Overall Gameplay too difficult?

aipex8_ESO

I'm VR9 and really like the current level of difficulty, BUT the VR areas are dead! Something has to be done to get people in there. I would suggest lowering the difficulty of the over world questing and keeping delves the same as they are now (soloable, but difficult). Remember, they are reworking delves to make them larger and more interesting. Casuals can quest and group for delves, more advanced players can solo delves, and quests will still be interesting even if they are easier. Everybody wins and people stay subscribed.

renaud.moyneb16_ESO

hardcores find it too easy...
Casuals too hard...

ESO, the only game that pleases no one.

Alphashado

Hilgara wrote: »

Alphashado wrote: »

Yes all of that would apply wonderfully if we were talking about Dungeons or Raids or group content. We are talking about trash mobs.

I have said this before in this thread and I will say it again. It isn't that people can't do it, it's that we are tired of being forced to do it all the time.

Me and countless other people just want to be able to quest in peace sometimes and not be required to exert 100% effort and concentration just to navigate the roads.

You didn't read what I said. The trash mobs are no more difficult in vet content than they are 1 to 50 with the right build and skills.

Sorry, you lost all of my interest in discussing this with you right there. Nothing one or two shot kills you in 1-50 because you missed one block or dodge roll.

Safe travels.

Hilgara

Magdalina wrote: »

@Hilgara, you seem to be missing most of the point(no offence). If you play that well as a NB, that's really great. And I'm glad you enjoy the challenge, really. At least someone is happy:) But this is not single player, this is MMO, there are - or SHOULD be - other people aside from you, too. Surely you've noticed how deserted vet zones are? People are leaving. Because they're lazy and don't want to adapt, because they have better things to research than their skill lines and their effect on trash mobs, whatever. Clearly, the majority is not enjoying this level of challenge from trash mobs. And they're leaving.

What makes you so sure this is the reason they are leaving. Lets be honest there are plenty of other reasons they might be leaving. Bots, Bugs, Performance issues, Crashes, Load screen errors....how can you be so sure YOU are right about why they left. Lots of people have left in my guild but never once has the difficulty been given as a reason.

The vet zones are reasonably well populated at the right times of day and I find that people are throwing groups together every now and then and doing all the world bosses and all the anchors in a zone together. This is great fun to do and gets that content out of the way very quickly. I see this will be the way things will happen in future.

Alphashado

aipex8_ESO wrote: »

I'm VR9 and really like the current level of difficulty, BUT the VR areas are dead! Something has to be done to get people in there. I would suggest lowering the difficulty of the over world questing and keeping delves the same as they are now (soloable, but difficult). Remember, they are reworking delves to make them larger and more interesting. Casuals can quest and group for delves, more advanced players can solo delves, and quests will still be interesting even if they are easier. Everybody wins and people stay subscribed.

+1 I Wish more people would see the bigger picture like this.

Dayv

Hilgara wrote: »

Alphashado wrote: »

Yes all of that would apply wonderfully if we were talking about Dungeons or Raids or group content. We are talking about trash mobs.

I have said this before in this thread and I will say it again. It isn't that people can't do it, it's that we are tired of being forced to do it all the time.

Me and countless other people just want to be able to quest in peace sometimes and not be required to exert 100% effort and concentration just to navigate the roads.

You didn't read what I said. The trash mobs are no more difficult in vet content than they are 1 to 50 with the right build and skills. They may require a different approach than just dashing in and AOE'ing everything but that's to be expected. CC the caster, slow the melee hit the archer. it soon becomes instinctive but you cannot just ignore a group. it may need a different approach for each group depending on the make up of the group. Some group make up's will cause you much more trouble that others but that all adds interest to the game. I don't want to be able to slot 5 skills and march into any group of mobs spamming a couple of buttons because then the mobs just become scenery.

So what you're saying is it isn't more difficult, it's just more difficult.

More hardcore doublethink.

Alphashado

Hilgara wrote: »

Magdalina wrote: »

@Hilgara, you seem to be missing most of the point(no offence). If you play that well as a NB, that's really great. And I'm glad you enjoy the challenge, really. At least someone is happy:) But this is not single player, this is MMO, there are - or SHOULD be - other people aside from you, too. Surely you've noticed how deserted vet zones are? People are leaving. Because they're lazy and don't want to adapt, because they have better things to research than their skill lines and their effect on trash mobs, whatever. Clearly, the majority is not enjoying this level of challenge from trash mobs. And they're leaving.

