ESO Community - your input is needed and appreciated!

Franieck

Dear ESO community,

I am currently writing my Master Thesis around the topic Digital Consumer Insights, specifically, about the dynamics of conflict within online gaming communities. I am currently using the ESO community as a case study and, as such, would be interested to know your feedback, opinions and insights for my thesis.
I am merely looking for your opinions and your points of view. There are no wrong or right answers and the purpose of it is to allow you to guide me throughout this field and the meaning you have about conflict within the community.

Posting Structure:
While answering the questions, if you could copy and paste each question and reply each answer beneath their respective question, it would help me and others to make sense of what your insights are and can help to develop the discussion further.


Anonymity:

Mind you that every input will be treated with anonymity (meaning that I will exclude your Forum names from the thesis). If, by request, you would like me to keep your Forum name (so I can put it in the acknowledgments for instance), you'll have to explicitly request it. I'll make sure to give you credit for your inputs on it however, and can send the entire thesis - once completed - in case you also request it.

Questions:

- What frustrates you in the game? Why?

- What do you think frustrates others in the game?

- What frustrates you in the community?

- Have you ever experienced conflict within the game (either on the game itself, the forums, youtube, streams, etc.)? Can you describe one example?

- Is conflict for you a frequent occurrence within the community (either in-game or in the forums) ?

- Where have you most frequently run into conflict in the game? ( Forums? In-game? PVE activities? PVP activities? Guilds? PUGS? )

- How would you characterize conflict within the community (do you think it's mostly amicable, offensive, constructive or not constructive) ? Why do you think that is?

- Why do you think conflicts arise in the ESO community ?

- What is the role of ZOS around the topic conflict within the community?

Follow ups:
I would like to follow up with you regarding your answers. However, I obviously do not want to be invading your space or stealing your time and would therefore ask that for those who would be willing to answer some follow up questions, please end your post with a: (Y) , so I can identify you and we can engage and find a way to exchange more messages and keep the conversation going.

Your input will be sorely appreciated! I also intend to share my findings and insights with the community once it is finished.

Thank you for your attention!

tinythinker

We need flying dragon mounts, and we need them yesterday.

As soon as we finish nerfing Sorcs.


|￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣|
bring back the 1 second
cast time for shields
|＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿|

Aesthier

Don't know that I could provide any real help in this effort so I will link you to a study I found very helpful back in my day.


The report itself was set around how the obstacles and challenges faced and overcome by leaders in MMORPGs might translate to developing leaders in a corporate setting.

The study and how it was performed every single step and every insight:
http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/archives/001568.php

The resulting final report:
https://www.ibm.com/ibm/files/L668029W94664H98/ibm_gio_gaming_report.pdf

While it may not be the same or even similar in its thesis the manner in which he conducted the study may provide some additional insights.

If nothing else it is an interesting read.

Franieck

Aesthier wrote: »

Don't know that I could provide any real help in this effort so I will link you to a study I found very helpful back in my day.


The report itself was set around how the obstacles and challenges faced and overcome by leaders in MMORPGs might translate to developing leaders in a corporate setting.

The study and how it was performed every single step and every insight:
http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/archives/001568.php

The resulting final report:
https://www.ibm.com/ibm/files/L668029W94664H98/ibm_gio_gaming_report.pdf

While it may not be the same or even similar in its thesis the manner in which he conducted the study may provide some additional insights.

If nothing else it is an interesting read.

While it does not directly tie to my research questions, I might end up using it in my literature review after all, as it does sound interesting. Very appreciated!

jainiadral

This looks interesting I'm not sure how much insight I can add since I tend to avoid conflict (and other players in-game) like the plague.

- What frustrates you in the game? Why?

Bureaucracy. The interface. Just the sheer annoyance and inconvenience of purchasing things you need from other players via the Guild Trader system. Today I tried to finish a writ that required an exotic recipe plus perfect roe. I had to battle the interface to try to find both recipe and the roe-- and I'm on PC with Awesome Guild Trader. I can't imagine dealing with the system on a console

Then I headed to Tamriel Trade Center online to actually find the roe since none of the traders in the town I was in had any. I think I waypointed to three or four different cities to finally find something. It's a giant pain in the hind end. All for 40 writ vouchers.

I'm totally a solo player, but I'm stuck being part of a guild simply to have access to a trader-- ever. Half the time, my guild doesn't even have one because of the arcane bidding system-- yet another obstacle to selling things in a reasonable fashion.

Nerfs. I'm sick of nerfs destroying what fun I find in combat systems-- I uninstalled GW2 because my only main left got the huge nerf bat this last patch (greatsword/longbow ranger) after my scourge got gutted six months ago. Nerfs are hitting ESO any day now. I'm not looking forward to it.

- What do you think frustrates others in the game?

Nerfs. Difficulty issues. The impossible dream of perfect balance. Jerks.

- What frustrates you in the community?

Jerks and trolls. The competitive atmosphere fostered by the node gathering and treasure chest system.

- Have you ever experienced conflict within the game (either on the game itself, the forums, youtube, streams, etc.)? Can you describe one example?

I hit ignore before I get embroiled in that garbage. Or I shut off zone chat/say channels. I hate conflict IRL and I hate it even more in my games-- unless it's with monsters or NPCs. If I had my way, game designers would encourage cooperation between players in open world PvE. Players would embrace win/win solutions or reasonable compromises instead of dueling each other to the death over game issues in chat/on the forums.

Sing Kumbaya, people! Mouth it if you don't know the words

- Is conflict for you a frequent occurrence within the community (either in-game or in the forums) ?

No.

- Where have you most frequently run into conflict in the game? ( Forums? In-game? PVE activities? PVP activities? Guilds? PUGS? )

Open world node theft. I grit my teeth and sit on my hands so I don't vent it out while cussing at my monitor.

- How would you characterize conflict within the community (do you think it's mostly amicable, offensive, constructive or not constructive) ? Why do you think that is?

Pretty awful, from what I've read here. It's cut-throat when people are at odds with each other. Then again, that's pretty typical for most game forums.

- Why do you think conflicts arise in the ESO community ?

Probably dev cost-cutting via "balancing" PvP and PvE combat together instead of separately. They're fundamentally different in nature, and should be treated differently. Yet instead of taking out our ire on the devs, for the most part we're taking it out on each other.

- What is the role of ZOS around the topic conflict within the community?

Removing posts if they get too terrible. Otherwise, pretty much ignoring the player base and doing their own thing.

Starlock

Please do not use my forum name in your thesis, thanks!

What frustrates you in the game? Why?

I play RPGs as a way of exercising my creativity and journeying in the otherworlds. There are inevitably frustrations when the game engine limits my creative vision. Most of the time I just see this as an opportunity for further creativity - tweak the character concept this way, adjust that way - but MMOs present an entirely different sort of frustration I was not (and am still not) accustomed to:

Pointless grind and gated content.

