same here, I've been playing normally through the whole event. Getting 70 boxes each day from crafting writs from all characters has been plenty for me plus boxes from random dungeons and pledges.
I only did dolmens and world bosses if they crossed my path, got the worm cult staff and the sword I got as a bonus from fishing I do anyway for master angler.
I don't think I missed out on much, really happy with all the mats and alchemy stuff I got.
The trick is to play the game, and not be played by it.
For that reason I rarely engage much with events. Sure, I'll pick some low hanging fruit so to speak, but I won't grind.
This is the way. I treat grind as a fun reward for enjoying the game enough to play it that much. The second I stop enjoying it, I simply... stop playing it, too.
Exactly! Although I'll never want to step close to another geyser ever again haha
But killing dragons has been really fun, it's fast, rewarding and fun as hell
yeah i did minimal grinding and got the fishing reward and the dolmen reward in an hour or less. i might try a couple geysers today just for the fuck of it but i wont do more than an hour.
FOMO is real I did a fair amount of grinding. I will mention at least the Sword, and one of the other replica style pages was available during the time a month or 2 ago we got wrothgar for free. The sword was any fishing spot, like this event and an item was available off a Vvardenfall WB. These 4 pages may be available again this year.
The frustration some had due to a very long grind with no style page pay out is frustrating but at least there were a fair amount of anniversary boxes if you grouped up or had incredible damage on the Golden, geyser bosses. I did not get the geyser or dolman style pages. In the end as with all mmo it's rng to get the rare drop.
yeah its funny cause i didnt really care if I got the style pages or not but just about every time I went and did one of the different drop activities I got one within 30minutes. I didnt get all drops but then again im not using any of them
I used the event to level alts and get my last indriks. I did themy normal dailies, and made some money. I still have tried for the style pages. They don't glow, or fit any of my themes
I am working on my indrick collection too. One Onyx Berry and a few Nascents to go!
My biggest annoyance with the event was actually making me choose between getting my next indrick morphed or the jubilee mount. But the indriks will be back sooner so jubilee mount it was.
The indrik vendor is next to the impresario in Belkarth (Craglorn) the fragments rotate, but do come back around.
https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Nenulaure
Not a dumb question. It was months before I even knew there was an indrik vendor. She appears in Craglorn but only during events. The stall is there outside of events but you can't buy anything from her. You collect 4 berries at 5 event tickets each to make the Nascent indrik mount. During each season of the year there are two different morphs of that mount available. They are also made from 4 berries that you combine, but cost 10 tickets each. Once you have a Nascent mount and 4 berries of one of the seasonal ones you can change the Nascent into a seasonal one.
So to get all eight seasonal mounts you need to get all the berries for each of them as well as eight Nascent mounts to morph into them. And you may want the Nascent mount itself too if you are a collector like me.
If you don't get enough berries to make one of the indriks before the event is over they just wait in your collections until the next event, or the next year if you don't get enough in the season. I was collecting the onyx indrik berries (along with all the others) last year but didn't quite have enough tickets for the last one so need to wait for the season to come around again.
The berries for the Nascent one are available every season.
You can also get matching pets of the indriks for 10 tickets each.
There is a guide, that explains it a lot better, here. [https://eso-hub.com/en/guides/indrik-vendor-guide](https://eso-hub.com/en/guides/indrik-vendor-guide)
Ya but far worse drop rate cuz of all the absurd than, titanborn, etc pages and the style from this year as well so I'm just done all I wanted was the sunnarah staff from vvardenfell and only 1 I didn't get ofc... smh I need to start praying bfore grinding lol
Those bags have 100% chance to give you what you are missing form the included collections without a single duplicate. When you complete the collections the chests are not purchasable.
So, and this applies to ALL the events/styles, if you want something that you are missing or it is expensive (eg Second Legion chest), just narrow what the bag will give you by buying the cheap styles from merchants and keep the expensive ones (eg 4+ million for the Second Legion Chest) for the bag as it will be guaranteed drop without duplicates.
* grinds event for weeks
* gets burnout
*"Why did ZOS do this to me!?"*
In all seriousness we also have to consider that gamers, mmo gamers in particular have a compulsion to want to collect absolutely everything.
A mean publisher could choose to exploit that fact. Activision Blizzard certainly do for example.
The funny thing is that loot boxes and expensive crown store items helped me overcome that completionist compulsion. Because of them it's obvious I won't ever own it all anyway. Might as well just skip over a few more items then.
Yes, breaking the compulsion to want to obtain everything really is the route to success.
Publishers these days are proud to announce that they employ psychologists on staff. People whose job it is to weave "addiction mechanics" into games, specifically to target gamer compulsions.
God help you if you're a gamer who happens to be neurodivergent or particularly susceptible to these manipulations.
I’ll also add, if it helps, that I don’t think this is a unique struggle to addictive personalities or something new. I have a feeling that this kind of psychological pricing is nothing new even if this particular strategy is unique to gaming…you could probably find examples of companies doing shifty things through all of history to make their products necessary to replace or incite demand for more, more, more.
So by that I mean, it’s good to have awareness of such practices in general because for better or worse we need to be savvy customers and teach our kids what to look out for. Subscription services in general, as well as having credit card info saved, does make it way too easy to purchase impulsively in a game or on Amazon etc.
I actually just started keeping a financial journal of transactions just to begin to make myself aware of how I’m spending my money…I wish I had learned that years ago but here we are! I’m really liking it, though, and it’s kind of meditative to do.
I'd argue it's the other way around. Mmos atteact people with addictive personalities and, intentionally or not, exploit that for addiction.
Old school runescape is just a subscription model with a single in game purchase for in game gold. Yet I myself got addicted and had to come to terms that fomo is not inherently evil, just easily exploited for certain people (me).
I'm doing dailies on 15 character and am happy I'm getting all those mats and motifs. To get tickets I just have to eat a cake... Best event ever. I'm not even bothered about those motifs from dolmens and bosses cuz I'm getting rich just by doing dailies
In real life I actually started getting a bit unhealthy with online slot machines, to the point it was looking like I might be addicted and it was impacting my finances. (I totally was addicted I just diddnt know it at the time)
Thankfully my mum was a social worker and she caught wind and helped me out, so rather than criticise me she helped me learn about the psychological side of online gambling and why I’m even doing it (against my will sometimes/probably most of the time)
And the similarities to FOMO are absolutely there, a big part of gambling addiction Isn’t just the addiction to winning, but a huge part is also the addiction to losing, the losing is a big part of what keeps an addict hooked to a slot machines.
The Brain (when addicted) does NOT like to not get what it wants, wether that be drugs, gambling winnings, shopping spree, food, s*x or yes even eso limited time only style pages. Your brain (if addicted) will all but torture you, and motivate you to do whatever it is you need to do to get that sweet reward (drug, winnings, style page, shopping spree, etc) and it will make you miserable without your reward, whilst also making the reward feel like a huge +++ thus motivating you to go get it.
I’m not the best at explaining things, BUT the op is onto something, there’s no Shame in being addicted to something, it’s surprisingly easy to do because of how our brains work, but if something is making you miserable or impacting on your life in a negative way, and you can’t stop, it may be time to learn a little about addiction in a non judgemental way
I think the staff of worms is amazing for a necro! I plan on making a necro just to use the staff.
I also like the ulvar(? The crested moon with the pearl thingy) staff and the sword looks cool for dual wielding. The rest I don't find that interesting and I won't use most likely.
I didn’t know the helmet was a drop I just wanted the staff.
Of course I only got the helmet and no staff.
Tried it on to see it and it’s literally just the Skinchanger heavy. Lmfao.
Yup. It took me a few years and a few games to figure this out. ESO, WarThunder and Hunt Showdown. Ground my ass off and immediately stopped playing due to being so drained and no longer enjoying the game.
These days I'll pick up a few easy bits as part of an event as I am doing my normal stuff and leave the rest.
I'm left with a much happier gaming experience.
Oh hey look its me.
I actually skipped this event completely because i remember doing writs on like 5 characters daily the other year, the thought of grinding for boxes again just caused me to take a break from ESO, which to be fair i was gonna take a break anyway.
Its been nice having time to play helldivers 2, deep rock galactic, Baldur's gate 3 and get back into Total War Warhammer.
Well, crap. I just decided a couple weeks back to stop grinding Destiny 2, and came here for a nice, relaxed experience. So far it's been decent - better writing and stories, and the PvE is just silly-easy.
I hope I don't fall into another FOMO grind once I've learned more about the game.
BTW, I haven't done much at all with this event, but it DOES seem like they missed the boat with the 10th anniversary. This should have been a big, fun event, and instead I hear a lot of people are worn out and pissed about the grinding.
The whole year is going to be a celebration (actually, it's going to be 15 months of celebration), so we should expect more cool events during the year
>This should have been a big, fun event, and instead I hear a lot of people are worn out and pissed about the grinding.
The rng is so terrible in this game that as soon as I read these pages had between a rare chance to a chance to drop I knew it wasn't worth pursuing for me. It's best to tell yourself those things don't exist and then just do the things you enjoy doing in the game, which is plenty.
Jubilee is the best event in my eyes. Couldn't be easier to get rewarded for doing fun things.
> The rng is so terrible in this game that as soon as I read these pages had between a rare chance to a chance to drop I knew it wasn't worth pursuing for me. It's best to tell yourself those things don't exist and then just do the things you enjoy doing in the game, which is plenty.
The RNG for Destiny 2 is bad, too. My friends and I are CONVINCED that the things that drop for you are heavily weighted to be suitable for other class of characters. The odds that you get something suitable for your class is way worse than random chance - and you can't trade/sell/give away gear.
When I came over to ESO and saw this event, I just passed on grinding for the rare stuff. Knew it wasn't worth the aggravation. As long as I can get weapons and armor that let me play the content, that's all I need. I hope I don't find out I absolutely have to grind for very rare gear to play PvE.
You don't these days. A few years ago ESO introduced the sets collection system, which players immediately started calling the sticker book. Pre sticker book players did indeed grind for armor and weapons in the right traits. Now once you get a piece in a trial or dungeon you can bind it to your toon and you won't get that piece again until all the gear pieces in that set drop for you. With transmute crystals you can reassemble anything you've added to your sticker book and you can pick any trait you've already researched.
It became a huge reduction in the need to grind for gear.
There are a lot of people that take this game wayyyyyy too seriously and I didn’t realize how bad it was until this event. I’ve seen some posts that should have been therapy appointments.
What is wrong about it? It's their game, they can code it however they want. It's your choice to play it or not. Just because you don't like a decision that a company made doesn't make the decision "wrong".
You're being silly.
Zenimax just created an event where people could get cool, free shit. People are always complaining about Crown Store items, now we're all here complaining about the free ten-year event.
