Srsly ZOS Talk to us!

BigM

Cuyler wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

They talked to us on Friday evening, as they do every other week. They answered a load of questions as they always do. It's fine that people choose not to watch ESO Live, but they shouldn't make that choice and then complain that ZOS never talk to them.

You call those answers? I call it "beating around the bush"....

I watch it as often as I can. Last week was one of those weeks. It ended and I hadn't a heard a single answer to any truly important question regarding the future of gameplay. All it was to me was more crown store/plushie marketing and some rookie developer talking about his most notable inclusion to the game....the flag capture timer in cyro.

The only real answer I heard was that content info was coming in July. That's after it was supposed to be coming after E3, after it was supposed to be coming after console release. Oh yea and console bug fixes.

Please enlighten us on the "loads of questions" that were answered.

Hey at least they started it, if they really do not help with the 1000 of questions we have at least the door is open. I have to congratulate them for it. But yes they need to get down and dirty and start really answering the questions we want. I also find they other remark about getting bit and up the tree blah blah, that isn't of concern to us and it shouldn't be to them. Learn from it but then get back on the horse and do it right.

Is that what we all have become to where we give up instead of never give up and get back up and fight?

Funkopotamus

BigM wrote: »

Cuyler wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

They talked to us on Friday evening, as they do every other week. They answered a load of questions as they always do. It's fine that people choose not to watch ESO Live, but they shouldn't make that choice and then complain that ZOS never talk to them.

You call those answers? I call it "beating around the bush"....

I watch it as often as I can. Last week was one of those weeks. It ended and I hadn't a heard a single answer to any truly important question regarding the future of gameplay. All it was to me was more crown store/plushie marketing and some rookie developer talking about his most notable inclusion to the game....the flag capture timer in cyro.

The only real answer I heard was that content info was coming in July. That's after it was supposed to be coming after E3, after it was supposed to be coming after console release. Oh yea and console bug fixes.

Please enlighten us on the "loads of questions" that were answered.

Hey at least they started it, if they really do not help with the 1000 of questions we have at least the door is open. I have to congratulate them for it. But yes they need to get down and dirty and start really answering the questions we want. I also find they other remark about getting bit and up the tree blah blah, that isn't of concern to us and it shouldn't be to them. Learn from it but then get back on the horse and do it right.

Is that what we all have become to where we give up instead of never give up and get back up and fight?

BigM do you happen to play on console perhaps or just PC?

Tandor

Cuyler wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

They talked to us on Friday evening, as they do every other week. They answered a load of questions as they always do. It's fine that people choose not to watch ESO Live, but they shouldn't make that choice and then complain that ZOS never talk to them.

You call those answers? I call it "beating around the bush"....

I watch it as often as I can. Last week was one of those weeks. It ended and I hadn't a heard a single answer to any truly important question regarding the future of gameplay. All it was to me was more crown store/plushie marketing and some rookie developer talking about his most notable inclusion to the game....the flag capture timer in cyro....with a plushie on his head

The only real answer I heard was that content info was coming in July. That's after it was supposed to be coming after E3, after it was supposed to be coming after console release. Oh yea and console bug fixes.

Please enlighten us on the "loads of questions" that were answered.

There were 15 questions answered, including some relating to gameplay (and PvP), the transcript is here:-

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/142023/eso-live-ask-us-anything/p64

Archon12976

Pman85 wrote: »

If you want results, stop demanding answers like they owe you something and let the men and ladies do what they get paid to do.

Pman, I agreed with some of your post and disagreed with other parts, but the above quote is what really got my attention.

Of course they owe us something...we spent our hard-earned money on a game and would like answers. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a paying customer holding a business accountable for what is perceived as bad decisions. I interact with approx 20000 customers on a monthly basis out of a military passenger terminal; that's just face-to-face customers, it doesn't include the countless phone calls I take. Regardless of how many there are, I am expected to answer their questions and provide outstanding customer support at ALL times.

