I'm happy to hear the game is successful, I follow news and updates even tho I haven't played properly since deadlands. I'm also probably a really small minority since I only liked score pushing since the combat is so fun and progression palpable, eso's horizontal progression is probably the only thing that keeps me feeling safe to come back when I have more time. I know whatever happens I'll be able to get back to, eventually, the hardest content again without farming much
as one of the players that came from TES single players, I found home. TES games have since 94, been my foundation games. I mean yes, I played Zelda when it 1st came out... I play other games, but.. I was 3 when Pong came out, but a few years later we ( brother and I ) got the game. I looked at WoW when it 1st came out, even played some, but I realized it just *really* wasn't my kinda game. Though I like the books. I agree with the Eso is a quiet game, it is. One thing that has always confounded me though is how people run through the Tutorial and then say it taught them nothing. Could the Tutorial be better? Yes, it could. Most of what you need to know for combat IS there... light attack, heavy attack, bash, block, and break free. BUT What needs to be better is how hard the 'boss' is to kill. Not the teaching one, but the Deadric Titian. You fail, you back out, level up, get better gear, get more skills.. try again.... with the game giving you tips. The majority of my characters leave the Tutorial area at level 6 ( no CP added ), knowing ALL weapons skills and armor types. Know 4 to 8 recipes and can sell all the trash for around 3k. ( The tip there is destroy what can't be stacked, unless it's got a good value. ) IMO they need to add crafting tables right there IN the Tutorial area and have the NPC explain that. Some place you can get back to after killing stuff and collecting crap.. decon, learn a trait or 5, how to add Glyphs... And for F's sake how to repair armor and recharge weapons !!! I was watching a Streamer ( 4 yr vet) who's armor was red, didn't realize that someone was using a group repair kit!! ::facepalm:: And yes, right there IN the Tutorial, they should have an explanation and toggle for doing the Chapters/ DLCs in chronological order.
Having played WoW for 20 years and ESO for 10, I totally agree with you. The WoW community is highly toxic, very aggressive and immature. In comparison the ESO players are more friendly, helpsome and mature.
Disagree somewhat. Some dude in a PvE server i was in would call me an Incestuous Pedophile for Missing a Trial. ~I literally forgot that i signed up for a trial cuz this server kept prioritizing their friends over who tries to slot in first, they would even say 'Dump the sh*tters(new people)' if the trial is already full and they know the raid lead. I was seeing the same thing for this trial while it was being made so i just bounced, did not expect that i would land a position. This server was very organized, they have a 'friendly vibe' around. But miss one Trial and these guys turn to Psychopaths(not the cool type, but the Petty and lame type) quick. Pretty Hilarious.
I think this "depends" I feel like the WoW community has a significantly larger audience (not by percentage, but by raw count) that is running higher-end content; this leads to more overall toxicity. In ESO you have a much much smaller volume of players participating in competitive content so to speak (even the PvP setting, the most popular format is many-person-many-person-many-person so it's harder to signal out lower competing players). You also have the console element, no metrics to track other than literal "how many times did I rezz X" and "is X using a build that I know that'll perform well"... in both instances only issues with players is when players actively aren't meeting the minimum bar, stellar players are only noticed in those "the team died and Y is solo'ing the boss, awesome!". WoW is pretty addon infested, everyone knows exactly what everyone is doing and are "definitely" capable of calling out anyone who isn't performing within X% of the top percentile for a given ilvl which enables that toxicity. ESO PC I feel is more toxic than ESO console (used to play on PC, switch to console to play with my lil bro) and the above are just my thoughts on that situation.
Thank you so much for this and tagging us! I love that how warm people have been to me since joining the game and that gaming is being talked in general on BBC etc
Man, this video was really, really good. I've played ESO in 3 different occasions in the past, on Beta, at Launch and somewhere around when Summerset had released, but at the 3 of them I didn't quite enjoy the game, specially since my only reference to an MMO was World of Warcraft. Then, somewhere around 2019 I've watched more videos about ESO, and the promise of an horizontal progression system where older content was as useful as newer content drawed me in (as I began to hate WoW's ever constant farming of higher iLvl Gear every single patch and every single expansion). Also, the fact that I could do content in whatever order I wanted really made me want to start playing via Vvardenfell, and well, since then I've fallen in love with the game. ESO is easily my favorite MMORPG, and my most played as well. The community, the amount of content, the fact that I can do whatever I want whenever I want without feeling the pressure that "I'm not playing correctly, I should be farming better gear" is simply great. Thanks for the amazing video, you just won a subscription.
