Streamers do what they do to get sponsors, NOT to "represent the players" or some other starry-eyed nonsense.
I have never seen anything productive come of these meetings. If anything, the primary purpose it serves is to pacify the most vocal members of the community so people like Deltia will maybe not be so quick to dis things like casino crates next time, since they are being given special treatment. Less likely to bite the hand that feeds and all. So they throw 'em a bone.
People with legitimate constructive criticism are most often flatly ignored and frequently demonized and attacked by people on the forums thinking they are doing their part to "make positivism for the sake of it great again."
I have never met a company or community so allergic to constructive criticism as this one. Here it is treated like anything that isn't kitten memes and compliments is an evil, hostile attack against everything good and right in the world.
Sheesh...
Also, I think it's pretty crappy how mod and addon authors are always left out in the cold and treated sort of like second class citizens next to their PR pets. They are seemingly just taken for granted for the most part.
We are expected to fix bugs and generate value for the company for free. We don't even get crown perks or community picks for some meaningless title or anything. Fine whatever, I do it as a hobby. But so do streamers. Yet streamers get big time sponsorship and MONEY for THEIR hobby.
I'd be lucky to make enough in donations to pay my monthly sub.
Then when it comes time to talk to the people that are generating hype for the game who gets invited? The twitch crowd of course. Meh. More fuel for the meta-chasing homogenization of all classes and builds.
And ZOS STILL won't balance PVE and PVP separately (pure laziness) so every patch they further destroy unique play styles to counter the current PVP meta that people like Sypher and Fengrush and Deltia create.
Seems legit. Only invite echos to the chamber.
And I'm still fairly confident that the consoles have larger and quicker growing populations than PC, based on anecdotal multi-platform players' reports - even deltia in one of his recent videos mentioned how much more lively PS4 EU is compared to his normal PC NA. I'm also more inclined to lend credence to those players who have actually played on multiple platforms rather than simply deducing that "PC is the traditional home of MMORPGs therefore the population is bigger there". But until Zenimax actually releases player count stats, which I don't expect will be any time soon, we may as well keep chucking rebuttals at each other ad infinitum.
rfennell_ESO wrote: »I'd bet at least half the "streamers" that were invited were DC who don't currently give two craps about balance and that's being conservative.
willlienellson wrote: »
I wrote this last time I took notice of someone claiming jealousy was the motivation behind my post, so I'll post it again now.
"I want my friends, good players, to stop leaving the game because it is always moving in inexplicable directions by a company that seems completely ALOOF to feedback while the game becomes more and more synonymous with these celebrity players that are surrounded by, if not themselves, the most cancerous toxic members of the game."
You disagree with me? That's fine, but when people dismiss a feeling that well over a hundred people seem to agree with as "you be hatin cause you so jelly bro, lulz" you seem like.........ahh heck I better stop. Rules and stuff.
Gandrhulf_Harbard wrote: »I've done what we assume @Deltia et al are doing in a different game. But I knew that game inside out, I managed 4 servers totaling over 110 player slots, I was very actively involved in cheat detection and prevention, and I could scan down server logs and just know if something was wrong. And with all of that being involved in such a task was not easy.
So am I jealous of those invited? No.
I know I am not at the level of understanding of this game that would make me an asset to that group - and such a group can not afford to have anyone in it that shouldn't be in it.
But @willlienellson points are still valid. A handful of the top 5% of players isn't representative - no matter what it is they are testing, previewing.
Let's assume they are testing the Battlegrounds. If this is how it proceeds then those battlegrounds will be "balanced" around meta builds 90% of the playerbase don't use, gear builds that 90% of the playerbase don't have access to, and a skill level 60^ of the playerbase will never attain.
Cyrodiil already turns most players away from PvP because unless you run a meta build, with uber gear and 500+ CP you are nothing more than meat for someone else's grinder.
Repeating that with Battlegrounds will NOT encourage those players to engage with PvP more than they already do. So you'll end up with all these resources spent on an aspect of the game that maybe 20% regularly use and everyone else uses once and thinks "n'ah, I'd rather not thanks".
If that happens what is the likelihood of ZeniMax spending any more serious money on PvP? Zero!
Some people see Battlegrounds as a leap forward for PvP in ESO.
They aren't.
They are a litmus test for ZeniMax to see if they can make the investment in PvP payoff, to see if PvP is worth supporting at all going forward. Battleground are, in effect, One Tamriel for PvP - an attempt to make that game content much more inclusive, and much more appealing to a greater percentage of the playerbase.
