So whatever happened to that Q&A?

rexagamemnon

I’m glad to hear from @ZOS_Kevin about status of the Q&A. But the said q&a is far beyond late. We are already into the Q4 dlc, the idea staff at zos are still working on something to address Q3 controversies…. I’m no business expert but im gona go on a limb and say thats bad for business/PR.
U35 had more unpopular/unwanted changes than any update before. Ive been playing since 2015, ive seen and experienced almost all the updates to have an idea. The community hated it, and ZOS went ahead with it. Many players left the game because of it.
I hope that if this Q&A actually materializes that its not a farce with rehearsed questions. Also formal apologies to the community are warranted in regards to the “knee-jerk reactions” statement.
To be honest, ZOS would be better off deleting the combat changes of U35 rather than doing a Q&A.

On an unrelated note,
@ZOS_Kevin , i told bethesda on their youtube channel that if they didnt tell me when the Q4 cinematic trailer for firesong dlc was going to be release i would start pestering you until you told me when. Consider this your first and only warning on said subject matter.

DemonicGoat

Why did you take fun and escape away from so many people with u35?, (Understand this one is me venting,but seriously the way you handle massive changes could be better.)

How did you not see you were going to alienate so many people?
Why should I have faith in your vision that youve never produced?
Why do you continue to ignore any questions about the vision,status of servers,or other issues that every other MMO PR team realistically performs does DAILY?

Ill never spend money on ESO again,.. I likely wont ever participate in events or pve,.. Just fashion(I have a gigantic wardrobe)and whats left of the social circles after so many have gone on hiatus.,but Ill still farm your stream team for crates and codes,Ill make it a point in fact to let you pay for any time I put into playing on your servers.

I had floated the idea to my friends that ESO was being giving lower priority because of internal things like MS acquisition,negative response to the update,the amount of turnover on the dev team as indicated by job listings for head dev. etc.. Multiple high level dev positions being empty and being filled worried meat the time and since then all Ive seen are a lot of choices that just dont seem to make any sense for the game,the players or even basic business sense.

There has to be a reason though right? a competing product internally? ESO not viable because the server config is too proprietary and thus too pricey to "fix" properly? Reduce endgame players who do content and tax the servers with combat calculations and focus on the non-active content like housing,fashion(RP and lore),card game where people will still spend money on the shop and see no real change in how they play the game?

The point being is now Im seeing these kinds of conspiracy theories here and ZOS is nowhere to be found. If they dont know what message they are sending or if they really dont care I expect then that eso will continue to sputter along as a shadow of its former self.

And if thats the image people get of the game...

SammyKhajit

Even just an acknowledgment that the update is late would be a good thing to do….

_Zathras_

I log in every once in a while and keep seeing this thread bumped, and have to wonder why you guys bother.

No, I'm not trolling, I'm just being realistic.

The palpable trend of this last year in particular has been to push off, ignore, and make disparaging remarks about segments of the playerbase on their Twitter platforms. I mean all of those quite literally. All you have to do is look at the PTS forum, using U33 and U35 as the most recent glaring examples.

Actions speak louder than words. Yes, a cliched phrase, but one that is highly relevant here.

The community is resorting to begging for communications. That should never be the case. Communications should be timely, clear, and address the high points with a decent amount of bonus filler that is value added. Underscore timely.

If a company isn't doing that, then they don't want to do it.

So this plea for communications, like all the others, endlessly swirls around the bowl.

No offense, @ZOS_Kevin . None of this is aimed at you, or your moderation team. This criticism is part of this thread's discussion on the ongoing systemic failure of comms, and the contempt for this community. So while I appreciate the "I'll put this on someone's desk" comments, nothing ever materializes. Consequently, most people feel like they are being strung along.

So, Kevin, given all of that, and the fact that the requested Feedback is months and months past being relevant, why not just be honest with this community and tell them directly that nothing is forthcoming. Because everyone knows Gina knows, and Rich knows, and whomever else, but nothing has been communicated..which means, given how far out we are from U35, it never will be communicated.

