whutevausai: "Play how you want" has long turned into "Play how you're told": from player builds to zones to play in and activities to do.

ESO relies a little too much on player's fear of missing out.

There is a two-week-long event, and nobody knows when it will return, and if rewards are ever going to be available a ticket cap, so you can't just hoard them.

There are crown crates with unpredictable rotation, and there are Endeavours that barely ever yield more than 45 seals per day - more like 30, and one still has to go out of their way to earn them.

Then there are Golden Pursuits - a limited time to-do list with unique rewards.

Most rewards are bound, I can't just buy them from players who actually enjoy grinding events and go do something else instead.

So, even before the Golden Pursuits, the majority of my playtime was spent on stupid chores, each one is small and meaningless, but in total they would eat 2 hours a day and leave me miserable. That's what my last 3 years of ESO were like, with an occasional quest in between. Because I felt like doing Battlegrounds, but Endeavours called for plants and world bosses instead. I wanted to farm this specific gear set - oh no, there's an event on the opposite side of Tamriel. Here comes Mayhem again - but with all the chores, I never found the time to figure out an actual PvP build, and now I have to survive the insane gankfest somehow. And I don't have time nor energy to do surveys, to quest, to play around with builds, to discover new things, to delve into something fun, to goof with players, to do anything that's not on the to-do list of the day, or else I won't get the shiny.

I want to choose how to have my fun. Without having to make sacrifices.

thomaschapman448: All the players have been screaming at zos for years ...we both know it's because they simply don't listen and keep making bad choices

Aaronsplace: It absolutely is dying slowly. They prioritize getting inside our wallets over crossplay, overland rework etc

Ragesauce: The death is coming more from the fact that ESO is making literal BILLIONS and not addressing people's concerns, like upgrading servers, ignoring pvp, oversaturating gear, bugs that have been around for years, and neglecting guild QoL options.

I can tell you a significant drop in player retention happened as soon as they messed with the guild traders and reduced the listing time to 14 days for sales as well as the messages to collect those sales. A lot of people had enough and left.

The biggest to me is the nerf on carrying items unless you have ESO they intentionally gimp you and try to sell you the solution. Most players want to have a character capable of being a tank, a DPS, or a healer whenever they need to, but you have to carry each of these sets around taking up precious inventory space. Wanna do PVP? Well you gotta have space for that too, PLUS all the siege items too. It gets exhausting trying to manage the inventory in this way. How great would it be if you could store your builds with the gear in a separate inventory within the armory slot so it doesn't take up your main? How great would it be if the craft bag was simply an earnable reward unlock to carry all the 100's of minerals the game without needing the subscription? Things like this really piss off players that know they are getting hosed into paying monthly just to play the game, and I can tell you doubling the inventory/bank does not come close to fixing the problem.

Another big issue is buying things with real money and having extremely poor customer support surrounding it. If a problem occurs, it's about a 50/50 chance support will help with the issue right away, you have to pester them for weeks before you reach someone that gives a damn.

I also think it's ridiculous that they offer costumes for real money, but you CANNOT CHANGE THEIR COLOR without paying for ESO that's absurd! If you buy the costume, it should be yours, period! Allow it to be customizable!

There are 100 other small issues that add up to a bigger picture that I could go over but those are some of the main gripes that come to mind.

ccb2757: Eso to me is like that extremely talented athlete that just never reached their full potential. Its a good game that if it would have some tweaks and proper mgt could have been an all time great game.

Glare108: Just hopped back in after a 4 year break, and have really been enjoying all the story content I missed. High Isle and Galen were incredibly beautiful.

SaltCitizen: As a new player I’ve been enjoying the shit out of it

Artremis2441: Deltia!!!!!! We need you and your crazy builds back man

Thekillerdeuce: They need to update or bring more to Cyrodil. PvP Cyrodil and Sewers was my jam. But now it’s just dead

Sniperjones_007: ESO is still very good in 2025. But what I miss the most is class identity and class diversity. This is basically the only time I’ll say diversity is a good thing lol. I miss when classes were unique and had character. But now with homogenization each class feels the exact same with very slight differences. I think it’s time for ZOS to pass on ESO to another studio that clearly will have more passion and focus towards the future of ESO and is more open to community feedback which after 10 years ZOS has yet to prove they can.

