So what happened to the 10th Anniversary?

moderatelyfatman

Yes, I know about the Server Planemeld and all the other shenanigans, but what happened to the 10-year anniversary? It was going to be a year-long event covering consoles as well, but if someone picked up the game now, they wouldn't even know it was on.

I came into 2024 expecting ZOS to change up this year's events to lean heavily into nostalgia for all the older players and shake up the routine. It would have been nice to bring back some of the old events following the sequence of the expansions:
Jan/Feb - Core game
March - Morrowind
April - Clockwork City
May - Summerset
June - Elsweyr
July - Greymoor
August - Blackwood
September - High Isle
October - Necrom
Nov/December - Gold Road

It would have been a wonderful trip down memory lane as well as a great experience for newer players. ZOS could have also made all the previous years' rewards (e.g. Indriks) at half the original ticket cost to be accessible to newer players.

Pelanora

It put memories behind impossible RND, and promised gifts at irl events but never sent them out; released a zone with so many locked doors it was surprising, and whipped away a new prince so fast, like an unsuitable gift at a child's party; and I'm not sure we really had a huge birthday at all. Not really.

LunaFlora

We've had spotlights every month.

So far for Orsinium, Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood, Gold Road, Vvardenfell and Clockwork City, Blackwood, Housing, Outfit, Dungeons,
and later this month the first Golden Pursuits campaign with Nord stuff.

some DLCs were given away.
Jubilee 2024 was longer than usual.

Pan Tamriel celebration will be in early 2025, probably January, and it will have every DLC event's collectibles (outfit styles, mementos, pets) including the Gravestake memento and the Jubilee 2024 artifact styles with increased drop rate.
it's kinda what you expected but in one event instead of spread out over 2024.

(that was unlikely to happen anyway btw, ESO has a pretty predictable pattern of events and we already knew in late 2023 that 2024 would start with Guilds and Glory and Mayhem.
And if ZOS wanted to do an event for each big dlc each month they would likely announce it in the December retrospective letter)

There's still 9 months left of the 10 year anniversary celebration so plenty more spotlights to come, 8 more after November's spotlight if it's still each month.

edited to add:
correcting myself: it's till June 2025 so 8 months instead, just checked the anniversary posts again.

https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/65839
"*Why 15 months? While ESO initially launched for PC/Mac on April 2014, console launch was on June 2015, and we want to celebrate both!"

moderatelyfatman

LunaFlora wrote: »

We've had spotlights every month.

So far for Orsinium, Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood, Gold Road, Vvardenfell and Clockwork City, Blackwood, Housing, Outfit, Dungeons,
and later this month the first Golden Pursuits campaign with Nord stuff.

some DLCs were given away.
Jubilee 2024 was longer than usual.

Pan Tamriel celebration will be in early 2025, probably January, and it will have every DLC event's collectibles (outfit styles, mementos, pets) including the Gravestake memento and the Jubilee 2024 artifact styles with increased drop rate.
it's kinda what you expected but in one event instead of spread out over 2024.

(that was unlikely to happen anyway btw, ESO has a pretty predictable pattern of events and we already knew in late 2023 that 2024 would start with Guilds and Glory and Mayhem.
And if ZOS wanted to do an event for each big dlc each month they would likely announce it in the December retrospective letter)

There's still 9 months left of the 10 year anniversary celebration so plenty more spotlights to come, 8 more after November's spotlight if it's still each month.

I know. I can forgive a lack of new grindable skins and mounts [snip]. ZOS could have done something to get all the long term players back too.

[edited for bashing]

colossalvoids

It all was probably planned 2-3 years ago already when the game was more "alive". It's not a reactive company that would tweak much on a fly or adjust their actions in any significant enough way. The things happening here and now will be addressed in 2 years from now most probably when game might have way different issues and climate overall. At least that's now I feel it's going from knowing the company operate for some time.

Neugeniko

The servers are unstable so they can't get devs to dress up as world bosses

Elsonso

moderatelyfatman wrote: »

Yes, I know about the Server Planemeld and all the other shenanigans, but what happened to the 10-year anniversary?

I was wondering that, myself. It was like January happened, and then they sort of forgot about it. Yeah, they have had in-person meets, but only a small number of fans can even go to them. Even that dried up.