This mechanism is designed to do one thing - to keep players playing. Put another way, it's the fuel of gaming addiction and borderline unethical. It definitely isn't there for the player's benefit. It is nothing but a nuisance, especially to players like myself who prioritize character development and creativity. When I develop characters, set choices are a big part of expression who they are. There are dozens of sets I don't bother looking at because they are functionally inaccessible, even though they'd be a great fit for my characters. I accept and respect that all game engines will limit my creative vision, but these sorts of limitation are dumb.

What do you think frustrates others in the game?

I wouldn't presume to speak for others.

What frustrates you in the community?

Nothing of significance. I mostly mind my own business, and bear in mind the things I notice are really no different from general interpersonal dynamics anyway. For example, in any human interactions you will get folks who fail to listen to each other or make judgmental assumptions. I just shrug and move on.

Have you ever experienced conflict within the game (either on the game itself, the forums, youtube, streams, etc.)? Can you describe one example?

Not really. I'm pretty mindful of the company I keep, and as I said, mostly mind my own business. That's not to say I haven't ever experienced some conflicts, I just don't care. I accept that I don't (and shouldn't attempt to) control other people's behavior. Ignore, shrug, move on.

Is conflict for you a frequent occurrence within the community (either in-game or in the forums) ?

Nope. Not being a competitive type has a lot to do with that.

Where have you most frequently run into conflict in the game? ( Forums? In-game? PVE activities? PVP activities? Guilds? PUGS? )

Honestly? The worst conflict I would name is botting. I focus on questing and overland stuff for the most part, and running into a group of "sorcerers" spamming lightning form and heavy attacking is beyond immersion breaking. I would have quit the game entirely if I'd seen this kind of crap when I first started. In some situations, it completely ruins the quest line. Camlorn, in particular. The story is supposed to be about a town overrun with werewolves. What do I find? A town overrun with freaking bots. Completely and entirely ruins the story.

I run random dungeons a fair amount too, though. The main thing that annoys me there is players who really should have just gone into the dungeon solo because their behavior clearly indicates they don't care about working as a team.

How would you characterize conflict within the community (do you think it's mostly amicable, offensive, constructive or not constructive) ? Why do you think that is?

I stay away from the conflict-ridden competitive subsections of the community, so I really couldn't say.

Why do you think conflicts arise in the ESO community?

I think most of it happens because this game appeals to a very diverse group of players who have different gameplay priorities. Well, that and the obvious "humans being humans."

What is the role of ZOS around the topic conflict within the community?

Encourage, uphold, and enforce certain basic standards of decency. Ban and suspend players where documentation of abuse is present. And hire some bloody game masters to deal with bots.

EliteWarrior

Background: I've got around 800 hours in ESO, around 4000 in PC games. Been playing ESO for about a year, PC games for about 4 years. I've spent most of my time on one character: my StamDK main. I'm about 650CP.


- What frustrates you in the game? Why?
Seeing Bots is always annoying, but I don't think they have a huge impact - Bots outside of Riften? Go to Somewhere else in the Rift, or in the game.
Another thing which I can take both sides on is the whole 'Elite Players' argument, a high level player annoyed at a low one for not knowing the game/mechanics etc. Yes, if a new player tries something waaaay out of their league, it can be fustrating for a high level/veteran player. But it also is hostile towards the new players, who often go out of their way to write-up their negative experience on Reddit/Forums.

- What do you think frustrates others in the game?
Same as above, there are countless posts here in the forums and on the ESO Subreddit about annoying unhelpful high level players. Equally there are a lot of posts from the high level players about the noobs, who might have false queued or something. Again, bots are annoying for everyone! XD
I have seen a slight amount of hostility towards Pay to Win, involving ESO+. I have to disagree here, I think ESO Plus is great for those taking the game more seriously, but it can easily be played without it. Similarly, the crown store is not P2W, as it is 99% cosmetic items, that simply 'make you look cool'. The 1% that give you an advantage such as crown food, poisons, and XP scrolls, can be crafted in game anyway.

- What frustrates you in the community?
I have played two games which I have been heavily involved, and taken very seriously: ESO, and before that, GTA Online. I can safely say that the ESO Community is 1000x better than the GTA community, and that is down to one thing. Hostility towards other players. In GTA I've seen higher level players camping brand new level one players, here in ESO, the community is super helpful towards new players in zone chat on the whole. Back to the point though; I think lack of respect for other players is the biggest one. Not everyone can hit the best rotation, not everyone has the fastest PC/internet speed, I personally think that sometimes people need to loosen up a little. However, the game rage takes over, we've all been there...

- Have you ever experienced conflict within the game (either on the game itself, the forums, youtube, streams, etc.)? Can you describe one example?
As previously mentioned, there are lots of posts on Reddit, and here on the Forums about false queuing and players not knowing what they are doing, as there are posts complaining about veteran players looking down on the new players. But these are not directed to a single player, they are more passive aggressiveness. The only conflict I have seen in ESO, which I must mention, is not me first hand, but on YouTube, and mostly PS4 I have to say, is PvP. Sending messages to each other that they've 'exposed you', or that you're 'trash' and can't PvP, or simply 'trash talking'. This takes the fun out of the game, making it too serious, and when private message trash talking is involved, too personal. There are only small creators on YouTube who do this thankfully, and once again I've never seen this personally, just online.

- Is conflict for you a frequent occurrence within the community (either in-game or in the forums) ?
Nope, don't think I've ever run into any conflict in-game. Let's be honest we all disagree with each other in forums from time to time, nothing major though.

- Where have you most frequently run into conflict in the game? ( Forums? In-game? PVE activities? PVP activities? Guilds? PUGS? )
As I said before, not in game personally, but I believe conflicts most often occur at top-level PvE and PvP.

- How would you characterize conflict within the community (do you think it's mostly amicable, offensive, constructive or not constructive) ? Why do you think that is?
It's almost always non-constructive, IMO. Usually it can be avoided with a friendly message, word of advice, or simply by having more respect for those around you.

- Why do you think conflicts arise in the ESO community ?
People taking the game too seriously, and (if they are a veteran player, who knows the game very well) expecting too much of other players.

- What is the role of ZOS around the topic conflict within the community?
Difficult when it comes to community, ZOS can look at the kind of things that are being exploited, and causing splits in the community, and fix them! Most recently, the Summerfall event, which saw all players coming together as one, really showed what kind of community this game has, and it's certainly a good one. Summerfall was a great move by ZOS, everyone gets cool items, with little effort, the game is more appealing to others, ZOS get more sales, and ESO gets new players!

