So whatever happened to that Q&A?

ForumBully

Faulgor wrote: »

vsrs_au wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

FluffyBird wrote: »

RMW wrote: »

Mmh if they don't want to do the Q&A they could also just do a roadmap, kinda share their combat vision

While other developer go "we'll release this bit now and leave the rest for polishing until 2023, sorry", ZOS behaves like someone would chomp their heads off if they fail to stick to the announced plans at any point. Therefore, it's unlikely to see a roadmap from the current team.

In their defense, people do complain whenever stuff they talk about fails to materialize. And I'm not just talking about this Q&A.

Look at the resurgence in people asking "Is the big feature spell-crafting?" That was talked about way at the beginning of the game, but there's been people faithfully asking for it ever since. People getting grumpy about stuff getting pushed back is also why ZOS stopped doing those performance roadmaps they used to. People got irritated when ZOS announced that the hardware upgrades were delayed.

So there's reasons why ZOS prefers not to give too many hard details until they are ready to announce whatever they're doing.

With respect, I think you just swapped cause with effect. It's the lack of communication/roadmaps that have been making players grumpy, not the other way around. That seems to be a common theme in this thread, too, from what I've read. Players have just been asking for more openness and transparency, including admitting to us if something prevents a roadmap feature from being progressed. Personally, I'd appreciate such honesty, and respect them for it.

Honestly I'm a bit annoyed when they ask us what kind of communication we want.

Aren't they the communication professionals here? Is this the first time a giant development studio is confronted with communicating with their player base, and we have to work together to figure out a workable strategy in this undiscovered country? Or are there litereally hundreds of examples past and present, that could serve as positive models how to tackle this?

If they really struggle to understand this communication thing, maybe their first port of call should be industry leaders that repeateadly rake in awards for their community support and ongoing service. Not some disgruntled social media dweller that is bound to get them in an awful mood.

One wouldn't think it's a difficult concept in need of a communication professional to understand that the reply to "Is there going to be a Q&A or not?" is either a "Yes, and here's when" or "No, and here's why".

"What kind of communication do you want?" is up there on the list of annoying things that happen when dealing with ZOS. It's quite simple really; answer questions as often as possible and when not possible communicate that the problem has been heard. Dead silence mixed with rampant "bashing", "baiting", and other [snip] for a multitude of ever growing forum offenses is what we in the world of humans consider terrible communication.

Jaraal

ForumBully wrote: »

One wouldn't think it's a difficult concept in need of a communication professional to understand that the reply to "Is there going to be a Q&A or not?" is either a "Yes, and here's when" or "No, and here's why".

That would be the most professional and efficient way of doing it. Doing nothing gives the impression that either the subject matter or the concerns of the players (or both) is/are not important enough to warrant a response. Conversely, saying "No, and here's why" provides concrete evidence of failure to follow through on promises, whereas "We'll let you know if there's anything to update" means no one can actually say they haven't followed through.... yet.

However, image is important. They are in control of how they want to be viewed as a gaming service provider. Decisions made yesterday, today, and tomorrow will shape public perception, as well as long term potential profits. So, let the chips fall where they may.

spartaxoxo

Honestly since this wasn't in the EOY letter, I hope they will update us. I was fine waiting a month personally, when there was still the possibility it would be part of the regular communication in December. But, since it was not, I think we should really get an update if it's still TBD, cancelled, or coming sooner than we think. Our last one was October, iirc.

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_Kevin

blktauna

Arunei wrote: »

blktauna wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

FluffyBird wrote: »

RMW wrote: »

Mmh if they don't want to do the Q&A they could also just do a roadmap, kinda share their combat vision

While other developer go "we'll release this bit now and leave the rest for polishing until 2023, sorry", ZOS behaves like someone would chomp their heads off if they fail to stick to the announced plans at any point. Therefore, it's unlikely to see a roadmap from the current team.

In their defense, people do complain whenever stuff they talk about fails to materialize. And I'm not just talking about this Q&A.

Look at the resurgence in people asking "Is the big feature spell-crafting?" That was talked about way at the beginning of the game, but there's been people faithfully asking for it ever since. People getting grumpy about stuff getting pushed back is also why ZOS stopped doing those performance roadmaps they used to. People got irritated when ZOS announced that the hardware upgrades were delayed.

So there's reasons why ZOS prefers not to give too many hard details until they are ready to announce whatever they're doing.

Perhaps if they involved the playerbase earlier and you know, maybe actually delivered on things they wouldn't have people being grumpy. A simple, no that's not on the agenda now or indeed ever will put stuff to rest. Their silence and failure to deliver is on them, not us for calling them on it and not wishing to accept it.

