Death of a Game: The Elder Scrolls - Legends (ESL)

rip me saying tes 5 for tes 6
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#DOAG . Death of a Game is a series dedicated to uncovering the mysteries surrounding the death of a game or company. nerdSlayer defines the term "death" in the context of the show as either... 1. Literally dead. 2. Had a mass exodus of players and never recovered (expectations etc). 3. The company ceased to exist. We follow a timeline of events, to uncover clues concerning why a game or company doesn't do well, and attempt to put it all together at the end for a deduction explaining how or why the game failed based on the evidence gathered.
Sources:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eld...
store.steampowered.com/app/36...
play.google.com/store/apps/de...
steamcharts.com/app/364470
www.polygon.com/2015/6/14/877...
www.polygon.com/2016/8/4/1238...
www.polygon.com/2016/4/21/114...
• The Elder Scrolls: Leg...
www.pcgamer.com/the-elder-scr...
www.pcgamer.com/with-each-exp...
massivelyop.com/2018/05/31/be...
sea.ign.com/the-elder-scrolls...
www.pcgamer.com/the-elder-scr...
massivelyop.com/2018/09/27/el...
massivelyop.com/2018/08/01/el...
• The Elder Scrolls: Leg...
venturebeat.com/2018/06/10/th...
www.polygon.com/2017/3/23/150...
• The Elder Scrolls: Leg...
• The Elder Scrolls: Leg...
• The Elder Scrolls: Leg...
• The Elder Scrolls: Leg...
bethesda.net/en/article/QPBkr...
www.pcgamesn.com/the-elder-sc...
www.direwolfdigital.com/
www.metacritic.com/game/pc/th...
www.pcgamer.com/the-elder-scr...
www.ign.com/articles/2017/03/...
en.uesp.net/wiki/Legends:Stor....
steamspy.com/app/364470
www.direwolfdigital.com/news/...
/ investigative_journali...
www.sparkypants.com/
gamerant.com/elder-scrolls-le...
www.express.co.uk/entertainme...
sensortower.com/blog/hearthst...
web.archive.org/web/201511132...
• Thuldir vs. Boomslife ...
• The Elder Scrolls: A P...
www.metacritic.com/game/pc/th...

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Greetings detectives! This one was cooking in the oven a bit extra for you guys, but I hope you notice the improvements and enjoy the end result! This was a surprisingly fun project for me to cover. Thanks for the continued support, the next DOAG is certainly a special one :). PS: Also sorry I said TES 5 and not 6, almost like my brain forgot about Arena.

[@brunofranco4416]

Wait, the next video is on Mixer? Not a game, a platform?

[@AsthmaQueen]

One similar game that is worth checking out for DOAG, that really took a much different and I'd argue interesting gameplay approach in the CCG space was Chronicle: Runescape Legends It didn't last super long but I was actually loving how it played and was very different take on the genre.

[@GriefSeeker]

Maybe a video on Duelyst in the future?

[@galacticbob1]

Clue: The next DOAG is a special one. Clue: Tyler "Ninja" Blevins quote. Deduction: Fortnite is finally dying?!? Nah, probably PUBG. 👏😄

[@leadingauctions8440]

We are shocked you are not doing a Magic Online video.

[@mrdylanwintle]

Man, it hurts when the game you're currently playing pops up on this channel.

[@Lazergician]

I miss this game. Was the game that got me into streaming, tournament casting / hosting, and content creation. Ugh. So many good memories with this game.

[@theunderdog1359]

@@Lazergician same (only on the missing the game part). But I can never go back. I took the game seriously for one month and now I can't unsee every flaw with the game. Even if I went back my friend doesn't play anymore either so what's the point

[@vehiclesofpeace]

WELL MET! WELL MET! WELL MET! WELL MET! WELL MET! WEWELL MET! WELL MET! WELL MET!LL MET! WELL MET! WELL MET! WELL MWELL MET! WELL MET! WELL MET!ET! WELL MET! WELL MET! WELL MET!

[@jackhovatter]

I just started like two months ago I love it so of course it’s dying lol

[@pooritlertpaitoonpan9484]

my friend is a huge battlerite fan, and I show that video to him...and he was so sad about it

[@Shuma_tsu]

"There were only so many times you could sell Skyrim, right?" Oh boy.

[@jabberwockld4316]

Is that a Challenge?

[@gerardovilla5848]

That comment won't age well

[@DovahZeux]

Ha ha. Guess again.

[@umbrellacorpsecurity6511]

Just how bottle caps in Fallout are the new currency. I imagine in our future after the apocalypse copy's of Skyrim to be our currency.

[@HeadsetHistorian]

I guess different ports would be different denominations.

[@AceDreamer]

I will buy your pipe gun for 17 Skyrims

[@segundonoacco3164]

A wii U Skyrim or no trade

[@warhound9104]

@@Zeug_ seeing as E.T. Atari is so vintage, it'd be 500 skyrims tbh

[@Icagel0]

Disagree: A core factor for Bottle Caps was that they were hard to forge/falsify, while Skyrim...

[@abhinavjain8672]

"there were only so many times you can sell Skyrim right? *Todd introduces Skyrim special edition for PS5*

[@sarysa]

Apparently the rumor has been thoroughly debunked... ...buuuut that doesn't mean it *couldn't* happen...

[@TheMetroidblade]

You know it’s gonna happen. And an ultimate edition for 76. TES 6 doesn’t come out for another couple years

[@stevenshar1233]

Developers really have to stop doing that, especially Rockstar. Bruh, I don't care that we're going to have GTA 5 on the PS5, GTA 5 came out on the Ps3 and 360 era. Stop marketing like it's this brand new thing

[@trevordavis6830]

If the ps5 lacks backwards compatibility, I’m sure we’ll see it there as well.

[@eval_is_evil]

@@sarysa that would be really shitty because they could just patch the ps4 version to enhance it even more seeing how PS5 is going to be backwards compatible...but yeah Bethesda after all

[@ChryI]

Well, at least it could have been worse. It could've been Artifact.

[@ohnosmoarlulcatz]

I would argue Marvel Heroes somehow still screwed up more than Artifact

[@Sharicite]

Well at least artifact is getting a complete overhaul

[@vehiclesofpeace]

WELL MET!

[@rosco3]

@@Sharicite Seriously doubt something will come out of it. It's done by the least competent big developer when it comes to post release updates. And the core game sales model is flawed.

[@randomguy4781]

we have the same profile pic. kek

[@narev6569]

You know what could have saved this? A "further adventures of the lusty Argonian maid" expansion.

[@19ryuusei]

"Theres only so many times you can sell Skyrim,right?", Me:already expecting a xbox and ps5 version of it to be announced soon.

[@MilitaryStyx]

Look up "the Elder Scrolls: Call to Arms". They ported it to the table top

[@yaldabaoth2]

Skyrim HD Remastered Definitive Dragonborn Edition Deluxe

[@trn9939]

Skyrim is gonna be ported to the Tesla model S at this point

[@immajellal5325]

There is already images from a PS5 Version of Skyrim floating around

[@JosephMartinez-po4gg]

If it's not on the PS5 Ill be mad at this point

[@Lazergician]

I was lucky enough to cast a bunch of tournaments for this game, create content for it, be part of a team playing it, and even host the Masters Series in 2019. This game was a very major part of my life for a good while, and I made some really amazing friends through it. I really can't stress enough how much this one meant to me, and I'm still sad over half a year later that it's dead.

