⚠️ Official Event News And Update Notifications

scorpius2k1

For anything that involves the game, whether events or otherwise --why is there not any information posted in the ACTUAL GAME anywhere? If you cannot get in-game, then the launcher could use a slight redesign to be more noticeable of important updates

After logging in this evening, so many players in zone chat had no clue the event was even cancelled until other players let them know. Literally, there were players copy>pasting zone chat every minute or two as a PSA about what happened. Awareness of issues should be better broadcasted. Everything Official is posted on social media, forums, word of mouth, and a lot of weight left on @ZOS_GinaBruno ...not even the ESO launcher was updated to reflect anything about the undaunted event cancellation today either by the way ?? The launcher AND the game should be the first places to post updates and they should be very easily noticeable so there is no confusion. I understand that social media is a huge outlet, but to have another website and a forum be the primary places for every update and not in-game seems a bit odd.

For launcher updates, it would stand out a LOT more to have a bar up top for the latest announcements, a very slight redesign to work much like you do here on the forums which would also support continuity in design. The older announcements could just stay below as the launcher is now and function as more of a news and updates "history" list.

As far as in-game, there is sure a big giant window about crown store offerings that pops up on top of everything else, every time you login to the game yeah? Why not replace or at least integrate that window with important updates and news about the game on the FIRST page so everyone is aware of what is going on in the world of ESO. This alone would GREATLY improve communication and stop the need of having it scattered around everywhere else first.

A simple idea for the launcher portion for announcements, updates, breaking news, etc:


@ZOS_RichLambert @ZOS_JessicaFolsom

starkerealm

Normally, something like this would land on the splash screen. Not today, however.

cyclonus11

*sends in-game communication to everyone*

*server crashes*

starkerealm

cyclonus11 wrote: »

*sends in-game communication to everyone*

*server crashes*

BRILLIANT!

...do it again! O_O

Hapexamendios

cyclonus11 wrote: »

*sends in-game communication to everyone*

*server crashes*

I’m shocked! You actually got on to send it!

Dusk_Coven

There are already apparently tools that warn you both at launcher and in-game when a server shutdown for maintenance is imminent.
I don't see why they can't use that to make important announcements such as imminently turning off the Undaunted Event.

scorpius2k1

cyclonus11 wrote: »

*sends in-game communication to everyone*

*server crashes*

Nice one haha

Well, if the server exploded and suffered another baked-potatoing, the launcher would still be the first thing to see prior to actual login ...so at least we're still good there!

OG_Kaveman

Go to the help section, F1 on PC, all this is there.

OG_Kaveman

Go to the help section, F1 on PC, all this is there.

Thorley23_ESO

scorpius2k1 wrote: »

For anything that involves the game, whether events or otherwise --why is there not any information posted in the ACTUAL GAME anywhere? If you cannot get in-game, then the launcher could use a slight redesign to be more noticeable of important updates

After logging in this evening, so many players in zone chat had no clue the event was even cancelled until other players let them know. Literally, there were players copy>pasting zone chat every minute or two as a PSA about what happened. Awareness of issues should be better broadcasted. Everything Official is posted on social media, forums, word of mouth, and a lot of weight left on @ZOS_GinaBruno ...not even the ESO launcher was updated to reflect anything about the undaunted event cancellation today either by the way ?? The launcher AND the game should be the first places to post updates and they should be very easily noticeable so there is no confusion. I understand that social media is a huge outlet, but to have another website and a forum be the primary places for every update and not in-game seems a bit odd.

For launcher updates, it would stand out a LOT more to have a bar up top for the latest announcements, a very slight redesign to work much like you do here on the forums which would also support continuity in design. The older announcements could just stay below as the launcher is now and function as more of a news and updates "history" list.

As far as in-game, there is sure a big giant window about crown store offerings that pops up on top of everything else, every time you login to the game yeah? Why not replace or at least integrate that window with important updates and news about the game on the FIRST page so everyone is aware of what is going on in the world of ESO. This alone would GREATLY improve communication and stop the need of having it scattered around everywhere else first.

A simple idea for the launcher portion for announcements, updates, breaking news, etc:


@ZOS_RichLambert @ZOS_JessicaFolsom

Oh, I agree, they decided to break this news on freaking Twitter, which is a huge social media platform for sure, but isn't exactly an ideal way to reach MMORPG players who are likely to be involved in the game in question at the time the news is breaking and so on. Not to mention that not everyone uses, or follows, Twitter, especially older folks who have little use for that sort of social media, and there are plenty of them active in ESO as "Elder Scrolls" as a series predates such networks.

