16 Responses to ESO: Well that was quick

1. carson63000 says:

   April 18, 2015 at 4:57 pm

   Some tasty white-knighting in the comments on that article.

   “It is better than a huge ad window in your face everytime you log into a game and it is once per day to advertise a limited mount. I am really not seeing an issue here.”

   “I think it’s acceptable, honestly. Providing it’s not used for third parties, which would be utter folly as I believe they well know, then it’s just a way to monetise the game.”

   “I don’t see anything wrong with this if its just once per day, or upon login if you missed the announcement.”

   “Gonna be honest…I don’t see the problem. I don’t see how it’s immersion breaking”
   • DeepSleeper says:

     April 20, 2015 at 6:47 am

     “White Knighting” of course used in this case to mean “Disagreeing with you”.
2. Wilhelm Arcturus says:

   April 18, 2015 at 5:31 pm

   Does TESO not have a launcher where it could advertise these things?

   The problem here is that, yeah, once per day, I’ve seen worse… I just haven’t seen somebody jump to this quite so soon after conversion.
3. Frosth says:

   April 18, 2015 at 6:48 pm

   Eso is my only buyer’s remorse ever.

   I really believed them when they advertised so aggressively about being and staying sub.
   It was becoming a better and better game by the patch and was a credit to the model…

   And then they derped, and now this.
   What a waste.
4. Silverangel says:

   April 18, 2015 at 8:46 pm

   This is horrible. Just when I was getting back into this game. The white knights in that thread (I couldn’t say this in the OF, of course), are just as pathetic.

   This garbage is the reason I never played Neverwinter after beta.

   Just so disappointing to see Zenimax/Bethesda stoop so low. If I have to see this in game, I will uninstall, just like with Neverwinter. And like I said with LotRO, if the subscription would simply remove having to see the ads, that’s the only way I can keep playing through this.
5. anon says:

   April 18, 2015 at 10:49 pm

   Lockboxes by the end of the year? Sooner? What’s your thoughts?
   • SynCaine says:

     April 19, 2015 at 10:08 am

     I mean, if you are this quick to spam your players with F2P ads, I don’t see why you would hold off on all of the other typical F2P MMO garbage, so I’d say sooner.
6. John says:

   April 19, 2015 at 1:09 am

   I will be a “White Knight” too. I never liked ESO and did not bought it or subscribed to it and it seems that not too many did so. So the game just as 90% of MMOs the last decade have dropped the sub model sadly and now is on the B2P/F2P one.

   Now what do you expect from a F2P/B2P game?They must make money and so they have to advertise things however they like. If people liked the game they should have subbed to it to stay as sub instead of waiting for it in the corner to fail and become a sub game (as new generation of gamers do the last decade).

   So now those hippies, that didn’t pay the sub from the start and waiting for the game to be “free”, now complaign because they now enjoy so much the game and are so much immersed in the world that the advertisement turns them off…

   I say, if you don’t want advertisements, pay your subs. If you play B2P/F2P games then don’t whine about advertisements. Is that simple. The only thing I would have accepted in these situations is a premium membership (subscription) with the option to turn off advertisements.
   • Frosth says:

     April 20, 2015 at 7:02 am

     The issue here is that the switch was ill advised and made regardless of what the playerbase was doing.

     We know from steam activity charts that the game had stabilised and was growing again. The sub model was working out well enough.

     This change is sinking the game, and those adverts, while to be expected, came way too early compared to what was announced. It’s just a more concrete proof of failure.
7. Malede says:

   April 19, 2015 at 1:47 am

   I don’t see how it’s such a sad state of affairs when a bad MMO turns F2P. These kind of ads are really bad… not overall LOTRO bad yet though.

   Despite some good patches ESO wasn’t and still doesn’t seem to have elevated itself above the murky underswamp of themepark clones, the sort from where it took all its core gameplay ideas. It’s hard to reach the clouds when you have no legs anyway.
   • Frosth says:

     April 20, 2015 at 7:11 am

     I see your point. It’s a hard pill to swallow that eso was not made as a sandbox game.

     But what it did, it did it well. Great storytelling for an mmo, above average combat system and one of the best build system I’ve seen.

     The playerbase was solid thanks to that. Some sources mentionned 720k subs at some point, and if you compare the steam activity charts then to right before the b2p anouncement, you can estimate 420k subs.
     Even 3 times less than that would be a positice cashflow for zos, as the equivalent of 83k subs is a positive cash flow for funcom, a studio of similar size.

