This feels like a singleplayer game...even quieter than The Secret World ever was

TheScavenger

In Secret World there was a custom channel to talk to people. It was used all the time, making the game feel far more "lively" even though it was more focused on singleplayer (despite being online lol).

However, yesterday and today...chat is so quiet. It isn't peak time, but I tried FFXIV before quitting and it was so much more lively in chat and there was way more people around in the city I started in. I'm in daggerfall (one of the capital cities), and it feels...honestly it felt like Skyrim had more life to it with all the npcs talking and roaming around. I and my two friends are literally the only ones talking in zone chat. Then for an entire hour, only two people were randomly talking back and forth. 

The game itself is amazing though so far, as far as Elder Scrolls games go. Its way better than vanilla Skyrim and looks much nicer than Skyrim without mods. Its nice to see "people" doing stuff, even though most people seem to not say anything lol. Its just weird it feels like most of the people act like NPCs of Skyrim, and run around like its Skyrim without the social aspects. But I think we might go to FFXIV (which I already bought+new expansion), despite me really hating the stupid server lock thing that they could have added a queue instead like normal high quality MMOs do lol.

Honestly, I get a Twilight Zone feel of the game...or feels like I just entered the Matrix. A bunch of lifeless people running around "stealing" our kills (even though its shared), saying nothing, not wanting to group and most of the time the chat is pretty dead except maybe a couple people or 3...the game really personally creeps me out.

Its probably better at peak, but I played FFXIV at a really odd hour PST time on a server I could actually log on to, and it was considered a "dead" server in google search results, and it still felt very lively and people all over.

It doesn't help ESO community is pretty junk. Ask a question and you get treated really badly. In FFXIV and GW2 people are far more helpful and nicer.

So to sum it up...

ESO is pretty good as far as singleplayer MMOs go (TSW/SWTOR/GW1)...but the community is very quiet, doesn't group (no one would want to group with us, and were even told there is no point in grouping except for group content? But its an MMO, it should all be group content, not a singleplayer MMO where no one wants to group at all?) and quite a few people are rather rude from what I've personally encountered. Yes WoW you don't group leveling...wait...except...you can do dungeon finder from level 10 to max level and group 100% of the time if you want after level 10...and people say that is a solo MMO, but has more grouping than ESO...very disappointed in that regard.

Ah well...it IS a good game, don't take it wrong. Its just the community is pretty unfriendly and the game is so quiet, except maybe at peak it wouldn't be, but again, FFXIV I played at 2 AM EST time and it still had people talking and grouping up and what not. I was a low level and got asked a lot to group. I personally play MMOs to be social and group and make friends, or if I want to play a singleplayer game...there is Fallout 3/NV/Skyrim/Oblivion or fallout 4 lol...way better for singleplayer

Sovrath

All I know is that when I play in the evening eastern standard time or the weekends chat is ALWAYS going. So much so I turned it off as it was annoying.

Horusra

in guilds I can not get them to shut up sometimes having 5 different conversations from the different guilds going on.

TheScavenger

Ah forgot to talk about guilds...

Well I joined 3 trade guilds (because that is what I was told to do, otherwise too hard to sell/buy things. I dunno how the lack of AH works out), and all 3 are pretty quiet...guess its people selling/buying things on the guild store or something. One guild we joined is small, but pretty friendly. Its quiet, but it is small. I tried joining a big guild and it was a bunch of memes and 4chan style trolling. Probably a bad guild, can't say all big guilds are like that of course. Though in my own experience, the bigger the guild, the less friendly it tends to be (at least was true in WoW). Which isn't really the best experience if wanting to socialize lol.

The small guild is nice though but quiet cause its small...and then the 5th guild we joined, my friend got made a guild leader cause the guy gave it to him cause he was quitting and its just us 3 lol. So we got a free guild bank, since storage is really limiting in ESO even with the crafting bag, that is a HUGE boost.

I don't like the 5 guild cap though, cause the "optimal" approach we were told is to join a minimum of 3 (or 4) trade guilds, and the last guild to be the "main guild". Should be able to join any amount of guilds, or a special trade guild instead of a normal guild...that be cool to make a guild a "trade guild" which acts differently than a normal guild and instead it takes up a "trade guild" slot. 5 trade guilds, and 1-3 normal guilds would have been a nice feature and rather have been innovative and unique.

