10th Anniversary in-game aftertaste: What's your impression in total?

tom6143346

It was not OK. I found only a small part acceptable.

A total [snip] not more, and showed me at least how nice big parts of the community really is. On both sides locked and not locked players. Very eye opening all of what was happening.

[edited for profanity bypass]

huntgod_ESO

It was not OK. I found only a small part acceptable.

100+ hours farming replica motifs was abusive and infuriating.

Spending 15 tickets for the horse mount didn't feel very rewarding.

Spending 7 tickets on cake slices for an achievement was not rewarding.

Being told the event was extended two days and having that second day wip3d out by maintenance was insulting.

All in all, the worst anniversary event to date and ws so because of exploitative choices.

Only good thing was purple boxes and motifs which ar3 present in every anniversary event.

I give it a grade of D-...

alternatelder

It was OK, but some parts were unpleasant.

I've played every single Jubilee year for everyday the event lasted, this was the first year I only played on some of my days off, which was about 4 or 5 days total. I used to play 3 different accounts through this event which would have been 2200 boxes on one alone. I estimated about 600 between the two I played this year...If that tells you anything. It's just the same thing every year and I'm getting severely burnt out on ESO, not even hyped for Gold Road at the moment.

It's partially Fallout 76's fault though. I'm enjoying my time there more than ESO currently.

driosketch

It was OK, but some parts were unpleasant.

Anniversary event is the usual, doing daily writs earning boxes until I run out of inventory space. This year I had twenty characters, so it was a lot. It's a plus that boxes droped from more activities but it seemed like I just didn't have enough time to take advantage of other activities. One of the issues is the extra endeavors for Thieves Guild/Dark Brotherhood running during the event. There were already time constraints with limited drops, should have been tradable, and then players getting locked out. Overall left a slightly bitter aftertaste on what is usually an event I look forward to.

Leighlaa

It was OK, but some parts were unpleasant.

I **ALWAYS** enjoy the jubilee event... I'm a big fan of crafting and have 27 crafters I do writs on during the event (two accounts). That's my main box farm. So that "grind" I enjoy!

I also liked that we got new style pages! I had to have 2 of them, and then the other 3 I didn't care as much about. Until I started dreaming about getting the Vvard style pages. Literally dreaming of it. To the point where I want to go and see if I did in fact get the Ul'nor or w/e it's called stick in Vvard. I know I didn't. I wish it hadn't been quite so painful to get them all, not that I felt I HAD TO.. or even wanted them all, I just like to complete things. *shrug* it's ok though.

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE THE NEW PONY. I CANNOT EXPRESS MY LOVE FOR THE NEW PONY ENOUGH! Confetti? Braids? CAKE?!!? Um yes, count me SO. IN. (the only way it could've been better is if it had been a guar)

Also: Major props to whoever dreamed up the cake slice idea. While I'm mildly sad I missed out on the 2017 and 2019 (I think?) cakes because I was moving those years (NEVER MOVE IN APRIL. NEVER.) it was so so so nice being able to have a bit of those cakes, like I went to a friend's home with the cake and took a doggy bag home

Though I know the event was extended and I like to keep motifs valuable, I noticed there was a MARKED DECREASE in the blueprint drops from jubilee boxes this year. I got many, many, purple provisioning recipes, but like... 4?? purple blueprints? ALL MONTH?! While I understand lowering drop rates to retain value of things (YAY!) ... couldn't some of those purple food recipes (USELESS) have been furniture blueprints?? I feel like the majority of gamers use all-level foods like Witch Brew or Dubious Camoran etc.... So yay for filling out my cookbook but ick~ for my IKEA catalogue.

Overall though, VERY happy with jubilee, per usual... but also quite happy it's over. I have housing to do.

Gaebriel0410

Everything was great. I enjoyed it.

Fantastic event, I always farm the Jubilee, since the stuff I get from it will last me for many months.

My goal was to make enough money to be able to impulse buy the Circle Knight sword and not feel bad about spending 4,5m on a sword, RNGsus was kind as I found it for "only" 3.

I was smart for once and made sure to apply to a Mournhold trade guild beforehand, and made lots of gold without even selling That many of the mats I acquired, most of my treasure hoard is still in my bank.

With the box drops I completed the Y'ffre's Will and Drowned Mariner motifs, both of which I thought still too expensive to buy from traders.

