A few weeks ago, I made the point that I still wasn't entirely happy with SWTOR in terms of its continuing to find ways to introduce grinds, and that I was worried about how that would impact my love for it. I know for a fact that I am a long way away from saying "no, I'm done" with the game, but it is still really interesting to put my issues into context with another MMO I've been playing.
For the past five-and-a-bit years, I have been involved with The Elder Scrolls Online. It's been a fun experience, and the game is hands-down one of the most gorgeous games I have ever played. Yet it's also proving to be more and more difficult to really say I "enjoy" it.
I've always found its combat clunky, which is a fairly damning thing to say about any game, but I keep on being drawn back to it by its aesthetics and just how 'alive' the in-game world feels. However, the past couple of years within ESO have highlighted to me that, while I am okay with some changes that will happen, I'm only okay with them up to a certain point. Case in point, abilities.
Abilities in ESO tend to adhere to one of two resources; stamina and magicka. It used to be that an ability that cost magicka would deal more damage and / or healing based on not only your maximum magicka but your spell damage as well, and vice versa for stamina abilities with stamina and weapon damage. All abilities require XP to be pumped into them, and can be 'morphed' into one of two different forms at a certain point.
At which point, more XP is required until the new version of that ability reaches its maximum level.
A little over a year ago, ESO introduced hybridisation. This made it so that your abilities' damage or healing scaled from your highest resources and damage values, not just the one which adhered to their cost. Suddenly, any character could use any ability and weapon type effectively, and the meta shifted to a very restrictive set of recommended builds.
So, if your magicka-based ability was now dealing less damage than its stamina cousin, you would have reason to completely respec and thus need to grind out more XP to level your new ability. Multiply that by as many abilities as were affected by this, including entire skill trees like weapons you may not have had reason to use before!
I'm really glad that I never really got into raiding properly in ESO. I remember trying it last year, and I really disliked how the options I 'had' to spec my character with clashed with how I had characterised her, and that goes a long way in terms of turning me off from this sort of thing. That's also not mentioning the impact different set bonuses have on things, and the efforts and grinds required to acquire those...
Ultimately, these changes have really tarnished my former love of the game. Sure, you can still play your way, but if you want to actively get involved with raiding or endgame dungeons, that environment is now much less forgiving for non-hybrid builds, and you'll always get the sense that you could be doing this little bit more to help your group clear this difficult fight if you'd spec a certain way. While that feeling may have been prevalent before, it certainly feels much more invasive from a casual perspective than it did, and is one reason why I've long abandoned any interest in doing group content.
Due to its comparative simplicity, it doesn't take nearly as much time to readjust to changes in SWTOR. At least in this game, an ability doesn't need to have its own XP pumped into it to raise its damage or healing, thus necessitating extra work if that ability suddenly becomes 'obsolete' for whatever reason. That's not to say that it doesn't take time to readjust; it just isn't nearly as much.
It also helps my case that I genuinely do feel a love for the combat and general gameplay of SWTOR. You know what you're getting with your class in this game, and while there is some variance within a given spec, you're not going to lose any sense of combat style identity. The general gameplay is just much more my thing, and something I don't think I'll ever really lose appreciation of.
The end-result is... I've felt like I've been done with ESO for quite a few months. I still do log in nowadays, just for doing the daily for the new card game, but I really don't see myself continuing to have it installed for much longer. It's a shame to walk away from it, but... I don't see there being any real point to keeping playing. It's been a fun ride, but it's time to go.
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I don't know what sort of changes would have to happen in SWTOR for that same feeling to really apply in the same way as it has in ESO. I may dislike seasonal systems and the intensive work that is all but required if wanting to complete everything, but it's not like that is how the game itself is. You can pace yourself with everything else, and I believe the ability to do so more with seasons would solve a fair amount of my ill-feelings. As things are right now, I don't feel comfortable even taking a week off from engaging in seasons until I've done all I can.
Of course, in SWTOR, things do tend to come and go, so it's entirely possible that this time next year I will have zero misgivings about things. ESO tends to be much more static in terms of how things 'are' with its systems, so it's more difficult to see something changing drastically for the better if they're not in a fantastic state.
That's not to say that things don't improve, but the differences are nowhere near as drastic as they tend to be in SWTOR.
While I feel my time with ESO is coming to a close at last, its decline has really made me realise that the issues I have with SWTOR are, on the whole, minor. Sure, they feel big to me, but putting galactic seasons into context... it's just a side thing. It's frustrating how much "fear of missing out" applies for the extras like reputation and the other meta achievements, and it also doesn't help that GS4 has come so soon after GS3 which no doubt is inflating the issues.
However, it's not like GS4 is the game. It's just something else to do, with just some very frustrating elements. Hopefully, they get toned down eventually, but for now... I just have to grin and bear it.
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