Hello from the Lead Gameplay Designer

ZOS_RobGarrett · August 2018

Hey everyone!

I just wanted to take an opportunity to introduce myself here on the forums. I'm the Lead Gameplay Designer on ESO, overseeing the Systems, Combat, PvP, and User Interface teams. Some of you may have seen me on ESO Live last month. I was a little nervous in the beginning of the show if you couldn't tell. =P

I've been working in games for 15 years, most recently having spent 7 at Riot Games working on League of Legends and several smaller games in the LoL universe. I joined ZOS in January and started playing ESO about a year ago. Obviously many of you have been playing the game much longer and have acquired a wealth of knowledge and expertise during that time. ESO is a huge game, and I won't claim to have the same depth of knowledge as someone who's been actively playing since beta.

I do, however, play pretty much every day (I recently switched from PC to console to get better visibility into that experience) and scan the forums and Reddit when time permits. I also lean on the knowledge and experience of the great teams and people here at ZOS who've been hammering on ESO for about a decade. To be clear, my role here is less about making specific changes or improvements to the product and more about helping our teams improve how we work and communicate, both with each other and with you - the players. That being said, I'd be lying if I said there aren't specific aspects of the game I'd like to improve.

My intent is to start posting here on the forums more regularly and, in time, provide more insight into how we think about Gameplay design. My days are already pretty busy (it turns out shipping an update every 3 months leads to a pretty aggressive development schedule!) but I will engage when I can. I'm also certain Gina will find opportunities to poke me for a response.

ESO is a great game. I wouldn't have joined the team if I didn't believe that, and it's exciting to have a hand in shaping the game for the coming years. I'm happy to be here and am looking forward to hearing from you!

Ladislao · August 2018

Good to see you, Rob. I think a man like you was missing in ZOS team.

Be patient in communicating with our community and good luck with your work

iLagxLucid · August 2018

Nice ....could you guys make bosses larger lol

Vanthras79 · August 2018

Welcome to the forums! I am glad ZOS has decided to further improve customer relations, they have been moving in good directions as of late! Remember to post some memes and GIFs. The community loves them

ZOS_RobGarrett wrote: »

I'm also certain Gina will find opportunities to poke me for a response.

Isn't she the worst!

(Kidding! We love all love you Gina

)

Vahlyance · August 2018

Welcome to Nirn mister Garret.

I wish you great success within' your new role, just don't take us too seriously, we're an unruly bunch.

Skander · August 2018

Get into pvp, play only small groups. Look always how many campaigns are ovepoped and what are empty

Hello.

Lagz · August 2018

(it turns out shipping an update every 3 months leads to a pretty aggressive development schedule!)

Maybe one of these days you'll skip an update and focus all resources on making the game run smoothly and less buggy

Lieblingsjunge · August 2018

Hype!

Just be transparent about your decisions and reply to players' concerns(mainly regarding exploits and bugs... And lag. But guess that's not on your end!)

ESO-community is very scary, dead-serious and sometimes angry. They just care too much about the game! But there's friendly people here too! That appreciates all kinds of transparancy even the "Yo, we're working on fixing XXXX-issue, but it'll take some time. But we know". There's been a lack of acknowledgement of known issues in general.

ESO is probably, by far, the best MMO out there. But the exploits / bugs / lag is making the game less enjoyable. Good luck though!

Actually. Whenever you do a maintenance, it could be an idea to add a "Known issues"-post on the forums or something. Or even keep one pinned and update it after every maintenance. Since well - there are issues here. It would be nice to know what you're aware of.

Marabornwingrion · August 2018

Welcome

Looking forward to get many responses from you. [removed bashing comment]

Dubhliam · August 2018

Thanks for joining!

It's great to see some enthusiasm and a will to communicate.

Cudos!

Danikat · August 2018

Welcome to ZOS and ESO!

I think I can imagine how you feel, I started a new job around the same time, working with teams who have been doing what they do for literally decades...and I'm the person who is supposed to come in and improve the processes. It's a weird mix of wanting to get stuck into it and being very wary of overstepping boundaries and upsetting someone, but it's quite exciting too.

But it sounds like you're off to a good start - and taking the time to come here and introduce yourself to us is a great sign. I realise there's a lot in game development which can't be talked about publicly for various reasons, but I think it's safe to say we'll be happy to hear anything you want to share.

Salvas_Aren · August 2018

Hello Rob, it's nice to see a developer who plays and enjoys this game and can be considered one of us.

Let me tell you one thing:

Don't listen to nerf calls, fix the broken staff HAs and have fun!

Also, if HAs would restore both damage attributes (stam+mag), no matter which weapon is used, we would see more interesting builds.

Danikat · August 2018

By the way, if you're willing to share: what's your favourite thing in ESO so far? What's made you go "Oh, that's cool!"

