Disappointed - US Anniversary event canceled

Lucidilusions

Well, they locked the stickied post so I can't express my disappointment there. No US Anniversary event? Super disappointed. I couldn't afford to do Amsterdam event, and I have been looking forward to a US meet up.

Cooperharley

Yea, bummer.

Interesting that there was no further information given. One can assume budget cuts I guess?

Lizzy_the_Alchemist

I want to know why. Like 20 friends and I have been planning this since they said there would be an event in Baltimore. And the fact that they locked comments makes me angry. We have spent thousands of dollars on this game over a decade and you all can't be bothered to give us an event that isn't in Europe? And you can't allow us any input or give us any kind of reason whatsoever? So you don't care what we want, you just want our money. I have never felt that way. I have always made excuses for every failure and insisted on giving the benefit of the doubt and being patient. This is ridiculous and incredibly disappointing. I can't imagine a good reason for this other than they don't feel like it. >:(

wolfie1.0.

Lizzy_the_Alchemist wrote: »

I want to know why. Like 20 friends and I have been planning this since they said there would be an event in Baltimore. And the fact that they locked comments makes me angry. We have spent thousands of dollars on this game over a decade and you all can't be bothered to give us an event that isn't in Europe? And you can't allow us any input or give us any kind of reason whatsoever? So you don't care what we want, you just want our money. I have never felt that way. I have always made excuses for every failure and insisted on giving the benefit of the doubt and being patient. This is ridiculous and incredibly disappointing. I can't imagine a good reason for this other than they don't feel like it. >:(

It is what it is, but if it came down to a choice between a live event and in game content I would choose the latter.

TheMajority

Lizzy_the_Alchemist wrote: »

I want to know why. Like 20 friends and I have been planning this since they said there would be an event in Baltimore. And the fact that they locked comments makes me angry. We have spent thousands of dollars on this game over a decade and you all can't be bothered to give us an event that isn't in Europe? And you can't allow us any input or give us any kind of reason whatsoever? So you don't care what we want, you just want our money. I have never felt that way. I have always made excuses for every failure and insisted on giving the benefit of the doubt and being patient. This is ridiculous and incredibly disappointing. I can't imagine a good reason for this other than they don't feel like it. >:(

you know when they first announce this event, so many people on the forum did complain and go "why are you having these events when we need you to work on the game!!!"

now they dont do the event and work on the game like people wanted, and people complain again.

how do the devs know if they are coming or going with this community? sending mixed message all the time. furious if they do, furious if they don't.

well, I don't defend zos practices always, sometimes they do not make a good choice, but with the climate of the user base lately after the whole live stream thing happen, and many other things like the strike of recent times, I would not be surprise if the choice was made for the mental health of employees so that they can focus on quality work and not pressure of being an entertainer when that not their job.

I dont know if thats the case or not, but I think they need to put time and thought into the game right now, and its a good move on their part, because really, people losing faith in the game will not be helped by events.

Hamfast

I was happy to attend Quake Con this year in Dallas, it bothers me that the US events are stopping while the overseas events will continue... not that I want the overseas events to stop as well, but there must be a reason that the US events have been stopped, and that is what I would like to know...

Why?

code65536

Yea, this was disappointing to hear. Especially with no reason or context provided on why it was cancelled.

tomofhyrule

I'm really disappointed about this. I was looking forward to a US event.

I know that the US has had events, but things like the Vegas meetup or the Quakecon one tended to be in the middle of the week with very little notice, and it's expensive to get tickets to travel with such little notice. It's also a little frustrating for US-based players since we've seen that EU events have been going for years now with the ESO Tavern series, but because of the expense, not many US players that weren't full-time content creators were able to attend the Amsterdam event.

I am a little nervous if this was cancelled for a budgetary reason, and I hope that the game will be able to put that budget to good use. I'm also a little nervous if this is a response to the fact that the general feeling of the playerbase this year as definitely not been positive - I've noticed the forums have definitely had a lot more negative sentiment since April than they ever have since I started playing five years ago.