[@christiaanhetzner1193]

Chess is a game that uses the same pieces, I am fine with one card per month, come back and rejoin the community. Help keep it alive.

[@christiaanhetzner1193]

Phil Rocks sure, what’s your avatar’s name

[@Christopher-ym8fo]

Thanks for your contribution to this great game. I've never played these types of games before until I stumbled upon ESL last year online. I can't get enough of it now. :)

[@christiaanhetzner1193]

@@Christopher-ym8fo Me neither, I just hope they let us continue using their server

[@______6057]

Add me ingame if you guys want to. Drelliane Legends rank most the time. And i do not play oblivion gate.

[@timhouston6828]

I really miss this game. Only card game that really clicked with me.

[@makhond2498]

Try shadowverse after legends it sparked with me

[@darien4313]

Iced Shadow Second that.

[@seanh7585]

It's still there! I play it almost daily, still my fav CCG (I play arena exclusively), and I got a ton of free materials when they announced the cancellation

[@Iwantedtoleavethis]

Try out Mythgarde! Its super indepth and really well made

[@bebo2629]

Valiant Fury You can still play it

[@mrdylanwintle]

I'm a player of this game with a cumulative 2500 hours or so, I've played in a good number of tournaments (nearly made it into Masters Q_Q) and have played the game since launch, albeit rather spottedly since the maintenance began, more or less to say my goodbyes to the only game I ever felt I had a community presence and true relationship with. This video is remarkably well researched in the majority of topics, and thankfully avoids the obvious pitfall of calling the game "Hurr dur hearthstone clone" and calling it a day. It however bears a few marks of being a retrospective I think I might be able to offer my point of view on. Little bit of a read coming, so buckle up. Also worth noting my engagement with the game was through primarily Reddit, KZbin and Discord, so my biases lay there. That said, here we go. 5:38 Minor discrepancy here, cards placed in the stealth lane are only stealthed for a single turn or until they attack. At the start of your next turn, or once you attack with a creature, they're just the same as if they were placed in the field (left) lane. This is fairly self-evident when you watch the footage so I'm guessing this was a miswording or misreading of the game's mechanics. Doesn't mar the point of the video in the slightest though. In case anyone's wondering why the lanes are this way, the game is set up so that the stealth lane, due to the inherent protection creatures being set up to attack have, always allows the player an opportunity to subvert board dominance, and mount a counteroffensive to ease pressure on your health total. The field lane however is harder to take control of, and easier to hold control of. It's a clever system. God damn it I loved this game. On Houses of Morrowind's reception This is where I see the first actual issue. Adding the "tricolor" decks was a major shake-up for the game and whilst news outlets generally positively recieved it, it was one of the first things in the community's history that truly caused an uproar I was aware of. There are pro-level players and serious community figures who cited this decision as a major reason for the death of the game and/or their disillusionment with it. The addition of three colours allowed for many combinations of cards which previously couldn't be put together, and it largely resulted in the homogenization of decks, as previously colour combinations were built to have specific weaknesses, which now could be patched with a third colour that counters that weakness, for an ultimately boring and relatively unfocused deck that was powerful nonetheless. On Direwolf's replacement: I don't think this was entirely a conflict of interest thing. I think a lot of it came down to design decisions Direwolf had made as of late. Direwolf toward the end of their tenure released a lot of cards and mechanics that were considered problematic. Tullius' Conscription (released slightly before the houses of morrowind expansion), which allowed players to pull full boards from their deck with a single card, created the game's first true controversy. To say the card became ubiquitous would be an understatement. It, and the hate against it was ever present. Even tournaments devolved into salt mines when the card was brought in. It was the beginning of the cracks forming in ESL's balance. Direwolf was extremely hesitant to nerf the card in any significant way, and it spawned a large amount of vitriol in the community at users and designers of the card. Tricolour as mentioned was a significant and potentially destabilising change for the balance of the game. Many were into it, many were against it. Unite the houses, which allowed a player to win if they had a card of every colour in play was considered a balanced but restrictive card to print. Many suggested that the card would ultimately be the first card to be removed from the game should the game go on long enough. Following the restabilisation of the meta with several nerfs to Tullius' Conscription, Nix Ox Telvanni appeared, which was a similarly broken deck that in many cases was combined with the weakened but ever-strong Conscription decks to create the Telvanni Conscription meta, which had a chokehold on the game's meta for at least two expansions afterward. The meta was about as stale as food from the Fallout universe. These problems all arose and were digested by the community within a couple months, which l think largely lead Bethesda to ask Direwolf what the hell their game was. This possibly could have heightened allegations of them sabotaging Elder Scrolls Legends' meta to bolster Eternal's playerbase, a game which did end up absorbing a lot of lost players from ESL as time went on. On Sparkypants' new client: Something that should be noted was that whilst the initial switch to Sparkypants resulted in a borderline unplayable client and a board which was unfamiliar and uncomfortable to many, the transition to Sparkypants came with numerous upsides that Direwolf could not offer. The primary of which was the speed of the client. The client started off very weakly, but as Sparkypants continued to labour in spite of the vitriol levelled at them, the community opinion changed from "This client has killed the game" to "I can't believe they're actually still working on it" to "It's not as bad technically but I'm still not a fan of the design" to in the majority of cases "This client is pretty much better than Direwolf's was." It's a hard change to see if you weren't part of the community at the time but it was an important one that I think is integral to understanding Sparkypants and how they impacted the game. The secondary advantage of Sparkypants was their communication. Their "representitive" of sorts, SparkyDeckard (Gavin) was an incredibly tolerant and likable member of the company who took the vitriol of the community in his stride, and I think in the end truly did win over the trust of the community. Any mention of a bug would be followed up with a request for an informal bug report, at which point the majority of bugs would be fixed within the month. I can count 5 bugs I personally reported to Gavin and saw fixed in the next patch. There's a very slim chance he'll read this, but if you are, I salute you. On Alliance War: I've relatively little to say about this expansion. It cemented tricolor as forever the superior choice of deckbuilding strategy and it's when many more broken combos began to arise. The majority of the community realisation of just how poorly tricolor was impacting the game's meta came here. I was on the anti-tricolor train early, but this is when it truly left the station. On Moons of Elsweyr: Moons of Elsweyr is a bit of a weird one. This expansion was mostly well recieved to my knowledge, with the exception of a singular card: Alfiq Conjurer. This card was generally considered too strong, and cemented blue as a very dominant colour in the meta for the rest of the game's history but this card was given nerfs shortly after release, and I think most considered the set a fun, albeit underpowered set. The consume mechanic introduced in it was a welcome addition, and in general I was quite confused to hear this mentioned in regards to the game's balance. I think it was perhaps the best balanced set since the Skyrim expansion. On an... omission: There's a rather important part of this game's history I think you left out at the end, possibly for time reasons but regardless a mechanic which definitely deserves mention: invade. Invade was the main mechanic of the final expansion of the game that was considered by most perhaps the most toxic mechanic in the game's history, and one for which Sparkypants was once more vilified by the community, much as Direwolf was with the release of Conscription a year and a half before. I don't believe it was too good personally, simply too frustrating to play against and simple to pilot. At the time of writing the top post when I look at r/elderscrollslegends... is a post complaining about invade. This game closed in relatively short order after the release of Jaws of Oblivion so I'm going to hazard a guess and say the game was marked for death before the expansion released, but if mismanagement at the highest level killed this game (as I think it did), this was a fire lit on the coffin. It scared everyone away from mourning the death of this game out of sheer frustration at what the meta had become in the game's last days before maintenance. I believe it is because of Invade that this game will never be resurrected. Afterthoughts: I really don't think it was Sparkypants that cracked the balance of this game. I think the writing was on the wall as far back as Houses of Morrowwind. The game needed a boost, and I'd wager risky and in the long term poisonous design choices were made in tricolor and conscription that put the game on the countdown to either a major rework, or its demise. The comparison of house mechanics to hero powers I don't really get, hero powers are always available seperate to cards and repeatable every turn, house mechanics like plot are just effects put on cards associated with a particular house. I think there was some miscommunication somewhere down the line here. If anyone wants me to back up anything I've said I can link reddit threads I was originally going to include in this mini-essay but ended up omitting for bloating reasons. I've found sources for more or less every claim I make here. Thank you, nerdSlayer for making this video. It truly is a strong overview of the game's history regardless of my inputs. It's given me a chance to properly voice my final thoughts and give this game a eulogy to an audience I never thought this game would see again.

