The Elder Scrolls® Online

Game was fun when it first came out and now it seems like a macro hack fest for pvp.

Did it all, emperor, main story, ect.... have to pay to play or u are gimped.

They went the path of the darkside, greed rules all, same irl.

this game feels so robotic and generic compared to other elder scrolls games. every quest felt arbitrary and it was impossible to lose a fight

Endless story and adventures to keep your mind preoccupied for hours.

Fun game, really enjoyable combat. Basically Skyrim Online. Love the flexibility of character building, the way fact that so many skills are accessed through weapon choice and secondary mechanics. Also love the fact that all professions are accessible if you're willing to put the time into them, it's not like WoW where you can only have two at a time. I've honestly had a lot more fun with it than I expected, so did my friend who has been playing it constantly. The environments are also beautiful and really imaginative, just a really great escape all around.

lots of fun and it works with low graphics on mac

veary beautiful game i fell in love with the controls and eveything els fell in place idk what to say jus one of one and now that im getting into the storyline its so much to know and to do

Se eu recomendo ESO? É complicado...

Resumo: Se você ama a franquia The Elder Scrolls, gosta da estrutura de questing clássica dos MMOs e adora acompanhar a história (que é toda, até a menor quest, voice acted) vale muito experimentar o jogo. Se você é fascinado por um PvP frenético e de alta qualidade (e não se importa de gastar um rim pra ter acesso a todo conteúdo do jogo) também vale muito a pena. Se o seu foco é PVE em grupo, como dungeons e raids, o jogo também oferece uma experiência bacana (que custa um rim, rs), mas acredito que tenham outros MMOs melhores para isso no mercado. Agora se você é um solo player APENAS, você vai estar perdendo as partes mais bacanas do jogo, mas também tem bastante conteúdo pra se fazer solo. E caso decida embarcar nessa aventura, lembre-se: A Bethesda cria os problemas do jogo pra poder te vender as soluções depois. Se dinheiro não é um problema, seja feliz.

Os prós: apesar do que muitos faladores comentam, acredito que o combate do jogo seja um dos pontos fortes. O action combat do ESO, pra mim, é como um sucessor espiritual do DDO, no início pode parecer meio estranho, mas conforme você vai entendo como tirar o máximo de animation cancel, o negócio vai ficando bem recompensador e divertido. Eu não acho que as main stories do ESO sejam as melhores entre os MMOs, mas elas são consistentemente boas. Pra quem aprecia as partes mais clássicas de um RPG, é muito fácil ficar imerso no jogo, mesmo com as quests mais simples, tudo por conta do excelente voice acting e pequenas histórias contadas através das quests. Outro ponto positivo do jogo é o PVP. Claro que esse é um tópico tão pessoal quanto o c*, mas na minha opinião, esse é disparado o melhor PVP no mercado de MMOs (se você não levar em consideração o rim que está abrindo mão pra jogar isso aqui). E por último gostaria de enaltecer a liberdade que se tem pra buildar nesse jogo (claro, se você tiver aberto mão do seu carro para financiar todas DLCs e pagar o Plus). No ESO você pode desbloquear e upar diversas skill lines e misturá-las no seu kit da maneira que achar melhor, te possibilitando buildar quase qualquer coisa, é quase como um ARPG nesse sentido.