Were these the types of answers you were looking for?
(Y)Feel free to contact me for further questions, but not over mic or anything, as I currently don't have one! Can you contact me on the forums? not sure I'm pretty new to them.
Also if there is a way to publish this somewhere, sounds like a really interesting topic!
Good Luck with more answers!

iiYuki

Questions:

- What frustrates you in the game? Why?
(God where do I start, I'll go for my main 2)
1) The Crown Store and the way that it leeches into the games content, fair enough having some exclusive and some time saving stuff on the store but EVERYTHING is on there; mounts, houses, motifs while we have the same 3 mounts avalive for gold we had 4 years ago. The over used re-skinned or slightly changed models also really *** me off, especially "limited time" ones.
2) Guild stores rather than an AIO auction house, I can even live with only guilds having access to traders but ffs why does there have to be so many, I can travel to one GT and they have an item for 20k then move to the GT straight next to the first and its universally 5k. Why we dont have a main linked house or 1 trader per zone and guilds with x number of members just have access or can bid for a % of the tax made. I'm actually in a Trade guild and I really enjoy it but am pretty limited to what I can sell and have never broke the 200k per month mark.

- What do you think frustrates others in the game?
RNG, the need for cookie cutter builds to do well at your spec, CP requirements, the difficulty jump in Vanilla-Vet and DLC-Vet content especially at low levels.

- What frustrates you in the community?
People cheering for other classes nerf's when we should collectively be helping each other, instead of bringing down good classes how about we bring up the bad ones to where the good ones are?

- Have you ever experienced conflict within the game (either on the game itself, the forums, youtube, streams, etc.)? Can you describe one example?
Yes, the forums when people didn't like me defending so called "elitist" players.

- Is conflict for you a frequent occurrence within the community (either in-game or in the forums) ?
Not very often though I find myself disagreeing with people who seem to think everything should be handed to them and they shouldn't have to put serious time into the game because "they have other stuff to do".

- Where have you most frequently run into conflict in the game? ( Forums? In-game? PVE activities? PVP activities? Guilds? PUGS? )
Forums the most but I also find people sometimes in PUGS that

- How would you characterise conflict within the community (do you think it's mostly amicable, offensive, constructive or not constructive) ? Why do you think that is?
I think some of it IS constructive but I also think the majority is nonconstructive feedback and comments like "[x] is *** fix it" or people with no clue on how something works making comments about how it SHOULD work.

- Why do you think conflicts arise in the ESO community ?
people who are salty about "OP" abilities or classes when in reality they're just *** at the game and need to get gud before qqing on the forums about "x needs nerfing".

- What is the role of ZOS around the topic conflict within the community?
To listen to the majority and decide if the group has a point.

p00tx

Questions:

- What frustrates you in the game? Why?

. I'm frustrated by the blatant consumerism in this game (although I get it...it's a business, not a charity). The only things I feel are being quickly addressed by the company are things which directly impact their cash flow. Changes outside of that often feel arbitrary and counter intuitive, and very rarely actually in line with what the wider player base is asking for. There are performance issues which have been around since I started playing over 2 years ago, and not only do they still exist, but they have never even been addressed by the parent company, in spite of several complaints in the public forums. Player bug reports and submitted tickets addressing bugs most often go ignored or unaddressed, which leads me to feel like there is no company presence on here, until I see them posting moderation interrupts non-stop on threads which have gotten derailed or abusive. They are here, but not for the reasons we really need them to be. I just don't feel "heard" or really valued, but more often placated with "stuff" (although I do value the cool events they have been releasing lately, and appreciate the creativity involved)

- What do you think frustrates others in the game?

. I imagine the same issues I spoke about in my previous answer. I know my concerns are not unique, and I have spoken with other players at length about the issues I elaborated on earlier.

- What frustrates you in the community?

. Shortsightedness and a [usually] narrow understanding of how small changes can impact the greater community. I think a lot of us get a bit of tunnel vision and start to imagine that our unique gaming experience is the norm across the board for all players across all platforms. When we then make suggestions or call for "nerfs" to abilities or sets, we often do not think about the greater ramifications of these potential changes in either the short or the long run, and instead only focus on how it impacts us or our immediate group. We are unable to disseminate everything we observe into useful data components and draw useful conclusions from it, and instead focus on the immediate and easy problem facing us in the moment.The only other alternative to this way of thinking [that I can see] that still results in the same behavior is that it stems from selfishness, and the player genuinely does not care that their requested changes could ruin the game for most other players. I'm not sure which mindset is worse really.

. I also find myself frustrated by the community's inability to adapt to change. Changes do happen in the game, some good, and some obviously not so good. There are constructive ways to go about discussing these changes and how they might be averted or redirected, but very few people actually seem to be able to have these discussions without being insulting or degrading a huge portion of the game's population, and I feel a lot of this behavior stems from their inability to accept change as a natural component of the game. It seems to bring out aggression in a large portion of the vocal community, and it's really unpleasant and counterproductive.

- Have you ever experienced conflict within the game (either on the game itself, the forums, youtube, streams, etc.)? Can you describe one example?

. Constantly. The forums are constant source of frustration, and although there are some wonderful human beings in this community, the ones who are the loudest seem to be the worst. There is a very strong elitist vein running through this community, and those who self-describe themselves as end-game players tend to be dismissive of any and all opinions or input from the rest of the community, and they tend to be the biggest offenders in terms of creating an artificial divide in the community. The Class Rep Healer Discord recently suffered a schism, and the offending players who were being disruptive and rude (and were kicked out as a result), decided to create a new Discord to discuss changes among themselves. Now the player discord, which had been functioning pretty smoothly up until that point, is divided and pretty much useless. The top 1% of the gaming community believes it should dictate changes for the rest of the community, based on their particular needs in the game (sound familiar?). I left that Discord channel, and most others, since this is not a behavior or attitude I want to be aligned with and I don't want my leisure time to be tainted by that sort of atmosphere. I think there is merit and value to hearing voices from every level of game play, and I am very much in the minority in that discussion.

- Is conflict for you a frequent occurrence within the community (either in-game or in the forums) ?

. Only in certain aspects of the game. In my immediate community, no. I purposely only surround myself with mature, socially functioning, successful adults who understand that this is just a game. We respect one another, we're honest with one another, and we help our guild members who may need help in the most respectful, humane way possible. If I encounter a portion of this community that doesn't behave this way, I have no problem walking away from it and washing my hands of all parties involved. The great thing about this game is that you can kind of choose what you want this game to be for you.

- Where have you most frequently run into conflict in the game? ( Forums? In-game? PVE activities? PVP activities? Guilds? PUGS? )

. The forums and the discord chats. I avoid in game text and voice chat because those are both typically a cesspool of toxic sludge and mindless insults. I leave that to those with either thicker skin or their own love of pointless trolling. I do get "hate whispers" in PvP from time to time, usually when I'm off running around by myself and I encounter someone who is under the impression they should be able to kill me quickly and easily, since I'm an obvious healer (it's in my name). I usually either ignore those, or crack jokes back at the person to show that I don't really care and that it's not a big deal.

- How would you characterize conflict within the community (do you think it's mostly amicable, offensive, constructive or not constructive) ? Why do you think that is?