@@jeffreymccambridge9012 I just buy the mats if I don't have them and use the alchemy station. Lots drop everywhere from dungeons and questing as well.. So I generally have no shortage.
And that's a problem for you the Cloudrest Savior, the Sunspire DragonBreak, The Xalvakka's Bane, the Swashbuckler Supreme and the Sane and Clearheaded? My gosh, THE GAMERS PLAY THE GAME LIKE THEY WANT. LIVE AND LET LIVE, PLAY AND LET PLAY! PostScript: those "flower pickers" keep the game running cuz they control the guilds market for your comfort. Think about it the next time you buy some cheap potions.
ESO has been around for a long time. It has done some good things and some not so good things. One of the things that I don't think they get enough credit for is completely rebuilding the game after launch. Much like FFXIV, the game really was a mess at launch. It was filled with buggy gameplay and a lot of terrible game design even when the game would work as intended. However much like FFXIV, they put in a TON of work and really overhauled their game to created a nice niche in the MMO market. They do housing as well as anyone. My personal favorite in any game. The storytelling is better than most. The fighting is unquie, which is either a positive or negative, depending on how you look at it. The game really does a lot of stuff really well, and while they do deserve some of the critism they have recieved... I do not believe they get enough credit for the work they have done.
they definitely don't do a good enough job of explaining their mechanics. I was thinking gold road was going to be the most lackluster mmo update this year but it turned out to be the absolute GOAT and I even refunded dawntrail & am not that excited for war within anymore. Spellcrafting added so many more layers of fun to the game & everything else that came with the update.
Idk how you fix understanding combat when it explains how to and what to look for to interrupt in the intro quest (which you can’t skip first time through) and people still can’t interrupt in dungeons, trials or world boss fights 😅
Yeah, makes me wonder if people are playing with closed eyes. Sure if it's crowded it's hard to see the effect. But if there is only one mob it's easy to see if you can interrupt the spell
Having played pretty much every mmorpg from every game franchise i had a mindset to cope with since i never had a challenge with any game i played then i found this back in 2019 and fell in love flash forward after a 4 year break its now free to all xbox players with a gamepass core membership aka the brand new gold basic upgrade it can earn you reward points for playing daily 250 every friday and 10 every day with the 250 weekly points resetting monday
Re: 26:44 How to fix the game I agree, I think the game is great and I play all the time, but new player onboarding needs improvement. I learned to play from RUclips videos, guides, and dying a lot 1. I would love to see the tutorial updated to feel like the Vampire tutorial. Unlock all class abilities and have the player use them on enemies with like 5HP so they see how each works in a low stakes situation. If I'm rolling a new Warden I don't want to hit level 30 before I realize it isn't for me 2. Since we would now have class-specific tutorials, have Norianwe noticed our class and give lore. "Oh, I see you're a Templar, a soldier who wields the power of the Aedra..." "A Nightblade I see, you must be very stealthy..." "We don't see many Dragonknights here, inheritors of the Akaviri style..." It would invest players in their class and help explain why they have access to these specific spells. She could explain the history of the class and the class's strengths. You can skip dialogue anyway so it doesn't hurt to add 3. Use the tutorial to explain damage rotations and weaving. Learning to light attack and block kind of feels like a waste of time, like the tutorial isn't teaching you to play the game (and you have maybe 2 spells by the end anyway so you aren't even learning to use those). To echo the video, unless you have a guild to take you under their wing, you're matchmaking with randoms. That means nobody is telling me to use my spells, optimize my gear and rotation, or how to stack/where to stand. I get frustrated when I'm healing and a DPS stands on the tank or runs away from heals but I get it because the game doesn't teach them what to do 4. Use tutorial to explain player roles (see #1 above). I've been in too many vet dungeon PUGs with a PvP tank who doesn't have a taunt or a healer who isn't managing buffs/debuffs. I've been in too many PUGs where the tank stops tanking and pulls out a resto staff and heals the people who are now getting annihilated because the tank isn't tanking. Why not have a Role Tutorial quest before going into group content? 5. Make the tutorial[s] repeatable so players can get a refresher at any time 6. Find a way to explain quest scaffolding to players. I've played the base game like 16 times so I know which quest givers are zone main quests and which are Prophet/Vestige main quests. It's confusing to have multiple main quest lines in a small area so it's easy to lose track of the story. As a new player I found the number of quests overwhelming, I didn't even realize half those arrows would trigger the same quest 7. Give players the option to load into a veteran-difficulty instance for overland. If that's too hard then players can load into the regular instance or update their builds 8. I know this will never happen, but make Tank and Healer dummies. DPS dummy is great, but give me one with a massive DOT that I need to keep alive for 3 minutes. Give me an aggressive dummy that I need to hold. Give me healer tests and taunt tests
Weaving tutorial would be great, it's such a shame that the most important mechanic in the game isn't taught by the game itself. Sliders for Overland, i wish that feature now for so long i gave up this dream
I've stopped trying to talk to anyone not in the same guilds as I. Most of the responses to advice end up being "i didn't ask" or " you're not paying my sub". But i'm super willing to jump into a /z pug. Those have been some of the only times i'm able to raid, and the people are usually chill.