FluffWit

rexagamemnon wrote: »

I’m glad to hear from @ZOS_Kevin about status of the Q&A. But the said q&a is far beyond late. We are already into the Q4 dlc, the idea staff at zos are still working on something to address Q3 controversies…. I’m no business expert but im gona go on a limb and say thats bad for business/PR.
U35 had more unpopular/unwanted changes than any update before. Ive been playing since 2015, ive seen and experienced almost all the updates to have an idea. The community hated it, and ZOS went ahead with it. Many players left the game because of it.
I hope that if this Q&A actually materializes that its not a farce with rehearsed questions. Also formal apologies to the community are warranted in regards to the “knee-jerk reactions” statement.
To be honest, ZOS would be better off deleting the combat changes of U35 rather than doing a Q&A.

On an unrelated note,
@ZOS_Kevin , i told bethesda on their youtube channel that if they didnt tell me when the Q4 cinematic trailer for firesong dlc was going to be release i would start pestering you until you told me when. Consider this your first and only warning on said subject matter.

I don't think Kevin's replied to this for like a month? And that response was just one vague line.

SammyKhajit

_Zathras_ wrote: »

I log in every once in a while and keep seeing this thread bumped, and have to wonder why you guys bother.

[/i].

[snip]

This one knows that ZOS is doing minimal placating, but even so, it’s worthwhile keeping this thread (and others) alive to hold them accountable.

As this one mentioned, Sammy will play this game whilst waiting for better options of games to be released.

[edited for minor bashing]

DemonicGoat

MetallicMonk wrote: »

[snip]

You are of course referring to the free pet for the u36 debacle? Yea, I kinda think so too,.. What are becoming obvious systemic failures still has had no acknowledgement from the powers that be and to offer a measly pet for what is a huge game breaking bug that wont be fixed for a month,.. on top of all the other issues and lack of communication.. [snip] I mean,.. a month lost of play time because block is [snip] and everyone is just supposed to be happy to eat that $15 sub because they were so generous to "compensate" us?

[edited for mild baiting, profanity bypass & to remove quote]

merevie

Apparently some people have gotten feedback surveys emailed to them. But many, many more have not...

LesserCircle

merevie wrote: »

Apparently some people have gotten feedback surveys emailed to them. But many, many more have not...

Hey, check out my post in General Discussion to find a link to that survey:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/621686/feedback-survey

RMW

LesserCircle wrote: »

merevie wrote: »

Apparently some people have gotten feedback surveys emailed to them. But many, many more have not...

Hey, check out my post in General Discussion to find a link to that survey:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/621686/feedback-survey

Brilliant! Thank you!

BagOfBadgers

The Q&A is like Lara Croft's nude code. Never going to happen! (ERB reference)

RMW

Wolfkeks

At this point this thread will be locked because it's too old before we will get the Q&A.

tinythinker

_Zathras_ wrote: »

The community is resorting to begging for communications. That should never be the case. Communications should be timely, clear, and address the high points with a decent amount of bonus filler that is value added. Underscore timely

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

edward_frigidhands

II am really hoping this can get some kind of a developer response.

_Zathras_

SammyKhajit wrote: »

_Zathras_ wrote: »

I log in every once in a while and keep seeing this thread bumped, and have to wonder why you guys bother.

[/i].

[snip]

This one knows that ZOS is doing minimal placating, but even so, it’s worthwhile keeping this thread (and others) alive to hold them accountable.

As this one mentioned, Sammy will play this game whilst waiting for better options of games to be released.

[edited for minor bashing]

But, there isn't any accountability here. This is their turf, their forum, their rules. Historically, they just ignore the community. Why? Because they can.

