Homes of Tamriel: ESO Housing Issues

Housing was one of the most anticipated features of The Elder Scrolls Online for me and many of my friends in the game. It opened the door to a level of depth for many of us in the game. A feature that would allow us to embrace our inner decorator, a place where we could be creative and expressive, and display our achievements in the game.  And for the most part, housing has not been a let down. We were allowed to own multiple houses and...

Read More

Dueling in ESO: The Violent Nature of Tamriel and The Unintended and Unresolved Consequences

In concept, I understand the need for dueling. Dueling is the only way to truly test one's build for PVP before taking it into combat. Sure the DPS test dummies are nice for posting DPS numbers, but the fact remains, those numbers only represent PVE/DPS values. And, since dummies don't fight back, you can test a tank or healer builds. So from that point of view, the introduction of dueling to The Elder Scrolls Online allowed the broader test...

Read More

Welcome to The Elder Scrolls Online: Home of the Scammers, Cheaters and Bot Farmers

Most online games have problems with scammers, cheaters and automated (scripted) bot farmers and The Elder Scrolls Online is no different. But, one of the main differences is that according Zenimax, some of this activity is not actually against their Terms of Service (ToS).  One of the most valuable things a player can acquire in the game, second only to experience points, is gold. Gold equals wealth and wealth can get you just about...

Read More

The Elder Scrolls Online: The Daunting Task of Shopping Guild Stores

One of my biggest personal issues with the overall user experience in the game is not being able to search stuff in guild traders, you know, recipes, set armor items and motifs etc. I know that crashes, glitches and other problems with the games have a much more significant impact to the gaming experience in Tamriel, but not having an ability to search for specific things I need by just typing in Ring of the Red Mountain instead of having to...

Read More

The Elder Scroll Online - Damage Front Loading and Diminishing Returns

I recently just started a new character, Stamblade Sniper PVP build. And I was shocked when at Level 6 I was able to Hit with a Bow for 35k critical damage using two Skills; Snipe followed by Shadow Cloak. I was one-shot killing most NPCs and by the time I morphed them to Focused Aim and Shadowy Disguise by level 10, I was able to critically hit world bosses for 40k damange. I thought to myself that this was definitely going to be a over-powered...

Read More

The Elder Scrolls Online: Lack of Moderation Equals Toxic community

If you have ever played any online multiplayer gamer, you know that communities around these games can get very toxic; to the point of being inhumane at times. The Elder Scrolls Online is no different than the other gaming communities. The phrase toxic masculinity is one that comes to mind for me when thinking of online gaming toxicity. Toxic masculinity is used to describe certain behaviors that are considered the norm of masculine and these...

Read More

Voice Chat Woes In Tamriel: The Elder Scrolls Online

Voice Communication is a critical aspect of this game. It helps teams communicate quick commands to each other during high tension battles, it allows new friendships to form, it enables long conversations to not have to be types out via Xbox's antiquated controller based keyboard. Without voice chat, much of the social aspect of the game is lost, and let's face it, outside of the main quests of this game, the rest of the game requires come socialization...

Read More

The Elder Scrolls Online: A One Star Game with Four Star Potential

With every patch of The Elder Scrolls Online, even the launch which was the first patch in my mind, there have been issues; issues that in several cases have been catastrophic from a gaming experience. Additionally, many of these issues were discovered when a previous patch (according to the patch notes) did not address the issues they claimed to, and in some cases, the patch/fix actually made the issue worse while at the same time, creating...

Read More