Open Letter to the Community and Zenimax
crazmadsci
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Lately for the past several months I’ve become more and more disappointed and experiencing rising concern in both the community that plays ESO and Zenimax itself, leading to this open letter to Zenimax.
I have currently been waiting patiently, submitting feedback, diving significantly into how the game works, and participating in a few Zenimax meetings to ensure as a player I can do the best I can for this game I love so much to ensure its future. However sometimes the deeper I go the more scared I am of how things actually work in the game.
When I started to play this game and many original player base fully believed in Paul Sage’s mentality of you are paying for the value and attention to detail the game provides. Understanding its rocky launch and game impeding bugs, bots etc. I was part of the community that waited patiently.
Even when the announcement of console launch as delayed a year in order to ensure that the console community didn’t have to deal with the issues PC has having I applauded Zenimax on the move. I even agreed and supported console transfer thinking that was a very fair way to give people access to the game they have waited years for. Since that time I was impressed with the detail and amazing content released in Craglorn, 1.3 and the vast overhaul to the guild system. Armor dyes, guild trader. Repeatability with the undaunted enclave, Zenimax even invited some of the most influential guilds at the time to a guild summit to showcase what we can expect for the future of this game highly regarding our input. This thus leads all the way to January of 2015…
I will never forget the day when Zenimax announced that ESO will officially being going from a Pay to Play system to a Buy to Play system. I even skipped class that day to watch the ESO live stream and interview Paul Sage gave about how new content is implemented changed and how players should not be feeling that ESO will not be converting into a Pay to Win situation at all. That was never a concern for me.
Immediately my fellow streamers and friends went into high alert knowing that a B2P system will drastically change the feel and everyday life of the ESO community. Many of our fellow youtubers and streamers stated they are on “high alert” to see what is to come. We didn’t give up or walk away from the game but decided to fully embrace the new community and show them the game we love and wait and see what happens.
Leading up to the launch of console I’ve never seen the ESO community prosper more with a rising growth in community and hype leading to millions more to play the game I love so much. Everything was going absolutely great indicating so much promise until our first major DLC Imperial City.
Everyone was so ecstatic the 1st major content release to help improve one of the most popular areas of the game and also one of the most buggy, PvP. It has been constantly repeated the PvP is the most difficult area to develop for and debug. This has also been an area that has seen polar opposite opinions in response of positivity and negativity. Many believe it to be one of the best areas of content releasing with an incredible conclusion to the story of Molag Bal and opening a door to what the storyline has to offer for the rest of Tamriel. However a very vocal portion of the community feel that it has become one of the largest areas of disappointment. Influencing Cyrodiil Population Caps and just being a spoon feed area for PvErs and having zero impact to the war in Cyrodiil at all. This different approach of PvP drastically impacted the approach and usage of many abilities in game leading to the ever so vocalized issue of lets say it “Class Balance.”
Zenimax, the unintended and unanticipated usage of abilities and their application of imperial city was something you couldn’t fully predict. Sure many things had to be fixed fast in order to make Imperial City playable and not just turn it into make a Magicka NB kingpen.
What I believe really happened with this patch was not the class balance issues or the disappointment for Cyrodiil but it lead to a merge of both the PvE and PvP worlds into one. The ESO community, learned that if you can be vocal enough things can change. Yes I believe has led to unparalleled damage more than anything else in the history of the game so far. Players have officially turned on each other saying that the PvE world gets all the attention of the maternal ZOS office and the PvP community continuously gets short sited.
Over and over I’ve seen these two areas and communities in the game bicker like little siblings and stop thinking about what the life is like in the other area of the game. How their play style is altered without seeing the larger picture. Believe me, I am someone that can definitely agree with this and fall victim to it as a PvE healer and rarely enter Cyrodiil.
What are the consequences to this? Players have stopped adapting to the game and are determined to play and maintain the lifestyle and playstyle they prefer more and stop at nothing and are even cut throat to maintain it. I’ve read and answered the question too many times to count in PTS streaming…” Is my X build nerfed with this patch?” The answer I always give is that Zenimax is doing the best they can to provide game balance. I honestly believe that there is a decent amount of balance in the game with Magicka vs Stamina and each class being a better choice depending on the situation. Sure not every class is best in Cyrodiil because you can’t always win. There is always going to be a rock, paper scissors victor but that is the way of life.
ESO community, BREATHE, it will be ok. Sure I’m frustrated with some silly phrasing of skills or lack of adaptation to changed content. For example how confusing it is that Radiant Oppression ability states “Burn an enemy with a ray of hoy fire, dealing # Magic Damage over 2.8 seconds” wait it isn’t Fire Damage? But the ability states that it deals Holy Fire and Burns them. Even though the new CP changes with Thieves Guild it doesn’t matter if it is Magic or Fire damage due to the passive of Elemental Expert. But let’s be fair wording on things like this could make things easier in so many ways and educating the community on how damage, tools tips and abilities are impacted and calculated.
As of March 17, 2015 ESO went B2P and released the crown store and changed 1 subtle thing the mount system. You no longer need 3 mounts in the game 1 for speed in Cyrodiil to run from point A to B faster or to try to get the world record speed run in HRC by getting to the door faster. You no longer feed the pain of having your horse called “love handles” accidently active and didn’t go to stablemaster to change it and are running slower than all of your fellow players and get laughed at for your leaderboard AA runs. The mount system now allows each player to have a riding skill and level each category for Capacity, Stamina and Speed up to 60. You no longer need to pay 42K for a horse just to get those 10 extra precious points in a category because you can only level your horse 50 times. In a year players in zone chat, guild, and on my life streams still ask me what means and why it costs more for the Bay Dun Horse, Brown Paint Horse and Midnight Steed. Why can’t we change the tool tip of these mounts to no longer say things like “This energetic mount was bred for speed and agility and is well-liked by battlefield scouts”. Yes the Bay Dun used to be the tan horse of speed but Zenimax wanted to make it so with the crown store mounts are purely just skins to look differently so you can pay money in the crown store and immediately have our speed and capacity of our old mounts.
It has even been told that using the console UI interface in the PC version of the game tells players of integrated voice chat that is only available on console.
These examples are just a few of how the attention to detail which was a prime example of what is so great about the game but how the quick push of new content is slowly leaving residues of unchanged things behind.
Since the Imperial City DLC the community was blessed with Orsinium which in my honest opinion one of the absolute best pieces of content Zenimax has ever released (pat yourself on the back ZOS). The story is incredible, repeat-ability is still more active than anything else in game to date. The end of this DLC honestly had me hooked for the next year of this game alone to see what is going to happen in regards to the future story of Tamriel. Even vet Malestrom Arena took me 3 months to clear, I cried when I couldn’t beat it and I cried when I beat it. To date it is one of my favorite things to do and I am a significantly better player overall in the game. However again the sibling fighting has happened again, with the PvP community in an uproar. “Why does PvE have all the love?” “Why can’t they fix Cyrodiil?” etc you know the story and arguments I don’t need to repeat them.
For the most part I think the game was doing much better with the release of Orsinium and I have been happy. However the largest issue is the rising Toxic nature of the online community through the public forums and especially ESO live chat. ESO twitch streams even have developed a toxic viewership in some situations where I’ve even been personally attacked for being happy in the game. Why should I be yelled at for being delusional or a terrible player having run in PvE and taking months to get my 1st clear in vMSA? These things have not just happened towards myself but also have led to incredible voices in the community to participate less than ever before. There are less ESO streams and even less than our low regular viewership of ESO on twitch.
Now lets go to the most recent DLC in the game of Thieves Guild. One of the most anticipated releases of content to embody a piece of some of the best memories for Elder Scrolls games in history. For the most part many players are enjoying the content but see a significant amount of bugs especially associated with the rush 64 bit client to the game. I am ok with changes in the game classes and champion system. However my rising concern is the already documented promised rate of content every quarter. Is making promises of things like the 64 bit client forcing Zenimax to release things before they are ready? That is my deepest fear. Will we ever actually see the removal of the veteran ranks? Will this removal be catastrophic as to how the game actually functions.
Matt Firor cheers to you! Honestly you were living up to the example of the originally launch of the game saying we want to release content right. There is no ETA, no ETA, no ETA on this or that thing. There shouldn’t be a timeline on content releases so that way Zenimax’s team can get stuff right and make sure future content is bug free and fixing old content. This is an example of exactly what this game needs. Sometimes having more unknowns might be better for us until we get a routine down.
