SilverBride wrote: »

I have no concept of what seasonal content even is.

Its basically a battle pass. WoW does it now, New World does it now, SWTOR does it now. Its basically a way to get players to engage with limited time items (usually 3 months).

In New Worlds case, they charge 20 dollars for each battle pass. You get one line of "free content" and then a second that gives better rewards (but you pay for them, and then have to meet the goals to obtain them).

I do not personally like battle passes. They are fun at first, but like anything else it becomes mundane/same thing different day.

For sure ZOS will put there own twist on it, but it will be a battle pass and most likely involve the crown store, on top of some other monetization, on top of a monthly sub.

EDIT: Essentially season passes are a way to deliver less content (reused content) while generating more revenue.

All of this sounds very encouraging, especially the changes that ZoS has announced. The overhaul of Overland content—wow! Particularly Cyrodiil, I honestly thought that was something that could only be fixed with a complete rework of the game (I never thought the issue was just ZoS' unwillingness to work on it). The fact that ZoS completely reworked BG is surprising too, considering that ZoS rarely starts things from scratch.

But... there's still a lingering discomfort. The sharp decline in player numbers is hard to ignore. So, is ZoS adapting the game for a smaller player base? Or are these changes truly aimed at fixing the situation?

I really want to believe that this game has been given a third chance. The second chance came with the introduction of TU, and that was a success. I really do believe that both TU and the main chapter formats were successful decisions at the time. But now it’s clear that this approach couldn’t last in the long term. The game was too focused on the casual audience, and that audience just isn’t sustainable. Eventually, they move on to new and more appealing projects, and ESO is already quite old and can’t attract new players in the same way it used to.

Let’s assume that ESO has learned from its mistakes—can ZoS bring the player base back to the levels of 2019-2020, at least?

I know "seasons" doesn't mean a battle pass necessarily, but it's a term that is already used commonly to refer to something like that. There are also several different levels of battle passes from Fortnite's seasons that can actually be free if you play the season prior and earn vbucks from it to Throne and Liberty that decided to have a battle pass and a leveling pass and charge you per character for both. I hope ZOS is just using the term with no intent of a battle pass system, but I worry it is going to be heavily monetized to the point everyone is going to be paying more for less content in their plan.

alpha_synuclein wrote: »

Dear ZOS....
While I'm not exactly hating what I'm reading, this whole "we drop a bomb and shut up for 4 months" is very obviously not doing the trick...

Your vaguenes do not create hype. It creates concerns. You're planning rather divisive changes that will affect pretty much your whole playerbase. Asking us to wait until April for anything concrete is absurd.

The things that you're releasing this year are in motion already. You obviously have a plan.
Share it.
Timelines are obviously flexible, but tell us what we're getting. Without the usual dripping info in glacial speed and expecting us to be excited about the who knows what...

Because with the current attitude you will start loosing people before they even get to hear what's actually coming.

I want to highlight this post here.

This entire desire to keep things secret to try to build hype has consistently backfired. Every patch so far was met with disappointment because the playerbase hyped themselves up based on the smallest bits of information, and then were let down because the result wasn't at all what they wanted.

This looks like it'll go the same way.

We know there's a reveal in January for a March patch. It seems like that'll be dungeons (?), but we don't know. And then after that, we'll find out in April what this new model even is, much less what kinds of things we can expect. But without Chapters, we have no idea if we'll end up seeing new Classes, new Skill lines, new Trials, or new Game modes ever again. Sure, they're implying it, but...

Please reveal a few more details than you have been. We're not asking you to tell us everything already, but the fact that Kevin and Jess had to come in and try to reassure people that this wasn't maintenance mode should show that players are confused and disappointed. And we're expected to sit with these uncomfortable feelings for over 4 months? And... we expect that nobody's going to leave because of that?

Elvenheart wrote: »

Vonnegut2506 wrote: »

…to Throne and Liberty that decided to have a battle pass and a leveling pass and charge you per character for both.

<gasp> 😲

Ya, I gave up that game pretty quick.

- As we know that they are making a brand new MMO game, many of us in the community have feared and took educated guesses that they are working ESO with a skeleton crew. These news really feel like feeding those guesses. After reading all that my thoughts are: Either this is a good thing and they will improve the game with small but steady bites, or this is just a fancy way to say they are bringing in even less content than before and making very little changes leaving us with a feeling of nothing really happening/going on. I sadly admit I believe the latter thought being the more stronger candidate.

Turning the Page on Chapters, Introducing Seasons:
This really sounds like a way to give us only bread crumbs instead of a healthy good meal. But we will see as always.

A new focus on change and experimentation:
This is either a very good thing or very very bad. I myself am not a fan of "here is a new thing, enjoy" "it wasn't good at all so we removed/nerfed it after a week, so forget it". I value things that are made to last and I would like a game company to really put a good amount of effort on releasing new stuff. Arcanist class for example was a fantastic thing and success and you can really see the time and effort put to it.