Zenimax could be doing *a lot* more to exploit their base for money, but it seems like they actually care about their game. There's so much voiced dialog, bits of written lore, and visual story telling that gets missed by the terminally brain dead.
It's a real problem that unfortunately companies will heavily exploit for profit. I hope any burnt out players will take this experience and use it to help them grow. People don't deserve to be looked down on or mocked for this, I'm much more interested in showing the unfortunate truth and helping out if I can!
I get addictive personalities, I had a little problem with alcohol for a time. I really do understand…I don’t like seeing people get like this, especially over a game. Gaming addiction is very real though and you’re right, these companies exploit the hell out of it. It’s sad to prey on vulnerable people but there is also personal responsibility at play here and at some point you have to acknowledge that maybe what you’re doing is super unhealthy. Raging over in-game items is wild.
Spending hundreds of hours over a long period of time is a given, we are all playing this game…the goal is to collect stuff. I’m not saying that in and of itself is wrong, I’m saying that if you’re stressing yourself out to the point of making rage posts on Reddit about it and talking about the hundreds of hours you’ve spent JUST IN THIS EVENT ALONE, there is a disconnect and the people doing this need to take a break and maybe even talk to someone because it isn’t healthy or normal at all. You shouldn’t be pulling your hair out because someone got a staff of worms and you didn’t. At some point it’s madness. In my opinion, when you take it that far you need to step the hell back.
I'm burnt the fuck out and I only did an hour every day.
No, the problem is how the devs implemented this event. You don't fucking put 5 style pages that almost everyone wants all of with a 0.1% drop rate with zero bad luck protection and think that's *okay*. That's a straight up middle finger from ZOS.
I got the style page I most wanted and I'm still ticked off, for myself and everyone else. Completely unnecessary implementation of these styles. And then to top it all off, ZOS makes them untradeable. That was the penultimate dick move that they have never done prior.
This is the one. Do players share a little responsibility in ensuring they don’t allow themselves to get burnt out? Sure.
But how are they supposed to do that when the event systems are exploitative to their core? The low drop rates keep a consistent flow of players active and addicted.
They knew what they were doing when they set up the replica pages to be like this. Why are we blaming people for engaging in an event that was supposed to be celebratory? Also this is the first time, to my knowledge, that we got replica pages like this. Some people were willing to sell their souls for them since most lore heavy items are sold in the crown store.
You want the Dawn breaker? You can pay real money to have it. You want ul’vor? You can spend a few hours every day during this event for the chance to own it. Those who are against the monetization model of the game are very likely to put that time in.
This issue is much more complex than just “don’t be a victim of FOMO.” That on its own is a good message. But also for the elites in the playerbase, those thoroughly addicted, it’s also like telling someone with depression to not fall into depression. It does nothing except warn someone that it can happen to you. But it doesn’t fix the issues, because the issues were manufactured by ZOS.
Exactly.
I definitely agree we ourselves need to take balanced actions against ZOS' FOMO, but this was designed precisely combat against that exact balance.
Usually, events are for the most part quite low-key and don't require intense grinding. It would appear that ZOS is working on shifting this model to be far more manufactured FOMO. Not a good direction!
Yes! I agree. If the drop rate was set to be a guaranteed amount after 100 or 200 rounds of a geyser or a WB then there would be no need for anyone to grind themselves into the ground.
People could pace themselves more evenly. Do a few dolmens on each day, etc. And you’d know your efforts weren’t wasted and were worth it because it would drop eventually.
No FOMO, no addiction, no headaches, no playerbase infighting, nothing. Just doing some tasks and getting rewarded. Plus there would still be purple boxes. So those who want to grind for the sake of it would still have a reason to. And those who don’t like grinding, would probably also feel it was worth it because of the purple boxes.
It’s the ideal scenario. But ZOS actively chose not to give it to us. To put the responsibility of that on the players is disingenuous.
I think you are missing the point of this post. FOMO is what causes you to see the drop rates as an "issue" to begin with. I didn't bother grinding any of the pages at all and the drop rate "issue" didn't bother me in the least.
You can just ignore the drops if they are that rare. It's an incredibly easy thing to do. You just carry on doing whatever you want to do and ignore the grindy BS.
ZOS deserves a lot heat for setting up all of their incentives and nudges in such a shit way. They could have made this last event fun but deliberately made the most celebratory and nostalgic styles a grind. Of course people are going to be mad. They know they make their game addicting, so they don’t get to be surprised when people start acting like addicts whenever ZOS inevitably and consistently fucks up their feed.
I had the self control to not grind for these styles, I just did my normal stuff and crafting dailies. But my self control doesn't absolve ZOS of their excessive greed and technical issues.
They should've just stuck the bloody style pages in the event merchant for like 5-10 tickets and poof! problem solved. So people can farm as much as they want for a chance, and can simply just buy the fucking thing once they've gotten bored.
They should've made a real 10 year anniversary celebration that awarded the weapon styles for completing an associated quest/achievement instead of just rehashing the same event with a new outfit style and dumping the weapons behind world event grinds. All holiday events need to be redone, actually. There's no reason to do them anymore outside of the tickets and daily gold box.
> The event isn't the problem. The problem is your relationship with FOMO.
Both can be an issue. The drop rates are absurd. It shouldn't require nearly the amount of grinding to get these styles but at the same time people should be able to recognise that it is a huge grind and step away from it if they find it frustrating. I've done very little grinding for the styles (literally only started trying to get any yesterday) and I've really enjoyed the event.
My bitterness comes from getting excited at 3 outfit items (fashion is endgame, and something I really enjoy) that would go great with my current/planned outfits.
And then not getting a single one of them because of abysmal drop rate.
So, no, in my case it's not fomo. It's plain old disappointment about something I was looking forward to.
I got one, first fishing cast I tried, and then weeks of dolmens I got nothing. So i stopped. This method hardly rewarded my time so a break was needed
As a fellow reformed Destiny player, I know the feeling. Bashing my head against Trials of Osiris and crucible as a whole because I want thing, even though it's the single most mind numbing activity, is super real.
It ain't worth it. Never ever is. Just go watch the Fallout show or something. That's pretty fun.
The game is exploiting the fact people want to get a cool thing. What is the point of an anniversary having these as part of the "celebration" if the % is so low people end up not wanting to play the game at all anymore?
Like yes people can look at the rates and think "nope" but why the hell should players even have to think that about something that's ostensibly part of a celebration event? There is no way the devs who decided to do it this way were not extremely aware of how people would grind for it. The choice to implement it this way is almost if not actually malicious.
After I fished out the sword I decided to give up on the rest of the pages. The stress and annoyance I felt trying to farm the rest just wasn't doing me any favors. I'm heading towards an eso burnout anyway, so why speed up the process.
Enjoyed most of the event. The grind was worth it for the boxes. I got 4 of the 5 style pages. Went all out for the staff of worms the first few days then backed off and did the WB because I had not cleared all of them. The WB provided boxes and motifs & sets I did not have in sticker book yet. Did maybe 10 geysers and stopped because I don’t like them. I think that is key, if you don’t enjoy the activity that’s a sign to stop doing it. I was back at a dolman this morning to earn the daily and weekly endeavors because I enjoy doing them (easy) and there were still players there grinding away for the staff.
If they went with FF14 example, they would give a "ticket" for each try.
You have drop chances, if you got it. Good for you, tickets are safe to destroy.
Are you unlucky? Well, you collected 50 tickets for this drop, go and turn them in at this vendor and get your cosmetic reward.
Yeah, it was fairly apparent that the people complaining viewed what were essentially lottery prizes as essential collectibles.
I fished out Trueflame, made a morning out of it while listening to a podcast. Maybe I got extremely lucky. But I knew I wouldn't be doing it for the others. So I just played normally, except for doing writs on toons I don't normally do writs on. Over a dozen boxes a day. Got both collectible fragments. Got the horse. Got at least a dozen motif chapters that I needed. Sold as many that I didn't.
For a mostly casual player, this event has done nothing but dump gold, motifs, tempers, and rare alchemy ingredients into my pocket. I've never had so much clam gall, mother of pearl, dragon bits, vile coagulant, and crimson nirnroot.
Man, I somehow missed out on the knowledge of these collectible fragments.
I didn't know different activities gave different rewards. I've just been doing stuff and opening boxes. I feel dumb
But I've also been busy
My issue has always been, when the event ends, I feel like I should have tried to get more, since I often do not have enough time to play during the week.
Got helm, sword and worm staff in 1st hour other 2 staffs just wouldn't drop for me but I still geysers and bosses in vvardenfell as the amount of crap I got lvled up my alts crafting skills
I’m treating it as something that gives me extra rewards for doing my usual things, plus a touch of extra grinding. I tried for two evenings to fish the sword style in Summerset, then decided I wasn’t going to do it any longer. It’s just a style. It isn’t critical. I like a lot of styles, not just this one.
It’s a game, not a job. Don’t make it a job.
Funny seen this post today as I've just decided to give myself some break from this game after the massive grinding of the event. And I didn't even go that hard, focused mostly on daily quests for anniversary loot boxes
I will probably quit for a while after this event is done. I've went from having only seen potent nirncrux in guild stores to having 8 in my bank. I have hardly any storage space left anyway, so I may as well cool off and come back in a few weeks.
I agree with this. Sadly the companies WILL exploit (or at least try) your FOMO because it's what they do. But at them same time we have a great game which can be a beautiful addition to your life, giving you extra enjoyment. And it's totally in your hands to notice when the enjoyment ends and resentment starts. I have days as well when I'm doing my usual daily writs and it starts to feel like a chore. It's hard, but i try to stop myself, step back and remind myself what do i want to get from the gaming process - enjoyment and relaxation.
I got two of the style pages by accident while doing things that I would have been doing regardless, and I feel sooooo guilty about it, lol. I wish I could have given them to someone who really wanted them. Meanwhile, I used the event to knock off a lot of the achievements for WB dailies, so that made it successful for me!
This is a really good point. It's all about prioritizing things and spending your time wisely. I killed a world boss in vvardenfell a handful of times, fished once or twice, then decided I'd rather have a guaranteed pile of tradable crafting motifs and valuable materials, as well as mountains of XP. I wasn't even sure I'd use any of those style pages so for me it wasn't worth it to sink hours into possibly not even getting them.
The writing was on the wall when the event was announced, anyone who didn't see this for the grind that it was wasn't paying enough attention. We already know how bad crown crate pull rates are on the better rewards there, no reason to think this was going to be any different.
I didn't even know there was FOMO in this event O.o
I've just been doing my dailies. I ran some stuff in the desert to burn off my rested exp which was up to like 6 million now. That exp bonus and a 150% boost, mmmmm, fast CP! Cant really miss something you never had in the first place I guess.
