I see the "I was bored" a lot in the context of MMOs. Perhaps we should discuss what we find boring and what TESO can do to keep it interesting for us. Everyone's taste differs, so "fun" and "boring" are subjective.

Thoughts?

Variation, exploration, big battles in pvp and pve, crafting expensive items are all fun for me. Daily quests, repetitive end game bosses are very boring for me.

It is really tough, some people aren't as easily bored as others. Some people play for relaxation, some for entertainment, some for a sense of accomplishment, some for a challenge.

One thing that bores me about some games and I think ESO will avoid, is the mindless queuing of abilities for every encounter. If I am going to do the same routine every fight can I just add a script that does it for me, I mean really?

You should need to adapt your strategies and abilities and even gear for different encounters.

Other games have done different methods, controlling attack and defense locations for instance. That added a bit of interest.

Another thing, is the feeling you really aren't progressing, you are just switching out one monster type for another and rehashing the same quests.

Monster AI, this should be in accordance with the monster type. If I attack some bugs, I am ok with them charging in with no strategy. If I attack some soldiers, and I start winning decisively, I expect some to run and get help. I expect archers to try to keep a distance.

This is a very good question, and certainly tough to answer.

I have been bored by a great many MMOs, but I think another element isn't just "boredom" but "tedium."

Usually, in most MMOs you reach max level and while there are still "things to do" they usually become a grindy, repetitive treadmill. From raiding, to PvP to crafting, it all gets old.

Some MMOs, the grindy repetitive treadmill is all there is.

I think one thing ESO is doing that will help alleviate end-game boredom is the combination of skills progressing beyond level cap and the ability to continue questing in 50+ and 50++ zones. This will create a large buffer between level cap and end-game grind.

The other, more obvious element is the AvA however, despite the dynamic in place, this will eventually get stale for the majority of players. Took me about 6 months of DAOC to get bored of it. It eventually becomes a repetitive grind like most other end-game activities.

I doubt these elements will stave off boredom forever, but they'll certainly do so for some time.

Lastly, for me, it all depends on the strength of the RP community. SWG was a flawed and grindy game, no one can deny that, (despite it being my favorite MMO of all time) but it remained highly enjoyable because of the RP tools and incredibly robust RP community that went along with it. If I was in any way interested in LOTR as a franchise, I would surely have spent all my time in LOTRO due to that same fact. This is what I believe will keep people in game longer than any other factor.

For me, boredom from MMOs comes from boring quests, repetitive quests, lack of reasons for quest, and grouping of quest givers. I have never had a quest giver that wasn't stationary, usually in a town or grouped setting with several other quest givers. I want to go exploring and stumble upon the naked Nord who was tricked by a witch, or while walking around a pond, get flagged down by a woman who lost her ring in the pond, "can you go get it please and thank you". I want a game that feels alive. TES has always provided that and I expect they will here too.

I also dislike the cartoony graphics of the MMOs I have tried. If I want cartoonish graphics, I'll go play pirates 101 with my nephews. I want good graphics, that make the world feel alive.

I want choices that matter in a quest. If I chose to kill a certain target to complete the quest, maybe I won't get the backstory on a ring I found that they would have given me later in the game if I had let them live. I want to feel like I am part of the society in the game.

Overall, I guess I want a game that is brought to life through quests, graphics, choices, and interactions.

All of the above are for me as a single player, not a socialite.

As for the social aspect of it, I would like to see lore-ish names on other players, not xxL33TG4M3Rxx. I would like to join with guilds that share values, interests and playstyles I enjoy. I don't know that I would like voice chat in games, as it would get too noisy with everyone talking over each other.

TL;DR Overall, I guess I want a game that is brought to life through quests, graphics, choices, and interactions.

Many of us create the "I'm bored" problem ourselves. I know in the past that I've raced to max level only to raid the same mobs over and over every night. The content is there at lower levels, but many of us just race by it.

Having other areas become available once we hit max level will some some of this. Great teamwork PvP and strategy discussions will solve other parts. But, without unlimited end-game content, we're always going to be a little bored.

