So ZOS just sent me this survey ...

cmetzger93 · April 2018

Good job. Here’s hoping I receive one.

OrdoHermetica · April 2018

DeadlyPhoenix wrote: »

I got one of these surveys a few months back and I let them have it.... Won't be surprised if they never ask for my opinion on stuff again.

As someone who builds surveys like this, albeit for academic research and marketing for non-profits: your responses are probably anonymous. They likely know that the link sent to your e-mail was clicked and whether or not you completed the survey, but that's it. They want honest answers (if they didn't, they wouldn't have bothered with putting together a survey), and anonymous responses are the best way to do that.

So, in short: nah, you're probably not on the blacklist.

Gargis · April 2018

Echoing what many people have already stated, the survey is more focused to get your to spend more in the Crown Store rather than actually, God forbid creating a product you enjoy and subsequently spending money as a consequence.

Early in the survey I figured that out and felt, wow, what a nice way to further alienate a costumer.

They asked the wrong questions if you are dissatisfied with the combat mechanics and server performance. Perhaps they should have asked;

Are you satisfied with combat mechanics in PVE and PVP?
Are your satisfied with game performance?
How often do you crash?
How long are your load screens on average?
Does this game feel more like a MMO or a FPS?
Do you feel that class balance and mechanics in PVE have a detriment in PVP and vice versa?
Do you think that pvp as devolved into "proc wars" between healing and damage Monster helm sets?

Then again, maybe I have it all wrong. I think that they should answer some of these questions to themselves.

What percentage of paying customers;

Have completed the majority of veteran trials.
Have completed the majority of veteran dungeons before they were nerfed.
Have completed VMA.
Have reached rank 30 in pvp.
What percentage of the above customers, who pay, spent money in the crown store and how often.
Which has greatest replay, pvp or pve.
What game is bleeding off our customers and why?
Are we so rich it does not matter and its a big jerkfest at this point.

Chakei · April 2018

This is how market research works (having worked in market research). Any company who puts together a survey is going to do it to get the feel of their target audience and it's going to be (or at least should be somewhat) randomized in hopes of getting a decently representative sample with as little bias as possible. Reading the forums and having to sift through all of the salt that collects is both time consuming and not going to translate into data that is easily readable or really helpful at all. By the time the data gets to the people who sought it, it should be anonymous and pinpointing the areas they're looking for feedback on.

Yzalirk · April 2018

DanteYoda wrote: »

Its most likely only the people who bought crowns in the last 6 months got them.. thats usually the way of business.. modern scummy business..

I bought like $100 worth of Crowns a couple of months back. I guess they do not view me as a valueable customer. And for the record, they went by pretty fast as everything in the Crown Store is priced more than they need to be.

nimander99 · April 2018

I got the same survey, the first few pages, which took 5 minutes maybe, I was like "Hell yeah, they want my feed back!"

Then it was 15 to 20 minutes of answering effing Crown Store questions! Talk about misplaced priorities... Kept asking the same questions in different ways.

I wanted a way to tell them, no I have never nor will every buy dye stamps and food or potions, carp basically. Then Crown Crates, the questions were way to general.

First I was excited, then I was gutted as I spent 20 minutes answering the same questions in different ways about the Crown Store.

And why does the CS even matter anymore? Anything worth a damn is in the Crown Crates which ruined the Crown Store....
/end rant

And yes, that was cathartic. Ty OP for posting on this.

Morgha_Kul · April 2018

I see these kinds of things often, but I always feel like they're the same thing as when my boss asks me my opinion on something in the store.

Anything I say, he does the opposite.
"Think we should mark these down?"
"No, they've only been on the floor an hour. Let's see how they do over the weekend at least."
"Mark them all down."

"Think we should leave the winter coats out?"
"Ya, the weather is still cold, and we're even getting a winter storm."
"Ok, pack them all up."

Every time I see questionnaires like this, it's the same thing. They ask us a bunch of questions and then ignore the answers.

Yzalirk · April 2018

I hope ESO does not turn into Destiny 2...