Os contras: Eu já comentei como é caro jogar esse jogo? Falando sério agora, com a mais nova atualização de 10 anos de ESO, você consegue comprar todas expansões por 250 Lulas, um preço razoavelmente acessível. Se parasse por aí tava tudo bem, mas o jogo ainda conta com dezenas de DLCs que você deve comprar com cash ou liberar acesso pagando a mensalidade de míseros 50 reais. Continuando nesse tópico, a mensalidade também te garante a crafting bag para armazenar todos os materiais que você vai utilizar no crafting, sem o Plus todos esses materiais vão pra bag normal, tornando sua vida IMPOSSÍVEL. Agora que já falamos sobre o elefante na sala, vamos falar sobre os problemas que eu vejo no jogo em si. O primeiro deles é a falta de identidade de classes (isso pode não ser um problema pra vc). Como temos a liberdade de buildar utilizando todas skill lines que temos acesso, muitas vezes as classes podem parecer mais ou menos a mesma coisa (acredito que poderiam introduzir mecânicas únicas de cada classe, fora as skills). Apesar do jogo ter uma história riquíssima, muitos assets do jogo são excessivamente reutilizados e você acaba passando por lugares e dungeons diferentes com a sensação de que já passou por ali antes. Apesar do jogo ter um mapa GIGANTESCO, parece que a zenimax não criou sistemas e eventos suficientes que te incentivem explorar mais do mapa, de maneira orgânica, como é no GW2, por exemplo. Então muita gente acaba com a sensação da única utilidade do mapa ser fazer as quests e upar de level, muito parecido com World of Warcraft (e considero isso um desperdício de conteúdo e tempo de desenvolvimento). Outro ponto negativo é o conteúdo da história ter uma dificuldade absolutamente trivial. Não acho que deveria ser difícil, mas pelo menos me deixar com medo de morrer vez ou outra (não se preocupem que no PVE em grupo e PVP tem dificuldade até demais as vezes, rs).

Wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle.

I did enjoy walking around the areas I had access to, and there were a few "Oh it's that character, fun!" moments throughout the story.

But so many parts of this game are locked behind paid content, even if you have ESO+, and it is not worth a monthly subscription + the price of DLC.

The combat is a lamer version of Elder Scrolls mainline games, though the varied enemy types are appreciated. The crafting, guilds, currencies, etc. are all incredibly confusing. I found myself Googling something every fifteen minutes while playing.

It just gets boring so quick. The style of combat actually is to its detriment, as something like LOTRO or Runescape feels clunky, so its okay that the UI is clunky. The combat in this game makes you expect a smooth gameplay experience, but there is nothing smooth about inventory management, submenus, etc.

Go download more mods for Morrowind / Oblivion / Skyrim and play a better game!

With a few thousand hours logged across all platforms, I can confidently say that The Elder Scrolls Online is an amazing MMO that excels in early and mid-game experiences. If you enjoy questing with a group of friends and prefer a more casual approach, ESO delivers a memorable adventure through its expansive world and engaging content.

However, the endgame can feel a bit stale. The constant cycle of dailies, writs, and trials—along with extended queue times—starts to wear thin once you reach the high-level content. For those who are budget conscious, my recommendation is to pick up the game when it goes on sale (around $5) to get the most value.

On a less positive note, the crowns store and expansions have become a significant pain point. The microtransactions, particularly the crates for radiant mounts, can easily add up to over $200. Additionally, many expansions feel like rehashes of previous content, offering similar quests and sky shards without much innovation.

In summary, ESO remains a fantastic choice for players who value cooperative, casual gameplay. However, if you're someone who craves fresh challenges in endgame or is wary of escalating in-game costs, it might be worth waiting for a sale or exploring other options.

While it's an older game, Zenimax does a great job of adding new content into Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) fairly consistently. They don't just add "skins", but new features and functionality without disrupting the base gameplay. There is something for everyone here, from casual gamers to hardcore.

The only downside is that the ESO plus subscription is pretty much required unless you want to do nothing other than manage a very small inventory.

If you like games like world of war craft and wizard 101 you would probably like this too, nothing like previous titles combat or story wise.

Trying to gift crown store items is not wanted by the game dev's and is a option i don't play much but wanted to gift crown items to my friend and the task you have to be allowed to gift is trivial. It helps no one but them and adds a wall to the game that's not needed. Plus the game feel is no wano. same effect spamming one spell as pushing most others. Wish they learned more from other games or kept it like sky rim more. There is zero power fantasy as well lvl 1 damage 4000, lvl 50 damage 4000. huge numbers at lvl one...... odd. Bloated and zero feeling of progression or identity between classes. The freedoms cool but the lack of reason to use a "Staff spell" over a class one hurts. The game has not changed much at all in the time and change is good.