I tried to do the story chronologically. I feel like it takes forever. I finally decided on the third faction storyline to just go to West Woald. I feel like it needs to be made clear you can do the story in any order you want. DLC zonea will be harder.
Not a popularity contest at all - people frequently compare game popularity and discuss what the “big” MMOs are via player numbers and content consumed. ESO has always had tons of players but relatively less content consumed, by a fairly large margin, compared to the other big names, which is what the article is about - it being a “quiet” success
Wow as a game that requires a subscription to play is immediately a red flag for me, id rather not get pressured to pay for another month because it took me a long time to grind as per game design
All mmo that get regular content are either must have sub or optional sub. Current gens think b2p IS enough to fund a content/Feature flow. Yet u get constant Updates in sub Games. I dont mind subs.
The problem with ESO is the microtransaction model. The microtransactions are what kept the game alive funding wise, but as they keep going the game gets more and more expensive overall and generally unaccessible to new players. This is an issue WoW had too.
You don't really need to buy things from the shop tho. And you could farm gold if you really need something from the ingame store. The problem is that new players don't know that, for example, the vampire curse is for free in the game with either a specific mob or by a player bite.
@@666blubber666 I agree you don't need to and over time the subscription UBI crowns can backpay for content you wanna keep. But yeah the problem is nobody knows that when first stepping in so it just looks like a p2w nightmare
ESO may not be pay to win, but it’s definitely not encouraging players to immerse themselves into the world no matter how much they want too, they just can’t. Why? Well most exotic items are only obtainable via paywalls/micro-transactions/in-game stores… Rather than being something you have to do in the game to achieve these exotic items. It’s a cash-grab game and that’s what makes it a terrible one. The only thing ESO can be considered is an MMO, but it’s not an RPG due to missing qualities. It’s unbalanced, so level 10’s can defeat a level 40 in duels… very unrealistic in progression status. End-game content doesn’t exist because there’s nothing to collect but skills, honor points, and armor types. And if you have the money with out a life outside gaming then you can buy collectors items off their game shop… it’s pretty basic and explainable that game. Warcraft is trying to head down that direction too, but their community is fighting back against it, so it reminds limited.
It is successful because it has aggressive monetization. The most "successful" games in the world are mobile games that create daily spending through a series of manipulative practices. ESO has abused a loved IP and therefore has been able to over-monetize this game far more than a game based on a weaker universe. LOTRO does the same thing but is much older and therefore lost most of its players before the lootbox, F2P store craze. ESO is a failure in creating a meaningful experience beyond the dopamine drip, which it does really well. People who want creativity, emotion, heart, experience do not play ESO. People who shiny skills, and occasional dopamine from gold items or kill another player love eso. So I would say it is a massive failure considering its universe build uses and abuse such a great universe and the story has basically been tied to whatever system could make the most money next chapter.
I'm happy to hear the game is successful, I follow news and updates even tho I haven't played properly since deadlands. I'm also probably a really small minority since I only liked score pushing since the combat is so fun and progression palpable, eso's horizontal progression is probably the only thing that keeps me feeling safe to come back when I have more time. I know whatever happens I'll be able to get back to, eventually, the hardest content again without farming much
as one of the players that came from TES single players, I found home. TES games have since 94, been my foundation games. I mean yes, I played Zelda when it 1st came out... I play other games, but..
I was 3 when Pong came out, but a few years later we ( brother and I ) got the game.
I looked at WoW when it 1st came out, even played some, but I realized it just *really* wasn't my kinda game. Though I like the books.
