Maybe it will reach some dev, so here is um "a feedback" regarding recent forum update. I have read it all and it is written in a very um... "vague" way. So much so that I got the impression that it will allow for almost everything to be considered "an unofficial / unreleased" information. Simple example would be community theories regarding lore of stuff that we don't have in game (like Argonian's Black Marsh or Akavir) or even theories about what happens with certain characters (like Abnur Tharn for example). The paradox is that it may make ESO forums an "unsafe" space to talk about ESO world & lore.

Simple example of what I fear may happen:
1. There is a new content coming out, but no one knows what it will be. So people make forum threads with vote pool what that may be / what would they like to see. If by an accident people will vote right and "guess it" - it will be resulting in closing the thread.
2. People love to talk about ESO lore and try to come up with theories to fill in the gap about lore we are missing. Obviously, this means people will often talk about "gaps" on the map - the locations we don't have (yet) in ESO. But what if some of the lore is being worked on by the devs, because they are designing new content ? Technically that means for community theories to fall into "unofficial" & "unreleased" information, meaning that according to the new rule set - such thread, although harmless will violate those rules & will be closed.

Somehow I doubt devs will able to keep a "poker face" and ignore the discussions (like it used to be) about potential unreleased content. For us, players, there is no way of knowing what content is being worked on or was being worked on and it was scrapped. Even posting links to tes lore wikis & YouTube vids may result in those being removed as there will be no way of knowing what is an "official" and canon stuff and what is "unofficial heresy".

I can understand not allowing data mining being posted on forums, as it may be affecting purchase decisions. Even I remember at some point comparing current stuff in the crown store to the ones that were data minded and thinking to not to buy for example a mount, just because I liked more the one that was data-mined. But even if it will be prohibited to post data mine on forums - I will still look it up elsewhere. It is basically: tilting at windmills. People will just post links on other websites.

I do believe that, if possible, those new rules should be written more clearly: what is allowed & what is not (right now it is only what is not allowed.) I am telling you - it will create a lot of problems as eso forums won't be a "safe place" to discuss eso & other tes games.

You just need to put I think, or I believe in front of everything you say is all

ApoAlaia wrote: »

What happened with GTA6 probably had something to do with this change.

I edited my post above to detail a specific example that really aligns with the post they just released. I think this has more to do with crates than it has to do with hypothetical story spoilers or new additions to the game.

Dr_Con wrote: »

ApoAlaia wrote: »

What happened with GTA6 probably had something to do with this change.

I edited my post above to detail a specific example that really aligns with the post they just released. I think this has more to do with crates than it has to do with hypothetical story spoilers or new additions to the game.

Ah, that would make sense.

I think I put 2 and 2 together and got 76 here...

Oh well, someone has to be the clown I guess

ohh nice! In Türkiye we have a new "Disinformation Law", on top of that we got one from ESO. I am not against punishment of false, out of scope rumors but who decides what is right what is wrong. You have to have clear rules which are not open to discussion if you want to apply this.

And also rumors happen because you do not have clear communication with your player base and insufficient road map.
just my 2c...

I’m not even surprised anymore. The discussion of datamined content is germane to the game and this forum. It seems this is mostly a self protection mechanism against criticism from the community post U35.

Warwolf wrote: »

Sadly you make the problem worse imho.
When you have a concentrated problem you can contain it with facts .
This is how people gonna look for it else where where you have no way to stop it .

I understand this is an easy way but it might bite you in the behind one day as you have no influence out side this forum .

I in my many years on this planet have seen it to many times , silence is fuel for conspiracy thinking
People fill in the blanks with conspiracies ..its sad but its human behavior ..

I think the Mods here do a greed job , i have a tendency to speak out loud and rightful a Mod told me to behave .
That how things are done imho , when you cross the line you get a message explaining this a b or c is not acceptable here .
This is how i now watch my words more careful as i dont want to offend people and i have to keep in mind some peoples have a very low trashhold and i have to respect that .

I think having to go somewhere else for datamine stuff is kind of the point though.

There is an implicit level of endorsement for anything that ZOS allows to remain on the forums. Which means, in the case of datamines or rumors, the forums act as a semi-official source of truth and lend credence to those things when they stay up. So, you get players, as in the example posted further up, that expect datamines to happens and throw fits when they don't.