They need a more Inclusive PvP model to make any future investment a value for money investment. And they will not achieve that by balancing the new PvP around 0.01% of the 20% that actually PvP.
The new PvP needs to accommodate non meta builds, it needs to accommodate casual PvPers who roll in with their PvE build (something that SWTOR Warsones did very, very well in comparison to most games), it needs to make sure the bottom 20% of players don't go in there once, get steamrollered and never come back.
So, if this is about getting Battlegrounds tested and balanced by "top end" players and leading edge theorycrafters, as some of you have suggested then the alarming news for you is this: they are still doing it wrong.
All The Best
willlienellson wrote: »I can't even begin to reply to you in detail without breaking the rules, because you're post was so full of just baiting nonsense and ridiculous rhetorical question one after another.bowmanz607 wrote: »snip
You wrote that many people agree with their positions. That's fair. But many people also agree with mine. Go check the OP and look at the agrees at the bottom. Then look at the actual number of people attacking me in this thread. A few of them are posting dozens of times. One guy posted like 6 snarky posts (like yours) in a single page.
So, I don't think anyone doubts that the streamers have supporters. But if you think I'm some lone guy that is "just jelly", you need to go look at the numbers on the bottom of that OP and get some perspective.
But I'm not jealous, and I don't really understand who over the age of 15 would be jealous of a professional video gamer.lol
I wrote this last time I took notice of someone claiming jealousy was the motivation behind my post, so I'll post it again now.
"I want my friends, good players, to stop leaving the game because it is always moving in inexplicable directions by a company that seems completely ALOOF to feedback while the game becomes more and more synonymous with these celebrity players that are surrounded by, if not themselves, the most cancerous toxic members of the game."
You disagree with me? That's fine, but when people dismiss a feeling that well over a hundred people seem to agree with as "you be hatin cause you so jelly bro, lulz" you seem like.........ahh heck I better stop. Rules and stuff.
Gandrhulf_Harbard wrote: »
The new PvP needs to accommodate non meta builds, it needs to accommodate casual PvPers who roll in with their PvE build (something that SWTOR Warsones did very, very well in comparison to most games), it needs to make sure the bottom 20% of players don't go in there once, get steamrollered and never come back.
So, if this is about getting Battlegrounds tested and balanced by "top end" players and leading edge theorycrafters, as some of you have suggested then the alarming news for you is this: they are still doing it wrong.
All The Best
Joy_Division wrote: »Desto ultimate getting kills even while being a terrible player?
Joy_Division wrote: »LoL. Is this a joke? Zos has been bending over backwards since the very beginning to accommodate "casual PvPers". Shield breaker set is about as casual as it gets. Same with Viscious Death. Proc sets that deal damage for players? Casual. AoE caps? Casual. Zerg-friendly meta? Casual. Breath of Life spamming templars? Casual. CP system making resource management trivial? Casual. Desto ultimate getting kills even while being a terrible player? Casual. Gap-closer auto snare? Casual. Removal of ground oils? Casual. Battle Spirit mechanic? Casual
Fengrush plays all classes if they're stamsorcleepalmer95 wrote: »willlienellson wrote: »Oh darn. That completely refutes everything I said. Totes.leepalmer95 wrote: »Hey man at least these streamers can spell ZeniMax right.
I didn't even bold the corporate name, or capitalize it in the middle. I'm so ashamed of myself.
Most popular streamers tend to play all classes, they tend to have a lot of play time in the game. They play the game at a very high level and know what they are talking about.
So why shouldn't zos bring in high end players for testing? Is that such a bad thing.
Also i capitalised ZeniMax in the middle because that is how it is.
Gandrhulf_Harbard wrote: »bowmanz607 wrote: »This game is set up for casuals already. They don't even need skill to beat good players many times any more. Imagine if skills was still a huge factor. It would be worse for them. Bottom line is if your not competent at the game you get steamrolled. Competent players dont. I don't know about you but I don't want incompetent players testing this game.
As someone who played in competitive leagues for FPS games let me assure you of one thing: if you think PvP in MMORPGs has anything at all to do with player skill you are very much mistaken.
In FPS games where EVERYONE has the same gear and EVERYONE has the same skill bar options - THAT is where player skill really comes into it.
And most MMORPGs PvPers wouldn't last 2 hours in that environment - so they play MMORPGs where FOTM Builds, and Gear are a proxy for 99% of skill.
And then when on a rare someone does come along and beat them they whine constantly to get skills nerfed becuase its just not fair they get beaten.