So what is my biggest concern about the game? Why am I not complaining about AoE Caps? I’m not talking about Cyrodiil I am talking about mutual respect and intimacy between the ESO community and Zenimax.
Things that used to be a part Zenimax as interactions with the community and no longer exist.
• Tamriel Town Crier
• Guild Spotlight
• Player Spotlight
• Hosting members on the community through ESO live
• Community Events on ESO live
• Community Ambassador Program
• Tales of the dead
These things listed above were reasons why I fell in love with Zenimax as a company. The Tamriel Chronical was one of my favorite reads at all time which hosted and showcased some of the incredible work of the community. It gave way to finding new incredible content of information before I really started writing my own.
The guild spotlight from day 1 of creating Ethereal Army my officers have always said this was a goal. Let’s be good enough that we get spotlighted on the official ESO forums! It did wonders to showcase the cool events the spotlighted guild did giving other guilds ideas and was wonderful for recruitment. I am actually a player who joined Mostly Harmless specifically because of how I appreciated and looked up to what the guild stated they did of crowning one of the 1st emperors for launch.
Player spotlights featured players with their unique builds giving a perspective on how players have fun without the need to feel like they are doing a cookie cutter build that is the mandatory meta.
Personally I wouldn’t know anything about the RP community if it wasn’t for the Zenimax team doing a personal interview with the Human Floyd. I loved when ZOS brought in new people to talk and discuss the game. Bringing in Beyond Infinity to clear DSA. Elloawendy and Deltiasgaming to showcase the undaunted pledges. It really brought contributors of the player base together with the developers and create all these really great programs.
Currently the coolest thing the Community Ambassador program forum post has a running gambling series on how long it can be before another post happens. The community amabassador program was a great way for us the community to thank our incredible contributors and give them a symbol of respect.
These are just a few I have listed of things Zenimax used to do and now no longer does that really didn’t just feel like a company selling boxes of a game to make money but build intimate relationships, foster creativity and inspire developers for new content.
These aspects although not directly profitable to Zenimax took tremendous strides to foster incredible friendships with Zenimax and its community. These friendships lead to collaboration of guilds, players and communities in ways that brought us together.
Instead I am currently witnessing the B2P and Pay to Play communities merging inside the game and are spending less and less time actually communicating with each other. Many guilds have stopped using Teamspeak all together and even ask the concecpt of asking to use a VOIP software of anykind on PC is laughed at for dungeons.
Even the skill set of players I am commonly finding is extremely inconsistent. Going from Beginner to advanced with very few in the intermediate stages. In most situations queing as a healer for PvE Random dungeons with the new group finder I do not know if I have to spam heals due to people constantly standing in the stupid or become pure DPS because the team is so talented we don’t even need a healer or tank.
Attempting to give even advice in a dungeon group from an experienced player as myself can come off as rude, arrogant, or conceded and players become defensive. The worst experience is to group just kicking other player because they are a light armor sorc tank which isn’t the meta.
I’m personally finding it more enjoyable to play with guilds of players who are just now experiencing the game for the first time. I would rather run a dungeon with new players to add a bit of difficulty to it due to the raise of veteran ranks and champion points things have just gotten a bit too easy.
So now what? All of these things can the game come back? Is the population of the game suffering?
In my honest opinion although I do not know the direct numbers ESO has never had a stronger population with money from the Crown store bringing in more money than ever before. I personally am even counting down the hours until the assistants or purchasable in the crown store. Yes I’m commonly finding that my old blood friends from launch are fewer and far between as the old generation is running out of patience for the promised changes to come, however new players are coming in daily we as a community just need to foster, inspire and inform them of the incredible vast potential and playability this game actually has.
What is the conclusion to this? Well Zenimax,
You have come a long long way over the past 2 years are you are approaching your Birthday for the launch of ESO on PC. I cannot image the time of political red tap you as a company have to go through. In attempting to launch a game and rebrand yourself. I know that many of your workforce is no longer there and people have had to step up and wear many hats for different jobs. However I implore you to bring back the canid conversation and intimate interaction that made you stand out and be great as a company. Showcase what people like some addon developers who have inspired new UI elements into the game. Bring in community ambassadors like Miss_Bizz to ESO live and get them to talk about their experiences.
We currently have no idea as to what is coming beyond Dark Brotherhood. When are we going to continue the story for what happened with Orsinium?
Make it easier for players to enjoy the game and make it not feel as much as a grind. Honestly I feel like doing something as simple as telling us the total value of Achievements in each category and providing a percentage would pull players into doing content again wanting to get a 100% completion and not just see a bar being filled. Can we earn so many achievement points and choose our own armor dye? There are some achievements I can only dare to dream to get but would love the colors. Can you make the super rare dyes 1000 cashable achievement points? Something as easily as seeing the end in site such as “Oh man I only need 10% more to complete all crafting in the game!” This will have players itching to go back and complete areas of the game that they might have missed.
Collectible trophies over the 2 years of playing this game on my main character I have yet to actually complete any of those achievements. Increase the drop rate so players can enjoy those colors too. Currently these trophies are just vendor garbage with some dropping so often and others I can only dream to find.
Show support for your contributors, community members, guilds, and players again. Showcasing groups or even retweeting a great photo from the ESOreddit feed can go a long way. I’m not saying that ZOS should make a new supporter the public face of ESO but there are some really great streams, videos and guides that have never seen the light of day.
I feel that a lot of aggression from the community is coming from frustration sure of bugs and unhappy about changes to their playstyle but due to a lot of our communication networks being cut off over the past year has really made the community as a whole feel the need to be louder about it for fear of not being heard. Opening up those avenues could really make people feel less neglected and calm down. I have friends and players to this game that still cannot maintain an activate invitation code on the official forums and would be incredible people for discussion.
Provide short and long term rewards for all aspects of gameplay. Currently this is the area of the game where PvE is excelling with both daily undaunted pledges, trials weekly rewards, and all time leaderboards all available as a goal for serious players to strive for long term. Or just doing your undaunted pledge for the day and get your key for a short term fix.
One very true opinion was actually brought up to me by my fiancée was the fact that he is worried he could never be end game elite PvP again due to losing edge and not being able to afford 6 hours a day to wage a war in Cyrodiil. Yes you can go in for 10 minutes but you may never find a fight. Currently most emperors are not just based on skill level but the amount of time that you can devote to becoming crowned. If the PvP had more of a short term play reward system such as quick AP gains, dueling, arenas, or ways to get some of the new gear without having to spend hours of farming in Cyrodiil I believe it would appease a good deal of the PvP community and help the PvE community transition into Cyrodiil more and grow the population in those campaigns.
In terms of game balance I would highly consider reducing the attribute point % return to a third of its current value. Currently players see a minimum of 3K difference in Magicka, Stamina and health alone just from spending CP in the Constellation system. This would change the attribute points gain 11% instead of going all the way to 33%. The diminishing return system of the game is incredibly noticeable even within 50 Champion points and can be felt significantly in a dungeon group of someone brand new. Even between CP cap of 501 and players with only 70 CP it is a massive impact difference influencing gear choice as well as majorly impacting healing and damage output. I think that this will help a lot at making it feel a whole lot overwhelming of the enormous grind to come with the removal of veteran ranks. My biggest fear is that players will eventually have polar opposite of 3600 Champion Points and players with non will never be able to see those players damage output as reachable.
Please inform the community about how the game works. How crit, damage mitigation, abilities and all the gears and bolts can also go a long way for players. Tell us what inspired the story of Camlorn. Will we ever find the Staff of Chaos to use as a teaser in a quest? Who is the poor sap that put in all the insects in Wrothgar (seriously he deserves a raise). Most monster information on their strengths, weaknesses, and abilities can only be found through serious digging of previous patch notes if we are lucky enough to be told changes to these creatures.
There are significant avenues Zenimax could pursue that would drastically improve the game while also being extremely profitable. Could ZOS ever publish a series of strategy guides they could sell on quest walkthroughs for each zone? What about a crafting strategy guide? These things could go seriously a long way. I know I would spend hundreds of dollars for Zenimax endorsed strategy guides as a console player.
As for the question does Zenimax even support the current ESO streams, well from recent activity large scale twitch streams such as Towelliee have been inexplicably endorsing the game and being hosted by ZOS twitch making many ESO streams unhappy. Personally good for ZOS any publicity to improve the game and community of the game is merited. Honestly I do not think that the current ESO streaming community is professional enough or mature enough to give Zenimax any reason to endorse the ESO regulars. I am not surprised endorsement either officially or unofficially no longer happens for streams. My only frustration for ZOS feature streams such as DANGELUSRAWKS is that Terms of Service violation with over half of his views are botted is a series area of concern for me. Does it matter if the viewer count isn’t actually true?
