Info about The Elder Scrolls Online - Elsweyr:

Official game description:
Collector's Edition
===================
The Digital Collector’s Edition includes exclusive bonus content:  
*   Digital Collector's Edition content:  
*   Exclusive Mount: Senche-Raht  
*   Exclusive Pet: Ashen Scar Jerboa  
*   Emote Pack: Khajiiti Cultural Pack  
*   Exclusive Outfit Style Conversions: Dragonbone Style  
*   Exclusive Memento: Archaic Lore Tablets
About the Game
==============
Dragons return to Tamriel in The Elder Scrolls Online: Elsweyr, part of the Season of the Dragon year-long adventure! Explore the savannahs and canyons of Elsweyr, defend the home of the Khajiit from an ancient evil, and command the undead with the Necromancer class.  
*   VENTURE TO ELSWEYR  
    Explore the Khajiit homeland; a land ravaged by warfare.  
*   DEFEND AGAINST DRAGONS  
    Scaled terror attacks from the skies! Seek new allies and weapons to take them down.  
*   A YEAR-LONG EPIC TALE  
    ESO reaches new storytelling heights with a war against Dragons told across a Chapter and three DLC game packs.  
*   WIELD THE POWER OF NECROMANCY  
    Master control over life and death with a character class that channels the undead.

Release date: May 21, 2019

Categories: MMO, Open-World Exploration, Story-driven Gameplay, Role-playing, Class-based Gameplay, PvP, Dungeon Crawler, Dragon Combat

Feature scans:
- MTX: score 75; verdict: Aggressive Monetization; summary: User reviews for this ESO DLC reveal significant concerns about monetization: real-money loot crates (gacha), premium currency obfuscation (gems), and content deliberately split and sold separately via the cash shop. While a minority claim no pay-to-win, the evidence of predatory mechanics like random loot boxes and confusing currency systems leads to a high score.

- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price:
  - Community fair range: $10.00 - $20.00
  - Reasoning: The reviews predominantly criticize the $40 price tag as excessive for the content provided, with multiple users suggesting $20 or even $10 as more appropriate. While some dedicated players find value at full price, the general sentiment indicates that a fair base price for this chapter (treated here as the base-game equivalent) falls between $10 and $20.
- Playtime Metrics:
  - Game completion: 20.0h
  - Story completion: 10.0h
  - Session length: N/A
  - Endgame: N/A
  - Reasoning: The evidence shows conflicting playtime reports. For story/campaign completion, multiple reviews indicate 8-12 hours for non-hardcore players (e.g., 8-10 hours from one review, 10-12 hours from another). The 24-hour claim likely includes side quests and is less consistent with others, so a typical story completion time of 10 hours is chosen. For game completion (all quests and activities), reviews report 20 hours of gameplay or over 30 quest hours, with 30 hours being the higher bound; 20 hours is taken as a conservative typical value. Session length and endgame hours lack explicit numeric evidence, so they are set to null.
- Time-to-fun:
  - Summary: Players report immediate fun in solo play, but early game can be rough with bugs, boring abilities, and heavy grind; fun is enhanced with friends but no clear time-to-fun anchor is identified.
  - Stance: Fun immediately
  - Anchor: N/A
  - Time to anchor: N/A
  - Friction: Bugs and glitches at start; Boring or bad abilities; Grindy guild reputation and research system; Countless map objectives for collectors
  - Unlock drivers: N/A
  - Conditions: Solo play; Co-op with friends; Being a fan of the series; Focusing on aesthetics
- Player Archetypes:
  - Hardcore PvE Trial Runner (buy)
    - Motivation: Obtaining best-in-slot gear and completing the hardest achievements in Trials (Hardmode, Speedrun, No Death)
    - Playstyle: Optimizes builds and rotations, farms Trials for BiS loot, and pursues challenging group PvE content with a coordinated team.
    - Experience: veteran
    - Purchase stance: buy
    - Labels: hardcore PvE player; trial runner; endgame raider
    - Reference games: World of Warcraft; Elder Scrolls Online
  - Solo PvE Explorer (sale)
    - Motivation: Exploring the beautiful world of Elsweyr, experiencing the story and lore, and enjoying solo-friendly content.
    - Playstyle: Takes a slow pace, does quests, explores zones, avoids heavy group content, and appreciates scenery and story.
    - Experience: familiar
    - Purchase stance: sale
    - Labels: solo player; Elder Scrolls fan; explorer
    - Reference games: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim; Elder Scrolls Online
  - PvP Competitor (sale)
    - Motivation: Competitive PvP in Cyrodiil and Battlegrounds with class builds and faction mechanics.
    - Playstyle: Engages in large-scale and small-scale PvP, focused on class balance, faction coordination, and optimizing for competitive play.
    - Experience: veteran
    - Purchase stance: sale
    - Labels: PvP player; hardcore PvPer
    - Reference games: Elder Scrolls Online