Now, that being said, I truly love this game and think ZoS got almost everything right on the console release, regardless of the few bugs I've been able to find. The only exception to that is the text chat situation. Sorry, without a text chat function, I doubt this will ever feel like an MMO to me.

lathbury

Tandor wrote: »

They talked to us on Friday evening, as they do every other week. They answered a load of questions as they always do. It's fine that people choose not to watch ESO Live, but they shouldn't make that choice and then complain that ZOS never talk to them.

they never answer real questions on that they had a segment recently on whether trolls poop and underwater combat. when what people were and still are asking for is fixes and new content or some sort of road ahead.

acolyte2475b14_ESO

lathbury wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

They talked to us on Friday evening, as they do every other week. They answered a load of questions as they always do. It's fine that people choose not to watch ESO Live, but they shouldn't make that choice and then complain that ZOS never talk to them.

they never answer real questions on that they had a segment recently on whether trolls poop and underwater combat. when what people were and still are asking for is fixes and new content or some sort of road ahead.

This made me lol in real life.

Ishta

Couldn't agree more. The lack of communication is really disheartening.

Teiji

Why would they talk to us? They've interacted with us in before only to be snarled and barked at.

We have the reputation for being savage, rabid plebians that do not respect the lords of the fief. They are uncomfortable to interact with us, not forgetting how often they have said things only to have it disrespectfully and repeatedly brought up in a negative manner.

Us plebians must adapt, become timid and obedient in the hopes that our Zenimax overlords of the fief bless us with their infinite wisdom.

For we are not worthy, we exist only to serve, only to obey with nothing but gratitude for the years of paid beta testing we participated in for our beloved console friends. We must regularly offer tribute to the overlords of the fief in the form of Crowns, ESO+ membership and minimal forum rule infractions.

tordr86b16_ESO

Development is in maintenance mode. Probably wont see anything new until next year... There is your answer OP.

Attorneyatlawl

Pman85 wrote: »

If you dont do your homework, you would think the community is being ignored. I could tell you that all of these posts in this thread have been either address directly or talked about in some venue that you didnt know what taking place. text chat? blues posts on these very forums talk about this, maybe not in great detail, but they are by no means ignoring it. You just think that because well... you didnt do your homework

If you want results, stop demanding answers like they owe you something and let the men and ladies do what they get paid to do. Have patience my friends, act like you played a game before, and remember, if you cannot find the joy in the simple tasks of this game for the love of playing, then why even waste your time?

Please. They absolutely have not been addressed in most cases as people have mentioned in this thread already (with on rare occasion a one or two sentence, cursory remark about just one of them (the console chat box) spread across multiple threads and even onto random social media sites). A company's communications job is to get relevant info to customers' problems to them in a timely fashion. If people need to "do their homework" and bits of the info is strewn around "some venue that you didn't know", that is a failure to communicate properly on their parts. Not the customers'.

Results? "Demanding" answers? What do you believe we have paid, and been paying, for? This is a game service, and part of that includes ongoing customer support, game maintenance, and patches both for bug fixes and new content. Well, normally it does. In most MMORPG titles I've played, and I imagine this is similar for the majority of people who are writing here, these issues were tackled more promptly and regularly, while here as you can see by this thread and others over time, by and large the customers (including myself) feel nearly, if not entirely, ignored. A software product like this isn't the type you can shove out the door and tell customers that find flaws or issues with it nothing, or gloss over them while rarely if ever taking action upon that feedback. Have you played an online massively multiplayer game before from a large AAA game studio? That's a rhetorical question.

Attorneyatlawl

acolyte2475b14_ESO wrote: »

As for the whole UI conspiracy that is now emerging on the forums, people just want more customization and options. And it's frustrating to see that this could have been in the game or was planned on then withheld. But once again scratching my head. Why would ZOS leave it in the code for someone to find? Must have been a mistake? Or it's laying dormant for a future patch?

It actually was in the game, but removed nearly two years ago now . None of it is in the game in any active/usable form at this point, which is saddening to see and indeed very frustrating.

Blobsky

acolyte2475b14_ESO wrote: »

If you look at the announcements on the ESO launcher that haven't been updated in 33 days.

33 days.

Something EVERY player sees that plays the game.

Not updated in 33 days.

I think that's the most telling of it all.

(1)That 33 days ago update was crown store junk - last REAL update for PC must have ben nearly half a year ago, I can't even remember its so long

(2) People complaining about bugs on console should have tried PC during early weeks especially. but even now - the game had some bugs making it entirely unplayable, and still does in PvP a year and a half later

Kylarstern91

Let's not forget the aldemeri dominion main questions is broken at the "prisoner of jathsogur" with no possibility for continuing, and has been for who knows how long, and still no word on when they will fix it.

granty2008cyb16_ESO

(this is for you ZOS = meaning of "SOON" find attached below)

in or after a short time.

