Could crowdfunding be a solution for performance issues?

Lebkuchen

I am sick and tired of players blaming each other for playing a game, that is not working as promised. Casual, endgame, after work/school, full time, hardcore, pve, pvp, ballgroup, ganker, pc, last gen/future gen consoles... we all deserve to enjoy a game we paid for, without fighting and blaming each other! And without blaming random employees for everything.

For some reason the gaming industry thinks it is ok to sell us unfinished versions of their games and does not feel the need to invests enough resources in bugfixing, performance, testing and quality control.

It is time for us players to be part of what is happening, [snip] on the search for a game we can actually enjoy. Games like ESO are so big and expensive, and can be played in so many different ways, it is not a good option to just play and support, or leave and play something else.

We need a way to help developers give us their version of the game, [snip]

Maybe there could be a way for us players to invest in parts of the game we would like to be focused by developers. Not just talk and fight, but put some money on it and make it happen.

Something to support the game, like preordering dlcs and buying crowns, but with a choice to where the money goes. Giving us a voice.

I could imagine buying a tundra mammut for 5k crowns, with a small message "Thank you for supporting the war in Cyrodiil". Or nice hats for battlegrounds. Housing items that show others what you invested in. Like a little farm, where every crop stands for a real part of a server farm. An insect collection representing fixed bugs. Special books for supporting storytellers, pictures for supporting design teams... maybe even boats for investors... Pets, titles, style pages for whatever else there is to support... And beautiful statues for maintenance, to keep the game working! Little hamsters for performance...

So instead of blaming each other for whatever reason, we could actually all work together on creating a great game.

This way the players could feel heard instead of talking to a wall, and developers and investors would know what we actually want and need from them.

Could you imagine some version of this working?

[edited for bashing]

Freelancer_ESO

No

It would likely struggle to work out.

I'd suggest you compare Freelancer and Star Citizen to see the difference corporate can make in a positive direction.

vivisectvib16_ESO

No

ZOS is literally owned by a multi billion dollar corporation.

TaSheen

No

vivisectvib16_ESO wrote: »

ZOS is literally owned by a multi billion dollar corporation.

This.

SammyKhajit

I have no idea what you are talking about?!

This one is baffled… why should we pay for better performance? Surely that is ZOS’ responsibility???

Malthorne

No

ZOS has the money. They just chose to invest it elsewhere. .

MaraxusTheOrc

No

Crowdfunding for a game owned by Microsoft. Shareholders like the sound of that.

redlink1979

No

ZOS was bought by Microsoft, remember?

opalcity

No

This isn't some indie game made by a couple of hopeful programmers.

AzuraFan

No

Say what? ZOS is a business, not a charity (and owned by Microsoft!). Most players pay to play, either through ESO+, crowns, or both.

Living_Tribunal

I already give them my yearly sub....as well as "20 million players" if that's not being used to fix issues nothing the community does will help.

DarcyMardin

No

Lots of us are ESO plus subscribers. We are ready crowd funding their game!

Dawnblade

No

LMAO - crowd funding for a company worth almost 2 trillion? Please.

Kiralyn2000

No

Money is not the problem.
Them not wanting to bother fixing stuff is not the problem.
Something about the original structure they decided on for the servers, and all the changes that have
happened to the game over the years, has created a complicated mess. Not just a "replace the HDD with an SSD!" type fix.

ccfeeling

I have no idea what you are talking about?!

I dont think they can fix the problems .

They dont have the appropiate technical staffs follow up, they dont even know the root cause, thats why they have to run different tests to find out.

They know customers still play the game without effort, why fix it?

EF321

No

Bruh I'm already paying

Priyasekarssk

No

[snip] Already community giving a lot for free for this game. Skyrim is great game only because of addons. WITHOUT ADDONS ESO IS NOT EVEN VIABLE TO PLAY. WE ARE BETA TESTING ENITRE PATCH. It’s zos should pay for community. Not the other way around. [snip]

[edited for bashing]

Stamicka

No

Also consider that $40+ houses are frequently sold in the crown store. There’s no way there’s a money issue.

red_emu

No

They don't need more money. At end of the day, it's Rich Lambert and not Destitute Lambert 😉

shadyjane62

No

I wasted 140$ on year sub and you want us to kick in money?