VirtualElizabeth · August 2018

*Waves Madly*

ADarklore · August 2018

Welcome aboard @ZOS_RobGarrett !! Even if you've already been here for eight months and we're just hearing from you now!

Judas Helviaryn · August 2018

I can appreciate this, and there's not much to appreciate from ZOS as a whole, anymore.

Looking forward to more dialogue from you.

p00tx · August 2018

Dude...badass! It's nice to hear directly from the developers. You've inherited quite the project, but I think you're on the right track with your research (playing on Console, which lacks a PTS). Cyrodil is amazing on Console (not the server side stuff, but Play-style and battle movement), so you're in for a treat. Welcome, and try not to let the sour grapes on the forums get to you (my own included). They've had a long time to ferment in a place that has felt stagnant and unseen for a long time.

Takes-No-Prisoner · August 2018

Which console do you play on?

Jolipinator · August 2018

ZOS_RobGarrett wrote: »

(I recently switched from PC to console to get better visibility into that experience)

I believe they call that "taking one for the team". Thank you for your service.

CavalryPK · August 2018

I humbly and selfishly ask your highness to adjust your resource management to balance of pvp!

Much love

Aliyavana · August 2018

If you are lead gameplay designer, what is Wrobel?

Czekoludek · August 2018

Hi Rob, nice to meet you

Hope that with this transparency from devs we will see more balance and stam and mag (not only magicka like now) friendly content in the future updates

Tryxus · August 2018

I hope you have a looooooooooooot of patience dealing with some of these forum-warriors

Good to have you, and really awesome to see you posting here on the forums

Judas Helviaryn · August 2018

Aliyavana wrote: »

If you are lead gameplay designer, what is Wrobel?

Lead Combat Designer..

People are already confusing the two in this thread, because literacy is dead in 2018.

(As well as TL;DRing his OP.)

Zer0oo · August 2018

Welcome Rob,

nice to see a new dev on the forum and Good luck with the job. Also do not take everything on the forum too serious, even though some responses to so improvement suggestion would be welcome. It could be a simple this is great or this does not work.

Maybe even ask on the forum what would need some improvement.

Guildstore ui is outdated and does not even allow text-searches
Guildbank is quite small, quite limited on how to restrict it and kinda bugged (waiting in previous ..)
inventory management is a pain(too many different pots, siege don't stack , many sets for different roles for pve and pvp...)
let us auto accept bgs (grp finder/bg tool is still bugged and do not work when many ppl use it)
ability missing combat clues in pvp (wall of element, negate, nova,eruption,..)
getting the surveys done is a pain since you can only do one at once, which results in pointless running back and fort (would be nice you could do a stack up surveys at once)
why do we still have no real multi craft for pots and food (it takes ages to craft a full stack of pots but at least we have addons so we do not have to spam the bottom)
...

jedtb16_ESO · August 2018

hi

one thing....

please ignore all the nerf calls.

hope you enjoy your time here.

Katahdin · August 2018

Hello and welcome
I look forward to your participation
Good luck out there, you're gona need it with this crowd

Watchdog · August 2018

This one would like to join Rob's forums welcoming party too and wish Rob warm winds, soft sand and as few SNAFU's as possible.

Khajiit thinks Rob should actually not try to read every single complain around here and try to address it properly, because if he does that, his head will surely explode from all the contradicting demands. Preventing oneself from becoming a raving plaything of Sheggorath the Skooma Cat is quite important, yes?

MissBizz · August 2018

Welcome!

You'll need this. Happy to see you on the forums and hope to hear from you more often!

WhiteCoatSyndrome · August 2018

*waves*

Valrien · August 2018

Aliyavana wrote: »

If you are lead gameplay designer, what is Wrobel?

I think Wrobel is supposed to focus mainly on combat

Rob you sound like someone that ESO really needs. You sound like you genuinely care and want to do your job very well and I applaud that

My main gripe is that ZOS is not terribly transparent as to why they do what they do, and do not do balance updates enough (backlash from things such as Rune Cage nerf to use the most recent example would not be as large if we knew that it wasn't only going to be looked at in 3 months).

I think more Developer Comments in patch notes would be helpful (a few pop up here and there, which is amazingly nice to gain insight) and a list of known bugs in the game so that we at least know that you guys know about these bugs and are working towards fixing them.

Dungeons and Dragons Online for example keeps a list of every bug they can find and update it every patch so that the community knows that they and Turbine are all on the same page.

Lastly, not all forum-goers need to be taken seriously all the time (me included). Some of us just want to complain after something really frustrating happens. Just because we feel something killed us doesn't mean we necessarily need it to be nerfed...just kinda wanna tell people about it sometimes.

OH!!! Silly me, I forgot the most important part of this post...

WELCOME TO TAMRIEL, ROB!!!