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Story and quests are engaging (weight 0.58): The Elsweyr storyline, main quest, and side quests are noted as interesting, solid, and non-tedious, with engaging narratives and meaningful objectives.
- Lore and worldbuilding are excellent (weight 0.23): The expansion deepens Khajiiti lore and history, with deep and interesting storytelling that enriches the Elder Scrolls universe.

Common complaints:
- Overpriced for value delivered (weight 0.95): Many players consider the $40 price tag too high for the amount of content provided. They feel it's not worth the money compared to the base game or previous expansions, and suggest a price of $10 to $20 would be more appropriate.
- Incomplete Elsweyr zone content (weight 0.66): Only the northern part of Elsweyr (Anequina) is included, not the full province. The map is small and the southern part is expected to be a separate paid DLC, which feels misleading and incomplete.
- Necromancer class lacks uniqueness (weight 0.61): The Necromancer class is often described as just a reskin of the mage class, with boring abilities and lacking a dark or sinister feel. It does not fulfill the fantasy of a proper necromancer.
- Bugs, crashes, and performance issues (weight 0.53): Players experience game crashes when entering DLC areas, login issues, animation glitches, lag after patches, and many bugs including quest-breaking ones. Support is unhelpful and bugs remain unfixed.
- Lack of language localization (weight 0.5): The game lacks support for Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese, Polish, and other languages. This creates a language barrier for non-English speakers, affecting gameplay and community engagement.
- Insufficient content and short story (weight 0.49): The expansion offers minimal content, with a main story that can be completed in 2-3 days and few side quests. Overall it feels small and not worth the price.
- Aggressive monetization and DLC model (weight 0.46): The game is criticized for excessive monetization including high DLC prices, expensive crowns, a pushed ESO Plus subscription, and locking quality of life features behind paywalls. Many items should be obtainable in-game.
- Poor experience for new and casual players (weight 0.41): Dynamic leveling ruins the new player experience, enemy scaling feels punishing, combat rotations are unfriendly to casuals, and there is little guidance. The game feels overwhelming and uninviting.
- Misleading upgrade and edition policies (weight 0.32): The Elsweyr upgrade does not include previous chapters (Morrowind, Summerset) for existing base game owners, and the Standard Edition is a trap that requires additional purchases. The naming is confusing and feels deceptive.
- Small map and navigation difficulties (weight 0.32): The map is smaller than previous expansions, with confusing canyons and valleys that frustrate movement. Much of the area is mountainous and feels empty.
- No new mechanics or innovation (weight 0.31): The update introduces no new game mechanics and feels like more of the same content with a different coat of paint. It does not revolutionize the genre or add fresh gameplay.
- Inferior to previous expansions (weight 0.3): Players compare Elsweyr unfavorably to Summerset and Morrowind, noting it offers less content, a smaller map, and higher price. It is considered a step back in quality.
- PvP and class balance issues (weight 0.28): Large group PvP is buggy and unplayable above 30 players, battleground matchmaking is unfair, and classes have been homogenized. Balance changes feel random and poorly directed.
- Necromancer class buggy and unbalanced (weight 0.26): The Necromancer class suffers from sustain problems, bugs at launch, and is considered weak in PvP. There is doubt it will be buffed, and its performance is not superior to other classes.
- Disappointing overall value for Chinese players (weight 0.23): Chinese players face additional barriers such as need for VPN, lack of language support, few Chinese guilds, and an unfriendly network environment. The price is especially high for the CIS region.
- Refund and support problems (weight 0.19): Steam refused refunds because hours from the main game counted toward playtime. Customer support is unresponsive, and technical issues (e.g., no ARM Mac support) are not addressed.
- Endgame and gear power creep (weight 0.19): New trial gear is overpowered and dominates older sets, creating a power creep. Trials are less rewarding in farming mode, and optimal builds are limited.
- Missing features and quality of life (weight 0.19): The game lacks features like a one-key gear swap and has annoying mechanics like long research times and limited inventory space unless subscribing. Housing lacks windows and furniture system is tedious.

