This is something that I really like about certain games, and I am that kind of guy that don't really want hundreds of people around doing the same thing as me but I do get by in MMOs. I'd rather group together with a bunch of friends in a world where we are the only ones. I played on a private server for WoW with my friends and siblings once and it felt very refreshing to me as well as for them to not worry about other players, do things at our own pace and just have a really great adventure only the five of us.

So my question is, would you like to see the option to rent private instances that only people that you invite can enter?

Discussing having used illegal private servers for any game is usually not a good idea on a games official forum... They get all unhappy about stuff like that.

If there was a large enough market to create paid instances of the server for co-op play....I don't see why they wouldn't except it would negate a large amount of their content, and completely remove Cyrodill from play basically.

It was a long time ago and not for an extended period, I doubt anyone cares what I did more than half a decade back. Anyways. Good advice though thanks.

I think it would fit into their philosophy of playing the game the way you want to play it, if I may take it a step further than just picking your skills and armor. If I don't want to play PvP (cyrodiil) then I won't go to cyrodiil even if it's on a public instance, there's no difference the way I see it.

They have also stated that a lot of the content can be completed with a group of four (or five?) people, a great portion even solo, so I don't think PvE content (except really difficult dungeons) would be neglected.

But it's like you say, the demand is not very high so I doubt they will add it, but it would be nice to discuss the possibility and the cons and pros.

Not really. If everyone rented an instance MY fun would be ruined by the lack of massively in massively multiplayer game

That's an unrealistic assumption I'd say, most people who play MMOs do it to play with a lot of other players in a massive space. I on the other hand (and a very small minority) would love to play ESO, just not with 300 other guys around me, just me and a couple of friends. Mainly because this is the only chance I'd get to play elder scrolls together with a friend and what better option than to rent an instance just for the five of us?

That's another thing that would most likely turn most people off, you would have to pay to rent an instance, I don't think most everyone is ready to do that (or even able to) especially with a sub fee already.

There's no way to test f it is unrealistic or not. I'd rather not try. People are playing the Rust alpha renting servers at $25 a month, and so many people that there's only 2-3 people a server on their upcoming thousand server list. Given the option I find that people will find flaws just to own a server or instance

Two problems:

1) For ESO specifically, a lot of the underlying architecture is made specifically for a couple hundred people to be around you. The system is designed for 200 players, the mega server meticulously arranges the population size, the PvP is designed for large groups, the open world dungeons are (presumably) designed for large groups. And generally a lot of MMOs nowadays have content specifically designed for bigger groups of people.

2) What you're describing is a co-op open world game, if I'm not mistaken. Perhaps specifically look into those titles? Games made specifically for that gameplay are bound to be more fun when played like that, because games are typically much more fun when played the way designers intend them to be played.

Yup, Cyrodiil in particular would be pointless if the game were played that way.

Interesting though, I know about illicit private servers, and also games that officially support running your own server, but I never heard of "renting an instance" on the publisher's servers