It's About That Grind - Elder Scrolls Online Columns

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It's About That Grind - Elder Scrolls Online Columns

Let’s all face it, we live and die on the daily grind of MMORPGs. Whether we are grinding levels, champion points or trying to get that set complete we are living the dream of the grind. Some love it, some hate it and some of us are just in-between. In the world of Tamriel we are still slaves to the grind but it’s not all bad in the end. Let’s talk about it, shall we? Sit down and grab some popcorn.

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Kitsunami

Eat people as a werewolf. Never gets old

MaxBacon

I mean consider grind on ESO doesn't really compare to other MMO's, because of the story that covers heavily a chunk of the grind, the game has insane chains of story that you just progress through as you complete things, the quality of the story with its full voice-over and such, makes it feel like content and not grind, lasts far more than the usual MMO.

I play more of a localized way as I like to complete everything in one area before moving into another, that highly increases length of things to me, for me playing ESO for +300 hours was enough to complete the main story, 1 alliance story, mid-story in 2 zone DLCs and some 4 or 5 dungeons, that's a fraction of the full thing tho, I don't think I'll run out of content for a few hundred more CP levels.

The second part of my post is my answer to the question pretty much.

Hariken

Hitting lvl 50 in ESO is the worse thing. After 50 its just to much about champion points. I think now its up to 750 and top gear is at 160. For me it just gets boring.

montie75

I still have a ton to do in ESO so I wont have to face that problem any time soon. But in other games I have tried to get all the crafting recipes, or in Rift I worked on getting all the sparkly collections...whatever they were called, it has been a few years. In WOW I spent a ton of time trying to get all the fishing achievements (ESO needs more to do with their fishing). I also spent a lot of time trying to collect all the battle pets. Most MMOs have some completely pointless yet fun things to do to fill in the time.

Introduction

I personally run dungeons for Undaunted and daily rewards. I also complete Crafting Writs on other characters.

Amathe

I am rarely in danger of consuming all of the available content, so I don't have to kill time waiting on more.

Viper482

Hariken said:

Hitting lvl 50 in ESO is the worse thing. After 50 its just to much about champion points. I think now its up to 750 and top gear is at 160. For me it just gets boring.

This. The absolute worst thing you can do in ESO is hit level cap.

Rnjypsy

Viper482 said:

Hariken said:

Hitting lvl 50 in ESO is the worse thing. After 50 its just to much about champion points. I think now its up to 750 and top gear is at 160. For me it just gets boring.

This. The absolute worst thing you can do in ESO is hit level cap.

I find if I am in the mood to play I don't even notice the grind...if I'm not in the mood it is a slog.  Answer seems to be, don't play if not in the mood:) Unless you really want a game that feels like a second job.

Javiso

Continue to explore. Have you been in every zone? I'm on the opposite side where I think there is too much content. I am playing again after being away for a while and am overwhelmed with all the content. I have Morrowind and the expansions before it. I don't have Summerset and the three last DLCs (I may get them soon though). I also don't sub but am thinking about it. I do bounce between other games but have recently finished some and will focus more on ESO.

Viper482

Rnjypsy said:

Viper482 said:

Hariken said:

Hitting lvl 50 in ESO is the worse thing. After 50 its just to much about champion points. I think now its up to 750 and top gear is at 160. For me it just gets boring.

This. The absolute worst thing you can do in ESO is hit level cap.

I find if I am in the mood to play I don't even notice the grind...if I'm not in the mood it is a slog.  Answer seems to be, don't play if not in the mood:) Unless you really want a game that feels like a second job.

The thing for me is when the gameplay and combat is fun I can grind effortlessly....but neither is anything close to fun in ESO.

azarrel

First, what would be the correct definition of grind? Is it to spend time doing repetitive tasks in pursuit of a single goal? Because I always see the community talking about grind and it takes me to the time of the old MMOs when we needed to spend hours killing the same monster until we get a certain item.

Currently, in MMOs like TESO there are so many options to do that the word grind might not be the most ideal. Perform the same task over and over again is not the worst thing, but rather how high are our expectations regarding the tasks that games can provide us.

So what we feel in the current games is not simply repulsion because we have to repeat the same tasks but rather the dissatisfaction when we are presented with few new things to do or when we complete all the tasks.

If we look at most of us, we live in a repetitive life. We work, we study, we eat, we sleep. Almost always in the same order every day. Few are those who have a life full of adventures and with many new things to do.

Why then do we expect so much from games when our own lives are just a grind?

A good way to end the vicious cycle of waiting for more news is not simply to repeat everything again, but to take advantage of the little things that are proposed to us.

What I do together with some friends is to enjoy a good old RP (Role Playing). After doing everything, nothing better than enjoying something that is beyond the game and with experiences that can not be recreated.