Cyrodiil campaign where all classes will have PvP-specific (and more performant) skills that replace the standard player skills:
Does this mean there will be even less class/spec identity and/or less skills to choose from in general? The changes they made to set bonuses concerning pvp was already something I disliked very much. Stripping away things is not a good way to "fix" issues. Why have all the skills and sets if you are not allowed to use them? I must say this too doesn't bode well. But we will see as always.

Visually improving base game zones, Sprucing up the game's PC UI:
Visual improvements are always welcome and truly a good way to keep up with the flow of time. Visual candy is very important thing in MMORPG genre in general. One of the reasons I really struggle to get back with World of Warcraft is because its graphics and visuals are undoubtedly really old and because that game is twice the age of ESO, they can't improve them enough without remaking the whole game and game-engine. I hope ESO will keep up adding more fresh graphics and visuals so it can compete with newer MMO titles in the future too.

instead, we will use existing zones and areas to tell new stories. Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild, Fighters Guild, and Mages Guild:
This is all good news, you never should forget the old content completely because there are great many ways to keep them going as relevant content. Dark brotherhood is one of my favorite things in this games because I happen to like all dark, twisted evil and mysterious things. Doing DB storyline the first time really gave me the chills. We do not always need new continents and areas to explore, sometimes it is good to visit older areas and see them going through a little revamp.

- Few things sounded actually good and promising but I can't escape it that in general it feels like we are left with a skeleton crew on game developer side and we are not getting enough in terms of content and fixes to be satisfied. Hope that is not the case but I do not have my hopes up and I am really trying not to spend any money on this game because I think at this state it is not worth investing. As the crowns are now on sale and there are many things I would desire to buy and maybe get a few months of ESO+ time too, but I am actually fighting against my desires so that I would not invest in a game I feel is being left aside to slowly "decay". Games like this rarely die completely but if you get my point..

EDIT:
Not to sound too negative I had to add that I really like ESO universe in general, never was a fan of Asian anime or things that feel too childish. ESO is surely aimed for more mature audience and for that I love it. I wish for the day to come that "they" decided to really save this game and made true effort to grow it and keep it going on for many many years to come. I would love to see the community and the whole game to grow in size exponentially. But that means contributing and committing.

OtarTheMad wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

alpha_synuclein wrote: »

Dear ZOS....
While I'm not exactly hating what I'm reading, this whole "we drop a bomb and shut up for 4 months" is very obviously not doing the trick...

Your vaguenes do not create hype. It creates concerns. You're planning rather divisive changes that will affect pretty much your whole playerbase. Asking us to wait until April for anything concrete is absurd.

The things that you're releasing this year are in motion already. You obviously have a plan.
Share it.
Timelines are obviously flexible, but tell us what we're getting. Without the usual dripping info in glacial speed and expecting us to be excited about the who knows what...

Because with the current attitude you will start loosing people before they even get to hear what's actually coming.

I want to highlight this post here.

This entire desire to keep things secret to try to build hype has consistently backfired. Every patch so far was met with disappointment because the playerbase hyped themselves up based on the smallest bits of information, and then were let down because the result wasn't at all what they wanted.

This looks like it'll go the same way.

We know there's a reveal in January for a March patch. It seems like that'll be dungeons (?), but we don't know. And then after that, we'll find out in April what this new model even is, much less what kinds of things we can expect. But without Chapters, we have no idea if we'll end up seeing new Classes, new Skill lines, new Trials, or new Game modes ever again. Sure, they're implying it, but...

Please reveal a few more details than you have been. We're not asking you to tell us everything already, but the fact that Kevin and Jess had to come in and try to reassure people that this wasn't maintenance mode should show that players are confused and disappointed. And we're expected to sit with these uncomfortable feelings for over 4 months? And... we expect that nobody's going to leave because of that?

Here is the worse part in my mind is that there is no global reveal anymore and while we will get dungeons in Q1 but what about substantial content? I don’t do dungeons that much.

So, I don’t have anything to look forward to. Sure, we have more information dropping in April but by then I am using my free time on other things or other games but typically ZOS is super silent and likes to drop hints… that does nothing for me.

So, why even play ESO in 2025? I am not trying to be a downer, I am just saying no chapter, small to medium sized content so can be quickly done… idk… without knowing more about what the Seasons are I am not even going to mark April on my calendar. Sure, we will know more info but when will it drop? Not June apparently.. August? September? Pass.

I think they’re making a big mistake waiting so long to give us more information. I worry it’s going to really hurt the long term health of the game. Like, the game is already in a slow state. We’re having this discussion here, we got Matt’s letter, and just a single paragraph of reassurance.

From a PR perspective, I just don’t think that’s enough to drown out the concerns of some people. People who will leave if they feel like there’s a big content drought coming.

IMO, they should be going on an information blitz after the holidays. The tight-lipped approach doesn’t help them, evidenced by where the game is.

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

Let’s assume that ESO has learned from its mistakes—can ZoS bring the player base back to the levels of 2019-2020, at least?

i would bet money… no way.

especially with ES6 and other, more recent games being released.