ESO's account system is a joke

[d0vahk11n]

Posting here because I don't own the game on Steam (luckily) and so can't leave a public review.

I play this game on PS5. I've accrued maybe 3000-4000 hours over the years. It's been near and dear to me for a long time now, but that was before I looked into the absolutely awful account system.

ESO needs an ESO account to play. Fair enough, they're easy enough to create, you don't really notice it while you play. But a benefit of having an in house account system is that it allows you to keep all of your ESO related information in one place. Now, I've bought every chapter of ESO over on PS4/5. I've been subscribed as a member since 2015. I've had no problems with that on the platform I play on.

But - and this is quite a big 'but' - as soon as I want to do anything on any other platform, it's made forbiddingly expensive to do so. I dread to think how much money I've spent on ESO, but a friend recently mentioned wanting to get back into the game on PC. No problem, I think, I have an ESO account, so I'll just move over to PC for a while. Then I find that you can't transfer characters between console and PC. Alright, that's fine I guess, I'll start a fresh character. Oh, I need to buy another copy of the game on PC? Seems a little... exploitative? I'll look into this further to see what else I should know.

I won't even keep my DLC. I'll have to buy another membership. In fact, if I wanted to play on another PLAYSTATION megaserver, I'd have to buy every single piece of content I have all over again!

So I ask you, dear reader, what exactly is the point in having an external account system at all? If all ESO content is locked very specifically to a single account on a single server on a single platform, why not just do away with the external DRM in the first place.

Zenimax, my dudes, my friends, this is not okay. With the best will in the world, there is no way in hell I'm buying all of my DLC all over again on another platform if I know that it's linked to my ESO account. I would have given you another £15 to play on PC. I'm not giving you hundreds for a game I already own everything for. Effectively, you've lost £15 from this. This is a niche problem and probably >1% of your playerbase will encounter it. But it doesn't make it right.

Addendum: a lot of people in the comments think I'm lamenting the lack of cross-play in ESO, which I'm not (although that would rock, ZOS). The problem I have is that I'm effectively locked into only playing ESO on one single megaserver because of the way the account system (doesn't) work. I would be fine to start a new character on PC if I could take all my DLC with me from PS5. But since I can't do that, I won't be paying Zenimax's entry fee on PC. That's my issue.

[Ashkorne]

This is the way of things. I can't really think of a game that allows you to share accounts across PS5/Xbox and PC.

I think Microsoft's "Xbox Game Pass" is a step in that direction as it allows games on one system to be played on another but other than that? Also I don't know if accounts are shared across those devices as I don't own an Xbox.

As for not being able to share on the same system (NA vs EU) then absolutely yes. I am in full agreement.

Buying stuff while playing on an American megaserver should automatically mean that it's available on the European megaserver. Because you already bought it for that system.

Anything else is just criminal.

[d0vahk11n]

I take the point, but what I'm trying to get across is that the ESO account system doesn't really seem to serve any real purpose. The existence of a third party account system implies some level of interaction between ESO on various platforms. What exactly is the point in building a third party DRM if everything is so strongly segregated between platforms and servers?

[Arock]

You've been playing since 2015 and you didn't know it wasn't cross-platform?

[d0vahk11n]

Originally posted by Arock:

You've been playing since 2015 and you didn't know it wasn't cross-platform?

That isn't what I said. I said that I bought DLC for an online game which comes with a third party DRM that allows me to link both my PSN and my Steam accounts, which implies some kind of shared progress or entitlement system. Instead, if I want to hop over to PC I have to invest a monstrous sum of money all over again to enjoy the same content on the same account, rather than just the entry fee.

[AmaiAmai]

I don't know of any cross platform game that behaves the same as ESO with multi-platform. I could be wrong, but then again I consider a lot of games trash so maybe that's why I don't know of any other one!

[Ashkorne]

Originally posted by d0vahk11n:

Instead, if I want to hop over to PC I have to invest a monstrous sum of money all over again to enjoy the same content on the same account, rather than just the entry fee.

The same would be if you wanted to go from Playstation to Xbox.

The servers are all completely different and are in no way even remotely connected. Hell, they're not even updated at the same rate. Consoles usually take weeks longer to get updates as their own console manufacturers need to run their own certification checks too.

[Andrey]

Originally posted by d0vahk11n:

but what I'm trying to get across is that the ESO account system doesn't really seem to serve any real purpose.

There is a lot of data related to your characters, collections, achievements, ingame purchases. This data has to be stored somewhere. Steam doesnt store anything for you exceps single-player saves and steam-related data. So any MMO stores and processes this data on their servers. Ans this is your ingame account - all your data on the game servers. They could use steam account as a ticket to ingame account and they do - you can launch the game without using login and password. Login and password still exist but probably for additional safety of your account... or i dont know why.
This data is not shared between different platforms, yes. Maybe there is some technical difficulties for cross-platform play? Game is rather old but crossplatform gaming is something relatively new. For example Warframe added it only recently.

[Andrey]

I just read: Warframe supports cross-play but not cross-save / cross-progression. Maybe commercial reasons? Platforms spend money on marketing and they don't want us to leave after they were able to catch us (although Steam doesn't care).

[All muted enthusiast]

I think your problem is more about hardware companies. They should allow complete crossplay first. Microsoft and sony take a big cut from game's price.
ESO devs suck but this one is not on them.

[ZenRen]

I have a related question, guys. I'm thinking of returning to ESO after several years. I have the game on PC but my friends want to play on PS5. I don't care about my characters, items, DLCs etc.. I just want to start afresh. Do I still need to re-buy the game? Thanks.

[Nephritho]

Originally posted by Genera|:

I have a related question, guys. I'm thinking of returning to ESO after several years. I have the game on PC but my friends want to play on PS5. I don't care about my characters, items, DLCs etc.. I just want to start afresh. Do I still need to re-buy the game? Thanks.

yes you do.

[Janmarqu Chato]

OP, you wrote '>1%', which is read as 'greater than one percent'; however, judging from context, I think you meant '<1%', which is read as 'less than one percent'. Please forgive me if I'm the one who's mistaken, math isn't my strong suit...

[d0vahk11n]

Originally posted by Janmarqu:

OP, you wrote '>1%', which is read as 'greater than one percent'; however, judging from context, I think you meant '<1%', which is read as 'less than one percent'. Please forgive me if I'm the one who's mistaken, math isn't my strong suit...

You're right, my bad

[Holyrapture]

Originally posted by Andrey:

I just read: Warframe supports cross-play but not cross-save / cross-progression. Maybe commercial reasons? Platforms spend money on marketing and they don't want us to leave after they were able to catch us (although Steam doesn't care).

Warframe which is older than eso now fully supports cross play and save. ESO is lazy and only cares about the money. Hence the monthly membership they try and force on people

[Flyingarrow]

Omg cry me a river, the game was never marketed a crossplay.

It’s the same for a vest majority of multiplayer games of all genres.