Oh ZoS - You have let us down!

phtony06b14_ESO

Even Amazon's Kindle offers an ad-free version. Subscribers shouldn't have to put up with this. I would ask you to please reconsider but if you never plan on addressing the lag, disconnection, and loading screen issues then it's kind of moot anyway for me.

newtinmpls

Lionxoft wrote: »

The costume system could be really great in ESO. It needs to cater to the more classic Elder Scrolls styles though or cool end game styles. Ebony Armor(Skyrim), Imperial Dragon Armor and Nightingale/DB armor costumes would be a good start.

As a total nit-pick, Ebony is not from Skyrim the place (though clearly it appeared in Skyrim the game) it's a sacred substance mined in Morrowind and I abhor that it shows up in places like Auridon. Granted, I have my own personal take on why "mining" is so weird in this game (having to do with damage caused by the attempted planemeld) but that's way off topic.

Yes, I'd like to see fine-tuning on costumes. I will never use the bits we can get by stealing, as they have no armor value, and can't be dyed.

Earlier on this thread someone suggested a flashing Crown Icon in-game as an alert to new Crown store stuff or specials. I second (or possibly third or ninth) that.

I would have preferred this game to be sub-only. My previous experience with F2P was mafia wars and that ended up amounting to if you wanted to be at all competitive, you had to shell out absurd amounts of money.

I am paying. I do not want to see in-game ads.

Maudieu

Funny. I was joking last night about how I refine wood and get a ruby.

Lionxoft

newtinmpls wrote: »

Lionxoft wrote: »

The costume system could be really great in ESO. It needs to cater to the more classic Elder Scrolls styles though or cool end game styles. Ebony Armor(Skyrim), Imperial Dragon Armor and Nightingale/DB armor costumes would be a good start.

As a total nit-pick, Ebony is not from Skyrim the place (though clearly it appeared in Skyrim the game) it's a sacred substance mined in Morrowind and I abhor that it shows up in places like Auridon. Granted, I have my own personal take on why "mining" is so weird in this game (having to do with damage caused by the attempted planemeld) but that's way off topic.

@newtinmpls

I was mentioning which style I prefer to see in the game. The Ebony Armor from Skyrim looks completely different than that found in Oblivion. The Ebony armor style already in ESO (Vet Dung drop) resembles the style which is found in the game Skyrim. Calm down, Padawan. Yes, I saw you mentioned "nit-pick" lol.

Also, does Ebony ore actually show up in Auridon? Ebony ore is lv46-50 material right? Auridon is either a lv3-15ish, vr1 or vr6 zone isn't it?

Raash

Morduil wrote: »

Raash wrote: »

Morduil wrote: »

Jakx wrote: »

Wooooooow. A couple second notification comes up in a game that is FREE TO PLAY. Even if it is an attempt to sell their product. Wouldnt you want them to make some money so you can continue to play this game? Thats how a cash shop works. You dont have to purchase it, I didnt. Dont plan on purchasing anything actually but at least I have the common sense to realize they have to sell something.

Honestly, people will find ANYTHING to complain about. Amazed. Keep on, keepin' on internet heroes. You live amazing lives.

I am a subscriber. ZOS have given me - indeed encouraged me to take up - this option. The game is not free-to-play for me (as it happens it isn't free-to-play for anyone, it is buy-to-play for some and subcription based for others). I am seeing the message. Are you saying I and all players like me should unsubscribe?

You still choose to pay sub, if you not happy with what you get perhaps you should play without a sub for a while. Just sayin.

Err.., thank you for suggesting the option I had already flagged in the last sentence, I guess...

I had intended that implicit in my response would be the idea that there was a contradiction in ZOS's approach that I hoped could be reconciled without my dropping my sub.

Apologies if that was not more readily comprehensible.

Ah yeah it was a question towards ZoS and not towards the guy you quoted. Didnt get that.

Anyway ESO are free to play now if you choose it to be so I just dont get why people are crying so much.
If I choose to continue paying monthly for a newspaper that cost x amount once then free forever people would think I was odd.
If im raging at adds in the paper and think since I actually, out of free will, pay xtra for the free paper I deserve special treatment people would call me nuts.

newtinmpls

Lionxoft wrote: »

Also, does Ebony ore actually show up in Auridon? Ebony ore is lv46-50 material right? Auridon is either a lv3-15ish, vr1 or vr6 zone isn't it?