But as far as chat goes...been playing since 9 EST and its 4 EST now and its still been rather quiet in chat. People DO talk, but WoW chat goes by so fast even at 3 or even 4 AM EST that its hard to keep up, same in FFXIV when I tried it for a day. Its a lot quieter in ESO than other MMOs I'm used to.

Maybe we need to find a big guild, but that doesn't solve the problem (for me anyway) that the game doesn't feel very lively. The city itself feels so quiet and people running around like advanced AI lol...but like go to Divinity's Reach in GW2 and now that feels lively and huge and like an actual city.

Even Skyrim, NPCs would have conversations, walk around and have routines...even go to an inn and drink or eat or relax...NPCs would sleep. None of this seems to happen in ESO.

Iselin

Wow... such a weird take on the game. I have no idea where you play or which guilds you joined but the game is VERY busy with lots of group activities happening.

Of course you can choose not to play in Cyrodiil, run 4-man dungeons, join a WB or dolmen grinding group and just do your solo thing if that's how you want to play. But you can't generalize from your own personal choice to make it a lonely game.

My 3 trading guilds (Auction House, Silk Road and Meat Market) are super active and always maxed. It's actually tough to get in them because no one leaves them. Even though they're trade guilds we do 4-man runs together, have scheduled activities like Imperial City romps and even do raids with enough guild members to make 2 or 3 full raids.

My PVP guild is always in Cyrodiil using voice chat having fun and chatting.

ESO is what you choose to do with it.

Iselin

Nyctelios said:

Iselin said:

Wow... such a weird take on the game. I have no idea where you play or which guilds you joined but the game is VERY busy with lots of group activities happening.

Of course you can choose not to play in Cyrodiil, run 4-man dungeons, join a WB or dolmen grinding group and just do your solo thing if that's how you want to play. But you can't generalize from your own personal choice to make it a lonely game.

My 3 trading guilds (Auction House, Silk Road and Meat Market) are super active and always maxed. It's actually tough to get in them because no one leaves them. Even though they're trade guilds we do 4-man runs together, have scheduled activities like Imperial City romps and even do raids with enough guild members to make 2 or 3 full raids.

My PVP guild is always in Cyrodiil using voice chat having fun and chatting.

ESO is what you choose to do with it.

Hardly generalization since we are here talking about our opinion alone, never claiming otherwise.

To be honest I think when I played too many people were worried about rushing to end level content using wikis and add-on quest finders that I felt alone there just walking and exploring.

You would see someone (or a group) running to nowhere and ignoring any chat... "Oh, yeah, there is a hidden quest there and he knew it somehow". I ignored all that, the result was an lonely experience, which I enjoyed anyway.

This...

So to sum it up...

ESO is pretty good as far as singleplayer MMOs go (TSW/SWTOR/GW1)...but the community is very quiet, doesn't group (no one would want to group with us, and were even told there is no point in grouping except for group content?

... and this...

Its just the community is pretty unfriendly and the game is so quiet

... are generalizations.

Octagon7711

Because they opened the game players can be anywhere.  I've gone back to some starter areas to level because I liked the zone so much.  While leveling I got access to Cyrodiil. Cold Harbor, the main personal storyline, as well as all the original and DLC content I bought.  With all that, it's a wonder I see anyone but wherever I go I'm never alone, always lots of players and players looking for groups in chat.

Distopia

Nyctelios said:

Iselin said:

Wow... such a weird take on the game. I have no idea where you play or which guilds you joined but the game is VERY busy with lots of group activities happening.

Of course you can choose not to play in Cyrodiil, run 4-man dungeons, join a WB or dolmen grinding group and just do your solo thing if that's how you want to play. But you can't generalize from your own personal choice to make it a lonely game.

My 3 trading guilds (Auction House, Silk Road and Meat Market) are super active and always maxed. It's actually tough to get in them because no one leaves them. Even though they're trade guilds we do 4-man runs together, have scheduled activities like Imperial City romps and even do raids with enough guild members to make 2 or 3 full raids.

My PVP guild is always in Cyrodiil using voice chat having fun and chatting.

ESO is what you choose to do with it.

Hardly generalization since we are here talking about our opinion alone, never claiming otherwise.

To be honest I think when I played too many people were worried about rushing to end level content using wikis and add-on quest finders that I felt alone there just walking and exploring.

You would see someone (or a group) running to nowhere and ignoring any chat... "Oh, yeah, there is a hidden quest there and he knew it somehow". I ignored all that, the result was an lonely experience, which I enjoyed anyway.