Rishikesa108

I'd like to have the possibility to get the Jade-Crown Dragonslayer set, that was released on the Elsweyr release and never put back for sale or to get in other ways.

valenwood_vegan

It does feel like the wind has gone out of their sails in terms of the year long celebration. Easy to forget that it's even going on lately.

endorphinsplox

This year feels largely empty across the board. Only 2 DLCs this year, only one of them included in ESO+ (for now ofc), and there's the companions which don't matter to the majority of players. ESO+ subscribers are getting next to nothing this year, the free updates have very few actual features or meaningful changes, the latest update was named "Golden Pursuits" for the one of the new features, but it launched without a Golden Pursuit actually active which is baffling, AND the other major feature was completely broken on launch.

Poor communication from devs on the Gold Road event, coupled with incorrectly named motif drops on the event page, which were actually misinformation, as they were not available in game when they said they would be, mirroring last year's Necrom event issues. Rushed updates only a couple months or less apart, rather than quarterly, a sudden unannounced implementation of direct message and private group message chat filtering that led to a ton of suspensions and bans that they quickly swept under the rug.

This all comes after the insanely poorly received Update 35, the bad optics of Rich Lambert's criticism of the fans prior to that update which the company ended up apologizing for, constant nerfs that hurt veteran players' experience with the game, and all this time has supposed to be them trying to get back in our good graces, but it feels like a completely burnout. These sloppy releases, poor communication, lack of understanding their own game, even the story outright ignoring established canon, or straight up spitting on it just feels like the main devs who made this game great, aren't here right now. It feels like we've been dealing with a B team who are novices in terms of design, community understanding, and general Elder Scrolls knowledge.

I believe their best devs are working on the other MMO in production at ZOS to prepare for its official reveal either at TGA this year or the Q1 Livestream next year. Either way, the lack of transparency, the feeling of the 10 year celebration just sort of fizzling out despite being a 15 month long spectacle or whatever they said before, and a generally ramshackle year for updates feels really disheartening. I know Mr. Lambert doesn't like us very much, but we do fund his career, so a little respect would be nice.

Destai

It feels like it dried up. There were initially some great DLC giveaways and daily rewards but that’s stopped. The first couple events this year had some major issues, culminating with the PTS debacle. Most importantly, the most celebratory rewards were tucked behind RNG that was pretty universally criticized. Based on feedback from here, Reddit, and my guilds, it burned a lot of people out.

Personally, I walked away from the yearly celebration feeling underwhelmed and unappreciated by ZOS. I already have all the DLCs, I’ve already spent $1000s. I can’t identify many anniversary rewards appreciative of that, aside from the 10 year anniversary skin I will never use.

I_killed_Vivec

LunaFlora wrote: »

There's still 9 months left of the 10 year anniversary celebration ...

Started in April... it's now November. I count that as seven months down already.

12 months in a year... so only 5 months left?

Sure, there will be a Christmas event, there always is. But any hope that the 10th year anniversary would come in with a bang, have the momentum carried on with a stupendous chapter, and still be surging on a popular wave of enthusiasm, has already gone.

Destai

I_killed_Vivec wrote: »

LunaFlora wrote: »

There's still 9 months left of the 10 year anniversary celebration ...

Started in April... it's now November. I count that as seven months down already.

12 months in a year... so only 5 months left?

Sure, there will be a Christmas event, there always is. But any hope that the 10th year anniversary would come in with a bang, have the momentum carried on with a stupendous chapter, and still be surging on a popular wave of enthusiasm, has already gone.

I just hope the NLF stays at its traditional length of ~20 days. I remember last year they tried shortening it, hopefully they learned from that reception.

Stafford197

I feel this ”celebration” became a mess the moment they put important lore-related cosmetic Style Pages behind incredibly bad RNG during the Anniversary Event. Having played since launch, I’ve rarely ever seen the community so unanimously upset over something before.

ESO needs a passionate team behind it who deeply understands the wants and needs of the community.

Instead it feels like ZOS has now optimized their internal processes/staffing to the point where all shortcuts are being taken just to meet their minimum requirements. Everything these days releases packed with bugs in all major features or is outright unfinished.

And your suggestion is wonderful btw! Allow everyone to heavily catchup with all of these previous cosmetics, give away Crowns, give away a ton of old DLCs/make them base game…. So much could’ve been done. Instead I’m playing ESO less than I have in a long time during this apparent celebration lol.

