Some Probably Saw This Coming...

As the Title Line suggests - I am sure some of you saw this coming (I didn't at the time) with my threads about playing Elder Scrolls Online...

ESO is a big reason this is happening, but there is more to this decision (finality TBD) than a new game.

Bar none (at least in the games I have played) - Nothing else out there compares to the Community that not only cares so much about the game, but is the most open and likable out there. There is so much help and advice readily given - it is both amazing and sad - sad in that it doesn't seem to exist in any other game, at least not to the extent it is here.

While it is enough that it keeps me coming back time and again this making it hard to leave, the Community here is not enough to make me stay. Though the cord isn't cut yet, it is highly frayed and I will have to wait on a final decision as to make that cut when my current 6-month sub is up come August.

All my time is currently spent in ESO. I've pared back EvE to one sub and that's easy because I've got enough in-game money to keep my sub going for about 7 more years. But I also have to take into account that summer is rapidly approaching - and so far May is turning out to be Awesome! (Currently 66F and almost all the snow is gone) and April, while cool in the evenings was a month to remember and entirely pleasant. Many, many projects planned for this summer which will even impact my time playing ESO by quite a bit.

In the end though I took a look at things and realized the only thing that Horizons (sorry, Istaria) still has that no other game has (Yet, as rumors abound about Housing in ESO) is player owned lots and the ability to build on them. But to what end? The communities (server) are so very small, grand plans require grand plots of which the few are taken up - some not even being used (ahem - Valley of Repose).

Plots alone are not enough. Hey, it's partly me in this regard as I have no interest in going after Mobs that require huge groups or many of these end-game quests (that again often require groups) - none of which offer me anything of interest or something my character just has to have. Besides, I know anything that would make a huge impact over weapons and armor I might already have would be game-breaking - so I neither want or look for something like that.

I am glad to see that the Developers are doing so much for the game - from improvements to the many additions they've made and continue to make. I can think of a few things that might freshen up the game, but again to what end? I fully understand that with age comes a weak and efficient engine, database and all that stuff so it severely limits what they can do and prevents them from doing the things they and the players would like.

I would love to see Istaria around for another ten years - but I think the time has finally arrived that I have to say - there is not enough here, or perhaps what is here is not strong enough to keep me here any more. So many long time players have left, the 'flavor' that used to be here is gone, and another tether - that being this was my first ever MMO is no longer an incentive.

So I am back down to one plot and one subscription (Can no longer justify 5). Made me a conveniently placed T5 Pawnbroker to sell off my excess materials (Hey, know if I'll return and the coin will come in handy) and when it's all gone? I'll wait until my sub is about to expire to make that final decision. Hey, for all I know ESO might tank in the next couple months (Doubtful, but stranger things have happened).

Sorry this was so rambling and I know there is more I'd liked to have said - so much easier to think of things, all of which seems to get lost and confused when one goes to put it down in black-and-white.

So think of this as a slow, no, not goodbye - but "Until we meet again."

Aaelefein

PS - if I decide to 'Cut the cord', I'll log in and put up all my collected trophies for sale in the Aughundell Consigner.