I'm leveling a new character in wow as we speak and honestly what makes it boring in that game is the quests are sooo repetitive and similar from zone to zone. Hopefully eso'S Questing will be more diverse and interw sting. Leviling and questing should be fun. There just needs to be diverse and meeningful questa

Well IMO what make a MMO boring is the lack of high level content, because let's all be very honest here, nobody ever got bored of leveling, maybe you got tired of leveling but never got ''bored'' (exept if the leveling phase really svck) because when you level your character, there's always something to do AND A GOAL TO REACH (please anyone from ZOS read what i'm about to write (wich is already wrote when you'll read this, funny right ?) because i think a lot of people will agree with me).

The point where any MMO gets ''boring'' IMO is when you reach that ''there's nothing else YOU CAN DO bar'' some people reach it earlier than others, some people just never reach that bar and that's what i'm gonna explain. There's 4 kind of people in MMOs ; (even if i'm gonna be ironic in some of the next sentences, this actually is almost 90% accurate from what i've experienced in the last 9 years playing MMOs)

The 1st kind ''Casual player'' : This is the kind of people that will log in a lot when the game will be release, it's also the ones that will stop playing first. Those people usually can't play video games a lot because the have a social life (how scary does that sound ?) and usually don't want to spent all their gaming time on the same game because what they're doing feels a lot repetitive, they'll never see the difference between Quest A and Quest B, or dongeon A and dongeon B, or Monster A and Monster B, because even if the environnement feels or is totally different, the casual player always feel like he's doing the same thing with that character. So how or when a ''Casual player'' reach that ''boring bar'' ? usually in a MMO there's three possibility :

Possibility number 1 : He'll never EVER hit level max with a character, he'll always be creating a new one because he's a ''new gameplay'' junkie. he'll try every possibilities of characters for a while until he reach that boring bar and stop to play.

Possibility number 2 : He'll reach level max after many hours telling himself that lvl 50 is a brand new world full of fantasy and promises, that he will see god revealing him the right path to take, to reach all those raids waiting for him. Until he realise life's a [censored] and there's no decent PvE guild that wants to recruit him because he doesn't have the ''required disponibility'' to raid with them, so he'll be stuck in a casual guild stuck in the same raid forever and he'll eventually reach that boring bar and stop to play.

Possibility number 3 : Reach level 50, life's a [censored], i can't PvE, i'll just go PvP in cyrodiil, and then he'll see, for himself, that he was wrong, oh. He was soooo wrong, what was he thinking. He can't PvP. All those freaking nolifes full gear are one shoting him over and over again this is not even fun! Screw this, I can't PvE, and i can't PvP. Better go play league of legends a new champions has been release ! Or different scenario, PvP is also very repetitive, screw this, better go play dota 2, nothing new has been release !

So casual players are usually ''new gameplay junkies'' that always wants to see new content and if you can't give them that, most of them will leave sooner or later.
What can you do to fix it : Honestly, not much, those guys are doom, But the good news is, they'll always come back a few patch later to see all these new things you did! Until they quit again... OR different scenario, hire some people to kill their wives/girlfriends (sounds a bit dramatic, but hey, you know it was for his own good, right ? RIGHT ?!)

2nd Kind ''Averages players''

Theses are most of the time the ancient casual players whose realised how blind they've been to have a social life (actually they've barely switch their facebook status from ''in a relationship to [censored] that B!$"ch, or convinced their girlfriend to start playing that MMO with them), now they can finally enter a decent guild and raid!... or they're helping their girlfriend leveling her character and having savage six on the computer desk (awesome). There's actually 4 possibilities to those Averages players :

Possibility 1 : Their girlfriend doesn't like that ''stupid'' game at all, so they'll just dumb that b!"$ch and go to possibility 2, or going back to the ''casual player'' category.

