Creative Director Interview Commentary

Destai

Interview
https://wccftech.com/elder-scrolls-online-shadow-over-morrowind-qa-creative-director-talks-necrom-chapter-community-requests/

General Preface
@ZOS_RichLambert
I hope you understand that when people criticize the game, it’s not necessarily a personal attack on you or your teams. Yes, there are some immature people who say mean things, but that’s not all of us. Many of us love the world you all have created and what criticisms we have come from a well-meaning place. For many of us, your contributions and your teams are vastly appreciated and celebrated. Just wanted to get that out of the way, so the following comments don't come across the wrong way. I appreciate your interview and wanted to add my own comments.

Housing

Another common request from the Elder Scrolls Online community is whether they'll get any medium-sized homes with the new Chapter.

It is certainly something we hear a lot of, I think that is one thing where people want different size homes. There's also another one that says 'Give us more slots so that we can decorate our homes more'. One is a little bit easier than the other. Specifically, the size of the home is a little bit easier. That is something that's on our radar and we talk about a lot, whereas with regards to the limit on how many items you can put in your home, that is there specifically just for performance metrics. If we didn't have a limit enabled, some players wouldn't even be able to zone into their homes because they would pack them so full that the client would just crash.

It feels like two things are conflated here, and I believe they should be addressed separately. It's easy for me to accept the limit on furnishings if it's a performance-related limitation. So that's non-issue for me. But, I hope that you're seeing nuances in people's opinions, namely people asking for incremental raises in furnishing limits. I don't think many people are expecting no limitations, but an increase of 25-100 slots would be appreciated.

So why medium houses? This was a talking point I gave the interviewer on Reddit, I'll share why I gave it. Medium houses (and non-Manors) are attractive for a few reasons. For one, they're easier to fill and cheaper to decorate. They offer players a way to make cozier builds. Additionally, if they're in the crown store, they're more affordable than their manor cousins. They also help round out a zone by giving players additional houses to obtain. Beyond base game, there's only been one medium house added - Lucky Cat Landing - which was a timed exclusive.

Which brings me to my next point - Crown Store tactics. I want to be able to enjoy the hard work your artists do on the houses and assets. The current pricing model greatly inhibits that. I feels manors are too expensive. I also don't feel like ANY crown store item should cost more than the game itself. I get that you guys need monetization, and I'm pretty liberal with my purchases, I just believe this approach needs adjusting. In the past, I’ve seen you take the stance of “don’t like it, don’t buy it” when mentioning $100 houses. That comes across as rude and dismissive towards other avenues you could explore.

I believe the frequency of timed-exclusives does a disservice to the housing mini-game. Of the ~40 crown store exclusives, only ~5 are still available. Perfect example - with High Isle, the expansion’s big house was available weeks after launch and only for a short time. This devalues that expansion for me. Places like Alinor, Leyawiin, Rimmen, etc. are popular hubs in part because they have houses available that excite people.

I think there's room for both the monetized houses and giving players something to chase in-game. And, given you've stated in previous interviews that players consume content quicker than you can release, changing up the approach might positively impact retention. Medium houses are one avenue to explore, leaving things in the store permanently is another. Addressing the disproportionate amount of Manors and time-deals would incentivize players to stay in the game.

Cosmetic Rewards

Will there be more earnable cosmetics (like skins) through content in Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom? The community is hoping to get them.

I would love to dig into that because we do have that already. Like, there are skins for completing dungeons. There is a mount that you can get for completing the hardest of the child's things.

There's all kinds of cosmetics that we put into the game. My question to them would be if they just want skins to be easier to get or if they want more skins. I think last year alone, there were over 200 different cosmetics that you could go and grind for and earn in the game. That would be a question I would love to have answered.

Referencing the last line in your quote, it sounds like you want a question answered. If you have questions about how the community views rewards, then I suggest doing some qualitative research via discussion here. Personally, your response to his questions feels like a deflection, and throwing out the 200 cosmetic statistic needs more context. The interviewer wouldn't necessarily have facts on-hand to complement the discussion. So, it’s hard not to feel dismissed by this. Again, sounds like you’re feeling attacked and then pivoting the onus away.

Yes, there very well may have been 200 new cosmetics. But what is their distribution? How many were from endeavors, where we have to ration our tokens? Are they timed deals? Are they motifs added months after the expansion's been out? Are the trial rewards? When people say they want more cosmetic rewards, they want both more skins/motifs and a more direct way to get them. Each type of cosmetic has its own experience, so let's unpack the different varieties.