I agree with the Eso is a quiet game, it is. One thing that has always confounded me though is how people run through the Tutorial and then say it taught them nothing.
Could the Tutorial be better? Yes, it could. Most of what you need to know for combat IS there... light attack, heavy attack, bash, block, and break free. BUT
What needs to be better is how hard the 'boss' is to kill. Not the teaching one, but the Deadric Titian. You fail, you back out, level up, get better gear, get more skills.. try again.... with the game giving you tips.
The majority of my characters leave the Tutorial area at level 6 ( no CP added ), knowing ALL weapons skills and armor types. Know 4 to 8 recipes and can sell all the trash for around 3k. ( The tip there is destroy what can't be stacked, unless it's got a good value. )
IMO they need to add crafting tables right there IN the Tutorial area and have the NPC explain that. Some place you can get back to after killing stuff and collecting crap.. decon, learn a trait or 5, how to add Glyphs...
And for F's sake how to repair armor and recharge weapons !!! I was watching a Streamer ( 4 yr vet) who's armor was red, didn't realize that someone was using a group repair kit!! ::facepalm::
And yes, right there IN the Tutorial, they should have an explanation and toggle for doing the Chapters/ DLCs in chronological order.
I absolutely love both ESO and GW2, which are very chill and casual with its horizontal progression instead of vertical
Having played WoW for 20 years and ESO for 10, I totally agree with you. The WoW community is highly toxic, very aggressive and immature. In comparison the ESO players are more friendly, helpsome and mature.
Disagree somewhat. Some dude in a PvE server i was in would call me an Incestuous Pedophile for Missing a Trial. ~I literally forgot that i signed up for a trial cuz this server kept prioritizing their friends over who tries to slot in first, they would even say 'Dump the sh*tters(new people)' if the trial is already full and they know the raid lead. I was seeing the same thing for this trial while it was being made so i just bounced, did not expect that i would land a position. This server was very organized, they have a 'friendly vibe' around. But miss one Trial and these guys turn to Psychopaths(not the cool type, but the Petty and lame type) quick. Pretty Hilarious.
I think this "depends" I feel like the WoW community has a significantly larger audience (not by percentage, but by raw count) that is running higher-end content; this leads to more overall toxicity. In ESO you have a much much smaller volume of players participating in competitive content so to speak (even the PvP setting, the most popular format is many-person-many-person-many-person so it's harder to signal out lower competing players).
You also have the console element, no metrics to track other than literal "how many times did I rezz X" and "is X using a build that I know that'll perform well"... in both instances only issues with players is when players actively aren't meeting the minimum bar, stellar players are only noticed in those "the team died and Y is solo'ing the boss, awesome!".
WoW is pretty addon infested, everyone knows exactly what everyone is doing and are "definitely" capable of calling out anyone who isn't performing within X% of the top percentile for a given ilvl which enables that toxicity.
ESO PC I feel is more toxic than ESO console (used to play on PC, switch to console to play with my lil bro) and the above are just my thoughts on that situation.
LOL
Thank you so much for this and tagging us! I love that how warm people have been to me since joining the game and that gaming is being talked in general on BBC etc
Cheers!! Very talented and I hope y’all get more spotlight from the article! Very deserving of it for sure 😁👍🏻
Man, this video was really, really good.
I've played ESO in 3 different occasions in the past, on Beta, at Launch and somewhere around when Summerset had released, but at the 3 of them I didn't quite enjoy the game, specially since my only reference to an MMO was World of Warcraft.
Then, somewhere around 2019 I've watched more videos about ESO, and the promise of an horizontal progression system where older content was as useful as newer content drawed me in (as I began to hate WoW's ever constant farming of higher iLvl Gear every single patch and every single expansion).
Also, the fact that I could do content in whatever order I wanted really made me want to start playing via Vvardenfell, and well, since then I've fallen in love with the game.
ESO is easily my favorite MMORPG, and my most played as well. The community, the amount of content, the fact that I can do whatever I want whenever I want without feeling the pressure that "I'm not playing correctly, I should be farming better gear" is simply great.
Thanks for the amazing video, you just won a subscription.
The average ESO player likes to pick flowers
?
How else am I going to level Alchemy?
@@jeffreymccambridge9012 I just buy the mats if I don't have them and use the alchemy station. Lots drop everywhere from dungeons and questing as well.. So I generally have no shortage.
