giving the free weekend a try. So far ita huuuuge and unstructured. im level 8 and bombarded with quests and pretty much no info on what to do.

luckily there is reddit so im now on a path following the recommended quest order. Playing as a templar khajit as that seemed a good solo jack of all trades option.

I have zero problem with what the game costs, sub or not. It's one of the more fair systems across the industry. I just didn't vibe with the game like I have the single player games. I think it's a decent game, I just prefer playing SWTOR better if I am going to be MMO'ing. Probably because there is a distinct lack of quality Star Wars single player RPGs to play.

My biggest issue with the game is the skills and combat. I love the settings, the wandering around etc, but I was expecting a Elder Scrolls skill system like the single player games (ie: use a sword get sword skill), and it really put me off from the game.

It's pretty disingenuous to say that you are severely limited without a subscription. The main difference is that you don't get a crafting bag. You can, however, upgrade your bag and bank space pretty regularly. I've been playing for a couple of years and have only ever subscribed for one month. I craft across all professions and play on a fairly regular basis. If you do subscribe, you get access to all DLC (everything except for the latest Chapter, which will be High Isle soon), plus you get some in-game currency which you can use for DLC or other things that you don't own already. That's the reason I subscribed for a month, so that I could play some of the DLC zones/questlines.

My favorite, and really only, MMO I've played to it's end, took me 9 months of many hours each day, in 2018.
And it has grown since, ha, bought most new addons to play in the future.

Buy it, and you can play perfectly without the monthly plus.
Play a little and buy a horse in any great city stable with ingame gold.
Every day visit a stable and you can upgrade it for free (90 days, etc, give you a super horse with carry bags, stamina and speed).
I loved all the quests archs, and as you progress and easily farm certain places (goggle it), I made so much ingame money I never lacked anything.
The more you level up the more gold rains on you.
Do the fantastic 3 towers merry-go-round, many of them, to easily level up, specially if you use items that provide more experience per kill, as I did.
In the big cities, there are fan shops (goggle it), where you can buy elite armor and weapons with ingame money from other players or sell your stuff.
I did that many times, and even so, I am positively drowning in gold.

One of the most boring mmorpgs I've ever played. And if you don't pay for a subscription, the limitations will frustrate the hell out of you. So don't buy the game and expect to have fun playing without a subscription. However, things could have changed since the last time I played (years ago)

Heck, I'm having more fun with the cheesy stripped down Lost Ark than I ever had with ESO, and I'm at level 39 and never paid a dime for anything. Go figure

The problem is I don't like how limited the combat is. It was clearly designed for console players. I still prefer classic MMO WoW/EQ type combat with multiple hotbars full of abilities and stuff. Beside that the world design for TESO is pretty damn good. I don't recall what the crafting is like but EQ2 was the only MMO that had really good crafting IMO. I own the base game and expansion or two, mebbe I'll jump back in and see what's what.

It's not free to play per se. You have to buy the game. After that, you have the choice of playing without a monthly fee or paying with a monthly fee.
The without a fee option cripples you in regards to crafting, housing, bank space, and changing gear appearance.

This promo lets you play the "without a fee" option without shelling out for the base game for a couple weeks.

To be fair, if you buy the game and pay the monthly it's one of the best MMO's on the market... if you're into that.

for some reason I always thought this was F2P. I might check it out over the easter weekend.