As you pointed out, they needed to make constant annoucements in game, via the launcher, and similar things. It's amazing they can keep their crown store running smoothly and have the ads pop up every time you login... but important information like this? A working group finder? That kind of thing tends to get lost somewhere.

Not to mention that if the event is cancelled, I see very little being said about what is being done in it's place, and how they are going to level the playing field with those who were able to benefit from the event during the time it ran. We see no dialogue at all from the ESO reps on this subject, not even any indications of what is being discussed. It makes me think they plan to just remain silent and hope it all blows over.

Eiregirl

scorpius2k1 wrote: »

Good idea....I remember something like it being suggested a few years ago. Hopefully they will use the suggestion this time.

LuckyLuke

Did I miss something because I don’t have a Twitter account? Doh!

SirAndy

cyclonus11 wrote: »

*sends in-game communication to everyone*
*server crashes*

I believe that's what ZOS calls a "social ban" ...

Lord_Eomer

Im many MMO they inform anything via in Game Notification that pop up in screen for few seconds (can be repeated every 1 hour for a day)

essi2

OG_Kaveman wrote: »

Go to the help section, F1 on PC, all this is there.

lol, because that is how to conduct communication with your userbase.. buried in 4 layers of menus.

@ZOS_GinaBruno

Kittytravel

OG_Kaveman wrote: »

Go to the help section, F1 on PC, all this is there.

I'm not looking for help. I don't need help.
I'm looking for an announcement. And guess where those should be?...

criscal

Not publishing the current emergency notes in the launcher and every menu screen is a shame. I am just glad to be sick in bed and not have to waste my time through load screens, which are featured by every time with a little higher player attendance. Reading this from bed is really relaxing.

daemonios

scorpius2k1 wrote: »

For anything that involves the game, whether events or otherwise --why is there not any information posted in the ACTUAL GAME anywhere? If you cannot get in-game, then the launcher could use a slight redesign to be more noticeable of important updates

It's actually worse than that. Not only did they provide no warning in-game for all the people who don't use Twitter or the forums, they expressly committed to providing additional information and failed to do so. While the PC-EU was having issues, @ZOS_GinaBruno posted this:

We’ll provide an update a little later today in this thread once we know exactly when we will turn off the event and what our next steps will be.

The update did come, but only some 20 minutes after the event had been turned off. People were scrambling trying to get their tickets before that happened, some made it, some didn't. And there isn't a word as to what their "next steps will be".

ZOS communication is a train wreck. It is simply abysmal. I feel sorry for the community managers that have to work in those conditions, as I'm sure they're limited by higher-ups in what they can do, but personally if I had to be the face of a company like ZOS, I would have quit in disgust long ago.

FierceSam

Well they did say they were going to improve their communications this time last year, so we’re about due for the annual ‘mea culpa’.

Truth is, like many things, ZOS has never imagined that this could happen. Thus they have never planned for it or developed a process that could deal with situations like this. Yesterday they appear to have spent the whole day under their desks breathing into a paper bag and trying to pretend that everything was going to be OK. And that’s not a good look for a communications team.

It would certainly have helped them and many of their players if they could have communicated the cancellation of the event once they had made the decision. We had guildies coming on, hours after the event was killed, who had no idea it was cancelled.

They might, at least, have done more than post a short pinned note in the forums.

ZOS need to develop a much more effective communications strategy that goes beyond simply “chatting with our friends and throwing out a few tweets”. They need to establish what channel they will use for their primary communications, what kind of messages will be made and what the player expectation for these messages should be. Then they need to establish a “catastrophic event” process for dealing with and communicating to players.

Then they need to communicate all that to their customers. This is a paid for game, not some F2P bucket shop title.

barney2525

your post makes way too much sense


never gonna happen

redlink1979

What a mess... *rolling eyes*

Saltisol

They are in a state of constant denial and act like it never happened.

MajBludd

Its 5yrs into the game. It was a year or even 2yrs ago we demanded better communication.

We got a response along the lines of we are sorry. We will try to do better in the future. Nothing changed. 5yrs, do you think they'll change their SOP now?

Anororthad

They are working on it! Make sure that you remain positive, always smile and believe in a bright future. Of course, everything will be realized in the near future! God bless.

StabbityDoom

daemonios wrote: »

It's actually worse than that. Not only did they provide no warning in-game for all the people who don't use Twitter or the forums, they expressly committed to providing additional information and failed to do so. While the PC-EU was having issues, @ZOS_GinaBruno posted this:

We’ll provide an update a little later today in this thread once we know exactly when we will turn off the event and what our next steps will be.

