Well if you want to invoke reading comprehension, what we are actually talking about is whatever the "magic" is that the TES single player games had that Kedwyn thinks TESO failed to copy. You are quibbling over the semantics of what the definition of "gating" is to avoid admitting I had a valid point about how TES games autoscaling everything.
Let's cut through the bullshit. The problem you're suffering from is you don't understand the "magic" Kedwyn is talking about. And it has nothing to do with mob scaling.
The magic being referred to is that EQ, being one of the 1st true first person MMORPG in 1999, had a lot of danger, exploration, no hand holding, harsh death penalty, community building based on forced grouping/spell mechanics, an economy built on some class abilities (Druid/Wizard Group gates to ease travel, requiring another casting class to bind you to a different location after you died (You had to be grouped with a caster to do this) combined with a very long leveling curve so you would tend to stay in areas for weeks at a time, getting to know other people playing as you would tend to group with a lot of the same people.
If you know what this "magic" is that Kedwyn is referring to that you want to pretend I don't understand then feel free to explain what you think it is.
I played EQ1 starting on Day 1 for 6 years. Thanks for a reminder of what made that game memorable. Were you expecting TESO to try and replicate the EQ1 gameplay experience?
This statement is incorrect. You could circumvent your 'defacto gating' of content (levels) using social tools.
I operate under the assumption that a group of players trying to tackle challenging PVE content only invite other players who can help contribute. I do admit your example of getting protected by higher level players without actually contributing anything yourself was possible in EQ1. You certainly saw it happening with guilds trying to gear up lower level twinks.
My brother loves all the Elder Scrolls games, he even likes TESO. For him, what he liked about the single player games is the mods. He didn't care much for Skyrim, too easy he said. So he loaded some mod that made it play like Morrowind and then he could get into it.
When you say ESO I think Elder Scrolls Online, because that is the acronym. ES is Elder Scrolls. Where does your O come from when acronyming Elder Scrolls single player games?
You are correct that is an error on my part. I should have used TES or ES to refer to the single player games. I went back and corrected the acronym in the posts where I made the error.
Here is where you lost me. Phasing technology AFAIK was first introduced by WoW as a storytelling mechanic to give the individual player a sense that their PVE interactions were meaningful and had an impact on the game world. "Fake" and "meaningless" are not two terms I would even associate with phasing tech.
They weren't in at release, and it was some time after those zones were added that they restricted the level to 46+ iirc.
That's the point, though. In EQ, if you went to a zone and someone else was killing something somewhere, that's what was happening. In TES if you went to a village and killed something, that's what happened. With phasing, you go to an area and kill something, and that's what you're doing by yourself since there are different aspects of the world and you aren't really acting and interacting in the same one as others. Thus, it feels like the world is just a painted backdrop for your own single player game.
Well, I would say that EQ did this first with the Ring of Coldain questline in the Velious expansion when someone would attempt the quest and either Thurgadin or Kael would copy over a completely alternate data set which would stay active for two hours as a result of the victor of the war.
Back in the day, Plane of Fear would be swarmed with level 1 ogres looking for welfare loot before the planes were level-restricted.
Phasing is fake interaction. It's an awful game mechanic that is used to pretend player are interacting with their environment but they're really not. It's also a tremendous interruption to cooperative play.
Phasing isn't so bad for something like telling a part of a story, but for open world and entire areas it is fucking awful for the reason you stated. I found grouping in ESO the most pain in the ass of any MMO ever, wildstar was a close second.
It's awful in your opinion. As someone who actually reads all the quest texts, watches all the cutscenes, and reads all the lorebooks, phasing done correctly helps to add immersion to any game where it's used. If I had to bet you a six pack of beer, I bet the hardcore TES fans who believe the lore/story of the single player games is a major part of the "magic" wholeheartedly approve of the concept of phasing.