Why don't gaming sites talk about ESO anymore?

Neizir

Seriously, ESO is announcing tons of things for Update 6 and only a single gaming site has talked about it (MMORPG.com). What happened? Is ESO's public image dead? It's not good when only its relatively large community is all that's talking about the game. Nor is it good when players who only know about ESO from launch are checking these news sites, seeing nothing about ESO, and assume that it hasn't changed at all and has just faded away

What can we do to get ESO back into the spotlight?

ers101284b14_ESO

They do just not like they did back before release. Also after they found out it wasn't Skyrim online (Something I knew 2 damn years ago but somehow its hard for anyone to use google) they dismissed it as just another WoW clone. Unfortunately anyone who thinks this is just a WoW clone has either not played this or has not played WoW.

Gyudan

Sadly the latest console delay got much more press than any of the recent game updates.

NordJitsu

It seems that outside of people who play the game most In the general gaming community consider it a failure.

xaraan

Because it doesn't get a ton of hits (I write for one of those sites). There are go-to sites already for your in depth coverage, but your run of the mill news about the game doesn't pull in much traffic.

I am, however, considering a piece on zos scrwing over a piece of their customers with the way they are doing champion points to lure back some player base. But I'll do it when I have a little more info (if they ever grace us with an answer - if not then I'll move forward anyway) and when I'm less pissy about and can be slightly more even keeled on the issue. (Plus, the champion system relaunch may be worthy of a story on many sites anyway).

Either way, the players that are really into the game know to go here, reddit or tamriel foundry and the like for your deep discussions and the casual player looking for the next hot game isn't that into an almost year old mmo. Not saying none are, but not enough to really drive a lot of traffic. Even stories from a few months after launch considerably dropped in traffic vs. leading up to and surrounding launch.

edit: "lol's" won't effect me, let them wrack up - nobody that reads this forum is part of anyone sites target audience with these articles. People that pour over the forums already are further into the game than most folks that will read articles on generic sites, but casuals - and there are a lot more of them than there are us - are the ones that will see the article, not you guys with the lols.

zaria

Gaming press don't release news about MMO, not even WOW unless its new expansions or very special stuff, like the large fight in EVE.
The console version delay was huge enough to get mentioned.

On the sites I follow ESO and Wildstar are the only real MMO who got plenty of coverage on launch as in preview and review.

Zhoyzu

Most of those gaming sites have no useful information to take away from them. If you want bias caked on top of opinions go ahead. I think most educated people avoid those sites altogether seeing as they contain little to no accurate information.

Voodoo

site's arent talking about wow's expansion either ..I think its the time of year ...xmas.

kevlarto_ESO

I think we will see coverage when the console version comes out, maybe, I agree ESO has big plans and changes coming early 2015, surprised it does not get a little more press.

Elsonso

(When I wrote this, I was unaware that you were one of the first to participate in the formation of the rumor about VR XP and the CP cap. Most of what I wrote actually does not apply to you. Know my audience, I guess.)

JamilaRaj

xaraan wrote: »

I am, however, considering a piece on zos scrwing over a piece of their customers with the way they are doing champion points to lure back some player base. But I'll do it when I have a little more info (if they ever grace us with an answer - if not then I'll move forward anyway) and when I'm less pissy about and can be slightly more even keeled on the issue. (Plus, the champion system relaunch may be worthy of a story on many sites anyway).

I almost expected you are going to say: I'll do it when CS comes out to see how it plays out. Gosh, I am so uncorrectable optimist when it comes to journalism.

Alphashado

This is my opinion and nothing more. I have zero data or hard facts to back this up. But I think it's because ESO is still a hot potato. It was popular and trendy to bash ESO at launch. The game had many issues turning people away with the VR system being top of the list. Due to the high expectations (which I think were impossible to live up to), it was very popular to bash the game. Guys like Angry Joe etc were getting tens of thousands of hits due to their criticism.

Yet ESO kept chugging along. ZOS keeps making changes, some good, some not so good, but they are very clearly not giving up. You are starting to see more and more positive reviews. You are starting to see people returning to the game. You are starting to see an influx of new players to the game.

To put it simply, it was unpopular to publicly discuss and support ESO. Yet despite all that negative press at launch, it is still chugging along with a pretty large amount of loyal supporters. Seems to me like the pendulum is swinging the other way now. I predict that very shortly ESO is going to be getting more support from the so called "critics" because they won't be able to deny the fact that ESO has been successful and continues to grow.

It will become trendy and popular to support it. Then they will support it because most critics are like ambulance chasers. They just like to report on car crashes because negative press is good press. They are just parasites that follow trends.