I have spent a long time sitting watching and waiting to defend myself against streams that have attacked me for trying to be supportive of Zenimax. However with the current direction this game is taking the negative discussion in game Zone chat and the feeling of complete alienation for attempting to put out content to this community has left me inspired to write this incredibly long letter.
To the community:
Is all the negative nature and hate on the forums merited? Sure promises have been made that have not been kept for this or that reason. You can take it personally and leave or passionately take it out on the poor moderators on our official forums that have nothing to do with the programming. Or you can attempt to do something about it. If you are an expert I urge you to write anything even a sentence of expert knowledge you have about the game. Make youtube videos, stream, make websites, share your work. Meet new people. However please don’t attack those who don’t’ fit your play style. Don’t harass the RP community, PvE and PvP stop hating each other. I know for the old player population this is a waste of breath.
Be constructive in your forums posts, use facts. Sure sometimes you put a lot of thought and effort into a post and it looks like no one reads it but they do do care. Zenimax is passionate about their projects and will continue to work hard. Rome was not built in a day, Edison took many attempts before he created the lightbulb. With the rebranding of ESO, release on console delay and considerable downsizing of ZOS from PC launch this are not as easy as you think they are.
Sure I’m annoyed and frustrated. Lag is starting to permeate every area of the game not just on PvP. I am worried about hardware maintaining growing population, and yes the population is growing.
However the largest suggestion for the community is for the new incoming players, Don’t rush to the end game. Honestly enjoy the game take your time. If you rush through the end you miss the incredible story throughout. There is a learning curve, just because you are v16 and the same gear as someone it does not mean that you are going to produce the same effect. Also don’t take everything you read and watch on the internet and believe it. Everyone is passionate about this game in one degree or another.
Thank you
P.S. This letter I have written this and submitted through proper channels and have received a reply but I believe the Community should read this.
I have currently been waiting patiently, submitting feedback, diving significantly into how the game works, and participating in a few Zenimax meetings to ensure as a player I can do the best I can for this game I love so much to ensure its future. However sometimes the deeper I go the more scared I am of how things actually work in the game.
When I started to play this game and many original player base fully believed in Paul Sage’s mentality of you are paying for the value and attention to detail the game provides. Understanding its rocky launch and game impeding bugs, bots etc. I was part of the community that waited patiently.
Even when the announcement of console launch as delayed a year in order to ensure that the console community didn’t have to deal with the issues PC has having I applauded Zenimax on the move. I even agreed and supported console transfer thinking that was a very fair way to give people access to the game they have waited years for. Since that time I was impressed with the detail and amazing content released in Craglorn, 1.3 and the vast overhaul to the guild system. Armor dyes, guild trader. Repeatability with the undaunted enclave, Zenimax even invited some of the most influential guilds at the time to a guild summit to showcase what we can expect for the future of this game highly regarding our input. This thus leads all the way to January of 2015…
I will never forget the day when Zenimax announced that ESO will officially being going from a Pay to Play system to a Buy to Play system. I even skipped class that day to watch the ESO live stream and interview Paul Sage gave about how new content is implemented changed and how players should not be feeling that ESO will not be converting into a Pay to Win situation at all. That was never a concern for me.
Immediately my fellow streamers and friends went into high alert knowing that a B2P system will drastically change the feel and everyday life of the ESO community. Many of our fellow youtubers and streamers stated they are on “high alert” to see what is to come. We didn’t give up or walk away from the game but decided to fully embrace the new community and show them the game we love and wait and see what happens.
Leading up to the launch of console I’ve never seen the ESO community prosper more with a rising growth in community and hype leading to millions more to play the game I love so much. Everything was going absolutely great indicating so much promise until our first major DLC Imperial City.
Everyone was so ecstatic the 1st major content release to help improve one of the most popular areas of the game and also one of the most buggy, PvP. It has been constantly repeated the PvP is the most difficult area to develop for and debug. This has also been an area that has seen polar opposite opinions in response of positivity and negativity. Many believe it to be one of the best areas of content releasing with an incredible conclusion to the story of Molag Bal and opening a door to what the storyline has to offer for the rest of Tamriel. However a very vocal portion of the community feel that it has become one of the largest areas of disappointment. Influencing Cyrodiil Population Caps and just being a spoon feed area for PvErs and having zero impact to the war in Cyrodiil at all. This different approach of PvP drastically impacted the approach and usage of many abilities in game leading to the ever so vocalized issue of lets say it “Class Balance.”
Zenimax, the unintended and unanticipated usage of abilities and their application of imperial city was something you couldn’t fully predict. Sure many things had to be fixed fast in order to make Imperial City playable and not just turn it into make a Magicka NB kingpen.
What I believe really happened with this patch was not the class balance issues or the disappointment for Cyrodiil but it lead to a merge of both the PvE and PvP worlds into one. The ESO community, learned that if you can be vocal enough things can change. Yes I believe has led to unparalleled damage more than anything else in the history of the game so far. Players have officially turned on each other saying that the PvE world gets all the attention of the maternal ZOS office and the PvP community continuously gets short sited.
Over and over I’ve seen these two areas and communities in the game bicker like little siblings and stop thinking about what the life is like in the other area of the game. How their play style is altered without seeing the larger picture. Believe me, I am someone that can definitely agree with this and fall victim to it as a PvE healer and rarely enter Cyrodiil.
What are the consequences to this? Players have stopped adapting to the game and are determined to play and maintain the lifestyle and playstyle they prefer more and stop at nothing and are even cut throat to maintain it. I’ve read and answered the question too many times to count in PTS streaming…” Is my X build nerfed with this patch?” The answer I always give is that Zenimax is doing the best they can to provide game balance. I honestly believe that there is a decent amount of balance in the game with Magicka vs Stamina and each class being a better choice depending on the situation. Sure not every class is best in Cyrodiil because you can’t always win. There is always going to be a rock, paper scissors victor but that is the way of life.
ESO community, BREATHE, it will be ok. Sure I’m frustrated with some silly phrasing of skills or lack of adaptation to changed content. For example how confusing it is that Radiant Oppression ability states “Burn an enemy with a ray of hoy fire, dealing # Magic Damage over 2.8 seconds” wait it isn’t Fire Damage? But the ability states that it deals Holy Fire and Burns them. Even though the new CP changes with Thieves Guild it doesn’t matter if it is Magic or Fire damage due to the passive of Elemental Expert. But let’s be fair wording on things like this could make things easier in so many ways and educating the community on how damage, tools tips and abilities are impacted and calculated.
As of March 17, 2015 ESO went B2P and released the crown store and changed 1 subtle thing the mount system. You no longer need 3 mounts in the game 1 for speed in Cyrodiil to run from point A to B faster or to try to get the world record speed run in HRC by getting to the door faster. You no longer feed the pain of having your horse called “love handles” accidently active and didn’t go to stablemaster to change it and are running slower than all of your fellow players and get laughed at for your leaderboard AA runs. The mount system now allows each player to have a riding skill and level each category for Capacity, Stamina and Speed up to 60. You no longer need to pay 42K for a horse just to get those 10 extra precious points in a category because you can only level your horse 50 times. In a year players in zone chat, guild, and on my life streams still ask me what means and why it costs more for the Bay Dun Horse, Brown Paint Horse and Midnight Steed. Why can’t we change the tool tip of these mounts to no longer say things like “This energetic mount was bred for speed and agility and is well-liked by battlefield scouts”. Yes the Bay Dun used to be the tan horse of speed but Zenimax wanted to make it so with the crown store mounts are purely just skins to look differently so you can pay money in the crown store and immediately have our speed and capacity of our old mounts.
It has even been told that using the console UI interface in the PC version of the game tells players of integrated voice chat that is only available on console.
These examples are just a few of how the attention to detail which was a prime example of what is so great about the game but how the quick push of new content is slowly leaving residues of unchanged things behind.
Since the Imperial City DLC the community was blessed with Orsinium which in my honest opinion one of the absolute best pieces of content Zenimax has ever released (pat yourself on the back ZOS). The story is incredible, repeat-ability is still more active than anything else in game to date. The end of this DLC honestly had me hooked for the next year of this game alone to see what is going to happen in regards to the future story of Tamriel. Even vet Malestrom Arena took me 3 months to clear, I cried when I couldn’t beat it and I cried when I beat it. To date it is one of my favorite things to do and I am a significantly better player overall in the game. However again the sibling fighting has happened again, with the PvP community in an uproar. “Why does PvE have all the love?” “Why can’t they fix Cyrodiil?” etc you know the story and arguments I don’t need to repeat them.