That's not really the case. I'll criticize ZOS when due, but in this case it's not true that being told no puts stuff to rest. They've said that spellcrafting has been shelved indefinitely, people still ask about it. Rich said in an interview not all that long ago that they have no real plans to make changes to overland difficulty, people still want it and ask about it. They've said they don't plan on doing Class Change tokens but people keep asking about them.

Saying no doesn't put things to rest, people will continue to ask about/for things even if the devs have said no or not in the foreseeable future a hundred times.

Saying no would certainly put things to rest if this list of no was somewhere that was obvious and in plain sight. Every time someone asks about 'why the housing limits' or 'why no spell crafting' etc someone has to dig up the interview links or whatever. Their decisions are all buried in various twitters, interviews with other sites, or old twitch streams. Put this stuff on Game official site. Simply say, 'as of now, we are not doing this for x reason' and have it where it can be easily referenced.

If they don't want to be bothered with questions, they need to put information upfront. It shouldn't be a treasure hunt and dependent on who remembers seeing what on which interview or tweet somewhere.

VaranisArano

blktauna wrote: »

Arunei wrote: »

blktauna wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

FluffyBird wrote: »

RMW wrote: »

Mmh if they don't want to do the Q&A they could also just do a roadmap, kinda share their combat vision

While other developer go "we'll release this bit now and leave the rest for polishing until 2023, sorry", ZOS behaves like someone would chomp their heads off if they fail to stick to the announced plans at any point. Therefore, it's unlikely to see a roadmap from the current team.

In their defense, people do complain whenever stuff they talk about fails to materialize. And I'm not just talking about this Q&A.

Look at the resurgence in people asking "Is the big feature spell-crafting?" That was talked about way at the beginning of the game, but there's been people faithfully asking for it ever since. People getting grumpy about stuff getting pushed back is also why ZOS stopped doing those performance roadmaps they used to. People got irritated when ZOS announced that the hardware upgrades were delayed.

So there's reasons why ZOS prefers not to give too many hard details until they are ready to announce whatever they're doing.

Perhaps if they involved the playerbase earlier and you know, maybe actually delivered on things they wouldn't have people being grumpy. A simple, no that's not on the agenda now or indeed ever will put stuff to rest. Their silence and failure to deliver is on them, not us for calling them on it and not wishing to accept it.

That's not really the case. I'll criticize ZOS when due, but in this case it's not true that being told no puts stuff to rest. They've said that spellcrafting has been shelved indefinitely, people still ask about it. Rich said in an interview not all that long ago that they have no real plans to make changes to overland difficulty, people still want it and ask about it. They've said they don't plan on doing Class Change tokens but people keep asking about them.

Saying no doesn't put things to rest, people will continue to ask about/for things even if the devs have said no or not in the foreseeable future a hundred times.

Saying no would certainly put things to rest if this list of no was somewhere that was obvious and in plain sight. Every time someone asks about 'why the housing limits' or 'why no spell crafting' etc someone has to dig up the interview links or whatever. Their decisions are all buried in various twitters, interviews with other sites, or old twitch streams. Put this stuff on Game official site. Simply say, 'as of now, we are not doing this for x reason' and have it where it can be easily referenced.

If they don't want to be bothered with questions, they need to put information upfront. It shouldn't be a treasure hunt and dependent on who remembers seeing what on which interview or tweet somewhere.

Like this pinned thread on Housing furnishing limits?
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/512076/february-2020-furnishing-limit-status-update#latest

I've since seen the topic mentioned in a couple other places, like an April interview by Rich Lambert, but all of that supports what was said back in 2020, as far as I've seen. Yet I still find myself referring players to that pinned thread, just this month.

There's a lot of players for whom it doesn't matter that the information is upfront or readily displayed. They want to know whether its still true or to know if plans have changed. After all, they still want what they're asking for, so they ask.

That's as true for the players asking for increase Housing limits as it is for us here in this thread, waiting for Kevin to update us further on whether or not a Q&A is still happening. An official word or even a pinned thread is no guarantee that players who don't like the answer given will stop asking.

Aka_

How is this thread still active? lmao

Arunei

blktauna wrote: »

Arunei wrote: »

blktauna wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

FluffyBird wrote: »

RMW wrote: »

Mmh if they don't want to do the Q&A they could also just do a roadmap, kinda share their combat vision

While other developer go "we'll release this bit now and leave the rest for polishing until 2023, sorry", ZOS behaves like someone would chomp their heads off if they fail to stick to the announced plans at any point. Therefore, it's unlikely to see a roadmap from the current team.

In their defense, people do complain whenever stuff they talk about fails to materialize. And I'm not just talking about this Q&A.

Look at the resurgence in people asking "Is the big feature spell-crafting?" That was talked about way at the beginning of the game, but there's been people faithfully asking for it ever since. People getting grumpy about stuff getting pushed back is also why ZOS stopped doing those performance roadmaps they used to. People got irritated when ZOS announced that the hardware upgrades were delayed.