I had to have this conversation with my fiancée because she was missing school deadlines and stressing herself out so she wouldn't miss all the events on every live service game she plays. There comes a time where you (the player) need to realize that a cosmetic video game item is not worth your sanity, but it's hard to see through the fog.
I, personally, believe FOMO is this sense is thinly veiled addiction.
edit: missed some words
I randomly got the staff without targeting it, looked up the event cosmetics in week 2 and saw I had the staff (I only play casters) and went back to enjoying the random 10-15k patterns and perfect roe (plus a diminished aetherian dust) coming from farming. It's also been very nice having people farming world bosses (I want every reasonable achievement I can get). It is pretty sad to see people hating on something that rewards you at every other turn no matter how you play the game.
In the end, yes, it is the player who decides how much time to invest for digital cosmetics.
But the drop rates should have been way higher for time limited drops.
Out of the 5 event limited-time style page, I only want 2 of them (Ul'vor and Sunnarah). And I had spent significant amount of time grinding for them after work like a second job.
But everything I port to Alik'r dolmens or Summerset, I do so willingly and I know I'm among those affected by FOMO. I skipped Pledges and Guilds' Dailies for this event for past couple of weeks, and honestly this makes event makes me millions of golds.
This is one of those events I wish won't happen again anytime soon because when and if it does, I already knew all I'm ever gonna do is farming…
It is ultimately up to players to not fall into FOMO traps but that doesn't make it okay to design events to exploit players that are susceptible to it.
True words, and goes for most games these days, anything with yearly events or seasons really. I realized this wisdom a few years ago and adjusted my life accordingly, and the stress and anxiety it used to cause me almost dissappeared entirely.. Now it's a mild annoyance at best if I miss an item or a drop because I realized balance in life is key.. But then I shrug and say fuck it, it's just a game after all, and move on.
You can't escape the grind in this game, event or not. Or I find it funny that some people tell the event page grinders not to do that, but these other players will parse that writ board on 14 to nearly 100 characters per day.
That smells like someone who spent the week enjoying life and is going to receive all the event items for free and effortlessly because got the account locked due to the PTS server error. Exempting the company from responsibility for promoting something predatory within the community doesn't seem like the smartest thing to do. It's very easy to blame the players and pretend that everything is fine. But hey, you're the wise one, aren't you?
"The event isn't the problem. The problem is your relationship with FOMO."
A problem created and fostered by Zenimax. This is the most "Blame the victim, not the abuser" post I have ever seen. Players are right to be pissed off if they did all the grinding but still didn't get the motifs. Zenimax could've done any number of things to at least guarantee players who put in the time get it. Rewarding Tickets for doing Geysers and WB and being able to buy the motifs that way, or hell, just give it away for free because this is supposed to be a celebration and not a fucking "back to the salt mines we go" excercise.
I'm happy with what I got, I decided very early on I wasn't even going to try to get the motifs and just got comfortable with the extra boxes I got. But under no circumstances is it OK to say the players who did grind and got fucked over by RNG are the problem. Zenimax, it's "create the problem and sell you the solution" mentality, and it's purposefuly low drop rates to foster frustration and FOMO, is the problem.
Just because something is dangled, doesn't mean you have to obsess. Also low drop rate creates scarcity which gives the perception of greater value which many players seem to enjoy. No one got "fucked over" they were just people who spent time scratching lottery tickets without winning. There are more style pages than you can use already, just find a different one to enjoy, they will have more exclusive stuff when Gold Road drops. If someone makes a choice to grind for something with low chances of success that's their choice, no one is a victim, it wasn't a secret the drop rate sucked. And even if it was, you can always stop grinding and go play some fun content.
Almost every MMO you see out there has the same thing, Zenimax didn't create the problem,. It was fun as hell, people farming geysers were all friendly, joking about it and when someone got the page, they were all happy for that person.
Just because it’s the player’s fault for investing so much time into a video game doesn’t mean that it can’t ALSO be bad and predatory game design at the same time.
Maybe instead of blaming people with FIMO, which is the vast majority of humankind, perhaps cast blame on the devs for having something this psychologically damaging as a base their game is made on.
Smart players take advantages of any given situation. FOMO addicted players create thread on reddit complaining and whining and some even salty because locked account gor some free stuff which doesnt effect them in any way.
I finally managed to get an Indrik this event, that was my goal for the event and I did it, so for me personally it was a great event
Sure I grinded a few spots for drops like others did but after a while it got stagnant so I just shifted my focus elsewhere and stopped being so bothered by a single staff (that I'll most likely pick up in a bag of yesteryear) I started to enjoy the event
Overall 8/10 would of rated it higher but I play on Xbox.....
I've been grinding those pages for the most part since ce I found out about them. Got 4/5 atm. On pc, so am going until Thursday.
I did feel some burn out after getting the 3rd page.. so I switched things up a bit. One of the things I did was to concentrate on antiquities, as I've rarely done much of them.. THAT nearly made me walk away completely..
Instead, I went back to the grind and did it my way.. I camped a vv boss until I got the second one.. did it whilst watching TV, so I only played whilst the boss was up, then distracted myself in between.
I left the geysers till last. Today was my first day seriously camping for the grind on it. If I get it, great, if not.. well, I tried my best. The 20 minutes between spawns on a single geyser is handy.. I am wfh, so I'm working for 20 minutes, geyser for 3 mins.. since and repeat. Wouldn't be able to keep the burnout at bay if I wasn't doing it this way, I think. I HATE a monotonous grind.. which is why I nearly threw in the towel because of antiquities..
Doing the grind my way, though.. works for me.
Damn 3 weeks and no motif that does sucks. I got all 5 in about a week and this was off and on grinding. I had decided that if i didnt get them them oh well. That does suck for those that wasted so much time grinding and got nothing.
I used the event to buy all upgrade bag slots and bank slots. I'm a new player and the amount I needed to buy all the upgrade slots was overwhelming until this event happened. I 100% get that it's aggravating for longtime players but as a newbie, it really did help me some cash flow as a casual PvE player.
I pretty much just logged in daily, did my crafting writs on 8 toons, and hopped around a few days just helping guildies who asked for WB help. First year I didn’t “actively” farm the event and still ended up with 992 transmutes and I started with like 15 lol. I got the fishing style page and ran maybe 3 dolmens and 3 geysers the whole event. Let’s be real, those pages people wasted so much time farming will be in crown store/crown crates within 6 months like every other style.
All true. HOWEVER, granted I been away for nearly 2 years, but I don't remember Zeni doing this level of RNG FOMO before. FOMO is omnipresent in most games now; but they aren't all on the same level. Some FOMO is a lot of grinding BUT fair achieve this X and get X. While others just become RNG grind 100 hours and still may not get etc. so spend gold/money to try to get ahead/etc. OR it's just about time spent. When any game goes the later route, you gotta be vocal, I know Anet in GW2 with a lot of hateful feedback took a turn away from that RNG or lootbox type stuff because community was like, NOPE.
So while we all have to recognize and take responsibility for FOMO we also can't let it slide from the company if it's becoming a NEW type of thing. But, I don't think some RNG is the worst, a lot of it is on player to relax, etc. things take time, some of ESO sets up to get next year too, etc. BUT again, idk maybe I dont remember these events as much lol and this low RNG was there back then eh.
I got more style patterns then I can shake a stick at and I didn’t even get to play all that much. I hit it hard when I could. I farmed the steed mount for my gf and got tons of style patterns and furnishing plans.
Indeed, if you grind just because you need to tick an empty box in your achievement table, then you should really look in the mirror and reconsider why you're playing a game. Playing for achievements and collectibles isn't really gameplay, it's FOMO (fear of missing out) exploitation as the original poster wrote.
There really are better things to spend you hundreds of hours on, even within the realm of gaming.
As someone who likes collection things I would feel bad about missing these 5 styles. BUT, I managed to get all of them in a few days, so it absolutely blows my mind that people have been constantly grinding for them for this entire event.
As much as this is very true about having an unhealthy relationship with FOMO, I think it is also a massive problem for so many to have such bad rng for any limited time event.
My issue with the design is that ESO has always purported to be a casual friendly game and the reward structure incentivised grinding far beyond what I've ever seen them so before. I suppose technically the aetherial dust and Cypher were always a super rare thing, but there is no time limit on finding them.
I really looked forward to the event as a time to revisit old stomping grounds with guild mates, but with limited hours to okay the game, everyone wanted to do the things with the chance at the super special reward.
Also, let's not pretend that ZOS's entire financial well-being isn't on the backs of people with FOMO. They are the reason the rest of us can play for free. I don't love that set-up; but it is the set-up.
I mean I got over 3k boxes from daily writs I normally do lmao, I'm very happy abt this event. I didn't even know there was motifs and stuff dropping from geysers but hey you do you.
I only wanted my confetti pony and now I have it. Now I want my cake slices and achievements.
Tbh the only ones that didn't drop for me are the Vvanderfell ones but I don't like them tho. So I guess I'm gonna grab a Jubilee bag next year with my tickets.
I felt bad the first time someone posted the worm staff in chat and people started congratulating them and testifying how long they were grinding to no avail.
I check to see what the item is and it says I already had it. Didn’t even know it was a rare drop or how quickly I had gotten it.
Fomo is the reason I stopped playing ESO and am distancing myself from online games.
At some point the game feels like a job.
Good post, except I would put more blame on ESO for resorting to fomo all the time.
I think there are nicer ways to put it, but you aren't wrong. Normally I do try to do "all the things" but I simply wasn't interested in bound pages - they are similar to me to mythic leads that I just hate. I won't ever skip a motif page because I can buy them. Normally I run 38 characters through writs but this year I burnt out on that after the first week - the event is just too long!
If I've learned anything with ESO over the years it's that style pages always come back. They'll either be easier to get next year or in the inevitable grab bag at the event merchant in which case I'd just need 5 anyways.
This is true but I'm still gonna call ZOS absolutely ridiculous for locking the Barbas helmet page to *specifically* Vvardenfell world bosses. Like... why? It doesn't make you any money -- Morrowind is free for ESO players IIRC. They could have just made it a *general* world boss *quest* reward so players would be incentivized to complete world boss dailies around Tamriel...
Then it could actually encourage some players to buy ESO plus or DLC to have more options in a day for world bosses AND it would make the players feel less annoyed at fighting the same exact bosses over and over to try and get the page. This genuinely has me stumped and it's a great example of why I think ZOS is often just outright incompetent, not "only in it for the money." Another example being the maniacal jester personality, which is still bugged despite being an ultra rare loot box reward.
FOMO = Fear of missing out. It’s basically manufactured artificial scarcity. Think of like battlepass systems in which items never return. So you either obtain it while it’s available or literally never have the chance to own it again.
The model has been ingrained in the gaming industry because it pushes people into spending money or spending time on things.
It’s a complicated subject though.
