So how would you say phasing would affect ones ability to play with friends? From what I have seen, i have not played in Beta, the quests in the game change the world noticeably. So how hard will this phasing make it to play with friends? Are they going to be in a different phase if they are just one quest behind or ahead? Or does phasing occur at leveled marks, every 5 levels for example.

Phasing isn't quite that regimented. My wife and I played together, and it really depended on the quest we were on. Sometimes we were in our own phases, but most of the time were together (but we weren't generally out of sync on the quest).

I personally love the phasing system -- you see real, and seemingly permanent changes in the world, and I don't recall seeing that before in ESO's fashion. I always hated how most MMO's rely on the suspension of disbelief when it comes to the game world...it doesn't matter what you do in the game, nothing really changes. Like LOTRO for example, during the years that I played it, it didn't matter that you went through the Angmar and Moria campaigns, you could go back to the Shire and it was like nothing ever happened.

In ESO, that's not the case. As you quest, the world changes around you (phasing causes you to see things differently than other players). So, as you quest, you might see a pristine town get partially destroyed, you then continue to see the town in ruins, but other players who are earlier in the quest/story don't see it that way. I think it's great for immersion.

so phasing sounds great for immersion, however does anyone think that it would make the world seem less "alive" as you would see less players on the screen since they are in a different phase?

This is definitely a side effect with all the phasing ESO has. Not only will you see fewer players, you will also only see mobs that are in your phase. What this basically means is that there are not nearly as many monster "spawns" in the game world, since these are all tied to quests.

I know you didn't ask this, but IMO, there is too much phasing. Not just because of the things mentioned, but also because 99% of bugged quests in game are caused by bugs in the phasing system.

Well then for me this is a big concern. An active world with players on the screen is very important to me. I have heard leveling is quite slow though so hopefully this will counteract the phasing.

Phasing is a mixed bag but I'm not crazy about how much it's done in ESO. You can never be sure what another player is seeing because their world is potentially different from yours. My wife and I played beta together and there were a number of quests that we shared and tried to do together and we would see different things. An NPC that I interacted with would be walking away on my screen, while still standing there on her screen. She would then have to initiate her own interaction to get him to walk away. There are upsides to this and downsides, but overall I think it hurts group questing. If five people have that quest, no one gets credit unless they all independently initiate their own separate interaction and see the whole thing through on their own. It's bizarre and takes some getting used to. Also, if you have a quest to gather 5 artifacts, you'll have to gather 25 of them before the group is done and they may all spawn uniquely even though everyone sees them disappear when one person takes one. Takes some getting used to.

Do you have any examples? I don't ever recall a time in the 4 betas I've been in where I felt like I had been yanked away from other players due to phasing. Maybe that's because I never was in a position where I tried to group with someone ten levels below me and couldn't enter an instance they were doing, or that I was so far behind that I needed to progress to join the phase of all the other players that were in an advanced alternate reality...I don't know. Outside of instances that required that I be alone, I never noticed the player world being depopulated due to phasing, just changes in what our perceived reality was, even though we were in the same zone instance.

For example, I did group with a friend who was doing quests I had already finished, we never lost sight of each other and I could follow him around, but I didn't always see the NPCs he was talking to, or the objects he was interacting with (his reality was slightly different). And in the open world, you're always free to use the "travel to player" function to join their phase as well (in this case separate zone instances).

Phasing in ESO can be that specific...like in the tutorial when you get an NPC follower, you still see all the other players, and you know that they too have the same NPC with them, but you only see your copy of it, thus negating an experience like in SWTOR where everyone has the same followers, and all you see is dozens of clones running around.

I understand this and can accept it, but i wish there was an option or something that you can do the quest by your self with no interference with the out side world or just your party. It might help immerse some players. From what i see it is a indepth game but. Something along those lines i would try to go more in depth and think about it more but i dont get paid to do that

I understand this and can accept it, but i wish there was an option or something that you can do the quest by your self with no interference with the out side world or just your party. It might help immerse some players. From what i see it is a indepth game but. Something along those lines i would try to go more in depth and think about it more but i dont get paid to do that

it makes it impossible unless ur on the same point of the phasing I was ahead of my kids by 5 quests and I was unable to join them in the area they were questing in I could see their names but I couldnt see them