. I don't think it can be characterized in an absolute manner. I think it's all about subjective interpretation, considering it can often be difficult to interpret intent accurately when a person is "speaking" in written form. Sometimes what is meant to be a constructive statement comes across as rude or terse because the reader misinterprets or places their own bias over their interpretation, based on their own particular history and experience. Sometimes it is because the speaker didn't bother to phrase their statement more carefully, and forgot they were speaking to real human beings with real feelings. We have people from all over the world here, and variations in culture and language can often create huge misunderstandings and perceived insult where there is none. That being said, there are certainly instances where you can tell the author meant to be amicable or is just cracking a joke, and there are definitely moments where the author absolutely meant to be offensive. Some things are more clear than others.

- Why do you think conflicts arise in the ESO community ?

. Differences in learned communication, cultural variances, behavioral issues in the individual, lack of real world social skills which both draws that individual to communities like this one and also feeds their poor social skills because they often get the attention they crave without the real world consequences often attached to bad behavior. When you have a community whose audible and visual spaces are often overtaken by a sizable number of these individuals, it can create an echoing effect that brings out the worst in everyone, and creates frustration and anger.

It is also easy to forget that these are real people on the other end of these discussions. They have their own minds and thoughts and feelings, which is easy to dismiss when you choose to see them as nothing but a series of words and numbers. Empathy is sorely lacking in the online world; far more so than in the real world, and the structures inherent to online communities not only allow this, but encourage it.

- What is the role of ZOS around the topic conflict within the community?

. It's pretty mechanical, as it should be. They tend to only interfere if the behavior is in direct violation of the ToS agreement. Social systems should be ruled by public consensus and by those among us who reward good behavior and punish bad, thereby creating a system that encourages cohesion and cooperation, assuming the non-selfish and altruistic ratio outweighs the selfish and non-cooperative. When a ruling or governing body interferes too much, it only teaches people to act outside of that system in order to achieve their goal of non-cooperation.


(Y)


I'd be very interested to read your thesis when it's completed.

Franieck

Starlock wrote: »

Please do not use my forum name in your thesis, thanks!

What frustrates you in the game? Why?

I play RPGs as a way of exercising my creativity and journeying in the otherworlds. There are inevitably frustrations when the game engine limits my creative vision. Most of the time I just see this as an opportunity for further creativity - tweak the character concept this way, adjust that way - but MMOs present an entirely different sort of frustration I was not (and am still not) accustomed to:

Pointless grind and gated content.

This mechanism is designed to do one thing - to keep players playing. Put another way, it's the fuel of gaming addiction and borderline unethical. It definitely isn't there for the player's benefit. It is nothing but a nuisance, especially to players like myself who prioritize character development and creativity. When I develop characters, set choices are a big part of expression who they are. There are dozens of sets I don't bother looking at because they are functionally inaccessible, even though they'd be a great fit for my characters. I accept and respect that all game engines will limit my creative vision, but these sorts of limitation are dumb.

What do you think frustrates others in the game?

I wouldn't presume to speak for others.

What frustrates you in the community?

Nothing of significance. I mostly mind my own business, and bear in mind the things I notice are really no different from general interpersonal dynamics anyway. For example, in any human interactions you will get folks who fail to listen to each other or make judgmental assumptions. I just shrug and move on.

Have you ever experienced conflict within the game (either on the game itself, the forums, youtube, streams, etc.)? Can you describe one example?

Not really. I'm pretty mindful of the company I keep, and as I said, mostly mind my own business. That's not to say I haven't ever experienced some conflicts, I just don't care. I accept that I don't (and shouldn't attempt to) control other people's behavior. Ignore, shrug, move on.

Is conflict for you a frequent occurrence within the community (either in-game or in the forums) ?

Nope. Not being a competitive type has a lot to do with that.

Where have you most frequently run into conflict in the game? ( Forums? In-game? PVE activities? PVP activities? Guilds? PUGS? )

Honestly? The worst conflict I would name is botting. I focus on questing and overland stuff for the most part, and running into a group of "sorcerers" spamming lightning form and heavy attacking is beyond immersion breaking. I would have quit the game entirely if I'd seen this kind of crap when I first started. In some situations, it completely ruins the quest line. Camlorn, in particular. The story is supposed to be about a town overrun with werewolves. What do I find? A town overrun with freaking bots. Completely and entirely ruins the story.

I run random dungeons a fair amount too, though. The main thing that annoys me there is players who really should have just gone into the dungeon solo because their behavior clearly indicates they don't care about working as a team.

How would you characterize conflict within the community (do you think it's mostly amicable, offensive, constructive or not constructive) ? Why do you think that is?

I stay away from the conflict-ridden competitive subsections of the community, so I really couldn't say.

Why do you think conflicts arise in the ESO community?

I think most of it happens because this game appeals to a very diverse group of players who have different gameplay priorities. Well, that and the obvious "humans being humans."

What is the role of ZOS around the topic conflict within the community?

Encourage, uphold, and enforce certain basic standards of decency. Ban and suspend players where documentation of abuse is present. And hire some bloody game masters to deal with bots.

Thank you for that. Do not worry. All posts will be treated strictly anonymously. Only if you would wish to be referenced in the acknowledgements would you have to explicitly request that your forum name be included. We would then have to arrange that separately. As this is not the case, you can rest assured that your forum identity, as well as those from the other users will remain protected and outside of the study.

Gilvoth

this forum members is not the eso community.
the eso community is playing the game and most of them never even visit the forums.
if you want to reach out and make a poll or get information from the eso community then you have to email each account playing eso.

Franieck

dwemer_paleologist wrote: »

this forum members is not the eso community.
the eso community is playing the game and most of them never even visit the forums.
if you want to reach out and make a poll or get information from the eso community then you have to email each account playing eso.

Thank you for that Dwemer_paleologist. As a qualitative-based study, I am not looking for polls for quantitative analysis (as the depth of information is more important than the breadth for this study and how many people it reaches). However, as well pointed, people inside the game are very relevant and make up the bigger portion of the community. I will therefore be communicating with players in-game as well.

Enemy-of-Coldharbour

I'm not doing your homework for you...

Mintaka5

- What frustrates you in the game? Why?

The mere fact that I pay for things, and subscribe, and there's no real connection between that and player feedback. This game frustrates me more so than I get any enjoyment out of it, and when I voice those concerns, the developer lacks engagement, the community participates in passive-aggressive antagonizing and denunciation of my concerns, and changes being made to the game that don't reflect overall concerns of the player community.

- What do you think frustrates others in the game?

The same things I mentioned in the first question.

- What frustrates you in the community?

The lack of a team play mindset. Everyone seems to play for themselves in group based content.

- Have you ever experienced conflict within the game (either on the game itself, the forums, youtube, streams, etc.)? Can you describe one example?

Yes. I voiced some of my concerns/ideas in zone chat in Cyrodiil, and I was instantly labeled a troll, and one of the raid leaders in my alliance told every one in zone to place me on ignore.

- Is conflict for you a frequent occurrence within the community (either in-game or in the forums) ?

Yes.

- Where have you most frequently run into conflict in the game? ( Forums? In-game? PVE activities? PVP activities? Guilds? PUGS? )

Mostly in PvP and group dungeon content.