Also the event gave me enough furnishing mats to be set in case there's a new house I like.

I think I gave away over 300 purple outfit motifs, some to friends or guildies and some to random people, so I made lots of other people happy too with my findings, which is always the most important thing imo.

One day I even got to be a skyshard! I posted location riddles in zone chat when on my fey nature spirit character, hid somewhere playing pan flute, and then gave people some random motifs when they found me, was very fun.

Though now I will probably not do crafting writs for at least a few months. xD

Syntur

The worst event ever. I hate everything in it.

The entire event was a missed opportunity all together. I mean this was supposed to be a "CELEBRATION" of ESO and you choose this?

The farming for boxes was about the only good thing about the event as it was easy to just farm the World Bosses for them. Though most of the time they didn't give much in the way of rewards.

Giving players a bunch of tickets but than requiring those that logged in EVERY DAY to still use some of those tickets to get the celebration items is absurd and should never have been the case. The tickets should be used for the extra items such as missed styles or to make up for days missed. They should NOT be a requirement for the event achievements like they were and it would have been better if they just had the mount require like 15 of the confetti but decrease the event tickets to 45.

Add into that the issue they had which extended the event but couldn't change the login screen with the updated date. So, I saw it was the last day and purchased my last confetti just to find out it was a waste since we had 3 more days after the purchase and was told by support "Thanks for the Feedback" but I wasn't getting my tickets back.

The replica drop rates were insane, I farmed everyday on them several hours and only got 4/5 and as far as I could tell there were no other options to get these during the event. So some people get RNG'd out of getting things because you put a limit on the amount of time they could get them and might not ever be able to get them again without paying. Again this is a "CELEBRATION" but you make it so not everyone can actually get them and leave it to RNG. Wow what a great way to "CELEBRATE" playing ESO than having people put time into trying to get something but end up probably having to use crown coins to get it later.

This obviously is just to foment the FOMO type of thinking to get people to play instead of enjoying the type of play they want with others.

Overall the event was more of a chore than a celebration and a badly planned out one. Instead of fostering the idea of bringing in new players and rewarding longtime players they decided to go with a FOMO/ticket/crown coin grab. This is one of the many reasons I've stopped my subscription to ESO.

Tensar

The worst event ever. I hate everything in it.

worst event I saw in any MMO

I farmed every days during 1-4 hours and I didn't have the page styles (only 2, one from fishing and one yesterday on WB...)

I didn't even do the daillies quest just to farm the motifs (and I didn't have...)

When I see an event like this I just want this game to die for good.

jcaceresw

It was OK, but some parts were unpleasant.

Right now condensing everything I have collected with all my accounts during the whole event. Will give a more detailed answer later.

TomCat

It was not OK. I found only a small part acceptable.

It wasn't an anniversary celebration, it was a bloody permanent grind after five bound-on-pickup Replicas.

The replica from fishing could be obtained anywhere in Tamriel, as could the replica from the dolmens - no problem.
It took a while for the WBs in Vvardenfall to drop the two replicas, but the event was long enough to get them in the end - everything fine.
But hundreds of players at the same time at the geysers in Summerset - that wasn't fun. I was literally blinded and could hardly see anything.
The rewards were ok, but everyone already has many of the items you want to sell in stock.

Remember the Secrets of Telvanni event last October? This was a real community event worthy of an anniversary celebration.
Well, ESO has much better to offer, so I don't want to think about this anniversary event anymore

Tensar

The worst event ever. I hate everything in it.

TomCat wrote: »

The replica from fishing could be obtained anywhere in Tamriel, as could the replica from the dolmens - no problem.
It took a while for the WBs in Vvardenfall to drop the two replicas, but the event was long enough to get them in the end - everything fine.

It was not, and the time was not only the problem when I spend 4 hours per day to farm them and I just 2 of them in the end.

The droprate was just too low

Wolf_Eye

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Bonemold, Saberkeel, and Worm Cult really should be in a grab bag by now IMO

The strange part is that Worm Cult IS actually in the grab bag. I got Worm Cult chest from them and apparently that was the last item I needed from the grab bags because it went red afterwards (red as in unavailable for further purchase).

Ragged_Claw

It was not OK. I found only a small part acceptable.

