build every 2-4 months. Those sets also rarely get touched by the devs when they decide to 'overhaul' combat. Sets like War Maiden or Scathing Mage, for example. I just make sure if I run War Maiden that all my skills and ults are pure magicka damage and not elemental. Or if I run Scathing Mage, I'm doing a lot of direct damage. Then I'll usually run Illambris or Nerien'eth monster set, or front bar Perfected Master's Staff. This way you avoid having to constantly buy their DLC or grind out Mythics - Which I think are a scam anyway. I mean, how many Mythics are now in the dust bin since they've been doing them? Almost all of them. Few survive the August patch intact.

[@patricktully9661]

@15:00 telephonewire - this is EXACTLY how I feel

[@ZainKhan-kg6qr]

what's funny is that i just came back to ESO after taking a year break. I've been playing on and off since release.

[@fangoose3114]

A part of me would love to go back to ESO someday because of how much I enjoyed it, and maybe one day I will come back. I had so much fun raiding with friends, PvPing all night during MYM, and even casually playing as well. From about Blackwood to High Isle I noticed a lot of my friends and guild/raid members leaving. When speaking to people about it, there were a few repeating issues that people spoke of: Server/game performance, the dev's actions/comments about things, feeling like ZoS were money grabbing, the lack of updates for things they cared about, the frequent meta changes that required hours of re-grinding. But the final nail in the coffin for a lot of my end-gamer friends was the global achievements update. They lost the desire to re-do these challenges on different characters, classes and roles because there was no reward/incentive for it anymore. Just before the Ascending Tide update came to PBE, I found myself struggling to keep playing because the game was no longer the same for me. Most of my old friends had quit, and the ones that were remaining were off doing their own things. So one thing I did to fix how I was feeling was that I put together a new trifecta group. It's something I had done before and I absolutely loved it because I got to help people earn trifecta's in a positive raiding environment. I loved helping people get into end-game in the community, and I really wanted to help create a more positive environment in the raiding scene. (I had experienced quite a few toxic raiding environments so I knew personally how bad things could be) Once the group was set-up it only took a few weeks before issues began to occur. People were burnt out of ESO and ended up just quitting. Over the course of like 3 weeks I lost 5 members to burn out. I managed to get a few replacements here and there but it was difficult. There was a clear lack of interest in doing this type of content in ESO. At this point in time the game just wasn't making me happy anymore. I found myself logging in just for the sake of logging in, forcing myself to participate in the in-game events just so that I didn't miss out. The game lost its spark for me and so I ended up disbanding the group and quitting the game. I feel like I let those people down when I disbanded but I just wasn't enjoying the game anymore. 😔 Your video does a really good job glossing over the issues that a lot of community members feel. I really relate to a lot of the things said, and I think there's a lot of both active and inactive ESO players who feel the same way. I'm mainly active on twitter and it can be quite the shitshow on there when it comes to criticism. There's clearly a change needed but the way a lot of the community members go about it is so wrong. So I'm really glad to see someone take a different approach and encourage people to talk about things in a manner that's both constructive and healthy. I hope more ESO content creators do this sort of thing and I hope ZoS gets a chance to listen to this video and see what people have said.

[@iitsNeo]

Well worded, and yes it is a shame. Still think fondly of our old progs! -NeosPride

[@chrisc8322]

For the most part I try to be an accepting and adaptive player. No point in wasting energy being upset about the game I want and learning to play the game I have. But I agree something seems different this patch. I’m just tired.

[@madestro]

I used to play this game way way back on launch. Bought the first 3 CE editions and always had it in my heart. The reason I quit a long time ago was simply due to me not having time anymore and couldn't justify spending the money on it without playing or wanting to play other games. I watched your whole video understanding very little of the changes proposed as I have been out of the loop for a while, I also have no idea who the hell you are lol but I do agree we all have some sort of passion for this game and ES in general. This has been the only MMO that I have payed for and it really saddens me to see it going downhill

[@OolongSnakeArt]

We had a huge bleed out in Morrowind and Elsywer- there was this one PTS think tank person who did amazing data for the racial passive update (susmitds)- I think about them and hope they're doing ok. Never played with them, just deeply appreciated their data and what they brought to the community.