So there's reasons why ZOS prefers not to give too many hard details until they are ready to announce whatever they're doing.

Perhaps if they involved the playerbase earlier and you know, maybe actually delivered on things they wouldn't have people being grumpy. A simple, no that's not on the agenda now or indeed ever will put stuff to rest. Their silence and failure to deliver is on them, not us for calling them on it and not wishing to accept it.

That's not really the case. I'll criticize ZOS when due, but in this case it's not true that being told no puts stuff to rest. They've said that spellcrafting has been shelved indefinitely, people still ask about it. Rich said in an interview not all that long ago that they have no real plans to make changes to overland difficulty, people still want it and ask about it. They've said they don't plan on doing Class Change tokens but people keep asking about them.

Saying no doesn't put things to rest, people will continue to ask about/for things even if the devs have said no or not in the foreseeable future a hundred times.

Saying no would certainly put things to rest if this list of no was somewhere that was obvious and in plain sight. Every time someone asks about 'why the housing limits' or 'why no spell crafting' etc someone has to dig up the interview links or whatever. Their decisions are all buried in various twitters, interviews with other sites, or old twitch streams. Put this stuff on Game official site. Simply say, 'as of now, we are not doing this for x reason' and have it where it can be easily referenced.

If they don't want to be bothered with questions, they need to put information upfront. It shouldn't be a treasure hunt and dependent on who remembers seeing what on which interview or tweet somewhere.

But that's the thing. The Overland Difficulty thread is stickied and Rich explained plainly enough why they aren't planning on changing the difficulty and people are still talking about why they want it and why it should be done. There are those who claim ZOS isn't listening.

They have said no in the past and when people link to that a lot of the time people will continue to ask or demand if the information is still relevant. It wouldn't matter if it's on the official site or not, it doesn't matter if they say no. They've said no to numerous things in the past and people will continue to ask about it and want it. Telling people "we don't plan on doing this" doesn't dissuade them from still saying they want it and explaining why they think it would be a good edition to the game.

The proof that saying no doesn't shut down any and all future mention or demand for any given thing is in the fact that they've said no numerous times and people continue to ask after what they were told no about.

This is a different case though. ZOS told us they'd give a QA to address player concern and to explain their thought processes beyond the Dev notes we got when u35 dropped. This isn't something we asked for and have been told no about repeatedly, this is something they offered, presumably out of goodwill, and now they refuse to say anything either way. It's pretty much guaranteed that if they say they're not gonna do it people will continue to ask about it and want it, but in this case at least it's something ZOS offered to give rather than it being something ZOS has said they aren't going to do but people keep asking about it.

blktauna

They have their communication answers then. Be active on the threads where the questions keep getting repeated. If nothing else have the mods drop in with a "this was answered here and no information has changed' link.

People will alwyas ask but you can keep thing from derailing with participation. That seems to be the thing they do not wish to engage in.

Elsonso

blktauna wrote: »

Saying no would certainly put things to rest if this list of no was somewhere that was obvious and in plain sight. Every time someone asks about 'why the housing limits' or 'why no spell crafting' etc someone has to dig up the interview links or whatever. Their decisions are all buried in various twitters, interviews with other sites, or old twitch streams. Put this stuff on Game official site. Simply say, 'as of now, we are not doing this for x reason' and have it where it can be easily referenced.

If they don't want to be bothered with questions, they need to put information upfront. It shouldn't be a treasure hunt and dependent on who remembers seeing what on which interview or tweet somewhere.

That is a problem that was evident when Rich was doing his stream. He would say stuff on there and it existed nowhere else. Someone had to carry that information back to the forum. There was a ton of information presented in almost the least consumable manner possible. Digging out that information required reviewing multiple VODs, and the whole thing had to be viewed because it could be anywhere in a multi-hour stream.

Now, of course, this is all gone. The relevant videos from Slasklurk have been removed..

In order to get all of this information, and not miss anything, someone has to stalk ZOS and several key employees across multiple social media venues. Then, when some ZOS rep says something, report back to everyone else. I am not sure who is babysitting ZOS on social media this week. There was an ESO Live Cooking stream and Gina talked about the upcoming patch. Briefly.

blktauna

Consolidating and presenting that information is their job, not ours. I find this to be incredibly unprofessional and aggravating.

spartaxoxo

I think information is naturally going to be spread around because there are multiple communication networks, and not every minor thing needs to be included everywhere. But, they definitely could do a better job organizing the information to make it more accessible. The dev tracker helps though. They could do written recaps after streams too.

A dev round up of things done outside the forums every now and again would be nice

VaranisArano

spartaxoxo wrote: »

I think information is naturally going to be spread around because there are multiple communication networks, and not every minor thing needs to be included everywhere. But, they definitely could do a better job organizing the information to make it more accessible. The dev tracker helps though. They could do written recaps after streams too.