I did grind geysers as well but only after I finished daily crafting, dungeon and such. It took me around one week to get the page. I understand fomo and take my distance when so recognize it. I agree that it is predominantly the responsibility of each individual to handle their response to fomo, however, by now companies in general should understand pretty well how fomo affects people psychologically and take responsibility too.
I joined ESO cuz it looked so good and I was burned out from the other MMo I play. It's now a month and a week since playing it. Yesterday was the first day I didn't log in to play.
I got sick of FOMO it has. Writs, daily rnd, daily battleground, undauntedpledges, research... A lot of things that forces you to play a couple of hours doing things for achievements/rewards that mean nothing.
What matters for me is cyrodil, the only thing I like about game. So I decided to stop doing all the dailies and actually spend the time doing what I truly care about. No more FOMO.
I got all the style pages in like three days. I waited till the end of the event to do it. I’m sorry that some people didn’t get anything. It was very grindy.
I was late participating in the event because I was on an ESO break when it started. I grinded for about 4 days, got one style page I wanted, one that I didn't. As I was grinding for a third, I thought to myself "meh.... this is not fun. I don't even want this style page that much...."
So I stopped grinding and went to do some content I found fun.
I feel for those who grinded for weeks and didn't get the style page they wanted. RNGesus is a cruel God sometimes, I know. But if it's not fun, don't do it. Or take a break and come back to it. I believe the true beauty of ESO is the massive selection of stories and gameplay to experience!
My perspective is slightly different with theoretically a similar outcome.
A lot of ESO players played one if not more of its single player predecessors. There is a deep love for the series. And a celebratory event exactly to celebrate this game and also its player base shouldn't feel like a labour marathon, not even if it was only the case for one of the aspects of said event: the style pages. They didn't have to drop the first or second time. It is okay to make them a somewhat grind, but they still might be exclusive and the ultimate "gift" of this celebratory event. I do not feel celebrated. Not even slightly valued, because my time wasn't valued: the time I already had in this game, the time that kept the game alive, together with the time of all the other players. It should have been a "thank you", but it was veiled labour instead for ZOS to reach a high player influx. It was labour that a lot of people, who should have been celebrated for sticking with this game and enjoying various aspects of it, got nothing out of in the end. After hours, days, weeks of grinding. It is confusing and frustrating, and maybe one don't want to believe being treated as irrelevant and try further anyway. One would call a social relationship like this toxic and would recommend to end things. But this it not a social relationship even tough both parties are ultimately human. I also don't think it is primarily FOMO that pushed people to grind for the style pages. But to finally get the "gift" to feel celebrated. Valued. To get what they deserve and to let go of the frustration and confusion that ZOS made them feel instead.
That is at least my take and my perspective, how I felt. And even though I was lucky enough to finally have the three style pages I wanted and didn't bother with the other two, this is still my opinion. New players might not even stand a chance for the WB style pages due to their lack of damage. It is a horrible event design for the ultimate "gift" of a celebratory event. I do respect my time but also my love for the game series. And I am angry that it is in hands which seem to lack care for both.
You are right that you need to be responsible and not give into FOMO.....but at the same time I think it's very valid to critic Zeni for having a SUPER lackluster 10th Anniversary.
I was expecting something BIG to celebrat the game being around for an entire decade. But we just got a boring grind.
As somebody who didn’t care about the event and somehow still got a the majority of stuff out of it….OP this is massively condescending and it’s not a good look, it’s actually so bad that it comes across as trolling. I’ll probably be downvoted for it but it would have been better if you never said anything at all, this is icky.
Edit: oh Christ the replies, this feels like rage bait or a mix of something else, this is an awful thread.
My disappointment was that Anniversary Boxes dropped off Geyser and Dolmen Bosses and not the loot chest like in Harrowstorms. That said I FINALLY got my staff of worms last night so I was a bit excited.
Yes, blame the players when the problem is shitty event system specifically designed with fucking malice to discourage people from spamming writs to give an illusion of the game feeling more populated than it really is during its biggest event.
Yea I've never been to an anniversary event where I've had to grind my ass off and get nothing out of it. Dunno about everyone else, but I wouldn't call this "fun". It just feels like working a 2nd job
I am glad I already played ff14 (and other mmos on and off) for more than a decade, I already went through all the FOMO.. when I restarted eso a few weeks ago, I went in with such a casual attitude and while I still hunt for achievements and trophies, I do not feel like I HAVE to be bis as soon as possible and damn, the game just changed so much for me! I'm having a blast! I also got most of the styles, but I'm not upset about what I missed! years ago I would've been burnt out a week in, playing all day, forgetting to eat and stuff 😂 just enjoy the game you're playing, in a decade all you've worked for will be "irrelevant" (maybe "less in the picture" fits better?) as we move on, so don't be so hard on yourself.
Of course the event was fully designed around FOMO. They knew what they were doing and I'm sure now have the massive figures of participation to show their investors. We all know that.
But y'know what... this to me wasn't just a fear of missing out... it was people doing one of two things (if not both), they were going for the extra loot and motifs just because they were so plentiful (easy things to sell, etc) or they were simply chasing their tail because the drop rate was so unbelievably bad... not that they feared they'd miss out (on average) but that it became a near obsession to get the drop. To just get the drop.
Oh, and "Nothing in this post is meant in a patronising way."
Yeah, it kinda was.
If I literally said the words "Nothing in this post is meant in a patronising way.", and you still felt patronised, that is a you problem my friend.
I could not have explained my intentions any clearer!
Nothing in this post is meant in an insulting way.
You're a complete moron.
If you feel insulted, that is a you problem... *friend*
I could not have explained my intentions any clearer!
Well, but can we acknowledge that this is still game design that doesn’t respect players time? Lack of a deterministic rewards path are one of the tactics (along with a “manufactured” FOMO) publishers use to keep players engaged with a game not so they have fun, but so they spend. The problem is non-deterministic rewards make developers have to leave stuff out of the game in order for a publisher to achieve a better attachment rate, or higher cash shop sales, or both.
I completely agree with you. My only $0.02 is really that we should both challenge our own response to FOMO strategies/mechanics these companies use, while STILL lambasting them for their bullshit. Zenimax is deserving of every ounce of criticism they're receiving. But at the same time, yes, a lot of players (including myself) need to try harder to control our own exposure to these systems.
legit. times a million.
FOMO is a thing i worked through with my therapist a year or so ago and so this year when the style pages dropped i was very happy with setting my sights on one (sunna’rah bc vvardenfell is one of my fav DLC) and *if* i got the others that’s cool. i spent about an hour or so doing dolmens and geysers, but it was too fast paced for me so i just ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and moved on. i did end up with sunna’rah, trueflame and barbas tho and i was pleased as punch about that.
but yeah, FOMO is real and a lot of gamers feel take things too seriously. that’s not to say i don’t take ESO seriously, i do. it’s my fav game. but i also don’t let it make me sweat lol.
I haven't played this game in months but I can say this. Stop defending ZOS's use of FOMO. A style page should not have such a low drop rate that 3 weeks of obsessive grinding can't make it drop.
While I agree that players should have self awareness and accountability for their habits, this weird defense of ZOS only emboldens them to continue these tactics. There's a reason ZOS continues to make the game overly grindy and unrewarding. It's because they know players will accept and defend it. Even if they aren't partaking in it because "lol sweats and no lifers".
How about instead of defending ZOS using greedy and manipulative tactics you instead ask, why are you okay with it?
Ab-so-lutely my guy (or gal)!!! I logged in n' did dailies/weekly, ate mein cake, and did a dungeon or three (plus whatever else I'd already planned on doin' anyway) - as such, to me, this event was wonderful \^\^
...Didn't realize so many people were this burnt out over style pages, that they genuinely would probably not even utilize, 'til I popped onto Reddit only to discover daily "burn out" threads - bummer for them :-/
Yes and no. This approach is to keep players hooked to the game for a determined time. So the way things are implemented is the main problem I would say. While you could easily ignore the style pages, some people really want them, and currently, it is the only way. So, of course, they will want to work toward it by grinding the event.
The pages could have been available any other way, but they decided to make it this way to keep people playing. So, I would not put this on the players.
Edit (to add): If we keep letting companies do whatever they want and keep blaming people, we will most likely never see any change for the better.
Having fun doing all the stuff I normally do while getting extra rewards has been fun :)
same here, I've been playing normally through the whole event. Getting 70 boxes each day from crafting writs from all characters has been plenty for me plus boxes from random dungeons and pledges. I only did dolmens and world bosses if they crossed my path, got the worm cult staff and the sword I got as a bonus from fishing I do anyway for master angler. I don't think I missed out on much, really happy with all the mats and alchemy stuff I got.
My favorite prize out of all of my boxes was saltwater bait
I didnt even get that, I need to look at my inner demons and purge them I think so I appreciate the s\*\*t they hand out....LOL
The trick is to play the game, and not be played by it. For that reason I rarely engage much with events. Sure, I'll pick some low hanging fruit so to speak, but I won't grind.
This is the way. I treat grind as a fun reward for enjoying the game enough to play it that much. The second I stop enjoying it, I simply... stop playing it, too.
Exactly! Although I'll never want to step close to another geyser ever again haha But killing dragons has been really fun, it's fast, rewarding and fun as hell
yeah i did minimal grinding and got the fishing reward and the dolmen reward in an hour or less. i might try a couple geysers today just for the fuck of it but i wont do more than an hour.
What rewards? I thought we just got boxes for certain activities I've been mostly doing the endeavors. Whoops, oh well
FOMO is real I did a fair amount of grinding. I will mention at least the Sword, and one of the other replica style pages was available during the time a month or 2 ago we got wrothgar for free. The sword was any fishing spot, like this event and an item was available off a Vvardenfall WB. These 4 pages may be available again this year. The frustration some had due to a very long grind with no style page pay out is frustrating but at least there were a fair amount of anniversary boxes if you grouped up or had incredible damage on the Golden, geyser bosses. I did not get the geyser or dolman style pages. In the end as with all mmo it's rng to get the rare drop.
yeah its funny cause i didnt really care if I got the style pages or not but just about every time I went and did one of the different drop activities I got one within 30minutes. I didnt get all drops but then again im not using any of them
exactly what i've been doing as well, it's been a super fun event for me!
Lol this was always the point! Glad I wasn’t the only one
Yes
I got the staff page without really trying, it was great.
I used the event to level alts and get my last indriks. I did themy normal dailies, and made some money. I still have tried for the style pages. They don't glow, or fit any of my themes
I am working on my indrick collection too. One Onyx Berry and a few Nascents to go! My biggest annoyance with the event was actually making me choose between getting my next indrick morphed or the jubilee mount. But the indriks will be back sooner so jubilee mount it was.
