Oh ZoS - You have let us down!

pugyourself

ZOS_JoBurba wrote: »

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to stop in and put some detail and context around the in-game announcements this weekend. Like Gina said - it's once a day on each server in 3 languages. (5 languages? We don't even speak 5 languages) Tomorrow is the last day of this and really the last day of the WBW.

In our experience, whenever we do anything that has a limited way for folks to get something cool in-game people get really upset if they miss their chance to get it. We are using several methods to make sure everyone knows, but people don't always read their emails, they pay zero attention to the patcher or login screen messages (click click click START GAME!) and we wanted to do our best to make sure people who want the leopard senche could get it.

Now, could we do this smarter? In-game email or something like that? We would love to, but currently we don't have that ability. We have heard your feedback and will be working on smarter messaging for future events but for this weekend, this is what we are going with. There aren't very many of these special events and we want to make sure people have a chance to participate. We felt it was the least disruptive being only once per day but most effective given the tools we have now.

As always, thanks for the feedback. Without you playing the game and giving feedback we wouldn't have come as far as we have in the last year. Just please, keep it constructive, keep it factual, and be understanding of the fact that it is a game full of varied people with varied interests and desires. The 3 second sever message that you might twitch at is the one message that let another player know he could get a sweet sweet senche-leopard. He's only jealous of your senche-tiger he can't get after all.

You don't have the ability to send an in-game email? Huh? You send them for other things. Why can't you send them for this? Honesty is appreciated.

newtinmpls

Darlgon wrote: »

While you are kicking it around... how about making the in-game mails come from some character or NPC in game.. "Hi, this is the stablemaster from Belkarth. I hear you are jealous of the Senche-Tigres your fellows have been riding. I have a DEAL FOR YOU...." Something like that. Sadly, the in-game mail is also likely to be ignored/not read, so your short, MOSTLY un-obtrusive announcements are probl the best way to handle it.

That would be very cool and add to the immersion.

Heck, I've been loving the latest series of game mails from my clothier hireling. I already have a mud crab, but I would totally buy one of "Snip's" babies to save her from some terrible fate.

(in the background my husband who normally has no interest in pets is shouting "now that would be cool")

What about a captured Senche tiger whose cubs need to be rescued from slavery?

AhPook_Is_Here

I don't mind it, but i would prefer if it flashed on the screen in brighter colors and at some frequency off the seizure range. Also, I have asked for this in other threads, but I think we need a countdown to show how much time is left in the special event sale before it ends, the timer shouldn't take up no more than 20% of the screen real estate so it's not too intrusive on immersion.

Also maybe you can incorporate some of the lore characters into the Schwartz, like Crazy Sheo's "Goin out of his mind, everything must go to Oblivion" sale. I would very much like a flesh atronach to ride, perhaps this could be his first mount for sale?

Islyn

Bouvin wrote: »

Rosveen wrote: »

I am not interested in any limited offers and I loathe pop-up ads. If you insist on advertising the senche to me in game as well as in the launcher, please send me a mail. Flashing yellow text all across the screen should be reserved for system messages. Thank you.

I honestly don't think anyone would have been upset about in-game mail.

Which actually would have worked better than the popup because everyone is guaranteed to see the mail.

And nothing worse on a regular home monitor (we don't all play on. Giant screens) than this across top of my screen in vdsa 3x in a row :-(

Evergnar

Advertising in game just cheapens the game period.

Ytterin

Maudieu wrote: »

Ytterin wrote: »

Hey, I'm on the other side of this. I think a once a day PSA for those who wanted the Senche is fantastic, as they do not have to constantly watch for a limited time item (which is exactly what Senche mounts are... a limited item that not everyone will have.)*

Except for the fact that it has not only been once a day.

They vary the time of announcement. It has been once a day recently, just they announce at different times to cover different playing demographics (It did start out as more, but they have toned it down on the feedback, which is awesome.)

Islyn

Well and that message from the mod - I mean they put out the first senche and this is just so people who didn't get that can now buy this - but it is wayyy overpriced for a mount and people who want it will buy it without this system message stuff. For the rest of us - it is really annoying.

Ytterin

pugyourself wrote: »

ZOS_JoBurba wrote: »

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to stop in and put some detail and context around the in-game announcements this weekend. Like Gina said - it's once a day on each server in 3 languages. (5 languages? We don't even speak 5 languages) Tomorrow is the last day of this and really the last day of the WBW.