So much for my success as a nit-picker. Err.. I meant AD, not Aurdion specifically.

And I still want to use "carapace" drops to have my dunmer craft chitin armor.

And to keep things on topic:

No, I never never ever ever want (with my paid subscription) to see scrolling ads. Ever. If I get a free account alongside my 2 paid subs, I'd be fine with that.

And sad to say, yes I could actually see myself doing that.

Lionxoft

Raash wrote: »

Morduil wrote: »

Raash wrote: »

Morduil wrote: »

Jakx wrote: »

Wooooooow. A couple second notification comes up in a game that is FREE TO PLAY. Even if it is an attempt to sell their product. Wouldnt you want them to make some money so you can continue to play this game? Thats how a cash shop works. You dont have to purchase it, I didnt. Dont plan on purchasing anything actually but at least I have the common sense to realize they have to sell something.

Honestly, people will find ANYTHING to complain about. Amazed. Keep on, keepin' on internet heroes. You live amazing lives.

I am a subscriber. ZOS have given me - indeed encouraged me to take up - this option. The game is not free-to-play for me (as it happens it isn't free-to-play for anyone, it is buy-to-play for some and subcription based for others). I am seeing the message. Are you saying I and all players like me should unsubscribe?

You still choose to pay sub, if you not happy with what you get perhaps you should play without a sub for a while. Just sayin.

Err.., thank you for suggesting the option I had already flagged in the last sentence, I guess...

I had intended that implicit in my response would be the idea that there was a contradiction in ZOS's approach that I hoped could be reconciled without my dropping my sub.

Apologies if that was not more readily comprehensible.

Ah yeah it was a question towards ZoS and not towards the guy you quoted. Didnt get that.

Anyway ESO are free to play now if you choose it to be so I just dont get why people are crying so much.
If I choose to continue paying monthly for a newspaper that cost x amount once then free forever people would think I was odd.
If im raging at adds in the paper and think since I actually, out of free will, pay xtra for the free paper I deserve special treatment people would call me nuts.

Do the ads in the newspaper cover the story you are reading?

Raash

Lionxoft wrote: »

Raash wrote: »

Morduil wrote: »

Raash wrote: »

Morduil wrote: »

Jakx wrote: »

Wooooooow. A couple second notification comes up in a game that is FREE TO PLAY. Even if it is an attempt to sell their product. Wouldnt you want them to make some money so you can continue to play this game? Thats how a cash shop works. You dont have to purchase it, I didnt. Dont plan on purchasing anything actually but at least I have the common sense to realize they have to sell something.

Honestly, people will find ANYTHING to complain about. Amazed. Keep on, keepin' on internet heroes. You live amazing lives.

I am a subscriber. ZOS have given me - indeed encouraged me to take up - this option. The game is not free-to-play for me (as it happens it isn't free-to-play for anyone, it is buy-to-play for some and subcription based for others). I am seeing the message. Are you saying I and all players like me should unsubscribe?

You still choose to pay sub, if you not happy with what you get perhaps you should play without a sub for a while. Just sayin.

Err.., thank you for suggesting the option I had already flagged in the last sentence, I guess...

I had intended that implicit in my response would be the idea that there was a contradiction in ZOS's approach that I hoped could be reconciled without my dropping my sub.

Apologies if that was not more readily comprehensible.

Ah yeah it was a question towards ZoS and not towards the guy you quoted. Didnt get that.

Anyway ESO are free to play now if you choose it to be so I just dont get why people are crying so much.
If I choose to continue paying monthly for a newspaper that cost x amount once then free forever people would think I was odd.
If im raging at adds in the paper and think since I actually, out of free will, pay xtra for the free paper I deserve special treatment people would call me nuts.

Do the ads in the newspaper cover the story you are reading?

If you think ESO ingame ads "cover" the gameplay I would guess you need a new pair of glasses? You not serious are you?
Ads in newspapers are made to draw your attention - so is ingame ads.