[@breaktimemr1804]

I would like to give a different perspective as someone who also played over 1000 hours of TESL. Most of the points you said are right, but some are up to debate. Tri-colour: I always liked the idea of tri-colour decks, bigger freedom in deck building. Community was divided on it, but you can't say it was 100% bad. I created over 400 decks over the years, for me it was one of the most fun aspect of the game. Tri-colour was not the reason why the game went downhill and its up to personal taste. On Sparkypants' new client: We waited over a year for a shitty bugged client. Which was mostly fixed, but by that time it was too late. Creating a new client was a terrible idea or it should have been done in the background before letting Direwolf go. Some points I would add that contributed to killing the game: Lack of content: The biggest reason people stopped playing the game was because we had over 1 year content drought. Nice way to lose your player-base when there is nothing to look forward for an uncertain amount of time. Quality of cards: The game was injected with trash tier/dead cards with every expansion, especially with bad legendaries just to lower your chance of getting a good legendary. Lack of card synergy: We always got a new mechanics, but never enough cards to support the new mechanic. Now we will never get them since there are no more expansions to fix this. Balance: Almost non-existant. It took months to nerf problematic cards, but never buff useless trash cards to see some play. Greedy prices: While the game was free to play, the prices in the store was and still is way too expensive. I bet TESL would have been more profitable if the prices were cheaper. Overall: I'm sad we lost such a good game which had potential to be 1 of the greatest.

[@mrdylanwintle]

@@breaktimemr1804 Hey Breaktime, been a while. I feel maybe I should elaborate my point on tricolour. I personally like tricolour decks, I like building them, but I very quickly realised that they came to the detriment of dual-colour decks. The problem with tricolour is exactly that they allowed you greater freedom in deckbuilding. It was too much freedom, and I think it really did destroy the balance that had been created around what you can and can't do with decks. Aside from what I'd said about it being harder to counter tricolour decks due to the diversity of strong cards they can give their deck, I think the central problem is that it destroyed many of the themes in deckbuilding. Archetypes like werewolves almost never saw play despite having been incredibly popular in HoS. This was because there weren't enough werewolves to put in a tricolour deck, so you had to mix them with another archetype, which just kind of didn't work because of how all-in werewolves are. I think your problem with there not being enough cards per archetype mostly falls down to the fact they never gave enough for a 75 card deck. Most mechanics like consume work fine as a core theme in a dual-colour deck, but never a tri-colour. Not even house mechanics like Rally or Plot had enough when HoM launched. One of the only archetypes given that many cards was Invade and well... yeah. I also think tricolour is the reason for the lack of balance most of the time. Spellsword conscription was widely considered balanced. Telvanni conscription nearly killed the game. Nix Ox Assassin was pretty much fine, a little on the too strong side, Nix Ox Telvanni was just stupid good. I truly do believe tricolour was a major problem. Also as a side note, I for one love the trash legendaries. My favourite cards to play are bad ones, and whilst yes they dilute card pools for people who don't want them, they're among the only cards I normally care about when card reveals come out.

[@The-Opium-Den]

Very interesting input from people who have spent numerous hours on a card game. That's something you don't get if you're just a researcher looking at the game from the outside. An outsider won't understand the intricacies of how this game played and felt. Hopefully, if nerdslayer decides to cover Chronicle: Runescape Legends it'll be my turn to post a detailed explanation of how things all went south.

[@durfblaster5335]

Good rundown man. On point. Hard to explain why most people didn't stick to the game. But I think most people I introduced the game to just said eh...this game just makes me want to play skyrim...then they left. Haha

[@christiaanhetzner1193]

Thanks for the insight, am a fellow TES Legends fan - don't want to even look at the number of hours I spent enjoying this game and I hope they keep the server alive, cause I haven't stopped - best relaxation for the in between. I was also shocked when Invade wasn't mentioned. This still pisses me off - it's one thing to give the Daedra a boost with higher stats and later on keywords, but to add on top reducing the cost of those cards really angers me. I still dislike playing against Invade decks, my favourite is High Elf decks that rely on Actions, since they are varied and different, unlike e.g. an Orc deck or (guilty pleasure) my favourite Dwemer / Factotum deck. Latter is similar a bit to Orc, but I just love the Dwemer lore and hence one of my favourite cards is Yagrum Bagarn.

[@morriganpandora3787]

I loved this game. I remember when the closed beta came out and I first got my key and I supported every piece of content released for it until it died. It was so much more satisfying and generous of a free to play card game than Hearthstone ever was, which I had also played since 2014. I was sad to see it go

[@durfblaster5335]

Me too man. Me too. Best online card game by far. Im still a bit misstified as to why it didn't work....videos like this are good guesses but still doesn't make sense

[@SpartanChief2277]

@@durfblaster5335 I never heard of it. Maybe that's why? Not enough marketing or casual interest

[@durfblaster5335]

@@Philsburneraccount nah. Used to play off and on but after awhile I couldn't get myself to keep comming back to somthing. Moved on. Maybe I boot it back up again just for old times sake.

[@Chunkerstein]

It's unfair that this game died. The gameplay was far more balanced than Hearthstone.

[@TempestDacine]

Highly recommend trying direwolf digital's other card game Eternal CCG. Alot of the same good balance and design decisions exist there too.

[@zzxxccvvkk5]

I doubt you could call the invade shenanigans balanced.

