Why I left ESO for Guild Wars 2

are you tired of massive sweeping combat changes are you a PVP fan tired of being cast aside for your more lucrative brother PVE fans they ask you how you are you just have to say that you're fine when you're not really fine but you just can't get into it because they would never understand are you tired of sets with Bible length tool tips that you need to have a PhD to understand in the greater context of all 450 plus sets that can be crafted or looted across the entire game Jesus Christ are you pining for meaning and build identity across a vast open world in world are you just looking to have fun again well my friend you've come to the right place [Music] thank you foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign I started a journey in May of 2018 that would define my video gaming habits for the next four years I began the Elder Scrolls Online having little to no MMO experience outside of RuneScape when I was growing up ESO was a world of opportunity and the freedom to play it from my Xbox was all the reason I needed to check out this strange new world I was no stranger to the Elder Scrolls I grew up on Morrowind somehow skipped Oblivion and like so many of you found my way back to Tamriel in a prison transport cart on my way to summary execution foreign [Music] so it wasn't a matter of if I liked the Elder Scrolls it was a matter of if I'd like a massive multiplayer version of it starting in 2018 I had the advantage of missing out on the pre-1 Tamriel days I never experienced the Rocky and abysmal launch in 2018 and by the release of Somerset xenomax online Studios had a concrete release schedule consisting of two dungeon packs one major DLC expansion and a minor Zone expansion it was an easy game to dive into even more so due to Bleak Rock Isle resembling the atmosphere and setting of Skyrim exceptionally well zos also built the user interface on Console to resemble Skyrim which meant my understanding of one game was easily transferable to the other it wasn't long until I was consuming podcasts devoted to the game watching videos explaining the game and spending my free time exploring the world of Tamriel that I knew yet still felt expansive and exciting I joined up with a guild and made ESO my home for the remainder of 2018. I took the mantle of event lead for the guilt planning fun activities for myself friends and fellow Guild mates I leveled up at a Brisk Pace one consumed by my eagerness to experience more of the game each passing day I completed vet scale color peak a challenging DLC dungeon at the time at only CP level 390 a feat none of my friends had seen someone do as I continued to master My One True tune a stamina Nightblade I took on greater challenges including more veteran Dungeons and eventually veteran Maelstrom Arena it was a little over a year after starting my journey that I managed to achieve Flawless conqueror a title that signifies a perfect run of maelstrom Arena on veteran without any deaths this was my magnum opus and I completed it under max level around 750 CP simply put this era of eso was its golden age but not just for me for a lot of people 2019's elsewhere chapter and the state of the game was the best it had ever been [Music] that would eventually fade and as the game continued its formulaic approach to storytelling a once welcome and reassuring thing year by year it became tiresome and dull the shine of the game that I had spent three years in at that point was starting to fade dungeons released and were arbitrarily harder than the previous ones sets were nerfed and buffed on a regular basis keeping the top tier PVE players in a vicious cycle of having to rebuild their entire Tunes from the ground up chasing the DPS meta was an exhausting Endeavor the chapters would release to hype and Fanfare only for that excitement to be gone a few months later Elder Scrolls Online was not the game that it had been when I had started pre-summerset but it wasn't just zas's Draconian approach to controlling their game forcing a vision that they kept claiming they had yet could never justify with the majority of players no it was the community even people that I interacted with you could tell players were just not having fun like they once did raid groups would last a few months and then devolve when nobody would take ownership of the group the same events year after year with forced daily logins rooted in fomo kept players coming back kept me coming back long after my enjoyment had faded my problem was this I greatly enjoyed the people I played with many of them I had gamed heavily with for the past few years but I wasn't enjoying the method of our interactions I even managed to meet up with one friend who was vacationing near my hometown we talked about a lot of stuff music Life gaming food and certainly ESO but the eso topic felt like a duty more than something we were both highly passionate about something had to change I couldn't keep playing a game I had no passion for [Music] throughout the Twilight months of my ESO career I had been revisiting an old friend an old MMO that gave me my first taste of the genre all the way back in 2005. that MMO was RuneScape and no not old school RuneScape RuneScape 3 the Eternal long-lasting MMO that I grew up with yes I am that weirdo that prefers RS3 to old school anyway I quickly realized that it wasn't the same game that I played over a decade ago it had grown it had changed there were more quests skills areas to explore there was far more monetization the most shocking thing to me though was the change in the community and the players themselves those that played RuneScape in the late 2000s know that the community was everything hours of pest control Castle Wars Barbarian assault Banks standing on world 2 to sell raw sharks magiclogs or a Litany of other digital Wares was the name of the game it was a Social Hub filled to the brim with player interaction a young player such as myself had been scammed out of hundreds of thousands of gold had perhaps even tried to buy a girlfriend or two with golden varrock only to be lured into the Wilderness funny how that always happened every moment of one's time in RuneScape was spent interacting with players from all over the world gillinore had changed my casual hello at four notes was met with silence the pest control docks were vacant even on the dedicated World players opted for the grand exchange to Pedal Wares though you could find rare's merchants on world 2 or World 84 still everybody seemed to be carrying on a solo Adventure surrounded by other players also on their own dedicated solo Adventure nevertheless I found satisfaction and fulfillment in chasing a nearly two decades-long dream of maxing out on my character one by one and month after month I achieved another 99 in a skill finally ending with runecrafting of course the worst skill to train ever oh and then invention I have two people to really thank for my enjoyment during that time the first is Dr harsh a friend I met on my journey to 99 woodcutting my first 99 after returning to the game after a decade-long break the second is Hubba boy a man with more RuneScape knowledge than anybody probably ought to have he showed me the world of bossing and was there to congratulate me with a keg of beer on finally maxing though RuneScape had been a nice change of pace from ESO and though I had been playing both simultaneously a little bit I had been chasing Nostalgia with RS and it was time for something new or new to me the number one person we can blame for all of this including in some ways this video is my good friend cash now cash Loves All Things MMOs lore stories combat anything and everything that encompasses the spirit behind MMOs and cash had been looking for something new it came to pass that he stumbled upon Guild Wars 2. he told a couple of us about it suggested we download it as the base game had gone free to play and we try it out in the coming days and try it out we did it became an instant hit amongst all of us now Guild Wars 2 is a 10 year old game but considering where most of us had been in the year leading up to our discovery of it this