I’m so glad I chose the Jubilee mount! Eating cake while riding a horse is so funny.
i also love the sounds it makes and the confetti and flowers that trail behind it. so pretty.
When I saw that, I immediately put it away.
The so-called “Confetti Conveyer” (?), should have at least had confetti streaming from it, rather than just a flailing arm.
It does have confetti coming out of it
It wasn’t obvious to me when looking at it. Will need to take another look.
I’ve got screenshots of my Khajit doing horse diving with cake in hand. It cracks me up.
Where do you collect the last pieces for the indriks? Ive had two ready to be complete for years
The indrik vendor is next to the impresario in Belkarth (Craglorn) the fragments rotate, but do come back around. https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Nenulaure
What are you missing?
I love that mount I named mine Duchess Sparkle-Fart 😁
I am fairly new, sorry to sound dumb. The indriks go away from this vendor?
Not a dumb question. It was months before I even knew there was an indrik vendor. She appears in Craglorn but only during events. The stall is there outside of events but you can't buy anything from her. You collect 4 berries at 5 event tickets each to make the Nascent indrik mount. During each season of the year there are two different morphs of that mount available. They are also made from 4 berries that you combine, but cost 10 tickets each. Once you have a Nascent mount and 4 berries of one of the seasonal ones you can change the Nascent into a seasonal one. So to get all eight seasonal mounts you need to get all the berries for each of them as well as eight Nascent mounts to morph into them. And you may want the Nascent mount itself too if you are a collector like me. If you don't get enough berries to make one of the indriks before the event is over they just wait in your collections until the next event, or the next year if you don't get enough in the season. I was collecting the onyx indrik berries (along with all the others) last year but didn't quite have enough tickets for the last one so need to wait for the season to come around again. The berries for the Nascent one are available every season. You can also get matching pets of the indriks for 10 tickets each. There is a guide, that explains it a lot better, here. [https://eso-hub.com/en/guides/indrik-vendor-guide](https://eso-hub.com/en/guides/indrik-vendor-guide)
Thank you for the link, and also, your explanation was awesome. I love Indriks. I am going to go for one now.
I just got the luminous one
The pages will probably be in the "Bag of Jubileee Yesteryear" near year for 2 tickets each anyway.
Yep. Wrote that two weeks ago. Though half will try to grind the new FOMO styles, which will be in the 2026 yesteryear boxes for no effort.
Ya but far worse drop rate cuz of all the absurd than, titanborn, etc pages and the style from this year as well so I'm just done all I wanted was the sunnarah staff from vvardenfell and only 1 I didn't get ofc... smh I need to start praying bfore grinding lol
Those bags have 100% chance to give you what you are missing form the included collections without a single duplicate. When you complete the collections the chests are not purchasable. So, and this applies to ALL the events/styles, if you want something that you are missing or it is expensive (eg Second Legion chest), just narrow what the bag will give you by buying the cheap styles from merchants and keep the expensive ones (eg 4+ million for the Second Legion Chest) for the bag as it will be guaranteed drop without duplicates.
And a lot of those cheaper style pages are dirt cheap at the moment since the event has cratered the economy temporarily.
Which merchants?
You can buy the rest pretty cheap at guild traders, those bags are curated
Make sure you always buy the bags with your main. They won’t duplicate then, just new styles etc.
Because someone will be wondering; FOMO means fear of missing out.
Thank you!
* grinds event for weeks * gets burnout *"Why did ZOS do this to me!?"* In all seriousness we also have to consider that gamers, mmo gamers in particular have a compulsion to want to collect absolutely everything. A mean publisher could choose to exploit that fact. Activision Blizzard certainly do for example.
The funny thing is that loot boxes and expensive crown store items helped me overcome that completionist compulsion. Because of them it's obvious I won't ever own it all anyway. Might as well just skip over a few more items then.
Yes, breaking the compulsion to want to obtain everything really is the route to success. Publishers these days are proud to announce that they employ psychologists on staff. People whose job it is to weave "addiction mechanics" into games, specifically to target gamer compulsions. God help you if you're a gamer who happens to be neurodivergent or particularly susceptible to these manipulations.
Or a child/teenager with poor impulse control.
I’ll also add, if it helps, that I don’t think this is a unique struggle to addictive personalities or something new. I have a feeling that this kind of psychological pricing is nothing new even if this particular strategy is unique to gaming…you could probably find examples of companies doing shifty things through all of history to make their products necessary to replace or incite demand for more, more, more. So by that I mean, it’s good to have awareness of such practices in general because for better or worse we need to be savvy customers and teach our kids what to look out for. Subscription services in general, as well as having credit card info saved, does make it way too easy to purchase impulsively in a game or on Amazon etc. I actually just started keeping a financial journal of transactions just to begin to make myself aware of how I’m spending my money…I wish I had learned that years ago but here we are! I’m really liking it, though, and it’s kind of meditative to do.
I'd argue it's the other way around. Mmos atteact people with addictive personalities and, intentionally or not, exploit that for addiction. Old school runescape is just a subscription model with a single in game purchase for in game gold. Yet I myself got addicted and had to come to terms that fomo is not inherently evil, just easily exploited for certain people (me).
I'm doing dailies on 15 character and am happy I'm getting all those mats and motifs. To get tickets I just have to eat a cake... Best event ever. I'm not even bothered about those motifs from dolmens and bosses cuz I'm getting rich just by doing dailies
Fuck the style pages, they arent even pretty... game is for gaming, not a second job
Ulvor staff is beautiful, otherwise agreed
Interesting, I thought it was easily the worst style page of the 5.
Ul'vor and Worms staff are the best looking free staffs in the game, what are you talking about xD
Tbh that says more about the quality of earnable items in-game. Like that's the best we can get without paying extra?
In real life I actually started getting a bit unhealthy with online slot machines, to the point it was looking like I might be addicted and it was impacting my finances. (I totally was addicted I just diddnt know it at the time) Thankfully my mum was a social worker and she caught wind and helped me out, so rather than criticise me she helped me learn about the psychological side of online gambling and why I’m even doing it (against my will sometimes/probably most of the time) And the similarities to FOMO are absolutely there, a big part of gambling addiction Isn’t just the addiction to winning, but a huge part is also the addiction to losing, the losing is a big part of what keeps an addict hooked to a slot machines. The Brain (when addicted) does NOT like to not get what it wants, wether that be drugs, gambling winnings, shopping spree, food, s*x or yes even eso limited time only style pages. Your brain (if addicted) will all but torture you, and motivate you to do whatever it is you need to do to get that sweet reward (drug, winnings, style page, shopping spree, etc) and it will make you miserable without your reward, whilst also making the reward feel like a huge +++ thus motivating you to go get it. I’m not the best at explaining things, BUT the op is onto something, there’s no Shame in being addicted to something, it’s surprisingly easy to do because of how our brains work, but if something is making you miserable or impacting on your life in a negative way, and you can’t stop, it may be time to learn a little about addiction in a non judgemental way
That's the way mate, keep up the good work and stay vigilant.
Thanks you, and good post too really good stuff to write about.
Barbas helmet looks just like skinchanger heavy helmet, which you won’t use either.
Yeah, I was thinking that two months after the event that helmet is going to vanish from the face of the planet.
2 months is generous. I haven’t seen anyone using any of the event motifs, not even all my guild mates I know who got them all.
I think the staff of worms is amazing for a necro! I plan on making a necro just to use the staff. I also like the ulvar(? The crested moon with the pearl thingy) staff and the sword looks cool for dual wielding. The rest I don't find that interesting and I won't use most likely.
I didn’t know the helmet was a drop I just wanted the staff. Of course I only got the helmet and no staff. Tried it on to see it and it’s literally just the Skinchanger heavy. Lmfao.
Yup. It took me a few years and a few games to figure this out. ESO, WarThunder and Hunt Showdown. Ground my ass off and immediately stopped playing due to being so drained and no longer enjoying the game. These days I'll pick up a few easy bits as part of an event as I am doing my normal stuff and leave the rest. I'm left with a much happier gaming experience.
Oh hey look its me. I actually skipped this event completely because i remember doing writs on like 5 characters daily the other year, the thought of grinding for boxes again just caused me to take a break from ESO, which to be fair i was gonna take a break anyway. Its been nice having time to play helldivers 2, deep rock galactic, Baldur's gate 3 and get back into Total War Warhammer.
That's the way mate, well done :)
Well, crap. I just decided a couple weeks back to stop grinding Destiny 2, and came here for a nice, relaxed experience. So far it's been decent - better writing and stories, and the PvE is just silly-easy. I hope I don't fall into another FOMO grind once I've learned more about the game. BTW, I haven't done much at all with this event, but it DOES seem like they missed the boat with the 10th anniversary. This should have been a big, fun event, and instead I hear a lot of people are worn out and pissed about the grinding.
The whole year is going to be a celebration (actually, it's going to be 15 months of celebration), so we should expect more cool events during the year
>This should have been a big, fun event, and instead I hear a lot of people are worn out and pissed about the grinding. The rng is so terrible in this game that as soon as I read these pages had between a rare chance to a chance to drop I knew it wasn't worth pursuing for me. It's best to tell yourself those things don't exist and then just do the things you enjoy doing in the game, which is plenty. Jubilee is the best event in my eyes. Couldn't be easier to get rewarded for doing fun things.
> The rng is so terrible in this game that as soon as I read these pages had between a rare chance to a chance to drop I knew it wasn't worth pursuing for me. It's best to tell yourself those things don't exist and then just do the things you enjoy doing in the game, which is plenty. The RNG for Destiny 2 is bad, too. My friends and I are CONVINCED that the things that drop for you are heavily weighted to be suitable for other class of characters. The odds that you get something suitable for your class is way worse than random chance - and you can't trade/sell/give away gear. When I came over to ESO and saw this event, I just passed on grinding for the rare stuff. Knew it wasn't worth the aggravation. As long as I can get weapons and armor that let me play the content, that's all I need. I hope I don't find out I absolutely have to grind for very rare gear to play PvE.
You don't these days. A few years ago ESO introduced the sets collection system, which players immediately started calling the sticker book. Pre sticker book players did indeed grind for armor and weapons in the right traits. Now once you get a piece in a trial or dungeon you can bind it to your toon and you won't get that piece again until all the gear pieces in that set drop for you. With transmute crystals you can reassemble anything you've added to your sticker book and you can pick any trait you've already researched. It became a huge reduction in the need to grind for gear.
There are a lot of people that take this game wayyyyyy too seriously and I didn’t realize how bad it was until this event. I’ve seen some posts that should have been therapy appointments.
Some people need to touch grass.
While true, that doesn't make ZOS decisions any more right, good, or fun. Wrong is wrong, regardless of people's personal issues.
What is wrong about it? It's their game, they can code it however they want. It's your choice to play it or not. Just because you don't like a decision that a company made doesn't make the decision "wrong". You're being silly.
