xR3ACTORx wrote: »

[snip]

You really need to give them a little slack. Micorsoft gutted the ZOS staff and the rest are left to create new content and clean up on aisle 5. If you wanna place blame, direct it at the overlords, Microsoft.
[edited to remove quote]

Radiate77 wrote: »

Kilthor69 wrote: »

xR3ACTORx wrote: »

[snip]

You really need to give them a little slack. Micorsoft gutted the ZOS staff and the rest are left to create new content and clean up on aisle 5. If you wanna place blame, direct it at the overlords, Microsoft.

This is an incredibly flawed way of thinking.

Please explain your thinking.

If you work with a staff of say 20 people creating content, fixing bugs, etc... The overlords cut your staff in half, those 10 now have to pick up the slack of those that were let go. There is now way too much work to accomplish at this point tp appease the masses.
[edited to remove quote]

Kilthor69 wrote: »

xR3ACTORx wrote: »

[snip]

You really need to give them a little slack. Micorsoft gutted the ZOS staff and the rest are left to create new content and clean up on aisle 5. If you wanna place blame, direct it at the overlords, Microsoft.
[edited to remove quote]

I agree with this... to a point.

We know that a lot of the planning for the year-long story and event stuff has to happen in advance - they even said that they started working on Chapters 1.5-2 years out. That means that all of the backend planning (and much of the actual creation) for Solstice and the event and everything happened before that round of layoffs and shakeups.

Now, there was definitely a massive budget cut before that, which would explain why the NA meetup event was cancelled. So yes, Solstice as a zone made with a lot of reused assets is probably because they're absolutely on a shoestring budget right now. That I can give slack for. And definitely the layoffs (and associated low morale) would have affected the polishing of the latter parts of the year, so I can even understand how some of the bugs may have slipped through. It even does give a suggestion why we got Subclassing (read: all the old skills just meshed together) instead of anything new as the big 'feature' this year, and also suggests why it was free.

However: the planning happened while they still had staff. The layoffs don't change the fact that this event was not logically thought through at a base level. It doesn't change the fact that balance was not even a consideration for Subclassing. It doesn't change the fact that this Season cost more than previous Chapters, despite not including a unique feature and forcing ESO+ members to pay for dungeons twice. It doesn't change the fact that the idea of the Writhing Fortress as a one-week-only instance replaced content people could enjoy at any other time. And even after the Microsoft layoff wave, that doesn't change the fact that bugs that did get reported on PTS went live regardless. It doesn't change the fact that Francophone players are getting no indication of whether (if ever) they will get the content they paid for in the language they paid for. It doesn't change the fact that the Combat Team has been hardfocusing Vengeance tests instead of addressing Live issues. It doesn't change the fact that all we get for the future is "we can't wait to tell you, but we're going to keep secrets!"
All of those were actionable things that someone chose not to do at a relevant time. Those are the things that are really giving Principal Skinner's "No, it's the players who are wrong," and that is something that people can be held to account for.