was not a problem and the last new MMO we played well it didn't pan out Guild Wars 2 was a world of possibilities I started by making a silvery Ranger and after 20 levels decided I wanted to try something different I learned through my research that elementalists had a weaver specialization which would allow the player to attune to two different elements at the same time and my lifelong goal to become the Avatar in any game with magic I had struck gold it didn't take long to realize I was in trouble you see Elementalist is known for two things highly complexibility rotations and being a floorlord it was this guy that literally halted my experience because I couldn't finish this heart Quest without this vile swine tusking me to death it was humiliating I considered giving up at least three times now I've come back to enact my revenge bear witness as I slay this foul Beast where ESO is focused on getting new people into the game then pushing them towards in-game for rewarding and challenging content Guild Wars 2 is about the entire Journey after four years of chasing end game metas focusing entirely on my gear grind and spamming a through every piece of dialogue I came across Guild Wars 2 had me interested in what was going on in the world with my character and her NPC friends every step of the way it wasn't long before I was mastering jumping puzzles working my way through the heart of Thorne's storyline and even stunt flying on my Griffin oh and taking on huge World bosses participating in roller Beetle races Zone completion crafting ascended weapons and running fractals with my friends there was so much to do interior that after a few months my desire to be the best DPS player Focus entirely on raiding had vanished when a world as compelling as tyria allows you to explore its secrets and have fun on whatever Adventure you find yourself on Little Else Matters I think there are two main factors as to what drove this change and why I don't see myself playing ESO anymore first is the change to my free time with the addition of another kid to my family the time I'd play ESO uninterrupted on the Xbox is long gone because ESO is largely an endgame-centric experience especially once you've already reached that level in game there is not much to do that exists without being a support for end game content set collection or sticker book completion just an Avenue towards preparing for meta shifts at the end game level Antiquities or Tales of tribute fun minigames with rewards that once again support end game activities Mythic weapons in the case of Antiquities and crafting materials in the case of the card game for me an avid Raider and dungeon Delver every activity I participated in that wasn't dungeons or trials was a means to an end for the times I was in a dungeon or Trial Gold would to buy ingredients to craft potions for dummy parsing or difficult content new Mythic weapons would be required after patch combat changes New Gear sets that would ensure a 2000 DPS increase were imperative to farm all of this was to funnel into the largest part and tazas credit the best design part of the game that content so with my free time to dedicate to such content gone what point was there to spend time playing the second main factor is personality driven and not something that will ever change gaming is my hobby rather than ESO I have a few friends who I met playing the game that I wouldn't describe as Gamers sure they play Elder Scrolls online but they don't spend time playing other games ESO is their hobby I am perfectly fine with this and I actually admire it because it's reminiscent of the early days of MMOs back then MMOs were a Social Hub a means to hang out with friends before voice chat video chat streaming and Discord made it easy to connect at all hours of the day I however count gaming in the broad sense my hobby I enjoy trying out new games I enjoy spending time in New worlds and I enjoy being a part of new stories I even ran a podcast GG party chat for three years dedicated to the Hobby of gaming as a whole out of 66 episodes we put out we spent 44 of them deep diving into a different title each episode variety is the spice of life and the video game hobby is far from lacking in variety and honestly what type of nerdy self-proclaimed video game master would I be if I only ever experienced one MMO so time and a joy of gaming brought me to Guild Wars 2. the game does a lot of great things that feel like an improvement on the features in ESO mounts are meaningful with specific abilities that change the way you get around crafting is ultimately the only way to get the best gear in the game let legendary items Zone exploration has meaning and can be quite challenging when you factor in jumping puzzles hero Point challenges that can't be soloed and Easter eggs and other Secrets hidden cleverly behind foliage or other in-universe items all of these things mean that every time I log in there is no shortage of things to be doing but more importantly no outside pressure demanding I keep up with a meta or schedule around rating even the story that weaves its way through the base game each expansion and living world is an improvement on the self-contained adventures in each ESO expansion I've grown attached to characters like timi cashmere ritlock and even Braum because of their Development Across hours of dialogue cutscenes and other interactions Guild Wars 2 isn't without its own faults however the path towards the best gear for my spec is convoluted to the point where outside of crafting I'm still not sure where to go for ascended Viper's armor it also is not a a quest based game there are localized heart quests that you can complete to open up vendors in each Zone but in the base game these are one-time completions on each character finally compared to ESO the end game content in Guild Wars 2 is not as fleshed out raids and fractals have challenge modes but where ESO has 11 trials Guild Wars 2 has 7 raids three of which are different wings of the same area ESO has 27 DLC dungeons which doesn't include any of the base game dungeons to Guild Wars 2's 21 unique fractals despite these differences and moving from an end game Rich experience to one more focused on the story and exploration I really enjoy Guild Wars 2 from encouraging players to help one another by giving XP for resurrecting downed players to events that require coordinated groups led by four different commanders Guild Wars 2 was a shift in my mindset in how I approached these types of games it was a shift from a self serving Style Adventure to a selfless Style Adventure I would go out of my way to Res down to players because my success and their success was intertwined perhaps I needed gear or ascended crafting materials and the only way to get those was by participating in large-scale meta events well I wouldn't be alone in such an Endeavor and thus there were always plenty of players willing to help this is where Guild Wars shines it's a game designed for you to play with people my switch from ESO to Guild Wars was just as much a necessity as it was a desire I know not everyone watching this video will agree with me on believing Guild Wars 2 to be the better game and it's likely that we could debate various points brought up in this video Until the End of Time but that's not important video gaming is a vast and virtually endless Medium as we consume games like a patron at a theme park experiences attractions or rides there's always going to be the next thing the next experience the next MMO the next RPG the next FPS it's in our nature to want to discover what comes next so to all those friends that I left behind I will miss you I greatly enjoyed our experiences together in the world of Tamriel I'm not going to say that I'll never return to ESO and should the day come in which I do return I hope we will be able to sit down share stories and laughter about our experiences together and should I never return know that I'm happily blazing New Paths continuing my pursuit of Adventure through video games Guild Wars 2 is certainly fulfilling that Pursuit right now but you never know what might be on the horizon foreign

