Organically Consuming Content in Elder Scrolls Online

With my fresh account and fresh character in full swing, Elder Scrolls Onilne, the critically acclaimed MMORPG developed by Zenimax, has been a blast to play.  The game has so much content to consume, and it can be overwhelming if you end up thinking too far into the future in regard to developing your character.  What I have found has worked for my ADHD brain is to consume the content in front of me as it organically plays out, meaning, if I am on a quest and I run into something to gather, go and gather it.  If I run into another quest that is closer to the quest objective that I was going to do, complete that one.  Essentially, I call this living in the moment gaming where anything and everything can be and should be consumed based on its relative closeness.

Because I do not have a great long-term planning mind and tend to get overwhelmed easily, I think this approach of organically consuming content as it comes into my existence is the way to go.  I also believe that this type of gameplay style lends well to roleplaying and discussing the content I am consuming better with my stream as it happens live on air.  If you ask the meta gamers and guide builders, they will say a lot of what I am doing right now is a waste of time, but they are essentially optimizing the fun out of the game by immediately recommending that people skip content and head right into the end game build grind.  For me, this end game grind of having to do certain things to the exclusion of other things leads to burnout and leads to your character's development feeling very much like a chore.

Now I may be on the opposite extreme of the build guide gamers and meta gamers.  So much so that I have not even done a dungeon yet and I just hit level 50.  I think my resistance to doing a dungeon rest with the fact that I have played the game before, and I know that the daily rewards for dungeons as well as the rewards for the undaunted quest lines can easily become a stress when you feel as though you need to do these dungeons daily to develop your character faster.  My whole point of this playthrough is to slow down the treadmill, make it not feel like a chore, and instead enjoy what organically is in front of me.  Now this doesn't mean that there won't be a time when I jump on that treadmill.  In fact, now that we hit level 50, I am quickly accumulating champion points (cp) and once I hit the 160 CP mark, that will signal the time to start incorporating some dungeons into my playthrough.

At the end of the day, playing an MMORPG and consuming it in a way that pleases you is a decision for each individual gamer.  I just know for myself personally that following prescribed guides and meta gaming sucks the life and the fun out of gaming for me.  I also believe it sucks the fun out of it for those following these guides as well, as they are essentially cutting out hours of fun by not having to experiment and play the game for themselves by learning through experience.  Content creation has become a hot topic over the years for this very reason.  Games seems to be figured out well before they have been released to their 1.0 versions, essentially removing any wonder or experimentation for a large portion of the gaming communities.  Those who are smart are the ones who don't consume streaming culture and youtube culture in gaming, as they often have the most fun and play the games the longest because they truly wish to have a unique experience of their own.  I envy these people greatly and remember when I was part of their tribe, but alas, I am part of the content creation culture.  I do my best to avoid spoilers, both for myself and others, but sometimes it is unavoidable.

It's time I get ready for another stream.  On today's broadcast, I plan to continue my grind in the Glenumbra region of the map by finishing collecting lore books and skyshards, and completing any additional quest lines that remain in this starting region of Daggerfall Covenant.  The graphics and greenery of the area is captivating and has been one of my favorite regions to explore and prosper in.  Looking forward to more adventures in the Elder Scrolls Online.

Until next time,

Blackboa