A Massive, Ever-Expanding Elder Scrolls Adventure
If you've ever wanted to explore Tamriel with friends (or solo), The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) is the best way to do it. Whether you're diving into rich storylines, battling in epic PvP, or just exploring the world, there's always something to do.

Why ESO is Worth Playing
✅ Huge Open World – Travel across iconic locations from Skyrim, Morrowind, Cyrodiil, and more. New expansions keep adding fresh content.
✅ Solo or Multiplayer Friendly – Play at your own pace. Quest alone or join a guild for group content like dungeons and trials.
✅ Deep Customization – Mix and match abilities to create your own unique playstyle. No rigid class restrictions!
✅ Engaging Stories & Lore – Fully voiced quests and immersive storytelling make ESO feel like a true Elder Scrolls experience.
✅ Endless Content – With frequent updates and expansions, there's always something new to discover.

Performance & Monetization
✔️ Runs Well on Modern Systems – Stable performance, but large PvP battles can still be demanding.
✔️ Fair Monetization – Base game is affordable, expansions are optional but add tons of content. ESO Plus (subscription) is worth it if you play regularly.

Final Verdict
If you're an Elder Scrolls fan or love MMORPGs, The Elder Scrolls Online is a must-try. There's no shortage of adventures, and with continued updates, it just keeps getting better.

🔥 Verdict: One of the Best MMORPGs Available! 🔥

One of the most enjoyable MMORPGs I've ever played with very few downsides. Note: If you do want to get into crafting then having ESO Plus is a must have just for the ingredients bag.

The pay to have the full map is bs. I get it's a live service and they are greedy but come on. Base game stuff should be there, if you can't go anywhere it's not open world. ES is famous only because of it's open world.

The amount of content in this game is staggering. The visuals are stunning. The voice acting talent is top-notch. The combat and dungeon bosses seem (in my still-limited experience) to be much more forgiving of suboptimal play than in other MMORPGs.

This store is very good if you like a variety of things to buy.
There are mounts, costumes, housing and more.
There are limited time deals too.

I have found that there in fact is a massive game in this store that allows you to buy things for that game.
The game seems to be a way to occupy your time further while you spend time deciding how you want to spend your money. Maybe there should be a way to even further occupy your time while you think of spending money at this store.

This store is very similar to stores that have other games in them.
If you like going to stores to spend money and play games, this is one of the stores of all time, with a game in store.

left the game to update overnight now i have 20 hours playtime

cant get game to launch. tried firewall and running as admin along with all other online suggestions. support is awful and cant get an answer to questions.

Pretty good. Great combat and customization. Highly recommend ESO+ if you want the best experience, all the dlc quests are available in your journal (DO NOT RE-PURCHASE ON CROWN STORE). The amount of over world content is unreal, 135 hours in and it feels like I've hardly scratched the surface. Also having everything 100% voice acted makes solo play so much more enjoyable.

ESO is one of those games where people either love it or hate it; And after 2000 hours I would say I fall in the love it camp but can definitely acknowledge there is flaws within the game.

One of my favourite things about ESO is the freedom to play the game as you wish, pretty much whatever content you enjoy doing can be your endgame whether that be: questing, dungeoneering/raiding, PvP, crafting or trading; These systems also flow into each other very well to create a cohesive flowing gameplay experience.

Combat in ESO isn't really one of it's strong suits, combat can feel very unresponsive and floaty with not a lot of impact being shown on enemies beyond the enemies being dazed when you either block or interrupt a heavy attack; The combat is fun at first but after a while it does just become "A thing you do". I do appreciate how gear in ESO is handled with horizontal progression, a piece of gear from the base game will have the same base statistics as a piece of gear from the latest expansion with only the set bonus of the gear changing the effectiveness of the gear; That might make you assume that the gear from the latest expansion has the best set bonus and will be the most optimal thing to use but you'd be surprise, different classes and builds can make use of sets from numerous different sets from different expansions. I very much dislike when gear is made redundant by a new expansion and the hip new thing on the block becomes all people use.