- How would you characterize conflict within the community (do you think it's mostly amicable, offensive, constructive or not constructive) ? Why do you think that is?

It is not constructive at all. How many times have we all seen the dialogue "Git gud", "Potato", "u mad?", "u're salty"?

- Why do you think conflicts arise in the ESO community ?

I feel that in a competitive setting, most players are reluctant to teach, guide, or be inquisitive about another players frustrations with the game.

- What is the role of ZOS around the topic conflict within the community?

I have no idea what it is, but it should be more engaging than how it is now. It is way more punishing than anything. It should be more about resolution, and show more concern towards it's community, especially those who pay for its service.

Acrolas

"Qualitative research is an inquiry process of understanding based on distinct methodological traditions of inquiry that explore a social or human problem. The researcher builds a complex, holistic picture, analyzes words, reports detailed views of informants, and conducts the study in a natural setting."

"[A] case study is an exploration of a "bounded system" or a case (or multiple cases) over time through detailed, in-depth data collection involving multiple sources of information rich in context"

So by Creswell's standards, this is neither a case study nor qualitative research.
I would need to ask your faculty adviser a few things before participating, like how casual and uncorroborated testimony from an Internet forum is in any way appropriate for professional research. How was "conflict" narrowly defined here for the study? How one-sided was this study going to be?

And how do we trust an interviewer who has demonstrated bias to prepare an objectively unbiased report?

Waffennacht

There is a two part sturggle against all things in life:

Ignorance plus those that do not wish to learn.

For ESO it would mean inexperienced players + their failure to get better = Nerf forum posts.

Heck there's still threads being made about how OP Sorcs are smh

SirAndy

Franieck wrote: »

There are no wrong or right answers

Wrong ...

mistermacintosh

What frustrates you in the game? Why?
I’m most frustrated that this game does not live up to the same standards of depth and quality that previous Elder Scrolls titles set. This was my first MMO, and I came here from Skyrim thinking it would be one thing while other players came from WOW or some other game expecting something else. ZOS tried to make everyone happy (or at least keep everyone as a customer) but ended up burning all of us at one point or another. I suppose that’s the nature of MMOs these days… to attract as many customers as possible regardless of how it transforms the game.

What do you think frustrates others in the game?
How long can your thesis be? Like I said, ESO attempts to pull in gamers from everywhere with just about every personality quirk and goals you could imagine. The list of complaints is endless…

What frustrates you in the community?
The thing that frustrates me the most is when people get on the forum or zone chat and try to shut each other down. Everyone is so polarized toward their little comfort zones, unwilling to show goodwill toward each other or at least try to understand where someone else is coming from. It’s always “guns out” as soon as a conversation starts. “Let me tell you my opinion. Oh you disagree? Let me tell you it more FORCEFULLY!” That kind of behavior makes me not even want to engage anyone, and most of the time, unless someone needs help who isn’t an idiot, I don’t.

- Have you ever experienced conflict within the game (either on the game itself, the forums, youtube, streams, etc.)? Can you describe one example?
It’s hard not to experience conflict in a MMO, unless you just live in player housing and have generous friends send you things to decorate with…

Is conflict for you a frequent occurrence within the community (either in-game or in the forums) ?
No, because I don’t engage the community regularly. I try to help people when I can, because I remember when I started out and didn’t know what I was doing, but sadly, as I’ve learned from so many disappointing encounters, many players I run into in game just aren’t worth my time.

Where have you most frequently run into conflict in the game? ( Forums? In-game? PVE activities? PVP activities? Guilds? PUGS? )
I have never had a conflict with someone in PVP. When I go into a battleground or Cyrodiil, I know there is no mercy so I resolve to farm what I came for and get out. Zone chat is pretty easy to ignore and PVE activities in general are pretty laid back.

The exception to that would be random dungeons. Some people queue up for dungeons and just don’t know what they’re doing. Some people go in and have no respect for the random group they joined, and get them all killed - not because that one player was so elite and the group couldn’t keep up - because that one player charged ahead, and couldn’t be bothered to work or communicate with their team. The simple way to avoid this is to do dungeons with people you know.

The primary source of conflict in ESO, in my opinion, is the forum. Any idiot can say anything about anything. If forum posts were required to be in video format I doubt this would be the case, but as it is the forum is pretty terrible.

- How would you characterize conflict within the community (do you think it's mostly amicable, offensive, constructive or not constructive) ? Why do you think that is?
That would depend on who is involved. There are people who just choose to be toxic. Sometimes you can have a civil discussion, but it’s hard to read tone in text so many things posted are taken out of context.

Why do you think conflicts arise in the ESO community ?
The same reason conflicts arise in any community. People want what they want and don’t care about anyone who disagrees with them. It’s also hard for people to admit ignorance… and for others it just takes time to come to terms with their ignorance. But most people are set in their ways. They live in their little communities that reinforce the values they were raised to believe in… and anyone who threatens those little bubble-worlds are the enemy.

What is the role of ZOS around the topic conflict within the community?
Ha! They take no responsibility for anything players do… which is probably a smart policy. I don’t envy them their positions, and if I had to read half these forum posts I’d probably ignore them too.

ezio45

Questions:

- What frustrates you in the game? Why?

Dealing with people with drastically differing view points.

- What do you think frustrates others in the game?

Same as the first question a would say.

- What frustrates you in the community?

How fragmented it is, there are a lot of different ways to play this game. You should be able to play how you like but in doing that you are impacting other players too.

- Have you ever experienced conflict within the game (either on the game itself, the forums, youtube, streams, etc.)? Can you describe one example?

The conflict I run into most is with players that just want to farm ap in cyrodiil. I respect thats how they want to play but at the they are impacting how well our alliance is going. Theres a population count and their taking up spots that could be for players looking to take keeps and help out. It gets frustrating when the other alliances are on point and you need those people to be working with you but there off doing whatever.


- Is conflict for you a frequent occurrence within the community (either in-game or in the forums) ?

Not really, overall i think the community is very kinds, respectful and helpful.

- Where have you most frequently run into conflict in the game? ( Forums? In-game? PVE activities? PVP activities? Guilds? PUGS? )

Pvp, with same alliance members. Forums

- How would you characterize conflict within the community (do you think it's mostly amicable, offensive, constructive or not constructive) ? Why do you think that is?

There is constructive conflict resolution but over all id say its non constructive. I think people just get tired of having the same arguments and not being able to reach a resolution that they just quit trying and start getting angry.

- Why do you think conflicts arise in the ESO community ?

Differing view points combined with needed rely on others to achieve your goals in this game

- What is the role of ZOS around the topic conflict within the community?

generally unless its the community against zos I think they need to stay out of it and give majority groups the ability to play how they like.

If its with zos, they need to be more transparent with their goals and work with the community to find an outcome that meets there goals with how the community wants to play.


(Y)

Aria_GuildDestroyer

Cool thesis subject!

- What frustrates you in the game? Why?