Probably repeating what most people have said here, but I didn't feel it was anything special, I expected them to really push the boat out for the 10th anniversary, maybe have special little quests to go to old regions or meet old characters. This was just business as usual with an additional awful grind - I got just one of the special pages, the only one I wasn't that bothered about. The having to use extra tickets for the mount was a pisstake imo, it's giving with one hand and taking with the other again. It just really DID not feel like a celebration to me, it did nothing to reminisce on the last ten years or to reward and celebrate the players.

tldr: Just a massive let down.

lilsaren

Everything was great. I enjoyed it.

I understand older players not enjoying it, though as a new player it helped me a ton. I got to 350 champion points, lots of style pages and motifs.

Gray_howling_parrot

It was OK, but some parts were unpleasant.

If you focused just on grinding the style pages, it was bad due to horribly poor drop chances. I'd also consider the PTS issue to be separate, but those players losing out on 10 days of the event sucks.

Every single other thing about the event itself was fantastic. Tons of money made, double xp, tons of crafting resources! Thanks ZOS!

UrQuan

The worst event ever. I hate everything in it.

I usually enjoy the anniversary event. I kind of hated it this year. Not sure I'd actually call it the worst event ever, but that was the closest option to how I feel about it, and off the top of my head I can't think of an event I've disliked more.

Sky-Piercer

Other

Fact that I spent several hours a day for nearly the entire event (time restricted due to daytime job and family responsibilities) and still managed to fail getting my 5th style page, leaves a very bitter taste post-event.
Hundreds of Vvardenfell WBs, over the course of God knows how many hours by the end of yesterday, and RNG still denied me the Barbas helm in the end. XD
I've been playing since beta and this had to be the most infuriating ESO experience to date, especially for completists/collectors like me.

seggert

The worst event ever. I hate everything in it.

After this event, I wonder - why did ZOS have being disliking the "old players" so much? Many here wrote about the time spent trying to get style pages. I will write differently. Is it really so difficult to really give some gifts to players for the anniversary? Not some ten- or nine-years-old DLCs, but at least an adequate replacement for them? Taking into account the fact that the ability to give "virtual candy wrappers" from Crownstore was taken away from most "old people" without the ability to turn it back on (yes, yes - due to "insufficient gaming activity" and "potentially bad accounts.." suddenly o_O), which these very ancient DLC fully completed long-long tima ago and explored totally - so "ruinous" would it be to compensate them back? Well, just in a name of the anniversary? After all, they will not be able to transfer crowns-"candy wrappers" to someone else...

Why am I talking about "old" players you ask?
Sad statistics of this anniversary, alas. Ten or more dozen Vvardenfel bosses have fallen. Giving only one page of style. In groups nearby - beginners barely reaching 100, 200, 300 CP - get it with 5 or 10 bosses. Almost three hundred geysers remained behind before the motive revealed itself. The situation with newcomers is similar - 10... well, maybe 15 attempts... and bingo! Dolmens... Same story. They are also more than three hundred was left behind. As a result, the page did not fall out. And every day you see in a group a drop of style page for someone else... to the one who created his account at the maximum this year or to those who have not played for many, many months...
The questions here are simple - what did we, the "old players," do to you that you give us such "events"? Which gods need to pray or make sacrifices to quench yours thirst of bullying?
Was it really that hard to add these "unique" styles to the list of event tickets awards?

But there will be no answers. No one will ever dare say - "you have been here too long, you are no longer our audience..." It's just that time after time you will feel more and more disappointment...

Almost forgot. Special thanks, if I may say so, to the "author" of this indecency - an in-game event for the 10th anniversary. And I (and probably not only me) would not be surprised if this is the same person as the author of the idea "repaint indrik in a new color... so what if it's crooked and oblique and nobody likes it - it's new content for all valuable players"

Let all be good for y'all. And thank you if you found the strength to read THIS

majulook

This Anniversary Event will be remembered for a long time.




Stories will be written, songs will be sung.

Some folks will fall, some heroes will rise.

But we all will remember, the old and the young.

It is not a burden, it is not a prize.

It's just part of life, it's how the pendulum swung.

jcaceresw

It was OK, but some parts were unpleasant.

Alright, time to say how I found out this anniversary event.