Visually ESO is very impressive, even zones from the launch of the game in 2014 have a lot of visual depth and flair which only improves as you get into the expansions with some particular highlights for me being Apocrypha and the Clockwork City, if eye-candy is your thing ESO has you covered.

ESO is filled with a gargantuan amount of quests, you can't kick a rock in a zone without hitting a quest giver and their cat (who is also a quest giver). These quests can range from the grand main story about fighting Molag Bal's Planemeld to save all of Nirn from being consumed by his thirst for power; To a guy who's trying to get away from his overbearing wife an we hand him right back to her unknowingly, I do love the variety in stories but from a gameplay perspective they could be better as most quests are just "Go here, kill this, interact with that" not all but a good majority. There are other types of quests thrown in like where you follow people in Assassin's Creed-like sections, solve puzzles to progress forward or even some quests that are collectathons requiring you so search far and wide for specific things across Nirn. I like the little sprinkles of variety but just wish that the philosophy wasn't "Break up the safe quests with a more unique one" and instead focus more on all quests having some flair and draw to them which I do understand is easy to ask for but in practice is tough.

Think that about wraps it up, gonna go play Tribute and get Law of Sovereign Roosted.

I love this game. There are so many different things you can do. I've played over a thousand hours and I still haven't explored all of the things there are to do in this game. From crafting, daily quests, main story quests, dungeons, Tales of Tribute, and more, there's something in this game for every gaming mood. If you feel like striving, there's plenty to keep you occupied, but if you're feeling a little more languorous, you can decorate your house, or just explore to find skyshards, or gather resources, or craft something to sell in a guild store, to name a few.

I've been playing off an on since launch, and at first I was skeptical of the change that was made many years ago to auto-scale everything pve on any map. This is because I wanted to be able to breeze through the lower level enemies to gather resources. But now I see the wisdom of the decision. I can now explore any map with ease (especially with a fully-leveled companion by my side) and it really opens up the sheer size of the game world. There are so many locations that are still relatively new to me, and they just keep adding more!

To me, this game truly has it all, and no matter what kind of gaming I'm up for when I have the time, I can find something to fit that vibe in ESO.

Too much corporate influence in the decision making progress, too focused on "balance", profit, and screwing over the player base, and not so much on fun. They need to fire some of the decision makers. While the people who actually do the work, do good work, it is met with boneheaded decisions. If I did not know better I would say Thanos is in charge of combat, and Scrooge Mc Duck is in charge of monetization. While the community manager reminds me of JK and Prof Umbridge.

I've done everything there is to do in this game. Group Content, Solo Play, Housing, Fishing, Card Game, Achievement Chasing, Questing, Thievery, Murder, Melee and Range Weapons, PVP and PVE, became a multi-millionaire or play dirt poor. There is no "End" in the game, do whatever parts you like and leave the rest or do it all. Ask questions respectfully in zone chat, someone will answer. There are always events to look forward to or take part in, join Guilds and talk to people or join guilds and don't talk to people. There is something for everyone. Make your character look and act however you'd like. It's up to you. Make multiple characters. I like that today I can focus on doing dungeons and trials with my guild or a random group and tomorrow I can craft things to make myself and my house look pretty, and the next day I can race around the world rescuing NPCs or aiding fellow players who are the same world quests as I am or are in my PVP alliance. In the ESO the world is your oyster, just find your groove.

Tons of in-game transactions but doesnt really stop you from enjoying the game, especially when you find the Elder scrolls lore interesting already,

1. You can still get some cool items from Monthly Events or as you level through
2. There's a great deal of PVE content in Base game already for you to even run out of things to do.
3. Some items may seem Pay-to-win as they introduce items with some increase in damage for 15-25% but you can still have a good build even without those.
4. Competitive aspect of the game would heavily depend on how you will play.
5. Economics system is decentralized, you can join a trading guild to be able to participate in the in-game economics but still depend on your needs and how much you get from them.