1. Meta; The game changes with every patch, which is good! But because it has such a widespread player base with astronomically different levels of engagement and understanding of the game and the meta, the changes in the meta are performed to give the brunt of players what they want. The brunt of players, are players who have a lesser understanding of how the meta works and how patch changes regarding skills and combat affect the way players move through content as groups. That being said, it's frustrating to me that the patch changes and meta reflect the overall consensus of players, when the players who are truly affected by it (those who actually understand the changes to combat/skills and their implications) are lesser acknowledged in these changes.
2. Drop Rates; It's frustrating to have to perform especially difficult content only to have the reason you're farming said content usurped by rng drop rates. ESO is a massive game when it comes to content. There is so much to do, so much to improve on, so much more to understand about how the game works. It's honestly extremely time consuming (which I imagine is the goal), but to a fault. With the amount of content in the game, farming select pieces is a huge headache where one has to repeat the same content over and over, while there's more than enough content (and new content is continually added) to explore. Maybe this is beneficial to teenagers who are on their summer break, but for those of us who enjoy endgame raiding (and are subsequently expected to keep up with sets/meta as it's produced), repeating content through farming is unnecessarily time consuming to the point that those of us with full-time jobs cannot enjoy the end-game for failure to keep up with it. (I had to farm Selene's Web approximately 100 times just for a divine medium helm; that's about 33 hours of farming the same content over and over, or two weeks worth of gameplay for someone with a full-time job).

- What do you think frustrates others in the game?

1. Drop Rates; For the same reasons listed above, I think drop rates are generally frustrating. It's also frustrating to see other players get the rng you want.
2. Types of Players; I think it's frustrating to perform the same content with very different types of players; whether that be casual, roleplayer, endgamer, toxic, kind, slow, fast, etc.. There isn't really anything that can be done about it, I suspect, but it can be very frustrating.
3. Obstacles in Pushing Content; This is a specific frustration for end-gamers. Often, issues with the game, (glitches/bugs) which prevent the ability to push content for score is incredibly frustrating. When your whole reason for playing is to push content, things which bar progress in that goal are incredibly frustrating, and the time it takes to fix those issues is equally frustrating.

- What frustrates you in the community?

I don't really have any frustrations in the community. I acknowledge people have different play-styles, demeanors, time they can devote the game, etc.. The community is large enough for players to find similar players and to generally avoid certain types of players as well.

- Have you ever experienced conflict within the game (either on the game itself, the forums, youtube, streams, etc.)? Can you describe one example?

One of the conflict's I've faced had to do with accusations against a guild I was an officer of. The accusations were put into a Youtube video and cropped up in quite a few discords. Essentially there was an accusation that the guild leader was soliciting skin-carries from trials in exchange for nude pictures. There wasn't any truth to this, and the video has been taken down from Youtube.

- Is conflict for you a frequent occurrence within the community (either in-game or in the forums)?

No. Arguments, sure, but I don't consider that real conflict. Any game with as much content as ESO and a meta-dynamic is going to have a lot of debate, speculation, and argument.

- Where have you most frequently run into conflict in the game? ( Forums? In-game? PVE activities? PVP activities? Guilds? PUGS?)

1. Forums; Arguments on occasion, sometimes heated.
2. In-game; Not usually. Usually if it's zone chat and someone is using profanities or speaking out of term little conflict arises, and is usually dealt with by reporting and/or blocking.
3. PVE; Usually conflict with PVE occurs in discords. Generally, I think, it comes down to different levels of players and due to meta and guild-goals, the conflicts can push members out of groups. Because I mainly perform PVE content, I would say conflict occurs most here, but that is likely largely biased due to my percentage of involvement with PVE.
4. PVP; From my limited experience here, I think conflict is often passive in that it doesn't last long. It's heated in the moment, but it ends quickly and swiftly. I could be wrong though, like I said my experience in PVP is limited.
5. Guilds; In the end-game for PVE, conflicts between guilds is huge. There are a lot of feelings towards other guilds and oftentimes the members of those guilds. Score-pushing is an innate goal in end-game PVE guilds, and that fosters a lot of competition. With competition comes questions of loyalty, and subsequently, conflict when that loyalty is questioned.
6. Pugs; Of course there is conflict with pugs. Pugs often have different goals, different levels of experience, and different play-styles. Differences in each of those aspects often lead to conflict.

- How would you characterize conflict within the community (do you think it's mostly amicable, offensive, constructive or not constructive) ? Why do you think that is?

It's definitely a mix of all of those. Depending on who is saying it to whom, it can be either amicable, offensive, constructive, or not constructive.

- Why do you think conflicts arise in the ESO community?

I think conflicts arise because there is so much content which can be subject to interpretation. Disagreement over "what is better" tends to be the main source; but there's also personal conflicts based on personal relationships with other players. The personal conflicts occur as easily as personal conflicts in real life relationships; maybe even more easily. Conflict is a thing of human nature, and it is humans which play the game!

- What is the role of ZOS around the topic conflict within the community?

I think it depends on what type of conflict you're asking about.

1. Meta/"What is Best" Conflict; I don't believe ZOS has a role, really, in determining what is best as far as the meta goes. The whole point in their changes is usually to level the playing field and of course they want people to play however they want; playing the role of informant and giving advice on "what is best" is contrary to their overall goal, and understandably so.
2. Personal/Offensive Conflict; I think ZOS's stance on not taking actions against offensive players, generally speaking, (they usually recommend you put offensive players on your ignore list, rather than disciplining the offender), is a great approach. This way, offensive players can play how they want to play, and non-offensive players, or players who don't react well to offensive players, can play without having to deal with the offensive players, and ZOS gets to keep both players players. It's a great strategy.
3. Game Related Conflict; As for conflict which pertains to disagreement over game rules of conduct and such, (such as whether trading nudes for carries is against the Terms of Service), I believe ZOS needs to step up their game. I believe these conflicts over whether something is allowed or not has negatively affected the community to the point that people have quit playing the game over it. In these situations, where the Terms of Service is brought up, I believe ZOS's role needs to be larger. ZOS should step in to clarify whether the activity is condoned or not; if they continue to not step in, it leaves the community to argue and bicker amongst themselves as to whether the conduct is okay or not - and this, like I said, has lead to guilds breaking up, and players no longer playing. That being said, I personally believe that if ZOS chooses not to inform us of whether something is condoned or not, it is condoned by omission.

tinythinker

Franieck wrote: »

Questions:

- What frustrates you in the game? Why?