"everyone will soon know the truth"

synonyms:
in a short time, shortly, presently, in the near future, before long, in a little while, in a minute, in a moment, in an instant, in a twinkling, in the twinkling of an eye, before you know it, any minute (now), any day (now), any time (now)

Titansteele

Community Ambassador Program we need you!!!

I have lost count of the number of times good communication would turn numerous frowns upside down, I have been in/around/running large communities online for my entire adult life (and before ) and I know that the voices on these forums represent the vocal minority and most of the time it does NOT represent the views of the many. I can say with confidence however that with regards to the communications around this game the general tone and message on this thread (and the many that preceded it) is something which is shared by many.

Out of general curiosity and in an attempt to be impartial I asked in guild chat what the games biggest problems were, just over 60 people answered me. Almost everyone said it feels stale because of the lack of new content, they also said that guild events were the only thing combating that feeling for them and if it wasn't for the guilds they wouldn't be playing anymore.



This is a major problem, one which I had hoped beyond hope that the Community Ambassador Program would resolve for us.

Faulgor

Wait, even console players are now complaining about a lack of communication from ZOS?

We are truly in the twilight zone.

Majic

Can We Talk?

Pman85 wrote: »

If you dont do your homework, you would think the community is being ignored. I could tell you that all of these posts in this thread have been either address directly or talked about in some venue that you didnt know what taking place. I could do that then you would all ask for links to where i have seen these answers, but then that wouldnt really teach you guys a lesson would it

There are a number of things wrong with your post, but if I told you what they were, then that wouldn't really teach you a lesson, would it?

I've seen threads like these in the forums of every MMO I've played, and my first MMO was Asheron's Call 2 back in 2002. Players always want to hear more, and devs always want to tell them more, but have to be very, very careful what they tell them.

ZOS is in the same boat as every other MMO developer, and like every other MMO developer, will inevitably struggle to find the right balance between openness and discretion.

There is nothing wrong with players wanting more information, and nothing wrong with ZOS wanting to be careful about what they say. The only thing wrong is telling players they shouldn't ask, because attempting to stand between players and developers serves only to undermine the community and work against the success of the game.

So please don't.

Gandrhulf_Harbard

Teiji wrote: »

We have the reputation for being savage, rabid plebians that do not respect the lords of the fief.

The Customers - that is US - ARE the lords of the fief.

All The Best

Cherryblossom

Sadly OP this is how ZOS operates, since PC launch many of the community have requested better communication. I can only assume they haven't read the requests.

You will obviously get the guys who say everything is rosey and there is nothing wrong, but you always will...

granty2008cyb16_ESO

yup

P3ZZL3

Strangely enough I sent a very long post to @ZOS_JessicaFolsom about this exact thing back on the 17th of June.

Never received any acknowledgement or a message back about it (it was on the back of......another incident...shall we say...).

It was raising the point that the community is here and active and all they really want is some genuine responses from the Teams internally about the actions being taken.

Without re-reading it all, I think the main thing I raised was having a Sticky thread which would hold the main points of concern raised by the community where there would be an update issued on each one by the ZoS team....and not just "Coming Soon".

I'd like to think she would respond....but we'll see

lathbury

current road ahead probably like this

eventide03b14a_ESO

Faugaun wrote: »

kevlarto_ESO wrote: »

I agree somewhat to some of the statements in this thread, but last ESO live had Brain Wheeler on there, he answered a few question went over what he posted a bit, I have watched all 20 shows and always come away with some info, plus I like some of the segments.

I wish they would answer a few more questions, but I think they just don't have an answer to some of the questions, sometimes it is better for them to not say anything than to try to answer some questions, because if they answer a question and something changes, then they get hammered with being called liars or the statement is taken out of context and twisted to mean something they never intended, maybe we have ourselves to blame for them not talking to us as much as they could.
I have never seen a company in all my years of mmo play talk to the community enough according to the community.

Look at these forums even simple harmless conversations turn into something the moderators have to come and post in.

ZoS used to talk to the community a lot more and they got bit from it several times....if your hunting dog tree a *** and you beat it everytime it does....how long do you think it will tree ***?

edit: the shortened word for raccoon is censored?!?...

Uh...no.

eventide03b14a_ESO

Titansteele wrote: »

Community Ambassador Program we need you!!!

I have lost count of the number of times good communication would turn numerous frowns upside down, I have been in/around/running large communities online for my entire adult life (and before ) and I know that the voices on these forums represent the vocal minority and most of the time it does NOT represent the views of the many. I can say with confidence however that with regards to the communications around this game the general tone and message on this thread (and the many that preceded it) is something which is shared by many.