Gidorick

For me personally it's a matter of tact over the system messages actually impacting gameplay.

maryriv

I have a serious question for you... what did you expect when the game went f2p?

ThyIronFist

It's an absolute disgrace to be honest, I'm mostly a PvPer, but still, have been a loyal subscriber since the game launched but haven't bother logging in the past week, the game is laggy and PvP is an utter joke, both performance and balance wise.

Now we'll get no content until "after console release settled down".

ZOS' response?

"Better spam some more Crown Store messages so you can give us money for a product that doesn't work, oh and by the way, thanks for a year of beta testing for us! Here is your senche tiger! Yay!"

If I ever see a game that has the "Zenimax Online Studios" labeled onto it, I'll make sure to stay away from it with a 10 foot pole.

maryriv

ThyIronFist wrote: »

It's an absolute disgrace to be honest, I'm mostly a PvPer, but still, have been a loyal subscriber since the game launched but haven't bother logging in the past week, the game is laggy and PvP is an utter joke, both performance and balance wise.

Now we'll get no content until "after console release settled down".

ZOS' response?

"Better spam some more Crown Store messages so you can give us money for a product that doesn't work, oh and by the way, thanks for a year of beta testing for us! Here is your senche tiger! Yay!"

If I ever see a game that has the "Zenimax Online Studios" labeled onto it, I'll make sure to stay away from it with a 10 foot pole.

That pretty much sums it up.

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.

@ZOS_JoBurba You have a tough job right now because you have a lot of angry customers who feel deceived and ripped off. As subscribers, we feel like we financed the console launch at the expense of our game experience. And that stings. That said, we have short memories and can "forgive and move on" if the transgressions are not constantly rubbed in our faces as continued paying customers. An apology that would have been more constructive and may have actually worked to repair the break in trust that ZOS has caused between itself and its paying player base would be as simple as follows:

We are very sorry for the intrusive cross-screen ads that you saw in-game today. These were the result of a marketing decision that was not well thought out and we sincerely apologize for making this mistake. We value our subscribers, as we would not be where we are today without them. As a token of our respect for you as paying customers, we will provide the option for subscribers to opt-out of all cross-screen marketing messages going forward. Again, we are very sorry. We hope you stick with us. Rest assured, something like this will never happen again.

I'd venture to say that you might even get some positive press and more subs as a result of something like above. And it's better than the non-apology apologies laden with even more marketing messages that we've seen this weekend.

Thanks for reading.

Edited for spelling

Hurbster

maryriv wrote: »

I have a serious question for you... what did you expect when the game went f2p?

Blimey, how many times ? It's not F2P !!

golfer.dub17_ESO

Yes, I'd like to see fine-tuning on costumes. I will never use the bits we can get by stealing, as they have no armor value, and can't be dyed.

Actually, stolen clothes can be dyed.

jircris11

I honestly have yet to see the ad's only ones i see are when i launch the game and that is it (i am a sub). I see the screenshots, and honestly the TOP of your screen where said txt appears is the least used. I have played games where the whole damn window is taken up by the ads just to get you to see them.

TD5160_ESO

jircris11 wrote: »

I honestly have yet to see the ad's only ones i see are when i launch the game and that is it (i am a sub). I see the screenshots, and honestly the TOP of your screen where said txt appears is the least used. I have played games where the whole damn window is taken up by the ads just to get you to see them.

Ugh, those are the worst

Rune_Relic

maryriv wrote: »

I have a serious question for you... what did you expect when the game went f2p?

Considering its B2p and not F2p..and the fact the subscription is still intact...and the fact ZOS director implicitly emphasized the point the they only incorporated the B2p model because of the console payment issues,
all led us to believe this would remain essentially a sub model with a crown store.

Alas, silly us. Suckered again. Doh!

SteveCampsOut

Hamrammur wrote: »

The issue in this thread is what Zenimax should be paying the most attention to, they lose customers every day due to the horrible performance players experience. As a paying customer I want to be kept updated on what Zenimax is doing regarding this game breaking performance issue! It has 20.4K views and 423 replays from players, 1 replay from Zenimax same day the thread was created!

