The Biggest Annoyance In The Elder Scrolls Online - Boss Farming
We are now a few weeks into the launch of The Elder Scrolls Online. While the game has had a few bumps in the road during the initial stages (Server downtime, maintenance during peak hours, quest related bugs, and spammers), Overall, I feel the game itself has been a resounding success as I said after the last Elder Scrolls Online Beta before official launch.
The game itself in my opinion adds a very nice solo element that has been missing from MMO's. There are a ton of quests that can be completed solo by yourself that really makes the game feel like an Elder Scrolls title.
With that being said, The biggest problem with this game is Boss Farming.
What is Boss Farming you ask?
Boss Farming is when you have one or more players who camp and wait for bosses to respawn so they can kill them over and over again to get loot.
Now many MMO veterans may ask :
"What the problem with that, MMO's have been doing this for years"
That is the problem.
A big reason why I stayed away from MMO's for the better part of the last decade is because of nonsense like Boss Farming. Boss Farming hinders other players ability to play the game. Last week it took me over 30 minutes just to get enough hits on the boss to get a kill in the public dungeon near Firebrand Keep in Stormhaven because a group of 7 players were camping the boss and killing it over, and over, and over, and over again. 30 minutes of my time that could have been spent exploring was stuck trying to complete a dungeon.
To those who may say "leave the dungeon and come back later" I shouldn't have to do that because other players are blocking progression. Is the money they paid any better then mine or any other casual player?
Myself, like any other player who paid for this game has the "right and expectation" to be able to play this game without other players inpeding your progress and preventing you from playing the game the way the game was meant to be played.
Now according to Zenimax's own Terms of Service such behavior ia prohibitied as stated:
Engage in disruptive behavior in chat areas, game areas, forums, or any other area or aspect of the Services. Examples of disruptive behavior include, but is not limited to, conduct which interferes with the normal flow of gameplay
Is it not interfering with the normal flow of game play by blocking another players ability to complete a public dungeon? Of course it is.
Zenimax really needs to get this issue under control, or they are going to drive a large part of their player base away. I'll tell you right now hardcore MMO players only make up about 15% of the game population. I would even wager as far as over half of the paying players on this game are simply Elder Scrolls fans whom may have never really played MMO's at all, and as much as 30% of them may infact be MMO newbies alltogether. This type of behavior will turn these people off and they will leave thus costing Zenimax money.
The solution to this is very simple
Put a timer on the boss so each player can only kill the boss once every 24 hours UNLESS that player is the member of a group with a player that has not yet killed the boss.
This is the best compromise in my opinion. They will be able to kill the boss a few times with their friends, but they won't be able to camp out for hours and impede other peoples progress. I understand folks want loot, soul gems, etc, I also understand the merits behind their arguments, but their has to be a fair balance here between both sides. I think this is the best compromise.
Overall, I am pleased with this game, but they really need to tweak the issue a bit because Boss Caming and Farming has really gotten out of hand in this game.
Would love to hear your thoughts! Thanks for visiting!
Post image Attribution -By hobvias sudoneighm (Flickr: /doh) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
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I'm one of the Hardcore MMO players, but I also agree with this. What's also sad is that I am the only comment on this. Amazed other players don't feel the same way.
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