Gameplay feedback:
- Dragon world events (weight 0.67): Dragons appear as world events, replacing dolmens, and require large groups of players to defeat. Their mechanics include flying, landing at predetermined spots, AoE attacks, and summoning flam atronachs, involving up to 50 players.
- Necromancer class introduction (weight 0.61): The Necromancer class is a major new addition in Elsweyr, available from the start and offering versatile roles including damage, healing, and tanking with stamina or magicka morphs. It features unique abilities such as summoning exploding skeletons and timed minion summons.
- Content variety and structure (weight 0.52): The expansion offers a mix of PvE and PvP content including new dungeons, trials (Sunspire), world bosses, public dungeons, battlegrounds, and large-scale PvP campaigns with alliance lock.
- Elsweyr region exploration (weight 0.51): The Elsweyr expansion covers Northern Elsweyr, featuring a large map with deserts, valleys, high ground, monkeys, leopards, butterflies, springs, and old structures. It includes quests, events, and new locations such as Sunspire.
- Class system flexibility (weight 0.39): The class system allows any build with six classes, skill bar swapping, and flexibility in role assignment. Necromancer supplements this with stamina/magicka morphs.
- Quest design and writing (weight 0.36): Quest design is praised for providing reasons, persistent world changes, and choices that affect outcomes. The writing is noted, and a plot twist ties back to the base game's main mission.
- Dragon hunting mechanics (weight 0.32): Dragon fights are public events where dragons fly and land in predetermined spots, requiring group coordination. Dragon reagents can be sold on the auction house.
- Trial and dungeon content (weight 0.31): Sunspire trial for 12 players and vet dungeons are part of the content. World bosses vary in difficulty, and there are new 12-man trials and dungeon sets.
- Voice acting and customization (weight 0.27): All dialogues are voice acted, and customization options include vampires and werewolves. Different types of khajiit are included, such as the non-playable Alfiq.
- Map size and design (weight 0.26): Players note that maps are huge, with some describing them as giant. The design includes vertical elements but also mentions of flat terrain and small cities.
- New housing and rewards (weight 0.26): Players can earn a free house after completing quests, and an evolving house is also included. Housing system offers customization options.
- Player perspective and lore (weight 0.22): Players appreciate that the game treats the Vestige as a normal citizen rather than a Dragonborn, providing a unique non-Dragonborn perspective on dragon encounters.
- Daily rewards and PvP incentives (weight 0.21): Daily first-time PvE dungeon and PvP rewards are considered better than story rewards. Mount riding skills require daily upgrades, and there is a guild search feature.
- Addons and UI features (weight 0.2): Addons are supported (e.g., inventory grid addons). The skill bar has 12 slots including two ultimate slots. There is no one-click gear swap in large-scale PvP.
- One Tamriel level scaling (weight 0.19): One Tamriel's level scaling allows players to freely roam and explore any zone regardless of level, enhancing the open-world experience.
- MMO with single-player roots (weight 0.18): The Elder Scrolls Online is an MMO that retains elements from the single-player franchise, such as exploration and quest choices, while adding group content.
- Crown store and subscription (weight 0.17): The subscription offers unlimited material bag and crown coins. Race change tokens, skyshards, and other items are purchasable in the Crown Store.
- Farming and crafting (weight 0.17): Farming and crafting options are available, including the ability to collect dragon reagents for sale. There are also new sets like a magicka equivalent of Draugr Hulk.
- Non-combat and combat pets (weight 0.16): Non-combat pets are available, but only Sorcerers and Wardens can summon combat pets. The Necromancer's skeleton ability includes sprint, leap, and explode.