[@TheJoseFlechas]

I've been here since the alpha/beta. They don't listen to players, they are extreme defensive towards every one. They are terrible communicating with players, you just need to remember Rich Lambert stream where he lost his shit over people pointing out some predatory practices in the crown store, what he said was hands down what most people already knew specially about the forums. They don't care about streamers, they don't care about end gamers, their target audience are newer/casual players who have no idea of the background and lack knowledge of some mechanics of the game hence why they want more "accessibility". They have build such levels of bad faith through the years from most seasoned/long time players that they have no right to demand any kind of trust yet we still get arrogant comments/tweets from devs, censorship on streams by simply write "pvp" or "Cyrodill" how mind blowing is that? People work for them for free testing crap out in the PTS only to be completely ignored because they balance the game around an "internal spreadsheet". Players see the potential, want to believe and have hope but it has been 7/8 years, might as well accept they are delusional.

[@anasalkozaiy8060]

Sadly this is the beginning of the end of eso. I played since the console release in 2015, I took time off here and there but I always came back and enjoyed the game about 2 months ago I switched to pc and found that my love for the game remains I’ve enjoyed it a lot since switching to pc and made 4 characters, got to cp 300 and invested so much into the game seeing this really makes me sad because I have so many good memories in eso, it’s the best mmo I’ve ever played. The saddest part is that the games death seems close and inevitable, I genuinely wish I can go back to 2015 again knowing I would have another 8 great years on the game, there’s no words to describe how much I’ve loved this game and how sad this makes me feel 😞

[@DrizztESO]

Your videos are well crafted & entertaining to watch ^^ I really enjoy your aesthetic + you have amazing voice!

[@kengster]

I have experience this on many games, not just MMORPGS. I had made many online friends years ago but now everyone has split or just doesn't jump online anymore.

[@hilding2063]

The devs should definitely watch this. I am a casual myself, but like to minmax and do veteran content, but never tried trials. I agree that super endgame players should be a bit more patient and not just quit a party at the first wipe, if a boss has a particular nasty mechanics aside from not staying in the red, just tell ppl before it goes wrong. Yes random dungeons mean that sometimes ppl are there for the first time.

[@bobbyhill6828]

i mean some actually have dps checks. Their solution: lower all dps

[@brianfox771]

I've been playing the game on and off since early release in April 2014. I was quite casual my first two years focusing on crafting, then started venturing into end-game content. It was rough learning how to DPS properly and find groups that were willing to let me in. And I had really frustrating experiences with being initially accepted then rejected from groups I was raiding with. I would then quit the game for a year or two then come back, committed only to being casual, then finding myself being sucked back into doing end game stuff. Then the cycle would repeat, or I would find that I had outgrown the group and would look for greener pastures. Since then I've managed to clear challengers for most of the dungeons, and most of the hard modes for Trials, although Trifectas still elude me. In the long arc of changes to combat and gear over the years I'd have to say the combat has improved immensely since 2014. However, the quarter to quarter changes can be quite frustrating. Over all though, the combat really hasn't changed since 2014 either. I think light attack weaving started out as a fluke, not an intended feature and the devs just didn't have the skills to remove it from combat. I just don't like LAW; it is clunky and subject to server hiccups and stupid animations. Half the time my LAs don't fire, or my skills don't fire even if I'm spamming them. I'll see the skill "fire" on my skill bar only to see it actually didn't. I do like the direction of the devs removing it's necessity to do good DPS, I just don't think UD 35 is accomplishing that. My biggest pet peeve, though is the meta. There are so many sets, and so many skills with different morphs and so many classes, that being shoehorned into to a small handful of sets to DPS properly is madness. ZOS keeps digging themselves into a deeper hole with each new nonsensical set they introduce every 2 to 3 months. Make more sets and setups viable for all roles, and scale back the new set releases to maybe once or twice a year.

[@hayatojin2886]

As a MMO player since the early 2000's i have been through this type of thing so many times, the worst for me is seeing people on your friend list who stopped playing and never log in anymore, it hurts lol, just remembering all the laughs you had over the years etc. I've been through these problems with EQ, RS, WoW, GW2, ESO. Currently i have found my new home playing FFXIV, i re-united with a friends from years ago there, the social aspect of the game is unbeatable and the new ammount of content all the time keeps the game fresh and exciting all the time. I hope things turn around for you and your friends.

