Welcome New ESO Community Team Member: ZOS_Kevin – Forum Manager

ZOS_JessicaFolsom

Hi everyone!

We’d like to introduce you to the newest member of the ESO Community team. Please join us in giving a warm welcome to @ZOS_Kevin! Kevin just joined us this week as our Forum Manager, and you can expect to see him around as a regular on these forums very soon.

Kevin is very excited to start getting to know all of you and engaging with you here on the official ESO forums. He was also kind enough to provide some fun tidbits about himself, below.

• “My first video game I ever played was Pokémon Blue in my Kiwi Green Gameboy Color. But a good portion of my teens were spent playing The Elder Scrolls III and IV, Fallout, Mass Effect, and Halo.”
• “I have a pet cat named Ellie. I was playing The Last of Us at the time, thus the name. She's just as feisty as Ellie from the game.
• “I play a Stamina DPS Templar in ESO. I based my ESO character on a character in a TTRPG game I played a while ago. The TTRPG character could also use light magic, so it seemed like a perfect fit.”
• “The last time I traveled was to Japan for my honeymoon. We went to a monkey conservation reserve in Kyoto and a baby monkey tried to climb on me. So that was fun.”

Thanks for telling us a little bit about yourself, Kevin! Welcome to the team!

Aliyavana

Welcome. You might see a lot of negativity around these forums but it is primarily because we care and are invested enough about the game to criticize it. Those of us that enjoy or are mostly satisfied with the game are playing it.

ZOS_Kevin

Hey Everyone! Very happy to be apart of the ZOS team and looking forward to getting to know all of you!

Aaxc

Hals- und Beinberuch. Gl

Rykoth

Welcome to the ESOFam!

Djennku

Welcome to the forums, Kevin!

ZOS_Kevin

Hey @Aliyavana ! Appreciate the welcome! Criticism is perfectly fine as long as it's constructive. And we certainly appreciate the passion. Looking forward to interacting more and seeing everyone in-game. And very glad you're enjoying the game!

ZOS_Kevin

Thanks for the warm welcome, @Rykoth and @Djennku ! Very happy to be here and look forward to chatting with everyone!

ZOS_Kevin

Much appreciated, @Aaxc !

LoneStar2911

Hey @ZOS_Kevin !
Not sure what a forum manager does exactly... but maybe put in a word that the mobile web version of the forums doesn’t let us use the report option. It’s been broken for as long as I can remember.
And, welcome!

OutLaw_Nynx

Welcome @ZOS_Kevin!

Also yes, the mobile report doesn’t work. ☹️

spartaxoxo

LoneStar2911 wrote: »

Hey @ZOS_Kevin !
Not sure what a forum manager does exactly... but maybe put in a word that the mobile web version of the forums doesn’t let us use the report option. It’s been broken for as long as I can remember.
And, welcome!

This. I have to switch to desktop mode to report something.

Also welcome, Kevin!

spartaxoxo

Edit: Which famous Kevin do you prefer?

Kevin from the office, Kevin from Home Alone, or Kevin Hart?

CaffeinatedMayhem

HI and welcome! Also, don't take it personally.

Danel_Vadan

“I play a Stamina DPS Templar in ESO."
A legit dev, alright. Has also never seen endgame content, lmao.

MasterSpatula

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

Hi everyone!

• “My first video game I ever played was Pokémon Blue in my Kiwi Green Gameboy Color. But a good portion of my teens were spent playing The Elder Scrolls III and IV, Fallout, Mass Effect, and Halo.”
  

Oof. I think my back just gave out. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to chase some kids off my lawn.

Oh, and welcome, Kevin! (Whippersnapper.)

CaffeinatedMayhem

OutLaw_Nynx wrote: »

Welcome @ZOS_Kevin!

Also yes, the mobile report doesn’t work. ☹️

Wait, you can log in (to the forum) on mobile? I always get "wrong password"?

Luvtantius_Micocia

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hey Everyone! Very happy to be apart of the ZOS team and looking forward to getting to know all of you!

Apart or a part? Just asking to be sure

Welcome to the forums!

OutLaw_Nynx

CaffeinatedMayhem wrote: »

OutLaw_Nynx wrote: »

Welcome @ZOS_Kevin!

Also yes, the mobile report doesn’t work. ☹️

Wait, you can log in (to the forum) on mobile? I always get "wrong password"?

Yeah. I only use the forum on mobile. @CaffeinatedMayhem

CyberOnEso

Welcome @ZOS_Kevin!!

Destai

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hey @Aliyavana ! Appreciate the welcome! Criticism is perfectly fine as long as it's constructive. And we certainly appreciate the passion. Looking forward to interacting more and seeing everyone in-game. And very glad you're enjoying the game!

Hi Kevin, welcome to the forum! I'm sure you'll have your hands full here, but I hope that you can appreciate the detailed feedback and engage with us in actual conversation.