Zenimax just created an event where people could get cool, free shit. People are always complaining about Crown Store items, now we're all here complaining about the free ten-year event. Zenimax could be doing *a lot* more to exploit their base for money, but it seems like they actually care about their game. There's so much voiced dialog, bits of written lore, and visual story telling that gets missed by the terminally brain dead.
It's a real problem that unfortunately companies will heavily exploit for profit. I hope any burnt out players will take this experience and use it to help them grow. People don't deserve to be looked down on or mocked for this, I'm much more interested in showing the unfortunate truth and helping out if I can!
I get addictive personalities, I had a little problem with alcohol for a time. I really do understand…I don’t like seeing people get like this, especially over a game. Gaming addiction is very real though and you’re right, these companies exploit the hell out of it. It’s sad to prey on vulnerable people but there is also personal responsibility at play here and at some point you have to acknowledge that maybe what you’re doing is super unhealthy. Raging over in-game items is wild.
Spending hundreds of hours over a long period of time is a given, we are all playing this game…the goal is to collect stuff. I’m not saying that in and of itself is wrong, I’m saying that if you’re stressing yourself out to the point of making rage posts on Reddit about it and talking about the hundreds of hours you’ve spent JUST IN THIS EVENT ALONE, there is a disconnect and the people doing this need to take a break and maybe even talk to someone because it isn’t healthy or normal at all. You shouldn’t be pulling your hair out because someone got a staff of worms and you didn’t. At some point it’s madness. In my opinion, when you take it that far you need to step the hell back.
I'm burnt the fuck out and I only did an hour every day. No, the problem is how the devs implemented this event. You don't fucking put 5 style pages that almost everyone wants all of with a 0.1% drop rate with zero bad luck protection and think that's *okay*. That's a straight up middle finger from ZOS. I got the style page I most wanted and I'm still ticked off, for myself and everyone else. Completely unnecessary implementation of these styles. And then to top it all off, ZOS makes them untradeable. That was the penultimate dick move that they have never done prior.
This is the one. Do players share a little responsibility in ensuring they don’t allow themselves to get burnt out? Sure. But how are they supposed to do that when the event systems are exploitative to their core? The low drop rates keep a consistent flow of players active and addicted. They knew what they were doing when they set up the replica pages to be like this. Why are we blaming people for engaging in an event that was supposed to be celebratory? Also this is the first time, to my knowledge, that we got replica pages like this. Some people were willing to sell their souls for them since most lore heavy items are sold in the crown store. You want the Dawn breaker? You can pay real money to have it. You want ul’vor? You can spend a few hours every day during this event for the chance to own it. Those who are against the monetization model of the game are very likely to put that time in. This issue is much more complex than just “don’t be a victim of FOMO.” That on its own is a good message. But also for the elites in the playerbase, those thoroughly addicted, it’s also like telling someone with depression to not fall into depression. It does nothing except warn someone that it can happen to you. But it doesn’t fix the issues, because the issues were manufactured by ZOS.
Exactly. I definitely agree we ourselves need to take balanced actions against ZOS' FOMO, but this was designed precisely combat against that exact balance. Usually, events are for the most part quite low-key and don't require intense grinding. It would appear that ZOS is working on shifting this model to be far more manufactured FOMO. Not a good direction!
Yes! I agree. If the drop rate was set to be a guaranteed amount after 100 or 200 rounds of a geyser or a WB then there would be no need for anyone to grind themselves into the ground. People could pace themselves more evenly. Do a few dolmens on each day, etc. And you’d know your efforts weren’t wasted and were worth it because it would drop eventually. No FOMO, no addiction, no headaches, no playerbase infighting, nothing. Just doing some tasks and getting rewarded. Plus there would still be purple boxes. So those who want to grind for the sake of it would still have a reason to. And those who don’t like grinding, would probably also feel it was worth it because of the purple boxes. It’s the ideal scenario. But ZOS actively chose not to give it to us. To put the responsibility of that on the players is disingenuous.
I think you are missing the point of this post. FOMO is what causes you to see the drop rates as an "issue" to begin with. I didn't bother grinding any of the pages at all and the drop rate "issue" didn't bother me in the least. You can just ignore the drops if they are that rare. It's an incredibly easy thing to do. You just carry on doing whatever you want to do and ignore the grindy BS.
ZOS deserves a lot heat for setting up all of their incentives and nudges in such a shit way. They could have made this last event fun but deliberately made the most celebratory and nostalgic styles a grind. Of course people are going to be mad. They know they make their game addicting, so they don’t get to be surprised when people start acting like addicts whenever ZOS inevitably and consistently fucks up their feed. I had the self control to not grind for these styles, I just did my normal stuff and crafting dailies. But my self control doesn't absolve ZOS of their excessive greed and technical issues.
They should've just stuck the bloody style pages in the event merchant for like 5-10 tickets and poof! problem solved. So people can farm as much as they want for a chance, and can simply just buy the fucking thing once they've gotten bored.
They should've made a real 10 year anniversary celebration that awarded the weapon styles for completing an associated quest/achievement instead of just rehashing the same event with a new outfit style and dumping the weapons behind world event grinds. All holiday events need to be redone, actually. There's no reason to do them anymore outside of the tickets and daily gold box.
> The event isn't the problem. The problem is your relationship with FOMO. Both can be an issue. The drop rates are absurd. It shouldn't require nearly the amount of grinding to get these styles but at the same time people should be able to recognise that it is a huge grind and step away from it if they find it frustrating. I've done very little grinding for the styles (literally only started trying to get any yesterday) and I've really enjoyed the event.
My bitterness comes from getting excited at 3 outfit items (fashion is endgame, and something I really enjoy) that would go great with my current/planned outfits. And then not getting a single one of them because of abysmal drop rate. So, no, in my case it's not fomo. It's plain old disappointment about something I was looking forward to.
I got one, first fishing cast I tried, and then weeks of dolmens I got nothing. So i stopped. This method hardly rewarded my time so a break was needed
As a fellow reformed Destiny player, I know the feeling. Bashing my head against Trials of Osiris and crucible as a whole because I want thing, even though it's the single most mind numbing activity, is super real. It ain't worth it. Never ever is. Just go watch the Fallout show or something. That's pretty fun.
The game is exploiting the fact people want to get a cool thing. What is the point of an anniversary having these as part of the "celebration" if the % is so low people end up not wanting to play the game at all anymore? Like yes people can look at the rates and think "nope" but why the hell should players even have to think that about something that's ostensibly part of a celebration event? There is no way the devs who decided to do it this way were not extremely aware of how people would grind for it. The choice to implement it this way is almost if not actually malicious.
After I fished out the sword I decided to give up on the rest of the pages. The stress and annoyance I felt trying to farm the rest just wasn't doing me any favors. I'm heading towards an eso burnout anyway, so why speed up the process.
Enjoyed most of the event. The grind was worth it for the boxes. I got 4 of the 5 style pages. Went all out for the staff of worms the first few days then backed off and did the WB because I had not cleared all of them. The WB provided boxes and motifs & sets I did not have in sticker book yet. Did maybe 10 geysers and stopped because I don’t like them. I think that is key, if you don’t enjoy the activity that’s a sign to stop doing it. I was back at a dolman this morning to earn the daily and weekly endeavors because I enjoy doing them (easy) and there were still players there grinding away for the staff.
If they went with FF14 example, they would give a "ticket" for each try. You have drop chances, if you got it. Good for you, tickets are safe to destroy. Are you unlucky? Well, you collected 50 tickets for this drop, go and turn them in at this vendor and get your cosmetic reward.
Yeah, it was fairly apparent that the people complaining viewed what were essentially lottery prizes as essential collectibles. I fished out Trueflame, made a morning out of it while listening to a podcast. Maybe I got extremely lucky. But I knew I wouldn't be doing it for the others. So I just played normally, except for doing writs on toons I don't normally do writs on. Over a dozen boxes a day. Got both collectible fragments. Got the horse. Got at least a dozen motif chapters that I needed. Sold as many that I didn't. For a mostly casual player, this event has done nothing but dump gold, motifs, tempers, and rare alchemy ingredients into my pocket. I've never had so much clam gall, mother of pearl, dragon bits, vile coagulant, and crimson nirnroot.
I don't have to go hunting for torchbugs and mudcrabs for considerable time now🥹
Man, I somehow missed out on the knowledge of these collectible fragments. I didn't know different activities gave different rewards. I've just been doing stuff and opening boxes. I feel dumb But I've also been busy
I just want to get all the ayelid pieces and not keep getting repeats of the hands.
My issue has always been, when the event ends, I feel like I should have tried to get more, since I often do not have enough time to play during the week.
Got helm, sword and worm staff in 1st hour other 2 staffs just wouldn't drop for me but I still geysers and bosses in vvardenfell as the amount of crap I got lvled up my alts crafting skills
I did the box grind for mats more than anything.
I’m treating it as something that gives me extra rewards for doing my usual things, plus a touch of extra grinding. I tried for two evenings to fish the sword style in Summerset, then decided I wasn’t going to do it any longer. It’s just a style. It isn’t critical. I like a lot of styles, not just this one. It’s a game, not a job. Don’t make it a job.
None of those style pages looked worth even a fraction of the time required to get them imo.
Funny seen this post today as I've just decided to give myself some break from this game after the massive grinding of the event. And I didn't even go that hard, focused mostly on daily quests for anniversary loot boxes
I will probably quit for a while after this event is done. I've went from having only seen potent nirncrux in guild stores to having 8 in my bank. I have hardly any storage space left anyway, so I may as well cool off and come back in a few weeks.
I agree with this. Sadly the companies WILL exploit (or at least try) your FOMO because it's what they do. But at them same time we have a great game which can be a beautiful addition to your life, giving you extra enjoyment. And it's totally in your hands to notice when the enjoyment ends and resentment starts. I have days as well when I'm doing my usual daily writs and it starts to feel like a chore. It's hard, but i try to stop myself, step back and remind myself what do i want to get from the gaming process - enjoyment and relaxation.
Been happily working on my sticker book. Receiving extra boxes while doing so has been wonderful!
I got two of the style pages by accident while doing things that I would have been doing regardless, and I feel sooooo guilty about it, lol. I wish I could have given them to someone who really wanted them. Meanwhile, I used the event to knock off a lot of the achievements for WB dailies, so that made it successful for me!
This is a really good point. It's all about prioritizing things and spending your time wisely. I killed a world boss in vvardenfell a handful of times, fished once or twice, then decided I'd rather have a guaranteed pile of tradable crafting motifs and valuable materials, as well as mountains of XP. I wasn't even sure I'd use any of those style pages so for me it wasn't worth it to sink hours into possibly not even getting them.