Estin

Between the PTS fiasco, the worsening performance issues, the crashing economy, the lackluster gold road launch, and the bugs/hate around U43 and U44, it was kind of forgotten about by both sides. No point in holding celebrations when the house is nearly burnt to the ground.

There's still the pan tamriel celebration, but beyond that, I don't think it's going to be any different from this year. I am concerned about the pan tamriel celebration though because if it's meant to celebrate all Chapter and DLC zones, it has to be long and the drops have to be common. If it's a FOMO event like this years Jubilee, I'll pass.

LunaFlora

I_killed_Vivec wrote: »

LunaFlora wrote: »

There's still 9 months left of the 10 year anniversary celebration ...

Started in April... it's now November. I count that as seven months down already.

12 months in a year... so only 5 months left?

Sure, there will be a Christmas event, there always is. But any hope that the 10th year anniversary would come in with a bang, have the momentum carried on with a stupendous chapter, and still be surging on a popular wave of enthusiasm, has already gone.

the 10 year anniversary celebration is from April 2024 till July 2025. pc anniversary to console anniversary.

9 months left as in November, December, January, February, March, April, May, June, July.
November just started.

edited to add:
correcting myself: June 2025 so 8 months instead, just checked the anniversary posts again.

https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/65839
"*Why 15 months? While ESO initially launched for PC/Mac on April 2014, console launch was on June 2015, and we want to celebrate both!"

Cooperharley

It’ll be celebrated in the crown store, don’t you worry friend

fizzylu

So you're saying people weren't feeling super celebratory when they saw a not even new, free costume in the crown store for players who farmed a ridiculous RNG drop based achievement for the Halloween event?

I_killed_Vivec

LunaFlora wrote: »

I_killed_Vivec wrote: »

LunaFlora wrote: »

There's still 9 months left of the 10 year anniversary celebration ...

Started in April... it's now November. I count that as seven months down already.

12 months in a year... so only 5 months left?

Sure, there will be a Christmas event, there always is. But any hope that the 10th year anniversary would come in with a bang, have the momentum carried on with a stupendous chapter, and still be surging on a popular wave of enthusiasm, has already gone.

the 10 year anniversary celebration is from April 2024 till July 2025. pc anniversary to console anniversary.

9 months left as in November, December, January, February, March, April, May, June, July.
November just started.

edited to add:
correcting myself: June 2025 so 8 months instead, just checked the anniversary posts again.

https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/65839
"*Why 15 months? While ESO initially launched for PC/Mac on April 2014, console launch was on June 2015, and we want to celebrate both!"

I stand corrected.

In my defence I'd say that I don't feel particularly celebratory at the moment, and haven't for several months.

The anniversary started with a horrible grind for little reward, the "chapter" was a minor DLC, and the long awaited "spell-crafting" turned out not to be. Since then we've had the usual events, and again we missed the customary DLC for "bug fixes and QoL". Nothing celebratory.

Even in your link, all they mention for July to December (six of the fifteen) is Updates 43 and 44 (not anniversary linked) and in person meets. Nothing special in-game.

I don't count it as 15 months of celebrations if you do something at the start, maybe something at the end, and nothing in between.

LatentBuzzard

People are too busy farming the new endeavour requirements that seem to have largely increased by 50% or now having to play the Twitch streams for an hour to get an Ouroboros crate instead of 15 minutes. Nice of ZOS to slip those increases in there during the "celebration".

Zodiarkslayer

Jup. We are in hangover mode, already.

Elendir2am

I am expecting that they are saving gifts for "new life festival". Although after they kept from us companions who should be part of new chapters as before, their giving around DLC I already have, dont look like very generous to me.

Elsonso

Elendir2am wrote: »

I am expecting that they are saving gifts for "new life festival". Although after they kept from us companions who should be part of new chapters as before, their giving around DLC I already have, dont look like very generous to me.

I do not expect this. I think that the 2024 New Life Festival will be more of the same. There will probably be new stuff, but it will be the usual new stuff.

I think that house requiring collection of 5 keys is the big thing.

Alinhbo_Tyaka

Elsonso wrote: »

Elendir2am wrote: »

I am expecting that they are saving gifts for "new life festival". Although after they kept from us companions who should be part of new chapters as before, their giving around DLC I already have, dont look like very generous to me.