I am sorry if this is out of context with the topic of this thread, and for being the elephant in the room by bringing this up. But when I saw this detailed replay to such an minor issue (imo) I could not resist the urge to say something.

There is no A in Reply!!!

newtinmpls wrote: »

As a total nit-pick, Ebony is not from Skyrim the place (though clearly it appeared in Skyrim the game) it's a sacred substance mined in Morrowind and I abhor that it shows up in places like Auridon. Granted, I have my own personal take on why "mining" is so weird in this game (having to do with damage caused by the attempted planemeld) but that's way off topic.

You can blame the whole play through all three factions that was added later for this one. There is no ebony mining in Auridon if you start out in AD.

Talwyn_Aureliano

ZOS_JoBurba wrote: »

Hey everyone,

blah blah blah...

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.

@ZOS_JoBurba

Oh really?

So the email system that comes with the deliveries of hireling raw materials is something we just imagined then hmm? More spam from the gold sellers eh?

o.0

I can't believe that you had the audacity to lie like that. You know full well that your system has the ability to send out an in game email broadcast to every account and to deny that is not only rubbish, its utterly insulting that you think you could get away with it. Thats just really lame and pathetic that you tried to deny that your company and game can't use the IG email system to send out an add.

As a paying subber I do not like to see large yellow adverts pop up across the screen trying to get me to buy something I have already been made aware of from the launcher news section.

I know that ZOS will see how much anger this has generated due to the fact that this thread has 15+ pages of replies yet with ridiculous statements like the one JoBurba has made, well you just lost what little tatters of credibility you had left.

MercyKilling

Rune_Relic wrote: »

maryriv wrote: »

I have a serious question for you... what did you expect when the game went f2p?

Considering its B2p and not F2p..and the fact the subscription is still intact...and the fact ZOS director implicitly emphasized the point the they only incorporated the B2p model because of the console payment issues,
all led us to believe this would remain essentially a sub model with a crown store.

Alas, silly us. Suckered again. Doh!

Well, the first time I ever saw this kind of business model was when City of Heroes cancelled their sub only feature and did the very same thing. Cash shop, option to keep subbing. They called it "Freemium".
In keeping with the general title of "Zenimax letting us down", here's a list of my personal letdowns for this game:

1) Forced solo content.
2) Forced group content. (nothing should be forced, solo OR group. it needs to be an OPTION.)
3) The announcement of the games mod-ability. Except it's only the UI that's moddable. Elder Scrolls games since Morrrowwind have been cosmetically moddable. Why wasn't that part of the core concept is beyond me.....but I still have hope in the very talented mod community to be able to come up with cosmetic mods for the game.
4) No player housing.
5) No scalable difficulty.
6) Non instanced dungeons.
7) No auction house.
8) The inclusion of vampires and werewolves as a playable thing. The original idea was they were going to be ultimate abilities only.
9) Godawful ugly armors. Even the ones in Morrowwind still look better than what we have in the game.
10) The Justice System in its entirety. Very poorly implemented, in my not so humble opinion.


I seriously cannot fathom why these things have been done to the game. There's so much unrealized potential here.

Durandal

Not happy with these in game advertisements either. They are annoying and break immersion.

I noticed there was just the one in game advertisement yesterday after @ZOS_JoBurba was called on the lie of only one per day (Friday there were multiple).

If you want to lose subscribers, keep up with these obnoxious advertisements.

newtinmpls

SteveCampsOut wrote: »

You can blame the whole play through all three factions that was added later for this one. There is no ebony mining in Auridon if you start out in AD.

Argh! I meant AD the total area. Ebony should only come from Vvardenfell!

Out of curiosity I have no idea how one would measure if there actually were many subs dropped related to these ads.

Elsonso

newtinmpls wrote: »

As a total nit-pick, Ebony is not from Skyrim the place (though clearly it appeared in Skyrim the game) it's a sacred substance mined in Morrowind and I abhor that it shows up in places like Auridon. Granted, I have my own personal take on why "mining" is so weird in this game (having to do with damage caused by the attempted planemeld) but that's way off topic.

Have you seen people mining ebony in ESO? I am surprised there is any left! It is probably rare 800 years from now, which likely enhances the value in those backward tribal villages of Morrowind.