Out of general curiosity and in an attempt to be impartial I asked in guild chat what the games biggest problems were, just over 60 people answered me. Almost everyone said it feels stale because of the lack of new content, they also said that guild events were the only thing combating that feeling for them and if it wasn't for the guilds they wouldn't be playing anymore.



This is a major problem, one which I had hoped beyond hope that the Community Ambassador Program would resolve for us.

I honesty don't think this Community Ambassador Program is going to do anything productive. Why do we need the devs to tell these guys things instead of the devs just telling us directly? I feel like it's nothing more than a way for them to get some people do their work for free like all the people who make the addons to fix their UI. I used to watch their YouTube channel but all they do is cherry pick the questions and they rarely talk about anything useful. What exactly are these Community Ambassadors going to be able to tell us?

Funkopotamus

Majic wrote: »

Can We Talk?

Pman85 wrote: »

If you dont do your homework, you would think the community is being ignored. I could tell you that all of these posts in this thread have been either address directly or talked about in some venue that you didnt know what taking place. I could do that then you would all ask for links to where i have seen these answers, but then that wouldnt really teach you guys a lesson would it

There are a number of things wrong with your post, but if I told you what they were, then that wouldn't really teach you a lesson, would it?

I've seen threads like these in the forums of every MMO I've played, and my first MMO was Asheron's Call 2 back in 2002. Players always want to hear more, and devs always want to tell them more, but have to be very, very careful what they tell them.

ZOS is in the same boat as every other MMO developer, and like every other MMO developer, will inevitably struggle to find the right balance between openness and discretion.

There is nothing wrong with players wanting more information, and nothing wrong with ZOS wanting to be careful about what they say. The only thing wrong is telling players they shouldn't ask, because attempting to stand between players and developers serves only to undermine the community and work against the success of the game.

So please don't.

MY GOD!

An AC player! "w00t" <fromwayback> lol

Heck back then we actually had DEV CONTROLLED world bosses that would actually join the game and try to kill us. "Or hand out gear and treat's"

I remember we almost killed grimdal outside of subway "Tho I think Jessica(The one at Turbine after Ben or whatever his names was stepped down) was running him at the time" lol

We even were able to talk about questions we had about the game during these times they were INGAME with us! Grimdal was scary as heck to look at tho.. DAT creepy white mask and all.

^^Now that is DEV's interacting with the player community!!

Gidorick

Funkopotamus wrote: »

Majic wrote: »

Can We Talk?

Pman85 wrote: »

If you dont do your homework, you would think the community is being ignored. I could tell you that all of these posts in this thread have been either address directly or talked about in some venue that you didnt know what taking place. I could do that then you would all ask for links to where i have seen these answers, but then that wouldnt really teach you guys a lesson would it

There are a number of things wrong with your post, but if I told you what they were, then that wouldn't really teach you a lesson, would it?

I've seen threads like these in the forums of every MMO I've played, and my first MMO was Asheron's Call 2 back in 2002. Players always want to hear more, and devs always want to tell them more, but have to be very, very careful what they tell them.

ZOS is in the same boat as every other MMO developer, and like every other MMO developer, will inevitably struggle to find the right balance between openness and discretion.

There is nothing wrong with players wanting more information, and nothing wrong with ZOS wanting to be careful about what they say. The only thing wrong is telling players they shouldn't ask, because attempting to stand between players and developers serves only to undermine the community and work against the success of the game.

So please don't.

MY GOD!

An AC player! "w00t" <fromwayback> lol

Heck back then we actually had DEV CONTROLLED world bosses that would actually join the game and try to kill us. "Or hand out gear and treat's"

I remember we almost killed grimdal outside of subway "Tho I think Jessica(The one at Turbine after Ben or whatever his names was stepped down) was running him at the time" lol

We even were able to talk about questions we had about the game during these times they were INGAME with us! Grimdal was scary as heck to look at tho.. DAT creepy white mask and all.

^^Now that is DEV's interacting with the player community!!

I had an idea a while back suggesting pretty much this EXACT thing: http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/143464/in-game-zos-developer-events-concept

Titansteele

eventide03b14a_ESO wrote: »

Titansteele wrote: »

Community Ambassador Program we need you!!!

