On January 27, the content for 2022 was announced for the MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online. The upcoming DLC Update 33 Legacy of the Bretons will introduce account-wide achievements. Sounds good so far, but there is also a downside. MeinMMO author MiezeMelli gives you important insights.
What do account-wide achievements mean? In ESO, you can create up to 18 characters. Until now, achievements have been bound to the character. However, the developers now want to offer achievements account-wide, across characters.
That sounds good at first. You complete a quest and then immediately receive the corresponding achievement account-wide. But there is a catch to it all. And that’s exactly what I want to write about in this article. Because it affects me personally as a passionate ESO player who has been involved in ESO since the beta with a short break (3/4 year).
Veterans feel neglected in ESO. This unfortunately seems to confirm with this change. And I was actually in good spirits when I tuned into the big announcement stream on the official Bethesda channel (via Twitch) on January 27.
The announcement itself lasted about 30 minutes. The Bretons as the focus for the next story didn’t blow me away, but the card game sounded to me like it could be interesting. Only in the post-show were account-wide achievements mentioned as a “Quality of Life” feature.
You can no longer see which character achieved an achievement
And that hit me really like a punch in the face, as I have spent the last years in ESO unlocking achievements on different characters. It is quite frustrating when this gameplay time and the associated effort are simply gone. And this primarily affects long-time players.
But I still tried to think positively, maybe there would still be a way to see on which character you achieved the achievement. That would solve the problem. So I waited until Monday for the new DLC to come to the PTS.
Unfortunately, my concerns were confirmed there, as it is indeed only displayed which character completed an achievement first.
I checked the achievements of two of my characters, both of whom have completed the achievement “Hero of Level 10”. Indeed, it only states that it was completed by one character for both characters.
Reward effect for repeating achievements is missing
Another problem is simply the missing reward effect. Why would players want to repeat content in the future for which the achievement has already been completed? Until now, there was an incentive to repeat these achievements on multiple characters.
It simply still feels good to receive an achievement. It rewards the player. That would simply be eliminated in the future. I see this as a big problem, as ESO could lose its incentive for some players.
Critical voices are increasingly present in the official ESO Stream Team
Not only do I have concerns regarding the new change. There are other voices in the official Stream Team that address problems with account-wide achievements and even upload their own video for it.
NefasQS posted a nearly 18-minute long video on February 3, 2022, in which he addresses various aspects:
From the Stream Team member Skinny Cheeks, there is already a video on January 28, 2022, in which he expresses his concerns.
Account-wide AND character-specific achievements?
Since the changes are well received by part of the community, I believe a solution needs to be found that is fair to all sides. My idea would be, why not simply have both? Account-wide achievements in the sense that the achievement points are cross-character and character-specific achievements so that you can see which character achieved an achievement at which point in time.
A cross-character insight into all achievements would also be a good idea and indeed represents a “Quality of Life” change for all players.
How do you see the planned change? Are you looking forward to it or do you find it rather frustrating? Feel free to let us know in the comments.
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