Or they decided to call the new release cadence Seasons after, y'know, seasons irl. Seasons come and go, bringing whatever weather and all as they change. Same thing with Seasons for the game; new content will be released every few months, each Season bringing new weather (content).the1andonlyskwex wrote: »If they don't want us to react negatively, they should probably avoid using a loaded term like "seasons". Seasons can take a lot of different forms in gaming, but those forms all have one thing in common, some amount of monetized FOMO.
ZOS has at least clarified that they won't be retiring seasonal "content" like some games, but that doesn't mean they won't be offering battle passes or other types of time-limited seasonal rewards (or activities).
We even have a preview of what this new seasonal treadmill is going to look like in the form of the current Golden Pursuits. They're basically a free battle pass that forces grinding of specific content that people wouldn't otherwise choose to do (because they don't find it fun), just to get exclusive time-limited cosmetics.
If all they were doing was getting rid of chapters and replacing them with smaller, less regular content drops, they would have picked a different word for their new model.
Or they decided to call the new release cadence Seasons after, y'know, seasons irl. Seasons come and go, bringing whatever weather and all as they change. Same thing with Seasons for the game; new content will be released every few months, each Season bringing new weather (content).the1andonlyskwex wrote: »If they don't want us to react negatively, they should probably avoid using a loaded term like "seasons". Seasons can take a lot of different forms in gaming, but those forms all have one thing in common, some amount of monetized FOMO.
ZOS has at least clarified that they won't be retiring seasonal "content" like some games, but that doesn't mean they won't be offering battle passes or other types of time-limited seasonal rewards (or activities).
We even have a preview of what this new seasonal treadmill is going to look like in the form of the current Golden Pursuits. They're basically a free battle pass that forces grinding of specific content that people wouldn't otherwise choose to do (because they don't find it fun), just to get exclusive time-limited cosmetics.
If all they were doing was getting rid of chapters and replacing them with smaller, less regular content drops, they would have picked a different word for their new model.
Just because battlepasses tend to be seasonal as well doesn't meant we need to go throwing around battlepass conspiracies. I keep seeing people bring it up but like...genuinely ZOS is just calling the new cadence cycle Seasons. It's just a word to describe how they're doing content, like Chapters was.
tomofhyrule wrote: »A lot of it is looking at trends. Even consider this year - the Q3 patch this year promised Housing content, and people hyped themselves up for certain highly-requested things (that were previously explicitly declared impossible by the devs, but that's a different issue). And then we got something that, while it is a nice feature, is something that's more like a bonus feature than a tentpole itself. The Q4 patch promised PvP content, and people hyped themselves up for Cyrodiil, and then the content ended up being a tear-down-and-rebuild of one of the less popular PvP modes, which was laden with bugs and discontent. And now... we're getting plenty of time again to speculate what's coming before the devs deign to give us any other information. This just sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Relating to recent talks of better communication, this is what I wish they'll improve on when it comes to it. Keeping future content details a secret from the player base rarely does any good. We're mostly given 10,000 level views months prior to it's reveal, and all it leads to is a lot of speculation with each player setting their own expectations. I understand that it can generate hype around an update, but more often than not, it causes massive disappointment because each player was expecting something different.
I hope with the seasonal approach, they can start giving us much more detailed outlines of what they're planning to do months in advanced. OSRS has been doing it for years and has seen much success from it. They don't need to spill everything, and can even keep some surprises, but detailed plans will do nothing but good imo. Yes, there will still be a lot of complaints, but not nearly as much I feel, and there is the possibility that genuine feedback can be implemented before it becomes a hassle to do. I work as a developer too, nowhere near the scale of this game, but I understand the hassle around building something and then being asked to make X change/implementation. It's much easier to make those changes long before the product is finished since it can be built with them in mind.
MidniteOwl1913 wrote: »MidniteOwl1913 wrote: »No addons on the console. And although PC players far outnumber console we do exist.
Where is the source for player counts on each platform? I have tried finding this using search engines and come up empty.
Separately, rumors I hear are that total PC player count, and total console player count are roughly equal.
I made an informal poll a few months ago on the forums and I believe it was about 30% console, the rest PC. I just get irritated that so many seem to assume that everyone must have addons...
It doesn't imply anything like that, seeing as the letter states Seasons will vary in length and will NOT be a fixed release cycle like Chapters are. The letter CLEARLY SAYS why they are going to this new release cycle and people are ignoring that reasoning in favor of doomsaying and conspiracy theories.the1andonlyskwex wrote: »Or they decided to call the new release cadence Seasons after, y'know, seasons irl. Seasons come and go, bringing whatever weather and all as they change. Same thing with Seasons for the game; new content will be released every few months, each Season bringing new weather (content).the1andonlyskwex wrote: »If they don't want us to react negatively, they should probably avoid using a loaded term like "seasons". Seasons can take a lot of different forms in gaming, but those forms all have one thing in common, some amount of monetized FOMO.
