The Ultimate Compendium for ESO Blackwood
148 pages of guides for newcomers and returning players, including a free extra: ESO base game, Morrowind, and 25% off Blackwood at Gamesplanet.
What I don’t like about ESO
1. Strangers can be annoying
While exploring dungeons, defeating bosses, or just wandering the world with friends is a lot of fun, it can be really annoying when you need help from strangers. I admit I am not the perfect player. I don’t really play by builds or look for sets. Still, I expect camaraderie and coordination from a group.
But when you are teamed up with players who have no clue at all or who may just want to mess around – which is sometimes hard to distinguish – then motivation goes down the drain.
I expect no perfect builds down to the smallest detail, but just good group play. You have to rely on each other. Whoever plays a damage dealer should also fulfill that role.
It is sometimes hard to find a good group consisting of strangers in ESO because the game doesn’t introduce newcomers well. That’s why I prefer to go out with friends or alone.
2. The main quests could be better
How can you tell that ESO is a real Elder Scrolls? Because the side quests are usually cooler than the main mission. To be honest, hardly any Elder Scrolls has managed to tell a main story that is really interesting and surprising. With the exception of Daggerfall maybe. Because nothing is as it seems. But usually, it’s about defeating a villain. Whether it’s the dark magician Jagar Tharn in The Elder Scrolls: Arena, Mehrunes Dagon in The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, or King Svargrim in ESO: Greymoor.
You just get the feeling you are playing the same main quest over and over: villain appears, threatens something or someone, and is defeated in the end. But in such a creative field as video games, there should be opportunities to try something different than always just the main quest with an end boss at the end.
That’s why I don’t play ESO to enjoy the main story, but because of the small stories happening around it. They motivate me more because they seem much more creative to me.
3. ESO doesn’t take enough risks
I am aware that MMORPGs are often played like a treadmill, and that many enjoy it. Repeatable quests, reliability regarding builds, boss monsters that you can defeat over and over again… This consistency in what an MMORPG offers is important to some fans and the reason to keep coming back. It creates a sense of familiarity.
However, I expect more from a game. For me, an evolution is part of it. Maybe I’m spoiled here, but when I think back to the Ultima series, each installment offered a lot of newness. The individual games differed significantly in gameplay, without completely overhauling the core – the role-playing.
I don’t expect ESO to completely redesign the combat system like it did between Ultima 6 and 7. But I would simply wish for a bit more courage. With the new Champion Point system, the developers already moved in what I think is the right direction.
I would like new gameplay systems that surprise and motivate me. For example, taming wild animals or having an army of NPCs help me build a fortress, like in Conan Exiles. Those are just quick examples. What really comes to ESO would have to fit well into the game.
But at the moment, ESO plays a bit too safe for me and offers the familiar in a new guise. A bit more courage for completely new things would motivate me a lot more. When I just get new quests in new areas with a new end boss with each addon, then a kind of routine quickly sets in that is not far from boredom. And ESO should be anything but boring.
What do you like about ESO and what don’t you like? Let us know in the comments.
The MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online is very successful. Meanwhile, the director said: “None of us thought that the MMORPG would still be this successful after 7 years”.
MeinMMO author Andreas Bertits has been with the MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) since the beta. He shares what he particularly enjoys about the online role-playing game and what annoys him.
For me, The Elder Scrolls Online is currently the best MMORPG. But that doesn’t mean I love every feature unconditionally. Even with games I really like, there are things that annoy me.
Therefore, today I present 3 things about ESO that I really like, but also some aspects that bother me.
What I like about ESO
1. I can also play alone
MMORPGs are a social gaming experience and usually the most fun when you are out with friends. Of course, there are exceptions to that, which I’ll get to later.
It’s just not always possible to be online when friends have time. I am married, have three children, and a full-time job, so there’s simply not as much time left to play as there was during my studies. Especially, I am not as flexible as I used to be. I can’t just quickly agree when a friend messages me asking if I feel like doing a dungeon run.
Therefore, it does happen from time to time that I am out alone, and I also have a lot of fun doing that in ESO.
ESO is an MMORPG where I have no problems quickly mastering a quest, when I am alone. I even played it quite far alone at the time of release.
2. I love the many stories in the quests
I am a player for whom experiencing exciting adventures while playing is very important. Story is more important to me than gameplay. I can forgive a weak combat system or a complex skill system in a game, but if the story doesn’t appeal to me or the quests are too monotonous, then I’m out.
