2021 a year of extra communication?

Izanagi.Xiiib16_ESO

Welcome back to all at ZOS hope you all had a great holiday break.
It's the start of 2021 and I think it would be great to make 2021 "the year of community"
With everyone working from home communication is always a bit less fluid so to help that I suggest the following:

A weekly or fortnightly Q&A covering a range of questions from each playstyle(Combat, PvE, PvP bg, PvP cyrodiil, housing, other)

This would be focused on:
1) current gameplay bugs/issues and whether ZOS is aware of them and potential planned fixes (kind of an ongoing known issues list with updates)

2) questions about existing gameplay content and general community questions.

3) future plans (I suggest this be limited to combat and performance changes to avoid 'story or content' based questions.)



When players submit questions they would be under these headers. For example:

PvP Cyrodiil:

• Is ZoS aware of the current ongoing crashes and problems with effects duplicating or being stuck on character. E.g. the 'streaked for 49000 days' bug (https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/553421/4-cyrodiil-bugs-markarth-dlc)
• Could you give us more information on your reasoning behind the current healing and group size changes and details about the performance differences you saw during the 8 weeks of testing. e.g. average play time, trend to grouping, aoe skill usage etc?
• You mentioned further testing will take place this year? Is there an expected date or info on types of test planned? E.g. a 'no proc sets' test?

If you think a weekly or fortnightly Q&A is a good idea but don't have the time in studio to collate questions I'm sure there are a number of players who would volunteer to help, just let the playerbase know

Thanks!

tags: @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_KaiSchober @ZOS_JessicaFolsom @ZOS_SarahHecker @ZOS_RichLambert @ZOS_BrianWheeler

Rehdaun

I would be happy with just a tiny bit more communication from Zos this year, like timely updates of current bugs.

Tommy_The_Gun

Rehdaun wrote: »

I would be happy with just a tiny bit more communication from Zos this year, like timely updates of current bugs.

Yep. That alone would be amazing. I am still waiting for any news regarding missing skill point refunds... none so far. And bug is like what.. 2 months + old ? ? I mean come on... Even if they are "still investigating".. then say at leas that. Not saying anything feels like you try to sweep it under rug & pretend everything is fine... It is just bad in general, both for us players & for your company's PR.

Rehdaun

Tommy_The_Gun wrote: »

Rehdaun wrote: »

I would be happy with just a tiny bit more communication from Zos this year, like timely updates of current bugs.

Yep. That alone would be amazing. I am still waiting for any news regarding missing skill point refunds... none so far. And bug is like what.. 2 months + old ? ? I mean come on... Even if they are "still investigating".. then say at leas that. Not saying anything feels like you try to sweep it under rug & pretend everything is fine... It is just bad in general, both for us players & for your company's PR.

Post in this thread @Tommy_The_Gun
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/553049/

According to Zos that is "the official thread". Reference

Zos unpinned the official known issues thread in the beginning of December, citing two other "official" threads, including the refund one. However they refuse to pin these threads for easy reference, giving me the impression that they want them to fade away.

TelvanniWizard

We can keep dreaming...

idk

I think it would be great for Zos to increase communication with the player base. After all, Zos has acknowledged multiple times that they are aware that communication is a weak area for them. However, each and every time Zos has attempted to increase communication they either eliminate or greatly reduce those efforts.

Two very notable areas of increased communication that have pretty much ended are the monthly update blog on performance improvements Zos was working on which appears on the main ESO website and what was essentially minutes from the "class rep" program.

With the performance improvement blog that came to an abrupt end and was to be replaced by an update each quarter, aligning with the next major name update. I recall a forum thread meeting the new plan but do not recall anything else that aligned with multiple updates since. Maybe Zos considered the Cyrodiil testing to take that place at the time.

Of course, with the Cyrodiil testing, Zos ended up making a change for "behavioral" reasons and not for performance. However, I have not seen an explanation of what behavior they liked with those changes. As such it is just words to us and lacks actual meaning. If someone saw Zos explain this please tell me where to find it as I am sure it is interesting.

As for the Class Rep program, I realize the main purpose of that program was to provide feedback to Zos from players very knowledgeable about game mechanics and had broad experience in the game. However, it was also used to communicate with us what they were discussing even if it was at a high level and not detailed. Now we are told that information from their meetings is contained in other information Zos releases. Unfortunatly appearance means everything and the appearance here is another communication channel is closed.

So yes, it would be nice if Zos improved their communication and made it consistent.

Khajiitihaswares

TelvanniWizard wrote: »

We can keep dreaming...

*Dreams.*

Man what a great dream. I dreamed that ZoS communicated Bug fix time frames as well community stuff. They also were friendly and addressed player issues.

