Now that the NDA is over, I'd like to have a real discussion about what I felt was wrong with the game. This isn't meant to be a flame post, or "This [censored] SUX" kinda thing. I'm just interested if other peoples experiences were different and if I maybe missed something.

So I played in the AD, which is what some people said was the best one. I also played a sorc with destro staff and light armor. I got to level 41 in the beta (only to level 16 legit, there was an exploit in one of the PvP quests that I /reported.) So I'm pretty sure I saw most of the BETA content.

So on to my problems with the game I think number one was that it was too easy. Combat never made me pause for a second, I was never really worried about dying. Things that other people in zone chat commented as hard didn't really seem hard to me. Maybe it was the class I was playing (most likely) cause I could just spam "2" which was my crystal shards and finish with the bolt "1" when their health was below 20%. The 4 man dungeon is soloable, actually when I did it, it was one of the few actually challenging things in the game. I actually had to drink potions, kite, and manage my tactics. When you run the dungeon with a group it becomes way to easy, basically just zerg tactics. I can overlook all of this though considering I'm sure as time progresses things will get harder.

My next problem the game is that it's farrrr to linear. Almost to the point were you can partition the map into levels, and everything you find within the partitions are the same level. "Look it's a level 10 this, and a level ten that" then you move up a little bit on the third tutorial island and now everything is level 11. It just keeps going in that style. It doesn't feel like the world is alive with anything interesting to explore or areas within the zone that might be too dangerous. I can basically tell what level the mobs will be by looking at the map. Like one commenter said a while ago, I'd rather see ecosystems of monsters and more variety throughout the zone instead of the themepark on rails. Theres no reason to explore anything outside your level partition unless you specifically need to do so for crafting. I just the world was open, with killable NPC's and factions that could change, several newbie zones, boat rides, forests with [censored] that will eat you if you enter. It's hard to explain.

Quests. The quests are kind of boring. Especially since quests markers show up and tell you exactly where to go. If you can't get rid of quests marker entirely at least give me the option of turning them off so I can gimp myself and have directions provided for some of the quests in dialogue. I disagree when people say the quests aren't "Go get these" or "Kill x of these" because they are, just well hidden.

I'm not a PvP guy, but PvP is kind of interesting in the game. Good job.

Skills. To streamline the game and make each skill "Worthy" I think they removed a lot of variety in the game. They could have done schools of magic and what not, and allow melee characters weapon skills instead of magic based attacks. Melee chars that want to be a "battlemage" or whatever could still learn spells. I don't know how to put it into words other than It feels overly optimized. With more variety of magic you could more utility type spells like light when you're in a dark dungeon.

Overpowering skills is also a problem to me. I put every point I got into magic. The game then decided it didn't like what I was doing and gimped my choice by stating "Your magic skill is over powered, please think about changing your skills or gear to be more balanced" wtf man. I wanted my magic to be overpowered, I'm a mage.

Flame antonachs. The fact that I could kill them with a fire staff was kind of lame. Giving certain creatures and invulnerability against certain magic types would go a ways into making you think more about encounters. They are supposed to be creatures totally comprised of fire right?

There's other stuff too, I just can't remember that much about it now. Anyway, if you can point me to how I'm wrong with gameplay and convince me I just missed a bunch of stuff than I'd consider giving the game a second chance.

From what a few reviewers have stated the game becomes a lot less linear after the second island, Shoddy Cast said that he was able to explore and could ignore the quests. I thought combat was a lot better than any other TES title, to me it got a lot better with more skills available, as for you finding it easy, I'm not too sure, I found the difficulty was reasonable, not too hard and not too easy.

I can't really point you in how you're wrong with the gameplay, your opinion is just as good as mine. I liked the game and yes being an MMO there are limitations compared to previous TES games and I would have loved a Star Wars Galaxies kind of game but I really enjoyed the game and I'm fairly certain that all the balancing issues you mentioned will be fixed/changed in future patches as it happens in every MMO.

Combat was too easy. I want to see the difficulty ramped up. I only played to level 11, and granted, combat isn't supposed to be hard during those levels, but the difficulty was still off.

I personally love the game -- even with all of it's current "beta state" flaws. What game nowadays, even after release/launch, doesn't go through an evolving process?

It seems like every time I read one of these type of posts, I get the feeling that people have it in their heads that the devs are going to pack up their desks and go on to another gig immediately after launch. No, they will continue to make things more interesting, add content, balance classes, etc. etc.

I'm going to stick around until they prove me otherwise because I kinda have faith in these guys.