Playing this game in 2025. It looks okay if you are not crazy about graphics. It gives you skyrim vibes although mechanics and gameplay are different. Anyway i manage to get my weird pleasure out of this game.

Seems like a dieing game. The game definatly needs mods to play for things like damage meters and mini maps but the ones on curse forge are all so out of date 2015-2016 that some don’t work. You will never see a update to encompass these type upgrades in the game itself because like I said it seems like its dieing they are pushing packs for ridiculous prices for upgrades through a slightly complicated crown system which is robbery for a game obviously on its last gasps. Sad because it’s a beautiful game great character option. If you’re going to play wait for a sale and avoid in game purchases. you’re going to be in your games map screen just trying to figure out which way to go so often it’s a ratio of more map time than play time some game sessions.

The Elder Scrolls Online – A Costly Adventure with Gated Content

I started ESO with an ESO+ subscription right away, unaware that zones and dungeons were locked behind DLCs. This became immediately frustrating when I tried to play with my friend, only to realize that much of the world was inaccessible to him unless he also paid for DLCs. It severely limited what we could do together, making the co-op experience feel restricted.

One of the biggest disappointments was mounts being character-specific, meaning every new character starts painfully slow and requires individual mount training—a tedious process. The biggest paywall frustration was the Crafting Bag, which is only available with ESO+. Without it, you either have to put an extreme amount of effort into managing inventory across multiple characters or constantly run out of space. This feature alone makes it feel like a subscription is required just for basic convenience.

The game’s monetization feels overwhelming. DLC zones are expensive, and major features like professions, guilds, high-end gear, dungeons, and trials (raids) are all locked behind paid content. While the community is generally friendly, my experience in dungeons was mixed, with some toxic players ruining the experience.

If you're looking for an MMO like World of Warcraft with engaging group-based content, this isn't it. However, if you approach ESO as an expanded single-player Skyrim, you might enjoy it. The game has a lot of solo content, but for me, the multiplayer experience was disappointing due to excessive content gating. The initial game price is cheap, but once you're in, it becomes clear that a lot of content is locked behind an expensive paywall.

Final Verdict:
✅ Great for solo RPG fans
❌ Bad for multiplayer unless you're willing to spend a lot
❌ Heavy reliance on ESO+ for basic convenience
❌ Expensive DLC model

Would I recommend ESO? Only if you’re prepared to spend a lot—or play it as a solo RPG.

I said I'd never pay a subscription. Over time way too much money for a game, so I played for a couple years with base game, and one update. Finally had to admit the entertainment value was worthy. Down side is I spend too many hours being entertained.

Honestly MMOs are NOT my cup of tea, however, playing with my partner has made it much more tolerable, and the lore is FANTASTIC. It has very much inspired me to read deep into Elder Scrolls lore. Will continue playing for the lore mainly! So well written. After playing more hours, reading different forums, speculations, all of that, I've come to realize there are Elder Scrolls fans and there are Skyrim casuals. If you love Elder Scrolls, play ESO. Unless you're a Skyrim player and only like Skyrim, it is not like Skyrim gameplay. For lovers of the lore for sure.

Good, not great. It's more Elder Scrolls. (And a LOT more, really.) Love that they started fleshing out some more of the world.

I love eso fro many reasons, but to run it down to the bone. I strongly suggest this fine art game to people who love or like long term content. I also love this game because when you complete something, its permanent only making you better. To round it all out, play this game, it teaches you patience, skill, relaxing, and fun

seems to be a great game, I can't play it on my mac, but great game.
Paid over $50, can't play it, crashes on log in, so much fun.

such a great game the combat is good and you are able to mod it but even without the all the mods its still a great game i have sunk a few hours into this game and i will 100 percent be sinking even more hours into this game

I enjoyed it. Played it like single player game just with non-npc characters running around and sometimes they help me - or I help them. Story is epic. Music is epic. Though I have less time to enjoy the newer chapters these days maybe I will come back to Tamriel someday.