Then I woke. Then Realized ZoS is a baby EA lol.

RemanCyrodiil_I

-

Emmagoldman

They ***generally*** do an okish job communicating. For example, your question about group size and healing has been explained. Its an attempt to reduce impact of the server.

Yet I'm really interesting in hearing about performance with clear honesty. Its getting old for abilities to not work. Can ZOS be honest? Is it fixable? If there is no fix in sight, lets be clear. Why not make a video to help players reduce lag? I felt the community was patient over the years......and I mean years..... and this was the year of "performance updates." I honesty miss pre morrowind when the game function so much smoother. What happened since then?

idk

RemanCyrodiil_I wrote: »

ZOS announced their desire to introduce spell crafting years and years ago and people on this forum still whine about it because it was later scrapped. No wonder they have kept their cards close to their chests ever since and only announce what they're 100% sure is coming..

Besides, the ESO Live twitch streams often start with an address of current bugs and (if known) timeframes for fixes. Pretty sure it was said at the time of the ping issues earlier this year that they don't have great communication over these bugs because their fixes don't always work or work in the way they intend. What use is a running commentary on their bug fixing efforts when they don't necessarily provide any meaningful indication of how close they are to fixing things?

To be honest, it made zero sense to announce a system when they had not even reached a point where they had a real idea of what it would look like. If they had started working on it it had barely stated.

It is never wise for a company to discuss a product that has barely started the development cycle, it at all. That was extremely poor judgment on Zos' side and not relevant to what OP is suggesting.

Izanagi.Xiiib16_ESO

RemanCyrodiil_I wrote: »

ZOS announced their desire to introduce spell crafting years and years ago and people on this forum still whine about it because it was later scrapped. No wonder they have kept their cards close to their chests ever since and only announce what they're 100% sure is coming..

Besides, the ESO Live twitch streams often start with an address of current bugs and (if known) timeframes for fixes. Pretty sure it was said at the time of the ping issues earlier this year that they don't have great communication over these bugs because their fixes don't always work or work in the way they intend. What use is a running commentary on their bug fixing efforts when they don't necessarily provide any meaningful indication of how close they are to fixing things?

I feel like the point I made about specifically not including 'story or new content' based questions sufficiently rules out the issue of things such as the spell crafting issue.
Discussing the direction of combat changes or performance changes isn't really some 'new content' which can't be delivered and is more of a 'this is the direction we plan to go in with combat - similar to how they did with their light attack/heavy attack post and subsequent testing on PTS.

One of the issues players have had is that the design directions seem to vary wildly patch to patch with no real clear understanding of progress towards a certain goal. For example, one patch DoT effects buffed to really high levels because they are 'underperforming' the next patch they are nerfed lower than they were before because they are 'over performing' etc..

Additionally a lot of issues are never actually addressed as 'being known' in the first place. Sure there are some high-profile issues which people get really passionate about (such as missing skillpoints etc) but often they don't really affect day-to-day gameplay in ways such as the specific bugs i've included do - despite that those bugs have never been discussed or commented on by anyone at ZOS and there are plenty of other examples and 'overperforming' skills and sets which haven't really been addressed with a 'plan'.

I also agree that there were previous plans to 'increase communication' but all of those plans have since been cancelled - as mentioned by others here, the class rep notes, the performance monthly progress, increased dev and community comments on the forum and ESO live have all been scaled back at a time where communication should be prioritized imo.

anyway it's on ZOS to decide if it's something they would like to do and hopefully they agree, but it also doesn't have to be a Q&A it could be handled in other ways too.

Izanagi.Xiiib16_ESO

Emmagoldman wrote: »

They ***generally*** do an okish job communicating. For example, your question about group size and healing has been explained. Its an attempt to reduce impact of the server.

Actually it isn't explained like that. It's explained as a changed based on 'liking a behavioural change'. Personally I'm a fan of the reduced group size and cross healing but I know many players aren't so it feels only right that perhaps there is more communication around the change.

For example: "what was the behaviour that ZOS liked?" "What was the data which supported the assumption of that behaviour?" and even more importantly "Has the change met the expectations and behaviour goals so far?"

Wolfpaw

Emmagoldman wrote: »

They ***generally*** do an okish job communicating. For example, your question about group size and healing has been explained. Its an attempt to reduce impact of the server.

Yet I'm really interesting in hearing about performance with clear honesty. Its getting old for abilities to not work. Can ZOS be honest? Is it fixable? If there is no fix in sight, lets be clear. Why not make a video to help players reduce lag? I felt the community was patient over the years......and I mean years..... and this was the year of "performance updates." I honesty miss pre morrowind when the game function so much smoother. What happened since then?

Housing fluff.

Homestead update was right before Morrowind, & game performance has got worse every update since.