I do not expect this. I think that the 2024 New Life Festival will be more of the same. There will probably be new stuff, but it will be the usual new stuff.

I think that house requiring collection of 5 keys is the big thing.

And the event house isn't really anything new having been done before. I'm still working towards it but the whole process has lost the gee whiz feel of the first time.

Elsonso

Alinhbo_Tyaka wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

Elendir2am wrote: »

I am expecting that they are saving gifts for "new life festival". Although after they kept from us companions who should be part of new chapters as before, their giving around DLC I already have, dont look like very generous to me.

I do not expect this. I think that the 2024 New Life Festival will be more of the same. There will probably be new stuff, but it will be the usual new stuff.

I think that house requiring collection of 5 keys is the big thing.

And the event house isn't really anything new having been done before. I'm still working towards it but the whole process has lost the gee whiz feel of the first time.

I can always use free storage space, and as I recall, this particular house is lacking doors that interfere with movement while in House mode. This makes it a perfect place to stash furniture items.

Alinhbo_Tyaka

Elsonso wrote: »

Alinhbo_Tyaka wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

Elendir2am wrote: »

I am expecting that they are saving gifts for "new life festival". Although after they kept from us companions who should be part of new chapters as before, their giving around DLC I already have, dont look like very generous to me.

I do not expect this. I think that the 2024 New Life Festival will be more of the same. There will probably be new stuff, but it will be the usual new stuff.

I think that house requiring collection of 5 keys is the big thing.

And the event house isn't really anything new having been done before. I'm still working towards it but the whole process has lost the gee whiz feel of the first time.

I can always use free storage space, and as I recall, this particular house is lacking doors that interfere with movement while in House mode. This makes it a perfect place to stash furniture items.

You'll get no argument from me there. I still have room to spare in the Sword-Singers Redoubt but it is always good to have a spare inventory house in my inventory of houses.

Amottica

One thing is for certain. No matter what Zenimax did there would be complaints.

I_killed_Vivec

Amottica wrote: »

One thing is for certain. No matter what Zenimax did there would be complaints.

But they'd get fewer complaints if they'd actually done something appropriate for a Tenth Year Anniversary!!!

LunaFlora

I_killed_Vivec wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

One thing is for certain. No matter what Zenimax did there would be complaints.

But they'd get fewer complaints if they'd actually done something appropriate for a Tenth Year Anniversary!!!

but not everyone thinks it isn't appropriate.

i think the spotlights and the gifts are appropriate for the anniversary and am very much looking forward to the Pan Tamriel event.

People always complain because not everyone likes the same things, it's understandable.
it's not objectively inappropriate, just not universally liked like Mayhem.

Nharimlur_Finor

moderatelyfatman wrote: »

LunaFlora wrote: »

We've had spotlights every month.

So far for Orsinium, Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood, Gold Road, Vvardenfell and Clockwork City, Blackwood, Housing, Outfit, Dungeons,
and later this month the first Golden Pursuits campaign with Nord stuff.

some DLCs were given away.
Jubilee 2024 was longer than usual.

Pan Tamriel celebration will be in early 2025, probably January, and it will have every DLC event's collectibles (outfit styles, mementos, pets) including the Gravestake memento and the Jubilee 2024 artifact styles with increased drop rate.
it's kinda what you expected but in one event instead of spread out over 2024.

(that was unlikely to happen anyway btw, ESO has a pretty predictable pattern of events and we already knew in late 2023 that 2024 would start with Guilds and Glory and Mayhem.
And if ZOS wanted to do an event for each big dlc each month they would likely announce it in the December retrospective letter)

There's still 9 months left of the 10 year anniversary celebration so plenty more spotlights to come, 8 more after November's spotlight if it's still each month.

I know. I can forgive a lack of new grindable skins and mounts [snip]. ZOS could have done something to get all the long term players back too.

Their strategic direction is quite clear to me.

[edited to remove quote]

Elsonso

Amottica wrote: »

One thing is for certain. No matter what Zenimax did there would be complaints.

Probably true, but they aren't keeping the hype alive. From my perspective, it isn't what they did, but that they stopped.

I don't expect to be showered in gifts the entire time. The only reason that I even remember that this is possibly still going on is from their Tweets that include the anniversary graphic. If they stopped using that graphic, I would just assume it to be business as usual.