Possibility 2 : They reach level max, enter a good guild, having fun for a while, clear all the patch content and get bore, but not bore enough to reach the ''bore bar'', they'll spend
90% of their time jumping around in stormwind or orgrimmar, 9% or the time in raids to help the ungeared one getting ready for that ZOMFG next patch coming and 1% of their time, farming/PvP (some may choose sinced they realised how much time they're wasting in stormwind/orgrimaar to start to play a lot of PvP), these players usually doesn't realise how even more doom than a casual player they are, because as long as you'll annonce a next patch is coming, they'll stay stuck into that game until they realise how deeply nolife they became, (true story)

Possibility 3 : A lot like possibility 2, but here our average player is a PvP fan, but he'll get bore soon enough since PvP will eventually feels so [censored] repetitive (sooner or later) to him, so if there's no new PvP patch incoming, they'll think about join a PvE guild or quit the game for a new PvP game that sounds promising, which will not be.

Possibility 4 : They realise how their ex was just a dumb B!"/$ch and will return by themselves to the ''casual player'' category

So averages players are just the old casuals with more gaming time, enough to become addict to any games. Most of the time they'll become addict to a MMO because it is the closiest thing they have of a social life. Their guildmates becomes their new friends, and they'll fall deeply in love with that girl he never seen.. (lame)

How to you stop them from reaching the ''boring MMO bar'' ? Simple, actually since they've nothing to do, at all, you barely need to do.. nothing either. Averages players are doom, but hey, money is money right ?


3rd Kind ''hardcoe players''

Theses are the Average players that decides to never EVER quit, thoses guys are lost, forever, or until a 15years therapy. They have the biggiest ego of mankind history, will never admit once they were wrong, will clear all that new patch content the same day it's release and they'll never talk to a random guy from a medium guild because ''BWEEWW GET AWAY! I DON'T WANT YOU TO GIVE ME YOUR NOOBISHNESS'' actually hardcoe players are the MMOs [censored] bags. (and most of the time they lost all their IRL friends because, let's be honest, when they told him he had a world of warcraft problem, they were just jealous because his lv80 gnome mage was so much better than all their characters.)

So when does a hardcoe player reach the ''bore bar'' ? There's only 2 possibility

Possibility 1 : After severals years, loyal to your game and only yours, they just choose to step foward after creating a tomb where you can see R.I.P Linage II 1990-2010 and put it on their wall.

Possibility 2 : your game isn't even close to a challenge when you compare it to this brand new MMO coming in the next months (lol) the community svcks (lolol) and seriously without me my guild is nothing so i just don't care (lololol) so i'm done here.

How do you avoid that : create some BARELY possible dongeons/raids to do, so they may have to try it out few days before clearing it but hey, at least they're gonna have this challenge they are so asking for.


4th kind of player (which i beleive i'm in) ''Fanatic player''

The fanatic playesr seen everything, did everything and seriously, hope to see something BRAND NEW. They went through all categories, from casual to average to hardcoe and maybe went back to average then casual to come back to hardcoe over and over. They are playing video games since they're able to move their fingers, and dont plan to stop until the next 40years. These guys can reach the ''bore bare'' quick as hell or simply never ever reaching it. It all depends on the game.

Possibility 1 : The game CLEARLY didn't reach their expectations. the leveling part is same old same old, and some just reach their ''bore bar'' at level 15.

Possibility 2 : The game doesn't seems to bring any new content in the leveling phase, so they'll just exploit any glitch possible, look all the possibilities to gain XP, do the maths and take te quickiest to hit level cap. Once did, they'll judge the game on his late game content ; PvE, PvP but also farming, achievements, exploration, questing etc. If the game doesn't bring enough to keep them busy, they'll be gone in week, or two if you're lucky.