Having to go elsewhere for that type of content is a very clear stance from ZOS of not endorsing it. Which means, they don't have to speak for or against it at all. It protects them from instance where datamines reveal something and they go a different route by release.

@ZOS_Kevin
Could you please also clarify the part about sourcing information from official social media channels? I assume this includes the corporate Twitter accounts such as Bethesda and TESOnline. But does it also include individual developer and community manager accounts, like GinaLBruno, mattfiror, SlashLurk and gilliamtherogue?

I will admit, personally 99% of why I liked seeing datamines was to make it easier to budget for items I want to get since I refuse to support the crate gamble concept, and with endeavors/gems from free crates being so limited relative to item costs I have to be particular about my choices of what I buy and whether or not I want to pass on something to save for something else.

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Dr_Con wrote: »

i think people complaining about something not being added was responsible for this change. there's like 20 posts of people saying they refuse to spend money on crates because a certain datamined mount wasn't being added

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en-gb/discussion/617639/official-discussion-thread-for-new-wraithtide-crown-crates/p1

not naming and shaming, but that topic is a prime example that displays specific examples of comments that ZOS specifically no longer allows. It may have an impact on the bottom line to allow discussion of it on their official forums. Reddit is still an option to discuss these sorts of things, as is player discords. They just don't want people discussing things on their forums.

While this example is not specifically responsible for the change, this is an example of something else we would like to avoid. The confusion around a mount that did not end up ship is a direct result of a datamine.

This has nothing to do with money or the bottom line, but avoiding player confusion is paramount. Things can shift in game development and relying on datamining does not account for the changes we make during development.

May I ask you a genuine question @ZOS_Kevin ? I promise I am not doing so to be confrontational. I'm genuinely curious.

Do the DEVs ever see outcry like this over unreleased content and think that it was a mistake not to release it or regret a choice made to not include something players are hyped over because they saw it in a data mine?

What honestly perplexed me about that crate season and particular instance of data mining was that I couldn't wrap my head around why the devs would withdraw one of the coolest apex mounts I've ever seen- namely, the horse version of this seasons mounts. Many people thought that mount was really cool, and would very much appreciate a way to obtain it.

I look at data mines personally, because it increases my hype for the game.

Whilst I have never complained to ZOS about datamining, I may well have argued against it occasionally on the forum simply because of the unconcealed spoilers it generates which have on occasion spoilt aspects of the game for me. So personally I'm delighted that datamining results won't be permitted on this forum from hereon. There are plenty of other places people can go to if they want that sort of information.

While I realise it's impossible to achieve, it would also be great if PTS feedback could be confined to the PTS forum. Some players don't want to know anything at all about new content until it drops on the Live servers, and I've heard before of players taking a complete break from this forum during the run-up to a new release for just that reason.

Honestly, I'm a little surprised that we haven't had some sort of policy like this since the 2019 incident with Scalebreaker when a Class Representative leaked the PTS Patch Notes early.

There are situations where it's completely reasonable for the Mods to scrub the forums and prevent discussion of material that absolutely wasn't supposed to be released early while they prepare a response. Such things take time. 0In the case of Scalebreaker, the Devs chose to release the PTS notes early after internal steps were taken to deal with the leak, as detailed here: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/483597/pts-patch-notes-v5-1-0

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Destai wrote: »

Thanks for additional info, but I think there’s only more questions. How will this be enforced against PTS feedback? Can only imagine how easy it’d be for a mod to interpret “this update will ruin my build” as spoiling unreleased content or spreading rumors. Hopefully you can revisit the thread and answer some follow up questions. @ZOS_Kevin

PTS feedback will be fine as it always has. It's commentary on content we are putting out on PTS. If there is content on something "ruining a build" then we want to know what it is and how it is. Let's clarify unreleased content as as that may help. If ZOS hasn't talked about specific content on our forum by official staff/dev, social channels, livestreams, website, PTS or Live game in any capacity, then it should be known that the information falls in the unreleased bucket.

Thanks for the clarification and follow up, appreciate it!