1. Motifs. For many motifs, players are subject to RNG doing dailies to get the motifs they want. Some require HM mode content, which is fine, but is painful especially when the frequency of combat changes forces my communities to disband. There should be a way to more regularly get motifs so player's time is better respected. I invite you to read the other thread on this, as it more pointedly addresses it.
2. Skins & Personalities. I can't speak too much on this, but feel like throwing it out there might generate discussions. Just looking up UESP, there's WAY more in crown crates than there are in achievements. Edit - based on Nefas's video, he and his confirmed there are 6 to 8 skins available, depending on how you define each.
3. Costumes. Fundamentally, there are hundreds of achievements and hundreds of costumes and other cosmetics, but especially post-Base Game, there's very little overlap.
4. Mounts. No horses are available for gold beyond the few for sale at merchants that aren't vanilla horses. None are excited or even themed to a zone or race. None are associated with achievements. There's one mount from antiquities. There's one leveling mount. There are event mounts, sure, but beyond that, there are very limited options for the average player to get these on their own schedule.

Endeavors was something that hopefully would've helped people obtain cosmetics, but it's a very stringent system with even more rotating stock. Case in point - the potentate outfit style. I can't possibly get that all in the timeframe it's available.

Lastly, for a lot of cosmetics, there are oodles of rotating crown store items where people beg for their return. You have to at least recognize the frustration that causes people. I myself have seen products that I want to buy but can’t. Like housing, I think this is a disservice. I invite you to explore some of the community suggestions on how to revamp the rewards structure.

On Performance and PVP Updates

Can you tell us something about your plans with regard to PVP content once the backend hardware upgrades are completed? PvP players in Elder Scrolls Online have been waiting for quite some time and are very eager.

I understand that, but our focus, as I've said many times, is that performance is the most important thing. Adding more stuff to a poorly performing system just makes that system worse. We've shown that over the years when we tried to add what we would consider small things to PvP, it just made that performance worse. Our focus is getting the performance there and once we see the performance is better, then we will start doing some of the ideas that we have kicked around and have wanted to do for a while.

It’s very easy to assume from your tone here that you're probably tired of being asked about it. The question is, as a leader, what are you doing to help that?

I feel like there has to be greater effort in regularly communicating the open projects like the code rearchitecture or hardware replacements. We typically get updates once or twice a year. The current approach leaves many feeling confused and ignored. "We're working on it" doesn't feel satisfactory after years of asking where things are.

Players are looking for detail and that's not something we historically get. So, people pester you for updates, you get short and say you’re working on it, and then people complain all over. Quarterly updates, with some details on what's been tested or ordered, or even speaking about your challenges could help abate this common question. Of course, so would actually delivering, but that understandably takes longer.

In closing, I am legitimately excited for the next expansion and feel optimistic about the changes you and your teams are making. The rest of the interview was great and glad you shared it with us.

[Edited for Clarity & Tone]
[Edited Housing Details with Additional Facts, and for better structure]

Northwold

Struggling to see how your comments correspond to the interview, to be frank.

The_Titan_Tim

Performance isn’t a fraction of a problem in PvP anywhere except for Cyrodiil…

There are so many people that don’t want more things added to Cyrodiil, they want more options to choose from, we still don’t have matchmade duels, arranged PvP in housing, any form of two party combat outside of dueling, any new modes or maps to Battlegrounds, or any new unrelated faction based zones like Imperial City.

Adding those things would not negatively effect performance in any way, it would actually help to foster a better opinion of PvP in ESO because regardless of this insatiable push for a Cyrodiil focus, something that most of us have accepted by now will never be fixed, this game’s combat truly shines in small-scale and there isn’t enough of it.

Tandor

Like @Northwold, it seems that I was reading a different interview transcription to the OP.

SaffronCitrusflower

Tandor wrote: »

Like @Northwold, it seems that I was reading a different interview transcription to the OP.

Keep in mind that Lambert is being payed to participate in ESO related activities. And the customers are paying to participate in ESO activities. That means the customers should be getting respect and consideration from ZOS employees at all times....at least that's how it works in every other business I'm aware of.

Northwold

.

