After the recent restructuring at ZOS, I'm worried for ESO's future.

ADarklore · July 12

Elsonso wrote: »

ADarklore wrote: »

TBH, it wouldn't surprise me if more higher ups start leaving ZOS as well. I'm shocked that Rich didn't get promoted, as he was with ZOS from the very beginning with Matt... can't imagine this won't leave some lingering hard feelings.

Last year, Rich was promoted from Creative Director to Game Director.

And that means he cannot be promoted to studio head? Considering he's been with the company since its inception and ESO was basically HIS idea (as he noted in previous podcasts) and that HE was the one who kept pushing Bethesda to make an online Elder Scrolls game... only to have them agree, but then put Matt in charge.

PDarkBHood · July 12

katanagirl1 wrote: »

I’m happy to keep paying to support this game, if they produce quality content. They might want to rethink that season pass model - it has not brought us timely updates and quality yet. Also paying up front for promised content later is not a sure sell.

Partially agree, I am very happy to support them as well and I am supportive of the new direction they are taking with the season pass model, subclassing and the nerfing of 'god-like' builds. You should listen to the 4 part pod cast, especially episode 4 where they go into depth about the rationale behind the season pass. I am all for it and totally agree with their rationale, but it will take time for them to do the good stuff outlined in the podcast. Here is a link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADaBPspkAL8

AzuraFan · July 12

katanagirl1 wrote: »

I’m happy to keep paying to support this game, if they produce quality content. They might want to rethink that season pass model - it has not brought us timely updates and quality yet. Also paying up front for promised content later is not a sure sell.

Agreed. I'm happy to support ESO as long as I'm enjoying myself.

At the same time, I don't want to feel like I'm being milked for cash, so as a subscriber, I didn't appreciate the dungeons being bundled with the content pass. Stuff like that is more likely to make me stop paying, than other factors.

TheMajority · July 12

ADarklore wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

ADarklore wrote: »

TBH, it wouldn't surprise me if more higher ups start leaving ZOS as well. I'm shocked that Rich didn't get promoted, as he was with ZOS from the very beginning with Matt... can't imagine this won't leave some lingering hard feelings.

Last year, Rich was promoted from Creative Director to Game Director.

And that means he cannot be promoted to studio head? Considering he's been with the company since its inception and ESO was basically HIS idea (as he noted in previous podcasts) and that HE was the one who kept pushing Bethesda to make an online Elder Scrolls game... only to have them agree, but then put Matt in charge.

be careful what you wish for....yeah that's all I'm saying.

Elsonso · July 12

ADarklore wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

ADarklore wrote: »

TBH, it wouldn't surprise me if more higher ups start leaving ZOS as well. I'm shocked that Rich didn't get promoted, as he was with ZOS from the very beginning with Matt... can't imagine this won't leave some lingering hard feelings.

Last year, Rich was promoted from Creative Director to Game Director.

And that means he cannot be promoted to studio head? Considering he's been with the company since its inception and ESO was basically HIS idea (as he noted in previous podcasts) and that HE was the one who kept pushing Bethesda to make an online Elder Scrolls game... only to have them agree, but then put Matt in charge.

Seems to me that Lambert has more of a game development role. Burba has more of a studio management role, and is also a 12 year ZOS veteran. Studio Director is more of a studio management role, so this does not seem odd to me.

Finedaible · July 12

katanagirl1 wrote: »

I’m happy to keep paying to support this game, if they produce quality content. They might want to rethink that season pass model - it has not brought us timely updates and quality yet. Also paying up front for promised content later is not a sure sell.

The biggest pain point for me is the writing now. Characters felt far more realistic and had believable motives and reactions from the beginning of the game all the way up to Summerset. Elsweyr and Greymoor kept the quality up, but I could sense something was gradually happening to the writing, then the writing started nose-diving with Blackwood. There were some interesting lore bits about the Longhouse Emperors and their pacts/conspiracies during the Blackwood quest, but a lot of the characters just couldn't be taken seriously. Now... well, I don't think I need to point out which characters have become grotesque caricatures of themselves.

I became a fan of Elder Scrolls because I loved getting lost in that immersion, and ESO is just not providing that anymore.

Rungar · July 12

Elsonso wrote: »

ADarklore wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

ADarklore wrote: »

TBH, it wouldn't surprise me if more higher ups start leaving ZOS as well. I'm shocked that Rich didn't get promoted, as he was with ZOS from the very beginning with Matt... can't imagine this won't leave some lingering hard feelings.

Last year, Rich was promoted from Creative Director to Game Director.

And that means he cannot be promoted to studio head? Considering he's been with the company since its inception and ESO was basically HIS idea (as he noted in previous podcasts) and that HE was the one who kept pushing Bethesda to make an online Elder Scrolls game... only to have them agree, but then put Matt in charge.