[@malvirothe5742]

My father and I actually really love ESO. We stopped playing though because it was just so difficult to level up at like champion 350-500. Too low to be useful in anything that's fun or is beneficial for us to progress, but too high to find any use in anything we are able to play. The time consumption unfortunately isn't something I can afford to deal with :/

[@UncleDaniel]

Do dailys and ull be 1000 in one year

[@jmh31890]

"Hardcore player with a casual mindset" exactly describes me. I go hard the paint, have good fundamentals, and can stack up with most trial doers, but I spend most of my time derping around trying to help people and see the sights of tamriel. Best believe my highlight of ESO is becoming a master crafter. I run a magsorc with mothers sorrow and twice-born star (thief and lover, because who cares). It's my pride and joy because of how hard i worked for it and how fun it is to play

[@Emblem13235]

Just seeing how FFXIV is to ESO, and also the video Nefas posted about a day or two ago, has really planted my feet in XIV. It's definitely gotten me to want to take a break from ESO and try other stuff. I think that it's better that way anyway, as I've played it nonstop for years, and having a break and going into something new is such a breath of fresh air. ZOS needs to update their system so badly, but who knows if they'll do it. A tutorial system instead of what they are purposing in this update is what is needed. They really should take notes from XIV.

[@ESO_PRIME]

Nefas is burnt out from working on the ESO university website, not from playing the game. Take any feedback from him as a grain of salt. ESO is a great place to have fun it's just mostly end game players who are feeling burnt out cause of some little changes, they'll all be back shortly

[@Emblem13235]

@@ESO_PRIME copium

[@Silvist]

Holy crap, Its been a while since I played ESO (like probably over a year or so) but I do remember Tamriel Trade Secrets (loved that trading guild). I have been playing ESO since early closed beta, so I burned out long before the current content. Like you I went from doing mainly PVE to PVP. After my pvp guild in a month campaign brought our faction from last to first place, I sort of felt pretty satisfied. I alt hopped as well, until I had at least 1 stam and 1 mag of every class. For me there's really nothing really enticing enough to get me back into the game, but I really enjoy the community and the game. I hope things improve for ESO, cause its sad to hear it go south.

[@Emacspirate]

I haven't played ESO in years, but I love this video and you do a great job presenting real information.

[@dankujbattles]

I never saw a video of this format, but it was super interesting! I never played ESO, but all the footage actually made me interested to try the base edition lol. 26:15 encapsulates my approach to most games lol. Gatekeeping is a problem with most games which is unfortunate and one of the main reasons I eventually stopped playing WoW. Right or wrong, I just kind of roll with the punches when it comes to MMO changes/updates. I'm more of casual player though, so I think a lot of these complaints wouldn't really apply to me, so I'm pretty excited to try the game haha. Thanks for the video!

[@Arttea]

You should definitely try it out! I honestly had the best time playing ESO when I was an absolute noob that had no idea what she was doing and was just having fun hanging out and doing casual activities in Tamriel

[@dankujbattles]

@@Arttea Exciting! That's my preference for sure! I picked up the base edition on sale, so I'll be trying it later!

[@TheDrsalvation]

