Current Events > Is Elder Scrolls Online any good? I have a few friends who play it

(+) Yeah! (+)

and they want me to join, but all I see is that this game has an MTX currency, paid expansions, a subscription model, and you gotta purchase the base game which makes me think this is a fuckin scam money milking game.
---

As a huge tes fan, its absolute garbage and drops the ball sometimes when it comes to lore
---

bump
---

I liked doing the quests. it's not skyrim gameplay which I wanted. feels different than it but I was like whatever.

i played for free on eso anniversary. I bought the expansions for like 9.99 but haven't played it for over year.

eso then tells me my license expired for the game. not sure what it means.
---

I remember complaints about how lazy the art is. There's a picture of a quote that's like "the high elf capitol is a sparkling white castle rising into the skies, surrounded by beautiful gardens from another world" and they pan over to the ESO version and it's like a generic grey square stone building
---

and they want me to join, but all I see is that this game has an MTX currency, paid expansions, a subscription model, and you gotta purchase the base game which makes me think this is a fuckin scam money milking game.

It's actually fairly simple - I would love to answer your questions... here's a basic rundown and if you have any more questions please ask.

You get a *shit ton* of content with the base game (three full alliance stories plus PVP and many dungeons, and some other stuff). Each Alliance is comprised of five or six zones - most of those zones have 40+ quests, plus world bosses, plus "delves" (like solo, non-instanced dungeons with bosses), plus a public dungeon (non-instanced dungeons with their own stories and bosses and unique group events), plus "Dolmen" (like global events that are basically just bashing on NPCs for a minute or two).

With expansion packs (like the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood) you get access to even more abilities - with the Thieves Guild you can steal and pickpocket and fence items, with the Dark Brotherhood you get a special ability to kill people with, PLUS they have their own complete storylines, zones, and special daily quests.

Additional content... On average they release a few content packs (which range from adding dungeons to new zones with stories) per year, and they have released two major expansion packs (Morrowind which introduced a new class and Summerset which introduces a new skill tree and the ability to craft jewelry).

Access options...

You can buy these packs individually, OR you can subscribe to the game. A monthly subscription here gives you instant access to all of the expansion content except for Morrowind and Summerset. Additionally, it gives you an unlimited volume material bag (which ... is a huge bonus since there are a ton of crafting materials in the game), permanent XP boosts, AND a monthly stipend of "Crowns" (the shop currency), which is a lot more than what most games give you with a subscription.

Overall it's a very fair model I think - even without a subscription there's a ton of content that would take hundreds of hours to clear.

My personal opinion / rant: Anyway... I'm not even a huge TES fanboy (I've beaten Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim once each and that's it, never fiddled around with mods or anything like that), and ESO is one of three total that have really captured my attention for more than a week. It gives you more freedom to interact with the game world than most MMOs (I haven't played many where you can go around and pickpocket people >_>), the crafting system isn't overly complex but at the same time it requires an investment to really master, and while the quests are sometimes a little redundant, there's still a HUGE amount of them and they feel natural in the game world.

I'd even hazard to say that the writing is better than Skyrim's. You have an affect on the game world, there are actually places that change because of your progress there (for instance, you might do a quest to clear out bandits from a town, and then the townspeople return.) Sometimes there are characters that endure between zones, and your previous decisions change how they act or what they say. It's nothing too major, but it feels good that the game gives you decisions that you *have* to live with because there's no quicksave/quickload in an MMO.

The only aspect that kind of gets monotonous is the combat. You *can* respec to switch roles (costs in-game gold), and there are quite a few skill trees outside the three that each class gets, but it's not a very convenient process and I kind of wish it was more gear based than stat based.

Anyway ... wow sorry for the wall of text.
---

bump
probably gonna get the base game at least to play with my friends
---

Minute posted...

bump
probably gonna get the base game at least to play with my friends

The only potential drawback here is if they are doing pledges (daily dungeon quests) and get a "premium" dungeon that you don't have access to.

You... actually might need a subscription fml to fully enjoy it with them.

Sorry, I approach MMOs from the perspective of friendless loser/loner so I don't mind not having the premium dungeons.
---