Skjarbrand · April 2018

Maybe ZOS tries to change their monetization model after the loot box debacle of BF2 and other games? So they make this costumer survey to gauge the feelings of their audience and collect hard data to use in their future decisions.
If most people don't like the crates, they actually might change them. The question is: how are they going to change them?

Beardimus · April 2018

As @Chakei said above. The data they collect will be the main thing they work on. The 1-10 answers giving management information

Pages of rambling responses about what you want to talk about probably won't make it that fair for any feeling they missed out.

Do i want to be heard about my views on Sorc, yep. Do i think.that survey would be the place? Nope. Certain threads on here probably better.

It's a marketing survey to collect data on how they can be more profitable, a good practice by a company wanting to make money zero surprise on my part.

Nightfall12 · April 2018

My survey looked oddly similar to the OP's

however i took every opportunity to click the other option as it gives you the ability to say exactly what you mean.
I wanted to let them know that the crown store itself is not my problem, but the crown crates and flash limited sales are. Sure some of the items being very pricey bothers me, but I know that there are many things in live that i will never have that others will cuz they have more money. I get that, i don't like it but i get it. However the forced buy now or miss out forever and the completely RNG based items are a problem, i wouldn't have a problem with those if EVERYthing in the crates could be purchased with the gems, but the moment 1 item depends completely on luck I'm not trying for it.

Zinaroth · April 2018

I don't know if you're here to harvest awesomes but you deserve every last one of them; here have another!

If people think leaving negative reviews on these surveys are going to change a thing they're in for a dissapointment:

What they will do with the surveys who are negative is throw them out of the window because the only message those surveys are carrying is that no matter what they do to the Crown Store this certain demographic will not be interested.
They will then instead focus their attention towards the people giving somewhat useful feedback on how to cater the Crown Store more to them (even if this is only 10 % of the answers) and make changes according to this.

TL;DR: This is not a survey that is supposed to gauge the general opinion on the Crown Store and as such negative feedback that shows no interest in anything Crown Store related will generally be dismissed on the basis of the answer being part of a certain demographic that can't be made money on and Zenimax will instead focus on catering the Crown Store to a different demographic that is more welcoming in the surveys, even if they only represent a minority.

LadyLethalla · April 2018

I received a survey... I am a console "peasant" and yes I did purchase some Crowns at the last sale. Me wantie Princely Palace already!

As I filled it out at work though I didn't have time to enter lengthy diatribes on the Crown store but I did pick those that conveyed what I thought about it as a (w)hole and its prices. But as with others I did find some of said "choices" irrelevant, especially the "please number the boxes". I couldn't care less about the latest mount or pet or costume, and I'm certainly not going to buy crates or outfit tokens. OR motifs, unless I have enough gems from the free crates.

And I wish it had been more about performance. I want to ask @ZOS_RichLambert and @ZOS_Wrobel, has anyone who works for ZOS ever tried to complete a vet trial or VMA on a crappy Internet like Australia's? On ADSL, rather than our almost-as-crappy "National Broadband Network"? Sure it can be done, if you don't ever expect to get Flawless. Please, guys, come try it at my house on a weekday at 11am. I've got white choc-chip cookies for you! Do you want directions?

Here's hoping they actually take notice of the survey results... can't imagine too many people answered that they thought the store prices were okay...

MornaBaine · April 2018

Zinaroth wrote: »

I don't know if you're here to harvest awesomes but you deserve every last one of them; here have another!

If people think leaving negative reviews on these surveys are going to change a thing they're in for a dissapointment:

What they will do with the surveys who are negative is throw them out of the window because the only message those surveys are carrying is that no matter what they do to the Crown Store this certain demographic will not be interested.
They will then instead focus their attention towards the people giving somewhat useful feedback on how to cater the Crown Store more to them (even if this is only 10 % of the answers) and make changes according to this.

TL;DR: This is not a survey that is supposed to gauge the general opinion on the Crown Store and as such negative feedback that shows no interest in anything Crown Store related will generally be dismissed on the basis of the answer being part of a certain demographic that can't be made money on and Zenimax will instead focus on catering the Crown Store to a different demographic that is more welcoming in the surveys, even if they only represent a minority.