There isn't a higher authority that cares if they do that. And the players that are invested in these conversations, also historically, stick around to keep playing and hop into other discussions which may or may not be as contentious. ..Which is something they also know: that these storms in a teacup from a disgruntled, vocal few have zero impact on their bottom line.

So back to what I said in my OP.. if they felt they were answerable to this community over U35, that there was some sort of looming punishment of accountability, there would have been a heartfelt letter from Matt to fill everyone with warm fuzzies. "Hey guys, we know some of you didn't like the changes, but this is where we are taking the game design, and why."

Which, if that was ever their intention, would have been published within a matter of days or a short period of a couple of weeks after the fact.

Which it wasn't.

So.. fast forward months later, and here it is. And the community, yet again, has been put into the humiliating position of begging and pleading for the basics of civil discussion.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice.. I've been online gaming for a couple of decades; this isn't my first rodeo with studios that do this. SOE/Verant (EQ) was one of the worst for this behavior back in the day. What is happening here is no different.

edward_frigidhands

DemonicGoat wrote: »

Why did you take fun and escape away from so many people with u35?, (Understand this one is me venting,but seriously the way you handle massive changes could be better.)

How did you not see you were going to alienate so many people?
Why should I have faith in your vision that youve never produced?
Why do you continue to ignore any questions about the vision,status of servers,or other issues that every other MMO PR team realistically performs does DAILY?

Ill never spend money on ESO again,.. I likely wont ever participate in events or pve,.. Just fashion(I have a gigantic wardrobe)and whats left of the social circles after so many have gone on hiatus.,but Ill still farm your stream team for crates and codes,Ill make it a point in fact to let you pay for any time I put into playing on your servers.

I had floated the idea to my friends that ESO was being giving lower priority because of internal things like MS acquisition,negative response to the update,the amount of turnover on the dev team as indicated by job listings for head dev. etc.. Multiple high level dev positions being empty and being filled worried meat the time and since then all Ive seen are a lot of choices that just dont seem to make any sense for the game,the players or even basic business sense.

There has to be a reason though right? a competing product internally? ESO not viable because the server config is too proprietary and thus too pricey to "fix" properly? Reduce endgame players who do content and tax the servers with combat calculations and focus on the non-active content like housing,fashion(RP and lore),card game where people will still spend money on the shop and see no real change in how they play the game?

The point being is now Im seeing these kinds of conspiracy theories here and ZOS is nowhere to be found. If they dont know what message they are sending or if they really dont care I expect then that eso will continue to sputter along as a shadow of its former self.

And if thats the image people get of the game...

Honestly those are some interesting points to consider...

RMW

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Just for clarity here based off of @acastanza_ESO question, we will be addressing core questions around U35 combat changes overall. We will not be addressing specific changes. Those will be noted in patch notes and have been highlighted throughout PTS.

I know we're probably annoying but... any update @ZOS_Kevin ?

We can also come up with a list of questions if you still need any! I always travel with my list with questions for the Q&A for U35 just in case!

But memes and jokes aside - do you think we will get the Q&A till the end of the year? Because at this rate it does not make any sense to give us a Q&A if you are already planning the next sweeping changes.

Aka_

They're still moderating the thread, just not doing anything to address what's being said. Literally just tell us it fell through. Don't need to drag this out further.

SammyKhajit

The business model of attracting and focusing on new players - this issue with that is players don’t stay “new” forever, and sooner rather than later, the not so new players will also experience the same problems.

RMW

So... is this thing gonna die like the interview with Rich and TheRealGodzilla or the interview with Gina and NyceGaming?

SammyKhajit

@Zathras this one is in agreement with you.

Now, this one is a PVE player and a pretty mediocre one at that😹 however all players experiences matter because PVP players experience will have a knock on effect on the PVE, simply because of players’ engagement and participation.

This is why Sammy is keen to see a ZOS response to this thread, because how PVP players are treated can be a test on how PVE players will be treated on any future controversial updates.