In our experience, whenever we do anything that has a limited way for folks to get something cool in-game people get really upset if they miss their chance to get it. We are using several methods to make sure everyone knows, but people don't always read their emails, they pay zero attention to the patcher or login screen messages (click click click START GAME!) and we wanted to do our best to make sure people who want the leopard senche could get it.

Now, could we do this smarter? In-game email or something like that? We would love to, but currently we don't have that ability. We have heard your feedback and will be working on smarter messaging for future events but for this weekend, this is what we are going with. There aren't very many of these special events and we want to make sure people have a chance to participate. We felt it was the least disruptive being only once per day but most effective given the tools we have now.

As always, thanks for the feedback. Without you playing the game and giving feedback we wouldn't have come as far as we have in the last year. Just please, keep it constructive, keep it factual, and be understanding of the fact that it is a game full of varied people with varied interests and desires. The 3 second sever message that you might twitch at is the one message that let another player know he could get a sweet sweet senche-leopard. He's only jealous of your senche-tiger he can't get after all.

You don't have the ability to send an in-game email? Huh? You send them for other things. Why can't you send them for this? Honesty is appreciated.

Probably a difference between scripted events that are programmed into the game, and how the system administration aspects are set up. AKA, the GMs and Admins do not have this ability at this time.

Gidorick

ArcanusMagus wrote: »

ZOS_JoBurba wrote: »

Hey everyone,

Like Gina said - it's once a day on each server

I saw it twice last night and once already this morning, all three incidents on the NA server. This quoted statement is a lie, intentional or not.

Maybe it's once per eso day.

Daenerys

ZOS_JoBurba wrote: »

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to stop in and put some detail and context around the in-game announcements this weekend. Like Gina said - it's once a day on each server in 3 languages. (5 languages? We don't even speak 5 languages) Tomorrow is the last day of this and really the last day of the WBW.

In our experience, whenever we do anything that has a limited way for folks to get something cool in-game people get really upset if they miss their chance to get it. We are using several methods to make sure everyone knows, but people don't always read their emails, they pay zero attention to the patcher or login screen messages (click click click START GAME!) and we wanted to do our best to make sure people who want the leopard senche could get it.

Now, could we do this smarter? In-game email or something like that? We would love to, but currently we don't have that ability. We have heard your feedback and will be working on smarter messaging for future events but for this weekend, this is what we are going with. There aren't very many of these special events and we want to make sure people have a chance to participate. We felt it was the least disruptive being only once per day but most effective given the tools we have now.

As always, thanks for the feedback. Without you playing the game and giving feedback we wouldn't have come as far as we have in the last year. Just please, keep it constructive, keep it factual, and be understanding of the fact that it is a game full of varied people with varied interests and desires. The 3 second sever message that you might twitch at is the one message that let another player know he could get a sweet sweet senche-leopard. He's only jealous of your senche-tiger he can't get after all.

I want to address some points here.

1. You are incorrect that people pay "zero attention to the patcher". It is a wealth of information, that I myself, a player, pay attention to on a regular basis.

2. You don't have the ability to send an in-game email? I find this hard to believe as there is an addon for this, and you are capable of sending other types of in-game emails just fine.

3. If you have heard our feedback, then you did not listen. Your players were very vocal about their dislike of these messages for Pet Day, and yet here we are again. We keep telling you to use your loading screens, you know that time where we are doing nothing but staring at the loading icon and rereading that hint for the 100th time?

4. Your closing line cinched the deal for me; I will not be purchasing the senche-leopard. You are borderline trolling and baiting with a line like that. Some players are hurt that they paid a lot of money for preordering the Imperial edition, for supposed "exclusive" items (to only see them in cash shop later) and faithfully paid for months on end - for a game that went B2P - and then for whatever reason may have missed a month so they did not receive the tiger. Other players may have received the tiger, still continue to pay, and their immersion is completely broken by obtrusive yellow letters in 3 languages splashed across the center of their screen daily. Perhaps your most loyal players who received the tiger thought that it would be exclusive don't care for the daily reminder that anyone can now purchase a reskinned senche in the cash shop. You are brushing your players off with a 'oh they're just jelly of your senche' mentality, and that is simply not the case.

5. I believe you meant "server" not "sever" messages, though the messages sure do sever immersion.

6. Your marketing department should know better. I cannot believe the reaction seen here is a surprise to anyone with a degree in marketing, or basic consumer behavior knowledge. I truly hope you take the words of your players, your customers, to heart and bring together every decision maker who is responsible for this advertising to create a marketing plan. It seems like your current plan of throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks is not working.