[@vfox1582]

Thanos lost in the MCU, and he preached perfect balance. There's always more to a game than just balance. Ppl want uniqueness and excitement too. Marketing, esports scene, business models etc. - they all contribute to success. You can have the BEST game, and still fail because it had too many bugs or was marketed terribly.

[@Chunkerstein]

@@zzxxccvvkk5 balanced before invasion, yes. The game incentivizes you to actually make unique decks, and the arena mode was so much fun. It sucks that Bethesda milked it til it was bone dry. The game did not deserve to be turned into a hearthstone clone. I didn't even know the game existed til a few months into its lifespan. The marketing definitely killed the game. I can't claim to have experienced many bugs because my time playing the game was relatively bug free but for what it's worth, the game was more fun to me than Hearthstone. It was almost always skill vs skill, not rng vs rng like in most other online card games.

[@anondescript1134]

Yes absolutely, I loved playing that game and played it lots primarily because Ive had my own deck that was competitive to any players, there was the biggest diversity in decks that Ive seen in any ccg, and thats what always made it fun. In HS or MTG, I feel like most of the games are against the exact same decks and thats just not fun.

[@qwerty1271780]

Don’t you DARE make me sit through that Skyrim opening scene again!

[@danielsecara]

This has always been a Hines' pet project. It received no love from the studio execs, no real advertising, no marketing campaigns and it struggled af after the dev switch -- I remember the forums were on fire, and the reddit sub? son, it was crazy! I played it. I played it a lot. And I loved it. But before the downfall there were clear signs Bethesda didnt gave a crap on veteran players and only catered to new players. Their obsession for new players and expanding their playerbase forced older players to switch to other CCGs. What really hurts is that I used to love this game and it's sad because it had huge potential...

[@JeFilm94]

I was around since open beta and have over 2000 hours on Steam. Needless to say I loved this game. Following how they marketed the game, it rings true what you say. I remember watching streams on Twitch with Pete Hines as a guest host where it really did come off as if he was a leading force behind getting this off the ground and keep it running.. so thanks to uncle Pete for 3 years TESL

[@chainsawmidnight]

This game is insanely fun to play. Also I haven't spent a single cent because all stories and decks can be bought with in game currency that you get for just playing.

[@namelessking9068]

how long do you played it?

[@tylerwaynes2107]

Which reminds me don't buy booster packs with gold you earn. Save it for pre made decks, card packs, or stories. I find that the packs aren't worth the gold most of the time and can easily be earn by completing daily missions and competing in the arena.

[@DS-ff6ze]

The free to play path in this game is viable. You don't have to spend a dime. Competitive aggro decks are cheap to build. Though you'll have to grind for at least 3-6 months if you want to build a variety of mid and control decks.

[@code-energy]

Same here!! This game is the shit!!

[@rnldame2825]

Phil Rocks add me I’m Dame1223

[@viktordyrby7804]

Holy crap I miss this game. I have about 800 hours, and I still feel heart broken whenever I'm reminded of it's demise. RIP TESL :(

[@aspiringartist3949]

I thought you were talking about Blades for a moment, I had forgotten that this existed

[@jamesgriffyn]

Has Blades even come out?

[@aspiringartist3949]

I dunno. I don't follow most mobile games, so it's easy for me to forget when these things were announced or released

[@armvex]

@@jamesgriffyn yes, MattyPlay has good cover of it?

[@Flanponos]

blades is next dont @me

[@mikoto7693]

@@aspiringartist3949 Lol I thought it referred to Blades too.

[@galacticbob1]

I played in the beta and for a few months afterwards. Bought a few packs, made some decks, and had a good time. I never knew that there was any expansions for this game! I saw no ads, got no emails, nothing. Am I the only one or was perhaps a lack of marketing partly responsible for the game dying out?

[@mrdylanwintle]

Lack of marketing for sure. I saw some KZbin ads but only ever on videos about CCGs. And if you're watching a CCG video, you probably already know the options out there.

[@galacticbob1]

@@mrdylanwintle I'm not a marketing major but I would wager that a KZbin ad buy costs quite a bit more for less of a return than an auto-email to people who have already signed up to your game and spent money on it. 😉 SMH @ Bethesda it's like you were trying to kill the game 😒

[@DanoLefourbe]

Yeah it is widely accepted in the community that this game was very poorly marketed. And as NS said, when it was marketed, it was to the wrong people.

[@SoulDevoured]

I'm a Bethesda fan in general. Don't have much $ tho. A ftp game for mobile sounds perfect for me! But I had no idea this game existed until it was pretty much dead. Shite marketing for sure.

[@UntoteLady]

I totally forgot about that game

[@RedMcCloud]

Everyone did.

[@mestre12]

And that is the point.

[@SuperJoshuaAguilar]

Damn you beat me to it... I forgot about what... but it was about a game, I think...

[@haven4304]

I have never even heard of the game I've heard of ES: Blade, but not this one

[@AunCollective]

It was a free install listed first in the default Bethesda launcher for ESO. CCGs are pretty far down my subjective genre rankings so i tried it, archived the game files, and uninstalled. I'm going to have to reinstall and upload a bunch of gameplay videos now and do some pcaps and other data collection. I hate seeing even mediocre games die. Too much of modern art and culture is being treated as disposable nowadays.

[@chukadoo1871]

nS covering Bethesda's skeleton in the closet

[@HandOfThemis]

Fallout 76? Fallout 4?

[@kabalan20]

@@HandOfThemis TES Legends have you been not paying attention to this video like at all?

[@HandOfThemis]

@@kabalan20 I was making a joke; the implication being that bethsoft have a pile of skeletons in their closet. I'm sorry you can't pick up on pretty obvious jokes.

[@dosbilliam]

@@HandOfThemis Someone forgot Battlespire, which to be fair, is a good thing to have done. :S

[@mrcyberpunk]

those skeletons are really starting to pile up

[@doctorwiiu4619]

I legit said out loud when i seen this pop up in my feed "What the hell is Elder Scrolls Legends" I had totally forgot this was a thing

[@christiaanhetzner1193]

you missed out. play it every day still. Great game, have no idea what he meant about the artwork, I love it, one of my favourite aspects. HS looks goofy, like it's for toddlers, can't understand the appeal

[@pixlisreal]

The death of the game from a playerbase standpoint was Invade. That mechanic was busted in several different ways to the point where unless you were playing invade or counter-invade you literally couldn't play and have fun. After the death of the game the 2 main types of players that stayed are the competitive players that have played since launch that only play to win and the players that fit the same description but are highly toxic about it.

[@user-of9mo5wz8o]

This game was awesome. I ran a semi-successful KZbin channel on it. Then a few months later they announced they were killing the game lol.

[@Slimjim2147]

"There's only so much you can release skyrim." Todd Howard: hold my beer.

[@chief_critical5318]

This was the only Card game in years that kept my attention. I really hope that it gets revived. It can easily survive if it adopts cards and mechanics from the online game before ES6 comes out.