SaffronCitrusflower wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Like @Northwold, it seems that I was reading a different interview transcription to the OP.

Keep in mind that Lambert is being payed to participate in ESO related activities. And the customers are paying to participate in ESO activities. That means the customers should be getting respect and consideration from ZOS employees at all times....at least that's how it works in every other business I'm aware of.

The original post completely misrepresents what the interview says and uses that as a pretext to air their personal grievances. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's dishonest for the poster to do that, because it may not be intentional (perhaps English is not their first language), but the narrative they imply is unrecognisable from the interview linked to.

So before people get agitated as if the interviewee actually said what the OP insinuates he did, I would strongly recommend they read the interview itself.

Destai

Northwold wrote: »

.

SaffronCitrusflower wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Like @Northwold, it seems that I was reading a different interview transcription to the OP.

Keep in mind that Lambert is being payed to participate in ESO related activities. And the customers are paying to participate in ESO activities. That means the customers should be getting respect and consideration from ZOS employees at all times....at least that's how it works in every other business I'm aware of.

The original post completely misrepresents what the interview says and uses that as a pretext to air their personal grievances. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's dishonest for the poster to do that, because it may not be intentional (perhaps English is not their first language), but the narrative they imply is unrecognisable from the interview linked to.

So before people get agitated as if the interviewee actually said what the OP insinuates he did, I would strongly recommend they read the interview itself.

English is my first language. The on rewards section is about his comments on cosmetics, the on performance was about his comments towards the end of the interview.

He did offer retort to the interviewer’s questions about cosmetic rewards. Asking if people are asking for things to be more easily earned or an increase in volume. It’s both for many, but it’s a discussion that they should actually have rather than just throwing it in an interview as a deflection.

Northwold

Destai wrote: »

Northwold wrote: »

.

SaffronCitrusflower wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Like @Northwold, it seems that I was reading a different interview transcription to the OP.

Keep in mind that Lambert is being payed to participate in ESO related activities. And the customers are paying to participate in ESO activities. That means the customers should be getting respect and consideration from ZOS employees at all times....at least that's how it works in every other business I'm aware of.

The original post completely misrepresents what the interview says and uses that as a pretext to air their personal grievances. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's dishonest for the poster to do that, because it may not be intentional (perhaps English is not their first language), but the narrative they imply is unrecognisable from the interview linked to.

So before people get agitated as if the interviewee actually said what the OP insinuates he did, I would strongly recommend they read the interview itself.

English is my first language. The on rewards section is about his comments on cosmetics, the on performance was about his comments towards the end of the interview.

He did offer retort to the interviewer’s questions about cosmetic rewards. Asking if people are asking for things to be more easily earned or an increase in volume. It’s both for many, but it’s a discussion that they should actually have rather than just throwing it in an interview as a deflection.

Or he asked a question. On performance, he gave an explanation of why they do things X way which you appear determined to turn into something else. If English is your first language I suggest you read it again, properly.

Destai

Northwold wrote: »

Destai wrote: »

Northwold wrote: »

.

SaffronCitrusflower wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Like @Northwold, it seems that I was reading a different interview transcription to the OP.

Keep in mind that Lambert is being payed to participate in ESO related activities. And the customers are paying to participate in ESO activities. That means the customers should be getting respect and consideration from ZOS employees at all times....at least that's how it works in every other business I'm aware of.

The original post completely misrepresents what the interview says and uses that as a pretext to air their personal grievances. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's dishonest for the poster to do that, because it may not be intentional (perhaps English is not their first language), but the narrative they imply is unrecognisable from the interview linked to.

So before people get agitated as if the interviewee actually said what the OP insinuates he did, I would strongly recommend they read the interview itself.

English is my first language. The on rewards section is about his comments on cosmetics, the on performance was about his comments towards the end of the interview.

He did offer retort to the interviewer’s questions about cosmetic rewards. Asking if people are asking for things to be more easily earned or an increase in volume. It’s both for many, but it’s a discussion that they should actually have rather than just throwing it in an interview as a deflection.

Or he asked a question. On performance, he gave an explanation of why they do things X way which you appear determined to turn into something else. If English is your first language I suggest you read it again, properly.

I did, doing some edits. Writing on mobile is hard lol.

Tandor

Which part of the interview are you basing your opening comments about contributions on?