As the incoming forum manager, here's some ways I think you could engender warm feelings to yourself and ZOS at large:
1. Respond to QoL threads. I myself have put together very well reasoned and detailed responses on improving QoL in this game's system. Many others have as well. These threads often have the same complaints, some years old. My hope is you can jump on those threads, and let us know what's possible and if you can leverage internal processes to champion our suggestions. Recent example is here, but feel free to check my comment history. One of my favorite CMs was from Guild Wars 2, and they always organized and engaged QoL threads.
2. Engage hot button issues. ZOS makes changes that aren't always well received. It's part of game development, but when there's 15+ pages of people asking for developer or CM input only to be met with either silence or moderation, ZOS looks really bad and it creates toxicity and ill will. Look at this thread from a consumer's perspective.
3. Let us know what's being heard on PTS. There are countless examples where players call out bugs or features that don't land well. The game then gets released and those problems are present at launch. People are then wondering why, we ask and we again get met with crickets.
4. Have difficult conversations. It's easy to pick low hanging fruit and answer easy questions. Too many times, I've seen legitimate frustration go unanswered or silenced. Perfect example, this poor chap. Imagine you're that guy right now. Fundamentally, show some empathy towards us and you'll get a lot of respect. We all get you guys have a job, with metrics and management, and department initiatives. But please, please appreciate we are your customers first. I promise if you and the rest of the CMs and moderators show empathy - beyond "thanks for understanding", that's worthless - you'll have to deal with so much less toxicity. As a gamer yourself, I'm sure you know the passion that goes into building our characters and communities. Carry that with you when dealing with us and we will respect you a lot.
5. Be engaged in threads you start. The other CMs will post things like feedback threads, event announcements, and patch notes. Very rarely is there detailed conversations from the CMs on these threads. Just from personal experience, this thread.
6. Let us know what your role actually is. I think one of the pain points many of us have is we believe that it's Gina's and Jessica's job to respond to us here. We don't know their constraints or priorities, we just know they're not responding to us. So let us know what your responsibilities actually are and how we can best use your time to improve the game with us.
7. Understand that we notice. Players notice a lot and intuit a lot from your actions. Many of us have jobs in technology and consulting and hold you guys to a professional standard. I myself am a consultant and solution architect. We understand the corporate initiatives, community management, and damage control that's sometimes necessary. All that we ask is you don't treat us like we're children and try to pull one over on us. We hope you'd be the more human face of ZOS that these forums need and deserve. Reference here, here.
8. Help us distinguish between ZOS input and moderation. I know this is a tall order, but it's incredibly frustrating to go to a hot thread with the Z next to it, click on that Z and bam, it's just moderation. Maybe make it a different color or something, but it's just not important to the customer experience when we're coming here for actual CM or Dev engagement. In my opinion, these forums are too focused on moderation and not focused enough on acknowledging player feedback that we often go well out of our way to provide. Again, understand we notice.
9. Start fun discussions. Patch notes are cool, but how about delving into what we love about the game. Ask us what are favorite expansions are, what NPCs we like, stuff like that. And of course, tell us what you like about the game. You could even organize public events if you're so inclined. People would eat that up!

For fun, I started my TES journey with Morrowind and have been hooked on the IP ever since. Oblivion is still my favorite single player TES game. I started ESO back in beta and have played across PC, Xbox, and PS. Right now, I main a High Elf Bow Warden, but I also like my Dark Elf Nightblade and Dragonknight I have 9 max levels toon, I'm not addicted I swear! I've got a stamplar too, they're a lot of fun!

Recremen

Oh cool, welcome! It's great to see new community team members, I really think the expanded staff will make the daunting task of managing community relations for a a 20-million-ish playerbase a little easier and help deliver on ZOS goals of better communication with the players.

M_Volsung

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

Hi everyone!

[*] “My first video game I ever played was Pokémon Blue in my Kiwi Green Gameboy Color. But a good portion of my teens were spent playing The Elder Scrolls III and IV, Fallout, Mass Effect, and Halo.”

Mine was Pitfall on the Atari 2600... you kids these days, playing with your pokeymans while watching your animoos and reading mangoes.

Seriously though, welcome to the forums (and don't forget your hip-waders).

Edit: Might help if I actually tagged @ZOS_Kevin in the post... derp.

ZOS_Kevin

Hey @LoneStar2911 . First, thanks for the welcome! To answer your question, I will be here to be a contact for the ESOFam and run the daily communications for the forum. So happy to chat or gather constructive feedback about ESO.

As for the report option on mobile, thanks for letting me know. We've escalated this and will touch base after we do a bit more research. Thanks for the feedback!

OutLaw_Nynx

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hey @LoneStar2911 . First, thanks for the welcome! To answer your question, I will be here to be a contact for the ESOFam and run the daily communications for the forum. So happy to chat or gather constructive feedback about ESO.

As for the report option on mobile, thanks for letting me know. We've escalated this and will touch base after we do a bit more research. Thanks for the feedback!

Have your first insightful, @ZOS_Kevin. Thanks for passing on the report. I’m on an iPhone using the default browser. Might help with gathering data.

ZOS_Kevin

Thanks for the welcome, @OutLaw_Nynx and @spartaxoxo! And thanks for the feedback on the report in mobile. We have escalated this and looking into it.

ZOS_Kevin

I do like The Office Kevin and Kevin Hart. Kevin Bacon is also an underrated Kevin, @spartaxoxo

ZOS_Kevin

Thanks for the welcome, @MasterSpatula ! I assure you I also spend my evenings chasing kids off my lawn.

ZOS_Kevin

Thanks for the welcome, @Luvtantius_Micocia ! And touché. Well played.

ZOS_Kevin

Thanks for the welcome, @Recremen ! And that's what I'm here for! Looking forward to talking about cool things everyone is doing and getting constructive feedback to make ESO even better.

ZOS_Kevin

Thanks for the welcome, @M_Volsung ! I do enjoy reading my mangoes!

And believe it or not, I have played Pitfall before. Just later in life!

Looking forward to chatting in the forums!