[@monkeyking8131]

I loved this game. Every aspect of it. When i heard they would no longer work on the game my heart broke. So sad to see ESL go :(

[@kiillabytez]

I remember Might & Magic Duel Of Champions. By far, the best digital card game ever made, and had over 10,000 players at one time on their servers. One day, in typical Ubisoft fashion, they discontinued the game without warning, just a message on their page that "We are sorry, but we are no longer supporting Duel Of Champions. Please visit our store for our newest games." At least Bethesda had the decency to inform their users what was going to happen.

[@greifenherz]

With Elder Scrolls Online being mentioned only once in the entire video, one of the game's largest contributing factors in forward momentum was completely ignored. A lot of Elder Scrolls Online's promotional artwork was refashioned into cards for Elder Scrolls Legends, and vice versa. Elder Scrolls Online and Elder Scrolls Legends had very clear similarity and synchronization in their content drops, to the point where Elder Scrolls Legends was much more a spin-off game of Elder Scrolls Online specifically than of the TES series as a whole. At least that's how it felt to me, an Elder Scrolls Online player that came to Elder Scrolls Legends. To me that's a huge clue that was completely ignored, and its omission takes the investigation in a wholly different direction.

[@OpticallEffect]

Funny enough - I came to ESO after playing TesL. Like "whoa, ESO also have an expansion about Clockwork City? Definitely wanna check this out!"

[@jotdub6193]

I don't care what people say. This game was beautiful, and it's still is. Yes, the "Invasion" mechanics fucked up the game, but i've spent way better quality time playing TES Legends than any other CCG... and i can't complain about the artwork, game design. Even the Story Mode was amazing. Hearthstone's fanbase is just too big and had much influence in the CCG scene. They gave up and that's sad. Such a game they were building and one of the games i enjoyed the most. Plus, TES universe is great.

[@rogue6685]

Pay to win and unfriendly to causal people and is for the 1% who play card games like this it's a cash grab with good art design nothing else

[@planescaped]

​@@rogue6685 The number games utterly ruined by microtransactions and whale-fishing is really sad. Having a cash shop in a game is an instant gtfo for me. >__> I don't understand why a person would waste their time playing one...

[@Skabanis]

Y’all full of shit only thing I bought was the stories and I have most of the cards just win a lot!

[@hurrdurrmurrgurr]

As a former player I can go more in depth: Despite calling the game a more skill based hearthstone there were still over 50 cards where the word "random" appears in their card text on release and even more with pseudo random effects like Ungolim which shuffled overpowered cards into your deck. This made it seem like a Hearthstone clone at first impressions. The initial hand size of just three cards also limited players in their options forcing them to just play on curve rather than being able to form a strategy with what they had. Alongside the main expansions there were several promotional card sets released like the forgotten hero collection, these cards had a higher power level than the core set including several cards which would go on to be staples if not outright win conditions for the entire lifetime of the game. Direwolf and later Sparkypants were reluctant to nerf these cards and despite hitting Tullius Conscription multiple times it was still a staple game ender for years. These cards would often come up on Reddit for lists of cards which frustrated players whenever played. New mechanics were introduced and forgotten. Each expansion would introduce a new keyword or play style spread among a few cards unfortunately in a deck of 50 cards where you only open 3 and have no dedicated searchers, building a deck around these cards would require running 3 of each and many of which were sub-par. Players would be forced to run inferior theme decks just to get a daily reward but throw the rest out and only use the best stand alone card if they wanted to compete. Direwolf and later Sparkypants would never revisit old mechanics despite years of players begging for a new treasure hunt or factotum card. This unfortunately meant no matter how many expansions came and went decks felt mostly static with a deck like sorcerer barely changing in years. Initial card design was based on a fire and forget principle where a card would activate once and that would be it. However, new cards were made which would activate every turn forcing the opponent to either topdeck an answer or lose. Prime examples of this were cards like ash berserker which drew a card every turn or the oblivion gates which gave increasing buffs every time invade was triggered. The long period between houses of morrowind and subsequent new card sets gave more than enough time for players to grow tired of the stagnant meta and leave and for remaining players to build up so many soulgems that by the time of the following expansion they could craft everything they needed without spending a cent. The ludicrous cash grab that came out on December just before the first post-Morrowind expansion dropped, every day a new daily deal would be offered and some were ten packs for ten coins, basically free. However any deal offered for real money was massively overpriced. You could buy an exclusive alternate art or a new card back but you'd be charged over $50 for it, the justification for the price was the alt art card would mandatory come with a bunch of old booster packs. However, as mentioned anyone serious enough to drop money on a card art would already have every old card thanks to the year between content releases. This didn't sit well with the community and Sparky could only offer that it was Bethesda setting the prices. December is also the time of Steam sales so it didn't take long for people to notice you could buy every elder scrolls game for less than the cost of just one alternate artwork. The new client was unplayable on release, a change was necessary since the old client was slow on mobile but the new client was bug riddled for two months after release and ironically even after the pc client was fixed bug reports would regularly show up for mobile. The strength of legendaries was overwhelming. TESL never had a ban list or format change and with legendaries being strictly better than common cards it was only a matter of time for decks loaded with them to stomp anyone new trying to enter the game. You can see this for yourself with this legendary: elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Alfiq_Conjurer vs this common elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Conjuration_Scholar and that's after the legendary was nerfed. It certainly didn't help that anyone at tier 5 or above on the ladder would reset to tier 9 every month meaning new players would immediately face cashed up decks in ranked. It could be because sparky knew the writing was on the wall but by the time of the final oblivion expansion power creep was out of control. You had creatures which could draw 5 cards on summon and Oblivion gates giving any summoned creature every keyword in the game, it seemed like there wasn't enough time spent play testing before releasing that final set.

[@neemnoa303]

Well, your username was well chosen. Dylan Wintle's comment is a million times more objective than your rant. It's obvious you barely scratched the surface of the game, whether because of lack of time invested, or lack of understanding, I don't know. Probably both.

[@mcriggity1131]

@@neemnoa303 this dude's "rant" is pointing out things that actually happened tho, and things I remember the community bemoaning on the reddit. He is literally being objective

[@neemnoa303]

@@mcriggity1131 He's literally not. I've played the game A LOT. And at a pretty decent level. A lot of the complaints he's made can be overcome with understanding of the game and good deck building, and investing some time. Don't get me wrong there are many frustrating things in ESL but Dylan Wintle described it better than this guy imho and to me (an experienced player) he just came across as someone who got frustrated early on and then had a good rant about it and quit. That shouldn't be the basis on which other people form an opinion / understanding.

[@mcriggity1131]

@@neemnoa303 Provide counterpoints or just stop wasting both of our times.

[@mcriggity1131]

@@neemnoa303 I'm convinced you didn't read hurrdurr's comment. How is stating "Promotional sets like the Forgotten Hero set had cards that were more powerful than core sets, and had many staples and win cons." Wrong or in anyway not objective?

[@patrickhogan6750]

Hope you and your loved ones are safe in these times. I just started working again and your videos helps me stay sane. Big ups!