Elsonso

Northwold wrote: »

So before people get agitated as if the interviewee actually said what the OP insinuates he did, I would strongly recommend they read the interview itself.

People can, if they want, but don't go out of the way to do it. It is probably one of a dozen interviews, all with the same questions, answered with the same answer.

Destai

Tandor wrote: »

Which part of the interview are you basing your opening comments about contributions on?

That was a general statement, just given some historical reactions I’ve seen. I’m gonna rewrite when I get home and quote the interview for better context.

Northwold

Elsonso wrote: »

Northwold wrote: »

So before people get agitated as if the interviewee actually said what the OP insinuates he did, I would strongly recommend they read the interview itself.

People can, if they want, but don't go out of the way to do it. It is probably one of a dozen interviews, all with the same questions, answered with the same answer.

As long as they're not going to sit there and take the OP's "version" as gospel, that's not a problem. Because that "version" is dishonest.

Tandor

Destai wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Which part of the interview are you basing your opening comments about contributions on?

That was a general statement, just given some historical reactions I’ve seen. I’m gonna rewrite when I get home and quote the interview for better context.

In other words, it was nothing to do with the interview but you wanted to make a personal rant at the top of the post to attract the most attention. I suggest you delete it in your edit, it devalues your entire response to the interview.

Destai

Tandor wrote: »

Destai wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Which part of the interview are you basing your opening comments about contributions on?

That was a general statement, just given some historical reactions I’ve seen. I’m gonna rewrite when I get home and quote the interview for better context.

In other words, it was nothing to do with the interview but you wanted to make a personal rant at the top of the post to attract the most attention. I suggest you delete it in your edit, it devalues your entire response to the interview.

Given how tense some of the interactions and controversial have been between him and the community, I wanted to set a respectful tone for what I feel is constructive criticism. I posted my thoughts here on the official channel because I think it's the best place for them to see it. If I wanted a rant, I'd go to Reddit where I can be much, much more candid. Additionally, I've edited my original post to have better tone and clarity. Hope that helps.

chessalavakia_ESO

Tandor wrote: »

Destai wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Which part of the interview are you basing your opening comments about contributions on?

That was a general statement, just given some historical reactions I’ve seen. I’m gonna rewrite when I get home and quote the interview for better context.

In other words, it was nothing to do with the interview but you wanted to make a personal rant at the top of the post to attract the most attention. I suggest you delete it in your edit, it devalues your entire response to the interview.

Eh, the interview has his usual style of comments that could be considered dismissive/combative.

For example:

Will there be more earnable cosmetics (like skins) through content in Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom? The community is hoping to get them.

I would love to dig into that because we do have that already. Like, there are skins for completing dungeons. There is a mount that you can get for completing the hardest of the child's things.

There's all kinds of cosmetics that we put into the game. My question to them would be if they just want skins to be easier to get or if they want more skins. I think last year alone, there were over 200 different cosmetics that you could go and grind for and earn in the game. That would be a question I would love to have answered.

He took a clear window to talk about the new exciting cosmetics in Necrom the art team has likely made and instead choose to make his response primarily challenging that their was a lack of earn-able cosmetics.

You appear to see a similar approach additionally in this recent German interview:

German:

https://mein-mmo.de/chef-eso-neue-klasse-so-gut-weitere-klassen-folgen/

Google Translate to English:

https://mein--mmo-de.translate.goog/chef-eso-neue-klasse-so-gut-weitere-klassen-folgen/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp

Yandex Translate to English: (Google's Translation appears to be far better but I checked a second one to reduce the chance of it being totally off.)

https://translated.turbopages.org/proxy_u/de-en.en.f85602fe-63e7f8a9-b7cfdb90-74722d776562/https/mein-mmo.de/chef-eso-neue-klasse-so-gut-weitere-klassen-folgen/

MeinMMO: The big highlight for many is the new arcanist class. However, there is also criticism that it is too similar to existing classes instead of bringing something completely new. What do you think about that?


Rich : Nobody has played the class yet, so I'm not sure how anyone can say it's too similar to one class or the other. We've only just scratched the surface of what this class is, what it can be, and how it works.

The new class really stands out, it comes with a very different mechanic than our old classes. We have the combo scoring system, or crux as we call it, a system where some skills build up points while others use them up. Here the players have to make many decisions. And Crux is important. Using Krux can change how an ability works.