I wrote every reason why I was so frustrated with the game's direction, and went into every detail I could explaining everything as clear as possible (naturally it was kinda large). And the thread got immediately deleted. It wasn't a goodbye post, it was just one I explained my frustrations. After that, I realized I'd do what I should've done a long time ago, and quit ESO. Again, I recapped everything from my original thread, while making it a good bye post. It also got deleted (at least this time I did get a message saying why). So for the final time, I'll just summarize it as a live service that has lost any sort of passion because numbers dictate how it should be played. It's a numbers game playing itself. People grind for gear because they need it to be competent for the hard content, especially PvP. I didn't change how I played in PvP, I changed my gear and suddenly I was winning. It wasn't me winning, it was the game patting itself on the back. I don't know why they let numbers dictate everything. Remember when we could pull ourselves to enemies using the crossbow and skip some environmental obstacles? Remember when we could knock back enemies with some skills and throw them off bridges for environmental kills? Why is none of that possible anymore? Why are we forced to outright kill enemies with our skills? The mindless RNG that comes from farming gear is a prison, I suggested a way to farm for gear in a way that wasn't related to RNG, maybe daily quests that unlock clues, and with 5 clues you get a guaranteed lead drop. It would take a month of farming those quests but at least now you don't need to rely on RNG where you can take a day, or a month. However, the lack of any sort of difficulty in the game's vast majority of content (story quests) takes away from any real motivation to farm for top-tier gear. You only need good gear for veteran dungeons and trials, but they aren't necessary for the story, in fact, if you want molag bal to be a challenge, you should go in WITHOUT special gear or builds. It's backwards game design. Before tamriel one, I was scared of skeletons in the rift, that motivated me to get stronger and get my payback. Now I really have no clue why I wasted so much of my time trying to be better when it was never meant to be in the first place. Gear shouldn't cast ultimate skills like dark convergence for you for free, we don't get new classes or race ultimates because of balance, but we get gear that could be summarized into a new class or race ultimates that outright break the whole game's balance and become a necessity. Update 35 has absolutely nothing to do with my choice to quit. I've always mained a tank so I don't care about min/max dmg. My problem is precisely how poorly support roles are treated. As a tank, a skill to block damage and reflect it back would be amazing, AKA. Power slam. Power Slam was the tank skill we needed, all ZoS had to do was make it scale with health or armor. Instead, they butchered that skill to pander to DPS, clearly the only role the devs care for. That's why there's only DPS target dummies, nothing to test your tank skills, nothing to test your healing skills, none of the defensive skills scale with health, meaning a DPS or a Tank can cast a rune of protection and still get 10% dmg reduction regardless of who cast it, so why even bother optimizing a tank build that will still get one-shot in dlc dungeons with poorly telegraphed mechanics? And if tanks shouldn't get power slam as a tank dmg skill because tanks aren't supposed to deal damage, then no DPS character should dodge and block, because those are defensive skills that only tanks should do. There's also story, the lack of any sort of RPG in this MMORPG is absurd. They don't check for finished quests, they check for skills. I've been playing with my main ever since the game released on consoles, and I have NEVER done any thieves guild quests before, I have never joined. My brother did, and I did with an alt. So one day before I went to the west fort in blackwood to do a main quest, I found a trove. My brother wasn't there, so I wanted to see if I could pick it up without needing to join the guild. Turns out, you CAN pick it up. Not only that, it unlocks the TG skill tree. So when I moved on to the quest, I met with 2 dudes from the TG. I shit you not, the ONLY dialogue choice I had was "I'm from the guild, I haven't heard of you before" For fucks sake, there IS a dialogue choice in case you're not part of the TG, WHY ARE WE FORCED TO CHOSE ONLY ONE!? I have never done any brotherhood quests since I finished it BEFORE Morrowind came, so WHY ARE WE FORCED TO CONFESS TO EVELI THAT WE ARE PART OF THE BROTHERHOOD? I speed-ran that questline with an alt who isn't part of the guild, so why can't we choose? Why can't we be jerks and tell eveli she looks bad in the dress? I had so much hopes for this game to develop its potential, but unfortunately, it seems to me the devs are just doing what they're paid for while investors just throw canned corporation ideas to toss into the game. And I'm done. I've been playing ESO since it released on consoles, it's the only game I've never uninstalled, but I'm so tired of it. I'm so tired of games that feel like jobs. I'm so tired of numbers dictating how the games should play.

[@TheDrsalvation]

PS. I know she said not to post this here, that's what the forums are, but as I mentioned, my posts got deleted TWICE from the forums. I realize posting that here is an echo chamber to empty ears, but when in the forums where there was any thread of hope, I get deleted two times, I think I'd rather just let my empty rant survive here for a while.

[@RN2Patient]

I understand and respect these opinions, however I know quite a few that share similar thoughts as to mine. Every game has meta and mechanics changes, it's fortunately and unfortunately a larger part of online gaming. While I think ZOS needs to address other issues first, I don't think the update will be as doom and gloom as many people make it out to be. I'm more frustrated with the amount of toxic gatekeeping in the community than anything. Thankfully I found a good guild that doesn't do that so much, but after talking with many others I think I was the exception rather than the rule. Just for reference, I am a casual PvE/ questing/ economy player that started playing daily in Februrary. I have participated in trials, dungeons, and PvP too. I feel as though I'm a well-rounded newer player.

[@joebob9094]

"Every game has meta and mechanics changes, it's fortunately and unfortunately a larger part of online gaming." Eso is an outlier with the frequency and magnitude of those meta shifts.

[@UserAx-pu8yk]

@@joebob9094 he is playing this game since February. Give him a year or two and i bet he will feel your words 😉

[@jordannoble7354]

I love the game, as introverted as I am it was very welcoming having people help you np. It has been awhile since I logged on. Ive been working and after work I'm studying other business ventures, trying to level up in rl so to speak, As I have a big family and responsibilities. It's kinda on me to make things happen ATM I feel, have quite a bit ppl depending on me. So i must devote my time to other things. I wouldn't change a thing, it's an honor to have the abilities to take on such a task. I wish you all nothing but the best.