I have lost count of the number of times good communication would turn numerous frowns upside down, I have been in/around/running large communities online for my entire adult life (and before ) and I know that the voices on these forums represent the vocal minority and most of the time it does NOT represent the views of the many. I can say with confidence however that with regards to the communications around this game the general tone and message on this thread (and the many that preceded it) is something which is shared by many.

Out of general curiosity and in an attempt to be impartial I asked in guild chat what the games biggest problems were, just over 60 people answered me. Almost everyone said it feels stale because of the lack of new content, they also said that guild events were the only thing combating that feeling for them and if it wasn't for the guilds they wouldn't be playing anymore.



This is a major problem, one which I had hoped beyond hope that the Community Ambassador Program would resolve for us.

I honesty don't think this Community Ambassador Program is going to do anything productive. Why do we need the devs to tell these guys things instead of the devs just telling us directly? I feel like it's nothing more than a way for them to get some people do their work for free like all the people who make the addons to fix their UI. I used to watch their YouTube channel but all they do is cherry pick the questions and they rarely talk about anything useful. What exactly are these Community Ambassadors going to be able to tell us?

The devs should not come into the equation for us. Under most circumstances I suspect that they are following a design document in one guise or another. ZOS have community managers and it is their job to deal with the grumpy, needy, sunlight deprived, sex starved ingrates that we are

There are a lot of us and not many of them so I think its a great idea that they reach out for help from helpful and balanced members of the community. It means that they can deal with a smaller group which makes it manageable. In theory they should answer every question posed to them by the ambassadors and the ambassadors feed that back to the community. The ambassadors act as a filter for some of the utter tripe that is posted on these forums from time to time and only report on ideas that have real merit or problems that are causing clear unrest.

That is what I would put in place if I was a community manager here but so far I haven't really seen any true value in the Ambassador program as it sits. I am not on the forums as frequently as I have been in the past so I apologize if there is evidence to the contrary.

In short I agree with your assessment @eventide03b14a_ESO and would add that if ZOS do not make some changes to the way in which they communicate they are going to lose money. I know of many people who have not taken ESO plus memberships simply due to this issue and it is soooo easy to fix it truly beggars belief. This is not a complicated code or hardware issue, its a simple people one for those with the skills to solve it.

Gandrhulf_Harbard

Titansteele wrote: »

The ambassadors act as a filter for some of the utter tripe that is posted on these forums from time to time and only report on ideas that have real merit or problems that are causing clear unrest.

What makes an Ambassador more qualified, over and above any other non-ZOS Forum Member, to decide what has merit or is causing unrest?

An Ambassador who fails to see merit in X idea may just be incapable of seeing that merit, they may be ignorant of the details, not understand the processes involved etc.

The ONLY purpose the Ambassadors will serve is so that when the manure hits the rotational ventilation equipment ZOS can say "Oh, we didn't know about that, the Ambassadors had't told us anything was wrong".

Its about passing the buck, the denial and dereliction of responsibility.

Nothing more.

All The Best

Junglejim82

2 weeks in as a console player and already I see terrible customer service. The fact that text discussion has had no official response is baffling. Come back S.O.E all is forgiven. They may have got some stuff wrong but they interacted on the forums daily. They were never faceless. From head devs all the way down they embraced the community. Poor show zenimax

Titansteele

Gandrhulf_Harbard wrote: »

Titansteele wrote: »

The ambassadors act as a filter for some of the utter tripe that is posted on these forums from time to time and only report on ideas that have real merit or problems that are causing clear unrest.

What makes an Ambassador more qualified, over and above any other non-ZOS Forum Member, to decide what has merit or is causing unrest?

An Ambassador who fails to see merit in X idea may just be incapable of seeing that merit, they may be ignorant of the details, not understand the processes involved etc.

The ONLY purpose the Ambassadors will serve is so that when the manure hits the rotational ventilation equipment ZOS can say "Oh, we didn't know about that, the Ambassadors had't told us anything was wrong".

Its about passing the buck, the denial and dereliction of responsibility.

Nothing more.

All The Best

It is a good question and time is the only mechanism that will provide answers. With all due respect to the Ambassador`s that are in place they might all turn out to be rubbish. Would it be a waste of money to hire more community managers to do it properly? Probably and I am sure I would rather OPEX was spent on getting us the content we crave.

I have seen examples of great volunteer admins/ambassadors elsewhere in the vast world that is online gaming and it can work if done well.

I would rather they tried and failed than they didn't try at all!