I've healed a lot with my Akanist and one of my favorite skills is called Remedy Cascade. This is a beam of energy that you shoot in front of you and that you have to aim accurately. So if you look up, the beam goes up, you look left to left and right to right. So you aim at that beam and try to hit people with it. And that's how you heal.

However, if I turn it into an ability to consume Krux, then the ability not only restores health, but also stamina and magicka. The arcanist feel is very different, you don't follow a set rotation, you look at how best to spend Krux for the situation at hand.

The playing feel is very soft, very fluid, and the sounds are outstanding. I can't wait for players to finally get their hands on the new class.

If you've got an awesome new unique class and somebody that doesn't know anything about it says that you don't the effective approach is to focus on showing that the class is what you say rather than opening with you haven't tried it.

Some people are better at doing public appearances/press interactions than others. Having everyone do it isn't effectively playing to people's strengths.

Remedy Cascade gets less than 100 ESO related hits on google at this time (It was mentioned on https://www.mmorpg.com/interviews/interview-talking-elder-scrolls-onlines-necrom-reveal-with-rich-lambert-2000127206 over a week ago) despite the fact that an aimed beam heal (it might also do damage as well as in one of the trailers a beam is used to kill things) could be quite cool/impactful (It might be a pain to balance so it's useful for PvE (many of the heal targets unfortunately run like chickens with the heads cut off when they get hurt which could make the aiming part an issue) and not overpowered in PvP (People already complain about ball groups not dying so if it packs even more healing power it could meet with complaints).

Marto

chessalavakia_ESO wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Destai wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Which part of the interview are you basing your opening comments about contributions on?

That was a general statement, just given some historical reactions I’ve seen. I’m gonna rewrite when I get home and quote the interview for better context.

In other words, it was nothing to do with the interview but you wanted to make a personal rant at the top of the post to attract the most attention. I suggest you delete it in your edit, it devalues your entire response to the interview.

Eh, the interview has his usual style of comments that could be considered dismissive/combative.

For example:

Will there be more earnable cosmetics (like skins) through content in Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom? The community is hoping to get them.

I would love to dig into that because we do have that already. Like, there are skins for completing dungeons. There is a mount that you can get for completing the hardest of the child's things.

There's all kinds of cosmetics that we put into the game. My question to them would be if they just want skins to be easier to get or if they want more skins. I think last year alone, there were over 200 different cosmetics that you could go and grind for and earn in the game. That would be a question I would love to have answered.

He took a clear window to talk about the new exciting cosmetics in Necrom the art team has likely made and instead choose to make his response primarily challenging that their was a lack of earn-able cosmetics.

Hostile questions beget defensive answers.

"Will there be more earnable cosmetics (like skins) through content in Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom? The community is hoping to get them." is a loaded question. And it's honestly kinda disrespectful and unethical for the interviewer to have worded it that way.

It's like... To give an analogy, imagine your parents or other family ask you "When are you going to get a decent job?"
Your only options are to say "I'll get a better job soon." which is an irresponsible promise to make on the fly, and it makes one look weak willed.
Or to say "My current job is decent enough", which makes you look defensive, or like you're avoiding the subject.

How would you expect Rich (or any any other developer) to answer a question like that?
If he says "we're doing it" that's a promise which they may or may not be able to fulfill.
If he says "we're discussing it" that's honest, but doesn't inspire confidence.
If he says "we have enough cosmetic rewards" it makes him look defensive.

There's no way to win.

Alinhbo_Tyaka

Elsonso wrote: »

Northwold wrote: »

So before people get agitated as if the interviewee actually said what the OP insinuates he did, I would strongly recommend they read the interview itself.

People can, if they want, but don't go out of the way to do it. It is probably one of a dozen interviews, all with the same questions, answered with the same answer.

Rich seems to be a lot more scripted in his comments of late.


I don't like the question and response about the new endless dungeon being used to offset the lack of new dungeons. I think it is ok for this chapter due to it being a major function but if that is the long term strategy it means less unique dungeon content. Going forward the endless dungeon should be complimentary to and not replace the traditional chapter dungeons.

Cazador

Marto wrote: »

chessalavakia_ESO wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Destai wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Which part of the interview are you basing your opening comments about contributions on?

That was a general statement, just given some historical reactions I’ve seen. I’m gonna rewrite when I get home and quote the interview for better context.