Top of the list:

* Too many things in Crown store rather than as rewards -- it's fine for some store exclusives but more rewards great in-game rewards for long-term or difficult achievements add incentive. I realize optional non-advantage items are a great non-invasive way to boost revenue with keeping the game B2P and subs at a reasonable cost and value, but still. Glad to see more things being added for things we do in game.
* Same with FOMO drops for seasonal events that are locked behind a grind combined with time-gating and/or heavy RNG. Sometimes it actually makes me just as likely to play something else rather as try to login a lot to keep up -- don't like that kind of tactic. Would be nice if achievements for seasonal events (including motifs) were account-wide to be more alt-friendly, then the extra stuff to do would feel like less pressure to "get it all before it's gone" on a couple of main toons and more like something I can do with whichever toon seems fun at that time.
* Some continuity/lore issues that have an easy fix yet have been left untouched since One Tamriel -- can be confusing for new players and frustrates some RPers and lore people.
* High rates of buginess for new patches compared to similar MMOs -- because wondering what will break with each big patch gets old.
* What feels like a "spreadsheet balancing" focus over in-game fun/feel for many combat changes -- because I miss the fun of many neutered abilities and want some of the mechanics back on a morph even if damage or healing was reduced.
* Lacking the personal skill and time to enjoy or try harder content or ways of playing content in PvE and PvP -- because doing easy stuff all the time gets boring and hard stuff is frequently too punishing to be fun
* Being unable to keep up with gearing -- see point just above


Many of these are increasingly common complaints in MMORPGs more broadly, not just ESO.


- What do you think frustrates others in the game?

* Not having the time or skill to farm gear/git gud
* A feeling that their class/race/build is always being targeted for nerfs above all others
* Fake tanks
* Getting ganked in less than 1 or 2 seconds in Cyrodiil
* High rates of buginess for new patches
* Performance issues in Cyrodill (darn should have added that to my own frustration list!)
* Other players leaving containers partly looted (crafting resource nodes, treasure chests, etc.)
* Other players jumping a lot with their toons


- What frustrates you in the community?

* More jaded/less open and curious than when the game started (at least on the forums)
* People getting into small social bubbles where they believe the community is the bestest ever friendos in one extreme or the worst trash humanity has ever produced on the other. Seems basically the same as other MMOs to me, wonderful and ugly at the same time

But that's it really. And those are more like a wistful disappointment and a minor annoyance than true frustrations, actually. No real complaints about the community as a whole.


- Have you ever experienced conflict within the game (either on the game itself, the forums, youtube, streams, etc.)? Can you describe one example?

Nope. (I don't count some friendly constructive differences of perspective or opinion from some old forum discussions genuine conflict.)

Sometimes a jerk in a pug wants to be a pain, or someone tries to bait in zone chat. I leave, kick, endure, or ignore rather than escalate into a conflict. Not good enough in PvP to get hate tells , and actually felt complimented once in Cyrodiil when someone whispered "Reported" to me. I replied "thanks", cause I apparently had done something impressive enough to make them think I was cheating.

- Is conflict for you a frequent occurrence within the community (either in-game or in the forums) ?

For me? No. Not worth my time.

- Where have you most frequently run into conflict in the game? ( Forums? In-game? PVE activities? PVP activities? Guilds? PUGS? )

Conflict I've observed? Forums, PvE Pugs, people arguing with other members of their Alliance in Cyrodiil zone chat.

- How would you characterize conflict within the community (do you think it's mostly amicable, offensive, constructive or not constructive) ? Why do you think that is?

Not sure. Quite a bit is offensive. I'm guessing lack of maturity (patience, empathy, seeing things from another perspective) and a desire to troll or blow off steam anonymously online are significant factors.

- Why do you think conflicts arise in the ESO community ?

Same as above answer plus people get tired of hearing each other complain. So they argue or reprimand each other about being jaded or about complaining. It's the Circle. The Circle of Strife.

- What is the role of ZOS around the topic conflict within the community?

Moderating and occasionally banning on the forums (often seems hands off unless things get really ugly). Mostly leaving players to use the ignore feature in the game, unless it escalates to stalking, constant harassment, etc.

winterbornb14_ESO

Who cares, this is just some sort of ESO safe space bull *** for snowflakes.

max_only

winterbornb14_ESO wrote: »

Who cares, this is just some sort of ESO safe space bull *** for snowflakes.

Well it certainly triggered you.

This is someone's homework, if you care to read the OP.

generalmyrick

Franieck wrote: »

Dear ESO community,

I am currently writing my Master Thesis around the topic Digital Consumer Insights, specifically, about the dynamics of conflict within online gaming communities. I am currently using the ESO community as a case study and, as such, would be interested to know your feedback, opinions and insights for my thesis.
I am merely looking for your opinions and your points of view. There are no wrong or right answers and the purpose of it is to allow you to guide me throughout this field and the meaning you have about conflict within the community.

Posting Structure:
While answering the questions, if you could copy and paste each question and reply each answer beneath their respective question, it would help me and others to make sense of what your insights are and can help to develop the discussion further.


Anonymity:

Mind you that every input will be treated with anonymity (meaning that I will exclude your Forum names from the thesis). If, by request, you would like me to keep your Forum name (so I can put it in the acknowledgments for instance), you'll have to explicitly request it. I'll make sure to give you credit for your inputs on it however, and can send the entire thesis - once completed - in case you also request it.

Questions:

- What frustrates you in the game? Why?

- What do you think frustrates others in the game?

- What frustrates you in the community?

- Have you ever experienced conflict within the game (either on the game itself, the forums, youtube, streams, etc.)? Can you describe one example?

- Is conflict for you a frequent occurrence within the community (either in-game or in the forums) ?

- Where have you most frequently run into conflict in the game? ( Forums? In-game? PVE activities? PVP activities? Guilds? PUGS? )

- How would you characterize conflict within the community (do you think it's mostly amicable, offensive, constructive or not constructive) ? Why do you think that is?

- Why do you think conflicts arise in the ESO community ?

- What is the role of ZOS around the topic conflict within the community?

Follow ups:
I would like to follow up with you regarding your answers. However, I obviously do not want to be invading your space or stealing your time and would therefore ask that for those who would be willing to answer some follow up questions, please end your post with a: (Y) , so I can identify you and we can engage and find a way to exchange more messages and keep the conversation going.

Your input will be sorely appreciated! I also intend to share my findings and insights with the community once it is finished.

Thank you for your attention!

the community frustrates me.

if you don't put an other option they flip out.

if the other option is made fun of they flip out.

Dank_Nostalgia

To Answer The Question What Upsets Me The Most Is When I Get A Free Crown Crate From Daily Reward 3 card slots Outta 4 - 5 Always Potions Or Poisons or crown gems I Don't Want The Other 2 Card Slots Turn Out To Be Common Tattoos Mounts Non Combat Pets Etc -_- 4 Once Id Like To See A Purple Or Gold Card In Crown Crates That's Not Crown Gems Potions Or Poisons, I Hate How My Friend That's Far Away From The North American Xbox Live Server Gets Kicked Out Before Almost Every Dungeon We Go Into. Sewer In Vulkhel guard Auridon Rarely Doesn't Work With Traveling In There To Run From Guards With More Than 140 stolen green to gold items on me. Rarely In Combat I Cant Swap Bars Whatsoever, After Combat It Takes A Long Time To Mount After 30 seconds killing every ad and outta combat completely.Voice Chat Switches Off And On And Deletes Itself Trying 2 Join The Voice Channel.