[@Bosmer1701]

I wouldn't say I've quit but I am taking a break, so far it's been three weeks. I would say I'm a hardcore solo player for the past four years (whatever that means.) I'm still keeping my eyes and ears open for ESO news. I've stop watching certain content creators due to becoming nothing but a bitch fest or just down right depressing, not you, I loooove you and your channel. I've noticed my stress level has gone down tremendously since I stopped. I found the whole High Ilse chapter disappointing. I'll see what happens when the final chapter comes out this year. For now I'm going to play games that I haven't yet due to my obsession with ESO, most likely the Borderlands francies.

[@Arttea]

Aww thank you That's good to hear that your stress levels have chilled - ESO should be fun, not stressful ;p I think a lot of players have been embracing that whole, American Psycho, "me on my way to RELAX by playing a game that makes me unimaginably angry" meme when it comes to playing this game lmaoo. Hence the "bitch fests" Admittedly, I've been taking small breaks from the game myself in recent times to also try out some different games - been playing a lot of Skyrim, tried Stardew Valley out for the first time (omg I got addicted) and I might just try out LOTRO because a friend is wanting me to check it out!

[@KeeseGaming]

I am going through the same experience. I started playing ESO because I've easily put 20K hours into each of the past 3 Elder Scrolls titles and I needed new content. I started on PS4 and when Microsoft bought Bethesda, I bought a PC. My PCNA account is currently CP778 and ZOS has burnt me out. I've been playing FFXIV instead for the past 2 weeks now.

[@gf1917]

@@Arttea If you try out LOTRO, please consider making some content about it. Even if just a video of why/why not to play LOTRO.

[@russelllmercer228]

I found this video quite interesting. I've been playing and paying to play this game since it's launch. Yes I've taken time off occasionally, but have always returned. I was always in the same position as you outline here when I played World of Warcraft, which I no longer play. The reasons why I continue to play ESO Characters are more realistic than WoW, I enjoy the voiced story lines, the game can be played solo and you can get the pieces of amour sets without doing dungeons or joking groups, you can avoid all PVP, and you really don't need guilds to be effective in the game. Unfortunately, it appears everything you enjoyed, I dislike and don't do. However, I still found your perspective illuminating.

[@sewventures6154]

I didn’t play often enough after the first year or so to worry about combat & other changes. For me, I loved exploring the world & learning the lore that was never covered in the other games. I also couldn’t connect with some players & I eventually realized I wanted other women to play with but wasn’t confident enough to look for them. This video really made me realize how the ESO communities have evolved since the launch. The game/platform had & could still have potential for the greatness we all hoped for. I hope someone wakes up & makes the changes we all need as players to enjoy this game again.

[@mufasafalldown8401]

I recently took a break. It wasn't because anything in the game, I was just ready to play something else. ESO is a game that I have come back to quite a few times, but it never holds me for longer than a few months. I personally don't think the recent combat changes warranted all the qq from the community. It's not surprising at all though. Every game's community has these reactions to changes. I am currently witnessing the same thing in the PoE community. PoE isn't broken, it's just a little different yet many content creators felt the need to try to burn PoE to the ground. It's a symptom of being a little too invested in a game. Gotta remember to have balance in life. "It's just a game" 😉

[@tanknolasco6096]

Exactly, people complain about the smallest microscopic things.

[@amyjohnson7834]

I was discouraged by the lack of achievements and then the ones they did give us just won’t work (Xbox- Duel to get Isobel’s achievement. Do get her favor though but devs still have not fixed this) Lots of achievements for TOT but I rarely play it so just logging on every day to get my endeavors and then switch to Minecraft, Sea of Thieves, Halo or whatever 😊

[@Arttea]

That is definitely a recurring criticism that I've heard from players for years now. I was inspired to become proficient in PvE years ago when I found out that these really sweet skins and personalities were locked behind dungeon "challenger" achievements. I wish that neat cosmetic items such as these continued to serve as an incentive to learn how to play the game well, as opposed to now just being crown-store exclusive items. I think that having more achievements (and likewise, achievement rewards) could absolutely inspire people to play some more. I've also been playing some other games in light of the "lull" that was experienced after the initial U35 preview - was thinking of checking out Sea of Thieves actually :o

[@amyjohnson7834]

@@Arttea SOT is really brutal PvP! You are just about to turn in your loot for gold when a reaper galleon sinks you and takes all your stuff!