These are NOT the type of people who should be consulted about balancing a game, because they don't want balance - they want easy kills over guys who aren't running the Meta build with uber gear.
All The Best
Gandrhulf_Harbard wrote: »Joy_Division wrote: »Desto ultimate getting kills even while being a terrible player?
For the record if someone use a Destro ultimate at the point they have people around them to target and they get kills that makes them a good player - they used the skill at the tactically appropriate time.
The terrible player is the fool who gets killed by a Destro ultimate.
Let me give you a hint - don't stand in it.
All The Best
Gandrhulf_Harbard wrote: »Joy_Division wrote: »LoL. Is this a joke? Zos has been bending over backwards since the very beginning to accommodate "casual PvPers". Shield breaker set is about as casual as it gets. Same with Viscious Death. Proc sets that deal damage for players? Casual. AoE caps? Casual. Zerg-friendly meta? Casual. Breath of Life spamming templars? Casual. CP system making resource management trivial? Casual. Desto ultimate getting kills even while being a terrible player? Casual. Gap-closer auto snare? Casual. Removal of ground oils? Casual. Battle Spirit mechanic? Casual
And still only approximately 20% of players bother with PvP.
So they are still not getting it right, and further investment is probably money down the drain.
All The Best
bowmanz607 wrote: »this^ type of player jave lead the game down a casual road. the mentality that oh i used it tactically cause people were around.
that is what zos should not be listening to.
For the record if someone use a Destro ultimate at the point they have people around them to target and they get kills that makes them a good player - they used the skill at the tactically appropriate time.
The terrible player is the fool who gets killed by a Destro ultimate.
willlienellson wrote: »ZOS Focuses way too much on the feedback of elite "celebrity" gamers while they roundly ignore player consensus and feedback on the forums as a matter of course. It's a problem.
Original Post Below:
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Apparently, right now, a select elite of ESO youtubers like Sypher and Deltia, etc are meeting in person with Zenimax after being invited to the headquarters.
While these youtubers provide a service with their content, they hardly represent the ESO player base neither formally nor informally. They most often represent each other. They represent a micro-industry that operates along side ESO. If anything in-game, they represent a small minority of elite guilds that don't experience ESO like the rest of us and are not good representatives.
Please allow me to explain and provide examples.
PvP: I'm not suggesting any of the specific youtubers or "celebrity players" cheat (although some do and have been banned for it), but they also don't experience playing against cheating, or even against OP players, in the same way. Members of this class of ESO players avoid combat with each other. Many of the known cheaters in this game belong to the same guilds as these elite celebrity ESO players. That doesn't mean the celebrity youtubers are cheating, but it usually means the cheaters don't fight against them. This results in this group having an unrealistically casual viewpoint on cheating as something more benign than it is.
Exploits/Secrets: And exploiting game glitches is the cousin of cheating. Things that aren't working as intended, but are unlikely to get you banned, are passed around as open-secrets within the group and become staples of builds, but are not shared publicly because they don't want them fixed.
Here are two examples of fixed exploits that people weren't getting banned for, that I think I can provide since they no longer work.
1) You could double enchant Flanking Set jewelry with a total of 6 jewelry glyphs instead of 3.
2) You could glitch out Hist Bark set to give a dodge bonus even after you took the set off.
So while you were making the hard choices about how to enchant your jewelry, some players were not. When you were spending 3000 stamina to cast Shuffle, or wearing 5 pieces of Hist Bark, others were dodging with neither.
I'm not accusing anyone of doing these things, but I know the people who did do these things are embedded within that small community. So, at it's most benign, this colors the feedback and impressions of the players in that community which are passed on to Zos as apparently about the only feedback they are actually interested in.
Powercreep: Even if none of the youtube celebrity player cheat, or exploit, or take advantage of tricks....the higher ceiling of performance that is enjoyed on average in these communities is exacerbating the power creep problem in this game. Members of this sector of the community are always the first to say, "This game offers me no challenge. VMA is too easy. This is too easy. That is too easy".
Balancing: Their opinion of balance rarely reflects the community because they rarely face players utilizing abilities to their maximum effectiveness due to the fact that players within this class avoid fighting each other. This is the only game I've ever played where friends cannot play against each other. I've had several of the people I consider members of this niche group actually tell me point blank, "Friends don't kill each other in PvP. I'll give you a pass and you give me a pass. Stop fighting against me or I'm taking you off friends list".
Instead of two great players with great builds fighting each other and learning that certain abilities are indeed out of balance, they pass by each other, high-fiving one another as they farm the pugs from each others alliances and convince themselves that the game is perfectly balanced but THEY are individually "Gods of PvP".
