Plotting the Future of ESO’s Endgame

The Elder Scrolls Online community has been incensed with conversation focusing on the game’s current endgame, its shortcomings, and what the future will hold. Sparking new life into debates over the two pillars of the current endgame design – the Champion System, which is widely criticized for its rampant power creep, and Veteran Ranks, the unpopular post-level cap levels which were already promised to be in the process of being removed from the game – was the news that before it gets better, things are going to get worse, as the VR cap will be raising once again to VR16 in Update 7.

A Farewell to TESO

Even after writing this post, I still question whether or not I should press the publish button. Leaving a game you care for is hard, but explaining it to others without coming off poorly is much, much harder. My intent here is not to bash the game, its creators, or to lobby for change, but…

Broken Spirit: Templar Changes in TESO

There’s been plenty of discussion in the TESO community discussing recent changes made to Restoring Spirit, a core Templar class mechanic for magicka sustainability. As a veteran rank Templar player in the PTS closed beta test, I wanted to try to shed some light on the issue by sharing my experience with the class and the…

Collectibles and Non-Combat Progression in TESO

Thinking back to my experience with MMORPGs, I’ve wondered about the factors that really aid player retention. What are the things that really keep people attached to a game? What do the biggest successes of the genre have that other games don’t? First let’s look at what MMORPGs are centered around – enhancing your character.…

Hobo Gamer: The Elder Scrolls Online

If you’re reading this, then the NDA has been lifted, which means it’s time to give you all my comprehensive thoughts on The Elder Scrolls Online – and I do mean comprehensive; get comfortable now, because this is going to be a long one. I will undoubtedly talk about some stuff you don’t care about in this review. That is to be expected, but I would encourage you to at least skim those sections, because you never know when I’m going to talk about the design of core combat mechanics in a section on immersion and roleplay (I actually did this).

M for Mature: An Opportunity

This Wednesday morning, The Elder Scrolls Online team announced via Facebook and other social media outlets that the game has been assigned a Mature rating by the ESRB, the organization whose age recommendations are generally accepted within the United States of America.

ESO and the Resurgence of the Social Economy

A few days ago I was speaking with TESO Elite’s Garbrac as he wrote his own article on the economics of The Elder Scrolls Online. We had just learned that public guild stores were only to be available through keep ownership, a limitation we both agreed will prove severely limiting towards the ability of guilds to hawk their wares to the general public. Over the course of our discussion, we agreed that the lack of accessibility to sellers and lack of predictability to buyers will ultimately see the public guild stores become a lesser-used facet of the game’s economy; a more expanded discussion on this subject can be found in his article, which I recommend reading before continuing as the article below is heavily based on the line of reasoning outlined therein.

The Errant Penman

Tag Archives: TESO