In other words, it was nothing to do with the interview but you wanted to make a personal rant at the top of the post to attract the most attention. I suggest you delete it in your edit, it devalues your entire response to the interview.

Eh, the interview has his usual style of comments that could be considered dismissive/combative.

For example:

Will there be more earnable cosmetics (like skins) through content in Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom? The community is hoping to get them.

I would love to dig into that because we do have that already. Like, there are skins for completing dungeons. There is a mount that you can get for completing the hardest of the child's things.

There's all kinds of cosmetics that we put into the game. My question to them would be if they just want skins to be easier to get or if they want more skins. I think last year alone, there were over 200 different cosmetics that you could go and grind for and earn in the game. That would be a question I would love to have answered.

He took a clear window to talk about the new exciting cosmetics in Necrom the art team has likely made and instead choose to make his response primarily challenging that their was a lack of earn-able cosmetics.

Hostile questions beget defensive answers.

"Will there be more earnable cosmetics (like skins) through content in Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom? The community is hoping to get them." is a loaded question. And it's honestly kinda disrespectful and unethical for the interviewer to have worded it that way.

It's like... To give an analogy, imagine your parents or other family ask you "When are you going to get a decent job?"
Your only options are to say "I'll get a better job soon." which is an irresponsible promise to make on the fly, and it makes one look weak willed.
Or to say "My current job is decent enough", which makes you look defensive, or like you're avoiding the subject.

How would you expect Rich (or any any other developer) to answer a question like that?
If he says "we're doing it" that's a promise which they may or may not be able to fulfill.
If he says "we're discussing it" that's honest, but doesn't inspire confidence.
If he says "we have enough cosmetic rewards" it makes him look defensive.

There's no way to win.

Very good point. People are pretty quick to jump on the interviewee for giving an answer they don't like (or if they don't like the interviewee for that matter) and don't really look at how questions are asked.

For example, the question about arcanist being too similar to other classes. I think rich actually gave the best possible answer you can in that instance, and frankly he's right. We haven't seen it outside of a few clips so no one really knows. How else is he supposed to answer that?

Amottica

To the first point, you are correct. It is a misdirection that was accidentally trying to give an answer that seemed in-depth but without actually commenting on the actual question.

To the second point, this is misdirection as well; granted, the question about if we just want things to be easier is a valid question, but nothing is mentioned about adding more which is why it is misdirection.

For the PvP aspect, the answer is the only answer Zenimax should provide at this point. Zenimax cannot be certain the server-side code rework/restructure will bring about notable improvements to performance until it is finished. Granted, it should be a significant improvement but it is technically hypothetical at this point. That is and should be their primary goal and making any significant PvP changes should be on hold until they get the existing PvP in a good place.

With that, I feel BGs need a revamp. I do not like the current designs. I am not sure if it is the XvXvX or the general designs of each type of match but I am using OW2 for my match-based PvP at this time. I still do Cyrodiil with friends/guild but I rarely do BGs.

BTW, I am not knocking Rich by calling some of his answers misdirection and my comments are only based on the text-based information OP provided. My guess is the interviewer did not provide him with a list of questions beforehand so Rich could prepare. While I feel it would be simpler to say something like we do not have any new medium-size homes in the pipeline right now but it is something I think we should take a look at. That only commits to considering such things while refraining from committing to deliver.

Destai

Marto wrote: »

chessalavakia_ESO wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Destai wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Which part of the interview are you basing your opening comments about contributions on?

That was a general statement, just given some historical reactions I’ve seen. I’m gonna rewrite when I get home and quote the interview for better context.

In other words, it was nothing to do with the interview but you wanted to make a personal rant at the top of the post to attract the most attention. I suggest you delete it in your edit, it devalues your entire response to the interview.

Eh, the interview has his usual style of comments that could be considered dismissive/combative.

For example:

Will there be more earnable cosmetics (like skins) through content in Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom? The community is hoping to get them.

I would love to dig into that because we do have that already. Like, there are skins for completing dungeons. There is a mount that you can get for completing the hardest of the child's things.

There's all kinds of cosmetics that we put into the game. My question to them would be if they just want skins to be easier to get or if they want more skins. I think last year alone, there were over 200 different cosmetics that you could go and grind for and earn in the game. That would be a question I would love to have answered.

He took a clear window to talk about the new exciting cosmetics in Necrom the art team has likely made and instead choose to make his response primarily challenging that their was a lack of earn-able cosmetics.