And as petulant of a suggestion as it is, part of me really hopes that ZOS will not have any more EU in-person events until we get a decent NA event now. The NA playerbase is already jealous of all the meetups and seeming like they only care about meeting the EU fans while the NA fans are just expected to go along as normal, and this just furthers that feeling.

Theist_VII

TheMajority wrote: »

I dont know if thats the case or not, but I think they need to put time and thought into the game right now, and its a good move on their part, because really, people losing faith in the game will not be helped by events.

No, they need to put “time and thought” into their reputation. Companies live and die by the trust of their consumers. When a business trying to sell us a product over competitors goes out of their way to make us promises and then fails to follow through, people lose that essential trust forever.

Here’s a short from a well established TEDtalk speaker, that goes over the importance of trust over performance.

https://youtu.be/PTo9e3ILmms?si=LQVEb_o8B84IbYJh

When promised events and Q/A’s actualize, they build trust, trust to forgive lower performance and that’s where I believe you are wrong in your assessment.

XSTRONG

I remember that people saying Zos burn to much money on these events.

Im pretty sure its about money/investments and nothing else.

JiubLeRepenti

[snip]

I can't believe what the company is becoming. How can you drop such bad news without sharing anything else with your community? No reason. No explanation. Nothing. And you KNOW that the game is currently facing a difficult time. Everybody knows it. Everybody sees it. Figures and stats don't lie.

What does the ESO community mean to you? What is our value?

[snip]
[edited for bashing & profanity bypass]

valenwood_vegan

This is disappointing, and not a great look... particularly with no context provided.

Amid complaints about poor communication.
And the content cutback and other issues this year.
And players already bringing up complaints that the "year long anniversary" feels like it's fizzling out.

If I could trust that the event being cut means that the time and budget for it will be put back into the game, it would be a bitter pill to swallow but understandable. But I fear it's just a sign of more cutbacks and what certainly feels like dwindling passion for the game among the powers that be.

Alinhbo_Tyaka

It doesn't surprise me ZOS canceled but I suspect that it comes down to a financial decision. I'm not going to speculate on the decisions behind it. It doesn't make ZOS look good with many players already feeling they go out of their way to avoid the players base.

anadandy

I'm really bummed about this. I have been looking forward to this since they announced it. There hasn't really been anything nearish me since the last Bethesda Game Days in February 2020. I agree with above posts saying I really hope if they ever can do another event, they take that into account.

My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined.

Elsonso

TheMajority wrote: »

now they dont do the event and work on the game like people wanted, and people complain again.

I dunno, but like with the US event, can we wait on the "work on the game" part until after it happens before we cheer?

OtarTheMad

valenwood_vegan wrote: »

This is disappointing, and not a great look... particularly with no context provided.

Amid complaints about poor communication.
And the content cutback and other issues this year.
And players already bringing up complaints that the "year long anniversary" feels like it's fizzling out.

If I could trust that the event being cut means that the time and budget for it will be put back into the game, it would be a bitter pill to swallow but understandable. But I fear it's just a sign of more cutbacks and what certainly feels like dwindling passion for the game among the powers that be.

Yeah, this is very disappointing. I was even saving up money to go this year. I don't know what it's a sign of but I am feel it's not great. I hope this has nothing to do with the BG drama.

I will say though the content cutback was done due to player feedback. Kevin admitted that a while back players wanted ZOS to focus more on bugs and not content and they did, but now the feedback is different, they plan chapters far in advance so it takes time to implement such changes I guess.

tsaescishoeshiner

Maybe the community can reach out to some NA streamers to promote an unofficial meetup somewhere, or streamers could reach out to ZOS about supporting an unofficial event, since they would have the platform to reach a lot of people. I'm not into streamers or in-person events lol, but they are parts of the community.

Personally, as a worker I would find hosting events like this both very rewarding to meet players who enjoy the product that I make, as well as distracting from my usual work for all the preparation and meetings and travel involved just to attend.

Juju_beans

MS has been cutting budgets of all their game studios since Sept. so this really doesn't surprise me.