Lots of people have left in my guild but never once has the difficulty been given as a reason.

Very few would admit it. They would just leave.

Hilgara

Alphashado wrote: »

Sorry, you lost all of my interest in discussing this with you right there. Nothing one or two shot kills you in 1-50 because you missed one block or dodge roll.

Safe travels.

And this is the crux. I learned not to get hit playing the NB (cloak spam) I learned to CC ranged mobs. I learned to prebuff from my second bar with long duration abilities that persisted through a bar swap before starting the fight. I learned to use potions and I learned how to charge my ultimate for the tougher groups by killing random single mobs. I adapted to the rise in difficulty and am now getting through the content just as effectively as I was 1 to 50.
Anyone can do this, its not hardcore to spend some time thinking about why you are dying and experimenting with different things. I went through that phase too. I started with medium armour and went for a stamina heavy crit build but it didn't work out. I died too often. So I changed....more than once in fact. And eventually found something that worked for me and got great satisfaction from doing it.

Alphashado

Hilgara wrote: »

Alphashado wrote: »

Sorry, you lost all of my interest in discussing this with you right there. Nothing one or two shot kills you in 1-50 because you missed one block or dodge roll.

Safe travels.

And this is the crux. I learned not to get hit playing the NB (cloak spam) I learned to CC ranged mobs. I learned to prebuff from my second bar with long duration abilities that persisted through a bar swap before starting the fight. I learned to use potions and I learned how to charge my ultimate for the tougher groups by killing random single mobs. I adapted to the rise in difficulty and am now getting through the content just as effectively as I was 1 to 50.
Anyone can do this, its not hardcore to spend some time thinking about why you are dying and experimenting with different things. I went through that phase too. I started with medium armour and went for a stamina heavy crit build but it didn't work out. I died too often. So I changed....more than once in fact. And eventually found something that worked for me and got great satisfaction from doing it.

Just curious. What would be hardcore then in your opinion?

You just don't seem to understand what I said more than once already. We know what must be done and we don't find it fun.

As a Templar that used to use sheild bash and biting jabs, I am well aware of adapting and adjusting and making changes. But again, for the 3rd time, it isn't that we can't, it's that we find it tiresome.

And casual players should not have to go through all of the "non hardcore" stuff that you are mentioning just to do solo quests. LEAVE THE DIFFICULT STUFF FOR DUNGEONS AND GROUP CONTENT. Or the game is going to die. Don't you guys get it?

I would consider myself a hardcore player and I have wanted to quit several times already because it's tiresome. Not because I can't do it. I can't even imagine how frustrating it must be for the casual players.

steveb16_ESO46

I read what you said and along with many others think you are wrong. I am not adopting a specific build and play style. If I have a perfectly reasonable build then, in line with the promise they sold it me on, I expect it to be functional at all levels.

And I appreciate you have an overstock of straw but finding another use for it other than for building straw men to attack would be good. You know full well that the alternative to boringly difficult is not spamming two buttons in a random build and it is dishonest to characterise the debate in this fashion.

Arundo

@Alphashado

I doubt you can convice Hilgara, he rather see this game slowly die then to give in to the casuals.

We all mentioned it before, leveling shouldnt be this hard, it should be fun and entertaining which it currently is not. And when games are no longer fun you will not play it.

Should everything be easy for us casuals ? No but the part which was always be ment to be the single player stuff should. I dont care if raiding, veteran dungeons and trials are hard. I just dont do those, but when 50% of the game is frustratingly hard I can better play My Little Pony Online as the great Hilgara mentioned before.

Magdalina

Hilgara wrote: »

Magdalina wrote: »

@Hilgara, you seem to be missing most of the point(no offence). If you play that well as a NB, that's really great. And I'm glad you enjoy the challenge, really. At least someone is happy:) But this is not single player, this is MMO, there are - or SHOULD be - other people aside from you, too. Surely you've noticed how deserted vet zones are? People are leaving. Because they're lazy and don't want to adapt, because they have better things to research than their skill lines and their effect on trash mobs, whatever. Clearly, the majority is not enjoying this level of challenge from trash mobs. And they're leaving.

What makes you so sure this is the reason they are leaving. Lets be honest there are plenty of other reasons they might be leaving. Bots, Bugs, Performance issues, Crashes, Load screen errors....how can you be so sure YOU are right about why they left. Lots of people have left in my guild but never once has the difficulty been given as a reason.

