Does the forum represent the entire ESO:TU playerbase?

Lenikus

No

No. The forums are merely a statistical sample of the toxic part of our community.
We're mostly on twitter or reddit

waterfairy

No

OrangeTheCat wrote: »

ZOS has forsaken their own forums. People go to Reddit instead.

Not me as I lack the fedora and neck beard required to post there.

rotaugen454

No

But we are the player base delegates. If no absolute majority is reached, we go to a brokered convention.

The Uninvited

No

hrothbern wrote: »

Cambridge dictionary:
"represent verb (ACT FOR)
C2 [T] to ​speak, ​act, or be ​present ​officially for another ​person or ​people"

Represent ???
Never... we were not elected to represent !

@Kammakazi ,
I think the better question to pose would be:
Are our opinions an indication of what many more players of ESO:TU think.
And that's I guess what your intention is of the question.

I agree very much with @Ackwalan !

Ackwalan wrote: »

Forums are mostly just the loudest kids. And being the loudest does not make them the most informed or mean what they have to say is anything worth while.

What annoys me most of the loudest posts is, that these post dilute the many meaningful contributions to this Forum, that are of the interest of many players of the ESO:TU, including posts with opinions they probably do share.

Couldn't agree more.

Autolycus

No

There is a very large gap between what the forums represent, and how the community on the whole feels. For example, a great deal of the "L2P" attitude here on the forums is only present on the forums. My friends and I say it to each other jokingly, but I have yet to actually tell someone, or be told, to learn to play on a serious note.

starlizard70ub17_ESO

No

I'll bet that 80+% of the player base doesn't even know the forums exist or does't bother with the forums, they just have fun playing the game.

Hymzir

Yes

I voted yes, because while we are a minority in numbers, and the vocal minority, we are still a cross cut of the general population. There are people on these forums who are die hard ESO supporters, who can see no evil in their beloved game, as well as plenty of people who are crying about the sky falling. Most people on the Forums fall somewhere in between.

Thus while we are the vocal minority, we are also the part of the general population that participates in public discourse. Our opinions do, at least in my mind, reflect the overall consensus of the general population. The number of people visiting the forums, and taking part in polls and such, is still statistically meaningful number of people.

Do the opinions and views reflect the prevailing mood of the gaming community perfectly accurately? Well, no - but they do offer a meaningful snapshot to what the player base is thinking, within a reasonable margin of error. Obviously one also should take into account the nature of the topic itself that is under discussion. For example, all the various threads about what people think about Fengrush and his videos, is obviously a topic that does not really register at all among those people who do not visit the forums. But discussion about class balance, pricing of stuff in the crown store, the impact of some particular bug or another, do reflect the opinions people voice outside the forums as well. At least that is my experience with the matter.

Volkodav

No

Hymzir wrote: »

I voted yes, because while we are a minority in numbers, and the vocal minority, we are still a cross cut of the general population. There are people on these forums who are die hard ESO supporters, who can see no evil in their beloved game, as well as plenty of people who are crying about the sky falling. Most people on the Forums fall somewhere in between.

Thus while we are the vocal minority, we are also the part of the general population that participates in public discourse. Our opinions do, at least in my mind, reflect the overall consensus of the general population. The number of people visiting the forums, and taking part in polls and such, is still statistically meaningful number of people.

Do the opinions and views reflect the prevailing mood of the gaming community perfectly accurately? Well, no - but they do offer a meaningful snapshot to what the player base is thinking, within a reasonable margin of error. Obviously one also should take into account the nature of the topic itself that is under discussion. For example, all the various threads about what people think about Fengrush and his videos, is obviously a topic that does not really register at all among those people who do not visit the forums. But discussion about class balance, pricing of stuff in the crown store, the impact of some particular bug or another, do reflect the opinions people voice outside the forums as well. At least that is my experience with the matter.

Personally.I believe that most of the people who come here,myself included,are interested in the interaction in the forums.Not that many people who play games are into that.They could care less.
This is the only forum I have ever been a part of for a game.
Sometimes I think I shouldnt have joined though.XD

Delegator

No

Any forum like this for any topic (online game, college professor rating, software product support) will tend to be much more negative than the base as a whole.

SirAndy

No

Kammakazi wrote: »

Does the forum represent the entire ESO:TU playerbase?

I sure hope not ...

runagate

No

If you click on all of the Badges under your forum account profile you can see how many people have also gotten that badge.

116885 people have earned the First Comment badge.

25707 people have earned the Ten Comments badge.

2696 people have earned the 25 LOLs badge.

5006 people have earned the First Answer badge.

Tandor

No

Ahnastashia wrote: »

I'm constantly surprised at how many people in a game never.. ever.. visit the forums. I have no idea how they play like that personally. I guess they wait for their guildies and friends to let them know what's changing and upcoming in the game? I don't know.. I couldn't do that. I have always used the forums on any game I've played. I have a "need to know what's up" obsession.