I think we're all very aware that the cash shop isn't going away. Nor do I think most of us even want it to. But there is a LOT they can do to make it more "customer friendly" that doesn't even involve significantly dropping prices, though that would boost sales a ton. Take the furnishing packs they offer, just as one "for instance." They are often padded out with things no one really wants like yet more crates and barrels and burlap bags. Seriously, we have enough of them and they are EASY to get in game. Putting them in furnishing packs to pad the item count is just insulting. They should really stop that.

They should also stop putting items in those packs that you cannot purchase individually. Buying the pack of ALL the goodies should offer a significant savings over buying all of the items in it individually. But there should be NOTHING in it you can't buy as a stand alone. A lot of people would have bought the recent Aegis practice dummy but had no use for all the other stuff. Baiting them by making buying the whole pack necessary just made a lot of them mad. And more resistant to the cash shop than ever.

And while I actually bought TWO of those packs because I DID want everything in them I was personally affronted by the next one that came out because I REALLY wanted the "rift" item yet had NO interest in the other Deadric items offered. It would have just been more stuff I had to store, eating into my precious space. In fact, I wanted FOUR of those "rift" things and would have gladly spent even MORE than the entire pack cost JUST FOR THOSE. Instead, I passed on the entire thing and now have more ill will towards ZOS because of this practice.

Flash sales. These are terrible because they are just a blatant attempt to get subscribers to part with their crowns quickly rather than being able to save them up for an item they really want. And, of course, forces subscribers to buy crowns above and beyond their sub in order to get the usually wildly expensive items that make up these flash sales. This practice is insulting in general to customers but especially so to those of us who already support the game by maintaining a subscription.

I could totally go on but I'll stop here. I have Conan Exiles to play. Where not only are the furnishings free...but you can build your own house from the ground up.

Gargis · April 2018

If people think leaving negative reviews on these surveys are going to change a thing they're in for a dissapointment

^^^Correct.

The only thing that matters is if you spend money. Withhold that long enough and then they may.

Knootewoot · April 2018

MornaBaine wrote: »

I could totally go on but I'll stop here. I have Conan Exiles to play. Where not only are the furnishings free...but you can build your own house from the ground up.

Someone on the PvP server just levelled my house

ZOS_GinaBruno · April 2018

Taking a page from Rich's book and just doing this...

/lurk

Carbonised · April 2018

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Taking a page from Rich's book and just doing this...

/lurk

Hi, Gina, nice of you to join =p

I regret not filling in a bit of text in my survey, explaining why I rated the crown store as I did, but then again I think my box-ticks explains it pretty well, and other users such as @Turelus @SantieClaws and @MornaBaine have already given some great examples that I agree with fully.

- Limited time flash sale offers are consumer-unfriendly, especially at the rate they have been going on for the recent 1-2 years. Everything is limited time 4 days offers, and it creates an atmosphere of stress and rush. We all know these are virtual items, and it's not as if they suddenly will be out of stock or sold out. I also believe this is costing you money. I know that many, many times I have wanted to buy something from the store, just to find out that it was one of those 4 days flash sales, which never came around again even years after. It makes me a grumpy customer, and it costs you a sale that you would otherwise have had.

- The amount of stuff you have to buy from loot boxes is also unfriendly. We all vastly prefer direct purchases, where you can buy what you are looking for, instead of basically being forced to gamble. While this may prey on some people with those tendencies to waste a lot of money, especially for those really scummy radiant apex mounts, it also deters a lot of people from even buying these crates to begin with. So these are sales you lose out on, that you would otherwise have gotten, with a direct purchase.

- The prices are also overall in the very steep end. These are microtransactions with very little "micro" about them. With mounts for several thousand crowns and houses for tens of thousands of crowns, you're only catching the largest of the whales. As has been mentioned over and over again, is it better to sell 2 items for $10 or 4 items for $6? I think you overestimate the value of "exclusive" and "super rare" items for the average consumer. At least this survey will tell you just how many factor the "exclusiveness" into whether they are interested in an item or not, I know I don't.

