The Elder Scrolls Online
What is The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) for a game? The MMORPG is part of the “The Elder Scrolls” series, which includes Skyrim. It is developed by Zenimax Online Studios. The focus is on experiencing a story through quests, exploring the game world with friends, and researching the lore.
ESO takes place on the fictional continent of Tamriel, inhabited by races such as Elves, Orcs, Argonians, and Khajiit. The strong fantasy atmosphere that ESO radiates is evident everywhere.
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One
Year of Transformation: 2015
What was ESO’s problem?
When The Elder Scrolls Online launched in 2014, the MMO faced massive technical problems right away. Especially bugs, dupes, gold sellers, and bots caused serious issues for players at launch:
- The gold spam was especially hard to ignore in starting areas. The spam was so extensive that it was almost impossible to put the spammer directly on the ignore list.
- Speed hackers wreaked havoc in PvP areas, gaining an unfair advantage.
- Botters caused severe manipulation in the resource market shortly after the server launch. The raw material availability was extremely scarce for honest players.
Additionally, Zenimax promised something with ESO that the game could not deliver. ESO was marketed as a WoW, but it actually appealed more to single players. At the GameStar it was said about ESO that it was a “game with two faces”:
- Until the end game, the campaign brought joy to many players, despite all the technical difficulties. Here, single players felt particularly comfortable. In the end game, MMORPG fans could not be engaged at all.
- There was too little content offered in the end game, and the MMO features were not mature.
- However, single-player fans also did not feel catered to by ESO. They had no experience with the turbulence that an online game brings at launch. They were shocked and deterred by the technical shortcomings.
It was not clear which target group Zenimax wanted to appeal to here. We summarized the whole situation of ESO back then on MeinMMO, shortly after the release:
The single player fans did not want a hardcore MMORPG. The players would have preferred a Skyrim that they could freely explore together with their friends and play forever.
The Elder Scrolls Online was not “Skyrim Online” at the beginning:
- The game did have the typical Elder Scrolls interface and the regions and races known from Skyrim, Morrowind, and Oblivion.
- However, the game flow never felt like a “real Elder Scrolls game”.
- This was due to strict level limits and the distribution of races among three factions.
- Subscription fees also became an additional barrier.
ESO could have fallen apart due to all these problems. Zenimax seemed not to understand its target audience, and cheaters ruined the fun for the players who were present at that time. A large part of the players disappeared.
How could ESO solve its problem?
How does ESO stand today?
ESO is now considered particularly friendly for MMORPG beginners, as some genre-typical components have been removed. It now plays almost like a single-player role-playing game that can also be played with friends.
The Elder Scrolls Online is one of the most popular MMORPGs today and continues to perform well on consoles:
The game receives regular updates with new, large expansions that bring new areas and storylines to explore. The next one is the new expansion Elsweyr in June 2019 .
Elsweyr will turn ESO upside down. Major chapters such as Morrowind and Summerset were standalone, completed addons. In 2019, Elsweyr heralds the “Year of the Dragons“.
The theme of “Dragons” will be covered throughout the year. Every new content is supposed to advance the “Year of the Dragons” throughout the year and thus ensure long-term motivation.