The update did come, but only some 20 minutes after the event had been turned off. People were scrambling trying to get their tickets before that happened, some made it, some didn't. And there isn't a word as to what their "next steps will be".

Yes, I was annoyed they shut it off without warning. Not like they'll pay attention to this, but I agree with OP and I agree with you.

I really wish more people would call them out on this SPECIFIC incident, telling us they would update us BEFORE they did it and they didn't tell us under AFTER. It just adds insult to injury.

Elsonso

SirAndy wrote: »

cyclonus11 wrote: »

*sends in-game communication to everyone*
*server crashes*

I believe that's what ZOS calls a "social ban" ...

Yeah, they probably lose more employees that way. I would imagine that when the employee is social banned at ZOS, they also do not get paid until they get it resolved. Most employees cannot afford to work for the weeks that it takes to get a social ban lifted.

Idinuse

cyclonus11 wrote: »

*sends in-game communication to everyone*

*server crashes*

LuckyLuke

Pray for rain. It works.

LoneStar2911

FierceSam wrote: »

ZOS need to develop a much more effective communications strategy that goes beyond simply “chatting with our friends and throwing out a few tweets”. They need to establish what channel they will use for their primary communications, what kind of messages will be made and what the player expectation for these messages should be. Then they need to establish a “catastrophic event” process for dealing with and communicating to players.

Then they need to communicate all that to their customers. This is a paid for game, not some F2P bucket shop title.

I don't want this thread to die.
Communication is extremely important.

It's become common/normal for a few people to find recent ZOS communication on the forums or Twitter or whatnot and for them to then communicate it to the in-game community. And then that info slowly spreads.
Usually takes a few days for the majority of players to become informed on important matters..... like an event being canceled.

There definitely needs to be more communication from ZOS in other ways, like on the launcher and the ad that pops up when you log into a character.
Even getting messages through the notification system wouldn't be bad, if the servers could handle mass notifications like that.

scorpius2k1

Amber322 wrote: »

FierceSam wrote: »

ZOS need to develop a much more effective communications strategy that goes beyond simply “chatting with our friends and throwing out a few tweets”. They need to establish what channel they will use for their primary communications, what kind of messages will be made and what the player expectation for these messages should be. Then they need to establish a “catastrophic event” process for dealing with and communicating to players.

Then they need to communicate all that to their customers. This is a paid for game, not some F2P bucket shop title.

I don't want this thread to die.
Communication is extremely important.

It's become common/normal for a few people to find recent ZOS communication on the forums or Twitter or whatnot and for them to then communicate it to the in-game community. And then that info slowly spreads.
Usually takes a few days for the majority of players to become informed on important matters..... like an event being canceled.

There definitely needs to be more communication from ZOS in other ways, like on the launcher and the ad that pops up when you log into a character.
Even getting messages through the notification system wouldn't be bad, if the servers could handle mass notifications like that.

I couldn't agree more but who knows, hopefully someone at ZoS will think it's a good idea. Myself, just like many others spend a LOT of our own personal time doing stuff like this and suggesting things only to have them fall into nothingness. It's frustrating, and it really shows here in the forums with so much discontent of how much better they could do by just making some small changes. I'm not holding my breath on this particular thing changing, but hopefully they can see the communication improvement and the load it could potentially take off of their community managers not having to post 20 different places and reply to endless comments. It may be a small thing but it has a pretty obvious big effect and I cannot understand why something like this wasn't implemented from the beginning. Better late than never and a good direction to take and start changing things better for everyone involved in ESO.


Once again, I see PC/EU is having issues today after weekly maintenance, and the ONLY place it is being posted is here in the forums with that big red bar, and guessing a quick post on their social media. The launcher doesn't even have anything posted about it. Even if you goto their main site https://elderscrollsonline.com/ (another place I am sure is visited), there isn't even any updates there either. Just...odd.

I guess all we can do is keep this going, and just wait and hope the right person will see this thread.

LoneStar2911

As much as people seem to freak out over ESO being compared to other games... and even hinting that ESO could learn/implement a thing or two from the other games is bound to bring the trolls...
It's true.
Concerning communication, there are games/companies/devs that do it 100x better.
And before the "then go play those games instead if you love them so much"... that's not what this is about.
I want ESO to be better. It could be amazing.
One of the things they could start with improving, especially with the current state of things, is how and where they communicate with the players.
Please, ZOS. Please.