Community in need of Two-Way Communication

JohnOfMarkarth

We, the playerbase (now i notice that this sounds aaawfully familiar. Are we declaring independence), are thrown bones without meat, every patch.

You throw us information only on patch-to-patch basis, and we the playerbase are left wondering what the *running pinkbunnies* is happening. You post new PTS patch notes and thats... more or less that. If its on pts, it is, often something you already decided will happen. Then you give us feedback threads. You are happy to police them with edits etc. But actually reading it? And hearing us out? Seems not to be on the table on the office-talk that is held every month or week or how often you have them.

Give us your future plan not just intention of the patch with a "yea this will make sense later we promise". And please... at least confirm that you DO read our concerns.

So please. Communicate with us more. more in "Here is what we plan for the future and why we are doing this and that in this patch"


We are left in the dark even after patch notes drop, as to what your endgame (*insert nerdy nasal laugh* Endgame...) is. Backlash is therefore ensured. Which then cycles to you not reading it cus its backlash, which leads to us being dripped on like a statue is dripped on by pigeons (For the longest time i thought it was spelled piDgeons). And the cycle continues.

And last but not least. Please dont insult our intelligence with vast contradictions when you explain the patch notes to us. Saying that you wanna make something better in XYZ and then giving us an example that does the opposite? Doesnt Work much.

Communicate with us. Please.

[Edit to remove discussing disciplinary actions]

idk

I would prefer good communication about what is being tested now than what changes may happen six months from now.

JohnOfMarkarth

idk wrote: »

I would prefer good communication about what is being tested now than what changes may happen six months from now.

Well... without telling us their intentions theres no knowing whats happening. We cant expect them to drop all changes they intend to do over the next months in patch notes all at once. Because they didnt even write code for it. So they can explain small bits here and there but if they dont tell us why they are doing it? Whats their goal with it...? Then theres no info.

The short term thing they do explain in pts. (Theres noting being tested atm. That comes monday. When that comes they will explain their lil momentary tidbits that give us no real insight as to why they are doing it... and thats where future plan communication comes in.)

VaranisArano

Well, we used to have something like that with the old Class Representatives.

Unfortunately, whether its due to changing ideas about how the Reps can best help ZOS or the issues that brought on stricter NDAs, we've pretty much lost two-way communication through that method.

Its a pity. I liked those Class Rep Meeting Notes.

Shantu

Maybe they don't communicate about future plans because they really don't know what's going to happen from one patch to the next. The way they jank things up, down, and around every few months speak a lot louder than their words.

Major_Lag

In another MMO I currently play, which shall not be named, there is a very good 2-way communication between the devs and the playerbase.
Both the devs and the playerbase propose various ideas, which are then discussed for a few months (!), and those ideas that are favorably received (by both devs and players) are pushed into the queue for implementation.
After the ideas are implemented and initially tested on the PTS, the devs continue to listen for player feedback and ACT on it accordingly, in case something ends up not working as originally intended.
There is also a well-defined direction of development (something which ESO sorely lacks!).

To absolutely noone's surprise, that game is very healthy as a result and there are no wild yo-yo meta swings every 3 months.

But of course this is ESO and such a perfectly logical way of doing things is totally illogical here, instead we have the ZOS way of throwing sh.... er, "debris", at the wall to see what sticks.
Frequently they miss the wall in their throw and hit the fan instead, and then us players have to deal with the resulting mess.

Joxer61

breaker 19...w got the Rubber Ducky here....whats your 20?





(sorry...)

eKsDee

VaranisArano wrote: »

Well, we used to have something like that with the old Class Representatives.

Unfortunately, whether its due to changing ideas about how the Reps can best help ZOS or the issues that brought on stricter NDAs, we've pretty much lost two-way communication through that method.

Its a pity. I liked those Class Rep Meeting Notes.

Talking to them in the Discord servers, it seemed like it just moved where the lack of communication occurs from the forums, to the class rep meetings. The original plan for the class reps was for them to be glorified feedback filters, where they'd just gather "pain points", compile them into a list and send that off to Zenimax for review.

They then killed that, and instead gave the class reps the job of playing balance QA, by basically saying yes/no to changes, which may or may not be taken into account during balancing, meaning that, at the end of the day, it was still Zenimax making the final decision.

They then decided to bring the class reps closer into the balancing department, forcing them to sign NDA's in order to allow them to know about things months in advance, which did give them a bit more control over their role of balance QA, as well as context surrounding certain changes brought up to them, but it was still ultimately Zenimax's call in the end.

I believe the current version of the class rep program is still like that last version, just with new reps since the old ones either quit (some out of good faith, some bad), or were kicked out (in the case of I think two reps).

The class rep program does have a little bit of influence over balancing, but it seems like it's still ultimately up to Zenimax. If Zenimax doesn't like a rep's counterproposal, or if Zenimax is dead set on a particular change, they won't budge on that change unless the entire community riots, or they're proven wrong months later and reluctantly go back to the drawing boards, often repeating the same mistakes.

karekiz

Shantu wrote: »

Maybe they don't communicate about future plans because they really don't know what's going to happen from one patch to the next. The way they jank things up, down, and around every few months speak a lot louder than their words.

This is probably sorta true.

The issue is that honestly I wish the devs would pick a vision and better or worse stick with it. Even if it is disliked by the community.