OtarTheMad

Juju_beans wrote: »

MS has been cutting budgets of all their game studios since Sept. so this really doesn't surprise me.

I wish they would just say that. Telling us it was canceled due to "budget restraints" or "a new budget plan" would be understandable but just canceling it and letting us all guess isn't great. Minds can wander and connect dots that have no business being connected and it spirals.

XSTRONG

Thing is when Zos announced the US event they already had cost for it and stuff in mind but they still cancel it.

Something is really not going good for Eso

OtarTheMad

XSTRONG wrote: »

Thing is when Zos announced the US event they already had cost for it and stuff in mind but they still cancel it.

Something is really not going good for Eso

It is weird and I have no idea how the inner workings and corporate side of ZOS and Microsoft work but budgets can be changed on the fly, especially if they want to increase content again so they need to reallocate some funds to do that. I don't think that's why it was canceled but just using it as an example

LadyGP

XSTRONG wrote: »

Thing is when Zos announced the US event they already had cost for it and stuff in mind but they still cancel it.

Something is really not going good for Eso

Curious if they don't want to be asked in person about all the issues around ESO as of late.

UrQuan

Definitely disappointing. I was hoping to go to the NA 10th anniversary event, and if I had known there wouldn't be one I probably would have tried to go to the EU one.

I have no proof of this, but I strongly suspect this wasn't a ZOS decision, and has nothing to do with how popular or financially successful ESO currently is or isn't. I suspect this is directly because of what Juju_beans says here:

Juju_beans wrote: »

MS has been cutting budgets of all their game studios since Sept. so this really doesn't surprise me.

It feels like the new corporate overlords just don't see the point in spending money on events like this because they don't understand the importance of gaming communities to the success of game studios. I suspect the folk at ZOS are likely as disappointed about this as we are. Again, I have absolutely no proof of this, just my own suspicions.

XSTRONG

OtarTheMad wrote: »

XSTRONG wrote: »

Thing is when Zos announced the US event they already had cost for it and stuff in mind but they still cancel it.

Something is really not going good for Eso

It is weird and I have no idea how the inner workings and corporate side of ZOS and Microsoft work but budgets can be changed on the fly, especially if they want to increase content again so they need to reallocate some funds to do that. I don't think that's why it was canceled but just using it as an example

If they want to increase content this wouldnt happen, the US event was announced long ago and money was already "in mind" put aside for that event.

If they all of a sudden needed that money that they already put aside and invested its something really big and strange going on.

Hamfast

Juju_beans wrote: »

MS has been cutting budgets of all their game studios since Sept. so this really doesn't surprise me.

If this is true, it would make the second game I played and enjoyed that Microsoft scuttled... I met my wife in the first one...

Rkindaleft

I don't blame the ZOS developers or mods because they probably don't have a say and it's a decision from the people higher up but I honestly feel like whoever is in charge of making these decisions has really dropped the ball on 2024. This is the 10th anniversary and we're at the end of the year and I haven't felt celebratory since the horrible off-putting grind of the anniversary event.

There's been on and off lag and performance issues since like March and they're only starting to communicate about that now. We don't get proper Q3 and Q4 content updates anymore because of "QoL and bug fixes" yet major bugs that have been around for years still go unfixed (castle thorn circle not moving anyone? not to mention stuck in combat) and new QoL is generally minimal and lacking in depth. Q3 Home Tours was pretty much a UI update and that's it. Q4 BGs rework released with a ton of bugs and caused more problems than it tried to fix.

valenwood_vegan wrote: »

If I could trust that the event being cut means that the time and budget for it will be put back into the game, it would be a bitter pill to swallow but understandable. But I fear it's just a sign of more cutbacks and what certainly feels like dwindling passion for the game among the powers that be.

I hope this is the case, but I'm not totally convinced. It's increasingly evident that they're moving $ and developer resources to invest in their new IP, you can see it in the lack of content. Issues and game problems take longer to fix now than they did even just a year or two ago as well. To me in the last year it really has started to feel like the game is running on skeleton staff.