For the most part I think the game was doing much better with the release of Orsinium and I have been happy. However the largest issue is the rising Toxic nature of the online community through the public forums and especially ESO live chat. ESO twitch streams even have developed a toxic viewership in some situations where I’ve even been personally attacked for being happy in the game. Why should I be yelled at for being delusional or a terrible player having run in PvE and taking months to get my 1st clear in vMSA? These things have not just happened towards myself but also have led to incredible voices in the community to participate less than ever before. There are less ESO streams and even less than our low regular viewership of ESO on twitch.
Now lets go to the most recent DLC in the game of Thieves Guild. One of the most anticipated releases of content to embody a piece of some of the best memories for Elder Scrolls games in history. For the most part many players are enjoying the content but see a significant amount of bugs especially associated with the rush 64 bit client to the game. I am ok with changes in the game classes and champion system. However my rising concern is the already documented promised rate of content every quarter. Is making promises of things like the 64 bit client forcing Zenimax to release things before they are ready? That is my deepest fear. Will we ever actually see the removal of the veteran ranks? Will this removal be catastrophic as to how the game actually functions.
Matt Firor cheers to you! Honestly you were living up to the example of the originally launch of the game saying we want to release content right. There is no ETA, no ETA, no ETA on this or that thing. There shouldn’t be a timeline on content releases so that way Zenimax’s team can get stuff right and make sure future content is bug free and fixing old content. This is an example of exactly what this game needs. Sometimes having more unknowns might be better for us until we get a routine down.
So what is my biggest concern about the game? Why am I not complaining about AoE Caps? I’m not talking about Cyrodiil I am talking about mutual respect and intimacy between the ESO community and Zenimax.
Things that used to be a part Zenimax as interactions with the community and no longer exist.
• Tamriel Town Crier
• Guild Spotlight
• Player Spotlight
• Hosting members on the community through ESO live
• Community Events on ESO live
• Community Ambassador Program
• Tales of the dead
These things listed above were reasons why I fell in love with Zenimax as a company. The Tamriel Chronical was one of my favorite reads at all time which hosted and showcased some of the incredible work of the community. It gave way to finding new incredible content of information before I really started writing my own.
The guild spotlight from day 1 of creating Ethereal Army my officers have always said this was a goal. Let’s be good enough that we get spotlighted on the official ESO forums! It did wonders to showcase the cool events the spotlighted guild did giving other guilds ideas and was wonderful for recruitment. I am actually a player who joined Mostly Harmless specifically because of how I appreciated and looked up to what the guild stated they did of crowning one of the 1st emperors for launch.
Player spotlights featured players with their unique builds giving a perspective on how players have fun without the need to feel like they are doing a cookie cutter build that is the mandatory meta.
Personally I wouldn’t know anything about the RP community if it wasn’t for the Zenimax team doing a personal interview with the Human Floyd. I loved when ZOS brought in new people to talk and discuss the game. Bringing in Beyond Infinity to clear DSA. Elloawendy and Deltiasgaming to showcase the undaunted pledges. It really brought contributors of the player base together with the developers and create all these really great programs.
Currently the coolest thing the Community Ambassador program forum post has a running gambling series on how long it can be before another post happens. The community amabassador program was a great way for us the community to thank our incredible contributors and give them a symbol of respect.
These are just a few I have listed of things Zenimax used to do and now no longer does that really didn’t just feel like a company selling boxes of a game to make money but build intimate relationships, foster creativity and inspire developers for new content.
These aspects although not directly profitable to Zenimax took tremendous strides to foster incredible friendships with Zenimax and its community. These friendships lead to collaboration of guilds, players and communities in ways that brought us together.
Instead I am currently witnessing the B2P and Pay to Play communities merging inside the game and are spending less and less time actually communicating with each other. Many guilds have stopped using Teamspeak all together and even ask the concecpt of asking to use a VOIP software of anykind on PC is laughed at for dungeons.
Even the skill set of players I am commonly finding is extremely inconsistent. Going from Beginner to advanced with very few in the intermediate stages. In most situations queing as a healer for PvE Random dungeons with the new group finder I do not know if I have to spam heals due to people constantly standing in the stupid or become pure DPS because the team is so talented we don’t even need a healer or tank.
Attempting to give even advice in a dungeon group from an experienced player as myself can come off as rude, arrogant, or conceded and players become defensive. The worst experience is to group just kicking other player because they are a light armor sorc tank which isn’t the meta.
I’m personally finding it more enjoyable to play with guilds of players who are just now experiencing the game for the first time. I would rather run a dungeon with new players to add a bit of difficulty to it due to the raise of veteran ranks and champion points things have just gotten a bit too easy.
So now what? All of these things can the game come back? Is the population of the game suffering?
In my honest opinion although I do not know the direct numbers ESO has never had a stronger population with money from the Crown store bringing in more money than ever before. I personally am even counting down the hours until the assistants or purchasable in the crown store. Yes I’m commonly finding that my old blood friends from launch are fewer and far between as the old generation is running out of patience for the promised changes to come, however new players are coming in daily we as a community just need to foster, inspire and inform them of the incredible vast potential and playability this game actually has.
What is the conclusion to this? Well Zenimax,
You have come a long long way over the past 2 years are you are approaching your Birthday for the launch of ESO on PC. I cannot image the time of political red tap you as a company have to go through. In attempting to launch a game and rebrand yourself. I know that many of your workforce is no longer there and people have had to step up and wear many hats for different jobs. However I implore you to bring back the canid conversation and intimate interaction that made you stand out and be great as a company. Showcase what people like some addon developers who have inspired new UI elements into the game. Bring in community ambassadors like Miss_Bizz to ESO live and get them to talk about their experiences.
We currently have no idea as to what is coming beyond Dark Brotherhood. When are we going to continue the story for what happened with Orsinium?
Make it easier for players to enjoy the game and make it not feel as much as a grind. Honestly I feel like doing something as simple as telling us the total value of Achievements in each category and providing a percentage would pull players into doing content again wanting to get a 100% completion and not just see a bar being filled. Can we earn so many achievement points and choose our own armor dye? There are some achievements I can only dare to dream to get but would love the colors. Can you make the super rare dyes 1000 cashable achievement points? Something as easily as seeing the end in site such as “Oh man I only need 10% more to complete all crafting in the game!” This will have players itching to go back and complete areas of the game that they might have missed.
Collectible trophies over the 2 years of playing this game on my main character I have yet to actually complete any of those achievements. Increase the drop rate so players can enjoy those colors too. Currently these trophies are just vendor garbage with some dropping so often and others I can only dream to find.
Show support for your contributors, community members, guilds, and players again. Showcasing groups or even retweeting a great photo from the ESOreddit feed can go a long way. I’m not saying that ZOS should make a new supporter the public face of ESO but there are some really great streams, videos and guides that have never seen the light of day.
I feel that a lot of aggression from the community is coming from frustration sure of bugs and unhappy about changes to their playstyle but due to a lot of our communication networks being cut off over the past year has really made the community as a whole feel the need to be louder about it for fear of not being heard. Opening up those avenues could really make people feel less neglected and calm down. I have friends and players to this game that still cannot maintain an activate invitation code on the official forums and would be incredible people for discussion.
Provide short and long term rewards for all aspects of gameplay. Currently this is the area of the game where PvE is excelling with both daily undaunted pledges, trials weekly rewards, and all time leaderboards all available as a goal for serious players to strive for long term. Or just doing your undaunted pledge for the day and get your key for a short term fix.
One very true opinion was actually brought up to me by my fiancée was the fact that he is worried he could never be end game elite PvP again due to losing edge and not being able to afford 6 hours a day to wage a war in Cyrodiil. Yes you can go in for 10 minutes but you may never find a fight. Currently most emperors are not just based on skill level but the amount of time that you can devote to becoming crowned. If the PvP had more of a short term play reward system such as quick AP gains, dueling, arenas, or ways to get some of the new gear without having to spend hours of farming in Cyrodiil I believe it would appease a good deal of the PvP community and help the PvE community transition into Cyrodiil more and grow the population in those campaigns.
