Ok so Im struggling to understand the point of ESO. I joined because i am a massive fan of elder scrolls but to me the whole online thing spoiled it... Enemies just re-appear in front of you. there are 50+ people running round speaking to the same people as you clearly doing the same tasks, attacks and defense lag a lot more than in Skyrim and people are going around stealing your kills... Its like having the Ultimate Follower OVerhaul on and having about 20 followers following you at once. the whole online part seems to really take away from the gameplay and realism (Yes I realise I just used the word realism in a game with Magic and Orcs in it.) Now hopefully big PVP will make up for it down the line but what are the other bonuses to this being an online game when there are so many down sides?. Was there something I was missing out on?

Get to play with friends (and strangers) mostly

I take it you never played an MMO before? That said, and I am not trying to break the NDA here, newbie zones are usually a lot more crowded than the rest of the game. Every new player, every vet creating an alt etc all crowded into one area.

Whereas as you advance, things tend to open up, especially once dungeons are involved as people head into those, more people get into crafting etc.

As PK said, the main thing is to be able to play with friends. Granted I would prefer a co-op style of play than MMO, but we can't be picky. That said, make a good FO multiplayer game, and I will get a second mortgage on the house to buy that. Hell tack on a sub to access the multiplayer co-op!!

But till then we have TESO.

The point of ESO is the same as every other game... To have fun

Not Really I played StarTrek online but by the time I started playing it numbers had gone down so it wasn't too bad. that being said the poor enemy re-spawning really annoyed me.
Co-op is exactly how I thought it would be I envisioned common areas where you could meet people and that would look busy but when you went to do missions only you and your group or guild or whatever would work towards them. I must admit I never really played with anyone though. so can you start a mission with a group of people and all work towards that mission or are you all doing that same mission separately? for instance if the mission involves speaking to "X" surely you would not all go and say the exact same thing to them if you were working together?.

STO is one of the odd one outs in this case, It's instances are phased to the player or the group, Most mmo's do not have that.

You are doing it together.

Not really sure how it works, and even if I did it would violate the NDA, but I can speculate based on how most other games in this genre/style work.

Normally if you grouped up with other people, and you all were on the same stage, generally only one person has to talk to/interact with the quest objective, though exceptions do exist. You also normally have to be close by etc and not have wandered off.

I sincerely hope they do it this way, as it seems silly to do otherwise since you are all working as a team. Now if you are not grouped, and just running around doing the same quest as other people, then yes you would have to talk to that person, but usually it is a separate conversation window.

For me, as a RPer who enjoys immersion I tend to ignore other players and just treat them like random citizens like the NPCs. IE if they are there talking to "my" quest objective, I just figure they are there to gossip or ask how much does the red tunic cost, and so I "interrupt" since obviously my having news about the lost puppy/artifact/relative is more important.

I willingly suspend my RP if I am running an alt thru the same content etc and just group up to blast thru it unless it's something I want to RP differently etc. It's basically a learned skill, just like any other.

If you have TT RP experience, then you know it was a bit awkward at first, but over time you got more comfortable with it. Same applies here, you learn to fall into and out of immersion/RP as needed.

*edit* For the Grammerz!!

First of all, KILL STEALING is not in ESO. Even if someone helps kill a mob, you get your loot and xp. The other person also gets their loot and xp. Think of other players as extended friends that you didn't know you had.

As for groups and dungeons, why wouldn't the group talk to the same npc. If just one person was to talk, then how would the rest know the story line behind the quest? Only a few of the dungeons are instanced, the rest are open to you, your group and everyone else. Not just that but not everyone is at the same point of the quest. Remember the game is phased.

I will also recommend you try some other MMO's if you have not played many, atleast until ESO launches. This way you can get more experiances with MMO's in general. MMO's are a different world than single or 2-4 person co-op games.

I like this mmog because I like faction vs faction conflict. I like fighting as part of a faction against humans...not npc.It causes you to have to really think.Victory with friends can be a special thing.

"Un Apologetically an MMO"

when I played my first mmo I understood pretty fast that AI is a place holder or substitute that simulates real thinking people. MMO's have the ability to move in that direction. The Story provides background and structure and that is still supported by NPC's, but real people replace both friend and foe in emergent gameplay features.

@PKMN12 nailed it!

As I understand in a group you get your own loot, not sure how it work outside groups, however some higher level player might come and single hit to kill the enemy you fight.
This however is rare, as months between each time in WOW, far more likely the other guy would help you out of a loosing fight.

Also if you try some free MMO, remember that ESO plays different but work in many ways the same way. Yes its confusing, would still be confusing if I broke NDA so I don't go where.

Isn't it amazing how often this gets overlooked?

On topic: People use what Tolkien referred to as 'secondary belief'. It's understanding that the world you're observing and participating in has its own rules, laws, social customs, etc. Many that run counter to usual MMO you play every day. That's how a world with Orcs and Magicka is fine but a run-of-the-mill mage within the world can't summon a Daedra permanently on a whim. As we play ESO, and have other players doing their own things at the same time and in the same game space, we just need to incorporate them into our secondary belief. As other posters have pointed out already, give them a valid, consistent with the world you're in, reason for being there and it is easy to stay immersed.

for me mmo games are more fun than single player games. now TES is hands down the best single player game in my opinion but it will never beat a good mmo. so the point of ESO for me is getting my elder scrolls and mmo fix in 1 game that i plan to play for a very long time

now the point for them is to make money and lots of it

The one game I have EVER seen do enemy spawning correct was City of Heroes. There, foes would NEVER spawn in "on top of you".... they had it coded so that foes would only spawn in if there were no players near the spawn point. There WERE, of course, spawn points where foes would always spawn, but they did NOT just fade in while you were standing there.

Another half-way acceptable enemy-spawning trick is from Star Trek Online, where they could have enemies "transport" down... did not always make sense, but often it did, since that technology existed in the game lore.

I imagine ESO will have to use the same tech almost every other MMO uses, and have foes just phase in on top of you. Except, possibly, in instanced dungeons, etc where they might only spawn in ONCE and then not respawn at all until you reset/re-run the dungeon.