- Some elements of the game seem to have been designed specifically to coerce/push/force/incentivize people into the Crown Store, particularly the furnishing/housing system, and the extreme scarcity of furnishing plans, especially for DLC content. I know you do this in hopes of getting people to buy the stuff from Crown Store instead, but here's the scenario. When Vvardenfell furniture plans were almost unobtainable, I just didn't bother with them, this is cosmetics without any gameplay value we're talking about, after all. Did it get me into the Crown Store? Absolutely not. You even lost sales over the houses I didn't buy, for why buy houses you can't decorate.
When Vvardenfell recipes landed in the documents, I instantly bought all Vvardenfell homes for Crowns, and furnished them with the stuff I could make. I even bought some Crown Store exclusive stuff to go along with that, all in all a pretty good chunck of money straight to you. Had you not made these documents more available, I would have just let it go and you'd lose out on the sales for both all the houses and the stuff I bought from the store to go along with them. Feeling pushed/coerced/forced/manipulated into the Crown Store makes for very grumpy customers. Feeling that it is a choice, an option, an enhancement or an upgrade to something you already can do/get/make for free makes for happier customers, and more sales.

Change some of this for the better, give me another survey in the mail, and I'll be happy to give you a better grade next time

Edit: I think it's also very important to repeat what @Turelus and others have mentioned; ESO is a very nice game, the developers, the design team, the sound team, the community managers and the lore geeks are clearly passionate about the game, and it shows. I think few of us have anything to complain about when it comes to the actual game itself. The marketing and sales department, however, continues to sour the experience update after update, and their initiatives are what is starting to ruin an otherwise enjoyable gaming experience.

Avran_Sylt · April 2018

@ZOS_GinaBruno

Would you be willing to discuss why this topic interests you? What kind of feedback you're interested in? Is it the general survey being spread to the forums, or is it specifically the idea of this survey that interest you?

driosketch · April 2018

Zinaroth wrote: »

I don't know if you're here to harvest awesomes but you deserve every last one of them; here have another!

If people think leaving negative reviews on these surveys are going to change a thing they're in for a dissapointment:

What they will do with the surveys who are negative is throw them out of the window because the only message those surveys are carrying is that no matter what they do to the Crown Store this certain demographic will not be interested.
They will then instead focus their attention towards the people giving somewhat useful feedback on how to cater the Crown Store more to them (even if this is only 10 % of the answers) and make changes according to this.

TL;DR: This is not a survey that is supposed to gauge the general opinion on the Crown Store and as such negative feedback that shows no interest in anything Crown Store related will generally be dismissed on the basis of the answer being part of a certain demographic that can't be made money on and Zenimax will instead focus on catering the Crown Store to a different demographic that is more welcoming in the surveys, even if they only represent a minority.

Believe me I fully understand this. This is why I completely boycott crown crates but buy stuff they put up for direct sale, provided it is reasonably priced and well designed. It's a concept I learned in psychology that if you want a behavior to stop it is sometimes best to reinforce another non compatible behavior. I would hope though, amongst those who spend crowns, that I'm not in too small a minority.

casparian · April 2018

The crown store is great; there's some fun stuff in there and I'm happy to have somewhere to spend the crowns from my Plus subscription. (Though as others have said, sometimes the pricing is off and too many things are locked behind random drops with no other option for obtaining them.)

The issue is when the gameplay comes to be designed around the crown store. It's not acceptable when a game's cash shop comes to occupy a place in our actual gameplay. Examples of this include:
- making some important items attainable in-game only through a frustrating and unsustainable grind (e.g. home furnishings, jewelry crafting), thereby pushing players to buy them in the crown store
- making some achievement-related items exclusive to the crown store or crown crates (e.g. motifs)
- giving players who make crown purchases a direct gameplay advantage over players who do not (e.g. giving players who buy jewelry research scrolls faster access to high-level jewelrycrafting than players who do not)

We want to go to the crown store when we want to spend money on nice cosmetics to spice up our game, not because we feel pushed there by the game's mechanics. No one likes to feel forced to spend money.

reiverx · April 2018

The problem with overpricing items is that you become reliant on the select few who are willing to pay. So while this is great for short term gain, it means that things are gonna hurt if any of those people decide to move on.