That's just my opinion.

olemanwinter

NordJitsu wrote: »

It seems that outside of people who play the game most In the general gaming community consider it a failure.

I play, enjoy the game, and still consider it that. I can both enjoy it and objectively say it's not a very polished game.

My fear, personally, is that after 1.6 I won't even enjoy it any more.

What do you want gaming sites to say, "The developers of this game think so little of players that they are giving VR14 and lvl 50 players the same number of champion points in their new system, essentially making them even, making fools of players who put in the time, and making the last couple of months a waste"??

What a blurb!

kallistiGAD

This issue actually hit me during a co-optional podcast when they were discussing mmos in 2014 and pretty much just dismissed ESO as "oh yeah, that happened". Maybe some coverage from a large youtuber might attract some more subscribers and get the press interested again.

Unknown_poster

.

SteveCampsOut

Neizir wrote: »

What can we do to get ESO back into the spotlight?

Well, while I do still enjoy playing, there are still so many reasons for me to not recommend this game to friends that I don't feel it's my job to get ESO back in the spotlight! In fact, they need to stay as far from the spotlight as possible til things like crashes to desktop trying to enter the last delve I need in Craglorn go away!

NordJitsu

olemanwinter wrote: »

NordJitsu wrote: »

It seems that outside of people who play the game most In the general gaming community consider it a failure.

I play, enjoy the game, and still consider it that. I can both enjoy it and objectively say it's not a very polished game.

My fear, personally, is that after 1.6 I won't even enjoy it any more.

What do you want gaming sites to say, "The developers of this game think so little of players that they are giving VR14 and lvl 50 players the same number of champion points in their new system, essentially making them even, making fools of players who put in the time, and making the last couple of months a waste"??

What a blurb!

Do you really play games just to have minor statistical advantages over other players? Is this a work/reward relationship for you, like a job?

If you weren't enjoying yourself, why did you play?

And if you did enjoy yourself, how is it a waste?

xaraan

JamilaRaj wrote: »

xaraan wrote: »

I am, however, considering a piece on zos scrwing over a piece of their customers with the way they are doing champion points to lure back some player base. But I'll do it when I have a little more info (if they ever grace us with an answer - if not then I'll move forward anyway) and when I'm less pissy about and can be slightly more even keeled on the issue. (Plus, the champion system relaunch may be worthy of a story on many sites anyway).

I almost expected you are going to say: I'll do it when CS comes out to see how it plays out. Gosh, I am so uncorrectable optimist when it comes to journalism.

so... don't write about something when people want to read about it, i.e. get info before it lands, write about it after everyone and their mother has been playing it for a month and every forum already has fifty posts about it as well. Makes a lot of sense. Good idea.

Also, ZoS has a chance to reply to questions.

But, your advice is ironic when I was one of the few sites that offered an in depth review of ESO well after launch and the first patch was out instead of a day one review like many sites and tubers. But this isn't about hands on with the game, it's about info, and their lack of willingness to provide answers can be just as telling as the answers. I'm not writing a review, I'm sharing info and that's all I'm wanting from ZoS.

Alphashado

Current: http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm/loadFeature/9212/The-Great-MMO-FaceOff-of-2014-Quarterfinals.html

DEC 17th: http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm/read/33334/Should-the-Faction-Restriction-in-LFG-Be-Lifted.html

DEC 10th: http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm/read/33271/How-the-Justice-System-Will-Change-the-Game.html

DEC 4th: http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm/read/33211/Update-6-Headed-to-PTS-in-January-Console-Versions-Coming.html

NOV 26th: http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm/read/33148/Provisioning-Revamp-More-Logical-Less-Redundant.html

.................................................................................................................

DEC 5th: http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/12/05/the-elder-scrolls-online-director-offers-ps4-and-xbox-one-update

.................................................................................................................

DEC 4th: http://www.pcgamer.com/the-elder-scrolls-online-adding-champions-and-justice-in-january/

OCT 21st: http://www.pcgamer.com/bethesda-announces-elder-scrolls-lore-books-coming-next-year/

.................................................................................................................

DEC 11th: http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/12/11/the-elder-scrolls-online-undaunted-pledge-system-promotes-daily/

DEC 4th: http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/12/04/elder-scrolls-online-says-theres-work-to-do-on-console-versio/

DEC 3rd: http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/12/03/elder-scrolls-online-walks-you-through-crafting-writs/

NOV 5th: http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/11/05/elder-scrolls-unveils-its-six-month-loyalty-reward/

..................................................................................................................

I just got tired of looking at this point. Started to run into a bunch of lower budget MMO sites. Anyways, ESO is still out there being discussed on all the major sites. Good or bad, it's still being discussed.

kongkim

Hope ZOS will do some marketing again after 1.5 has landed and console is comming out.