I turn general chat off in every MMO and have since SWG, I only respond to tells and guild messages. IF you're talking to me in area chat or anything outside of a direct message or guild I will never see it. I can't imagine I'm the only one. General/world/area Chat is generally filled with nonsense in MMOs. Bunch of what seem like kids talking about the most asinine things. 

mgilbrtsn

Chat is almost always going when I'm on.  If it's not general chat, it's the guild chats.  If you have joined several guilds, I'd recommend doing that.  Most of them, I've found, are helpful

Kyleran

Players generally seem to find the game experience they are expecting to.

Most here expect to find a busy, active world, and somehow they do.

Others find the empty, solo centric experience they expected.

Weird how that works.

Po_gg

I usually don't check these parts of the forum since I don't like (nicely put ) Firor's iteration of ES. Only the second part caught me...

As the old phrase says, don't speak ill of the dead, so why not just leave it rest? Especially since it isn't even correct, TSW had one of the best communities out there, with tons of "mmo play".
I am not familiar with ESO but the replies above suggest it's pretty much in a similar state.

So, ever thought about that it's maybe you?   As Kyleran said above, players usually find what their initial expectations are.

KnightFalz

If you wish ESO to be a more social experience you will likely have to pursue that more vigorously than in some other MMORGPs, as it allows players to do much on their own.

I'm not all that familiar with FFXIV, but it seems to require more grouping to get through the story, which tends in itself to lead to more socialization between players.

Your best be for socialization in ESO would be to seek out a guild of like-minded players, since the game play itself doesn't often demand interaction with others.

By the way, the idea that MMORGPs must be about group content is not a universal view. Just because such a game can easily accommodate group play doesn't mean that it must be primarily limited to group play.  At a time where convenience is king to many that kind of requirement may not even be feasible anymore from a revenue perspective.

Galadourn

the mega-server instancing in ESO killed it for me. I don't know how prominent this is currently in the game, but feeling that I am not part of a "fixed"-population server but an ever changing one is a serious flaw to me.

That's not the only flaw though.

YashaX

Something I have noticed in mmos is that most of the time when you group to do pve content the other players want to do it as fast / most efficiently as possible.

ESO has a lot of interesting nooks and crannies to explore, as well as some very cool lore and quests: this quality almost works against it as an mmo because it is basically impossible to savor those things in most groups.

However, it also has all the usual mmo group based activities, in fact perhaps more than most mmos: maybe its a question of finding the right reasons to group? For example, grinding, dungeons, world bosses, dolmens, Imperial City, and PvP are probably what most groups form for, while questing and exploration are more of a solo thing (in general). 

cheyane

I never found it barren even when I played this game before it became even more popular. I played a few months later after it launched. It was dreadful soon after launch but it improved considerably and was gaining an increase while I was playing and then it truly took off. When I played it was still a subbed game. 

About guilds though I found that occasionally you come across someone high level who is tremendously bored and wants to take you through dungeons. I wanted to do them in groups and when I asked in guildchat this person piped up and then proceeded to take me through some dungeons I had to lie about having to log off to prevent any more 'helping' after the second dungeon where I stood about while this person killed everything. I am sure this person meant well but you do come across these people sometimes and occasionally it might be a few people in the guild. I am never quite sure how to react and respond to these attempts to help.

Generally I think it is better to ask in general chat or go wait outside a dungeon and you may pick up a group this way. The effort has to be made by you personally if you want that type of interaction. You cannot expect things to just happen because you're playing an MMORPG you have to actively create your own experience.

Even in WoW I disliked the LFD thing and found it was better to organize your own group. Oh how I would give for the type of group finder they had in City of Heroes/Villains where you could specify and tailor your group requirements or explain what type of group experience you were looking for.

SlyLoK

Iselin said:

Wow... such a weird take on the game. I have no idea where you play or which guilds you joined but the game is VERY busy with lots of group activities happening.

Of course you can choose not to play in Cyrodiil, run 4-man dungeons, join a WB or dolmen grinding group and just do your solo thing if that's how you want to play. But you can't generalize from your own personal choice to make it a lonely game.

My 3 trading guilds (Auction House, Silk Road and Meat Market) are super active and always maxed. It's actually tough to get in them because no one leaves them. Even though they're trade guilds we do 4-man runs together, have scheduled activities like Imperial City romps and even do raids with enough guild members to make 2 or 3 full raids.

