Why are people always negative about zos?

Xendyn

Audigy wrote: »

Other people did believe in a sub only based game and after ESO became ESOU, they felt cheated. Then again, you have those that just always complain and are in general unhappy with life, those just complain, even if Gina & Stiffler would dance half naked on a table during ESO live

On an even more serious note,

I think they do a good job.

Ok, put that in the Crown store...I'll shell out for it

Iluvrien

They aren't always negative. Some of us got this way over time.

Around the time of PC launch I came to the forums to discuss Crafting and the ways we crafters could help each other, and what suggestions we could make to improve on the game.

After another poster made gave a lackluster response to last year's E3 presentation I even posted the following:

Iluvrien wrote: »

redwoodtreesprite wrote: »

Video is beautiful and makes me feel sad.

Game isn't worth playing right now, but the world is so beautiful. The designers made a world so wonderful, but the actual gameplay is not so wonderful...

I am honestly sorry that you feel that way.

Primarily this is because I have been having a superb time in this game since the first hour of early access until I, again, played too late last night and ended up cutting back on sleep so I could play "just one more hour". It makes me sad to hear that other people aren't having as much fun as I, and many of my guildmates, are having.

...

I am hard on ZOS now not because my response to their actions is automatically negative. As can be seen from the above, my initial feelings about the game were overwhelmingly positive. I had little to complain about and didn't even complain much about that. The reason that I am hard on ZOS is because over the last 14 months ZOS has failed to deliver not only what I hoped for from this game, but also on many of the things that they themselves specified.

One example is embodied by this quote that was recently brought back to our attention in a Crown Store data mining thread:

"We're also very confident in our ability to support it with content. And not content of the magnitude of, it's a new month, here's a new sword or here's a funny hat--but content that is real and significant and it feels like regular and consistent DLC releases."

-Bethesda's Vice President of PR, Pete Hines"

I could also go on about the delayed content release schedule for PC, about the weakening of crafting, about the P2P to B2P switch etc. etc. etc. .

You want to understand why people are negative? Walk a mile in our damn shoes.

delushin

Using words in a text based format makes it hard to convey ones tones or emotion, of course there are certain words that could be seen to set a certain tone in our mind when reading something however that can be misinterpreted.

I certainly have had some dummy spits at ZOS in general over things that meant something to me, and that whats we need to focus on here "the meaning of something to someone". Each person that takes to the forums to resurrect a topic that has been belted out before is doing so because it means something to them, this is not bad but rather good.

Understandably sometimes what is promulgated can certainly come across as maliciously striking and you sit here sipping on your tea wondering if that fan would actually smack a developer upside the head. If given the chance to meet said developer I would say the fan would be humbled to the opportunity and there would be no mixed martial origami taking place.

We love this game and I think deep down if we take all the topical things that upset us on the micro level away, it is fear that brings us out to speak vile of the companies efforts towards a product we are worried will fade away. Fear of whatever it might be to each individual, and fear is very powerful to businesses.

You see ZOS could easily use that fear to increase the motivation and happiness of their fans, its one of the best things you could ask for. You just don't know how to use it as has been demonstrated on more then one occasion with a reactive approach to issues rather then taking advantage of up stream planning and bad news with a twist.

Take something you are already working on that the fans are really vocal about; your already working on it right? So why should you have to explain to them that you are working on it when its being worked on! The fact that they continue to flood the forums with new post after new post on the same issue you are working on really gets you quite pissed off. What this does is cause you to enter a mode of defense and through that stance you choose to reduce the communication about what you are working on. The fans continue to get more and more aggressive about it as they go through the seven stages of grief (evident now with aggressive threads turning to comical ones -this is a shift from denial to semi-acceptance). This in turn effects you and the doors close, later you will release whatever you are working on and it will come out with a poorly thought out, armature attempt at wordsmithing which will (despite it being great for the game) be meet by negative reviews and issues from the fans rather then the good stuff you did.

While all of the above was happening, internally you have to admit that the fans have come up with some really good alterations or ideas or additions to whatever you were working on that you could (up stream planning) be implemented, of course keeping it fit for purpose and cost effective -it is a business.

So how is their complaining about something you were already working on but didn't communicate effectively going to help you build face with the fans? Release with some decent marketing where the main element focuses on "you kept asking and we listened - coming next DLC is X".

The hate threads will soon turn to:

#ZOS best dev team eva!
I love the way they interact with us!
Finally a company that works with fans.

And what did you do? Nothing except what you were doing anyways, you just made it seem like it was influenced by other means, you capitalised on bad news. Communication is your failure in this, you say something and then go dark, or you say something and they take three times the time to get it happening.

Get better at communication and make sure its been quality checked.