Channel: Coniff

Views: 186,222

Keywords:

Id: 2yidz2J1jYk

Length: 21min 15sec (1275 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 11 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/Enthiral]

Did something happen to ESO?

[u/chuffingpenguin]

That GW2 video montage at the beginning is seriously impressive in terms of visual quality and editing. Loved the shots in the end with the character standing still and the backgrounds changing. Very well done.

[u/OneMorePotion]

ESO is a really cool game with an absolute screwed payment and microtransaction system. We get all heated up about old Living World releases being bad communicated to new people? Well, try to figure out what ESO DLC's you can/need to buy and play in what order. Some of them are only dungeon DLC's. Others add new maps or skill lines.

And don't get me started on the subscription that unlocks you everything right away. First time you enter any big city will have DLC NPC's from 30 different things bullying you to sequence break to their respective content.

ESO is really confusing for a new player. To the point where I had a mod installed that allows me to toggle DLC quests off on my map. Just to make it a bit easier to experience the story I'm actually interested in right now... As I said... It's a really cool game (especially for a first time playthrough) but dear god they need to figure out a way to ease in new people who just want to experience things in order. Right now, they hit you with a truck, put in reverse and hit you again.

[u/Valdrrak]

I think if they did some sort of animation overhaul or colour overhaul eso would be much nicer, it just feels so still and saturated/bland colour. Thegame it self has some really cool things. Voices quiets, cool classes, freeformish leveling but it just looks dull and feels so stiff

[u/OperationExpress8794]

Refugees?

[u/MithranArkanere]

The thing about GW2 is that it ruins one's experience on other games because of all the little things you end up taking for granted that people end up not noticing until they miss them while playing other games.

Because of that, those who left end up coming back sooner or later.

So sit back and relax.

[u/KelseyWalker1982]

I went the other direction lol

[u/tharthritis]

I moved from ESO to GW2 and it’s mostly better but I really miss the writing in ESO sometimes (whenever there is dialogue in gw2)

[u/Awok3N49]

I think this is the first YouTube video I actually ever finished. Guy convinced me I want to download GW2 now.