I know I
said I planned to play Warcraft III: Reforged this week once it launched
on Tuesday, but… I kinda just played Elder Scrolls Online all week. And
I mean all week. I was sick for most of the week, so work was not really
an option since I was pretty tired and miserable during my awake hours (sick
brain is not conducive to writing; I’ve learned that the hard way) and on
anti-nausea meds that make me ultra-tired anyway. (Still not 100%, so apologies
if any of my writing is nonsensical.)
So, instead,
I played ESO because it made the day suck less when I was awake and I
could concentrate on throwing lightning bolts and defending queens instead of
the horrible nausea and stomach pain. My sudden bout of illness is also why I
did not stream at all this week because I look terrible and none of you are likely
very interested in the hours I spend in silence, crafting items and decorating
my collection of tavern rooms.
At the
beginning of this week, I had one character, Skjorna Wolfheart, a level 19 Nord
Warden, who is basically my self-insert character and makes decisions like I
would; she just wants to explore the world and meet people and craft things. As
of writing this, I have five characters, one of each class (but two of them I
only made yesterday and only spent enough time on them to give them gear, so
they don’t really count, I guess). The other two, I’ve been playing back and
forth this week, as my husband wasn’t able to play with me due to work, and I
didn’t want to level my Warden beyond his character. So I rolled two new ones,
Durgza Kagath, a level 19 Orc Sorcerer who is in it for power and knowledge above
all else, no matter the consequences or the price, and Azriiah, a level 16 Khajiit
Dragonknight, who fights for noble and just causes and puts her alliance and duty
to her people before herself. My other two characters are both level 3; one is
a Dark Elf Nightblade, who delights in subterfuge, revenge, and political
maneuvering, the other is a High Elf Templar, who I can’t quite decide if I
want to be a bleeding heart with a dream of peace, or a super detached neutral
character who works toward the greater good, even if it costs others their
lives. (I don’t have to come up with these personalities, but I like to.
It helps with making decisions in gameplay.)
Anyway, between Durgza and Azriiah,
I played 27 hours in the last three days or so. I know that on Tuesday, I put in at
least 12 hours.
I might like
this game.
So, as per
the title, I unsubscribed to World of Warcraft for the time being because
after playing ESO with my husband and having just so much fun
playing—like… SO MUCH FUN—I realized just how not fun World of
Warcraft had become. WoW turned into a chore. I had to log in and do these
dailies because… reasons that amount to pointless gear grinding… and by the
time I was done, I just felt so drained. The story failed hard this
expansion, and without a compelling story to keep me going, I just didn’t care
to continue. And with my WoW subscription cancelled, I subscribed to ESO+, and
got all of the benefits of extra storage that was my only real complaint about
the game as a non-subscriber. Considering how many hours I’ve put into the
game, and how much I’m enjoying it, $15 a month is a fucking steal, and I even
get in-game currency to spend on my favorite thing of all time: furniture.
Call me a
geek, if you must—you’re not wrong—but I cannot adequately express just how
much joy I get out of decorating my little home spaces in game. This is my
fucking jam. And I can even craft furniture! I can make stuff to put in
my houses! IT’S LIKE THIS GAME WAS MADE FOR ME. I mean, I used to play with house-planning
software when I was a teenager, because I liked building and decorating hypothetical
houses. I get a stupid amount of joy out of placing furniture and artwork just
so, and making a space feel like a home. I am a dork.
Anyway.
I have been
a huge Elder Scrolls fan since Oblivion came out a thousand
fourteen years ago, and as I said in my last post, I put well over a thousand
hours into Oblivion and Skyrim both, and I even picked up Morrowind
for a bit (though I never finished it because of technical hurdles). I have
been hankering for Elder Scrolls VI since I finished playing Skyrim,
and as I said last week, I feared that Elder Scrolls Online just wouldn’t
be able to deliver the same feeling I experienced playing Oblivion and Skyrim,
that it just couldn’t match up.
But it does.
Elder Scrolls Online manages to replicate the feeling of playing one of the
core games, that sense of slipping into a familiar, both beautiful and terrible,
fantasy world where you get to decide what you want your character to be,
this sense of a whole world of people beyond your character, with questlines
that change based on the choices that you make, stories that matter, and
this just awe-inspiring sense of exploration and delving that feels so
characteristic to Elder Scrolls. I am so invested in the stories that
are unfolding as I adventure through these different areas with my characters,
and the flow of gameplay is so smooth with the way quests are handled, pulling
you along what feels like a natural progression through each area. One quest
leads to another, which leads to another, and another, and there’s just such a
sense of story happening as you play.
With my new
characters, I decided to depart Vvardenfell, where my Warden is currently
questing, and chose a different zone for each character so I could do different
quests and get a different story with each one. There are so many zones in this
game, it is absolutely bonkers. And because everything scales to your level,
you don’t have to worry about being too low- or high-level. You can just enjoy
the story and progress your character according to your play style.
So Durgza
was my first new character, and she ended up in Daggerfall, the very characteristically
medieval capital of Glenumbra, and the setting for Elder Scrolls II. The
story of Glenumbra—so far as I’ve seen—is focused around the emergence of werewolves
and blood cultists led by a necromancer, who have sinister plots to conduct,
and a battle between the Wyresses (nature folk) and the blood cultists as they
fight to take control of the land. There is a lot of other stuff going on as
well, but that’s the central plot of the area, as far as I can tell. I am loving
the gothic-werewolf-cultist-necromancer-medieval vibe going on here, and
the stories that revolve around the different characters involved is really
enthralling. As Durgza is a Sorcerer, I’m also looking forward to progressing
in the Mages Guild; I just haven’t made it very far in their questline yet.
With Azriiah, I traveled to Vulkhel Guard in Auridon, one of the Summerset
Isles. It has a very characteristic elven feel to it, but like, if you mixed
elven architecture with a Tudor aesthetic. The story in Auridon so far has been
to support the new queen and leader of the Aldmeri Dominion, Ayrenn, as she
seeks the support of her ancestors to confirm her rule and tries to quash a rebellion
by the Veiled Inheritance, who seek to supplant her with their own “rightful” queen.
In the meantime, there is also an invasion of Sea Elves going on, some disturbed
and corrupted spirits, and a plague. As a Dragonknight, I also started the Fighter’s
Guild questline, and the Dragonguard’s Legacy questline, which leads to a fun archaeological
adventure in trying to find artifacts to fight the invading dragons, while
learning about the failed Dragonguard of old. I had a lot of fun with that one.
I’m having
so much fun with both of these characters, it’s really hard to walk away from the
game. There is just so much to do, and the quests and storylines are so well
done, I don’t want to stop playing.
I’m looking
forward to more adventures in Tamriel to come, and I hope you all enjoy hearing
about my adventures week to week.
Until next
time.
Comments
Post a Comment