I think they prefer to find such things out for themselves. I've long held the view that most people are much happier about a game that way, it means they aren't troubled by all the complaints about things that don't actually affect them. If they have an issue, then they know where to look for assistance, otherwise they're just happy to play the game. Most don't even need to read the patch notes for a game, they just play their usual way and pick up any changing nuances along the way. It's generally only the min/maxers who "need to know what's up". More substantial things like DLC announcements etc can easily be picked up from news sites like Massively Overpowered, if players want to keep up-to-date on such things. There are plenty of games I play whose forums I never visit, it just isn't necessary to my enjoyment of those games.

Taking this game as an example, 99% of the critical posts here are about PvP, but PvPers don't make up anything like 99% of the players, thus many players will be better off avoiding all the negativity here as it simply doesn't relate to their playing of the game and they won't gain anything from it. A lot of those who post positively here only do so in order to provide a degree of balance to the negativity.

jzholloway

No

"We Are ESO!" ... wait.. this (tanked thank God) and these forums can be a joke a lot of the times... ESO has thousands upon thousands of players across PC and both consoles. I typically see the same 100 or so people posting in here, just like we see the same 10-20 streamers on YouTube and Twitch.

nimander99

Yes

FACT 127% of half the ESO community uses the official forums...

srfrogg23

No

Kammakazi wrote: »

Since apparently it "does" according to some people. *rolls eyes*

I am happy to help you settle your argument.

Grunim

No

runagate wrote: »

If you click on all of the Badges under your forum account profile you can see how many people have also gotten that badge.

116885 people have earned the First Comment badge.

25707 people have earned the Ten Comments badge.

2696 people have earned the 25 LOLs badge.

5006 people have earned the First Answer badge.

Thank you SO much for posting this, looking at my badges helped give me something to do while waiting for the PC server to come back up.

Meanwhile I discovered this oddity in my badges:

You received 5 LOLs. We like that.
5 people have earned this badge.

You received 25 LOLs. You're posting some good content. Great!
2696 people have earned this badge.

runagate

No

Grunim wrote: »

runagate wrote: »

If you click on all of the Badges under your forum account profile you can see how many people have also gotten that badge.

116885 people have earned the First Comment badge.

25707 people have earned the Ten Comments badge.

2696 people have earned the 25 LOLs badge.

5006 people have earned the First Answer badge.

Thank you SO much for posting this, looking at my badges helped give me something to do while waiting for the PC server to come back up.

Meanwhile I discovered this oddity in my badges:

You received 5 LOLs. We like that.
5 people have earned this badge.

You received 25 LOLs. You're posting some good content. Great!
2696 people have earned this badge.

You're quite welcome. I noticed that too and have no explanation for it.

My guess is that the LOL badges got converted to Insightfuls when they rescaled them but there's no longer 25-based badges as they were changed to 50s long ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx6TBrfCW54

vyrusb23

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elsonso

No

Hymzir wrote: »

I voted yes, because while we are a minority in numbers, and the vocal minority, we are still a cross cut of the general population.

Forums tend to attract people who are not happy playing. As such, they tend to be heavy with people who have beefs, or want something to change.

Vaoh

No

You will find that the ESO forums represent the general feelings of our playerbase when stances reflect distaste toward game performance (specifically Cyrodiil). These forums tend to be made up of many more of the skilled/higher CP/better/elite side of the playerbase. For reference, check out the thread on how many of us completed Veteran Maelstrom Arena. Definitely NOT representative ratio-wise to the entire playerbase (not even close)!

We will also share opinions that lots of other players will disagree with due to us typically having more experience in game and knowing what is/isn't OP or not.

baratron

No

I believe about 10% of the active players in my Guild come here regularly (once a week or more often). As a result, those of us who are regular visitors to the official forum make sure to communicate any important information shared here within the Guild.

OrangeTheCat

No

We are the 99%

Danikat

No

Forums are almost always just a tiny portion of the community they're for. I routinely speak to people in-game who don't even know there is an official forum, and many others who know it exists but never visit it.

And since participation is voluntary and the forum is highly unlikely to be representatively of the type of people in the game as a whole either. We're all here for a reason. Whether it's because we love the game so much we want to talk about it when we're not playing, or because we're so frustrated with one or more aspects that we just had to vent and/or request a change, or simply want to get new ideas on builds. There will be types of people who are over-represented, types of people who almost never visit the forum and people who come only to post certain things and don't participate in other topics.

Hymzir

Yes

Volkodav wrote: »

Personally.I believe that most of the people who come here,myself included,are interested in the interaction in the forums.Not that many people who play games are into that.They could care less.
This is the only forum I have ever been a part of for a game.
Sometimes I think I shouldnt have joined though.XD

Well, to me that just proves my point. The forums attract all sorts. I really don't care much about the interaction on the forums. I come here to see what's going on and to make my voice heard by ZOS whenever something I think is important is discussed. I am somewhat pessimistic about its impact, but ZOS does keep claiming that they do follow the discussion on these forums, and thus I post just in case.