Performance notes:
- Post-update login failures (weight 0.09): The game is reported to crash or fail to log in after updates, indicating potential compatibility or patching issues that block access to the game entirely.
- DLC area crashes (weight 0.09): Players experience crashes specifically when entering DLC areas, suggesting that these new zones have instability or resource loading problems that break the game.
- Group PvP freezes and disconnects (weight 0.09): Large group PvP battles cause freezes and random disconnections, pointing to optimization failures in handling high player counts and combat effects.
- Dragon hunt lag from crowding (weight 0.08): Dragon hunts create lag due to the mob of players participating, indicating that large-scale events overwhelm the server or client performance.

Recommendations:
- Worth buying overall (weight 0.28): A subset of reviewers find the expansion worth purchasing, stating it is definitely worth the money. They consider it a worthwhile addition for regular players.
- Recommended for Elder Scrolls fans (weight 0.27): Multiple reviews recommend this DLC for fans of the Elder Scrolls franchise, ESO, and RPGs. The content appeals specifically to those who enjoy the series.
- Buy on sale or via ESO Plus (weight 0.23): Many suggest buying on sale or using ESO Plus to unlock the DLC, especially if undecided. On sale, it is considered a great deal.
- Do not buy this DLC (weight 0.21): A number of reviews strongly advise against purchasing this DLC, calling it a waste of money and time. They recommend avoiding it entirely.
- Must-play for dragon fans (weight 0.18): Some reviews highlight the expansion as essential for players who miss dragons from previous Elder Scrolls games, particularly TES5. It is recommended for dragon enthusiasts.
- Buy only for Necromancer class (weight 0.18): Several reviews indicate the expansion is only worth buying for the Necromancer class or the Sunspire trial. It is not a must-buy otherwise.
- Recommended for new MMO players (weight 0.12): Some reviews recommend this expansion for new players looking for an MMO, as it provides a solid entry point. It is also suggested for solo and PvE players.
- Negative reviews from Chinese players (weight 0.11): A few reviews in Chinese advise against wasting money on this DLC and state they will not purchase any further DLC. This indicates dissatisfaction among some non-English speakers.
- Do not buy without translation (weight 0.11): Some players advise waiting for a Spanish or other language version, and recommend not buying without proper translation. This highlights localization gaps.
- Buy full version not upgrade (weight 0.07): Reviews suggest avoiding the upgrade version and instead purchasing the full edition for complete content. This ensures all features are included.
- Wait for next yearly chapter (weight 0.07): Some advise waiting for the next yearly chapter and buying it for around $20, implying that the current DLC is not the best value. This is a strategy for cost-conscious players.
- Not for summoner necromancer fans (weight 0.07): Some players were disappointed because the Necromancer class does not fulfill the true summoner fantasy. This reduces its appeal for those expecting a specific playstyle.

Other player notes:
- Steam playtime tracking broken (weight 0.07): A user reports that Steam is not tracking their playtime for this game, which can affect achievements, stats, or overall user experience.
- Third-party translation plugin recommended (weight 0.07): A player recommends using a third-party Chinese translation plugin, which suggests the game lacks official localization support or has inadequate language options.