Game started out great and is now dying. Every single zone is empty. The players you do see, are bots. The bots will be there forever no matter how many reports you make. The few players in each zone, are redditors that stay in the city and do nothing but police chat all day. The dev company even said they are moving away from updates to provide small incremental patches with no new content coming. Clicking customer support on the website loops to a link for customer support that loops to a link for customer support. The game in its current state is fading out into nothing. Play something that actually values your time and its customers such as FF14.

Horrible combat. Limited inventory unless you pay extra. Floaty controls. Just plain awful, even after multiple re-visits. Do not waste your time.

A MEDIOCRE GAME IN STEEP DECLINE. The staff don't know how to fix the old spaghetti code so the game runs terribly with frequent launcher issues and crashing issues. Sometimes you just won't be able to play until the next launcher update. The questing is very boring so you'll find yourself skipping through all their expensive voiced dialogue they boast about having. Combat can be fun sometimes but PvP builds are simply hard to keep up with. They removed group cuing for Battle Grounds because their programmers couldn't fix the bugs in the group cuing system and gave up, making Battle Grounds pointless and really ruining PvP for me. They also ruined Imperial City PvP zone. If you like running in a zerg and sieging forts, that's the only PvP experience that can be some fun if the game runs properly. More and more new game assets are poorly designed reskins. Housing is pretty much the only thing this game does well except they kneecapped the item limit to be the same as that of console versions.

My main reason for doing PvE group content was for PvP gear, so without that carrot I feel very unmotivated. All I do is farm mats and sell them, and decorate my houses at this point.

All of this while the game is painful to play without a Plus subscription due to artificial limitations placed on storage to force you to sub. I swear I only have so many hours due to a combination of forgetting the launcher open, farming to support my housing addiction, and pure sunk loss fallacy. With my launcher woes that have become more and more frequent I think I might finally just give up on this game. It was at least comfy for it's familiarity, but now is a source of such frustration that I can not justify spending around a hundred bucks for a year's subscription. In fact, I wish i could get a refund on my last year's worth of Plus, since I so often can not even get the game to work.

For the record, I have a decent gaming computer that plays other games fine. It's 110% a Zenimax problem, and I hope their workers who just voted to unionize mostly get the ax. The only ones who seem competent are the furniture designers and zone asset designers, no joke. You don't get rewarded for doing a poor job, guys. It's pitiful. I need more than just the occasional pretty new thing to look at.

Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) is the epitome of squandered potential, riddled with problems that would make even the staunchest fans reconsider their loyalty.

The game is plagued with years-old bugs that Zenimax has either ignored or half-heartedly addressed. The lag and atrocious server performance are inexcusable for a game this size. Every time there’s an issue, they trot out the same tired excuse: “It’s a DDOS attack.” At this point, that explanation feels more like a running joke. Face it, Zenimax—it’s your subpar servers.

The overland difficulty is practically non-existent. It’s a theme park for players who want to stroll through quests without any challenge. There’s no satisfaction in defeating enemies when they’re little more than cardboard cutouts.

This game isn’t an MMO; it’s a cash grab simulator. Regular content updates? Forget about it. The only thing Zenimax reliably churns out is new items for the cash shop. And let’s talk about those loot boxes—a sleazy, exploitative tactic designed to milk money from players. There’s no significant in-game progression or meaningful rewards; everything funnels you toward spending more in the store.

The game’s gear system is laughable. 90% of the gear is utterly useless, a staggering testament to poor design. It’s as if the developers threw stats into a spreadsheet without considering whether they would actually work in practice. Balance changes are equally nonsensical, made with seemingly no regard for the actual gameplay experience.