Hostile questions beget defensive answers.

"Will there be more earnable cosmetics (like skins) through content in Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom? The community is hoping to get them." is a loaded question. And it's honestly kinda disrespectful and unethical for the interviewer to have worded it that way.

It's like... To give an analogy, imagine your parents or other family ask you "When are you going to get a decent job?"
Your only options are to say "I'll get a better job soon." which is an irresponsible promise to make on the fly, and it makes one look weak willed.
Or to say "My current job is decent enough", which makes you look defensive, or like you're avoiding the subject.

How would you expect Rich (or any any other developer) to answer a question like that?
If he says "we're doing it" that's a promise which they may or may not be able to fulfill.
If he says "we're discussing it" that's honest, but doesn't inspire confidence.
If he says "we have enough cosmetic rewards" it makes him look defensive.

There's no way to win.

How else should they have broached it then? Genuinely curious because I feel like it’s a fair question with a lot of examples as to why it would be asked. It was a direct question, sure, but speaking about their monetization is something they’ve historically been sensitive about. Seems like there’s no pleasant way to ask an unpleasant but fair and reasonable question.

Personally, I would accept it if they said they were exploring new ways to get us earnables. It’s something frequently discussed, so I know it’s on their radar. As long as it results in some changes being done. Instead we got new monetization with the new harvesting animations. Really easy to see why people asked that question that directly.

Tandor

Destai wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Destai wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Which part of the interview are you basing your opening comments about contributions on?

That was a general statement, just given some historical reactions I’ve seen. I’m gonna rewrite when I get home and quote the interview for better context.

In other words, it was nothing to do with the interview but you wanted to make a personal rant at the top of the post to attract the most attention. I suggest you delete it in your edit, it devalues your entire response to the interview.

It has a lot to do with the interview as the tone taken by the interviewee is influenced by their previous experiences with members of the community. See my comment above. And wanting to get ahead of any defensiveness is fair, especially given how many times it's been displayed. I'm not trying to insult them, and wanted to set a respectful tone for what I feel is constructive criticism. I post it here on the official channel because I think it's the best place for them to see it. If I wanted a rant, I'd go to Reddit where I can be much, much more candid. Additionally, I've edited my original post to have better tone and clarity. Hope that helps.

Yes, that rewording of the original commentary on the interview into a a General Preface makes it a lot clearer and clarifies your position perfectly. Thank you.

Elsonso

Amottica wrote: »

For the PvP aspect, the answer is the only answer Zenimax should provide at this point. Zenimax cannot be certain the server-side code rework/restructure will bring about notable improvements to performance until it is finished. Granted, it should be a significant improvement but it is technically hypothetical at this point. That is and should be their primary goal and making any significant PvP changes should be on hold until they get the existing PvP in a good place.

One thing that was revealed in the PVP answer is that they have things they can work on after they fix the performance problems. I mean, this isn't exactly new news, but it is nice to hear them saying it.

"Our focus is getting the performance there and once we see the performance is better, then we will start doing some of the ideas that we have kicked around and have wanted to do for a while."

Pending getting performance fixed, of course.

Amottica

Marto wrote: »

chessalavakia_ESO wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Destai wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Which part of the interview are you basing your opening comments about contributions on?

That was a general statement, just given some historical reactions I’ve seen. I’m gonna rewrite when I get home and quote the interview for better context.

In other words, it was nothing to do with the interview but you wanted to make a personal rant at the top of the post to attract the most attention. I suggest you delete it in your edit, it devalues your entire response to the interview.

Eh, the interview has his usual style of comments that could be considered dismissive/combative.

For example:

Will there be more earnable cosmetics (like skins) through content in Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom? The community is hoping to get them.

I would love to dig into that because we do have that already. Like, there are skins for completing dungeons. There is a mount that you can get for completing the hardest of the child's things.

There's all kinds of cosmetics that we put into the game. My question to them would be if they just want skins to be easier to get or if they want more skins. I think last year alone, there were over 200 different cosmetics that you could go and grind for and earn in the game. That would be a question I would love to have answered.

He took a clear window to talk about the new exciting cosmetics in Necrom the art team has likely made and instead choose to make his response primarily challenging that their was a lack of earn-able cosmetics.

Hostile questions beget defensive answers.