Emotions:
- Frustration (weight 0.28): The main causes of frustration stem from pricing and monetization issues, including overpriced DLC, unfair upgrade systems, and pressure to buy ESO Plus despite already paying for the game. Technical problems like bugs, crashes, login issues, and poor support responses also contribute significantly. Additionally, class balance concerns, particularly with the Necromancer being buggy and weak, as well as misleading advertising and lack of language translations, are key factors.
- Disappointment (weight 0.26): Disappointment is primarily driven by the Necromancer class failing to meet expectations, being buggy and lacking a dark feel or proper summoning mechanics. The Elsweyr expansion is criticized for being split into multiple DLCs, having a small zone with mountains, and containing less content than previous expansions like Summerset or Orsinium. Pricing and monetization issues, along with lack of Spanish localization and weak dragon encounters, further dampen the experience.
- Satisfaction (weight 0.22): Satisfaction arises from the expansion's beautiful map, flora, fauna, engaging quests, good voice acting, and overall world-building. Players appreciate the Necromancer class, dragon fights, the Sunspire trial, and the buy-to-play model that is not pay-to-win. The community, class flexibility, and variety of content including story, side quests, and world bosses also contribute to positive feelings.
- Excitement (weight 0.17): Excitement comes from the promise of interesting dragon fights, extensive missions, and the Necromancer class, which is seen as flexible and powerful. Players are hooked by the beautiful map, Khajiit culture references, and dynamic combat, as well as the potential for profitable dragon farming and challenging battles. The pre-order mount and pet also generate enthusiasm.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.12): Enjoyment is derived from the quest design, world persistence, immersive storytelling, and freedom of choice. Players enjoy the Necromancer class, dragon encounters, Alfiq characters, and the magical atmosphere. The overall gameplay including leveling, fighting, and trading creates a fun experience despite any flaws.
- Appreciation (weight 0.05): Appreciation is expressed for the beautiful region, friendly community, and high-quality quests, story, and voice acting. The Necromancer class is noted for its versatility, and players value helpful tools like Chinese translation plugins that enhance the experience.
- Surprise (weight 0.04): Surprise results from the story being better than expected for an MMO, the game's improvement from beta to current state, and overall enjoyment surpassing initial expectations.
- Anger (weight 0.04): Anger is directed at monetization practices perceived as money-grabbing, such as unreasonable DLC and membership prices, content locked behind paywalls, and feeling cheated by pre-order or purchases made before changes. The Necromancer class being poorly designed and recycled from the mage class also fuels anger.
- Hope (weight 0.03): Hope centers on the desire for a Chinese version similar to Fallout 4 and the expectation that more content will be added to Elsweyr by the end of its cycle.
- Love (weight 0.03): Love is evoked by the Khajiit backstory, dragon interactions, and the overall Elsweyr expansion rekindling affection for the game.
- Nostalgia (weight 0.03): Nostalgia comes from dragon hunting reminiscent of previous Elder Scrolls games and a longing for the game despite not having time to play.
- Confusion (weight 0.03): Confusion arises from the high price for a small portion of the game and perplexing product naming conventions.
- Joy (weight 0.01): Joy is generated by the gorgeous landscape and the presence of Khajiit characters ('kitties') in the game.
- Slight disappointment (weight 0.01): Slight disappointment stems from the storyline being only okay and the limited region of Anequina being available in the expansion.
- Pleasant surprise (weight 0.01): Pleasant surprise occurs when the expansion is obtained at a great discount while still offering good content.
- Admiration (weight 0.01): Admiration is felt for the deep lore and immersive world-building in the game.
- Pain (weight 0.01): Pain results from language barriers that prevent full participation in dungeons and guild raids.
- Regret (weight 0.01): Regret comes from purchasing the DLC and feeling the money was wasted, particularly with pre-order purchases that did not deliver value.
- Disgust (weight 0.01): Disgust is caused by poor game design with excessive enemy density and bad rewards, leading to a miserable experience.
- Boredom (weight 0.01): Boredom stems from a flat map, small cities, and repetitive travel that lacks variety.}