Always better to cater for the masses.

Kodrac · April 2018

The survey is only to find the line they can not cross. It'll be different for everyone, but they'll use the data to determine what the majority is. If they lose some people so be it. They don't care as long as there's profit to be made.

Anastian · April 2018

Carbonised wrote: »

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Taking a page from Rich's book and just doing this...

/lurk

Hi, Gina, nice of you to join =p

I regret not filling in a bit of text in my survey, explaining why I rated the crown store as I did, but then again I think my box-ticks explains it pretty well, and other users such as @Turelus @SantieClaws and @MornaBaine have already given some great examples that I agree with fully.

- Limited time flash sale offers are consumer-unfriendly, especially at the rate they have been going on for the recent 1-2 years. Everything is limited time 4 days offers, and it creates an atmosphere of stress and rush. We all know these are virtual items, and it's not as if they suddenly will be out of stock or sold out. I also believe this is costing you money. I know that many, many times I have wanted to buy something from the store, just to find out that it was one of those 4 days flash sales, which never came around again even years after. It makes me a grumpy customer, and it costs you a sale that you would otherwise have had.

- The amount of stuff you have to buy from loot boxes is also unfriendly. We all vastly prefer direct purchases, where you can buy what you are looking for, instead of basically being forced to gamble. While this may prey on some people with those tendencies to waste a lot of money, especially for those really scummy radiant apex mounts, it also deters a lot of people from even buying these crates to begin with. So these are sales you lose out on, that you would otherwise have gotten, with a direct purchase.

- The prices are also overall in the very steep end. These are microtransactions with very little "micro" about them. With mounts for several thousand crowns and houses for tens of thousands of crowns, you're only catching the largest of the whales. As has been mentioned over and over again, is it better to sell 2 items for $10 or 4 items for $6? I think you overestimate the value of "exclusive" and "super rare" items for the average consumer. At least this survey will tell you just how many factor the "exclusiveness" into whether they are interested in an item or not, I know I don't.

- Some elements of the game seem to have been designed specifically to coerce/push/force/incentivize people into the Crown Store, particularly the furnishing/housing system, and the extreme scarcity of furnishing plans, especially for DLC content. I know you do this in hopes of getting people to buy the stuff from Crown Store instead, but here's the scenario. When Vvardenfell furniture plans were almost unobtainable, I just didn't bother with them, this is cosmetics without any gameplay value we're talking about, after all. Did it get me into the Crown Store? Absolutely not. You even lost sales over the houses I didn't buy, for why buy houses you can't decorate.
When Vvardenfell recipes landed in the documents, I instantly bought all Vvardenfell homes for Crowns, and furnished them with the stuff I could make. I even bought some Crown Store exclusive stuff to go along with that, all in all a pretty good chunck of money straight to you. Had you not made these documents more available, I would have just let it go and you'd lose out on the sales for both all the houses and the stuff I bought from the store to go along with them. Feeling pushed/coerced/forced/manipulated into the Crown Store makes for very grumpy customers. Feeling that it is a choice, an option, an enhancement or an upgrade to something you already can do/get/make for free makes for happier customers, and more sales.

Change some of this for the better, give me another survey in the mail, and I'll be happy to give you a better grade next time

Edit: I think it's also very important to repeat what @Turelus and others have mentioned; ESO is a very nice game, the developers, the design team, the sound team, the community managers and the lore geeks are clearly passionate about the game, and it shows. I think few of us have anything to complain about when it comes to the actual game itself. The marketing and sales department, however, continues to sour the experience update after update, and their initiatives are what is starting to ruin an otherwise enjoyable gaming experience.

Must agree with what @Carbonised wrote and add that I, for example, have been looking for a cool mount to purchase since a while but wasn't satisfied so far. If the offer was better, I might even purchase some crowns to get it (I have a small stash I wish to use later on) but right now I am left with hoping for a cool horse to be released on a 4 days sale, which ultimately led me to postpone the purchase.