The vet zones are reasonably well populated at the right times of day and I find that people are throwing groups together every now and then and doing all the world bosses and all the anchors in a zone together. This is great fun to do and gets that content out of the way very quickly. I see this will be the way things will happen in future.

Ummm....weeeeeell...I think my astonishing confidence might've had smth to do with reading forums and zone chat. This thread is a great example. There're other threads on the same topic, many of them. There're people in zone chat asking for help with supposedly soloable mobs(like Gargoyles in Bangkorai...btw, can I ask what alliance and lvl you are, to compare experience?) and complaining about the difficulty. There's also some logic involved - every time I go to Rift(non-vet, lvl 40-ish), it's FULL of people, can barely see crafting stations. Every time I go to Coldharbour, it's pretty populated too. Every time I go to one of vet zones...yeeeaaaah...it's like there's 10 ppl in the whole game. I've seen ppl asking for help for same boss/anchor for HOURS because there was no one to respond to them. You don't think there's some bad tendency there?

steveb16_ESO46

Time will tell and I think none of us are going to like what the game is in 12 months time. But the bottom line remains. You cannot cajole, insult or mock people into enjoying what they don't enjoy.

Arundo

Magdalina wrote: »

Every time I go to one of vet zones...yeeeaaaah...it's like there's 10 ppl in the whole game. I've seen ppl asking for help for same boss/anchor for HOURS because there was no one to respond to them. You don't think there's some bad tendency there?

Same, everytime I'm in one of the VR zones its just silent in zone chat. Only a few people asking for the same boss over and over. I have one quest in Greenshade left, been waiting for others so I could tag along but no luck the past few evenings.

Hilgara

Magdalina wrote: »

Hilgara wrote: »

Magdalina wrote: »

@Hilgara, you seem to be missing most of the point(no offence). If you play that well as a NB, that's really great. And I'm glad you enjoy the challenge, really. At least someone is happy:) But this is not single player, this is MMO, there are - or SHOULD be - other people aside from you, too. Surely you've noticed how deserted vet zones are? People are leaving. Because they're lazy and don't want to adapt, because they have better things to research than their skill lines and their effect on trash mobs, whatever. Clearly, the majority is not enjoying this level of challenge from trash mobs. And they're leaving.

What makes you so sure this is the reason they are leaving. Lets be honest there are plenty of other reasons they might be leaving. Bots, Bugs, Performance issues, Crashes, Load screen errors....how can you be so sure YOU are right about why they left. Lots of people have left in my guild but never once has the difficulty been given as a reason.

The vet zones are reasonably well populated at the right times of day and I find that people are throwing groups together every now and then and doing all the world bosses and all the anchors in a zone together. This is great fun to do and gets that content out of the way very quickly. I see this will be the way things will happen in future.

Ummm....weeeeeell...I think my astonishing confidence might've had smth to do with reading forums and zone chat. This thread is a great example. There're other threads on the same topic, many of them. There're people in zone chat asking for help with supposedly soloable mobs(like Gargoyles in Bangkorai...btw, can I ask what alliance and lvl you are, to compare experience?) and complaining about the difficulty. There's also some logic involved - every time I go to Rift(non-vet, lvl 40-ish), it's FULL of people, can barely see crafting stations. Every time I go to Coldharbour, it's pretty populated too. Every time I go to one of vet zones...yeeeaaaah...it's like there's 10 ppl in the whole game. I've seen ppl asking for help for same boss/anchor for HOURS because there was no one to respond to them. You don't think there's some bad tendency there?

I have a vet11 sorc in DC and a vet 5 NB in AD. I have got there entirely through levelling and questing. No exploits or craglorn farming.
The vet zones are less populated than the 1 to 50 zones because a lot of people are in craglorn. Yeah you hear a lot of complaints about difficulty but that's because people don't shout in chat or start threads proclaiming how well the difficulty has been scaled. You only ever hear from the people who find it difficult and never the people who aren't having a problem so who exactly knows who is in the minority?

I have never heard any of the people I play regularly with say the content is too hard. I only ever hear that on here because this is where people come to complain. That's what its for (at least partly) so you will always get a lot of negativity in forums. They do not necessarily represent the opinions of the wider player base.

Alphashado

Yeah it's very sad. I do a lot of recruiting for my trading guild in order to keep it active. The GM had to boot another 10 members today for inactivity. He gives them either 10 or 30 days depending on what rank they are in the guild. But I look at the roster and there are so many at 7 days, 8 days, 9 days.... and so many at 27 days, 28 days, 29 days..