THE GOOD
- Treasure Maps for specific zones (Deadlands, Telvanni and Apocrypha) were more common and some of them sold at low prices.
- Because of that, I was able to finally complete all the missing leads for motifs, mythic and furniture I needed.
- This means, when Gold Road releases all I will see are the leads of that zone.
- Excess treasure maps for those zones sold pretty fast and above average price.
- Got all the five new styles within two days so I spent the rest of the event farming dolmens.
- Leveled all my characters in ten alternate accounts to have the same abilities for world boss and dolmen farm routines.
- Bought "Giladil the Ragpicker" assistant. Best decision ever.
- Got nearly one thousand transmute crystals on my main account. On my alternates I got between 300 to 400.
- My main and ten alternate accounts have learned all the three outfit styles from the boxes (Earthbone Ayleid, Bonemold, Saberkeel) and some leftover still in my bank.
- Got the Thieves Guild DLC on most of my alternate accounts.

THE BAD
- Players using their companions while farming dolmens and geysers.
- For geysers, the huge amount of these companions made my game to freeze most of the time.
- Players spamming pretty bright abilities. My monitor becomes a constant white screen when trying to kill the final bosses.
- ZOS need to think about people getting seizures because of these situations. Even on quests they use white screens extensively.
- Lowering my graphic level to the most minimal possible did not help much to avoid game freezes.
- Worm Cult motif should have been left out of the anniversary boxes.

THE UGLY
- Seeing players using one shot abilities to kill dolmen bosses thus denying low and mid level players of the boxes, experience and fighters guild advancement.
- Several 12 man groups posted on each dolmen with the same one shot abilities.
- Lost about 500 boxes because of those groups (yes, I was counting).
- Been denied gifting twice during the whole event for all my accounts despite having spent lots of real money, good conduct and playing it since beta.
- Having an old and decrepit human body and thus having to stop playing because of bio and fatigue. I estimate about 300 boxes lost just because of bio.

SOME CURIOSITIES
- Fortified Nirncrux dropped more often than Potent ones in an approximate 3x ratio.
- Transmute crystals drop more frequently if the number of players in a dolmen is higher than 12. Regularly they dropped between 3 and 5 crystals but just one were also given.
- If less than 12 players are in a dolmen, they rarely drop and give just one transmute.

Now, I hope the next event comes in two or three months later. Let me quest my characters, please.

DewiMorgan

I love ESO. I know the devs do too. Their sharing of our passion about it is a big part of why so many of us are passionate, too. I can't imagine anywhere I'd rather work.

I really, really glad I don't work in ZOS over this event. Even more glad I wasn't the one who thought up or implemented the grind, or any of the other things that broke. Stress levels must have been over 9000. Particularly so because some of it was so eminently predictable-with-hindsight, so the retros are going to be be super uncomfortable.

The aftertaste of this event? Fear.

Three years Zenimax has belonged to Microsoft, and every january like clockwork, big waves of layoffs because of it. Especially after Starfield, they won't feel that everything Zenimax touches turns to gold.

This is their biggest event since the takeover. MS execs will have been there and watching closely. Judging. Weighing. Deciding on a future roadmap, which will be flavored by the aftertaste they got from this event. They'll be asking "After ten years, is it time to start winding down this ageing MMO, putting it in maintenance mode, and migrating developers to creating newer, more profitable IPs?"

Unlike gymnastics, in tech you aren't usually judged on failures. You get judged on recoveries. In fact, if you miss the landing, you'll often get bonus points if you nail the recovery. But they didn't fix the nonlinear drop rates. They cut the promised extension short. And so on.

They flubbed the recovery, multiple times in quick succession, and in the eyes of Microsoft management, that might be damning.

I've seen so many amazing IPs snuffed because management decided that a mere dip in engagement was a downward trend to obsolescence, and they pulled the plug.

I'm scared for ESO.

efster

It was not OK. I found only a small part acceptable.

The Good:
- Got a bunch of free stuff just doing writs on all my alts. You know, the thing one normally expects to happen during one of these events.

- Got the Thieves DLC for free and a bunch of extra Seals of Endeavour just allegedly doing alleged in-game crimes. Though I guess technically that is not part of the Jubilee and is its own "event" that is still ongoing.