     The sad state of affair is that we can see executives will switch to b2p/f2p regardless of what the game is doing. It’s even worse when a game had a slowly growing audience.
8. brannagar says:

   April 19, 2015 at 6:44 am

   I bought the game at release and stopped playing after a month because of the bugs. I came back about a month and a half before it went B2P and found the game much better. Less bugs, more stable and it was a lot of fun.

   I have played almost every day since it went B2P, normally for 2-4 hours a day and I have seen these messages twice. Both times they posted in multiple languages and it took about 15-20 seconds before they were done.

   I just don’t see the problem. Yeah, I wish they would do it in a bit less intrusive a manner but once or twice a day just does not bother me.

   It would be different if they were doing it constantly or if the items in the cash shop were pay to win stuff but, so far, it is not. If they change to pay to win, I am out. But, right now, the only thing in the shop is visual costumes, crafting motifs, mounts, non-combat pets and a few minor potions. The crafting motifs are just cosmetic crafting items and the potions can be obtained in game or crafted and the in game and crafted stuff is better than what you can get in the shop.

   Really, this has been the best cash shop that I have seen in a B2P or F2P MMO. I am just not going to make a big deal of an advertisement, once per day on the screen. Much ado about nothing at this point.
   • Frosth says:

     April 20, 2015 at 7:22 am

     You should be alarmed. Historically, b2p/f2p mmos make less revenue than subs. Even the p2w ones.

     That eso is already desperate enough to go back on something they said they wouldn’t do is a bad sign for the game’s future. Heck, just the fact you consider the shop to be fine is a bad sign.

     Enjoy current eso as much as you can. Because it won’t last.
     • brannagar says:

       April 20, 2015 at 10:14 pm

       What did they go back on? Are you referring going from sub to B2P? Hell, everyone knew it was going to happen. Especially once the console versions came out. Microsoft does not play well with others and I am fairly certain they didn’t want a sub only MMO either.

       Regardless, most of us knew it was going to happen.

       How does me feeling the cash shop is fine a bad sign? A cash shop with most of the items being purely cosmetic is great for me. The few items that are not cosmetic are mediocre potions. I am fine with that.

       The better sign is that stuff is actually selling in the cash shop. I see hordes of people running around on the new panther mount. I see a ton of people running around in some of the costumes.

       I am subbed and I have purchased a mount, a pet and a costume, though most of the crowns for the purchase came from my monthly allotment of crowns I get for being subbed.

       Sure, things could change and they could fuck the cash shop all up. But it has not happened yet. When or if it does, I will leave. Until then I am having fun, the cash shop is not impacting gameplay and I can put up with a single ad a day for a cash shop item.
       • Frosth says:

         April 21, 2015 at 8:28 am

         In my comment I was referencing the promises of no in game ads as something they went back on. But you’re right, they did aggressively advertised the game as staying sub and they did go back on that by “community demand”.
         Whether we could see them coming or not, either instance is a broken promise and is cause for distrust.
         When will the “no p2w” promise be broken?
         I’d say it’s already broken, the 10% xp bonus is already p2w, especially with ho the champion points are earned. Some booster potions have already been mentionned by the staff too. Some skill lines were planned as DLC (thieve and dark brotherhood) and crafting styles are economic power for those that would have bought them with gold.

         That you consider the shop to be fine means that you don’t see much you want to buy in it, or you’ve already bought it. What else will you pay? What would someone less “in love” with the game pay? It just means that by being somewhat “fair”, their shop will not bring them revenue.
         Keep in mind we won’t see any DLC for a few months still, so the lul in revenue will be of 6 months for eso, at least. And the box sales didn’t go well. Steam activity charts only show 150% more activity, which is not enough to make a f2p/b2p model gain as much as a sub model.

         And finally, consoles are not an issues to have a sub. Console players pay subscription in the form of “all access passes”, most of those interested in mmos would already be paying live or psn sub and we know from other games that subscription would work. There are literally no competition for ESo on xbox, so they could have dictated the price and have a sub. Just look at ffxiv’s success on playstation alone. Heck, even DCUO is succesful due to lack of competition.

         This decision to switch to b2p had nothing to do with microsoft or any consoles, it was just a short term strategy for investors to get their money back an move on to other projects.
         As we now know, they failed their exit strategy.

         As I said, enjoy the game while it lasts. It is a great game now and as we’ve seen with the free week end for beta testers, people are noticing the improvement and buying the game. But just don’t expect any similar improvements in the futur.
         I personnaly can’t invest time in a game I know I’ll lose my progress eventually.

9. Pingback: Elder Scrolls Online: Gone To The Dark Side | Kitty Kitty Boom Boom

Comments are closed.