And that's a problem for you the Cloudrest Savior, the Sunspire DragonBreak, The Xalvakka's Bane, the Swashbuckler Supreme and the Sane and Clearheaded? My gosh, THE GAMERS PLAY THE GAME LIKE THEY WANT. LIVE AND LET LIVE, PLAY AND LET PLAY! PostScript: those "flower pickers" keep the game running cuz they control the guilds market for your comfort. Think about it the next time you buy some cheap potions.
I like how defensive the replies are when no one ever said it's a bad thing.
ESO has been around for a long time. It has done some good things and some not so good things. One of the things that I don't think they get enough credit for is completely rebuilding the game after launch. Much like FFXIV, the game really was a mess at launch. It was filled with buggy gameplay and a lot of terrible game design even when the game would work as intended. However much like FFXIV, they put in a TON of work and really overhauled their game to created a nice niche in the MMO market. They do housing as well as anyone. My personal favorite in any game. The storytelling is better than most. The fighting is unquie, which is either a positive or negative, depending on how you look at it. The game really does a lot of stuff really well, and while they do deserve some of the critism they have recieved... I do not believe they get enough credit for the work they have done.
They had to revisit systems, they didn't rebuild from scratch like ffxiv did.
they definitely don't do a good enough job of explaining their mechanics. I was thinking gold road was going to be the most lackluster mmo update this year but it turned out to be the absolute GOAT and I even refunded dawntrail & am not that excited for war within anymore. Spellcrafting added so many more layers of fun to the game & everything else that came with the update.
Idk how you fix understanding combat when it explains how to and what to look for to interrupt in the intro quest (which you can’t skip first time through) and people still can’t interrupt in dungeons, trials or world boss fights 😅
Yeah, makes me wonder if people are playing with closed eyes. Sure if it's crowded it's hard to see the effect. But if there is only one mob it's easy to see if you can interrupt the spell
Hey thanks for the ESO content, I appreciate it!
Having played pretty much every mmorpg from every game franchise i had a mindset to cope with since i never had a challenge with any game i played then i found this back in 2019 and fell in love flash forward after a 4 year break its now free to all xbox players with a gamepass core membership aka the brand new gold basic upgrade it can earn you reward points for playing daily 250 every friday and 10 every day with the 250 weekly points resetting monday
Re: 26:44 How to fix the game
I agree, I think the game is great and I play all the time, but new player onboarding needs improvement. I learned to play from RUclips videos, guides, and dying a lot
1. I would love to see the tutorial updated to feel like the Vampire tutorial. Unlock all class abilities and have the player use them on enemies with like 5HP so they see how each works in a low stakes situation. If I'm rolling a new Warden I don't want to hit level 30 before I realize it isn't for me
2. Since we would now have class-specific tutorials, have Norianwe noticed our class and give lore. "Oh, I see you're a Templar, a soldier who wields the power of the Aedra..." "A Nightblade I see, you must be very stealthy..." "We don't see many Dragonknights here, inheritors of the Akaviri style..." It would invest players in their class and help explain why they have access to these specific spells. She could explain the history of the class and the class's strengths. You can skip dialogue anyway so it doesn't hurt to add
3. Use the tutorial to explain damage rotations and weaving. Learning to light attack and block kind of feels like a waste of time, like the tutorial isn't teaching you to play the game (and you have maybe 2 spells by the end anyway so you aren't even learning to use those). To echo the video, unless you have a guild to take you under their wing, you're matchmaking with randoms. That means nobody is telling me to use my spells, optimize my gear and rotation, or how to stack/where to stand. I get frustrated when I'm healing and a DPS stands on the tank or runs away from heals but I get it because the game doesn't teach them what to do
4. Use tutorial to explain player roles (see #1 above). I've been in too many vet dungeon PUGs with a PvP tank who doesn't have a taunt or a healer who isn't managing buffs/debuffs. I've been in too many PUGs where the tank stops tanking and pulls out a resto staff and heals the people who are now getting annihilated because the tank isn't tanking. Why not have a Role Tutorial quest before going into group content?
5. Make the tutorial[s] repeatable so players can get a refresher at any time
6. Find a way to explain quest scaffolding to players. I've played the base game like 16 times so I know which quest givers are zone main quests and which are Prophet/Vestige main quests. It's confusing to have multiple main quest lines in a small area so it's easy to lose track of the story. As a new player I found the number of quests overwhelming, I didn't even realize half those arrows would trigger the same quest
7. Give players the option to load into a veteran-difficulty instance for overland. If that's too hard then players can load into the regular instance or update their builds
8. I know this will never happen, but make Tank and Healer dummies. DPS dummy is great, but give me one with a massive DOT that I need to keep alive for 3 minutes. Give me an aggressive dummy that I need to hold. Give me healer tests and taunt tests
Weaving tutorial would be great, it's such a shame that the most important mechanic in the game isn't taught by the game itself.