Blinx

No

they should pay us to continue beta testing the combat in this game, no game this old should have drastic changes like this!

Katheriah

No

I do really think it's nice that you want to think about other solutions for the performance issues. Kudos for that.

But I'm afraid the only right answer to this suggestion is that it's up to ZOS/Microsoft to fix it. As indicated in earlier responses, it's not 4 dudes/dudettes in a garage making a game in their spare time. This is a business. A big one. They're not the friendly neigbourhood baker that's struggling after Covid restrictions. It's not the small shop you used to buy your Pokémon cards. It's the same company that sells us ESO+, Crown Crates and expensive houses that cannot be fully furnished.

dinokstrunz

No

lol

starkerealm

No

SammyKhajit wrote: »

This one is baffled… why should we pay for better performance? Surely that is ZOS’ responsibility???

We already are paying for better performance... and, uh... mixed results.

Danikat

No

Crowdfunding is for projects that don't have other sources of funding, and often only a way to get the start-up capital to reach the point where they can pitch it to a publisher or other conventional source of funding. ESO's problem is certainly not a lack of money available to put into the game - when Zenimax Media was independant they were a multi-billion dollar company and now they're owned by Microsoft.

More importantly though the same people you don't trust to know what their game needs or how to do it would be the ones in charge of spending the crowd funded money. What makes you think they'd do anything differently just because the money is coming from random, anonymous people rather than their bosses?

Jaimeh

Danikat wrote: »

More importantly though the same people you don't trust to know what their game needs or how to do it would be the ones in charge of spending the crowd funded money. What makes you think they'd do anything differently just because the money is coming from random, anonymous people rather than their bosses?

This ^ The game certainly makes money, but it's obviously not invested back in the game, given performance issues for years, and the diminishing quality of the last three chapters. It's a pity, it's a game with beautiful architecture, deep and well established lore, amazing style of combat, that could be hugely popular, but it's not managed well at all, especially from the combat team, who've done everything in their power to reduce anything interesting, fast-paced, exciting and challenging about combat to a homogenized set of the same skill, only with different visuals and animations.

starkerealm

No

Danikat wrote: »

Crowdfunding is for projects that don't have other sources of funding, and often only a way to get the start-up capital to reach the point where they can pitch it to a publisher or other conventional source of funding. ESO's problem is certainly not a lack of money available to put into the game - when Zenimax Media was independant they were a multi-billion dollar company and now they're owned by Microsoft.

More importantly though the same people you don't trust to know what their game needs or how to do it would be the ones in charge of spending the crowd funded money. What makes you think they'd do anything differently just because the money is coming from random, anonymous people rather than their bosses?

Hilariously, back during the initial crowdfunding boom (~2012), a number of major publishers were exploring ways they could tap into that. Specifically shopping around to independent studios, offering publishing deals if the studios crowdfunded the game, with the publisher getting a cut of the crowdfunding money. I remember Chris Avalone talked about it, but I can't remember how much of this was reported.

Ragnarok0130

No

vivisectvib16_ESO wrote: »

ZOS is literally owned by a multi billion dollar corporation.

THIS! Plus we already crowd fund them via monthly subs and crown store purchases. If they can't manage between their billion dollar daddy company and the profits from the aforementioned sources they need to find new finance and business folks.

Nomadic_Atmoran

No

This isnt some penny pinching start up. This game alone makes them more than enough money in a year to solve their problems. Theres absolutely zero reason any player or prospective player should ever shell out money to "assist" this company with honoring its side of the deal it has made with the playerbase. To provide a stable and enjoyable experience. We already pay through subscriptions, dlc purchases, micotransactions and gambling boxes. We have met our end of the deal.

Bouldercleave

No

Lebkuchen wrote: »

Something to support the game, like preordering dlcs and buying crowns, but with a choice to where the money goes. Giving us a voice.

we could actually all work together on creating a great game.

This way the players could feel heard instead of talking to a wall, and developers and investors would know what we actually want and need from them.

This is not our game, no matter what you would like to think. It's theirs to do with what they please.

Why in the world would you think that they want to "all work together" with the end consumer? That's like going to McDonalds and trying to instruct them and help them make your burger.

SapAndFury

No

This would be be akin to people crowdfunding McDonalds to fix their ice cream machines.