[@obeythegame459]

I play mmos for 16-17 years now, I spent most of my time in WOW, still I do from time to time, I play ESO since Beta, people quit a game all the time, I feel nothing towards this aspect, I got, and you, will get numb at some point and you will realize if you will still play you are the last of your kind. New people will come sure but investing time into helping them is pointless, they will leave too. Just enjoy the game for what is it and do your thing and if possible involve others too, but don't hope that the good times with them will last forever.

[@RonLaws]

You're valid. I feel this on both sides on the fence. I have friends i made that haven't been online in months and even years. I know i've been in and out the door over the last couple of years, i've fallen out of some guilds, and joined others. a Friend and officer of a PVP guild i'm in recently bumped in to me on another social platform we're on and checked in on me to see how I was. I was inactive because i was taking a break to focus on other projects i could sink my heart in to. I did pop my head back in this week, just to express my long term desire not to vanish entirely, but it was hard. My hearts just not in it right now. I do still pop in when a friend asks me, because I'm still the best Tank and DPS player he knows, but the constant changes lately are really pushing that to the brink, and my confidence in my own skills on the game that took years to form are now being thrown in to question due to the combat changes, really kicked my motivation to the curb. The comment about getting banned off the forums really nailed a core problem with the whole process though. Unless you're writing a comment to blow smoke up the back tunnel of the studio, your comment is deleted by moderators, because they deem it not appropriate. So you can't voice genuine concerns or frustrations, only participate in an echo chamber of forced positivity without addressing the problems.

[@poanchaheder2346]

I'm a returning player and I just want to enjoy casual gameplay as I power up till I can do end game

[@DogTBH]

As a current player of ESO I can relate to this matter. I've been playing for 9 months now and it changed drastically. Also the player base has got more toxic. Guilds aren't as fun as they used to be and let's not even get started about the hacks. I hear more people leaving ESO than I do joining. Normally I could convince a few friends to join me in online gaming,but mention ESO and they refuse. I'm not too busy with dps and all that,but I am getting sick and tired of all the nerfs and adding shit as ToT. How the fuq does adding a card game add anything to the gameplay? It basically doesn't. I'm curious as to see how it develops in the future,I am not making plans for cancelling sub,but am looking for a new game to invest mad hrs in. I'm now 1078 hrs in on just the 1 character I play. Would be a waste to let that slide. I liked and played all the Elder Scrolls prior to ESO and that's the reason I joined ESO during Covid times.

[@cracmar03]

"Shit like ToT" they have to add something for chapter. You ask for classes and such, and it won't go because as even Nefqas once read from ZOS interview they hit the brick wall. The old gen console memory is not there. They can't add more classes to game without breaking old gen, and for some reason they won't drop old gen consoles playerbase. At some point I understand refusal to leave players behind, but even Sony and Microsoft are leaving old gen. You know it's time to leave when even Rockstar terminates GTA Online on said gen. But ZOS wants to have both mentalities commands of Bethesda at same time - 1) Never divide playerbase in content availability. 2) Never abandon playerbase. And this .. sadly won't work in case where game survival depends on abandoning old gen.

[@KeeseGaming]

ZOS devs are making Bethesda look bad. They've lost touch with what it means to be an Elder Scrolls title. We want the devs to stop killing builds just to improve server performance.

[@CNDGOOSE707]

they should not have sold out to microsoft.

[@cracmar03]

If the megaserver die so will the game. There is no choice. What they should have done years ago is to rework attributes to be mere resource - thus freeing hybrid builds I love, and stop with pvp changes affecting pve. I still did NOT forgave from years ago Teleport Strike losing stun in pve due to pvp crying how it's 'unfair'. ZOS .. stun is helluva important in Teleport Strike, I do not need berserk with it, I can get empower elsewhere in NB skills. And you ruin perfect sacraments, this stun is needed to get rid of guards unnoticed.

[@rahovartiv3464]

I love the elderscrolls in general, like easily one of my favorite series ever and because of that love I've tried so many times to truly get into eso but the longest I last is 3 months before I get bored to tears by the games combat. For 2 years that was basically my cycle in eso play for a good 3 months get bored stay gone awhile come back again but lost any motivation I had around the time companions came out. I honestly love the various stories in eso and being able to see basically all of the world but the gameplay itself just doesn't keep my interest.

[@exodusfivesixfivesix8050]

I remember the great dying. It occurred 6 months after launch. My first guild and people I had connected with died. Started my own guild and joined another guild and around 8 months later the second great dying occurred. Must be something to do with mmos. I miss those days and I feel your pain.