My PVP guild is always in Cyrodiil using voice chat having fun and chatting.

ESO is what you choose to do with it.

Agreed! I was in two of those guilds as well!

TheScavenger

Well, I left the small guild and me and my two friends were able to get into a max member (non-trade) guild. They had just kicked out some in-actives and were recruiting for new members.

Weirdly enough...the broker or whatever its called in ESO has more low level/mid-level items for sell and the same amount of higher level stuff than the three trade guilds I'm in lol. But I looked this morning, and two of the three trade guilds are actually dead and never kick out inactives. I plan to leave them and find a real trade guild lol

Still, I don't understand the trade guild thing...the auction house or broker system or even market stalls from asian mmos make more sense to me, and you get to trade with a far larger group of people in all three systems than just trading within a guild. Trading only with the guild seem extremely limited with the small (compared to how many people play) amount of members to trade with. I guess I can stand in the city and spam chat to sell an item. But no thanks lol, I hate spamming chat in MMOs. Old MMOs you'd have chat filled with tons of trade spam and that is pretty archaic and I'm glad that was removed from most MMOs lol.

In any case...the max member guild is very social. Chat moves by really fast lol, its hard to keep up with it. And they are all pretty friendly which is a nice bonus. its actually a semi-RP guild, and Rpers do tend to be pretty friendly for the most part.

seraphicas

This game has no legs. It is not a good mmo on any level. Bethesda should have stuck to their single player games. Even their single player games are better with community mods. How can everyone not see the problem with that?

gervaise1

TheScavenger said:

Well, I left the small guild and me and my two friends were able to get into a max member (non-trade) guild. They had just kicked out some in-actives and were recruiting for new members.

Weirdly enough...the broker or whatever its called in ESO has more low level/mid-level items for sell and the same amount of higher level stuff than the three trade guilds I'm in lol. But I looked this morning, and two of the three trade guilds are actually dead and never kick out inactives. I plan to leave them and find a real trade guild lol

Still, I don't understand the trade guild thing...the auction house or broker system or even market stalls from asian mmos make more sense to me, and you get to trade with a far larger group of people in all three systems than just trading within a guild. Trading only with the guild seem extremely limited with the small (compared to how many people play) amount of members to trade with. I guess I can stand in the city and spam chat to sell an item. But no thanks lol, I hate spamming chat in MMOs. Old MMOs you'd have chat filled with tons of trade spam and that is pretty archaic and I'm glad that was removed from most MMOs lol.

In any case...the max member guild is very social. Chat moves by really fast lol, its hard to keep up with it. And they are all pretty friendly which is a nice bonus. its actually a semi-RP guild, and Rpers do tend to be pretty friendly for the most part.

Glad you have found a guild with "active" chat.

@Galadourn is "right" in saying "the mega-server instancing ...... feeling that I am not part of a "fixed"-population". Which I suggest can be said about a lot of games with a reasonable population. It is only when you get a small - fixed - population that the feeling of intimacy can enter the game.  

In ESO a "decently active" guild is essential to give you that intimacy.

Its a disadvantage of having lots of players and mega-servers mean lots of people. However the advantage is that there are lots and lots of people for guilds to draw upon; no cries of when do we get our server merger.


Trade.

I wrote a longer answer in this thread http://forums.mmorpg.com/discussion/466138/giving-this-game-another-shot-as-i-didnt-really-when-i-started

However in simple terms each guild can activate a broker which allows member to buy and sell items. By default the trader is limited to guild members only so 500 members max.

Each week however a guild can - if it wishes - submit a sealed bid for their trader to occupy a particular location. If successful your items will be available to however many tens or hundreds of thousands of people are on the megaserver. Not all bids are successful however. Whilst there are a lot of slots there are even more guilds.

A "trade" guild is nominally a guild that has a trader in the outside world. Grabbing a location is relatively easy however. Keeping the same slot week after week - it can get very serious and bids can get very high indeed. 

klash2def

sorry you are experiencing that OP.. like most here I have never had a empty session. I usually have to turn off zone chat so people can stfu while i play my skyrim online. 

Also didnt FFXIV just do a xpac? if your friends are missing for a few days its because they are trying out that new xpac maybe? Usually happens with every mmo when a AAA something happens. It'll be back to normal in a week for you I hope. 

Azaron_Nightblade

You should give it a few days for people to settle in more too. I imagine a lot of them are questing and not interested in chat right now. But as more switch to end game, that'll probably change.