P3ZZL3

@ZOS_JoBurba Firstly, I'd like to say thank you Jo for responding on a Saturday. Something that is genuinely appreciated and something that does show the senior team are paying attention.

I'm not sure if you spent 3 hours reading the whole thread But the general consensus is that although we do understand that ZoS need to advertise items they are selling in the crown store and bring about awareness, it's the lack of thought that seems to have gone in to it.

The mount didn't get made last week and a designer said "hey guys, can we throw this in the Crown Store as a special offer?". It was thought out. Planned. Which is what you would expect from a AAA title. It appears as though in the meeting discussing this, when it was raised about how we market it to the community, marketing just said "Bah, just use the system message". It's easy and everyone will see it.

There are some good suggestions how to integrate the marketing of these items in this thread and I hope that the marketing team and developers consider them and look at adopting them.

On a smaller side note however, I do find it in comprehensible that you have no way to send a global in game message to people. You have a database of player names/email names. Running a simple script, putting the names and sending an in game message really should not be that hard.... *shrugs*

Either way, thanks again for responding and hopefully a little more thought will go into the next promotion

Gidorick

if they REALLY wanted to make sure people got it, it wouldn't be limited To such a short window.

asdf0716

Gidorick wrote: »

if they REALLY wanted to make sure people got it, it wouldn't be limited To such a shot window.

but, then, how would people know that they had to run to the crown store to buy more crowns to buy it NAOW B4 IT GOEZ AWAY 4EVAHZ?!

It's a marketing tactic not unlike those commonly used by drug dealers.

fromtesonlineb16_ESO

Rial wrote: »

ZOS_JoBurba wrote: »

In our experience, whenever we do anything that has a limited way for folks to get something cool in-game people get really upset if they miss their chance to get it.

Then why do these limited events at all, though? Is it that profitable to have a few players have something unique others will never be able to get?

Likely it is, just look at all the QQ from players who feel their I'm-so-special status was destroyed when a Senche was added to the Store, or last year when Steam offered a unique pet (which ofc is now in the Store), or the beta-testers who whined aboyut their special monkey no longer being so special .. and the list goes on.

Many MMO players can't stand the idea there's nothing special about them, they yearn to be part of an elite clique and possession of a time-limited (or in other ways restricted) visible item panders to that.

Gidorick

I think it's hilarious how they're considering this an "event" when they did absolutely nothing in game for 1st anniversary.

We want holidays in game.... The most we'll get are crown store sales.

Rial

fromtesonlineb16_ESO wrote: »

Rial wrote: »

ZOS_JoBurba wrote: »

In our experience, whenever we do anything that has a limited way for folks to get something cool in-game people get really upset if they miss their chance to get it.

Then why do these limited events at all, though? Is it that profitable to have a few players have something unique others will never be able to get?

Likely it is, just look at all the QQ from players who feel their I'm-so-special status was destroyed when a Senche was added to the Store, or last year when Steam offered a unique pet (which ofc is now in the Store), or the beta-testers who whined aboyut their special monkey no longer being so special .. and the list goes on.

I know what you mean, but I would like to differentiate between "something I was given as an exclusive is made available again" raging and "what do you mean I can't get anything in this game that will be unavailable later on?" no-buy criterion.

I don't think anyone - okay, two or three people maybe - would not buy a game because they can get something others won't be able to get at some point in the future.

Daenerys wrote: »

5. I believe you meant "server" not "sever" messages, though the messages sure do sever immersion.

I didn't want to stoop to cheap puns, but since you pointed out that typo I feel compelled to offer sewer messages as a correct spelling.

KhajitFurTrader

Daenerys wrote: »

6. Your marketing department should know better. I cannot believe the reaction seen here is a surprise to anyone with a degree in marketing, or basic consumer behavior knowledge. I truly hope you take the words of your players, your customers, to heart and bring together every decision maker who is responsible for this advertising to create a marketing plan. It seems like your current plan of throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks is not working.

So much this, and then some.

MercyKilling

I haven't seen any ingame advertising going on.



But then, I haven't logged in for a few days. No problems for me.

Valen_Byte

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/164507/are-on-screen-advertisements-for-the-crown-store-acceptable#latest

Dont just speak your minds....Go vote.