Carb also knows I am one of the few people who has been playing this game without ever subscribing to ESO+, although now I was planning to do that mostly to access the rest of the DLCs I am missing and to increase the furniture limit I have. Seeing however that I couldn't use the crowns for something I really like in the store led me to postpone the purchase once more (at this point, I'd rather buy ESO+ than the crowns themselves, no?).

And this is mostly because I don't want to hope to drop one mount out of one thousand through crates.
To me it feels like going to a supermarket, with a fat wallet, and seeing that you cannot purchase your favourite cookies and groceries because either you have to choose random buckets and hope that stuff is in there or enter the shop on Friday, 8 AM, because that's the only time when they are available to the public. Feels odd doesn't it?

PS: I honestly really like the concept of not having to subscribe to ESO+ to access all content, I bought most of the DLCs with crowns because I prefer to own my stuff instead of "renting" it and I really believe this should be the way to go!

chess1ukb16_ESO · April 2018

Got one too and like many was really happy to start filling it in, only to find 2 pages on critical game questions and over a dozen on the lousy crown store.

The balance of the questionnaire was shocking and sends a very unsubtle hint on priorities.

ZoS please focus your energies on the GAME and I promise the money will flood in medium to long term. Focus on the Crown Store is short sighted.

xbobx · April 2018

Kodrac wrote: »

The survey is only to find the line they can not cross. It'll be different for everyone, but they'll use the data to determine what the majority is. If they lose some people so be it. They don't care as long as there's profit to be made.

the problem is they seem to be young, inexperience people ignorant in basic business. That is what worries me.

they have already shown they think you make more money by pricing things higher which is ignorance at its best.

xbobx · April 2018

chess1ukb16_ESO wrote: »

Got one too and like many was really happy to start filling it in, only to find 2 pages on critical game questions and over a dozen on the lousy crown store.

The balance of the questionnaire was shocking and sends a very unsubtle hint on priorities.

ZoS please focus your energies on the GAME and I promise the money will flood in medium to long term. Focus on the Crown Store is short sited.

you are being kind. its stupid and suicidal.

xbobx · April 2018

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Taking a page from Rich's book and just doing this...

/lurk

hey Gina, stop lurking and start contributing. Being that is your job.

Fetaro · April 2018

I haven't got this survey (yet), but I mostly agree. Even though I don't have anything against the idea of having such a store, it could be much better :

Fewer time-limited items
Gold => Crowns ingame exchange (no crowns => gold exchange, just one-way)
Achievements points can be exchanged for crowns (more players would do dungeons, raids, delves, bosses, events, etc...)
Crowns can be earned through achievements (same parenthesis as above, account-wide. If an achievement have been done by a character, another character wont get the crowns of said achievement)
Daily quests would work the same way as in Overwatch. X completed daily quests = 1 crown crate, with a weekly limit of Y crates

dotme · April 2018

chess1ukb16_ESO wrote: »

ZoS please focus your energies on the GAME and I promise the money will flood in medium to long term. Focus on the Crown Store is short sighted.

Agree! Businesses sell more merchandise when they have more traffic. Make compelling content, and the pool of buyers increases no matter what you're selling. It's common sense. Content is king.

I've been a console player since launch. The only part of ESO I've found that is unpredictable enough to sustain my attention every single day is PvP. The questing and farming is repetitious, dungeons and trials are a matter of memorizing mechanics, and once that's been done they are the same experience every time you run them.

PvP offers variety because your experience depends on the actions of other people, not programmed NPCs and monsters that will do the same thing every time you encounter them. I've watched the PvP population drop like a rock over the past year. PvP feels neglected to me. I'm a ESO+ subscriber and so are many others who PvP. I spend $15/month and the part of the game I feel offers the most variety gets no love.

I guess what I'm saying is if the goal is to increase revenue, why not invest in improvements and changes that make PvP, especially AvAvA, compelling again? I swear there's no other game for consoles that can hold a candle to ESO when it comes to open world warfare. I feel like an opportunity has been lost because the one part of the game that can literally be different every time you play it has seen little investment over the past 2 years.