Our author Jürgen is a new father. There’s little time for gaming, but The Elder Scrolls Online still works quite well. Find out here why the MMORPG is particularly suitable for new parents.
For almost a month, I have been a proud father of a little son. And while the little one makes me so happy, the new family member has an unfavorable effect on my hobbies.
That’s why children are the death of hobbies: Long role-playing sessions are no longer possible, going out for a drink is also off the table for now, and gaming is severely limited.
Between changing diapers, rocking the baby to sleep, feeding the bottle to allow my wife to finally get a few hours of sleep, I also have to handle the whole baby organization, and of course, I still have to manage my job here at MeinMMO.
When I do find some time for myself, I want it to be well spent. And that’s where ESO comes into play!
Three reasons why ESO is currently optimal for people with little time
The following features of ESO are particularly optimal for young parents like me or for people with generally little free time. MMORPGs are usually real time thieves and completely unsuitable for those with scarce time. However, ESO is a bit different.
ESO offers me great rewards for short play sessions
This is how leveling works in ESO: In ESO, you level up almost continuously. Once you reach the maximum level, you will need to advance through Champion Ranks to learn more useful skills and carry better equipment. XP is valuable at all times.
That’s why it’s great in ESO that you have numerous ways to increase XP gains from activities. Anyone who plays the game at least somewhat actively gets constant rewards for logging in.
This is how leveling becomes more fun: Among those rewards are often booster scrolls, which give you at least 50% more XP for an hour.
This allows you to level up a lot faster. Things get even better when one of the many special events is running. At the time of this article, there’s a big 5-year anniversary, where you get an XP booster for 2 hours every day. Perfect to optimally fill that rare playtime.
This is quite enough for me to run a dungeon or do a few quests since I don’t have more than 2 hours anyway, because then my son will be calling for me again, and I have to swap my sword in the game for diapers and pacifiers in real life.
ESO can be played solo and does not require a group
MMORPGs are usually not great for “quick plays” because they are best played in groups with other players. This also holds true for ESO, but the game works just as well as a solo RPG.
If you’re not currently doing a world boss, a dungeon, or a world event, you can just as well venture out solo.
This is particularly ideal when playtime isn’t guaranteed. For me, it often happens that the baby is sleeping but could awaken from his baby dreams at any moment and turn from a sweet little bundle of joy into a roaring fury.
It becomes pretty annoying when you have to keep the newly formed group waiting or even have to leave.
That’s why you can easily take a break in ESO: Since you play ESO more like Skyrim than like WoW, it’s not a problem at all to wander around alone for many hours and get lost in the many whimsical quests.
If the baby becomes active, it’s enough to hide in some corner. Once the baby is calmed down, you can resume the quest you started.
ESO allows me to play in a structured and focused way
Another wonderful feature of ESO is ideal for people with little time and also solves one of the biggest issues that the game has been plagued with for years. Because in ESO, you could easily get lost and run from one quest to another without ever completing any of them.
This is how the zone guide works: This has finally improved with the last major update because ESO now has the new zone guide, a very practical feature that shows you exactly what there’s still to do in the current area and what you haven’t done yet.
Such a structure is extremely important when you want to have a sense of achievement as a player with limited time. Because no one wants to look forward to two hours of free time all day only to end up wandering around aimlessly without accomplishing anything.
That’s why the new feature is so good: With the new feature, you can focus precisely on a task, allowing you to continue the main quest in the area or finally farm all the Mage Guild books in a session.
This way, you can also achieve something targeted with little time and happily and satisfactorily return to the changing table.
So much for my reasons why ESO currently allows me a little bit of my hobby. Can you also recommend games that accommodate your new situation as parents?
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