AshySamurai

ZOS could make a huge marketing when DB and TG will arrive. And it will be one year anniversary.

RDMyers65b14_ESO

xaraan wrote: »

edit: "lol's" won't effect me, let them wrack up - nobody that reads this forum is part of anyone sites target audience with these articles. People that pour over the forums already are further into the game than most folks that will read articles on generic sites, but casuals - and there are a lot more of them than there are us - are the ones that will see the article, not you guys with the lols.

This is the most lol part of your statement. US casuals DO read the forum. Polls have proven that in the past.

Sindala

You never heard the term "If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all"?

ItsGlaive

Try Massively (http://massively.joystiq.com/). They cover ESO, sadly they don't have a weekly column for it like they do for a lot of their games though.

PBpsy

Unknown_poster wrote: »

Playing ESO is like having herpes in the gaming world. No one wants to admit it, and they ignore it except for when it flares up.

What the...?

Lord_Kreegan

To put it bluntly, the gaming sites are in it for the money and always have been. Game companies and other vendors that advertise on the gaming sites reimburse them for real estate on their webpages based on the number of hits.

In general, the websites don't just arbitrarily decide to run articles on the various games. They aren't "news sites" per se.

The "columns" you see? Generally, just another form of advertising designed to look like a presentation of information for gamers that read columns on the site; but don't be fooled.

Their forums? Another form of advertising; full of shils and phony posters; watch what happens if you present facts that are negative about a game that is being heavily advertised on that site. The owners of the sites don't want anything presented that may reduce their advertising revenue.

The "glowing reviews"? Strictly advertising... obvious to anyone with half a brain, too, but the owners of the web sites presume gamers are mostly young, naive, and stupid, so the sites publish reviews that are obviously contrived and tapdance around all the issues.

There is very little integrity in the business and marketing departments from the various developers actually pay for columns, biased forum moderation, and reviews. Some of the sites are less ethical than others; somebody mentioned MMORPG.com; they are IMHO the least ethical of the bunch by far; never trust anything you read on MMORPG.com.

If you want good information about a game, talk to other players. Never ever ever ever ever trust anything you read or see on a gaming site.

bellanca6561n

Unknown_poster wrote: »

Playing ESO is like having herpes in the gaming world. No one wants to admit it, and they ignore it except for when it flares up.

How true. And if you're a game developer you have to keep the fact you play this game a secret from your colleagues. One of our freelancer designer's contracts was not renewed because he admitted he liked ESO.

I am not kidding...wish to hell I was. Who could have imagined that online gaming would become an almost religious matter?

DeLindsay

I know that ESOHead is getting a MASSIVE update in January so that's it all current with current news. Now quite the gaming outlet you speak of but at least it's something.

Tabbycat

I think you are going to see an increase in media coverage when console release hits but not so much until then. You really don't hear that much about updates and expansions to other MMOs unless it's WoW. So the biggest thing for ZOS will be the console update when everyone will take another look at ESO. Waiting to release the console until after the core game has been revamped and improved was certainly a good idea regardless whether or not it was intentional.

maniacal1

It's pretty simple, really: because not a lot of people play it. You all do ( and I do, for now, til this re-trial month runs out ), and that's great. You obviously like the game. However that's not the general consensus.

It has nothing to do with 'haters gonna hate', it's not any bias or hidden agenda, most people just do not like this game. All my friends who tried it have quit, the guilds I belonged to are empty save a few inactives, and the zones not starter or cap feel like ghost towns. I'm stuck in hiatus because the zone I'm in is suddenly too hard to solo ( it wasn't when I left ) and there is quite-simply nobody else in the zone but me.

The coming update will generate some buzz on MMO sites, as they tend to, but after that the quiet will come again. This game is never going to be big, but rather niche, and you just need to come to grips with that.

zaria

olemanwinter wrote: »

NordJitsu wrote: »

It seems that outside of people who play the game most In the general gaming community consider it a failure.

I play, enjoy the game, and still consider it that. I can both enjoy it and objectively say it's not a very polished game.

My fear, personally, is that after 1.6 I won't even enjoy it any more.

What do you want gaming sites to say, "The developers of this game think so little of players that they are giving VR14 and lvl 50 players the same number of champion points in their new system, essentially making them even, making fools of players who put in the time, and making the last couple of months a waste"??

What a blurb!

How about doing the same complain about the last expansion for WOW.
If did not matter if your xp has been capped since 14 days after mist of pandora or it was capped the day before the release, and yes the raiding gear you have build up over two years are worse than the questing gear you get at level 94.

Stop the press now, this one want to get off.