How do you avoid that ;
Leveling phase : Making sure it is FUN, no one care it take freaking 10years to hit level cap, if it's fun, they'll keep player (look dofus for exemple, i don't beleive it is fun, but some clearly does)
Late game content, and here is the MOST IMPORTANT in a game : the late game phase should bring to all kind of player what they wish for.
PvE : Casuals wish to explore all raids that'll bring some kind of new gameplay in the game, hardcoe players wants a big challenge. Make some raids that won't required outrageous gaming time for casual but will bring challenge to hardcoes one, and a special reward for them that will succeed something outrageously hard, best exemple i've here is World of Warcraft WotLK Sartharion 3 adds.
PvP : DO NOT [censored] MAKE ESO A GEAR OVER SKILL GAME. That would be the WORST thing you could possibly do. Sure gear should bring an advantage, but just, don't make it too big so a skill player may be able to kill a geared one if he clearly is better than him. Also, I personnally beleive that PvP only in Cyrodiil, is kinda like a big mistake, not saying it is a bad idea thought. You should think about being able to modify the map where the keep and tower and castle and whatever are so that the strategies changes. Maybe also change the way you become an emperor, like sometime it is team deathmatch, others times dominions, so that the players won't feel they are doing the same thing over and over.
But the most important thing any people should do IMO with an MMO is : Create some goals for players to reach, some that will make them proud of, allowing them to brag over others, and i'm not talking about do that dongeon in heroic mode or win 100times this kind of battlesgrounds, screw that [censored]. Make a title system and MAYBE a leaderboard, for PvP, PvE, Crafting, Exploration, Even Gold farming. And create titles that evolves with the caracters, so whatever the kind of ''path'' the player choose, if he clearly is good in let's say crafting swords, and his caracters created 100 time the most powerfull sword in the game, well his title ''weaponsmith'' would evolved into ''Artisan'' and then to ''War Crafter'' and then to ''Artisan of War'' etc etc. I beleive that would be the kinds of things a lot of people wish to see in TESO. I certainly do.

Tedium of doing things over and over is hard to avoid, but the thing I hate is the feeling of being left out. 4 man dungeons and such worry me because what happens if 5 people want to do something? Well, one person is left out and that svcks. And when that 4-man group is formed, they will do things together, and if 3 more people aren't available or wanting to do something well that 5th is SOL. It's happened to me a lot in games mainly because I tend to like characters that aren't necessarily vital to a team. I'm not much of a melee character so tankage isn't my thing. I don't mind healing, but in ESO pretty much everyone has access to it and I'm not sure how enjoyable a dedicated healer would be in the game-- no one really is till they play one-- but it tends not to be very exciting from past game experience. I had been playing RIFT but haven't logged in for a few weeks because the people who do experts are pricks and my guild just tends to form a group and I usually get left out of that... I could find a new guild, sure, but... being the newbie in any guild doesn't really help get you a spot among people who already have their circle of friends.

I've never enjoyed leveling in MMO's. Utterly boring tbh. The only times I've had any fun was in group content which no one else seems to enjoy. Everyone would rather "quest" through fetch/kill/loot quests than a challenging group dungeon etc (meaning that any content that I enjoy would have long queue lines and be too frustrating to bother with). Funny that you would consider me a casual gamer as I am anything but, yet I'm the type that will play a lot at first then just quit because MMO's bore me to tears.

Tedium. MMO's are the Masters of Mundane tasks Online. It is a genre that needs to be made accessible. Mindless grinding through generic content with no deep or complex and interesting mechanics or character development. They are games for casual players- and I don't mean that is necessarily a bad thing... they can be a change of pace from my usual complex and demanding strategy games, just not something I would dedicate myself to for a monthly fee lol . I just mean to say that I don't see MMO's as being for the truly "hardcoe" gamer.

Maybe this time it will be different? How can TESO avoid the boredom and still remain accessible? No idea.

The developer needs to understand that not everyone logs in just to PvE or PvP, there needs to be a ton of other mini games that are games within the game, like the duty officer system in Star Trek Online, or the Diplomacy skill in Vanguard Saga of Heroes, mini games like that keep people interested. The crafting also has to be so extensive that it never ends, you are always trying to get better and better at any craft in the game it can not be as simplistic as most MMO crafting is, there must always be more things to discover and more things to strive for...

Another aspect all MMO developers seem to leave out of the mix is a dynamic event live team. I don't understand why they can not hire people to bring dynamic content to their MMO a team of professionals who play the game with the players and create dynamic content that is open ended enough so that player actions determine how the story unfolds and Paul Sage would know all about this type of content because Ultima Online had this in it with the volunteer program it had and specifically the Seer part of that program...