Moonshadow66

Gidorick wrote: »

if they REALLY wanted to make sure people got it, it wouldn't be limited To such a short window.

Exactly.
Or, when it's available for just a few days only, it would make more sense to offer this around a 1st of a month where even more people can afford it.. you know, payday and such..

Keihndeth

ZOS_JoBurba wrote: »

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to stop in and put some detail and context around the in-game announcements this weekend. Like Gina said - it's once a day on each server in 3 languages. (5 languages? We don't even speak 5 languages) Tomorrow is the last day of this and really the last day of the WBW.

In our experience, whenever we do anything that has a limited way for folks to get something cool in-game people get really upset if they miss their chance to get it. We are using several methods to make sure everyone knows, but people don't always read their emails, they pay zero attention to the patcher or login screen messages (click click click START GAME!) and we wanted to do our best to make sure people who want the leopard senche could get it.

Quite frankly, Jo, 'these special events' are a completely awful idea. Did the ZOS marketing team not learn its lesson during the Imperial Edition fiasco? This does nothing to bring new players in. The only possible thing it can do is anger your current subscribers. If you're going to do exclusives over a very, very limited time, we the players need notice so we can save up crowns we have from our $15/month. If this is the service we are paying $15 a month for, it's a waste of money. You might as well remove the subscription option altogether.

babedenny

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

We want to make sure everyone is aware that the Senche-Leopard is available - and only for a short time - so nobody misses out on the opportunity.

Nobody cares. It's cheesy, and it needs to stop.

xMovingTarget

MercyKilling wrote: »

I haven't seen any ingame advertising going on.



But then, I haven't logged in for a few days. No problems for me.

Me neither. The login part. But this is still concerning. Honestly it even prevents me from logging in to play. In fact it drives me away..

Ytterin

Daenerys wrote: »

I want to address some points here.

1. You are incorrect that people pay "zero attention to the patcher". It is a wealth of information, that I myself, a player, pay attention to on a regular basis.

2. You don't have the ability to send an in-game email? I find this hard to believe as there is an addon for this, and you are capable of sending other types of in-game emails just fine.

3. If you have heard our feedback, then you did not listen. Your players were very vocal about their dislike of these messages for Pet Day, and yet here we are again. We keep telling you to use your loading screens, you know that time where we are doing nothing but staring at the loading icon and rereading that hint for the 100th time?

4. Your closing line cinched the deal for me; I will not be purchasing the senche-leopard. You are borderline trolling and baiting with a line like that. Some players are hurt that they paid a lot of money for preordering the Imperial edition, for supposed "exclusive" items (to only see them in cash shop later) and faithfully paid for months on end - for a game that went B2P - and then for whatever reason may have missed a month so they did not receive the tiger. Other players may have received the tiger, still continue to pay, and their immersion is completely broken by obtrusive yellow letters in 3 languages splashed across the center of their screen daily. Perhaps your most loyal players who received the tiger thought that it would be exclusive don't care for the daily reminder that anyone can now purchase a reskinned senche in the cash shop. You are brushing your players off with a 'oh they're just jelly of your senche' mentality, and that is simply not the case.

5. I believe you meant "server" not "sever" messages, though the messages sure do sever immersion.

6. Your marketing department should know better. I cannot believe the reaction seen here is a surprise to anyone with a degree in marketing, or basic consumer behavior knowledge. I truly hope you take the words of your players, your customers, to heart and bring together every decision maker who is responsible for this advertising to create a marketing plan. It seems like your current plan of throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks is not working.

1. You are not everyone. Many people simply click play without looking. Congrats on being so involved in reading this, now please stop acting like it is something that everyone must do because you do it.

2. That is a difference in the coding. The admin system is not coded to do something like this. There are event triggers in the game, sure, and it can be added... but the admin system at this time cannot do it. Or do you really want them making a character and using a mod for this, which will then be flagged as spam and phishing by many people?

3. Give them some time, maybe? Code does not happen overnight! It is rather cool they offered up a Senche model after so much feedback asking for it, when they had initially said it was not planned.

4. Well, considering THEY GOT FEEDBACK SAYING AS MUCH, maybe you ought to think before you assume they are trolling you. For crying out loud, zone chat was a constant stream of 'How do you get a senche mount?' for days!

5. It is rather humorous that you pick on a typo, when you have a fair number of grammar mistakes in your post. Nicely done.