RunnelsESO: The fact they made “ranked BGs” and kept the existing leaderboard system is a slap in the face.

terrible1fi: the single biggest issue is that overland difficulty is brain dead easy. once that is fixed, the game will be revitalized imo. throw in crossplay as well and the game will be popping again

jonronton: I stoppped playing the is year after playing since beta. I've loved the game for over ten years but I'm tired of the constant rebalancing of different classes, never ending change of new gear / build combo that will get you through, tried and tested stuff getting nerfed, and dull PvP. I might drop in now and again but nothing they have planned for 2025 inspires me to keep playing. Oh also, I've spent a lot of money on ESO in the last ten years but I'm taking my ££££s elsewhere rather than Elsweyr

kermidiu4390: One of the biggest faults with ESO is that its just too solo-able. ZOS needs to create more incentive for players to socialize and work together and meet each other without handicapping us if we don't.

DarkParadeHF: ESO is a dead game to me and has been for years. How many years of ignoring player feedback to make the game better before people legit give up? ESO has been nothing but a money grab for a long time now. I used to be a huge fan of the game helping run an active trader guild but the game literally turned into nothing but grinding the same vanilla content over and over because that had the highest payout for your time. None of the new content was really ever that rewarding or fun in all honesty.

Praetorax: Good to see you again deltia. Hope you and your family are doing great. Missed you and your beautiful voice a lot. Hope to see you picking the game and streaming back up soon

MAOofDC: Something you didn't talk about but might be an indication that they are looking into the cross platform play is the introduction of add ons for consoles.

robhiro: The game needs CROSSPLAY and cross progression. Console is dying. Xbox is healthier but still dying. Matchmaking is a paij

XxHybridFreakxX: I'm a long time player that took a 4 and a half year break from the game and just recently came back. Overall it more or less feels like the same game with all the same issues as before but with less players overall now. I'm still having fun with the game but it's disappointing to see so many problems left unfixed after all this time.

deadohiosky1701: There's no doubt in my mind that the downward spiral began when they accelerated changes that forced players to constantly grind and re-grind to keep up with meta/near-meta while implementing some crappy changes that made things less fun and more mind-numbing. Then doubled-down with update 35. It's a shame because I miss the social community I was apart of, but I just have better things to do with my life.

wardropper: The only things that need fixing are the combat bug, the pull feature that ball groups are using 24/7 and the server overload when 60 players show up at the same place. The rest is fixed by players developing their skills. Oh, and of course by rooting out the fair number of cheaters - PERMANENTLY. (Yes, we all know that they support each other by telling decent players to “git gud”…)

Sandnessen: I played in the beta, and I racked up over 3500 hours over 7-8 years before I moved on. I loved the game, and have so many good memories from it, but, yeah... :3

Zenithiira: Been following you since the beginning of elder scrolls and this was great to hear how the game has changed! Since I was a console player and then switched to pc and it really is a huge struggle when you cant switch your character over from Playstation to PC, all the hours, money and dedication lost.. I truly love this game, I wish they made it easier for new players switching over.

behman4342: As someone who has played ESO from the beginning, I was surprised that when I started playing again, after everything there’s still no Mimi map! But everything still feels good. And being able to use a Xbox controller is cool. All the DLC’s that have come out is crazy. Still love ESO.

daniceman8277: I've been off for months now. I honestly not missing it right now.

marcito9928: One thing that is often not mentioned is the language barrier. As a brazilian, I have never been successful to introduce ESO to my friends. Even though you can change the language through mods, Zenmax can’t just expect that every new player that doesn’t speak English is going to have the will to go so far to play their game

Also, I would love flying mounts and guild wars in eso, like a weekend event with reward for the winning guilds and stuff

Rionmac82: Heres a tip. Get rid of the time gate daily mount skill improvement system. Let players improve them as long as they have the currency OR keep the system but make it account wide for all mounts. Its a small but VERY annoying feature.

Mar 24 2025

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