Jaraal

wolfie1.0. wrote: »

Lizzy_the_Alchemist wrote: »

I want to know why. Like 20 friends and I have been planning this since they said there would be an event in Baltimore. And the fact that they locked comments makes me angry. We have spent thousands of dollars on this game over a decade and you all can't be bothered to give us an event that isn't in Europe? And you can't allow us any input or give us any kind of reason whatsoever? So you don't care what we want, you just want our money. I have never felt that way. I have always made excuses for every failure and insisted on giving the benefit of the doubt and being patient. This is ridiculous and incredibly disappointing. I can't imagine a good reason for this other than they don't feel like it. >:(

It is what it is, but if it came down to a choice between a live event and in game content I would choose the latter.

Except the roadmap was revealed to be reduced content going forward, and more focus on "QoL and bug fixes."

Formulate your own conclusions.

OtarTheMad

Jaraal wrote: »

wolfie1.0. wrote: »

Lizzy_the_Alchemist wrote: »

I want to know why. Like 20 friends and I have been planning this since they said there would be an event in Baltimore. And the fact that they locked comments makes me angry. We have spent thousands of dollars on this game over a decade and you all can't be bothered to give us an event that isn't in Europe? And you can't allow us any input or give us any kind of reason whatsoever? So you don't care what we want, you just want our money. I have never felt that way. I have always made excuses for every failure and insisted on giving the benefit of the doubt and being patient. This is ridiculous and incredibly disappointing. I can't imagine a good reason for this other than they don't feel like it. >:(

It is what it is, but if it came down to a choice between a live event and in game content I would choose the latter.

Except the roadmap was revealed to be reduced content going forward, and more focus on "QoL and bug fixes."

Formulate your own conclusions.

Except Kevin came on these forums and said that changing to reduced content and focusing on bugs was due to feedback, (which is true, we’ve asked for years) but they heard us say we want more content now and he passed that along.

OtarTheMad

XSTRONG wrote: »

OtarTheMad wrote: »

XSTRONG wrote: »

Thing is when Zos announced the US event they already had cost for it and stuff in mind but they still cancel it.

Something is really not going good for Eso

It is weird and I have no idea how the inner workings and corporate side of ZOS and Microsoft work but budgets can be changed on the fly, especially if they want to increase content again so they need to reallocate some funds to do that. I don't think that's why it was canceled but just using it as an example

If they want to increase content this wouldnt happen, the US event was announced long ago and money was already "in mind" put aside for that event.

If they all of a sudden needed that money that they already put aside and invested its something really big and strange going on.

I mean maybe but without knowing the inner workings and all that it’s hard to be sure, which is why I think they should have just came out and said why because speculation will run wild with every theory under the sun being viable.

manukartofanu

TheMajority wrote: »

now they dont do the event and work on the game like people wanted, and people complain again.

People don’t need words; they need some real evidence to support the claim that they canceled the event to focus more on improving the game.

Jaraal

OtarTheMad wrote: »

Jaraal wrote: »

wolfie1.0. wrote: »

Lizzy_the_Alchemist wrote: »

I want to know why. Like 20 friends and I have been planning this since they said there would be an event in Baltimore. And the fact that they locked comments makes me angry. We have spent thousands of dollars on this game over a decade and you all can't be bothered to give us an event that isn't in Europe? And you can't allow us any input or give us any kind of reason whatsoever? So you don't care what we want, you just want our money. I have never felt that way. I have always made excuses for every failure and insisted on giving the benefit of the doubt and being patient. This is ridiculous and incredibly disappointing. I can't imagine a good reason for this other than they don't feel like it. >:(

It is what it is, but if it came down to a choice between a live event and in game content I would choose the latter.

Except the roadmap was revealed to be reduced content going forward, and more focus on "QoL and bug fixes."

Formulate your own conclusions.

Except Kevin came on these forums and said that changing to reduced content and focusing on bugs was due to feedback, (which is true, we’ve asked for years) but they heard us say we want more content now and he passed that along.

Do you feel that there are more bugs, less bugs, or the same amount of bugs in the game since they announced 'focusing on bug fixes?'