I really look forward to how different and improved this game will be in a years time. WOW is an almost entirely different game from when it was released.

I don't know. go to some of the public dungeons and Elite mob areas and theres no way you're doing it alone.

I found it impossible to kill some lvl 7 dungeon bosses at like level 16 and only managed when there was someone helping me.

Regarding exploration:

I found new quests by delving into ruins for no reason. I found unique crafting tables for armor/weapon sets. I found skyshards. I found extra monsters, landmarks and lore books that cannot be found if you just jump from quest to quest.

So I'll say to you what I wish I could have said right after that abomination of a preview came out from PC Gamer: if you think the game doesn't reward exploration, it's because you didn't explore.

Ok Crazy, that is a good point. I'm forgetting that dungeons were swarming with other players.

I did do the public dungeons alone though, it was actually challenging. With a group they weren't really and group mechanics seemed off.

Tell us how you really feel

My quote button is broken again, butttt I did explore. I put a lot of time into the beta even though I was bored with it after the first few hours.

The exploring for progression, i.e. "Quests" were all within the level partition you were doing other quests in. There wasn't anything that really struck me about exploring in the game.

Ok... so you wanted exploring to reward you with quests that you wouldn't be able to do for another 5 levels? What would the point of that be?

And did you ignore all the other stuff you found by exploring, or did you just think that the point of exploring was to find more stuff to kill?

Do you feel that way about the Boss types as well though? I found combat with standard enemies to be just about right myself, perhaps the smallest smidge on the easy side, but Bosses could very easily smash your face in if you weren't prepared for, or responsive to, their special attacks. Yes, even the ones meant to be soloed.

I don't want to give their names for fear of spoilers but the Bosses I'm talking about are fairly well known, lots of in-game chat about them and there were a few threads made. The most infamous is seen through the Fighters' Guild.

elemental resistance on mobs would be awesome, id like to see sorcs start crying that crystal shard doesnt knock down say something like beefy rock golem monster or physical attacks dont kill ghosts, that would make things way more fun. The enemy AI needs to be turned up a bit, so far all i've seen with mobs teaming up is enemy mobs healing with resto staffs and that tar/arrorw fire attack - i only got to lvl 15 so im not sure if they start comboing harder. The combat is fun but not challenging

bit necessarily, I actually had to wait a bit and keep coming back because there was nobody inside. and same goes for the elite mobs, its pure luck if someone just happens to run past AND help you.

Did you do the mage and fighter guild quests? The final fight of each is pretty challenging, and there are some faction quests that will provide a challenge as well.

No I wanted exploration to reward me with finding something outside the rail I was on. To find other interesting areas were their was content that was doable for my level. With a world as supposedly as big as this one I find it hard to believe that all the content that's level doable was in a partition of the map.

Oh man, the AD quest... "The Veil Falls"... or whichever one has you fighting all 3 of the Veil's officers in their secret headquarters. I barely got through it solo, and that was with a lot of patience and (if I do say so myself), some excellently timed use of my ultimate.

I do not understand what you mean. By exploring, you were leaving the imaginary "rail" and finding something new. Content needs to be leveled to some degree so that low level players aren't being destroyed by level 50 enemies as soon as they cross the road. If you weren't expecting that, you clearly haven't played any MMOs (or recent Elder Scrolls games).

Upon reflection, when I said that I was thinking about soloing level 1-7, and no, I wasn't including bosses. I was in a level 7 dungeon with a partner and we couldn't pull more than 2 mobs at a time or it was a sure thing we'd die. That sounds about right. I take it back.

The first boss for the mages guild was pretty easy as a sorc, run, crystal shard, run, crystal shard, run, crystal shard, run bolt, run bolt, until they died.

you weren't looking hard enough. there are dozens of public dungeons and other locations that have nothing to do with quests. I was still finding random dungeons and places in the same zone in beta even after I got to level 21.

Yeah, that's was what I was thinking of. There's also Norrin? Was that his name? The guy you fight with the Queen and who summons the adds. There's a really cool "boss" fight on the Daggerfall side too that I did a couple betas ago. I'm sure there are more.

@ Nerv, Lol but I have played MMO's, and played MMO's with exploration/open world done right.

I think I did most of the dudgeons crazy Al.

I've also played MMOs, and I can't remember one that felt as open as ESO already feels in beta. But to each his own. If you like other MMOs better, feel free to play them.

Lol okay Nerev, explain how you felt ESO was open compared to other MMO's? I don't really see it.

Open as EQ? Nope. EQ2, nope. WoW even, nope. FFXI, nope.

Those are all themeparks too.