Obviously this isn't the only issue, but it's a big one. And it's the silent one. It takes gonads to admit to a gaming community that you find the game too hard because of the outlash.

Honestly I have been involved with plenty of other mmo launches where people were saying it was too hard and I was on the other side of the isle because I really didn't think so.

But this is different. Much different.

ESO has such huge potential. I don't want to leave. I don't want anymore of my friends to leave. I want ESO to succeed. But I can see the writing on the wall. The game needs some drastic changes to VR trash mob difficulty, drastic changes to class balance, drastic changes to phasing and the way grouping works on quests.

Magdalina

Hilgara wrote: »

Magdalina wrote: »

Hilgara wrote: »

Magdalina wrote: »

@Hilgara, you seem to be missing most of the point(no offence). If you play that well as a NB, that's really great. And I'm glad you enjoy the challenge, really. At least someone is happy:) But this is not single player, this is MMO, there are - or SHOULD be - other people aside from you, too. Surely you've noticed how deserted vet zones are? People are leaving. Because they're lazy and don't want to adapt, because they have better things to research than their skill lines and their effect on trash mobs, whatever. Clearly, the majority is not enjoying this level of challenge from trash mobs. And they're leaving.

What makes you so sure this is the reason they are leaving. Lets be honest there are plenty of other reasons they might be leaving. Bots, Bugs, Performance issues, Crashes, Load screen errors....how can you be so sure YOU are right about why they left. Lots of people have left in my guild but never once has the difficulty been given as a reason.

The vet zones are reasonably well populated at the right times of day and I find that people are throwing groups together every now and then and doing all the world bosses and all the anchors in a zone together. This is great fun to do and gets that content out of the way very quickly. I see this will be the way things will happen in future.

Ummm....weeeeeell...I think my astonishing confidence might've had smth to do with reading forums and zone chat. This thread is a great example. There're other threads on the same topic, many of them. There're people in zone chat asking for help with supposedly soloable mobs(like Gargoyles in Bangkorai...btw, can I ask what alliance and lvl you are, to compare experience?) and complaining about the difficulty. There's also some logic involved - every time I go to Rift(non-vet, lvl 40-ish), it's FULL of people, can barely see crafting stations. Every time I go to Coldharbour, it's pretty populated too. Every time I go to one of vet zones...yeeeaaaah...it's like there's 10 ppl in the whole game. I've seen ppl asking for help for same boss/anchor for HOURS because there was no one to respond to them. You don't think there's some bad tendency there?

I have a vet11 sorc in DC and a vet 5 NB in AD. I have got there entirely through levelling and questing. No exploits or craglorn farming.
The vet zones are less populated than the 1 to 50 zones because a lot of people are in craglorn. Yeah you hear a lot of complaints about difficulty but that's because people don't shout in chat or start threads proclaiming how well the difficulty has been scaled. You only ever hear from the people who find it difficult and never the people who aren't having a problem so who exactly knows who is in the minority?

I have never heard any of the people I play regularly with say the content is too hard. I only ever hear that on here because this is where people come to complain. That's what its for (at least partly) so you will always get a lot of negativity in forums. They do not necessarily represent the opinions of the wider player base.

Ah, I see. I'm with EP so guess can't compare exactly.
You mean the happy majority - ALL of it aside from the like 10 ppl per zone - is in Craglorn, happily skipping most of vet content? Wow, that's an odd way to show you find the game well balanced.

steveb16_ESO46

Alphashado wrote: »

Honestly I have been involved with plenty of other mmo launches where people were saying it was too hard and I was on the other side of the isle because I really didn't think so.

This is it. I'm usually a pretty hard core player. I appreciate challenge, enjoy PvP and grouped raids.

But this VR is repetitive, boring, irritating and frustrating for so many reasons from the actual paper-thin excuse of a story, through to the insane balance of difficulty for just open world trash mobs through to the spectacular build imbalances. This is compounded with all the obstacles that prevent you from grouping when you want/need to with guild members or friends the phase tech says No to.

I don't suppose it helps that I didn't exploit my way to hundreds of thousands of gold, hundreds of soul gems and VR ranks. I've just been playing the game levelling alts up through each faction and enjoying the stories.

Hilgara

Magdalina wrote: »

Ah, I see. I'm with EP so guess can't compare exactly.
You mean the happy majority - ALL of it aside from the like 10 ppl per zone - is in Craglorn, happily skipping most of vet content? Wow, that's an odd way to show you find the game well balanced.