ZOS has at least clarified that they won't be retiring seasonal "content" like some games, but that doesn't mean they won't be offering battle passes or other types of time-limited seasonal rewards (or activities).
We even have a preview of what this new seasonal treadmill is going to look like in the form of the current Golden Pursuits. They're basically a free battle pass that forces grinding of specific content that people wouldn't otherwise choose to do (because they don't find it fun), just to get exclusive time-limited cosmetics.
If all they were doing was getting rid of chapters and replacing them with smaller, less regular content drops, they would have picked a different word for their new model.
Just because battlepasses tend to be seasonal as well doesn't meant we need to go throwing around battlepass conspiracies. I keep seeing people bring it up but like...genuinely ZOS is just calling the new cadence cycle Seasons. It's just a word to describe how they're doing content, like Chapters was.
Sorry, I don't buy it. They talk about releasing new content when it's ready, instead of on a fixed schedule. Then, in the same breath they call that new release schedule "seasonal", which implies just about the most regular schedule possible, and has a well-established meaning in other games (including other games run by the same company). They also announce all of this only a couple of months after releasing Golden Pursuits, which look an awful lot like a prototype for a battlepass. Where there's smoke, there's fire.
I'm wondering why they call it "seasons" and introduce it as new?
…. (in my case, this is the majority of the players I met, all of them as one asked for what was said in the letter)
And yet if you look at the poll in another thread, most people are unhappy. People group and talk with other people with similar mindsets, that is fine. Their needs/wants will also be similar.
But if you say asked people in an RP guild (for example) your responses would be much different on “what’s important”.
Same as casual guilds, housing guilds, trading guilds… Each one will give you different answers.
the survey still does not give the whole truth, because the interest in the survey is greater among those people who want to discuss their dissatisfaction, while those who are happy with everything just read the letter and finally calmed down. And do not add me to the fact that I am one of those who asked for this, on the contrary, I just looked at the forum threads starting in 2018, and every year I saw the same requests that were announced in this letter. And not only from the EN forums, but also the German forum and the Russian forum. Believe me, it is the same there (or check it yourself). Therefore, it is strange for me to see messages "Why are they adding something that no one asked for?" They are adding exactly what was discussed in the forum most often. The complication of battles in the overland is the most common thing I have seen on the forums (on par with the fix of Cyrodiil). Updating base locations is in second place in popularity. The change in the system of release of add-ons only appeared in the last month.
I don't judge the opinions of players from guilds, because the developers don't sit in these guilds, I judge by the forum users.
And many of the people “I met” wanted furniture bags, increased housing limits, and the reintroduction of smaller houses.
They also wanted pve group sizes to go back to 24 people, racial stats to reflect the lore, and housing plans to be easier farmed.
They also wanted story modes for dungeons and trials, additional animal skins for wardens and sorcs, and a pve version of IC and Cyrodiil.
All of these have been mentioned on the forums as well (go check) and yet it did not get mentioned in the letter.
Not everyone is the same, people play the game differently that is why there is a variety of things to do in the game.
Now everyone you “met” who all apparently agree with each other (although apparently you don’t? So not unanimous after all I guess.) may want the same thing. But that does not make those views universal.
There was very little in that letter that I support. Only better guild tools was nice. Everything else was terrible. It has destroyed my even wanting to log into the game anymore. It all seems pointless.
Now you see? You just met someone who does not agree with the letter. And by the poll, around 60% of the people are also unhappy because what they wanted was ignored. I hate to burst your bubble but this letter was not good news to a great deal of players.
There will always be dissatisfied people, there are no universal updates, because there are even those who consider the house limits more than sufficient and do not want them to be increased. The fact that you do not like these updates does not make them bad. They have been requested for many years. Right now, go to the official thread with reviews on the difficulty of Overland and you will see that a huge number are asking to make it harder. I personally know almost 30 people (already from guilds that left the game due to the lack of enjoyable combat) and on the forums they have also asked many times to update this aspect. The fact that they did not mention what you wrote does not mean that it will not happen, because as was said in the letter, they will experiment with EVERYTHING that players asked for, but they mentioned only a little, what players started asking for a long time ago.
SeaGtGruff wrote: »JiubLeRepenti wrote: »the "Home Tours" feature was already available through an addon.
Which did absolutely nothing for all of the players who play the game on console, or through some online service that doesn't allow addons (I'm not sure whether GeForce Now does or not). How dare ZOS try to enhance their game in a way that benefits players on all platforms alike.
Alinhbo_Tyaka wrote: »The historical problem is what players ask for and what ZOS delivers are frequently far apart. It is why I highly doubt players are going to see many of the requested the changes in the form they hope for and will just drive more players from the game.
Likely because seasons last 3 months, and they're saying the new release cadence will be every three to four months. It's like you can call every release of Crown Crates seasons, which is how I refer to them.If it's just smaller dlcs released throughout the year, like it was in the earlier years of ESO, I'm wondering why they call it "seasons" and introduce it as new?