Sliders for Overland, i wish that feature now for so long i gave up this dream
I’m an early 2000s baby now i’m 24 i grew up with the old cool games i love them 👍🏾
I'm a late 80s kid, 36 right now and I grew up with regular old games 😂😂😂
@@Lupinemancer87 Cool lol 😂😂
My Daily Dose of ESO News, thanks for the Content , Cooper!
I've stopped trying to talk to anyone not in the same guilds as I. Most of the responses to advice end up being "i didn't ask" or " you're not paying my sub". But i'm super willing to jump into a /z pug. Those have been some of the only times i'm able to raid, and the people are usually chill.
I tried to do the story chronologically. I feel like it takes forever. I finally decided on the third faction storyline to just go to West Woald. I feel like it needs to be made clear you can do the story in any order you want. DLC zonea will be harder.
ESO is a much more chill game... I enjoy pvp, but most of the time I'm into the lore, crafting, and housing.
It's not some kinda of popularity contest, people play what they like with who they want. Unless the servers are up and the community is there
Not a popularity contest at all - people frequently compare game popularity and discuss what the “big” MMOs are via player numbers and content consumed.
ESO has always had tons of players but relatively less content consumed, by a fairly large margin, compared to the other big names, which is what the article is about - it being a “quiet” success
Wow as a game that requires a subscription to play is immediately a red flag for me, id rather not get pressured to pay for another month because it took me a long time to grind as per game design
All mmo that get regular content are either must have sub or optional sub.
Current gens think b2p IS enough to fund a content/Feature flow.
Yet u get constant Updates in sub Games. I dont mind subs.
Are you new?
The MMO that preys on gambling addictions is a financial success? Pacrooti is surprised.
The person who can't control their own consumer impulses to buy "digital stuff" a.k.a loot chest comming here to rant?
“Noooo, leave the billion dollar companies alone”.
I dont like the m+ system.
I love the trifecta stuff.
Guess to each their own.
The problem with ESO is the microtransaction model. The microtransactions are what kept the game alive funding wise, but as they keep going the game gets more and more expensive overall and generally unaccessible to new players. This is an issue WoW had too.
The gameplay boring you to tears doesn't help
You don't really need to buy things from the shop tho. And you could farm gold if you really need something from the ingame store.
The problem is that new players don't know that, for example, the vampire curse is for free in the game with either a specific mob or by a player bite.
@@666blubber666 I agree you don't need to and over time the subscription UBI crowns can backpay for content you wanna keep. But yeah the problem is nobody knows that when first stepping in so it just looks like a p2w nightmare
ESO may not be pay to win, but it’s definitely not encouraging players to immerse themselves into the world no matter how much they want too, they just can’t.
Why?
Well most exotic items are only obtainable via paywalls/micro-transactions/in-game stores…
Rather than being something you have to do in the game to achieve these exotic items.
It’s a cash-grab game and that’s what makes it a terrible one. The only thing ESO can be considered is an MMO, but it’s not an RPG due to missing qualities.
It’s unbalanced, so level 10’s can defeat a level 40 in duels… very unrealistic in progression status.
End-game content doesn’t exist because there’s nothing to collect but skills, honor points, and armor types.
And if you have the money with out a life outside gaming then you can buy collectors items off their game shop… it’s pretty basic and explainable that game.
Warcraft is trying to head down that direction too, but their community is fighting back against it, so it reminds limited.
It is successful because it has aggressive monetization. The most "successful" games in the world are mobile games that create daily spending through a series of manipulative practices. ESO has abused a loved IP and therefore has been able to over-monetize this game far more than a game based on a weaker universe. LOTRO does the same thing but is much older and therefore lost most of its players before the lootbox, F2P store craze. ESO is a failure in creating a meaningful experience beyond the dopamine drip, which it does really well. People who want creativity, emotion, heart, experience do not play ESO. People who shiny skills, and occasional dopamine from gold items or kill another player love eso. So I would say it is a massive failure considering its universe build uses and abuse such a great universe and the story has basically been tied to whatever system could make the most money next chapter.