Zenimax Online has acknowledged that its new MMO is perhaps a little buggy. That is to be expected of an MMO, especially one bearing the Elder Scrolls name. They’ve even admitted that the bugs are responsible for many of the game’s middling reviews. In truth, that’s just part of the game’s problem, but at least Zenimax Online is going to attempt to fix it. I’d bloody well hope so, as you’re paying to play it every month.
“Some of the negativity in reviews comes from bugs,” says Zenimax’s Matt Firor in a new blog post. “As you can see, we’re hard at work addressing them and will keep rolling out fixes. The important thing for you, the community, to know is that we’re looking at ALL the feedback (from critics and from players), we’re addressing any shortcomings, and we’ll continue to do so. This game will get better and better every week.”
Some of the bugs were bad enough that Zenimax had to yank their servers offline to fix the game – so they’re awarding early adopters with a few extra days of play as an apology.
“Fixing these problems required us to take the megaservers offline, costing players time in the game. In recognition of this experience and to show our gratitude to everyone who supported the launch, we are giving an additional five days of included game time to every ESO player who set up an active account prior to 8pm EDT Thursday May 1st and who are currently enjoying their 30 days of included game time.”
“We’ve gotten through our launch month well and are heading towards our first update soon. After that, expect many more good things in ESO,” Firor said.
Here’s a list of the things you can expect in this, and future updates.
- A system that allows grouped players to see each other even when they’re in different phases
- A justice system—steal from and kill NPCs and deal with the consequences if you are caught
- Migration of European Megaserver to our European datacenter.
- Field of View (FOV) adjustment
- Armor dyeing and tinting
- Two new Veteran Dungeons: Crypt of Hearts and City of Ash
- New region of Craglorn with a new Trial (the Serpent)
- Increased ability to pick up items in the world
- Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood storyline and quests.
- Spellcrafting
- Horse Racing
- Dragonstar Arena—similar to Trials, but built for a group of four
- Improvements to fishing
- Crafting system improvements
- Improved Looking for Group system
- Better NPC facial animations
- Guild functionality updates: guild store interface updates, customizable guild insignias, tabards, and guild ranks, and Guild Kiosks—guild stores open to everyone that are available to the highest-bidding guild.
- Auto-leveling dungeons that level to your group leader
- Awards when you repeat dungeons
- Imperial City PvP dungeon
The console versions of the MMO have been hit by a six month delay. That might be a good thing as Zenimax patches up the holes before the game hits consoles…and possibly transitions to at least a partially free-to-play system, much like World of Warcraft.
I just don’t see the game lasting long as a subscription game amidst the negativity and the bugs. To mind, I can;t think of anybody who’ll be renewing their subscription once the included 30 days time allotment is over – and that’s never a good sign for a fledgling MMO.
Last Updated: May 12, 2014
Umar Returns
May 12, 2014 at 08:31
“Some of the negativity in reviews comes from bugs”
While majority of the negativity comes from the fact that this game sucks and it boring as hell
Admiral Chief in Space
May 12, 2014 at 09:10
Plus DAT SUB
Kallun Sheppard
May 13, 2014 at 01:14
What game are you playing? If your bored in ESO “Your doing it wrong.” Lol WOW fan boys
Umar Returns
May 13, 2014 at 07:20
LOL So someone can’t dislike a game without being a fanboy of another….Yeah,logical
Kromas
May 12, 2014 at 08:35
I am sorry but major bugs are not part of any MMO and I have played a lot of them. Also all these features should have been in from the start. Way to late and my sub has already been cancled two weeks ago.
Next up …. Wildstar … and when that fails back to FF:ARR. 😛
Sphinx
May 12, 2014 at 09:03
I agree FF:ARR might be where I will be heading back to as well. I’ve only played like a week and a half of my 30 days free from my Imperial Edition ESO, its just so buggy
Kromas
May 12, 2014 at 09:08
ESO forgot to add the second M in MMO. Right now its just Massively Online. No incentive to even group up. I really could not care less about this game.
Then again I finished all the content already 😛
Kallun Sheppard
May 13, 2014 at 01:16
Ff AR is a good game too I still have it installed honestly only reason I don’t play it anymore is I’m too into ESO
Tarisma
May 12, 2014 at 09:31
Wildstar won’t fail…. I hope…
Kromas
May 12, 2014 at 09:50
We all hope. Tomorrow is pre-order name reservation day so Ill be registering all my characters names for all my alts.