[@Practitioner_of_Diogenes]

5:37 as a person that's spent time with the game... The stealth lane with it's stealth mechanic only affected the minion for the turn they were summoned and the following opponent turn. If the minion had "guard" (a mechanic that forced players to target), they'd not gain the stealth effect, and if a minion had "Charge" (the minion is allowed to attack the turn they were summoned), they'd have the option of losing the stealth to attack instead. One card, named ""Dragonguard Outcast", would *always* be stealth, regardless of lane, till she attacks (the card literally says "till she attacks", so don't go and say I'm "misgendering" something). 31:27 >Drain deck. Nope, I clearly don't have one of those... Drain decks are literally a deck that if allowed to start rolling, you're probably not going to stop it. Especially if they have Ring of Namira. Ring of Namira is a card that deals damage to your opponent equal to health gained from *any form of health generation.* Thankfully, Ring of Namira is a limited card (one per deck), making the Ring somewhat counterable. Oh, and, uh... there's a certain Spriggan card that absolutely *loves* being in such a deck (Green-Touched Spriggan). Personally, only two card games have won my heart over. Chaotic and ES:Legends. Both are basically dead, but both games favored strategy more than luck, and that's why I loved them. But, if there's one thing I want people to remember ES:Legends for, it's the card art. The art for many, many cards are just absolutely beautiful. To be extremely honest, I'd absolutely love to have bought into a true TCG of ES:Legends, but alas.

[@lefteron6804]

Still keep my favorites on a folder on my phone and brows through them from time to time.

[@christiaanhetzner1193]

Hear hear, loved the artwork, every time I drew a unique Legendary I would screenshot it, and save the image where it said "NEW". One of my favourites - Yagrum Bagarn, the image is fantastic.

[@Practitioner_of_Diogenes]

@jvalex18 With how much politics Wizards of the Coast have been doing? No thanks.

[@josefhamilton5008]

Appreciate this delve into TESL’s history. I was there for every major step of its history since the beta and it was frustrating having a fantastic base game that was so poorly managed and seeing it decline in real time. Great video!

[@marlowencna]

to be fair, TES: Legends, still somewhat "alive" in Asia, handled by Gaea

[@DS-ff6ze]

tesl asia has like 1/10th the population as the current original version.

[@CommonSense_-]

?????? The player base is so niche that the majority of the “opponents” you match up against are literal bots

[@valentingeorgiew1485]

@@CommonSense_- If you are talking about the "guest" opponents, those are mobile users

[@nakaza9413]

This didn't age well...

[@yuvrajsingh-dh6hv]

...yeah...

[@emilkolinski]

I was in this small community since 2018, there were great people who really appreciated the mechanics and love how it looks like. They are really friendly. Yea when sparkypants picked up the stick there were a lot of radical bugs and people were very very angry for this. But the real problem was that there was no card rotation and the doorstep for new players was too high couse game included cards and decks which were too expansive for newbies. Thats why this game has never had as many players as Heartstone. Rip

[@voxkine9385]

I actually really enjoyed this game but it never felt like it did a lot to set itself apart.

[@anondescript1134]

Yes it was really great, best card design out there imo, but it never properly marketed itself, lots of people never knew it even existed who could have loved it.

[@GicaForta]

I first came in contact with this game after watching TotalBiscuit’s review on it. So immediately after it launched on mobile (i had abandoned pc gaming in 2016) I picked it up and loved it. TotalBiscuit would die in 2018, and with it, a general sadness installed. I wanted to remember him by something so I created my own channel and adopted it the British accent as an homage. It was a hard road, but I became an important figure in the content creators guild of TESL. Being a software engineer working in the gaming industry at that time, I noticed plenty of patterns and how the game was being done. Some expansions and cards were great, some not. Which is fine, however, it was really obvious direwolf was trying to cash in on their new title Eternal as they had free hand to build whatever they wanted not constrained by bethesda. This led to many players moving to Eternal and I suspect this caused the fracture and subsequent boot from the TESL project. The new developers (sparkypants) had an awful start. Not because of them, but because of how TESL was built by the previous developer. And I can speak of my own experience as a software engineer: dealing with legacy systems is hell on earth. You must understand, tesl began development in 2013? By 2017 most of 2013 is legacy code. New technologies were pioneered, microsoft azure and microservice ecosystems, the age of faster and more performant cloud environments… sparkypants had the insurmountable task of re-coding the entire thing. New backend architecture, some parts of the UI were refurbished , new netcode and most importantly new deployment system. The new client could be updated on the fly, with content, small patches, and less maintenance work, while the old direwolf system was cumbersome requiring the repackaging of the entire client every single time. This is why the sparkypants client received hate at first. But this is also why people began to appreciate of what they were doing. The game’s maintenance mode can be attributed to multiple factors. Playerbase dropping due to other ccgs popping up like mushrooms (population dilution) also poor marketing choices (or close to none marketing solutions at all) caused the title to stop getting new players and the veterans were starting to get mad at some of the card designs. Ultimately I feel happy this was the first game I started my youtube with. But now like all my loved ones, it is mine forever, even in maintenance mode. I tagged along post Maintenance for a couple of months, hoping it was a hoax or they’d reconsider… but then I stopped playing and recording for it. When I get bored, I reinstall it from time to time just to feel the thrill of my combo decks going off. I guess hope is last to die. Cheers

[@bookhunter7375]

I would also imagine that, on some level, the launch of MTG Arena had an effect in Legends demise - while Arena has it's own set of issues it was the first time Magic went f2p in the digital space ( and people cared. RIP Magic Duels, gone but never forgotten). CCgs require a decent amount of time commitment so you sort of have to pick and choose which ones you play. Since MTG is a far bigger name in that space then the elder scrolls - I wouldn't be surprised if a decent amount of the dwindling player base jumped ship over there. Really well done video, btw. Nicely done!

[@flonyme8174]

Truth be told, that's what happened to me. Recently hopped back I legends though as I can play it on my phone. But yeah I hung up legends for over a year after mtg arena launched.

[@skooNProductions]

Your videos are always top shelf content, thank you for existing. Keep up the good work!

[@ccmm4094]

Yo this video is insanely well made! Top tier quality, manuscript and editing. Worthy of prime time TV (niche subject aside). Fantastic job!

[@theholyhavel97]

Just when i was getting bored perfect timing with the vid my guy

[@sulrynhlaalu3785]

Really sad for the announcement back in December last year, having been a big fan of the game since it launched because I'm into ES lore

[@GuitarHeroTerminator]

Just found your channel and I'm glad I did, the videos are as interesting as they are sad.. Seeing games you played in the past and have fond memories of slowly dying if not already in the grave, it's heartbreaking. I think you should take a look at "Battlefield Heroes", the child of Battlefield and Tf2. Sadly taken from us too soon..

[@TheMrFishnDucks]

Had no idea this even existed. Nice video. Keep up the good work.

[@davii2663]

"Death of a game Elder Scrolls-" me: wtf WTF WAAAAAAATAFUUUUUU "Legends" me again: who is this

[@kyotheman69]

a crappy mobile game that no one asked for, glad its dead edit: oh its card game...yeah crappy mobile game no one asked for...