ESO is an exercise in frustration, a game that prioritizes monetization over player experience. With its bugs, bad servers, non-existent challenge, and exploitative business practices, it’s hard to recommend this game to anyone who values their time or money. Avoid it unless you enjoy being nickel-and-dimed while fighting lag.

Great game, bethesda just pushed micro transactions too much. Paying to be a race (Imperial) on a game that you pay for should never be a thing,

This is the best game ever for now. You can do so much in it, that sometimes it is hard to choose what to do. Fight, craft, gather, solo or in a team, anywhere you want. Thousands of quests, lots of dungeons. Great people. Fun!

I'm not tryna restart the game when i have about 2 years of playtime on my console. I should be able to transfer my acc over regardless of the platform it came from.

Most of your time spent playing will be staring at the error 307 Screen. Worst severs in any game ever made and like all modern dev teams they are more focused on finding more ways to take your money than fixing the issues within their game. Save your money, but more importantly save your time friend.

time pass, good story, great time pass, nice game, ultimate time pass, great game, can take most items on ground including showcase weapons and armors its like free items getting satisfaction, lots and lots of interactive things like a lot , nice lore, good villans , totally worth playing.

So much extra money involved to enjoy the game on top of the dedicated hard drive space taken. As another player said, its an MMO first and a Elder scrolls game second. The world itself is pretty aesthetically great, but I have restricted game experience because I refuse to spend more money. I wanted to play Warden.

After all these years, most content is still locked behind a paywall. So no new classes available, no new areas, you need to pay them for that stuff. And the 150+ GB of hard drive space is more proof this was the biggest waste of money of all my games.

Mounts aren't any faster than travelling by foot unless you play every single day for a month. Combat is extremely shallow in PvE. On the other hand PvP is basically pointless unless you have several thousand hours on a single character. One could argue that there is a PvP option that voids "Champion Points" but no one plays it. I'm not even going to talk about the paywalls or the immense amount of difficulty that a ton of players go through just to get the game to run. Do yourself a favor and just play Skyrim for the 103rd time.

Ignore the "4 hrs played": I've been playing this game since beta, just usually not through Steam. I'm trying it just to see if it'll fix an issue I'm having with detecting it in the Nvidia App, since there's currently a reward for running it for 50 mins through Nvidia.

No Steam Achievements, I consider a plus, as the plethora of ingame achievements can be grindier than I prefer for Steam.

No reall "pay-to-win": their ingame purchases are almost all about cosmetics, though there's also a fair bit of "pay-for-convenience". Like, buying the monthly "ESO+" subscription gives you much more storage space, etc, to the point that most longtime players swear by it as it just makes the game way more convenient. Similarly, you can buy pets who act as shopkeepers, bankers, etc. so you don't have to lug your loot back to a town. If you've already achieved something grindy on one character, you can usually pay to unlock it on another character to avoid doing the grind again; I've never bothered, but nice that the option's there. Most cool stuff (mounts, housing, etc) can be obtained for free; you can just get more of them with money.

Different areas of the game have different modes: single-player, or play casually with friends ("overland PvE" - what I'll talk about most here), group co-op ("Group PvE": Trials, Group Dungeons), and player-vs-player ("PvP").

Like myself, I'd say most players come from the single-player Elder Scrolls fanbase, rather than from other MMO fanbases, so we want single-player or casual small-group co-op content. Most agree that PvP just isn't the game's main strength. PvP has three forms: open-world battles based around besieging keeps across Cyrodiil (I rarely see more than a couple dozen people in a siege, though); similar fighting but in the Imperial city, where it's more about capture-the-flag; and 4v4 "battlegrounds". It's OK if that's what you're into.

Some areas require or at least encourage co-op. At the moment, even the areas which encourage co-op ("Group Dungeons") can mostly be solo'd unless you go for the harder "veteran" difficulty, though a few dungeons have "mechanics" that require two or more people. Trials are 12-person things where you go up against heftier NPC opponents ("mobs"). Trials and Dungeons are non-casual, in that it's kinda a jerk move to drop out in the middle of running one.

