Content Scaling in Elder Scrolls Online is a Dilemma That Zenimax May Never Overcome Because of a Simple Reason

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Content Scaling in Elder Scrolls Online is a Dilemma That Zenimax May Never Overcome Because of a Simple Reason

It’s been over 10 years since Elder Scrolls Online was released for both PC and console, and Zenimax’s open-world MMORPG has become quite the success story. Expanding upon the already existing, detailed Elder Scrolls universe, ESO has a lot to offer for both newcomers and veterans alike.

A major sore point for its player base has, however, been content scaling or difficulty across certain sections of the game. Many of these parts feel rushed and unbalanced, which makes playing through it more of a hurdle than anything else.

Elder Scrolls Online players want a dynamic content difficulty slider

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has gained a lot of traction as of late, with a vocal section of players demanding a sort of dynamic difficulty slider to the already existing Overland Content.

This content can generally be categorized as being easy and not too well thought out – with higher levels of difficulty simply juicing up the enemy’s health bar instead of making any meaningful improvements, such as more aggressive, smarter AI.

So just doubling their health and/or damage would be very boring and not satisfying.

A doubled HP/damage output from mobs is simply not engaging enough, and players have been wanting some meaningful changes for a while now. To this extent, many have suggested a personal difficulty slider of sorts, which dynamically adjusts content difficulty to player level.

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Let me turn up my difficulty so I take more damage and do less damage, but so I can still group with people who don’t change their difficulty.

Doing so would eliminate the need to tailor quests around both newcomers and veterans, instead scaling off directly on player level – providing an optimal experience throughout. This would also let players band together and take on quests irrespective of their individual levels.

I’m not opposed to OPTIONAL harder overland as long as there are NO extra rewards

Another thing to consider would be leaving the harder quests as entirely optional, and without rewards. This would let players who want a challenge go through these stages, without forcing those who are looking for a more casual experience to participate as well.

After all, the game as a whole feels too easy at times, and overleveled players have a hard time not steamrolling through content. 

While the number of players who return back to old quests and redo them for a challenge are admittedly small (but vocal), they still make an important section of the ESO community, and having more options always helps.

Zenimax is likely to never solve this dilemma

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While this issue has been plaguing ESO for a while now, developers Zenimax Online Studios will likely never address this issue, at least in a meaningful way. For starters, this would require a massive overhaul of the game’s code and existing playable sections, which would be too much of an uphill task.

Secondly, there is some genuine reasoning behind the same – after all, game balance is a tricky affair, and not everyone would appreciate these changes. Zenimax cannot afford to alienate a large section of its player base in favor of some niche demand.

A suitable compromise would be perhaps to not lock the game’s best rewards behind Overworld content, and instead have the Overwold deliver challenge-based medals instead.

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#Content #Scaling #Elder #Scrolls #Online #Dilemma #Zenimax #Overcome #Simple #Reason

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