[@naokurogami]

I had the same exact reaction lol

[@taylorhall9075]

Every time I hear about Bethesda's practices I see them more as an EA than anything. Great video as always!

[@mrcyberpunk]

well I mean Bethesda originally worked for EA at the start so there's no surprise there really.

[@dinogabric8054]

Was waiting for this, thank you. Such a shame this game ceased to being developed

[@BeyondTheAverageFilm]

So weird watching this now, went to pax east and played this my first year of college.. starting to feel old.

[@T4silly]

Loved this game, still have it on my phone. But in recent times I've only ever opened it and closed it after getting my login. Weird habit I have. One of my personal gripes was them hiring a couple community managers from the community. One of them had not even played any other TES game, nor had *any* lore knowledge... While I don't think that's nessasary for community management, I feel like it homes in on the whole "generic" issue you mentioned. I mean, that particular CM even regularly called Magicka just Mana...

[@indigorune]

same, i felt like them hiring some of the CM they chose was very ostracizing for some players. I remember there being a lot of drama surrounding that. Sad that the game was so poorly managed. It was really fun at one point.

[@tomaszurbaniak4312]

Here's the clue: its Bugthesda, of course it would be shit if there are no fans to fix it for them

[@es1vo]

That's sadly too true.

[@mrcyberpunk]

this is also why I don't get why Bethesda started this connectivity bs in their games because by going always online you're losing mod support which I'd argue is the only reason anyone plays their garbage games.

[@tomaszurbaniak4312]

@@mrcyberpunk they started to believe their own hype

[@EriugamGaming]

These videos are very informative and really good

[@jackdavis4657]

The polish in this vid really shows. Cheers, NerdSlayer, on your best DoaG yet!

[@WhiplashSL]

Death of a Game: Dissidia Final Fantasy NT.

[@kael070]

They should have just remastered 012 for pc and consoles and call it a day

[@dflatt1783]

Think the game had to be alive first.

[@nicholasmorgan7609]

@@kael070 Maybe added some new characters because I actually liked the idea of having Ramza

[@SabreAran]

I loved the PSP game but the PS4 game makes me sad cuz it's not a RPG anymore :'(

[@Boyzby]

I loved 012 so freaking much, I'm sure pretty much every Dissidia fan did, but instead they gave us... whatever it ended up being instead of more of what we loved. Hell, I would've taken a remake on PS4 day one.

[@justinparker7712]

"twitch integration" is a dealbreaker for me in any game as it sends the signal to me what the developer's priorities are with any game. Yes I know, streaming is a big thing now, but when it is successful it is almost always organic and not because a game has "twitch integration".

[@barryaulis1104]

Always a good day when another death of a game video comes out.

[@BalaTheRealOne]

Oh, can't wait the next episode! That will be a true drama!

[@Indigo_Gaming]

What's an 'Elder Scroll'? 🤣 Slick editing and great research, your team is continuing to improve! Thanks for the shout-out, my dude! We should do another podcast or something again, it's been too long!

[@OdinPerez]

Based Gods of Gaming together again please

[@InfernoTedesco]

Also it doesn't fit your channels criteria I would really like you to investigate on the Rollercoaster Tycoon franchise. Keep up this great quality content!

[@lilgilsdidthis541]

Really good stuff, u deserve more subscriber

[@FantasyFan4Eva]

Gosh, i love this intro music! I wish we had full version

[@Lintary]

Mixer, what could have been a success, but was so poorly handled :D

[@Exigentable]

@@mattwo7 pokimane cant handle criticism, she is also a copyright strike abuser.

[@Spookybluelights]

I love how you almost break out laughing trying to say "Sparkypants" several times throughout.

[@chazzcoolidge2654]

Who else noticed how he utterly butchered the prononuncation of each the Houses of Morrowind? First cringe of the day right there

[@Ae7herium]

@@chazzcoolidge2654 Hlaal and Dageth. Lmao

[@jonathanthoresen7646]

RIP. I was a die hard player from early Beta. The moment I heard they were cancelling any new content, I dropped the game immediately. I loved it. :’(

[@schrisu7252]

Ah nothing better than watching another death of a game that was bound to fail! Keep it up man , love these documentaries.

[@MoonV29]

But the game is amazing... I'm still playing it...

[@schrisu7252]

@@MoonV29 im not saying its bad . im saying that it tried to jump on a trend and it failed

[@GraphicWolf69]

Can you please make 'Death of a Game: Realm Royale' ? It's on a life support right now and officially announced... You could say it's dead...

[@ShardulIyer]

I swear @nerdslayer shud seriously consider doing an online course for indie game developers on what & what-shud-not, they shud do while designing RPG based games. These video essays show off an impressive research pattern reminiscent of the research papers I use in my profession as a data scientist. Might as well say that the each script behind such essays are themselves pretty legit research papers in the domain of game development & buisness domain. You sir are impressive! PS - hey, nerdslayer - what are your views on the Amazon game Crucible where they tried releasing & pushing it back into beta soon after. It felt weird.

[@colbygarcia8766]

Hey! I just joined and am liking it quite a bit. A ccg in the rich world of Nirn? I’m there, dude

[@durfblaster5335]

Man. This game was so good. Really miss it. By far my favourote ccg. This video took me back.

[@MrRuano825]

I was honestly expecting a video of the pitifully short life of Elder Scrolls: Blades. This...wasn't what I was expecting. Still appreciated though.

[@mikoto7693]

Lol so was I. I'd never heard of Legends.

[@SHAKIZZY]

The only thing that I genuinely enjoyed in Legends was the Artwork tbh

[@alian133]

Actually just came back to ESL. Still a great play and honestly I love seeing the art and elements from Elder Scrolls lore expanded.

[@kokosan09]

this is one of the few games you've covered that made me feel a bit sad, because this actually seems like it was a well made game!

[@zeeez8399]

I remember that year watching E3 with my buds and early on I shouted out "Yo just wait for Bethesda to announce the skyrim card game" as a joke since hearthstone was big... I am sad to be a prophet of disappointment.

[@joshuaharmon6684]

Oh look! The death of a game I still play every day and have for the past year!

[@scyobiempire4450]

Hail fellow player, I trust you are a fellow Rebel and Dovahkiin?

[@joshuaharmon6684]

@@scyobiempire4450 I am an Argonian mercenary with a collection of factotums, dragons and a connection to Sotha Sil, Almalexia, Vivec and Dagoth Ur. Between two decks, most of the quests I'm hired for are close victories. But expert level quests are beyond me

[@scyobiempire4450]

@@joshuaharmon6684 I’m just a Khajiit Rebel of Elswery and Dovahkiin who helped the Dark Brotherhood and has lost 2 accounts.

[@joshuaharmon6684]

@@scyobiempire4450 Ouch. Lost accounts are worse than taking an arrow to both elbows and knees

[@psyhodelik]

Thanks for your Works !! ^^

[@TorturedPee]

I remember the announcement for this game but I honestly didn’t even know it had been released yet.

[@dulmephistoslordofhatred]

I like this game more than hearthstone and the other card games and still play it.

