Pervasive Monetization

• Nearly every in-game improvement or convenience requires purchasing tokens with real money, from basic functions like renaming characters and managing bag space to changing races and adding character slots.
• ESO Plus Subscription: This offers substantial quality-of-life improvements, including unlimited crafting materials storage, pointing to a design where the game encourages you to pay for a smoother play experience.

Gameplay Design and Scaling

• Level Scaling: Initially implemented to let players explore freely like in other Elder Scrolls games, it removed a sense of progression and challenge, making enemies feel uniformly easy.
• Combat Mechanics: Combat is real-time but lacks complexity for most encounters, reducing the excitement and challenge normally expected over an RPG's progression.
• Lack of Restriction Leads to Lack of Creativity: Unlike past Elder Scrolls games where systems encouraged creative play, ESO's design overly simplifies choices, limiting the player's need to think strategically.

Quest and Story Execution

• Fast-moving Story: The game’s narrative can be challenging to follow due to the fast pacing and frequent updates, often leaving players disconnected from the plot.
• Incoherent Plot Points: ESO's main story missions often contradict themselves, with characters making illogical decisions that break immersion.
• Instance-based Questing: Effective use of instancing for dynamic story progressions, though it sometimes disconnects players from a cohesive narrative experience.

Crafting and Economy

• Research Mechanic: Learning new crafting recipes involves an extremely lengthy process where traits must be researched over real-world days, making comprehensive crafting mastery practically infeasible without spending money.
• Style and Motif System: Unlocking new armor styles often requires purchasing books or motifs, which themselves are rare drops or available for purchase at high prices.
• Economics and Rewards: The in-game economy is skewed to incentivize microtransactions by limiting bag space, drop rates, and crafting resources, driving players toward paid solutions.

Community and Multiplayer Dynamics

• Dungeon Design and Difficulty: Dungeons are designed for quick runs, minimizing exploration and strategic challenge, pushing players to subscribe to ESO Plus for more efficient play.
• PVP Neglect: Significant lack of new PVP content and modes over the years, compounded by frequent balance shifts that alienate competitive players.
• Helpful Community: Despite game design issues, the ESO community stands out for its willingness to help new players, contributing positively to the game’s environment.