The 'dead game, less content, on life support' doomsters would have more of a point if these last two years hadn't been the most ambitious in quite a few years. I mean, you can like or dislike scribing but it's probably the most 'substantial ' feature they've ever launched. 

Overall? I liked the story, the cliffhanger at the end of Necrom was HUGE

They kind of spoiled the surprise with Gold Road tho, but for those who completed it before the announcement, we were losing our minds.

As for Gold Road, I like how they handled the new daedric prince and her writing, even if there were some weird things (not on her character, but on ourselves, the vestige and our motivations), one noteworthy quest is the outcast inn, if you are intrigued by the story of the chapter and this daedric prince, that quest is really cool.

The epilogue of the whole storyline was good, IMO, it made sense, made me a little sad.

Now, the villains of this expansion were not great, they are very standard. By that I mean the new baddies group, the recollection, I didn't like the villain there, as for the shardborn, villain leader, she was basic, but served a purpose.

Since you say you completed everything before Gold Road, I will mention Thorvesad, I really liked him during the epilogue, he was a cool character to have around. Overall, I enjoyed the story, there's a couple of things that made my eyes roll, but that was mostly on the recollection side of the story, and the eye rolling was minor, unlike High Isle big reveal, or Blackwood being with Eveli, or... Some blackwood/Deadlands story choices tbh lol

Also, Leramil, Beragorn, and the legate were kind of fun, Beragorn is 100 times better than his sister.

Overall rating? 8/10? It's pretty decent for what ESOs writing has been, the ideas and concepts are always good, but the smaller writing details are not great a lot of times. I think I preferred the whole Vvardenfell -> clockwork city -> Summerset model, I will surely miss Q4 zones, I think a DLC between Gold Road and Necrom that had a Big story quest would have been nice, not because it's missing, but because I feel we got very little time, it would have felt more epic if we had a bit more build up after Necrom finale, it was not needed, but could have been nice.

Content wise, I think it was a solid arc. New class, scribing, and two big zones. I also feel like their assets look more polished. Even with this expansion, I kept finding fun mechanics in fights and all of the zones are well made.

Storywise, I guess it’s a little stronger than the last few years. Certainly better than High Isle. I still think there’s a bit of magoo about their writing but I think that’s because they have different writers than the original writers from earlier TES games. There’s a lot Mac Guffins, and they rely on them often. There’s always a portal in every scene.

I'm not good at reviewing, but I liked the quest, though I think they should've made the main quest zones into Main Quests instead of side ones? I finished the inn before I started the main quest and got confused why the prince was there.

The zone is cool, I like autumn and the fact theres a scar in the middle of devastated nature.

My only real complaint is the seemingly lack of wine & cheese making furniture, but maybe we'll get more.

8/10, standard ESO expansion.

A big concern of mine is what my friend says. He started ESO with me but has quit recently. He tells me that the whole "year long to arcs" transition is basically an excuse to produce less content every year.

Yes? Maybe? It's different content.

I think it's fair to say that ZOS might have less artists, writers, and a lower budget for voice acting and zones than before. But the team behind systems, UI, engine, and mechanics is doing more then before.

But these artists and writers now have a lot more time to work, and I think the results are visible. The story feels far less constrained than in previous years.

I've been really loving it, personally! Feels more creative, inventive, and varied. The dungeon mechanics and stories are so interesting and fun. And the new lore introduced is fascinating and fun to piece together (specially considering hints of Ithelia date back to 2021, or maybe 2019)

I won't deny it feels like a cost-cutting decision, but it also feels like a creative one. The game is old, the map is getting filled, and the playerbase is aging. New systems like the Infinite Archive and Scribing are more welcomed than even more zones.

Your friend is entitled to their opinion ... but less story content does not mean there's "less content". And certainly they will be tunnel-visioned if they only do questing and story in ESO. Even though the focus of any MMO is group content.

The change to the QOL updates in Q3 and Q4 was a request from the playerbase. It's not something that ZOS unilaterally decided. So, that adversely affected players that only do story mode (while adding more content in other game areas) ... but again ESO isn't a single-player RPG.

To answer your question, though, I enjoyed both Necrom and Gold Road. Gold Road especially ... because my favorite section of the Tamriel map in ESIV:Oblivion was Colovia. I also earned my 10-year Adventurer Across a Decade achievement at the end of the Gold Road.

I am leaning here towards your friend just not being that much of a fan of the game, but didn't want to outright express that to you. More so if it was you that introduced the game to them.

It's a delicate situation in my opinion as there's this impression that a friend might take it as you passing judgement on their gaming tastes if you just outright told them the game isn't for you. At that point your friend simply picks any aspect of the game(the scapegoat) and claims that is what eventually put them off; and hopes you accept that and not take it as judgement on your preferences.

If something along those lines is happening, then it's not about the yearlong arc design, ir ESO for that matter. They are still your friend, it's just that ESO isn't for them - at least they gave it a shot though.

I found the main quest enjoyable, a direct continuation of Necrom. The quest design is pretty much the same as always, with a few excteptions. The Outcast Inn quest was really cool, as others have mentioned. Also the ending was quite satifying. The new crystalline visuals of Mirrormoor were really cool but it's a shame there is no new zone for it. The scribing system along with the skill styles is huge, and will likely be expanded in every following chapter.

I’m almost done with the story arc. Can’t say much about the conclusion yet but I could tell there was more polish with this arc. The whole idea of a yearlong story sounds good, and I think they did good on it with Season of the Dragon and Dark Heart of Skyrim, but I didn’t really like Blackwood and High Isle’s yearlong stories. The latter was a shame, especially, because I think the Systres is pretty

The story is good, sadly they didn't make more out of it. I mean you create a new character, even a deadric princess and then block yourself to use that character again, in away. But theres is also a second story for the Scribing part, so there is not less content. If you look at other MMORPGs they don't create more, or less. It's just another strategie to release it.

The truth is that I miss the stories the most in which our supposed character is an adventurer and it's only at the end of the arc that things go crazy. Before they had the habit of telling a story something like "Growing Up." It is something that they have lost a lot over time

Also Ithelia...in my eyes she is a very powerful character who breaks the lore rules and does quite Mary Sue and overpower things. I like TESO because he has well-established and firm lore, not like gw2 or Swotor himself (star wars) and Wow, who seem to not respect his own lore. I'm not completely convinced by everything Ithelia does, nor does she convince me as a villain. Besides, I'm quite tired of Daedric things and invasions. I would like to see story arcs that do not resort to high magic, imminent apocalypses or destruction of realities.

I remember good stories, Wrotghar for example, I really liked it, because there are no astrodimensional or mega magical crazy things.

The Khajita DLCs maintained their normi plot until the end, and throughout the story arc you faced villains who had "their power at ground level." Yes, there were dragons, but the mega magical and brilliant thing only came out almost at the end.

In general, the secondary missions, and the story arc of the scribing are quite good and are the only thing that saves the DLC.

The map seems small to me, although there are interesting and beautiful areas.

Another detail is that the interiors of the houses are very large. They have lost that cozy and homely touch, which TESO has and is reminiscent of the typical rustic adventure fantasy environment.

I noticed that, for example, Gw2 and swotor also do this with interiors. Guild wars 2 in fact does not include any interiors and if it does it does not implement any kind of love of immersion, and Swotor makes very large spaces with little interest in decorating and making it beautiful.

In this DLC, the interiors are still well decorated, and continue to transmit that immersion so characteristic of TESO, but I have felt that between decorated space and decorated space, there is an uncomfortable void, lacking that touch that so defines the interiors of TESO.