Seems to me that Lambert has more of a game development role. Burba has more of a studio management role, and is also a 12 year ZOS veteran. Studio Director is more of a studio management role, so this does not seem odd to me.

a studio that only has 1 game to maintain, not develop ( eso has had weak development for years), and no future prospects. I imagine the team will get alot smaller yet. Sometimes its better to not be the boss!

gamergirldk · July 12

LOL they took 50% the staff that was working on ESO to work on blackbird, why do you think every ESO content became more shallow after that. Man I could only dream of what this game would look like if they never had begun that other MMO project. We can hope some of the Blackbird developers will be back working on this game.

reazea · July 13

I'm as worried for the future of ZOS in equal measure as they are worried about my future.

I wouldn't have this attitude but ZOS treats it's customers with disrespect on most levels most of the time. Most feedback is ignored outright and their customer service and in game moderation is done by a faulty AI system and ZOS never reverts universally hated updates or admits any error on their part or makes any noteworthy effort to reverse erroneous bans. It's super offensive that ZOS lets AI do most of their bans and doesn't even have a live CS agent review them unless a formal complaint is made and the customer has the willpower to navigate days to weeks of interactions with the AI system to get in touch with a real live CS agent if it ever happens at all.

...jabs animation, the "they're working on it" video, disrespectful comments on social media from at least one of the lead devs, years of neglecting PvP with promises unfulfilled etc. Respect and compassion are earned and ZOS hasn't earned any. This cow has been milked dry.

With ZOS it's a take it or leave it proposition. They don't bother to cultivate positive customer relations, with the small exception of adding @ZOS-Kevin, and that's just a PR maneuver, but at least it's their too little too late bandaid on a decade of iron fisted dealings with the customer I guess. It's a far cry from actually changing policy to respect the customer needs and desires though.

NxJoeyD · July 13

Personally, I think a lot of studios are having to take a long look at staffing in the post-post Covid era.

We all know that multiple studios went hard on the hiring to try and ensure they had access to top tier talent back then .. but .. times have changed and some of the products which have come as a result of that haven’t yielded the success that studios had hoped for.

That said. A number of us, myself included, worried that gameplay changes were going to hurt the franchise; namely, Subclassing.

I’m subscribed to many threads on these forums and the overwhelming feedback is that Subclassing is great and fun for PvE, however, greatly harmed PvP, making it far more confined than it was before.

Sure, one “can” experiment with different classes and builds .. but they can’t do that and be competitive in PvP; and that’s the very thing ZoS touted that we’d get, more “build diversity”.

But some of us saw through that and knew that the majority of such diversity would not be competitive in PvP and that the “metas” would even further constrain and, well, here we are.

And what does that mean? Seemingly more negative sentiment or, in some cases, just leaving the game as I did. My characters were all CP 2100; by no means max on CP, but we all know much of the later-stage gameplay is PvP oriented. After seeing and testing the results of subclassing I finally had enough and walked away from the game. And while I might not be ZoS’s biggest spender I was an ESO+ member and regular, recurring, high volume Crown buyer.

I know I don’t speak for everyone and not everyone is walking away from the game, but, let’s ask ourselves, if even 5% of the player base walks and if that 5% is a “key spending” 5%, what does that do for the future of the franchise? Nothing good that’s for sure.

ZoS could benefit from more reciprocal Q&A on major gameplay directions BEFORE undertaking the effort to develop. If the Devs had listened to the majority of the community before going ahead with this last update the game could have gone in another direction or at least better refined the current one.

Hopefully ZoS takes some time and really reviews feedback in a more macro scale, because right now it feels like the Dev team was taken over by Nabisco because all anyone seems to want to do is Cheeze-it with this game.

CatoUnchained · July 13

reazea wrote: »

I'm as worried for the future of ZOS in equal measure as they are worried about my future.

I wouldn't have this attitude but ZOS treats it's customers with disrespect on most levels most of the time. Most feedback is ignored outright and their customer service and in game moderation is done by a faulty AI system and ZOS never reverts universally hated updates or admits any error on their part or makes any noteworthy effort to reverse erroneous bans. It's super offensive that ZOS lets AI do most of their bans and doesn't even have a live CS agent review them unless a formal complaint is made and the customer has the willpower to navigate days to weeks of interactions with the AI system to get in touch with a real live CS agent if it ever happens at all.

...jabs animation, the "they're working on it" video, disrespectful comments on social media from at least one of the lead devs, years of neglecting PvP with promises unfulfilled etc. Respect and compassion are earned and ZOS hasn't earned any. This cow has been milked dry.

With ZOS it's a take it or leave it proposition. They don't bother to cultivate positive customer relations, with the small exception of adding @ZOS-Kevin, and that's just a PR maneuver, but at least it's their too little too late bandaid on a decade of iron fisted dealings with the customer I guess. It's a far cry from actually changing policy to respect the customer needs and desires though.

Nailed it!

This latest drop in game performance in both lag and frame rate seems like it's going to be the new normal too. They've done two patches since June 25th and the hit to performance remains.