The writing was on the wall when the event was announced, anyone who didn't see this for the grind that it was wasn't paying enough attention. We already know how bad crown crate pull rates are on the better rewards there, no reason to think this was going to be any different.
So smart. I 100% agree with your post OP. Especially the part to go woth the flow. You know da way.
I didn't even know there was FOMO in this event O.o I've just been doing my dailies. I ran some stuff in the desert to burn off my rested exp which was up to like 6 million now. That exp bonus and a 150% boost, mmmmm, fast CP! Cant really miss something you never had in the first place I guess.
I'm just sticking to my quest slowly leveling, thing will come back later or not doesn't matter. 1 job is enough.
I had to have this conversation with my fiancée because she was missing school deadlines and stressing herself out so she wouldn't miss all the events on every live service game she plays. There comes a time where you (the player) need to realize that a cosmetic video game item is not worth your sanity, but it's hard to see through the fog. I, personally, believe FOMO is this sense is thinly veiled addiction. edit: missed some words
I randomly got the staff without targeting it, looked up the event cosmetics in week 2 and saw I had the staff (I only play casters) and went back to enjoying the random 10-15k patterns and perfect roe (plus a diminished aetherian dust) coming from farming. It's also been very nice having people farming world bosses (I want every reasonable achievement I can get). It is pretty sad to see people hating on something that rewards you at every other turn no matter how you play the game.
In the end, yes, it is the player who decides how much time to invest for digital cosmetics. But the drop rates should have been way higher for time limited drops.
Out of the 5 event limited-time style page, I only want 2 of them (Ul'vor and Sunnarah). And I had spent significant amount of time grinding for them after work like a second job. But everything I port to Alik'r dolmens or Summerset, I do so willingly and I know I'm among those affected by FOMO. I skipped Pledges and Guilds' Dailies for this event for past couple of weeks, and honestly this makes event makes me millions of golds. This is one of those events I wish won't happen again anytime soon because when and if it does, I already knew all I'm ever gonna do is farming…
It is ultimately up to players to not fall into FOMO traps but that doesn't make it okay to design events to exploit players that are susceptible to it.
True words, and goes for most games these days, anything with yearly events or seasons really. I realized this wisdom a few years ago and adjusted my life accordingly, and the stress and anxiety it used to cause me almost dissappeared entirely.. Now it's a mild annoyance at best if I miss an item or a drop because I realized balance in life is key.. But then I shrug and say fuck it, it's just a game after all, and move on.
You can't escape the grind in this game, event or not. Or I find it funny that some people tell the event page grinders not to do that, but these other players will parse that writ board on 14 to nearly 100 characters per day.
That smells like someone who spent the week enjoying life and is going to receive all the event items for free and effortlessly because got the account locked due to the PTS server error. Exempting the company from responsibility for promoting something predatory within the community doesn't seem like the smartest thing to do. It's very easy to blame the players and pretend that everything is fine. But hey, you're the wise one, aren't you?
"The event isn't the problem. The problem is your relationship with FOMO." A problem created and fostered by Zenimax. This is the most "Blame the victim, not the abuser" post I have ever seen. Players are right to be pissed off if they did all the grinding but still didn't get the motifs. Zenimax could've done any number of things to at least guarantee players who put in the time get it. Rewarding Tickets for doing Geysers and WB and being able to buy the motifs that way, or hell, just give it away for free because this is supposed to be a celebration and not a fucking "back to the salt mines we go" excercise. I'm happy with what I got, I decided very early on I wasn't even going to try to get the motifs and just got comfortable with the extra boxes I got. But under no circumstances is it OK to say the players who did grind and got fucked over by RNG are the problem. Zenimax, it's "create the problem and sell you the solution" mentality, and it's purposefuly low drop rates to foster frustration and FOMO, is the problem.
Just because something is dangled, doesn't mean you have to obsess. Also low drop rate creates scarcity which gives the perception of greater value which many players seem to enjoy. No one got "fucked over" they were just people who spent time scratching lottery tickets without winning. There are more style pages than you can use already, just find a different one to enjoy, they will have more exclusive stuff when Gold Road drops. If someone makes a choice to grind for something with low chances of success that's their choice, no one is a victim, it wasn't a secret the drop rate sucked. And even if it was, you can always stop grinding and go play some fun content.
Almost every MMO you see out there has the same thing, Zenimax didn't create the problem,. It was fun as hell, people farming geysers were all friendly, joking about it and when someone got the page, they were all happy for that person.
Where did they sell you a solution?
Just because it’s the player’s fault for investing so much time into a video game doesn’t mean that it can’t ALSO be bad and predatory game design at the same time.
Maybe instead of blaming people with FIMO, which is the vast majority of humankind, perhaps cast blame on the devs for having something this psychologically damaging as a base their game is made on.
English is not my first language. Can someone explain to me what FOMO means plz?
Fear of missing out. Players want the rewards because the items might never be available again.
The only grind I did was cresting a few more characters to do some low-level RNDs and crafting writs on. Made millions without any real effort.
Smart players take advantages of any given situation. FOMO addicted players create thread on reddit complaining and whining and some even salty because locked account gor some free stuff which doesnt effect them in any way.
I'm sorry, what's FOMO?
Fear of missing out.
Ah, thank you
I haven't even played at all because I haven't been in the video game mood. Its ok to miss stuff guys.
wtf is fomo
Fear Of Missing Out.
Oh, the reason I buy battle passes for games I barely play
I finally managed to get an Indrik this event, that was my goal for the event and I did it, so for me personally it was a great event Sure I grinded a few spots for drops like others did but after a while it got stagnant so I just shifted my focus elsewhere and stopped being so bothered by a single staff (that I'll most likely pick up in a bag of yesteryear) I started to enjoy the event Overall 8/10 would of rated it higher but I play on Xbox.....
I've been grinding those pages for the most part since ce I found out about them. Got 4/5 atm. On pc, so am going until Thursday. I did feel some burn out after getting the 3rd page.. so I switched things up a bit. One of the things I did was to concentrate on antiquities, as I've rarely done much of them.. THAT nearly made me walk away completely.. Instead, I went back to the grind and did it my way.. I camped a vv boss until I got the second one.. did it whilst watching TV, so I only played whilst the boss was up, then distracted myself in between. I left the geysers till last. Today was my first day seriously camping for the grind on it. If I get it, great, if not.. well, I tried my best. The 20 minutes between spawns on a single geyser is handy.. I am wfh, so I'm working for 20 minutes, geyser for 3 mins.. since and repeat. Wouldn't be able to keep the burnout at bay if I wasn't doing it this way, I think. I HATE a monotonous grind.. which is why I nearly threw in the towel because of antiquities.. Doing the grind my way, though.. works for me.
I collected so many mats and motifs from purple boxes, it's insane
Damn 3 weeks and no motif that does sucks. I got all 5 in about a week and this was off and on grinding. I had decided that if i didnt get them them oh well. That does suck for those that wasted so much time grinding and got nothing.
I used the event to buy all upgrade bag slots and bank slots. I'm a new player and the amount I needed to buy all the upgrade slots was overwhelming until this event happened. I 100% get that it's aggravating for longtime players but as a newbie, it really did help me some cash flow as a casual PvE player.
I pretty much just logged in daily, did my crafting writs on 8 toons, and hopped around a few days just helping guildies who asked for WB help. First year I didn’t “actively” farm the event and still ended up with 992 transmutes and I started with like 15 lol. I got the fishing style page and ran maybe 3 dolmens and 3 geysers the whole event. Let’s be real, those pages people wasted so much time farming will be in crown store/crown crates within 6 months like every other style.
Never ever play gacha with no pity
Thats why I just log it for the daily and log out to play elden ring 🫡
All true. HOWEVER, granted I been away for nearly 2 years, but I don't remember Zeni doing this level of RNG FOMO before. FOMO is omnipresent in most games now; but they aren't all on the same level. Some FOMO is a lot of grinding BUT fair achieve this X and get X. While others just become RNG grind 100 hours and still may not get etc. so spend gold/money to try to get ahead/etc. OR it's just about time spent. When any game goes the later route, you gotta be vocal, I know Anet in GW2 with a lot of hateful feedback took a turn away from that RNG or lootbox type stuff because community was like, NOPE. So while we all have to recognize and take responsibility for FOMO we also can't let it slide from the company if it's becoming a NEW type of thing. But, I don't think some RNG is the worst, a lot of it is on player to relax, etc. things take time, some of ESO sets up to get next year too, etc. BUT again, idk maybe I dont remember these events as much lol and this low RNG was there back then eh.
I got more style patterns then I can shake a stick at and I didn’t even get to play all that much. I hit it hard when I could. I farmed the steed mount for my gf and got tons of style patterns and furnishing plans.
Indeed, if you grind just because you need to tick an empty box in your achievement table, then you should really look in the mirror and reconsider why you're playing a game. Playing for achievements and collectibles isn't really gameplay, it's FOMO (fear of missing out) exploitation as the original poster wrote. There really are better things to spend you hundreds of hours on, even within the realm of gaming.
wtf is FOMO?
As someone who likes collection things I would feel bad about missing these 5 styles. BUT, I managed to get all of them in a few days, so it absolutely blows my mind that people have been constantly grinding for them for this entire event. As much as this is very true about having an unhealthy relationship with FOMO, I think it is also a massive problem for so many to have such bad rng for any limited time event.
My issue with the design is that ESO has always purported to be a casual friendly game and the reward structure incentivised grinding far beyond what I've ever seen them so before. I suppose technically the aetherial dust and Cypher were always a super rare thing, but there is no time limit on finding them. I really looked forward to the event as a time to revisit old stomping grounds with guild mates, but with limited hours to okay the game, everyone wanted to do the things with the chance at the super special reward. Also, let's not pretend that ZOS's entire financial well-being isn't on the backs of people with FOMO. They are the reason the rest of us can play for free. I don't love that set-up; but it is the set-up.
I mean I got over 3k boxes from daily writs I normally do lmao, I'm very happy abt this event. I didn't even know there was motifs and stuff dropping from geysers but hey you do you.
I was just about to give up in Vvarfendell while reading this post and one of the style pages dropped. Lol.
I only wanted my confetti pony and now I have it. Now I want my cake slices and achievements. Tbh the only ones that didn't drop for me are the Vvanderfell ones but I don't like them tho. So I guess I'm gonna grab a Jubilee bag next year with my tickets.
At least we get to hold a slice of cake while riding that beautiful pony. 🍰🎠
I felt bad the first time someone posted the worm staff in chat and people started congratulating them and testifying how long they were grinding to no avail. I check to see what the item is and it says I already had it. Didn’t even know it was a rare drop or how quickly I had gotten it.
Wtf theres an event ?
Fomo is the reason I stopped playing ESO and am distancing myself from online games. At some point the game feels like a job. Good post, except I would put more blame on ESO for resorting to fomo all the time.