6. You work with what you have, and improve it when you can. This may very well not have been the method their marketing department would have liked. It is kind of you to assume they don't know any better, however... maybe you can take some time out of your day to hold a video conference? That way you might actually have a clue what they do or do not know.

*Assumptions are... a poorly chosen basis for a response to a person, in case you missed the point.*

Frenkthevile

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hey guys, thanks for your feedback. We want to make sure everyone is aware that the Senche-Leopard is available - and only for a short time - so nobody misses out on the opportunity. We only plan on messaging this once per day, and want to hit each language (EN, DE, and FR) as these are multilingual megaservers.

''We want to make sure everyone is aware that...we need his money for fancy hats and not for real content because new maps, IC and Spellcrafting are delayed 1 year''

Fixed.

Frenkthevile

preevious wrote: »

Hey guys, thanks for your feedback. We want to make sure everyone is aware that the Senche-Leopard is available - and only for a short time - so nobody misses out on the opportunity. We only plan on messaging this once per day, and want to hit each language (EN, DE, and FR) as these are multilingual megaservers.


No ...Nononono, Zenimax .. you are not kindly reminding us of an opportunity .. you are advertising a paid service, full screen, breaking the immersion of everyone trying to enjoy the game ..
You are not helping us "not missing out" .. you are trying to milk us for money.

I can't believe I saw this .. even free Koreans MMO don't pull that kind of stinking trick.

Once per day is already too much .. desist, and NEVER EVER do that again, please.

+1

Gyudan

ZOS_JoBurba wrote: »

As always, thanks for the feedback. Without you playing the game and giving feedback we wouldn't have come as far as we have in the last year. Just please, keep it constructive, keep it factual, and be understanding of the fact that it is a game full of varied people with varied interests and desires. The 3 second sever message that you might twitch at is the one message that let another player know he could get a sweet sweet senche-leopard. He's only jealous of your senche-tiger he can't get after all.

Sorry but it's fairly clear that you care more about sweet sweet dollars than sweet sweet feedback.

Arezius

Bouvin wrote: »

SweetRoll wrote: »

Absolutely unacceptable. My plan was to continue paying the ESO Plus subscription for the foreseeable future, but this just changed my mind. Whoever at ZOS thought this was appropriate needs to go back to their telemarketing job.

You know, it's sad that stunts like this have to make "marketing" look bad.

I have a marketing degree and have been working in digital marketing for 10 years. At the agency I work for, we put a lot of thought into our campaign strategy, segmentation, personalization...and most of all how to deliver our client's message to the end user. I'd say "delivery" of the message is about half of what we do.....because getting that right is so important.

It's crap like this that makes marketing professionals look bad. Honestly, the way ZoS handled this is kind of a joke, and it's really pathetic.

Instead of posting a 15% off coupon for the Leopard on Twitter, Facebook, G+ (ya people actually use that), Instagram, Vine, etc... (which would have been really easy) and making people HAPPY about getting a deal and selling a ton of leopards.... they do this crap and *** people off.

Seriously, whoever is running their marketing department needs to be reassigned. Maybe the mail room would be a better fit.

Thank you for this ^^

Even Trion didn't go that way, instead, in Rift everyone receive a gift that can only be taken from the store, this way many people open the store everyday, are used to it, and see if there's anything new. I'm not saying it's ok, I've left the game for these reasons, but I haven't seen anybody being pissed off because of this gift, where Zenimax is actually losing subscribers because of their announcement.

Not only the launcher and the forums are enough, but add a mailing list and that would be okay. People who really want to know about these can subscribe to the mails and they will be aware, no problem. But putting such messages across the screen of people that hate those, come on...

babedenny

Daenerys wrote: »

Some players are hurt that they paid a lot of money for preordering the Imperial edition, for supposed "exclusive" items (to only see them in cash shop later) and faithfully paid for months on end - for a game that went B2P - and then for whatever reason may have missed a month so they did not receive the tiger. Other players may have received the tiger, still continue to pay, and their immersion is completely broken by obtrusive yellow letters in 3 languages splashed across the center of their screen daily.

Very much this. All of this. Perfectly explained. Just print this out and take it to management.

TD5160_ESO

Keep doing what you do best ZOS. I'll still be playing, even if the vocal minority doesn't. (Though we all know that threats to leave the game are pretty empty. Most will keep playing, despite what they say here.)

[Moderator Note: Edited per our rules on Trolling & Baiting]