Eliminate the downtime between content with world events, no im not asking for HUGE boss fights and predictable "rifts' opening... just random things that happen on a daily basis between expansions or patches to keep players involved in the story with goals and rewards that will make it worth our while,

I can't really say anything for the "PvE only" players, but the AvA will solve alot of boredom issues if its done well for alot of people. If they're smart enough to stagger the PvE content and let AvA be the perfect filler between content updates, it'll work out perfectly. But as far as "I don't PvP" people go...Well, if you refuse to enjoy all aspects of a game, then you're naturally limiting yourself and that's not really the developers fault.

I have actually never really encountered this. I routinely create additional characters in MMOs because there is so little lower level content, and it is almost always better than the end-game tripe, and the only way I can really enjoy it is to be level appropriate for it. Just playing through it at a normal pace causes it to fly by in a lot of games, because they are tuned to dump people into the end game morass, and keep them relogging every day for the same serving of the same old garbage in hopes of some reward that will be superseded in 3-4 months by the next set of gear.

I did not PvP in Ultima Online or in Star Wars Galaxies, yet I never got bored. Because those games granted me and those with similar playstyles a way to serve a purpose beyond just combat, whether said combat was pve or pvp. Because the davs of both of those games (Raph Koster, specifically) dared ask the question, "What about the people who don't like to fight everything that moves all the time?"

What developer these days has the balls to dare to ask that question, let alone actually attempt to answer it? ZOS, I hope.

Side mini games and bunch of RP features...

An MMO doesn't always have to be just Raids, Dungeons, PvP and Dailies. I think that's why people get bored, doing the same thing in every MMO, there's rarely ever anything new or different.

Ah yes, dancers and doctors and diplomats and merchants! All things sadly lacking in ESO but were all very cool. Sure you could just make a buff-bot alt if you were boring but the best dancers and doctors didn't afk macro and were there to interact with their customers. *sigh* I'm not sure we'll ever see those days again...

...unless you play the swgemu like me...

Yep... I ran a business in SWG. I supplied energy to industrialists who wanted to be able to plunk down another factory instead of a generator. I didn't even really do much in the way of crafting. O made one 10% contribution to the city I was a citizen of, and it paid for ALL of their expenses with a significant chunk of change left over. Before the NGE, that city was at metropolis level, and there was a limit on how many of those there could be on a server. After the NGE, which made me rage quit for a while, when I came back to pick up the pieces, the entire city was GONE. My building was the only one left. A game never made me feel tears welling up in my eyes before. But the though of that many people who had come together and played hard together to build something bigger than anything that they could build on their own were driven away by the stupidity of some corporate suits who did not understand what they had and had no clue how to leverage it... It was never the same after that.

Amazing. Yeah I came back at the end of the NGE to see it off in its last year. After a lot of modding it almost felt like the old SWG.

I was never one of those players though, I just appreciate the ability for people to thrive like that if they so choose. I was a commando but I spent a lot of my time as one of two bodyguards/thugs/bruisers of the biggest and most popular arms dealer on our server. It was fantastic that I could be gainfully employed by another player in the game to make sure deals went smoothly and people paid up what they owed...it was like being a mafia enforcer, it was incredible. Then I joined the Imperial military and became a Darktrooper. That was pretty incredible too. I became an ACE TIE pilot when JTL came out and then retired (got an image designer to make me look like an old man) went Master BH/Rifleman and became a grouchy hermit in a duster with an Elite King Tusken Rifle on my lap.

Anyway, got me all nostalgic...I really wish developers would use some of those elements to create their games now, even their Theme Parks. They make the world feel so much more alive and engaging and not like a thinly veiled facade...oh well.

Stuff like this is exactly what most MMO's seem to be lacking.

What I really think TESO needs to do, is to not try to make the game all about combat. Players should be able to have fun in the game simply hanging out in town or partaking in activities, such as fishing. I did see fishing in a gameplay video, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will actually be fun to do.