Elder Scrolls Online - Six Month Subscriptions

Massively has news that ZeniMax has stopped offering six-month subscriptions. According to the site they did so quietly, and didn't warn any of the games players.

Players are just a little bit leery of the fact that The Elder Scrolls Online has removed the six-month subscription option from the game. Oh, sure, it seems innocent enough; it's just a change in billing options. But it's also one of those changes that's happened in more than a few other games indicating that the game was removing the need for a subscription… or that the game was no longer going to be playable at all, in the case of Warhammer Online.

The official ZeniMax response on the French forums is simply that players indicated they preferred the shorter billing options, so the six-month option was removed. General sentiment in the thread is that this answer is not entirely credible. If it really is a harbinger of something more to come… well, we'll find out about it in about six months. Maybe five.

So whats your opinion everyone? Is this good or bad news?

More information.

My opinion is I don't understand this game. You join 5 guilds (people guilds, not in game guilds like warriors guild, etc) and there is no auction house? Why? Lord O' Lordy, why? Why would I want only guild members to be my customers? Why are there 10 lootables every 2 feet? Why is combat so spikey, and why the long Asiany animation locks?

Why not just be good in stead of weird and dumb with your lists for inventories and emo vampires.

What? Lists? Shit, why haven't I been playing this?

… or that the game was no longer going to be playable at all, in the case of Warhammer Online

If this is going to happen to ESO, I don't need to wish happy new year to everyone, it *will* be happy.

Originally Posted by joxer
If this is going to happen to ESO, I don't need to wish happy new year to everyone, it *will* be happy.

Why is that?

I'm just plain evil.

They really should have decided if they wanted to make an MMO or a proper Elder Scrolls game. Both just did not work well. The game is "meh" in almost every area.
So, I would not be surprised if they go F2P (if they think the game is salvageable) or just stomp it.

Originally Posted by joxer
I'm just plain evil.

You mean grumpy and unhappy.

Played the game for awhile,just could not get into it,sticking to single player games from now on heck with mmos.

Originally Posted by Thaurin
You mean grumpy and unhappy.

Not really, no.

Game was fun until lvl 50 then there was nothing to do once you maxed out. It played like a single player game and needed to be more open and less on rails. Had no desire to make an alt and just quest again.

Yes I do think they are in trouble. I was in some big guilds at launch and by July there would be 3 or 4 guild members on when the guilds use to have 100 on at same time.

You sayin' Angry Joe's guild has only 3-4 members?!

The only MMO I am currently playing is GW2, but if it goes F2P I might give it a try, if only to see the different provinces of Tamriel.

Originally Posted by Hastar
Game was fun until lvl 50 then there was nothing to do once you maxed out. It played like a single player game and needed to be more open and less on rails. Had no desire to make an alt and just quest again.

Yes I do think they are in trouble. I was in some big guilds at launch and by July there would be 3 or 4 guild members on when the guilds use to have 100 on at same time.

how long does it take to get to 50? I usually stop playing MMOs once I reach max level, either that or I make a new alt and play again if the experience is different enough (like in SW:TOR or City of Heroes). I've never played the 'end game content' as doing the same dungeons over and over to complete the 'Pink Armor Set' never attracted me.

Originally Posted by wolfing
how long does it take to get to 50? I usually stop playing MMOs once I reach max level, either that or I make a new alt and play again if the experience is different enough (like in SW:TOR or City of Heroes). I've never played the 'end game content' as doing the same dungeons over and over to complete the 'Pink Armor Set' never attracted me.

You can probably reach level 50 in a month at a reasonable pace (that's how long it will take to play through the main story and one faction story line.) You can probably reach VR 10 in another month and a half - 2 months if you want to play through the other factions. Reaching VR14 and finishing the end game and PvP content would probably take another 2-3 months at a *reasonable* pace of frequent playing but would be a lot more grindy. But yeah ~3 months worth of story-focused less-grindy solo content.

The average player can easily get to 50 in a month, not sure many people want to or actually do play through all 3 storylines. If you were doing every quest in all 3 stories, you would probably be V12 after 3 months. There isn't a Auction House, instead it's best you join 5 of the largest (400+) Merchant and Craft guilds for the largest selection of items to buy, sell and craft.

Not really sure how things will fair after the console release, zenimax is clearly exploting players. Many of us were playing in the beta (bought the game as early supporters) but once launched, they refused to give us Steam key or even let us post on Steam forums. They wanted us to buy the full game again. So I quit.

wolfing, Might I suggest checking out LOTRO, if you haven't already? The level cap, IIRC, is 95 now, and it takes quite awhile to get there. Of course, that means you are questing slowly and enjoying the sights, rather than rushing to max level with all the XP buffs you can buy

Great MMO, though. Just a lovely LOTR experience all-around.

And I'm like you. I would never want to play an MMO where you repeat the same content over and over. Even when some of my guild (or 'kin', in LOTRO terms) wanted to grind the same events over and over, I never participated. I would do the same dungeon run once, maybe twice, just to help those who didn't get to complete it yet, but that's it.

Originally Posted by Fluent
wolfing, Might I suggest checking out LOTRO, if you haven't already? The level cap, IIRC, is 95 now, and it takes quite awhile to get there. Of course, that means you are questing slowly and enjoying the sights, rather than rushing to max level with all the XP buffs you can buy

Great MMO, though. Just a lovely LOTR experience all-around.

And I'm like you. I would never want to play an MMO where you repeat the same content over and over. Even when some of my guild (or 'kin', in LOTRO terms) wanted to grind the same events over and over, I never participated. I would do the same dungeon run once, maybe twice, just to help those who didn't get to complete it yet, but that's it.

I was in the alpha and beta of LOTRO (funnily enough, the 'alpha' of LOTRO was more polished than most MMOs at release). I liked it, but never bought it because my 'offline' guild at the time decided to go for some other MMO back then, and I don't like playing MMOs too much later after they're released (2 months later tops). One of the things I liked the most about MMOs was the 'fresh game' experience.

Same here wolfing, I like when a game is first released and everyone is starting brand new. It seems the older a game is everyone knows the exploits and run the same thing over and over for the best items or exp.

Well, I joined LOTRO late into it's life and had a blast. I was in a kin with experienced players, but also plenty of new players as well. The good part was that there was always someone at or near your level to help you out with stuff. And it seems like the game was making a strong resurgence with a lot of new players.

I never participated in the grinding aspects, but some of my kin would. More power to them, but that's just not something I want to do in a game. I had a lot of fun just questing and exploring Middle Earth. Lots of dangers and things to discover in your travels, it was a great time.