Good vs Bad design decisions?

KRBMMO

I ran across this today and it explained a lot to me why I get diminishing enjoyment out of this game after levelling up the first toon. For me the quests were fun once, but trying to be "competitive" either in PvP or PvE means you have to grind, grind grind, grind grind. New patch? Grind some more because your build was nerfed.

After watching this video it's almost like there's two teams of developers for ESO: one group makes fun stuff and the other group makes abortions CP, loot tables, weighted RNG, grouping tools, etc.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=7L8vAGGitr8

VaranisArano

Progression in games is hard to create.

Before One Tamriel, we had a strong sense of progression. I was weak as a kitten in zones higher than my level but stronger than the gods in zones below my level. However, this was achieved by limiting what we could play and railroading us through quest content, which One Tamriel did away with in favor of having a more open world, traditional Elder Scrolls sandbox game.

Because of this, the entire world has to be accessible to both new players fresh out of slave chains in Seyda Neen or right out of the Wailing Prison and players who has max CP and years of experience. So there are levels of content.
Overland PVE Questing is geared towards leveling players, both new and those creating alts. It gets pretty easy for experience players at high levels.
Normal Dungeons are geared towards players of all levels, unlocking progressively for lower level players.
Veteran Dungeons are geared towards players above level 50, and some above CP 160, who know their class and role.
Trials are geared towards players who know their class and role and who have committed to excellently performing that class and role in cooperative content.

Now, you might think, its easy to create progression by adding new content, harder content. And ZOS tries. They've added harder, more mechanic intensive dungeons with Imperial City, Shadows of the Hist, and Horns of the Reach. They've added new trials, including the newest one that has even more levels of difficulty than just normal and veteran.

But ZOS can't keep up with players - not and produce quality content. So how do they keep people involved in the game in between releasing new content? How do they keep the game accessible for brand new players and experienced players alike?

They have to keep players playing the game. They could introduce new rewards, but rewards alone just produces power creep. So instead, they try to keep everything "balanced", nerfing some things and buffing others, creating a new meta with every patch where the BIS gear that everyone wants has to change. And, by and large, it works. We put our noses to the grindstone, get the new gear the meta says we need, and we play the game so we can capture that sense of progression.