Tarisma
May 12, 2014 at 09:58
Thanks for reminding me! I almost forgot, ya I need to reserve about 6 or so. Pretty sad we can’t have a name and surname combination
Kallun Sheppard
May 13, 2014 at 01:14
Your extremely lucky then because I have played WOW FFXI FF ARR and now ESO and they have all had bugs and server problems. Does that mean they suck? No it just means if you knew anything about how these things work you’d be awe struck MMOs ever stay up.
Kromas
May 13, 2014 at 09:43
Server problems aside I was talking specifically about game breaking bugs. In the 8 years+ of playing WoW the only two major bugs I had was the Druid Swimform quest bug and a Totem quest bug for the shaman. Both horde side. ESO by far has had bugs that made me stop playing cause I could not go to the next area. FF14 I heard was really horrible but I only started playing with ARR so I did not see anything really game breaking. As for the most stable MMO ever I have to take my hat off to EvE Online. ESO sucks cause you literally waste days trying to get past a main quest to move onto the next area because they decided not to make it accessable without said quest. That is the worst idea they ever had in the game. Also let us not talk about an MMO that does not promote group play. It would have been a single player game if it was not for all the other players screwing around with the boss you need to kill cause it is far easier to farm that way. The game is horrible and sucks and I stand by that decision.
Alien Emperor Trevor
May 12, 2014 at 08:57
But those bugs are Ladybirds, who dislikes those?
Admiral Chief in Space
May 12, 2014 at 09:10
Fun fact: Ladybirds are predators
Rincethis
May 12, 2014 at 09:13
To Trevor anything lady like is a predator…
Admiral Chief in Space
May 12, 2014 at 09:16
Oh snap!
Rincethis
May 12, 2014 at 09:18
Hehehhe
Alien Emperor Trevor
May 12, 2014 at 09:21
bwhahahaha that’s… actually true. :/
Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!
May 12, 2014 at 09:38
headshot
Admiral Chief in Space
May 12, 2014 at 09:40
Critical hit, right in the man-points-bag
Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!
May 12, 2014 at 09:41
lol. Man points bag… That made me laugh a little more than it had a right to
Rincethis
May 12, 2014 at 09:46
And I haven’t even had a coffee!
Admiral Chief in Space
May 12, 2014 at 09:41
I don’t know what’s funnier, your epic burn or the fact that you used the term “lady like” which makes the burn even moar funneh
Rincethis
May 12, 2014 at 09:48
Hehehe 🙂
MakeItLegal
May 12, 2014 at 09:58
Ha ha … o/
Rincethis
May 12, 2014 at 09:12
Haha. No.
VampyreSquirrel
May 12, 2014 at 09:36
I tried TESO… I shall pass… next thing to try is Wildstar… if that fails me (which I doubt it will), then I guess I’ll leave MMO’s alone for a long, long time to come.
Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!
May 12, 2014 at 09:37
Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood storyline and quests.
Spellcrafting
urmmm…. These were not part of the game from day 1?
Dafuq?
MakeItLegal
May 12, 2014 at 09:57
Can’t pay 150 a month for a game , would rarther have paid 1000 bucks up front … I mean after 3 years u looking at 5400 for this game ….
Girl Grey
May 12, 2014 at 17:59
ESO feels like a single player game, they must fix this. Wildstar made my eyes bleed.
Coldfreeze
May 12, 2014 at 18:49
The game is stable now and tbh I can’t see this going f2p. I renew my subscription. The game had a rocky launch, but sadly most reviewers just played he early launch.
This game has more potential than the old republic. It isn’t run off the mill. It’s different in a good way and considering all the patches we had already, this game is in it for the long run.
Charl van der Merwe
May 13, 2014 at 09:14
Renewed my subsription, it’s a quality game that just needs a little TLC. Not a chance this is going f2p pretty much ever.So cheapskates can stop hatin on the game(who haven’t even played it) in the hopes of playing for free tbh, it’s getting a little stale now. You can move on to Wildstar with your F2p predictions when it’s released and let the rest enjoy ESO.
retaliate
May 13, 2014 at 10:39
If you don’t know to anticipate hackers and exploit attempts in your MMO in 2014, you are either an amateur MMO developer or are stupid.
I think the way things have gone with TESO’s launch says a lot about management as the problems there seem to be a lack of prioritizing things.
Releasing content that those exploiting your game are likely to benefit from more than anyone else while neglecting to fix the issues 85% of your support tickets are about… is very risky for any company that wishes to retain it’s customers.
And NO, the game is NOT stable right now. Check their forums and you’ll see that for yourself.