Raash wrote: »

If you think ESO ingame ads "cover" the gameplay I would guess you need a new pair of glasses? You not serious are you?

I would not say "cover" but on Friday one hit me in the middle of a combat and that was not a convenient time. It was a distraction. Three distractions, actually, and while I won the fight, I am thankful that I was not fighting a boss because I missed a cue.

To understand why this is a bad idea during combat, people need to understand how the brain and vision work together when confronted by suddenly appearing yellow words. The sudden appearance of the yellow initiates a reflexive look, which takes about a quarter of a second. We subconsciously begin to read the text before we are really even fully aware of what is happening. Because we can only concentrate on one thing at a time, we find ourselves paying attention to these yellow words. We have to shift attention back to the combat and just moving our eyes back to what we were looking at takes another quarter second. Total distraction time is upwards of 1/2 second.

I don't like it. I strongly disapprove of it. I want no part of it. I got the message loud and clear from the Director of Live Services that they were going to do this, no matter what. I am staying out of the game right now as much as possible until this cat thing is out of the store.

What am I doing with my time? I am glad you asked. After hearing about how this or that from Guild Wars 2 should be in ESO, I have decided to drop the $40 to pick up Guild Wars 2 and have been working on my first character. One of the risks that ZOS takes when getting people to not play the game is that something else might come along to replace it.

Bouvin

maryriv wrote: »

I have a serious question for you... what did you expect when the game went f2p?

Which is why I didn't want F2P.

Especially when Matt Frior said they'd shut the servers down before going F2P.

Elsonso

Bouvin wrote: »

maryriv wrote: »

I have a serious question for you... what did you expect when the game went f2p?

Which is why I didn't want F2P.

Especially when Matt Frior said they'd shut the servers down before going F2P.

Urban myth.

Bouvin

lordrichter wrote: »

Bouvin wrote: »

maryriv wrote: »

I have a serious question for you... what did you expect when the game went f2p?

Which is why I didn't want F2P.

Especially when Matt Frior said they'd shut the servers down before going F2P.

Urban myth.

Right, he didn't use those exact words. But in a nutshell he said the same thing.

Charging a flat monthly (or subscription) fee means that we will offer players the game we set out to make, and the one that fans want to play. Going with any other model meant that we would have to make sacrifices and changes we weren't willing to make. - Matt Firor

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-01/21/eso-b2p-f2p

Genomic

http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/the-elder-scrolls-online/artikel/the_elder_scrolls_online,44578,3026853.html

Direct quotes from Matt Frior on P2P:

"Charging a flat monthly (or subscription) fee means that we will offer players the game we set out to make, and the one that fans want to play. Going with any other model meant that we would have to make sacrifices and changes we weren't willing to make."

"We feel that putting pay gates between the player and content at any point in game ruins that feeling of freedom, and just having one small monthly fee for 100% access to the game fits the IP and the game much better than a system where you have to pay for features and access as you play."

"And it's important to state that our decision to go with subscriptions is not a referendum on online game revenue models. F2P, B2P, etc. are valid, proven business models - but subscription is the one that fits ESO the best, given our commitment to freedom of gameplay, quality and long-term content delivery. Plus, players will appreciate not having to worry about being "monetized" in the middle of playing the game, which is definitely a problem that is cropping up more and more in online gaming these days. The fact that the word "monetized" exists points to the heart of the issue for us: We don't want the player to worry about which parts of the game to pay for - with our system, they get it all."

Elsonso

I just wanted everyone to be clear that he did not say he would shut down the game before going F2P.

Psychobunni

Genomic wrote: »

"And it's important to state that our decision to go with subscriptions is not a referendum on online game revenue models. F2P, B2P, etc. are valid, proven business models - but subscription is the one that fits ESO the best, given our commitment to freedom of gameplay, quality and long-term content delivery. Plus, players will appreciate not having to worry about being "monetized" in the middle of playing the game, which is definitely a problem that is cropping up more and more in online gaming these days. The fact that the word "monetized" exists points to the heart of the issue for us: We don't want the player to worry about which parts of the game to pay for - with our system, they get it all."

Oh snap, like yellow "come buy our junk" ads across your screen while playing?