Maintenance for the week of December 23:
· [COMPLETE] NA megaservers for maintenance – December 23, 4:00AM EST (9:00 UTC) - 9:00AM EST (14:00 UTC)
· [COMPLETE] EU megaservers for maintenance – December 23, 9:00 UTC (4:00AM EST) - 14:00 UTC (9:00AM EST)
· [COMPLETE] NA megaservers for maintenance – December 23, 4:00AM EST (9:00 UTC) - 9:00AM EST (14:00 UTC)
· [COMPLETE] EU megaservers for maintenance – December 23, 9:00 UTC (4:00AM EST) - 14:00 UTC (9:00AM EST)
A consideration to the changes and what they mean long term
exeeter702
✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭
✭✭
First and foremost, there are far more uniform / less disruptive methods for reducing damage across the board for a game in this vein. These changes have nothing to do with combating power creep, and everything to do with a constant desperation attempt at trying to create a more accessible experience for brand new / casual players. I mention this just to get out of the way any assumption these changes are targeting any degree of power creep in eso
Long term veteran players are not and have not been for quite some time now, the target demographic for the game. The irony in all this is that none of these changes are even going to matter to the very player base they are targeting with these changes. I mean... you already have story mode trials and dungeons that can be done half asleep with one hand, tons of housing toys, a companion system, a card game and enough overland content to sink 100s of hours on for new players. What possible reason do they have to even humor this idea / change? Casual/ new players arent participating in the only content for which these changes will have any measurable impression on, and these changes arent going to "allow" them to attempt said content.
The unique problem here, and often one faced by many dev teams in this genre, is having to solve the chicken / egg problem. How do we justify producing content of which only a small percentage of the player base will engage with? Well, we answer the question of why is it a small percentage in the first place and how can we increase that number? Is it too hard? Is the floor too high? If we make it easier, will more players participate? How many veteran players do we lose by the same metric? The list goes on. This is why for pve, the generally accepted best course of action is to hard commit to scalable pve content for which you can streamline the development process while it being malleable enough to tune it for varying player groups of different skill levels. This is how you can justify creating asset rich pve environments and have high participation.
It's also for this very reason that pvp tends to be far less popular.. and why its very easy to understand why eso hasnt seen a meaningful pvp content update in quote some time. Pvp is not as malleable by virtue of being player driven dynamic content. Rest assured.. these changes are only going to increase the gulf between newer players and experienced players in pvp, and is not going to increase participation. If zos cant increase pvp pop, how can they get the ok on pvp content development? If zos commits to a push for pvp content as a means to bring in new participation, will it actually work? Or are you simply giving the existing "inadequate" percentage of pvp players a nee thing time have fun with while doing nothing for increasing that percentage?
What zos is attempting to do is reduce what we call the mental stack, the element that contributes to how many variables a player needs to keep track of in their head while being able to still react to actions that require a response for a given win condition. Taking away the need to more frequently refresh buffs/debuffs means you are freeing up mental space to give attention to more in the moment factors. The problem here though, is that in terms of player skill, it's all relative until it reaches the point of being entirely unsatisfying. Good players will spend any amount of time learning how to optimize the mental stack, ie what is important, and what can be ignored in this moment? Can I afford to let my resistance buff drop, since my target is on their heels? Do I need to spend a GCD refreshing the debuff on my target even if said debuff doesnt directly increase my lethal potential in the next 3 seconds? Etc etc. These are all aspects to pvp that GIVE it its appeal and reducing the decision making process is only going to strengthen strong players in the face of less experienced players and in no way is going to make a more accessible, leveled playing field. You are simply taking away nuanced moment to moment choice making and replacing it with semi automation. This is not going to bring in new players to pvp. You are just letting more children play dodge ball with high school kids and telling the HSers they cant throw the ball from less than 8 feet away.
If you will excuse the hyperbole, you are telling veteran players to play checkers now instead of chess. You are not only lowering the floor but the ceiling as well, and as I said earlier, the distance between the two is relative.
Long term veteran players are not and have not been for quite some time now, the target demographic for the game. The irony in all this is that none of these changes are even going to matter to the very player base they are targeting with these changes. I mean... you already have story mode trials and dungeons that can be done half asleep with one hand, tons of housing toys, a companion system, a card game and enough overland content to sink 100s of hours on for new players. What possible reason do they have to even humor this idea / change? Casual/ new players arent participating in the only content for which these changes will have any measurable impression on, and these changes arent going to "allow" them to attempt said content.
The unique problem here, and often one faced by many dev teams in this genre, is having to solve the chicken / egg problem. How do we justify producing content of which only a small percentage of the player base will engage with? Well, we answer the question of why is it a small percentage in the first place and how can we increase that number? Is it too hard? Is the floor too high? If we make it easier, will more players participate? How many veteran players do we lose by the same metric? The list goes on. This is why for pve, the generally accepted best course of action is to hard commit to scalable pve content for which you can streamline the development process while it being malleable enough to tune it for varying player groups of different skill levels. This is how you can justify creating asset rich pve environments and have high participation.
It's also for this very reason that pvp tends to be far less popular.. and why its very easy to understand why eso hasnt seen a meaningful pvp content update in quote some time. Pvp is not as malleable by virtue of being player driven dynamic content. Rest assured.. these changes are only going to increase the gulf between newer players and experienced players in pvp, and is not going to increase participation. If zos cant increase pvp pop, how can they get the ok on pvp content development? If zos commits to a push for pvp content as a means to bring in new participation, will it actually work? Or are you simply giving the existing "inadequate" percentage of pvp players a nee thing time have fun with while doing nothing for increasing that percentage?
What zos is attempting to do is reduce what we call the mental stack, the element that contributes to how many variables a player needs to keep track of in their head while being able to still react to actions that require a response for a given win condition. Taking away the need to more frequently refresh buffs/debuffs means you are freeing up mental space to give attention to more in the moment factors. The problem here though, is that in terms of player skill, it's all relative until it reaches the point of being entirely unsatisfying. Good players will spend any amount of time learning how to optimize the mental stack, ie what is important, and what can be ignored in this moment? Can I afford to let my resistance buff drop, since my target is on their heels? Do I need to spend a GCD refreshing the debuff on my target even if said debuff doesnt directly increase my lethal potential in the next 3 seconds? Etc etc. These are all aspects to pvp that GIVE it its appeal and reducing the decision making process is only going to strengthen strong players in the face of less experienced players and in no way is going to make a more accessible, leveled playing field. You are simply taking away nuanced moment to moment choice making and replacing it with semi automation. This is not going to bring in new players to pvp. You are just letting more children play dodge ball with high school kids and telling the HSers they cant throw the ball from less than 8 feet away.
If you will excuse the hyperbole, you are telling veteran players to play checkers now instead of chess. You are not only lowering the floor but the ceiling as well, and as I said earlier, the distance between the two is relative.
2