DemonicGoat

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

We'll do some asking around and see if we can get an answer.

Im sure Kevin misclicked the eyepatch thread instead of this one.

Faulgor

This is almost too comical.

At this point, would I rather get luke-warm responses about non-committing plans to vaguely defined problems, or just keep the joke going?

Watching things go up in flames is a kind of entertainment, too, just one I hoped never to associate with ESO.

rpa

They should just tell "Sorry marketing could not compile the list of questions for us to answer" and close the thread.

Ghaleb

The guy / girl running their Twitter account should have more time soon though, looking at the trajectory of that platform.

Or he/she is already available to compile, as login is impossible since Musk deactivated all unnecessary microservices… including 2FA. ^^

So resource issue solved.

Edit: grammar and typing is hard.

Styxius

So, they still haven't released the Q&A. I am doubtful they'll say anything meaningful in it at this point. Given how they gaslit the community with u35. I am not confident in the contents of it. But adding another failed promise to the community after one the most damaging patches ever in a year of failed goals. I wish they'd just take it seriously for once as they have now pushed the player base to 2017-2018 levels of players. Just give us the Q&A. Even if it's one question and answer. Something concrete. If this was the plan and it's so well thought out. Why has it been literal months since the promise of it. So many let downs will only continue the train of losing players.

Destai

Styxius wrote: »

So, they still haven't released the Q&A. I am doubtful they'll say anything meaningful in it at this point. Given how they gaslit the community with u35. I am not confident in the contents of it. But adding another failed promise to the community after one the most damaging patches ever in a year of failed goals. I wish they'd just take it seriously for once as they have now pushed the player base to 2017-2018 levels of players. Just give us the Q&A. Even if it's one question and answer. Something concrete. If this was the plan and it's so well thought out. Why has it been literal months since the promise of it. So many let downs will only continue the train of losing players.

The silence is the worst part about this. I've written @ZOS_JessicaFolsom and @ZOS_Kevin alike. Not getting a response - especially when fluffier links can be posted, interviews have been had, etc. - is just straight up disrespectful. A lot of respect has been lost.

G0K4R

Dang, this thread surely is amazing - not in a good way tho...

Billium813

Destai wrote: »

Styxius wrote: »

So, they still haven't released the Q&A. I am doubtful they'll say anything meaningful in it at this point. Given how they gaslit the community with u35. I am not confident in the contents of it. But adding another failed promise to the community after one the most damaging patches ever in a year of failed goals. I wish they'd just take it seriously for once as they have now pushed the player base to 2017-2018 levels of players. Just give us the Q&A. Even if it's one question and answer. Something concrete. If this was the plan and it's so well thought out. Why has it been literal months since the promise of it. So many let downs will only continue the train of losing players.

The silence is the worst part about this. I've written @ZOS_JessicaFolsom and @ZOS_Kevin alike. Not getting a response - especially when fluffier links can be posted, interviews have been had, etc. - is just straight up disrespectful. A lot of respect has been lost.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but are you important enough to warrant a direct response from them? I mean, do you think they care that they have lost your respect? Do you think they have enough time in the day to answer every question that is asked of them?

In an ideal world, they would be able to debate and discuss every comment they are called out in, but let's be honest, they aren't going to agree to every interview that is asked of them. Not unless you have a Youtube channel with strong subscriptions, or are a member of a podcast, or write articles for an influential gaming website. I'm sure they just don't have the time or even care.

That isn't to say I don't want a Q&A, I just think the first issue is: what questions are they going to answer? They can't answer everyone's questions, and to be frank, there are tons of questions that community members would ask that don't deserve an answer ("Why are all the good mounts in the Crown store?!?"). What we need is for a content creator to take submissions for questions, from the community, then compile those questions, filter out the stupid ones, and request ZOS for an interview where they ask those questions. A Q&A with twitch chat, or on the forums, or with the general community, is NEVER going to happen