In terms of game balance I would highly consider reducing the attribute point % return to a third of its current value. Currently players see a minimum of 3K difference in Magicka, Stamina and health alone just from spending CP in the Constellation system. This would change the attribute points gain 11% instead of going all the way to 33%. The diminishing return system of the game is incredibly noticeable even within 50 Champion points and can be felt significantly in a dungeon group of someone brand new. Even between CP cap of 501 and players with only 70 CP it is a massive impact difference influencing gear choice as well as majorly impacting healing and damage output. I think that this will help a lot at making it feel a whole lot overwhelming of the enormous grind to come with the removal of veteran ranks. My biggest fear is that players will eventually have polar opposite of 3600 Champion Points and players with non will never be able to see those players damage output as reachable.
Please inform the community about how the game works. How crit, damage mitigation, abilities and all the gears and bolts can also go a long way for players. Tell us what inspired the story of Camlorn. Will we ever find the Staff of Chaos to use as a teaser in a quest? Who is the poor sap that put in all the insects in Wrothgar (seriously he deserves a raise). Most monster information on their strengths, weaknesses, and abilities can only be found through serious digging of previous patch notes if we are lucky enough to be told changes to these creatures.
There are significant avenues Zenimax could pursue that would drastically improve the game while also being extremely profitable. Could ZOS ever publish a series of strategy guides they could sell on quest walkthroughs for each zone? What about a crafting strategy guide? These things could go seriously a long way. I know I would spend hundreds of dollars for Zenimax endorsed strategy guides as a console player.
As for the question does Zenimax even support the current ESO streams, well from recent activity large scale twitch streams such as Towelliee have been inexplicably endorsing the game and being hosted by ZOS twitch making many ESO streams unhappy. Personally good for ZOS any publicity to improve the game and community of the game is merited. Honestly I do not think that the current ESO streaming community is professional enough or mature enough to give Zenimax any reason to endorse the ESO regulars. I am not surprised endorsement either officially or unofficially no longer happens for streams. My only frustration for ZOS feature streams such as DANGELUSRAWKS is that Terms of Service violation with over half of his views are botted is a series area of concern for me. Does it matter if the viewer count isn’t actually true?
I have spent a long time sitting watching and waiting to defend myself against streams that have attacked me for trying to be supportive of Zenimax. However with the current direction this game is taking the negative discussion in game Zone chat and the feeling of complete alienation for attempting to put out content to this community has left me inspired to write this incredibly long letter.
To the community:
Is all the negative nature and hate on the forums merited? Sure promises have been made that have not been kept for this or that reason. You can take it personally and leave or passionately take it out on the poor moderators on our official forums that have nothing to do with the programming. Or you can attempt to do something about it. If you are an expert I urge you to write anything even a sentence of expert knowledge you have about the game. Make youtube videos, stream, make websites, share your work. Meet new people. However please don’t attack those who don’t’ fit your play style. Don’t harass the RP community, PvE and PvP stop hating each other. I know for the old player population this is a waste of breath.
Be constructive in your forums posts, use facts. Sure sometimes you put a lot of thought and effort into a post and it looks like no one reads it but they do do care. Zenimax is passionate about their projects and will continue to work hard. Rome was not built in a day, Edison took many attempts before he created the lightbulb. With the rebranding of ESO, release on console delay and considerable downsizing of ZOS from PC launch this are not as easy as you think they are.
Sure I’m annoyed and frustrated. Lag is starting to permeate every area of the game not just on PvP. I am worried about hardware maintaining growing population, and yes the population is growing.
However the largest suggestion for the community is for the new incoming players, Don’t rush to the end game. Honestly enjoy the game take your time. If you rush through the end you miss the incredible story throughout. There is a learning curve, just because you are v16 and the same gear as someone it does not mean that you are going to produce the same effect. Also don’t take everything you read and watch on the internet and believe it. Everyone is passionate about this game in one degree or another.
Thank you
P.S. This letter I have written this and submitted through proper channels and have received a reply but I believe the Community should read this.
twitch streamer crazmadsci, Guildmaster Ethereal Army, Guide Writer: Travelers Guide to Tamriel.
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Inarre✭✭✭✭✭
✭Agree. It's such a shame to be yelled at by the community for enjoying a portion of the game you paid for.7 -
crazmadsci✭✭✭@Inarre I am honestly scared of how this community is directing the future development of the game. The largest voices on the forums, youtube, streams are mostly all negative.
A massive community does not even bother to get on the forums or the internet they are too busy having fun in Tamriel.
I've honestly been afraid to post this because it isn't positive it isn't negative. It just just what i am observing and watching.
Being honest and speaking up for yourself is something that scares the crap out of me and i know publicly I will get harassed for it.
Because this is something I left out:
Before you write me off as just another player writing a letter, whining, complaining or just plain praising the game, let me provide you my credentials in this community.
My name is Crazmadsci, the crazy mad scientist. I have been playing ESO ever since late February 2014 when my boyfriend at the time convinced me to play this game with him as a fun afternoon. Ever since I’ve been completely hooked and find that every single day I end up digging myself deeper and deeper into rooting myself permanently in the community and future of this game. I originally began as a simple quartermaster of a guild, leading to guild master and now the person you see today.
Who am I? I am currently a guild master for a guild called Ethereal Army which has molded and created a community for approximately 3,000 people over the past year and a half it has been formed. I have also been a well-known streamer on Twitch and am currently one of the top 5 longest concurrent ESO streams to date and off and on being one of the top streams out there. My passion is to share my knowledge and information and help the community grow and make ESO feel less overwhelming since content is constantly in a state of change. Due to that I wrote one of the things that tens of thousands have read and hundreds have written me with thanks, the 150 page PDF “Travelers Guide to Tamriel.” This has led to one of my largest projects in my entire life the actual website of the Travelers Guide to Tamriel which I’m still currently actively working on.
I am also currently planning on a captial campaign to raise the funds for a comprehensive website to do all of these things:
This is going to be no easy task and I am pacing myself to include a large variety of things and relaunch the website for Mid August. The website is hoping to include but not limited to:
• A complete list of all achievements in the game
o Total values for each category to give players an idea of how much they have beaten the game.
o Also a list of achievements posted in their associated areas on the site such as all Glenumbra achievments.
• Complete Questing Guide to the game
o What is the story for each quest?
o What are the rewards for the choices?
o This is also inspiring a video dialogue project so you can just watch the story that took days to complete.
• Complete Guide to Everything Crafting
o How to get all motifs, what they look like, where is the style stones?
o What is the best way to level?
o What zone do I need to go into for Jute?
• Mainstory Zone Questing Skill Point guide
o Give all names of quests, their locations etc
• Technical Support Section
• Dungeon Guides
o Boss Walkthroughs
o What unique items are there?
o What set gear drops there?
• Yellow Pages to all Contributors (Shout out to the Community)
o If I don’t provide something or host the content on my site with others permission I am going to link to others who have done great things for this community.
• Introduction to PvP
o How does everything work?
o How is Ap calculated?
o What are the ranks? How my AP do you need for each rank?
• Monster Manual
o Personally my favorite on the list
• DLC Guides
Eventually with the removal of the veteran ranks and changes to how the game calculates.
• Ability breakdown and how it works
• All buffs in the game
• Champion System Math
• Math 101 of ESO
twitch streamer crazmadsci, Guildmaster Ethereal Army, Guide Writer: Travelers Guide to Tamriel.24 -
idk✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭The devs talked s good game running up to launch. However their team seemed incompetent as a whole. My theory has been poor management at the top.
This has been evident in many aspects from the poor transition from vet ranks to the CP system, more than a year long. Additionally, the GF they touted pre launch seemed nothing better than a high school intern project.
It really just seems that they miss details, glaring details.
Additionally, the first year less new content was added than the games peers added. We went a year without any meaningful content being added and since then we gained 2 dungeons and a trial. I have not heard much of what is expected for the remainder of the year but ESO is falling behind if they want to consider themselves top shelf in gaming.13 -
hrothbern✭✭✭✭✭
✭Nice reading @crazmadsci and good points you make
Not that much to add regarding ZOS, except that I think they would do better if their budget would be increased and the managing people, both the formal as the informal, would spend some of the more time on sharing and thinking together.
and regarding the community: I think many really love this game
and also that many have often a weird way of expressing their passion and love to play in this game.
I think also, like you, that helping new players, sharing knowledge and fun in a positive and constructive fashion, is very important.