The wave of players that started at launch have passed through already and are either in PvP, end game or have re-rolled as most of my in game friends have.
I'm not disputing that the game has lost a lot of subs. I'm disputing that the majority of these are due to difficulty. There are many other reasons people are leaving this game. if the game dies I wont be cause it was too hard it will be because on a combination of many other factors, many of which are far more damaging than some players finding the difficulty too tough. if can't log in or crash all the time or get ridiculous lag then the difficulty is irrelevant.

Alphashado

Hilgara wrote: »

Magdalina wrote: »

Ah, I see. I'm with EP so guess can't compare exactly.
You mean the happy majority - ALL of it aside from the like 10 ppl per zone - is in Craglorn, happily skipping most of vet content? Wow, that's an odd way to show you find the game well balanced.

The wave of players that started at launch have passed through already and are either in PvP, end game or have re-rolled as most of my in game friends have.
I'm not disputing that the game has lost a lot of subs. I'm disputing that the majority of these are due to difficulty. There are many other reasons people are leaving this game. if the game dies I wont be cause it was too hard it will be because on a combination of many other factors, many of which are far more damaging than some players finding the difficulty too tough. if can't lon in or crash all the rime or get ridiculous lag then the difficulty is irrelevant.

You are grossly underestimating the number of people who think the VR trash mob difficulty is redundant, tiresome, boring, or just flat out too extreme. They just won't admit it in public.

It's like asking men if they think their epeen is large enough. Publicly they will all say "Heck yeah man it's a beast!" But they are thinking to themselves "Well it could use an inch or two".

Magdalina

Hilgara wrote: »

Magdalina wrote: »

Ah, I see. I'm with EP so guess can't compare exactly.
You mean the happy majority - ALL of it aside from the like 10 ppl per zone - is in Craglorn, happily skipping most of vet content? Wow, that's an odd way to show you find the game well balanced.

The wave of players that started at launch have passed through already and are either in PvP, end game or have re-rolled as most of my in game friends have.
I'm not disputing that the game has lost a lot of subs. I'm disputing that the majority of these are due to difficulty. There are many other reasons people are leaving this game. if the game dies I wont be cause it was too hard it will be because on a combination of many other factors, many of which are far more damaging than some players finding the difficulty too tough. if can't lon in or crash all the rime or get ridiculous lag then the difficulty is irrelevant.

As I said, plenty of ppl in Rift, a lot in Coldharbour, then you go to vet and they all magically vanish somewhere. Why could that be?
There's a lot in Craglorn, true, but a LOT of them are nowhere near vet 10 for which the zone has supposedly been made. Of course, you can go there at vet 1, but why would you do that when you have 10 vet levels of interestingly challenging content in front of you?
Non vet are still populated enough. Craglorn is populated. Vet is empty. You don't hear this tiny alarm bell ringing?

Anyway, it seems a pointless discussion. You'll stubbornly stick to your opinion, I'll stick to mine, in a few months we'll see who was right...and I'm not really looking forward to that. Because, you know, I actually like the game and don't want it to fail - I want it to become better for a wider variety of players.

Arundo

Magdalina wrote: »

Anyway, it seems a pointless discussion. You'll stubbornly stick to your opinion, I'll stick to mine, in a few months we'll see who was right...and I'm not really looking forward to that. Because, you know, I actually like the game and don't want it to fail - I want it to become better for a wider variety of players.

This.

steveb16_ESO46

Like you Mag, I want it to totally thrive. I hoped to have been playing it for years. Unfortunately it's become clear that the vision for this game is a lot narrower than I hoped and Zenimax' ambition is rather limited.

If they are content to be a small traditional niche game that trundles along on a small but loyal base then that's fine. I wish them and all the players who enjoy it well.

I just wanted something more.

Magdalina

steveb16_ESO46 wrote: »

Like you Mag, I want it to totally thrive. I hoped to have been playing it for years. Unfortunately it's become clear that the vision for this game is a lot narrower than I hoped and Zenimax' ambition is rather limited.

If they are content to be a small traditional niche game that trundles along on a small but loyal base then that's fine. I wish them and all the players who enjoy it well.

I just wanted something more.

I still think(and hope, too) it wasn't intentional. Mobs were majorly "accidentally" buffed with infamous Craglorn patch and I don't think it ever went away. If they wanted it to be THAT hardcore, why are bosses and even some WORLD bosses weaker than *** trash?