I want to lose myself in the virtual world, learn more about its history, and experience adventures that captivate me in front of the screen. I want to get to know the NPCs and maybe stumble upon a surprise in the story. Longer dialogues don’t bother me, even if I had to read them instead of only hearing them.
You can tell that The Elder Scrolls Online comes from a single-player series that places great value on stories and quests. Therefore, the focus is also on this area in ESO.
And so, it’s exactly the right MMORPG for me to provide me with exciting stories.
3. PvP and PvE are separate
It is not a given nowadays that developers separate PvP and PvE. It is somewhat understandable that developers want to put players in risky situations to obtain the most valuable rewards. The so-called “Risk versus Reward” system works quite well. Just not, for me, when PvP and PvE are mixed.
I have no desire to be in the middle of a quest or gathering resources and then suddenly be attacked by other players. That’s why I like the system of ESO. If I want to experience PvP, I can either challenge another player to a duel, which the player must accept, or I can travel to Cyrodiil and participate in the Alliance Wars.
If I don’t want to do PvP in ESO, I don’t have to, and I can leisurely enjoy the world of Tamriel, the quests, and the stories.
The Ultimate Compendium for ESO Blackwood
148 pages of guides for newcomers and returning players, including a free extra: ESO base game, Morrowind, and 25% off Blackwood at Gamesplanet.
What I don’t like about ESO
1. Strangers can be annoying
While exploring dungeons, defeating bosses, or just wandering the world with friends is a lot of fun, it can be really annoying when you need help from strangers. I admit I am not the perfect player. I don’t really play by builds or look for sets. Still, I expect camaraderie and coordination from a group.
But when you are teamed up with players who have no clue at all or who may just want to mess around – which is sometimes hard to distinguish – then motivation goes down the drain.
I expect no perfect builds down to the smallest detail, but just good group play. You have to rely on each other. Whoever plays a damage dealer should also fulfill that role.
It is sometimes hard to find a good group consisting of strangers in ESO because the game doesn’t introduce newcomers well. That’s why I prefer to go out with friends or alone.
2. The main quests could be better
How can you tell that ESO is a real Elder Scrolls? Because the side quests are usually cooler than the main mission. To be honest, hardly any Elder Scrolls has managed to tell a main story that is really interesting and surprising. With the exception of Daggerfall maybe. Because nothing is as it seems. But usually, it’s about defeating a villain. Whether it’s the dark magician Jagar Tharn in The Elder Scrolls: Arena, Mehrunes Dagon in The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, or King Svargrim in ESO: Greymoor.
You just get the feeling you are playing the same main quest over and over: villain appears, threatens something or someone, and is defeated in the end. But in such a creative field as video games, there should be opportunities to try something different than always just the main quest with an end boss at the end.
That’s why I don’t play ESO to enjoy the main story, but because of the small stories happening around it. They motivate me more because they seem much more creative to me.
3. ESO doesn’t take enough risks
I am aware that MMORPGs are often played like a treadmill, and that many enjoy it. Repeatable quests, reliability regarding builds, boss monsters that you can defeat over and over again… This consistency in what an MMORPG offers is important to some fans and the reason to keep coming back. It creates a sense of familiarity.
However, I expect more from a game. For me, an evolution is part of it. Maybe I’m spoiled here, but when I think back to the Ultima series, each installment offered a lot of newness. The individual games differed significantly in gameplay, without completely overhauling the core – the role-playing.
I don’t expect ESO to completely redesign the combat system like it did between Ultima 6 and 7. But I would simply wish for a bit more courage. With the new Champion Point system, the developers already moved in what I think is the right direction.
I would like new gameplay systems that surprise and motivate me. For example, taming wild animals or having an army of NPCs help me build a fortress, like in Conan Exiles. Those are just quick examples. What really comes to ESO would have to fit well into the game.
But at the moment, ESO plays a bit too safe for me and offers the familiar in a new guise. A bit more courage for completely new things would motivate me a lot more. When I just get new quests in new areas with a new end boss with each addon, then a kind of routine quickly sets in that is not far from boredom. And ESO should be anything but boring.
What do you like about ESO and what don’t you like? Let us know in the comments.
The MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online is very successful. Meanwhile, the director said: “None of us thought that the MMORPG would still be this successful after 7 years”.