Edited by hrothbern on April 14, 2016 4:49PM"I still do not understand why I followed the advice of Captain Rana to bring the villagers of Bleakrock into safety. We should have fought for our village and not have backed down, with our tail between our legs. Now my home village is in shambles, the houses burning, the invaders feasting.I swear every day to Shor that after Molag Bal has been defeated, I will hunt down the invaders and restore peace in Bleakrock and drink my mead with my friends at the market place".PC-EU4 -
LilyOra✭✭✭Wait, aren't you the same streamer that came onto my stream one day when I just started out and trash talked Deltia after I suggested to someone in chat to check his builds (you said something about him stealing builds). I remember asking you politely to not talk badly of other streamers etc in my chat.
That was the first negativity I experienced from the community tbh. Sorry, I don't mean to bash you, you are a great streamer and have done alot for the PVE communitiy, but sometimes you also need to look inwards. We all do. 14 -
Malakisidious✭✭✭*Matt Firor* - GIVE HER A JOB
WHAT A READ!!!!!!!!!
implementation, community and customer service/dev support Q&A
response TIME, Letting the game and community move forward TOGETHER
"COMMUNICATION" that's already spelled out for you!!
I as a Beta Player and continuous subscriber keep wondering why oh why am I spending $$$
Serious NOTE!!!
This has got to be the best post I have read in over 2 years, ZENIMAX, Bethesda etc.... take note, there are many of us that are trying to stay on your side STOP throwing serious issues "under the bus"
Many of us don't allow each other to get run over numerous times!!!
Sincerely,
Mayhem - DC sorc and many other vet toons
I really hope you have Allstate \o/Mayhem - DC Sorc
Swagnshag - DC Dragon Knight
Chopstick Ninja - DC Nightblade
Starr Baby - DC Templar
PC NA9 -
crazmadsci✭✭✭Giles.floydub17_ESO wrote: »The devs talked s good game running up to launch. However their team seemed incompetent as a whole. My theory has been poor management at the top.
=
I am sorry sir But i completely disagree. Sure they don't always tell you exactly what they are planning but they have to deal with financial red tape. Also with rebranding, changing game director and postponed launch of console, down sizing of ZOS as a company.
They are working to rebuild the company we saw at launch. This year is full of change and fixing many many things. Be patient.Nice reading @crazmadsci and good points you make
Not that much to add regarding ZOS, except that I think they would do better if their budget would be increased and the managing people, both the formal as the informal, would spend some of the more time on sharing and thinking together.
In terms of the community working together my website. The Travelers Guide to Tamriel is actually a series of collaboration on all platforms, guilds, communities, submitting information together. ESO faces, voices who care about this game are working with me.
Is everyone helping with the project? No, because honestly we don't always agree and get along. But we aren't always the same or have the same interests.
Do i believe ZOS is doing their best, absolutely. Will i fight for this game? Without a doubt.
I am passionate about what I do and how this community has changed my life in so many ways.
However we do need to remember that this is just a game, a past time, but it does sure well bring millions together from all over the world and I believe that is a technological feat that is not to be scoffed at.
twitch streamer crazmadsci, Guildmaster Ethereal Army, Guide Writer: Travelers Guide to Tamriel.3 -
puffy99✭✭✭Great stuff and appreciate you taking the time to write that.
My Thoughts:
ESO is severely underfunded, or the development team/mgt team has some major issues at ALL levels of game dev.
There is no one DRIVING this technology and IP to excellence.
If Sony ran this like they did with the revamped FFX MMO this would be leap and bounds better.
ESO at times is basically a bug riddled joke especially amongst the players that play it, and the scary thing is, it is getting WORSE..
I really like this game and the PvE/PvP play options it gives you but there is NO sustained new content for V16's and while the Group finder overall I think is better, there is no Group finder trials, updated V16 dungeons, updated PvP fixes or content, the economy is a mess, and basically it is boring as hell.
People will move on or relegate it to second tier status and I am afraid that exodus started a few months ago and it continues with me as Dark Souls 3 released this week. You only have a certain amount of time to deliver or people just think this rudderless ship will continue to drift or crash once and for all.7 -
crazmadsci✭✭✭Great stuff and appreciate you taking the time to write that.
My Thoughts:
ESO is severely underfunded, or the development team/mgt team has some major issues at ALL levels of game dev.
There is no one DRIVING this technology and IP to excellence.
If Sony ran this like they did with the revamped FFX MMO this would be leap and bounds better.
ESO at times is basically a bug riddled joke especially amongst the players that play it, and the scary thing is, it is getting WORSE..
That was my concern, believe me. Honestly though I have submitted this through proper channels not on the public forums. I have received an answer for every one of my concerns. They do really really care.
What I think. This year is going to go through and fix a lot of things. DLC might be smaller in size but I think this time next year the game will be completely different. Huge Overhauls are going to happen/have to happen.
This is both our time and ZOS's time to shine. Get on Dark Brotherhood's PTS, submit your bug reports. Hell even tell them if you like the quests, does gear look silly, etc.
The more information, the more communication and more Transparent we both are will make this game the way we believe it to be. This is the best MMO, more in depth game, and one of the best communities I've ever experienced.
twitch streamer crazmadsci, Guildmaster Ethereal Army, Guide Writer: Travelers Guide to Tamriel.3 -
crazmadsci✭✭✭TheBrownWiener wrote: »Is there an audiobook version?
I can read it on a youtube if you really wish.twitch streamer crazmadsci, Guildmaster Ethereal Army, Guide Writer: Travelers Guide to Tamriel.7 -
NewBlacksmurf✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭nice post....''Hoping for some of those engaging items to come back."
also....hoping somehow the DLC quarterly releases get more bug and polished finishing before hitting main-stream.-PC (PTS)/Xbox One: NewBlacksmurf
~<{[50]}>~ looks better than *5010 -
Elloa✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭
I will just leave this as answer for now, might write something more eloquent later.
But i agree with most of what you describe, especially in regard of the Community.
Very proud to see your effort to make the ESO community and the game a better experience for all, and the energy and dedication you put into this!
12 -
rotaugen454✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭Usually when I see an "Open Letter", it ends up just being a rant. This is a well thought out viewpoint of the game as a whole, addressing potential issues without bashing. If we could all carry on our discourse like this, our community would be significantly less toxic."Get off my lawn!"10 -
Muizer✭✭✭✭✭
✭No, but seriously, there's also been constructive feedback on PvP. It's just that.........I don't feel like writing an open letter.........but let's just say PvP is simply not being taken seriously by ZoS. Keep that up long enough and people will stop giving constructive feedback and resort to protest slogans like "Remove AoE caps". IMHO only a concerted effort by ZoS to overhaul PvP will get PvPers back into the fold. If not, they'll just leave one by one until there's nobody left.Please stop making requests for game features. ZOS have enough bad ideas as it is!5 -
Acrolas✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭Business reality: nobody actually read this.
If you can't make a point in two or three paragraphs or fewer, you will not get an active reader. Pointing out too many issues may feel helpful, but it usually has the opposite effect if the company is larger than one or two people. If you're lucky, somebody will paste this into Word, get the auto-summary, and base a generalized response on that. If you're like everyone else, you'll just get the basic "We're aware of issues and currently working on them" response.
I don't know where the illusion that video game developers owe a community anything came around. Sure, people have opinions - some better than others - but at day's end they'll make the game they've been asked to make and if it isn't completely broken they won't fix it. Not because they don't want to, but because nothing is perfect and nobody wants to cultivate a community that demands perfection. They're hell to deal with.signing off9 -
Mix✭✭✭✭✭
✭Very interesting letter Craz and I agree on most points:)
I think a lot of people only come to the forums when they hit a wall, something isn't working right or they are confused with some quest/mechanic. Hence, the large amount of negativity on here.
Achievements: I love achievements and would love to see something implemented where gaining a certain number of points unlocks vanity-type items on a vendor (say 10,000 point gives you access to a special skin but you will still have to pay gold for it) for the player to enjoy (could even put some crown store items at high numbers of achievement points so players have a method of obtaining those items without spending real money). I think giving access to dyes via this method would also be awesome. For example, I am also a PvE'er and gaining a lot of the Cyrodiil achievements is very difficult and time consuming. I would guess for the PvP-centric players gaining trial achievements is like-wise difficult.
Collectibles: I think part of the problem with these as that they weren't dropping for most of the first year of the game so I didn't get to see any while leveling my character because they were broken. Then they were "on-use" and you could trade them, thus having access to any level zone via alt characters to find the best farm spots. Now, they are bound and complete the achievement on looting the item. I personally haven't found a problem with the drop rates BUT I do think they should require some farming to make it so you actually have to set out to complete these achievements. Drop rates should be high for alliances that don't have access to a lot of mobs of a given type once they are max level (EP has very few Kagouti for instance) and I have seen little patch notes here and there addressing that. I think they could probably look at the types of mobs and if they are largely a solo mob give them a somewhat larger droprate, but if there are good spots with lots of the mob type to farm then I think the rates are OK.