Morrowind 1.25
Homestead 1.21

Kartalin

Emmagoldman wrote: »

I honesty miss pre morrowind when the game function so much smoother. What happened since then?

Stadia mainly, I suspect.

Bergzorn

Honestly, I don't care if ZOS starts communicating more (once again...). That ship has sailed. I'll base my opinion solely on their actions. They could even get rid of the PTS for all I care.

Odovacar

I know their communication has been sparse in a lot of areas. Past promises that have failed or we just never hear anything about it again... I will say though anytime I DM any of them (community managers) on here regarding an in-game bug/problem they get back to me asap. Not every time has my issue been fixed but at least they don't leave me in the lurk. I understand this is just a personal ticket follow-up, etc but I've always been quite impressed and beats dealing with Bethesda straight away.

Lets all hope 2021 brings a true commitment to communication they can deliver consistently.

dinokstrunz

Longer testing periods and better communication is a must in 2021.

Wolfpaw

Bergzorn wrote: »

Honestly, I don't care if ZOS starts communicating more (once again...). That ship has sailed. I'll base my opinion solely on their actions. They could even get rid of the PTS for all I care.

Agree.

I don't know why anyone would believe ZOS leadership/communication as history has shown us different.

I report everything to Sony now anyhow.

Nordic__Knights

been around way to long , only thing your going to get is more post removed and topics locked with no reason why or reasoning for , as a lot say here careful what you ask for as ZOS LOVES TO CUT WITH AN BATTLE AX NOT AN KNIFE

Izanagi.Xiiib16_ESO

Nordic__Knights wrote: »

been around way to long , only thing your going to get is more post removed and topics locked with no reason why or reasoning for , as a lot say here careful what you ask for as ZOS LOVES TO CUT WITH AN BATTLE AX NOT AN KNIFE

I don't think that is always the case but I kinda view moderation as not really 'ZOS' related comments anyway. Personally i'd just remove the ZOS tag from posts which have been moderated so as not to confuse the community.

LordArconSeptim

Izanagi.Xiiib16_ESO wrote: »

Welcome back to all at ZOS hope you all had a great holiday break.
It's the start of 2021 and I think it would be great to make 2021 "the year of community"
With everyone working from home communication is always a bit less fluid so to help that I suggest the following:

A weekly or fortnightly Q&A covering a range of questions from each playstyle(Combat, PvE, PvP bg, PvP cyrodiil, housing, other)

This would be focused on:
1) current gameplay bugs/issues and whether ZOS is aware of them and potential planned fixes (kind of an ongoing known issues list with updates)

2) questions about existing gameplay content and general community questions.

3) future plans (I suggest this be limited to combat and performance changes to avoid 'story or content' based questions.)



When players submit questions they would be under these headers. For example:

PvP Cyrodiil:

• Is ZoS aware of the current ongoing crashes and problems with effects duplicating or being stuck on character. E.g. the 'streaked for 49000 days' bug (https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/553421/4-cyrodiil-bugs-markarth-dlc)
• Could you give us more information on your reasoning behind the current healing and group size changes and details about the performance differences you saw during the 8 weeks of testing. e.g. average play time, trend to grouping, aoe skill usage etc?
• You mentioned further testing will take place this year? Is there an expected date or info on types of test planned? E.g. a 'no proc sets' test?

If you think a weekly or fortnightly Q&A is a good idea but don't have the time in studio to collate questions I'm sure there are a number of players who would volunteer to help, just let the playerbase know

Thanks!

tags: @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_KaiSchober @ZOS_JessicaFolsom @ZOS_SarahHecker @ZOS_RichLambert @ZOS_BrianWheeler

Hahaha since 2014. we want this bruh we got cosmetic shop

zaria

Good news everyone: We are happy to introduce our new community outreach member:

The popular and well known Remains Silent who currently work as an shadowy supplier at the dark brotherhood.
Do not fear we will get an new shadowy supplier

LarsS

I think better communication and preferably cooperation with the player base is a must. Its not only about information to the player base, cooperation with the player would also help zos to focus on the core issues and probably simplify bug search.

Izanagi.Xiiib16_ESO

LarsS wrote: »

I think better communication and preferably cooperation with the player base is a must. Its not only about information to the player base, cooperation with the player would also help zos to focus on the core issues and probably simplify bug search.

At least we've had some comment on the bug thread discussion. would be nice if this continued with some acknowledgement of the 'plan' for communication for this year.

rpa

Every promise to improve communication has failed miserably this far. It's one of the many things on the "I believe it when I see it" list for this game.

Mettaricana

When was the last time we heard from anyone other than the removed post bs from a forum moderator or a crown store add? Seems like they just up and said screw it no communication after that disaster markarth launch..