The Bad:
All the bad stuff was just straight up ugly. To wit:

The Ugly:
- ZOS decided to lock time-limited, BOP style pages behind a ridiculous RNG grindfest. Sure, yeah, these are cosmetic items that don't affect gameplay in any way and ~lots of people don't care about them~. I'm glad for those people, but players who have a collector playstyle do care about them, and no amount of insisting that people should just enjoy the game in the exact same way as you (hypothetical you who doesn't care about the motifs) enjoy it isn't going to change that. A lot of people who wanted all 5 pages didn't get them in the end, and that's just a damn shame. There are no upsides to this.

- ZOS messed something up with the databases during the most recent PTS cycle launch, resulting in multiple hours of downtime. This in itself would not be "ugly"; I imagine no one could have possibly foreseen that THAT would happen, but it IS just borderline cruel to make your most dedicated players choose between participating in the Jubilee (i.e. farming ridiculously rare drops they can't get in any other way) and testing out the new goodies on the PTS. No upsides to this, either. Let people enjoy your events, ZOS, this isn't rocket science. You need players for the game to continue to be successful, surely even the big brains in your money-counting department realise this.

- To make up for the PTS snafu-related downtime, ZOS extended the event by a few days, only to renege on a part of that extension by bringing the server offline again. It was absolutely important to bring the affected accounts back to the game as soon as possible and I have no issues with that aspect of it. However, the event timer should have been paused for the duration of that downtime so everyone (including the locked out players) had all of the event time that had been promised to us. The extended duration wasn't a "bonus" given freely to players. It was the equivalent of a restaurant giving diners a free meal ticket in compensation for bad service, only to kick them out halfway through dinner when they came to use the tickets. Just really bad business.

colossalvoids

Ironically it should have been their best one so far.

But event structure, reward structure and management were off, as always. Not even talking about disaster happening at the same time.

At least we know that promises for a better communication that were made somewhere at Elsweyr patch are still coming soon™

BlueRaven

The worst event ever. I hate everything in it.

seggert wrote: »

…

But there will be no answers. No one will ever dare say - "you have been here too long, you are no longer our audience..." It's just that time after time you will feel more and more disappointment...

…

Honestly I have been feeling this way since the release of Necrom. With IA and now what I am hearing about the PTS, I really don’t think this game is for me anymore.

I’ve been here since the beginning and sure stubbornness is keeping me here through year ten, but it seems obvious to me zos wants to change the demographic audience of this game, and quite frankly I think I am ready to leave. It’s a shame because I loved the ES franchise, but after starfield and eso, I am going to be looking at future Bethesda releases through jaded eyes.

Muizer

Other

I don't really participate in events, and had a busy week anyway. I did read the forums though and I find the way some people have been reacting to low drop rates and ZOS' technical difficulties quite disturbing. As someone who joined the game in beta, I sometimes don't really recognize this community anymore. There was a time when discussions would revolve around the game itself. These days anguish about missing out on trinkets is so pervasive, not rarely with levels of entitlement going through the roof.

[edited for baiting]

Tazzy

Muizer wrote: »

I don't really participate in events, and had a busy week anyway. I did read the forums though and I find the way some people have been reacting to low drop rates and ZOS' technical difficulties quite disturbing. As someone who joined the game in beta, I sometimes don't really recognize this community anymore. There was a time when discussions would revolve around the game itself. These days anguish about missing out on trinkets is so pervasive, not rarely with levels of entitlement going through the roof. I suppose ZOS had to monetize the game somehow, and selling those trinkets is one way to do it, [snip]

Totally agree! I couldn't have said it better myself!

[edited to remove quote]

Danikat

It was OK, but some parts were unpleasant.

I think it was an accurate summary of the whole experience of playing ESO over the past decade.

(Although it's only been 9 years for me.)

Drammanoth

It was OK, but some parts were unpleasant.

You know what's funny - [snip]

Next year will be the same.

Hopefully, no one will be suspended because of someone's mistake. Timed-out for 10 days DURING this event?

Truly THE way to celebrate a decade...

[edited for bashing]

Wiseau

It was not OK. I found only a small part acceptable.

[snip] Banning people for simply LOGGING ON to the PTS, taking servers down for 8+ hours, [snip], way before it was supposed to, exactly at daily reset, 4 separate days of maintenance, no true extension, sloppy compensation.

[edited for bashing & profanity bypass]

tklawson

Other

It sucked, because I was locked out for 10 days of it. and did not get to grind CP with the xp boost WHICH WAS ALL I WANTED!!!