PvP, Cyrodiil and related: Since I don't PvP much I haven't really experienced the lag (unless you count my first foray into PvP at level 10 back in 2014 where I excitedly ran up to a keep and got around 1 fps and was confused as to how I was alive afterwards lol) That really isn't why I don't PvP though, I feel I view the game as PvE-er mostly, I know how my skills work vs. mobs, the best way to deal with different types of mobs, and fairly organized groups vs bosses with known mechanics. Going into PvP I feel like I need to learn a whole new game and when the choice comes I usually choose to spend my time in the game I know, not the game i need to learn. I think that lag in Cyrodiil has been a continual project for them, but it isn't a small project - the zone is huge, the number of players and abilities used can be huge and how to stop the players from lagging is a huge hurdle. My thoughts on dueling and arenas. On paper (or monitor!) this sounds like a great idea. The problems come though from balancing the classes for smaller scale PvP as in 1v1 and 2v2 type situations a little imbalance can be exacerbated. Everyone needs a way to counter everyone else's abilities to some degree (including combinations of abilities!) I think Arenas may be best put on the backburner unless they have a team they can devote to the class-balance issues. I would like to see something where players could PvP on a shorter timescale. As for Imperial City, I heard there are some changes coming to it soon-ish so it won't be a ghost town and will have puropse.
I think a lot of them enmity between PvE and PvP arises from how we view the game. Any addition to the game that involves questlines, non PvP zones, dungeons, trials etc are considered PvE while PvP has Cryodiil (and to a small extent IC). All the new zone/quest/dungeons get lots of attention on ESO Live, in the forums, zone chat etc while improvements to PvP/Cyrodiil are just that - improvements, they aren't "new" things. After awhile it does feel like ZoS focuses on PvE just due to the amount of media/time spent showing off new screenshots and whatnot, because the PvP lag fixes are behind the scenes.
PvP class balance issues are always going to be a problem, with every skill change/update. This also causes tension when skills that were very useful in one setting change to only be useful in the other or when skills are changed to prevent exploitation/dominance in either PvE/PvP. For example: Permablock in PvP. From the PvE'ers perspective everyone (tanks mostly) had to change their tanking strategies (defense strategies) because PvP'ers were using block too much and mucking up PvP. Now, all the tanks I have talked to actually like the change after adapting because tanking is more interesting/challenging/dynamic now that it was. But when that patch launched, there was a lot of animosity going around!
Champion Points: I have had the same concern since the idea was brought up and then even more concern once I saw how it was working. What about the new player? Well, either they face a long grind to catch up (even with the xp changes to CP) or they just play the game and know they always going to come in second. I still haven't reached 501! Now I do realize they look at the "Average" player and at the time of the last pts I think they gave them about 150 CP to test things on the templates. Right now the only solution that jumps out at me is that when a new player hits 50 they are automatically awarded the current "average" number of points but that isn't very rewarding for that player as they may feel they really didn't earn them.
DB and veteran removal: When this comes up in zone chat a lot of newer players get confused "What is so wrong with veteran levels?" So I start by explaining that they have been changed a lot over time and that having two leveling systems is confusing to a brand new player. What is this veteran thing? Level Cap is 50 but...the there are 16 more levels you do. I do know the original intent was to distinguish players who had defeated the MQ and progressed past their home alliance from those who were still in the middle of the MQ, it doesn't work out as well in action, because you can hit v1 before finishing the MQ (like me) or you can finish it and move on below vet1 and soon you won't need to complete the MQ to visit the other alliances (unless they already changed that, I don't have any alt toons really...). I tell them when it started you didn't get attribute or skill points for gaining a vet level and since then it has been a peculiar balancing act. To me it looked as though the original vet levels were only so you could wear better gear but other than that vet 10 and v1 had the same number of attribute points. I can't recall the gear scaling and how big a difference it was, but really it felt that there was no need to rush vet levels (other than the mobs actually getting more health as they increased vet levels...). Anyways, the veteran system has been a confusing, constantly changing, mess and will get in the way for expansions where you traditionally raise the level cap. From what I have heard of the veteran 16 to level 50 conversion, it is fairly straightforward in that multiple attribute and skill points will be awarded at certain levels 1-50 such that at level 50 you will have the same attribute/skill points as a current v16 has. I am less clear on how crafting and gear conversion will work, I did hear something about CP being used to gate the higher vet gear: example: to equip a piece of current v16 gear requires 50 CP (and this of course loops back to, What about the brand new player? I believe they will pull off the veteran removal and the game will be much easier to understand for newer players and less complicated for us longer time players.
ESO Math 101: I am always trying to figure out how different stats affect my abilities and almost always requires a spreadsheet. Having clear conversions for players on the character screen would go great lengths in easing understanding. For instance: how much critical strike rating is 1% crit at the players level? Looking at a rating means nothing when you glance at a piece of gear other than "higher is better". Why do we have crit% on the character screen but rating on gear/cp/skill tooltips? More confusion. I do understand it is a bit difficult because it changes by level (from what i understand) a higher level player needs higher crit rating to get the same crit% as a lower level player.
Ability damage changes with how much mag/stam the character has but it isn't intuitive how each ability is affected. Same with spell/wpn power, some abilities take 100% of your power and some take less and a few appear to take more (ie. it isn't a straight 100 power = 100 more damage on the ability) and it would be nice to have some guide available for players who care about this sort of thing.
Mob vulnerability: some mobs have no spell resist to certain elements, but other than guessing, there isn't really a way to see that in game, I always think of a bestiary type thing where you can go and see every monster type you've defeated and it would say things (like the death screen does) this monster is resistant to fire and vulnerable to shock (damn spider daedras:p), also having something about their overall resistance would be nice, am I negating all their resist? half their resist? Knowing how much resist we need to negate would be very useful in choosing skills and gear(traits) for different fights. (you can really tell I am a PvE'er!).
Player resists: I am argonian and my racial says I resist (some number) of poison damage, but what does that really mean? The same for spell and physical resist: knowing how much of an attack you will resist is good, knowing the cap is good, and also which order damage is mitigated in. Block, damage shield, elemental resist, general resist?
I think having a place for all resources to come together is a great idea! One that we know is up to date and is kept that way:) There are a LOT of people who would be interested in that Quest obtained skill point guide.
I look forward to seeing the video project/quest summary thing, sometimes you end up taking so long and doing side quests and such that you lose track of what is behind the quest chain you are doing. Also, the choices thing is great! If you can catch some of the more special quest endings on video too, sometimes the npcs do different things after the quest or some special animations.
DLC etc: IC was high adrenaline when it launched and I had a blast with my guild, but that didn't last.
Orsinium: this is an epic DLC, epic! Story just sucked me in, zone is beautiful, I like all the butterflies, just epic!
TG: I love thieving, this DLC was good but feels too small. Heists need to be made more important I think...
Future: I played WoW previously up to end of MoP and their Updates generally included; new quest area, often a new dungeon, a new raid and new dailies (I cannot speak to what changed PvP side because I didn't PvP at all). In their case it was all aimed at max level players and there was the assumption that you had completed the previous update's content (gear-wise). The main important thing was the new raid and the raids in WoW are 4 times as big as trials in ESO. The raidfinder feature is what killed WoW for me, running a dumbed down version of the real 25 man raid...Anyways, I think ZoS needs to look at all their player types and try to add someone for everyone in EVERY update. soloable stuff like delves and quests, 4 man dungeon, 12 man trial and something for PvP (i think this usually ends up being gear; but I think different 'events' would be neat in the future-> like capture the flag games or collect resources and bring them to stockpile points (and raid your enemies stockpiles)
I didn't mean to write a book on here!
TL:DR
I agree with your assessment. I think clear communication between ZoS and players is needed as well as players and other players. I think everyone needs to keep in mind that this is an MMORPG, change is mandatory, the game will evolve, abilities will change, playstyles will need to be adapted and to think that you can just pick one build and always be best at everything is just naive.
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puffy99✭✭✭Business reality: nobody actually read this.
If you can't make a point in two or three paragraphs or fewer, you will not get an active reader. Pointing out too many issues may feel helpful, but it usually has the opposite effect if the company is larger than one or two people. If you're lucky, somebody will paste this into Word, get the auto-summary, and base a generalized response on that. If you're like everyone else, you'll just get the basic "We're aware of issues and currently working on them" response.
