My MMO experience is pretty light (SWG and SWTOR only). But I really want to heap praise on Zenimax for doing something that seems, to me at least, innovative and extremely gratifying. That is, allowing us to team up without joining a group.

Two (or more) players come up to the same objective at the same time. In any other MMO I've played, if those players aren't grouped, only one player is going to get the objective and the loot. Not so with this game. Obviously, I can't just stand around and let someone else play the game for me, but if players contribute, they get the rewards. You can heal total strangers you'll never see again; you can add dps to a fight; everyone who contributes gets rewarded.

There's still poaching in this game, mostly of items being guarded by enemies--runes seem to be the worst example. But poaching is way down from any other game I've played--because it's not poaching anymore. It's helping.

I really can't praise this mechanic enough. I am thrilled.

I noticed that too on my last playthrough; it really gives a sense of community for those brief moments. It's too bad we don't have any proximity voice chat, i'd love to be able to coordinate with and thank people that I see on screen. Even a command rose with stock commands/replies/taunts would be great, especially for PVP.

Yep. I LOVE this.

See someone struggling with quest boss? No need to /invite, just jump in there to help and you get credit too.

The only change I'd like to see is adding exp/ap/quest objective flagging by healing, not just damage.

I had an absolute blast freelance healing in AvA on my Sorc, but didn't get credit for completing a bounty quest despite untold tens of thousands of points healed and hundreds of kills facilitated. Same for PvE. If I rush in to drop a heal on someone at 5% and save their ass, I should get quest credit despite not doing any damage.

That said, the system for "sharing" in PvE without formal grouping is awesome, and easily one of my favorite things about the game.

It encourages team work without forcing formal grouping down people's throats. There are many times I cursed my luck in WoW for being in a party at an inopportune moment when a good deed for the day was required, or when someone was offering invites to kill a rare. I was left feeling like a dike more than once when I had a quest elite or rare mob 3/4ths dead, and couldn't give or accept an invite because I was already grouped.

Pickups are still unique to the player, making certain quests annoying as hell and anti cooperative. Instancing is flawed, to say the least. The GW2 system beat the living snot out of ESO at random teamwork, but then again its not really quests in the same way ESO does it so its an unfair comparison.

I hope higher tier zones encourage teamwork with better designed quests, but I doubt it. Its wierd though - I have encountered like one quest which went complerely against the rules and counted group progress on item activations. We where two in the group and had to talk to 4 soldiers, but each only needed to talk to two because it counted everyone the group talked to.

@Wafalls That smells like a bug... you report it? but yeah, instancing needs work; having friends disappear randomly when you pass a door or complete an objective is cool sometimes if it's a 'horror' inspired quest and part of the plot; but not as cool if it happens constantly even on mundane town quests like a murder investigation. In a party, you should see your friends... unless they fall down a mine-shaft or get kidnapped... MUAHAHAHAHAAAA!

Yeah, I really can't tell if the xp is equal when adding on an enemy mob or not but it is nice that someone with heavy dps cannot just come up and either get the deathblow or do more damage and steal all the loot. Also it makes people not care about others who add in on their fight and thus.. less on side griefing.

Totally agree. It feels really fresh and organic.

My MMO is limited to WoW (years ago) and GW and GW2 and Fallen Earth so I am by no means experienced as far as MMOs is concerned. Is this really that new of an idea in MMOs? I know that you could do group events in Fallen Earth and GW2 just by showing up so it has been done before it just seems amazing that this wouldn't be the default of most modern MMOs today.

It's mostly about how the rewards are handled. Everyone who contributes to a fight gets their own loot. No kill-stealing or other convoluted methods of determining who gets what from each kill.

Oh you mean the instanced mob loot. Gotcha. Yeah I didn't realize that was new but its nice to know that if I help someone out of they help me out that everyone gets a little reach around.

I really love it, too. I love it when people help you out with enemies, especially when you are struggling with them. Two betas ago, while crossing a lava river, a healer healed me in the lava so that I could get across (as there was no way off the small piece of land I was on without engaging with lava). It was one of the nicest acts I've encountered in my gaming history. It's a small act, but it was very rememberable. In return, I give out the same kindness I keep receiving. It's one reason I love the Templar build--I can help heal strangers.

I just want to thank all the lovely, nice players in the game! It's one of the things that makes this game worthwhile! ^.^

Wow does this with rares and world bosses(shared tag on bosses is limited to same faction only), and eq2 had public quest raid events where anyone that participated got loot from the chest.

Its not exactly new as an idea but Im unsure if other games do it this way all over.

Its a great idea imo.