A dev round up of things done outside the forums every now and again would be nice

I'd love written recaps of ESO Live and their other presentations.

Wolfkeks

Q&A advent calendar, door Nr. 18:

Yesterday's door was made by @Jaraal and who knows... Maybe they really think we can't handle the Q&A

mandricus

fizzylu

mandricus wrote: »

I mean, I'm pretty sure it's not going to happen haha I just like to see this forum continue on so Zenimax knows that many players have not forgotten their failures. Like seriously; so much damage was done this past year, but yet they keep on like nothing happened.... it's kind of crazy.

G0K4R

Don't like advent calendar at all but this one here: AMAZING.

What about that Q&A tho that ZOS promised us?
Anyone know anything about it?
Please be so kind and let me know! Thanks!

Wolfkeks

Q&A advent calendar, door Nr. 19:

Starpulsechic

.

Wolfkeks wrote: »

Q&A advent calendar, door Nr. 19:

lol, i come here for these advent calendar doors because they are so creative. I have zero expectations of a dedicated Q&A, its probably something they will briefly address at one of their next Streams.

Based on members of their stream team confirming community engagement via various calls I am pretty sure ZOS are now fully aware of what our grievances, challenges, requests are to date, which would include alot of those that are outlined in this thread.

The unsaid question on everyone's mind is will @ZOS_Kevin or @ZOS_GinaBruno provide for Door Number 25 to finish the Advent Calendar for the year?

G0K4R

I am already looking forward to all the beautiful happy new year memes coming 2023, 2024, 2025 and so on

Wolfkeks

Q&A advent calendar, door Nr. 20:

Darkstorne

My money is on no Q&A, and them not talking about it until the January new Chapter reveal stream. On that stream they'll roll out a standard "we hear you, we got it wrong, and this year we're fixing it. Here's what we're planning to do, please get hyped and pre-order the Chapter!"

That way, they don't have to talk about something so overwhelmingly negative until they can discuss it with a positive spin.

Moonsorrow

Aka_ wrote: »

How is this thread still active? lmao

Because we are still waiting for that Q&A.. surely it will happen eventually.

RMW

Wolfkeks wrote: »

Q&A advent calendar, door Nr. 20:

Mmh my Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse would've been:

1. Old Block Bug
2. New Block Bug
3. Newest Block Bug
4. Missing U35 Q&A

Elsonso

Wolfkeks wrote: »

Q&A advent calendar, door Nr. 20:

The thing about advent calendars is that they count down in anticipation of an event. Not exactly convinced that this applies to this case. They are amusing, though.

Arunei

G0K4R wrote: »

Don't like advent calendar at all but this one here: AMAZING.

What about that Q&A tho that ZOS promised us?
Anyone know anything about it?
Please be so kind and let me know! Thanks!

Nope, radio silence for weeks now about it. We haven't heard a peep about the subject since the last time Kevin posted in this thread some time back.

Wolfkeks

Elsonso wrote: »

Wolfkeks wrote: »

Q&A advent calendar, door Nr. 20:

The thing about advent calendars is that they count down in anticipation of an event. Not exactly convinced that this applies to this case. They are amusing, though.

Yep, I don't think anything will happen but still holding out for that New Life's Miracle

SpacemanSpiff1

any minute now.

Elsonso

Arunei wrote: »

G0K4R wrote: »

Don't like advent calendar at all but this one here: AMAZING.

What about that Q&A tho that ZOS promised us?
Anyone know anything about it?
Please be so kind and let me know! Thanks!

Nope, radio silence for weeks now about it. We haven't heard a peep about the subject since the last time Kevin posted in this thread some time back.

At this point, I would prefer to see "We are still working on it" rather than being ignored. However, I expect that the actual message is "We no longer plan to do this", and that would also be preferable to being ignored. ZOS just needs to close this loop. Not sure what the hangup is. It's not like it would take more than a minute or two to tell people either.

DemonicGoat

If they are perfectly happy to showcase an ongoing abject failure I will be perfectly happy to showcase their ongoing abject failures too.

blktauna

Elsonso wrote: »

Arunei wrote: »

G0K4R wrote: »

Don't like advent calendar at all but this one here: AMAZING.

What about that Q&A tho that ZOS promised us?
Anyone know anything about it?
Please be so kind and let me know! Thanks!

Nope, radio silence for weeks now about it. We haven't heard a peep about the subject since the last time Kevin posted in this thread some time back.

At this point, I would prefer to see "We are still working on it" rather than being ignored. However, I expect that the actual message is "We no longer plan to do this", and that would also be preferable to being ignored. ZOS just needs to close this loop. Not sure what the hangup is. It's not like it would take more than a minute or two to tell people either.

Completely agree.
Grow a spine and face your customers.