Callous2208 wrote: »

spoqster wrote: »

This is how I would have designed it:

• No inventory cap on event tickets
• Once you have the Nascent Indrik unlocked, you can unlock all styles once you have the berries, without having to unlock another Indrik to get a second style
• Make all berries available from the start, so that we can pick which one we want the most first, and then we need to participate in more events to unlock all other styles

Your way sounds user friendly and would negate both the grind and the new glorious innovation of crown store feathers. So basically, ruining everything ZoS is going for. Not gonna happen.

My design would still lure players, there would still be a reasonable grind, and players who have very little time to play but still want the mounts still would gladly buy some extra tickets in the crown store. But it would feel considerably less like a rip off and chore, and in turn I believe that it would actually draw in more players and result in more money spent in the Crown store.

I'd remove the "one ticket/day/account" bs and have all feathers/berrys and whatever funny tokens they come up with available at all times.

But that would allow ppl to skip events they dont like and fully participate in events they do like and also prolly allow to play when u have actual time to play.

Sounds like fun, not gonna happen. Tis a serious game, we need cringy, overcomplicated systems! We need to pretend there is rarity in a world where everything could be available to anyone in endless amounts with a simple sql statement!

Edit: cause ppl hate the "time to play" argument. I spent new life with my family, i dont see them that often, and dont even want to touch my pc than. During winter en maas, the only social contact i have and want is the guy who brings pizza. I play for around 16 hours/day than, on the rare chance that theres an event than, im allowed to participate for a couple minutes every day.

Danikat wrote: »

People who travel for work, who live in areas prone to storms and other things which cause power cuts, people who end up in hospital etc. are all in the same situation. It doesn't matter how long it actually takes to get the ticket if you can only do it on specific days and you have no way to get in-game on those days.

I'm one of those people, on both counts. That's also the reason there were catch up's available during each event.

Anyone over the age of 16 with any IRL commitments (translated: Almost everyone) will have times they can't play.

Having more event tickets available than required was about the only thing they got right. There's generally enough time for the average person to acquire what needs to be acquired, and if not, the Crown Store tickets can substitute.

(And those can likely be acquired by anyone, at any time, given the gold->Crowns conversion that is able to take place now. I suspect they'll be giftable, in effort to increase Crown sales.)

Merlin13KAGL wrote: »

I'm so tired of the "time to play" counterargument for everything.

That might be because you're misinterpreting it. It's not about the actual time it takes. It is - as others have pointed out as well - about the days you actually have (relaxed) access to the game.

• When I go to dinner with friends after work and feel the need to turn on ESO to get my daily quest and my horses fed at 1am when I get home it feels like a chore.
• When I am spending Christmas with my family and I have to bring my Xbox to not run out of days to get the mount daily reward, it feels anti-social.
• When I feel like playing another game but feel the need to turn on ESO at least for an hour every day to get something done there it feels like chore.
• And so on.

A perfect example of how to do it right is how they release new content. When a new DLC is released the new sets are available for ever. Most people will still rush in to the new zone to get the new sets asap. But if the DLC release date falls into a period where I have other priorities in life, I don't have any bad feelings whatsoever, because I know I can always go back and get the sets when I feel like it. This is a fair system that leaves nothing but good feelings behind.

Merlin13KAGL wrote: »

@spoqster I get where you're coming from. Their goal (ZoS) is to get people in the game, and they don't care how they do it.

It makes the numbers look good in marketing/stockholder meetings. That helps justify their continued existence and they get to keep their jobs (a while longer).

You're at a mid-way point. When the worth of doing whatever it is in the game (event, logging in, grind for gear, whatever) becomes worth less and less compared to, well, any of the options you list or any of a half a dozen others, then you'll find yourself in the same position many of us have been for some time.

Sadly, ZoS is not interested. It's the new influx of customers that will pay and play for however long they do that will net them the most money, because there is no burnout to be had yet and there is no history of the nonsense ZoS has pursued for as long as they have pursued it.

Contrary to whatever tweets, posts, and press releases may say, they're not interested (at the highest level) in good feelings. They're interested in what makes the most money in the least amount of time.

It hasn't been about the product for a very long time, and it's been about the customer for even less.

Every single decision, including the 'free' gifts provided are calculated for an ultimate purpose. Give it enough time, and even those will not be enough to motivate something as simple as merely logging in and logging back out.

When it ceases to be worth it (for you, on a personal level), you'll slow down, and eventually stop, but they're not going to change anything marketing related anytime soon unless the fallback from it would be so catastrophic it would be closure of the game. (See free Murkmire).

They're the MMO equivalent of McDonalds. They're big enough they don't have to ensure a good product anymore, because enough new people will stop in for the occasional cheeseburger on autopilot to keep the lights on.

I completely understand that you are arguing that they are making business decisions in order to stay alive. And I completely agree with your general position and ZOSs agenda. A game is a business as well, and it needs to be profitable in order to continue to exist. It serves no one if the game is not profitable. Everyone would lose.

My argument is that by reducing the complexity, the grind and the general discomfort associated with certain systems, they would serve the purpose of making the game successful better.

It's a well-established fact that if you're aiming for long-term success, that you need to provide quality and trust. If you want to make a quick buck your best bet will be to produce cheap, invest in marketing and sell high. But that's not the recipe for a product that aims to be successful in the long run.

I quit the game for almost 2 years in between and not because I stopped loving the game. The reason was simply because I was tired of feeding my horses every day, doing the same research on multiple characters and because back then (before the introduction of Tamriel Unlimited) it was a huge pain to level alts. I was a big advocate of introducing a uniform level scaling to the questing content in the game way before they announced it (look up my previous posts from 2-3 years ago). You will notice in the comments to my old posts that many, many people critized my ideas, calling it "dumbing down the game" or "non-rpg like". Looking back now I think we can all agree that One Tamriel was the best thing that ever happened to the game.

Now I am a pretty hardcore and rather knowledgable player when it comes to ESO. I know almost every set by heart, know exactly what to deconstruct and what to keep, what the average prices for mats are, and so on. But now imagine a console player (many console players are more casual in nature than pc players) starting up ESO for the first time. Picture a player who is used to playing Fortnite, Call of Duty, Destiny and Tom Raider.

• How is this player going to understand the mechanics to unlock Indriks and upgrading them?
• How is this player going to handle that wealth of sets raining down on him and make sense of that bombardment?
• How is that player going to react when he finds out he has to log in every day to upgrade his horse a tiny bit and what is he going to do when he finds out he has to do the same thing over if he starts a new character?
• How is this player going to react if he learns that researching items eventually takes a full month for a single item?

I truly and honestly believe that some of the mechanics the game has are huge entry barriers for casual players and are responsible for driving long term players away from the game eventually. In consequence I truly believe that every single suggestion I have brought forward over the years would have made ESO more popular and ZOS more money in the long run.