The overwhelming majority of the world, however, is "overland". Despite its name, this includes a lot of the underground smaller delves. You can do this in a group or alone, but really, solo play is *better* unless you commit to doing quests together, otherwise you fall out of synch, where one person has a quest to run off and complete, while someone else has already done it. Like, my wife and I have characters reserved just for playing together. Fro the most part they've made it so that you at least CAN group together, though, regardless of whether you've done the quest in that area or not.

But casual PvE is where the game shines.

It's clearly what all the devs enjoy, and clearly what most players do, too. There is *months* of story-based quest content, that mostly isn't just oldschool-MMO "kill 10 rats and come back" but more like "find out who's behind nefarious goings-on by searching for clues, talking to people, fighting, exploring, interacting with the world, etc". Not saying there aren't any grindy quests: just that they aren't the norm.

The main questline of the area is story-based, and there're a significant number of story-based side-quests in each zone too. Just about every delve has one, plus there are many others throughout the world, as both fixed and random encounters.

Then each zone has about three repeatable "daily" quests (meaning you can't usually pick up the quest more than once a day, not that you have to do 'em all every day: there's well over a hundred!). These are usually one simple "kill ", one "do some repeating world event", and one "complete a delve", but can also include things like "win a card game" or "sneak through this area and assassinate a target" or "steal an item in this building" or... you get the idea.

As well as the solo questing, there's also lots of other things to do: the "tales of Tribute" card game I already mentioned; legerdemain has you picking pockets and stealing from houses; crafting is a whole specialty you can sink years into mastering; fishing (collect 9 rare fish from each zone for an achievement); housing (you can buy and craft furniture, invite people to it, and make things convenient by putting all sorts of utilities like bankers, merchants, crafting tables, training dummies, mundus stones, etc all close together; you can tour other people's works and see some truly amazing stuff they've made (my favorite was a Borg Cube); arenas (where you go through several rounds of monsters, in interesting environments that make it harder but more interesting); the "infinite archive" (like an arena, but an unlimited number of rounds); antiquities (where you solve a couple of simple puzzle minigames to find and dig up interesting things); and more I'm forgetting.

The game is designed to support being played intermittently; you pick it up when there's an event, or a new release, and then you drop it for a while, and come back when there's something else cool going on. But at the same time, it's also designed to make you WANT to keep playing, to complete that outfit, to finish decorating that house, etc.

Overall: I've been playing for over ten years, and there's still so much I haven't yet done in the game. And I likely never will, because they expand it at least as fast as I can consume the content.

Used to love this game, despite its flaws. No SEA and Oceanic servers, I play in EU and I used to have 180-200 latency and has gone worse (Avg. 300-400 and +999 spikes) from recent updates, random disconnects and lag spikes were common, and yes, some of my EU friends get random disconnects and network interruptions as well, especially during events and PVP areas. Stories/quests from the recent expansions has become a drag and felt it was dumbed down. I wish they just left out political non-sense and societal problems out from the game, but now, it has gone full woke.

+ Old content is still good
+ PVP is pretty okay
+ Very good housing and character customization
+ Can be played casually
+ Some really friendly people around

- Grindy, if you want to go meta or get competitive (Just like all MMOs)
- Crown Store is pricey, I spent lots of $$$ in the game, crafting bag requires subscription
- Recent installments are repetitive and the quests are boring
- No longer as dark as previous Elder Scroll Games, feels "Disney-fied"
- Lots of bugs, some of my bug reports weren't resolved (Crown Store gifting related)
- No SEA and Oceanic servers
- Like all MMO's, we have toxic players
- Did I mention it has recently become full woke?

I might still play it from time-to-time, but I will no longer spend money for this game.

The game used to be fun to PVP in but recently it would seem the DEVS just Don't care. IF you wanna run a cookie cutter ball group you'll do well. All other playstyles have been sh*i on. Been playing the game a damn long while, it used to be fun now not so much.