I don't know where the illusion that video game developers owe a community anything came around. Sure, people have opinions - some better than others - but at day's end they'll make the game they've been asked to make and if it isn't completely broken they won't fix it. Not because they don't want to, but because nothing is perfect and nobody wants to cultivate a community that demands perfection. They're hell to deal with.
Yeah - maybe. Unless you run a gaming company or work for Zeos you are just talking out your ass with your opinion on how things work.
Secondly, ESO is far from perfect - far, far, far x 10 from perfect so yeah if they want to stay in business and employ people they should take these issues seriously. Maybe they will maybe they wont, but for any business IP that is FAR from perfect this is how you get better.
Thirdly, where did she say they owe the community something? THEY owe it to themselves as creators and developers to make the product better... Ya know biz 101..?4 -
jamesharv2005ub17_ESO✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭The only mistake ZOS made was making stones lootable. That killed IC for a TON of people. They thought they could go back to the old days where player looting was in games. Its not 1996 anymore. If you do that your players will either leave the game or not buy your DLC. I still played the game on and off but I was not paying a sub and certainly not paying for IC.
I agree Orsinium was incredible. Watching a video of the area on youtube is why I came back. I still didnt resub tho I just bought the DLC. With TG I resubbed because I like the way they are doing at the moment. If for some reason they decide to go back to the PVP DLC I'll just take a break for a bit.4 -
jkemmery✭✭✭✭@crazmadsci
This is a very well written expression of your concerns and you make a lot of valid points. I do hope that ZOS takes many of your suggestions in to consideration.
I'm not sure, however, that you can expect the community to react in any one certain way or another, unfortunately. I honestly believe many people play EOS (and other games) as a way to blow off steam and to relieve pent-up aggression. These people tend to react in a negative way toward many things (I'm thinking of a few popular streamers and YouTubers, but per forum rules, I won't mention any names). I suppose that is just part of the human condition.
I do believe ZOS is trying had to make a great game, and I do believe they care about it. I do also however feel that either there is a lack of adequate resources to carry out this vision, or, there is a lack of leadership devoted to implementing a clear vision of the game.
I enjoy PvP more than the high level PvE content. I can go to Cyrodiil and run with one of the guilds I belong to and participate in the activities. I might not be a leader, and I might not be the best, but at least I can feel like I'm contributing to the cause and enjoy the camaraderie and the escapism in to a world vastly different that the one in which we all live. It's both relaxing and exciting, so long as you are with the right folks. I don't feel the same way about the high level PvE content, so to me, PvP is more of a concern. However, I do feel that if ZOS would dedicate the resources and have the vision of leadership devoted to actually fixing the issue, it could be fixed in the span of less than 3 months. I work as a programmer, and have for over 15 years, so my opinion isn't just an off-the-wall guess. It's 99% there, but it takes that little extra effort to complete. However, this has not been done, and there have been no voices from ZOS regarding their efforts to fix the problems that exist in Cyodiil. As a result, several of the people that I used to play with have either stopped playing entirely, or have drastically reduced the amount of time they play and have stated that they too will probably move on soon, due to the issues. I know this has caused my own frustration with the game and has caused me to severely cut back on the amount that I play as well.
I have still maintained my subscription to the game, but considering the lack of any clear voice within ZOS stating that they are making a concerted effort to fix the issues with PvP in this came, I am about to cancel that subscription. I recently created a new character to level up and I will see how it goes with this one. If I can make some new in game friends to play with and level with perhaps I will stay. However, I'm not certain of even that.
Thank you for the letter though. I hope it actually causes ZOS to sit up and take notice. The devoted long-time players are unhappy with the game. Sure there are new people joining all the time, but how long will they stay, and will they continue to be replaced as they too drop off?2 -
crazmadsci✭✭✭@Mix thank you for your novel and thank you for reading mine.
I love the amount of info you have provided and i am passionate about my projects. If you would like to contribute just message me and I would love to help our dreams come true.twitch streamer crazmadsci, Guildmaster Ethereal Army, Guide Writer: Travelers Guide to Tamriel.0 -
crazmadsci✭✭✭@crazmadsci
This is a very well written expression of your concerns and you make a lot of valid points. I do hope that ZOS takes many of your suggestions in to consideration.
I'm not sure, however, that you can expect the community to react in any one certain way or another, unfortunately. I honestly believe many people play EOS (and other games) as a way to blow off steam and to relieve pent-up aggression. These people tend to react in a negative way toward many things (I'm thinking of a few popular streamers and YouTubers, but per forum rules, I won't mention any names). I suppose that is just part of the human condition.
I do believe ZOS is trying had to make a great game, and I do believe they care about it. I do also however feel that either there is a lack of adequate resources to carry out this vision, or, there is a lack of leadership devoted to implementing a clear vision of the game.
I don't expect many people to read my letter, I don't expect everyone to agree with my letter. However I made a promise to my community and friends that I would post my letter. I am not intending to point figures at anyone.
People will play a game and many move one. There are some who are heavily devoted to this game and not just because it is an addicting game. I have friends with PTSD or military disabled who have nothing else to do and can't even go to the grocery store. By playing in Tamriel they are finally beginning to slowly become part of society again.
In many ways I believe that your @name people treat it as a invulnerable secret identity where people can say w.e they want to say. People will vent off aggression and many will create drama well because that is entertainment.
I do believe that ZOS does not have the resources it used to have and am frustrated with some costs in the crown store especially the assistants and the fact that any thing purchased in the crown store does not carry over to NA and EU.
However I do think that the leadership for this game is fine. I am a like minded individual of Rich Lambert who loves the numbers and love his vision for the game. Matt Firor many people say has poor leadership but honestly i feel like he has gotten that title strictly due to having to play bad cop and give people bad news.
I believe ZOS will surprise us with the updates this year and community connection with ZOS will reform and renew to what it was in the past.twitch streamer crazmadsci, Guildmaster Ethereal Army, Guide Writer: Travelers Guide to Tamriel.0 -
MissBizz✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭From my perspective of the game, I heavily agree with the need for more attention to detail.
I personally have experienced the loading screen on PC where it explains voice channels, that is another thing that is attention to detail . Sure, lots of people will brush it off knowing PC doesn't have it, but new people don't know - and go looking for it! I try to contribute to the community by helping the brand new players, and it's amazing what is so confusing in this game. The mount system is another fantastic example. This game can be very confusing to new players as there is a lot to learn, there needs to be correct information being sent to these players, not old tooltips that no longer speak true to the mounts, or completely incorrect loading screen tips.
I will definitely continue to try to do my part in helping the community not only through forums posts, but also video guides directed at beginners so the items that do lack detail, can be explained to them.
This is a great write-up Craz (long, but great!) and I'm happy to hear that Zenimax has responded to you on these concerns. I believe that's another show of the fact they do care about the game they have worked hard to create, and also want to improve it.Lone Wolf HelpFor the solo players who know, sometimes you just need a hand.PC | NA | AD-DC-EP | Discord5 -
Preyfar✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭
New players in Cyrodiil trying to figure out how to leave is one of the most confusing ones yet. The entire Cyrodiil tutorial is pretty bad in general, and doesn't really introduce players to PVP well.This game can be very confusing to new players as there is a lot to learn, there needs to be correct information being sent to these players, not old tooltips that no longer speak true to the mounts, or completely incorrect loading screen tips.7 -
DarkWombat✭✭✭✭I love it when people start off their topic with "Open Letter" which is usually a cheap way to get more recognition and a passive aggressive way to say "hey, my thread is more important than everyone elses"..6 -
jkemmery✭✭✭✭I love it when someone trolls on a post which is usually a cheap way to get more recognition and a passive aggressive way to say "hey, I want some attention too!"18
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FortheloveofKrist✭✭✭✭✭
✭jamesharv2005ub17_ESO wrote: »The only mistake ZOS made was making stones lootable. That killed IC for a TON of people. They thought they could go back to the old days where player looting was in games. Its not 1996 anymore. If you do that your players will either leave the game or not buy your DLC. I still played the game on and off but I was not paying a sub and certainly not paying for IC.
I agree Orsinium was incredible. Watching a video of the area on youtube is why I came back. I still didnt resub tho I just bought the DLC. With TG I resubbed because I like the way they are doing at the moment. If for some reason they decide to go back to the PVP DLC I'll just take a break for a bit.
Hmm. To each their own, I guess. The TV stones dynamic is what got me back into the game.
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