Albatroes

I'm trying to figure what people are honestly "grinding" for in games today. The only ones that I can think of off the top of my head that have some form of gameplay benefit to grind for is AA and maybe BDO since you're essentially grinding for better gear that isn't phased out in a few months. But ESO/GW2/FFXIV/WoW/etc, I just dont see it. ESO, you get legendary on gear and it wont really change much other than raw numbers. GW2 is the same more-or-less. FFXIV honestly doesn't have a serious gear system since there's no set bonuses or even additional effects. WoW does the legendary system well enough, however its really only good for the expansion and then you get a quest green after a day into the new expansion that will replace it and do the cycle all over again. There really isn't synergy or a "serious" system if there is synergy. I mean if I'm getting the most powerful thing in the game, I'd like to think it had something unique about it rather than being literally the same thing as the epic various just with a higher stat value. Which leaves the grind for vanity, which is subjective in value. I feel so old cause back in the day, the most powerful usually (definitely not always) looked the best.

Tiller

Getting Champion points is the easy part after 50, grinding sky shards you need to fill your crafting skills is a grind. I've been hitting all the easy ones outside the delves for now, but it still takes a lot of foot work and load screens trying to gather them all. Even with my horse speed maxed it's slow. I kind of wish you at least got one SP for every 10 CP levels. I have found that it's not worth even trying to make gear every 10 levels because i level past it in 30min of doing something. I made all my gear reinforced to avoid having to make it so often.

Gutlard

I always picture grind as I had to do back in the day playing early RPG's. Killing the same mobs over and over for hours to ding a few levels to get strong enough to get past a fight giving me trouble.

As a kid I had no problem doing this, but as an...older kid starting to get wrinkles, it's hard for me to justify my limited game time on it.

I usually reach level cap, check out the endgame grind scene, get burned out on it in days/weeks, reroll or move on. I've never been much of a min/maxing BIS kind of guy myself.

Gut Out!

munn

World completion! Doing all the things in all the zones.

I just picked up morrowind and summerset together as a bundle and have toooooons I haven't experienced in ESO.

immoralthang

ESO never felt like a grind to me. I finished all three faction storylines and am currently going through Wrothgar. I’m at CP 250. I still haven’t even touched Morrowind yet. I don’t want to buy Summerset until I complete the plethora of content still waiting for me.

I don’t feel obligated to rush. There is so much to do in this game I think it will tide me over until Starfield and ES6 finally release.

Gutlard

It gave me the same impression that the Skyrim/Oblivion did also. Quest list kept growing, lots of news places to explore, and you can really dig into the lore if you want, which I usually like doing.

It makes me wonder how they can balance ESO with ES 6 as far as lore goes, since ESO covers so much ground....Maybe it makes sense once you look at all the games together though, which I haven't done.

Gut Out!

decease

think eso isn't grindy enough? why don't you try to make gold jewelry via crafting XD

Hluill

After playing EQ for years, I think I have a different understanding of the word "grind"!

~laughs~

ESO will always entertain me for running in circles, exploring, gathering and such. I have yet to finish all the quests. And my biggest challenge is finding enough skill points for my crafter. I guess that can feel like a bit of a grind.

It's frustrating how much better the old games were in terms of mechanics and community. ESO offers just enough mindless fun to keep me logging in, as long as I don't take it too seriously.

meonthissite

I never got tired of being a wolf on one toon and a vampire on another. There are benefits to both. My werewolf is a tank and I have a sneaky thief vampire and a draining blood mage vampire that's a healer.

GeekDadMan

I have yet to hit 50 and start earning champion points, but I pass the time by leveling up crafting skills so I can make stuff for my future house. I want to explore the housing system and see what I can make.

inmysights

I have not played in a while and did not know you can play a werewolf. I normally jump from game to game waiting on content!

DijonCyanide

Hariken said:

Hitting lvl 50 in ESO is the worse thing. After 50 its just to much about champion points. I think now its up to 750 and top gear is at 160. For me it just gets boring.

I really enjoyed ESO during my leveling-up to 50 via the story line missions & a few odds & ends for my first character.  I was subscribed & there was an experience bonus going on at the time which gave it a good enough pace that I kept at it till I earned almost 200 of those champion points.  The second time I leveled-up a character to 50 I subscribed again, but there wasn't an experience bonus at that time & it was noticeably slower & I halted at 50 too deciding it wasn't worth the grinding time & effort then unsubscribed.

ESO quickly can become a bore with all the grinding involved for those champion points.  I'm sure there's much more efficient methods to grind it out, but for a modest casual player it can take a drought of time & to me it wasn't worth it even with ESO's recent improvements for quality of life perks.

SlyLoK

Continue to play as you normally did up to 50. If getting to 50 was fun then continue that style and the champion points will come. Plenty to do.

Iselin

SlyLoK said:

Continue to play as you normally did up to 50. If getting to 50 was fun then continue that style and the champion points will come. Plenty to do.

I have ~850 CP and I have never once focused on grinding them. But then I've been playing it for 4 years with a few breaks here and there.

The "CP grind" is something that new or at least newish players obsess about because they think the "end game" is where it's at in ESO... probably learned behavior from WOW and other MMOs that are end-game heavy. ESO is not one of those.