Ty 4 Listening For My Input As Consumer To Possible Developer.

rfennell_ESO

Franieck wrote: »

Your input will be sorely appreciated! I also intend to share my findings and insights with the community once it is finished.

- What frustrates you in the game? Why?
1-Inventory management is probably the only thing that frustrates me. The fact that I have 40ish Uncracked Transmutation Geodes sitting in inventory and really run around with max 100 slots free (which fill up fast if you are doing anything, it seems) My Bank is nearly always nearly full (that's with ESO plus) and my crafting bag is just ridiculous if I were to look for anything in it or at it.
2-The fact they have added so many little features to the game and the somewhat confusing menu system behind it. I don't know how to make it less confusing, I just know it's frustrating knowing there is something in the menu's to port to one of my houses, but I haven't a clue where it is and have to spend time looking for it.
3-Cheats. They exist and they are arrogant petulant liars that talk a lot of brash bravado, but they are just cheaters.

- What do you think frustrates others in the game?
I think people struggle with mechanics and the nature of the games mechanics.

- What frustrates you in the community?
That ZOS has a policy that allows known cheats and overall bad actors to continue doing what they do and you can't identify them or even acknowledge they are just a worthless lying exploiter.

- Have you ever experienced conflict within the game (either on the game itself, the forums, youtube, streams, etc.)? Can you describe one example?

I've had streamers harass me, I've had their followers harass me, I've had the friends of people I recorded and got banned harass me. I've seen people I recorded exploiting show up and tell lies about how they got banned.

Example: I got Mr. Lemur banned. I was the one that recorded him repeatedly exploiting in game. Him and his posted on these forums with outrageous claims to the contrary, if I was to have spoken up and corrected them or posted the half a dozen videos of him exploiting that got him banned... ZOS would have taken action on me. (PS he isn't the only one of that crew I got banned).

Many of the streamers and pvp toughguys have friends they know I got banned. I don't take them all that serious and I don't put a signature with my character's names because this ain't my first rodeo. Enough people know who I am, I only don't say who I am to people I suspect of being in the grouping of abusive players I know of. Their bravado and talk is just that, it's not going to get under my skin.

- Is conflict for you a frequent occurrence within the community (either in-game or in the forums) ?

It's a frequent occurrence both in game and on the forums. It all comes from the same place though. In truth it doesn't actually mean anything to me, but it still occurs.

- Where have you most frequently run into conflict in the game? ( Forums? In-game? PVE activities? PVP activities? Guilds? PUGS? )
PvP is the most common, I'm going to play the way I like playing and I don't give a flying turd what people say. Still they say it and complain and sometimes switch factions to start laying out worthless and meaningless insults toward me. I'll just say that if they want to go back and forth with me, it's not going to be me in all caps making empty threats... it will be them and it occurs frequently.

- How would you characterize conflict within the community (do you think it's mostly amicable, offensive, constructive or not constructive) ? Why do you think that is?
It's obviously all of the above. It's just the nature of the beast.

- Why do you think conflicts arise in the ESO community ?
People crave attention.

- What is the role of ZOS around the topic conflict within the community?
They generally make it worse by having a policy of going after people for calling out liars, cheaters and bad actors.

Though I have to admit I don't think it would be "better" if they dropped that policy.

Franieck

Acrolas wrote: »

"Qualitative research is an inquiry process of understanding based on distinct methodological traditions of inquiry that explore a social or human problem. The researcher builds a complex, holistic picture, analyzes words, reports detailed views of informants, and conducts the study in a natural setting."

"[A] case study is an exploration of a "bounded system" or a case (or multiple cases) over time through detailed, in-depth data collection involving multiple sources of information rich in context"

So by Creswell's standards, this is neither a case study nor qualitative research.
I would need to ask your faculty adviser a few things before participating, like how casual and uncorroborated testimony from an Internet forum is in any way appropriate for professional research. How was "conflict" narrowly defined here for the study? How one-sided was this study going to be?

And how do we trust an interviewer who has demonstrated bias to prepare an objectively unbiased report?

Valid concerns. I'll try to address them (please let me know if any other concerns/objections pop out).
Firstly, this is a qualitative study as its purpose is to explore and understand dynamics of conflict within online gaming communities. As such, I am looking for insights and qualitative data rather than trying to validate or quantify something. As you very well pointed out, there are distinct methodologies of conducting qualitative research. This particular one has as its main methodology netnography (see Kozinets for an explanation of the methodology, http://journals.ama.org/doi/abs/10.1509/jmkr.39.1.61.18935?code=amma-site). That will also surely answer your concern about how testimonies from an internet forum can lead to sound, insightful research.

Regarding case studies: I will not do a case study in the manner described by your citation. Maybe I used the wrong wording (I apologize, as English is not my native language), although I am sure there is more than one general definition of what constitutes a case study. However, what I meant (and please let me know if it makes more sense) is that I will explore the conflict dynamics based on the Elder Scrolls Community. So it essentially serves as a sample community. A similar study was conducted (see "The Social Network Gamer’s Experience of Play: A Netnography of Restaurant City on Facebook" ) where the methodology was also predominantly netnography using the Restaurant City community as a case/sample.

Very good question regarding the definition of conflict. I was unsure whether to define it first or let people express their opinions based on their own definition of conflict. There is no generally agreed definition of conflict in the literature. However, the definition I am working with comes from Kenneth (1976) and is defined as 'the process which begins when one party perceives that another has frustrated, or is about to frustrate, some concern of his'. This definition allows conflict to be seen on a broader context, as proposed by Pondy, (early researcher who first proposed there should be a general definition of conflict in 1967) while defining the beginning point of the conflict process in a more structured way. However, I think getting your and other people's definition of conflict can be very valuable. As such, I am only referring to the definition in follow up questions, so to gather more raw input from the fellow community.
I am not sure I follow your concern about the study being one-sided.... Could please elaborate?
Also valid concern about the bias. After all, I am a member of the community as well and have been since 2014. We all know how passionate we can get regarding ESO (sometimes for the better, other times for the worse). It's a great game after all. It's by acknowledging how this game and the community can spark emotions in us that I thought it would be a good idea to use the ESO community as a case/sample. As very nicely quoted by you ""Qualitative research is an inquiry process of understanding based on distinct methodological traditions of inquiry that explore a social or human problem.". As such, I do not seek to validate my ideas, thoughts or concerns, but rather to understand what ideas thoughts and concerns are among the members of this community. I think understanding is the key word here. My job, as someone who is conducting a qualitative study, is to let you guide me through your experiences and thoughts. It's to bring me to understand your positions. That is what I can say from my side. If that however still not persuades you, rest assured that it will be very hard to pass the defense board with a biased study (especially if I were to behave in the manner cited by you).

Should you have any more questions, please let me know. Also, should you still want to clear doubts with my supervisor, I can surely try to arrange so (just also let me know).

usmguy1234

tinythinker wrote: »

We need flying dragon mounts, and we need them yesterday.

As soon as we finish nerfing Sorcs.


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bring back the 1 second
cast time for shields
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Your forum name is fitting.