The thing is, that there are still plenty of people on these forums. And I do think that it is large enough a pool to be a meaningful representation of the whole population. Obviously, based on the results of the poll, I am in the minority who thinks so, but based on my experience that's the way I see it.

The reason I posted on this thread at all, is because I see it quite often used as a counter argument to whatever people are talking about on the forums - the notion that only a small fragment of players follow the forums, so whatever we say is not really important. But I find that not to be true. The thing about people, who do take part in public discourse, is that they are passionate. They are the loudest critics, but also the most avid fans of the game. The people who do not participate in the discussion, do not feel about things quite as strongly, but most of them do still share the same general sentiments.

Let's take the lag as a simple example - the forum is flooded with rage about the lag in Cyrodiil. Just about everyone who posts here and is a PVP player is screaming bloody murder because of it. There are also those who do not PVP at all, and say it isn't really an issue, and that the PVP crowd are just constantly QQ:ing bunch of haters.

The reality is, that the lag is a serious issue, and anyone who has PVP:d at all is not happy about it. Some of those who are not all that passionate about the game, will not bother to voice that concern on these forums and just try to enjoy PVP:ing as best as they can. They are still bothered by it and do hope that it would get fixed. Others will just shrug and go play something else, and maybe occasionally log on back to see if things have improved. At the same time, those who do not spend any time PVP:ing at all, and do not feel passionate enough to spend time on the Forums arguing with those who are screaming about it, will just think that it doesn't affect them, but can see how it would annoy those who do PVP, and that doing something about it might be a good move for the longevity of the game. That or ditching PVP form the game altogether.

Thus the bottom line here is, that the lag is a real issue, and it does affect all who PVP, and ZOS really should do something about it. And that is what I see on the forums. And the sentiment expressed here mirrors what players express in game and on other platforms for discussion.

The general wibe I get from the Forums is that people are not happy with the way things are going. The forums themselves do tend to express it in a fairly toxic manner, but that's due to the passionate bit. The thing I take from such threads, is that there is a fair bit of unease in the player population. It hasn't yet reached a point that is critical for the future of the game, but the amount and consistency of the complaints on these forums, do paint a picture that all is not well in the ESOverse. It also provides insight on what particular issues do bug the population as a whole.

lordrichter wrote: »

Forums tend to attract people who are not happy playing. As such, they tend to be heavy with people who have beefs, or want something to change.

I do not share this sentiment. What forums attract are the most passionate people. Add if the majority of people, who are passionate about whatever the forum deals with, are not happy, then that is a clear sign that maybe there really is something wrong with the way things are. Your experiences may of course vary, but that is what I've seen on the various forums I've frequented in the past.

Also - it is quite natural that people voice their concerns, or post about things that bug them. Very few people need the urge to voice their opinion about stuff that is performing just fine. But if some thing bugs someone strongly enough to prompt them to post about it and propose changes to it, you can bet that there are tons of other people who arr also miffed by it, but not strongly enough that they would bother to do something about it. But should it be changed, they too would be quite happy. That is the nature of public discourse. It tends to begin with someone perceiving a problem with the world. Then people will either rally to support the claim or will do their best to defend the way things are.

Most of the nerf this or change that or this thing is OP threads do also attract people who disagree with the original poster,. So while the thread may have started as a complaint, the comments in it might not be. However, if most of the people who bother to participate in the discussion voice similar opinions, then that is a strong indicator that maybe there is something to the original complaint. Undoubtedly its no as bad as the posters make it sound, and it probably does not need quite as drastic changes as they are proposing. But if most people, who bother to post about something, do not disagree with one another, then ZOS should listen to them and maybe do something about it. - A good example of this is the topic of "No text chat for consoles."

Tryxus

It represents a portion of the playerbase

The Salty Portion

Rex-Umbra

No

Barely a fraction of the player base uses the forums lol.

mb10

No

Most certainly not.

Most the forum users are just moaners and complainers who tend to play on PC too

Browiseth

No

Any forums generally show off the worst of a community I find.
and no the irony of that statement is not lost on me

Mojmir

just cause theyre not subscribed or posting, doesnt mean theyre not reading or watching.

Gulkrim-mur

No

Anzriel wrote: »

The forums represent the whiniest and least mature members of the pve, pvp and rp community. Most people, myself included have largely given up on the forums here for that reason. People in game are largely much more helpful and willing to see the opinions of others even if they don't agree. The forums are where all the "my way is the only way" people are herded. It's pretty sad in many ways....

Wrong. Q.Q much Q.Q uninstall and break game please. Lol