Dear ZOS, can we PLEASE maybe have some clarification on the question already? Is this level of difficulty intended for trash mobs? Surely you couldn't miss the outcry on forums concerning it and the pristine emptiness of vet zones in game. Are you looking into it or just ignoring all of us? Is it there to stay, is it to go for good, is it to be tweaked in some way?

Arundo

Magdalina wrote: »

Dear ZOS, can we PLEASE maybe have some clarification on the question already? Is this level of difficulty intended for trash mobs? Surely you couldn't miss the outcry on forums concerning it and the pristine emptiness of vet zones in game. Are you looking into it or just ignoring all of us? Is it there to stay, is it to go for good, is it to be tweaked in some way?

Yes @ZOS can we get some sort of answer on this, the topic has been active long enough.

Nathano

Agreed, we need some feedback on this issue, the silence is deafening. To me the lack of response shows ZOS is afraid that when they revel the difficulty is intentional and here to stay they will see a lot of people quit. I'm hoping the opposite is true and they are looking into balancing veteran zones (and I'm not talking small tweaks). Either way this is a big enough issue to deserve a response.

martinhpb16_ESO

GreySix wrote: »

That would be akin to me saying, "I found it easy to complete a 25-mile ruck march, so it should be easy for you too."

True if it was I found it easy

steveb16_ESO46 wrote: »

martinhpb16_ESO wrote: »

Vet areas are not hardcore gaming by any means.

You don't get to tell other people if they find it boring and/or hard.

I actually find vet areas boring myself.

I'm not saying its not hard.

I am saying it is not hardcore gaming.

martinhpb16_ESO

Magdalina wrote: »

@Hilgara, you seem to be missing most of the point(no offence). If you play that well as a NB, that's really great. And I'm glad you enjoy the challenge, really. At least someone is happy:) But this is not single player, this is MMO, there are - or SHOULD be - other people aside from you, too. Surely you've noticed how deserted vet zones are? People are leaving. Because they're lazy and don't want to adapt, because they have better things to research than their skill lines and their effect on trash mobs, whatever. Clearly, the majority is not enjoying this level of challenge from trash mobs. And they're leaving. They're unsubbing. Do you think this is good or bad for the game if it stays with a few hundred dedicated great players such as yourself and NO ONE else? Do you think they'll keep supporting the game(granted, their support already sucks now, but just imagine how much worse it can become when they stop getting money for it)?

I also think the vet zones are dead because the whole vet grind id too long, having to do all the faction content. Also craghorn xp farming is a vibrant industry.

Alphashado

Nathano wrote: »

Agreed, we need some feedback on this issue, the silence is deafening. To me the lack of response shows ZOS is afraid that when they revel the difficulty is intentional and here to stay they will see a lot of people quit. I'm hoping the opposite is true and they are looking into balancing veteran zones (and I'm not talking small tweaks). Either way this is a big enough issue to deserve a response.

Indeed. We all know they read these forums. A questionable thread that violates the rules gets closed down within minutes. Many topics get responses. Especially hot topic responses.

I have considered why they haven't responded to this issue and I believe "suspect" that it's because they don't know what to do about it yet. They are likely still collecting data and feedback and trying to decide how to handle it. This is a major issue and they aren't going to make any statement about it until they are damned sure that what they choose to do is the best course of action.

But it would be nice if we could at least get a "We're looking into this issue folks, hang tight" response. They will never admit anything about all the lost subs.

steveb16_ESO46

I suspect they are genuinely shocked by what is happening. I think they genuinely thought people would love that it as compulsory to do the other faction stories. That we'd love the idea of the difficulty of trash mobs being turned up to 13 and that we'd love the huge repair bills and the huge costs of respeccing until we found something we could make work until the next nerf.

I don't think they thought through the impact of the phase engine on grouping and i certainly don't think they thought through the whole stam/magika build thing.

All in all I suspect they are stunned that their vision is being soundly rejected by an unknown but probably significant portion of the customer base and simply don't have any idea how to respond.

I mean - what can they do? They can stick to the 'road map' in the expectation that it will continue to generate a return on investment that keeps investors happy or they can plan a quite major and unexpected change of direction with all th quality risks that involves.

Assuming there is a subscriber problem for the sake of argument my plan would be:

Steady as she goes - stick to the plan as its too late to change now without probably just making things worse.

Meanwhile work on an expansion pack that replaces VR1-10 with a rebalanced extension of the faction story into other areas and use it to win back the customers who left.