These players don't have experiences in the game that would allow them to adequately represent the larger player base.
The resources were used to have this elite youtube gathering session at Zenimax would have been better spent reading the forums, selecting a few issues with broad community consensus, and then having an internal meeting on how to best address those concerns. But that's too much to hope for.
Yes, I'm painting with a broad brush. There are exceptions to every rule and I'm not trying to disparage anyone specifically. I don't blame anyone for accepting the invitation. This is a rebuke of how Zos operates.
I subscribe to Deltia's channel, I like his content, and his personality. But I don't like him as a representative of ESO players.
If you like their videos, that's fine. If you run their builds, that's great. If you think I'm full of crap, that's okay. And Zos can invite whoever they want on a sleepover.
But, if you've ever wondered why this game is balanced around the top 1% of players and the roleplayers being bought off with mount reskins with everyone in the middle ignored, THIS IS WHY.
[Edit to remove mention of moderator actions and political references]
willlienellson wrote: »Which makes no sense to me at all. All these dedicated ESO youtube channels would be talking about the same things whether they got invited for special feedback or notPretty sure it's all simply marketing and optics.
I even watched Sypher's video for the first time and he was like, "I'm testing super secret things I can't talk about".
That is hardly amazing "marketing and optics".
If this were about marketing......I think we'd be getting......wait for it...marketing.
Instead you've got (of the couple min I watched) Sypher saying he cannot say what they're testing and then asking his subscribers to let him know what issues and feedback he should give.
If this is marketing, this is failed marketing.
bowmanz607 wrote: »Gandrhulf_Harbard wrote: »Joy_Division wrote: »LoL. Is this a joke? Zos has been bending over backwards since the very beginning to accommodate "casual PvPers". Shield breaker set is about as casual as it gets. Same with Viscious Death. Proc sets that deal damage for players? Casual. AoE caps? Casual. Zerg-friendly meta? Casual. Breath of Life spamming templars? Casual. CP system making resource management trivial? Casual. Desto ultimate getting kills even while being a terrible player? Casual. Gap-closer auto snare? Casual. Removal of ground oils? Casual. Battle Spirit mechanic? Casual
And still only approximately 20% of players bother with PvP.
So they are still not getting it right, and further investment is probably money down the drain.
All The Best
stop throwing out random percentages. You have nothing to base them on. Just stop.
bowmanz607 wrote: »Gandrhulf_Harbard wrote: »Joy_Division wrote: »LoL. Is this a joke? Zos has been bending over backwards since the very beginning to accommodate "casual PvPers". Shield breaker set is about as casual as it gets. Same with Viscious Death. Proc sets that deal damage for players? Casual. AoE caps? Casual. Zerg-friendly meta? Casual. Breath of Life spamming templars? Casual. CP system making resource management trivial? Casual. Desto ultimate getting kills even while being a terrible player? Casual. Gap-closer auto snare? Casual. Removal of ground oils? Casual. Battle Spirit mechanic? Casual
And still only approximately 20% of players bother with PvP.
So they are still not getting it right, and further investment is probably money down the drain.
All The Best
stop throwing out random percentages. You have nothing to base them on. Just stop.
Gandrhulf_Harbard wrote: »bowmanz607 wrote: »this^ type of player jave lead the game down a casual road. the mentality that oh i used it tactically cause people were around.
that is what zos should not be listening to.
So are you saying that to tactically use an AOE skill I should use it when there aren't any potential targets to hit?
Really?
There are three valid tactical reasons for using an AOE skill I can think of:
1. To target a group of enemies with the intention of harming/killing them.
2. To target an area in the expectation of revealing hidden enemies.
3. To target an area to deny the enemy passage through that area.
You have any issues with that?
So my comment above that:For the record if someone use a Destro ultimate at the point they have people around them to target and they get kills that makes them a good player - they used the skill at the tactically appropriate time.
The terrible player is the fool who gets killed by a Destro ultimate.
Was accurate, and for you to claim it wasn't shows that ZOS should not be listening to people like you.
All The Best
Spectral_Lord wrote: »From personal observation, the game has over the years since its release catered more to making things more casual. Even with "listening to the community" they only did what a major group of complainers complained about, which were trivial things at best, and the real issues that others were trying to tell them about were ignored.
"ZoS never listens to players!"
"We've invited some players to HQ."
"You invited the wrong players."
"We've invited a diverse group from all over the world."
"Sypher OP!"
The bits in italics should be read in a squeaky voice.