[@stinkbanana2522]

Why has no digital card game done the you-gi-oh thing and show models., they are all so boring

[@dend1]

Legends of Runeterra sorta does this for Champions when they level up. Every one of them gets a 3d animation or brief cinematic

[@gardox3215]

Expensive, and some are going to say "yugi rip-off".

[@Zanryu1337]

MTG:Arena also has this for most of the legendary cards.

[@playremember1178]

Games that do this and are still alive: -Minion masters [ Steam ] (all creatures and spells have 3d models and animations.) -Krozmaga (It's 2d) Games that did this and are now dead: -Rise of Mythos -Summoner's legion -Magic Tactics -Scrolls [Created by minecraft dev(s)] Not exactly 0.

[@WebCamNinja96]

Wizard 101

[@sarcastronaut]

This is a very fair post mortem of a game I still very much enjoy, thank you! I have to add, though, that the community largely rallied behind Sparkypants after the admittedly disastrous launch, and IMO they did a great job rejuvenating the client overall. And I still feel that the current art direction of the game looks more mature and dark than the cartoonish style of HS or Runeterra.

[@linguine4149]

I actually still play this game from time to time. The mechanics and balancing often became an issue in ranked, but for casual play and fucking around with mudcrab decks, it was pretty fun.

[@chadmcintire4128]

The pve content wasn't a large focus. It was used to get cards from the expansions you had to get to be valid in multiplayer.

[@william7yifans]

Im here because people told me i was in the video Edit: im ugly Also rip tesl

[@Bobson_Dugnutt_Esq]

Not gonna lie, "...Direwolf Digital, later Sparkypants Studio" made me chuckle

[@Exigentable]

Thanks for signal boosting Indigo Gaming, i love longform content like he makes.

[@lunarezlycablood1838]

So, the next one is going to be "The Death of Mixer"?

[@-pressxtostart-]

Thats exactly right! 😁

[@InciniumVGC]

26:57 "An Esport probably won't work if the game has less players playing it than the people watching it" oh, you mean like competitive Pokemon VGC? hahaha yeah

[@Youtubin20]

I literally forgot this game even existed until you posted this video.

[@altlover85]

Thanks for this video. I didn't know it was shutting down.

[@LordEcks]

Until I saw the word "Legends" in this title...I thought this was going to be about ESO. You were one word away from a visit from the Morag Tong.....

[@lifebarier]

That does not look like hearthstone. Nor does it look like it after "rework". Maybe I am just stupid.

[@elijahdavila3684]

When you have a digital card game with the player avatars in the center of the screen, a "game board" look, and bouncy "jump up and attack" animations for the cards, it's going to look like Hearthstone to a lot of people.

[@valentingeorgiew1485]

@@elijahdavila3684 It is a very obvious hearthstone clone. The only difference are the lane and rune mechanics.. and the vastly better card design

[@Nat-ri3ip]

And the color system, the absence of class power, the artefacts

[@lifebarier]

@@elijahdavila3684 but.. avatar in middle just mimics how players would be sitting around table game board mimics table with play area decs etc "jump up and attack" is what I would call most obvious animation for that purpose ... It feels like olden days when any 3D shooter was "doom clone" (or was it quake clone? memory getting foggy with age) because "1st person and gun on screen herp derp"

[@christiaanhetzner1193]

@@elijahdavila3684 Like saying monopoly and clue look the same cause cause they both are board games. I didn't like HS when I saw it in App Store and now I like it even less watching the animation. Like for toddlers. One of the things I disliked about Sparkypants at the beginning was the sudden garish colours that would appeal to kids.

[@KingSyilver]

I always manage to find a match within 30 seconds, I wouldn't classify that as dead. Not at all

[@coramswarrior]

This game needs a reboot, sequel, and a paper release

[@ishaankhandelwal7798]

Do u think that Legends of Runeterra will be the next big thing??

[@Aliens1337]

LoR has potential. It’s casual enough for the HS crowd and the LoL player crowd, but with way less RNG. It also looks nice, plays smoothly and you can easily 100% your collection being F2P (easily the most F2P friendly CCG out there). What I don’t get is that Riot didn’t put much effort in advertising the game at all. It seems like this is there side things compared to Valorant and TFT, which is kinda sad. May be the fact that it’s too F2P friendly means it doesn’t make much money for Riot to make it worth the advertisements.

[@leetcw5410]

@@Aliens1337 don't forget riot is still working in 2 other games besides valorant and tft (3 more games).

[@3men219]

It definitely will, the game is extremely consumer friendly, but we all know that's not enough. What makes that game insanely great is the philosophy riot went in with the balance, a card game that's not scared of nerfing op cards and buffing bad ones, even reworking cards that just don't work. And on top of that, the gameplay is extremely engaging, with the initiative system being very innovative. Obviously the art, and music is top notch, as expected from a riot game.

[@3men219]

@@Aliens1337 i don't know how profitable the game is for Riot, but they did advertise it, all the Tales of Runeterra videos were advertising for LoR, even tho it didn't looked like it because LoR shares the same universe as league, so the lore takes priority over the game. But i am extremely thankful that riot went in with that business model, not because i don't have the money to expend on a CCG, but because it completely changes the absolute disgust a lot of games have towards the genre for being a predatory mess

[@caitlyngaucha6244]

i really love TES universe, but i think this game was just made for the "card games hype" with no life or love.

[@sieghardtofcatarina7827]

That's absolutely not true, the storylines, especially the Shivering isles one are really good and made with heart.

[@sieghardtofcatarina7827]

@@adanzavala4801 What should they have done? Minigames? In a card game?

[@Practitioner_of_Diogenes]

@@adanzavala4801 "How dare a group of card game developers make me play a card game in my card game". This ain't Witcher 3, dude. The *card game* is the main focus; it's not a side activity in a much larger game like Gwent is/was.

[@christiaanhetzner1193]

Absolutely not, I love the TES universe too, and I liked learning more about it through characters i had not yet learned about. or more about the differences between Khajit races.

[@boowiebear]

One thing I have noticed after watching this series is that mainstream gaming media seems to give all games either a 7 or 8 regardless if it is good or not.

[@schwaaard]

19:06 - Bucky Barnes had input into Legends?! Unbelievable! -Great video, lots of good information, very well presented. I personally found TESL to be the only CCG I could stick with, and I thought the art was pretty darned good. I do enjoy most of Bilzzard’s artwork, but with Hearthstone, they cartoon-ified it just a bit too much for my taste. Not all TESL art was stellar, but there are a lot of great pieces. In any case, it was a fun ride, and I still poke around with it from time to time.

[@NextBeack]

Meanwhile a child called Legends of Runeterra sit quietly and observed how the genre works.

[@franciscobrisolladeoliveir9596]

I looked at the title and saw Elder Scrolls Online and I actually was weirded out because ESO is quite a big MMO with an expansion that just got released but then I read it right and went "Ah ok. That's fair"

[@dagothur2666]

God I really loved this game I wish it never died. I wasn't much of a card game player when I started in 2018 but that game made me fall in love with it. Never played any other card game since ES Legends don't think I will sadly.

[@rubenbrito4166]

this one hits close to home, i used to play this a looooooot