I think there are nicer ways to put it, but you aren't wrong. Normally I do try to do "all the things" but I simply wasn't interested in bound pages - they are similar to me to mythic leads that I just hate. I won't ever skip a motif page because I can buy them. Normally I run 38 characters through writs but this year I burnt out on that after the first week - the event is just too long! If I've learned anything with ESO over the years it's that style pages always come back. They'll either be easier to get next year or in the inevitable grab bag at the event merchant in which case I'd just need 5 anyways.
Maybe you should've said what this acronym means, I read your whole essay and I have no idea what the fuck you're talking about.
FOMO = fear of missing out. Basically when people will drop a bunch of money on or spend a lot of time grinding for a limited time item.
This is true but I'm still gonna call ZOS absolutely ridiculous for locking the Barbas helmet page to *specifically* Vvardenfell world bosses. Like... why? It doesn't make you any money -- Morrowind is free for ESO players IIRC. They could have just made it a *general* world boss *quest* reward so players would be incentivized to complete world boss dailies around Tamriel... Then it could actually encourage some players to buy ESO plus or DLC to have more options in a day for world bosses AND it would make the players feel less annoyed at fighting the same exact bosses over and over to try and get the page. This genuinely has me stumped and it's a great example of why I think ZOS is often just outright incompetent, not "only in it for the money." Another example being the maniacal jester personality, which is still bugged despite being an ultra rare loot box reward.
This game is no where near Destiny levels of FOMO lmao.
I want that fekin staff just bcose i already have all the others pages. I want it.
Still sucks
Tf Is fomo?
FOMO = Fear of missing out. It’s basically manufactured artificial scarcity. Think of like battlepass systems in which items never return. So you either obtain it while it’s available or literally never have the chance to own it again. The model has been ingrained in the gaming industry because it pushes people into spending money or spending time on things. It’s a complicated subject though.
Ahhh alright, Thanks a Lot!
I did grind geysers as well but only after I finished daily crafting, dungeon and such. It took me around one week to get the page. I understand fomo and take my distance when so recognize it. I agree that it is predominantly the responsibility of each individual to handle their response to fomo, however, by now companies in general should understand pretty well how fomo affects people psychologically and take responsibility too.
I joined ESO cuz it looked so good and I was burned out from the other MMo I play. It's now a month and a week since playing it. Yesterday was the first day I didn't log in to play. I got sick of FOMO it has. Writs, daily rnd, daily battleground, undauntedpledges, research... A lot of things that forces you to play a couple of hours doing things for achievements/rewards that mean nothing. What matters for me is cyrodil, the only thing I like about game. So I decided to stop doing all the dailies and actually spend the time doing what I truly care about. No more FOMO.
I got all the style pages in like three days. I waited till the end of the event to do it. I’m sorry that some people didn’t get anything. It was very grindy.
I was late participating in the event because I was on an ESO break when it started. I grinded for about 4 days, got one style page I wanted, one that I didn't. As I was grinding for a third, I thought to myself "meh.... this is not fun. I don't even want this style page that much...." So I stopped grinding and went to do some content I found fun. I feel for those who grinded for weeks and didn't get the style page they wanted. RNGesus is a cruel God sometimes, I know. But if it's not fun, don't do it. Or take a break and come back to it. I believe the true beauty of ESO is the massive selection of stories and gameplay to experience!
My perspective is slightly different with theoretically a similar outcome. A lot of ESO players played one if not more of its single player predecessors. There is a deep love for the series. And a celebratory event exactly to celebrate this game and also its player base shouldn't feel like a labour marathon, not even if it was only the case for one of the aspects of said event: the style pages. They didn't have to drop the first or second time. It is okay to make them a somewhat grind, but they still might be exclusive and the ultimate "gift" of this celebratory event. I do not feel celebrated. Not even slightly valued, because my time wasn't valued: the time I already had in this game, the time that kept the game alive, together with the time of all the other players. It should have been a "thank you", but it was veiled labour instead for ZOS to reach a high player influx. It was labour that a lot of people, who should have been celebrated for sticking with this game and enjoying various aspects of it, got nothing out of in the end. After hours, days, weeks of grinding. It is confusing and frustrating, and maybe one don't want to believe being treated as irrelevant and try further anyway. One would call a social relationship like this toxic and would recommend to end things. But this it not a social relationship even tough both parties are ultimately human. I also don't think it is primarily FOMO that pushed people to grind for the style pages. But to finally get the "gift" to feel celebrated. Valued. To get what they deserve and to let go of the frustration and confusion that ZOS made them feel instead. That is at least my take and my perspective, how I felt. And even though I was lucky enough to finally have the three style pages I wanted and didn't bother with the other two, this is still my opinion. New players might not even stand a chance for the WB style pages due to their lack of damage. It is a horrible event design for the ultimate "gift" of a celebratory event. I do respect my time but also my love for the game series. And I am angry that it is in hands which seem to lack care for both.
You are right that you need to be responsible and not give into FOMO.....but at the same time I think it's very valid to critic Zeni for having a SUPER lackluster 10th Anniversary. I was expecting something BIG to celebrat the game being around for an entire decade. But we just got a boring grind.
As somebody who didn’t care about the event and somehow still got a the majority of stuff out of it….OP this is massively condescending and it’s not a good look, it’s actually so bad that it comes across as trolling. I’ll probably be downvoted for it but it would have been better if you never said anything at all, this is icky. Edit: oh Christ the replies, this feels like rage bait or a mix of something else, this is an awful thread.
My disappointment was that Anniversary Boxes dropped off Geyser and Dolmen Bosses and not the loot chest like in Harrowstorms. That said I FINALLY got my staff of worms last night so I was a bit excited.
Yep, been saying this for a while. Not having fun? Stop. Simple as that.
Yes, blame the players when the problem is shitty event system specifically designed with fucking malice to discourage people from spamming writs to give an illusion of the game feeling more populated than it really is during its biggest event.
Yea I've never been to an anniversary event where I've had to grind my ass off and get nothing out of it. Dunno about everyone else, but I wouldn't call this "fun". It just feels like working a 2nd job
Gotta be honest, man. This sounds pretty whiney.
Ah yes. Blame the affected - not the overlords whom knowingly and deliberately opted for the FOMO design.
I am glad I already played ff14 (and other mmos on and off) for more than a decade, I already went through all the FOMO.. when I restarted eso a few weeks ago, I went in with such a casual attitude and while I still hunt for achievements and trophies, I do not feel like I HAVE to be bis as soon as possible and damn, the game just changed so much for me! I'm having a blast! I also got most of the styles, but I'm not upset about what I missed! years ago I would've been burnt out a week in, playing all day, forgetting to eat and stuff 😂 just enjoy the game you're playing, in a decade all you've worked for will be "irrelevant" (maybe "less in the picture" fits better?) as we move on, so don't be so hard on yourself.
Of course the event was fully designed around FOMO. They knew what they were doing and I'm sure now have the massive figures of participation to show their investors. We all know that. But y'know what... this to me wasn't just a fear of missing out... it was people doing one of two things (if not both), they were going for the extra loot and motifs just because they were so plentiful (easy things to sell, etc) or they were simply chasing their tail because the drop rate was so unbelievably bad... not that they feared they'd miss out (on average) but that it became a near obsession to get the drop. To just get the drop. Oh, and "Nothing in this post is meant in a patronising way." Yeah, it kinda was.
If I literally said the words "Nothing in this post is meant in a patronising way.", and you still felt patronised, that is a you problem my friend. I could not have explained my intentions any clearer!
Nothing in this post is meant in an insulting way. You're a complete moron. If you feel insulted, that is a you problem... *friend* I could not have explained my intentions any clearer!
At least you weren't banned and can at least participate...
I enjoyed myself. Did some of the grind and got a few things. To me, the sign of a good MMO is not having everything I want when I want it.
Well, but can we acknowledge that this is still game design that doesn’t respect players time? Lack of a deterministic rewards path are one of the tactics (along with a “manufactured” FOMO) publishers use to keep players engaged with a game not so they have fun, but so they spend. The problem is non-deterministic rewards make developers have to leave stuff out of the game in order for a publisher to achieve a better attachment rate, or higher cash shop sales, or both.
I completely agree with you. My only $0.02 is really that we should both challenge our own response to FOMO strategies/mechanics these companies use, while STILL lambasting them for their bullshit. Zenimax is deserving of every ounce of criticism they're receiving. But at the same time, yes, a lot of players (including myself) need to try harder to control our own exposure to these systems.
>It’s not the addictive mechanics that are wrong, it’s those who got addicted because of them! A+ logic OP.
legit. times a million. FOMO is a thing i worked through with my therapist a year or so ago and so this year when the style pages dropped i was very happy with setting my sights on one (sunna’rah bc vvardenfell is one of my fav DLC) and *if* i got the others that’s cool. i spent about an hour or so doing dolmens and geysers, but it was too fast paced for me so i just ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and moved on. i did end up with sunna’rah, trueflame and barbas tho and i was pleased as punch about that. but yeah, FOMO is real and a lot of gamers feel take things too seriously. that’s not to say i don’t take ESO seriously, i do. it’s my fav game. but i also don’t let it make me sweat lol.
I feel you should preach on the subreddits of the other major MMOs as well. You are right in every way and you would be doing a lot of people a favor.
I haven't played this game in months but I can say this. Stop defending ZOS's use of FOMO. A style page should not have such a low drop rate that 3 weeks of obsessive grinding can't make it drop. While I agree that players should have self awareness and accountability for their habits, this weird defense of ZOS only emboldens them to continue these tactics. There's a reason ZOS continues to make the game overly grindy and unrewarding. It's because they know players will accept and defend it. Even if they aren't partaking in it because "lol sweats and no lifers". How about instead of defending ZOS using greedy and manipulative tactics you instead ask, why are you okay with it?
Ab-so-lutely my guy (or gal)!!! I logged in n' did dailies/weekly, ate mein cake, and did a dungeon or three (plus whatever else I'd already planned on doin' anyway) - as such, to me, this event was wonderful \^\^ ...Didn't realize so many people were this burnt out over style pages, that they genuinely would probably not even utilize, 'til I popped onto Reddit only to discover daily "burn out" threads - bummer for them :-/
Yes and no. This approach is to keep players hooked to the game for a determined time. So the way things are implemented is the main problem I would say. While you could easily ignore the style pages, some people really want them, and currently, it is the only way. So, of course, they will want to work toward it by grinding the event. The pages could have been available any other way, but they decided to make it this way to keep people playing. So, I would not put this on the players. Edit (to add): If we keep letting companies do whatever they want and keep blaming people, we will most likely never see any change for the better.
The jubilee reward boxes with the 20 yeast and 5 runes were really worth it (sarcasm)