"Will there be more earnable cosmetics (like skins) through content in Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom? The community is hoping to get them." is a loaded question. And it's honestly kinda disrespectful and unethical for the interviewer to have worded it that way.

It's like... To give an analogy, imagine your parents or other family ask you "When are you going to get a decent job?"
Your only options are to say "I'll get a better job soon." which is an irresponsible promise to make on the fly, and it makes one look weak willed.
Or to say "My current job is decent enough", which makes you look defensive, or like you're avoiding the subject.

How would you expect Rich (or any any other developer) to answer a question like that?
If he says "we're doing it" that's a promise which they may or may not be able to fulfill.
If he says "we're discussing it" that's honest, but doesn't inspire confidence.
If he says "we have enough cosmetic rewards" it makes him look defensive.

There's no way to win.

I think it may be more that there was a lack of preparation. I expect this was a scheduled interview vs one
done at the spur of the moment. With scheduled interviews, the questions are often shared ahead of time. It helps to ensure the answers will be well thought out.

Elsonso

Amottica wrote: »

I think it may be more that there was a lack of preparation. I expect this was a scheduled interview vs one
done at the spur of the moment. With scheduled interviews, the questions are often shared ahead of time. It helps to ensure the answers will be well thought out.

That interview sounded a lot like Lambert. The only exception to that was the one about the schedule and content changes this year. That had a more formal feel to it that had me raise an eyebrow.

chessalavakia_ESO

Northwold wrote: »

Struggling to see how your comments correspond to the interview, to be frank.

Marto wrote: »

chessalavakia_ESO wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Destai wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Which part of the interview are you basing your opening comments about contributions on?

That was a general statement, just given some historical reactions I’ve seen. I’m gonna rewrite when I get home and quote the interview for better context.

In other words, it was nothing to do with the interview but you wanted to make a personal rant at the top of the post to attract the most attention. I suggest you delete it in your edit, it devalues your entire response to the interview.

Eh, the interview has his usual style of comments that could be considered dismissive/combative.

For example:

Will there be more earnable cosmetics (like skins) through content in Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom? The community is hoping to get them.

I would love to dig into that because we do have that already. Like, there are skins for completing dungeons. There is a mount that you can get for completing the hardest of the child's things.

There's all kinds of cosmetics that we put into the game. My question to them would be if they just want skins to be easier to get or if they want more skins. I think last year alone, there were over 200 different cosmetics that you could go and grind for and earn in the game. That would be a question I would love to have answered.

He took a clear window to talk about the new exciting cosmetics in Necrom the art team has likely made and instead choose to make his response primarily challenging that their was a lack of earn-able cosmetics.

Hostile questions beget defensive answers.

"Will there be more earnable cosmetics (like skins) through content in Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom? The community is hoping to get them." is a loaded question. And it's honestly kinda disrespectful and unethical for the interviewer to have worded it that way.

It's like... To give an analogy, imagine your parents or other family ask you "When are you going to get a decent job?"
Your only options are to say "I'll get a better job soon." which is an irresponsible promise to make on the fly, and it makes one look weak willed.
Or to say "My current job is decent enough", which makes you look defensive, or like you're avoiding the subject.

How would you expect Rich (or any any other developer) to answer a question like that?
If he says "we're doing it" that's a promise which they may or may not be able to fulfill.
If he says "we're discussing it" that's honest, but doesn't inspire confidence.
If he says "we have enough cosmetic rewards" it makes him look defensive.

There's no way to win.

Hostile questions are part of being interviewed at times (and that one wasn't that hostile) and some people are significantly better at dealing with them than others. You can see examples of this in action in many national governments as politicians and press secretaries that are good at it will regularly handle questions that aren't friendly without putting themselves in the position of needing to be overly combative.

You can win either by predicting people's concerns and adjusting to them or predicting people's concerns and coming up with messaging to fit them.

For example, the question was "Will there be more earnable cosmetics (like skins) through content in Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom?"

This year, ZOS is not doing a story dlc and they are not doing two dungeons. As a result, the earnable cosmetic items need to be split across less content.

Thus, Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom can have more earnable cosmetic items than High Isle without increasing the number of items produced on the year overall as the content doesn't need to be spread out over a story dlc and two dungeons as well.

Agenericname

I feel like the answer to the cosmetics question wasnt too bad. People ask for cosmetics in the store because they're "gated" behind difficult content. In general people seem to want more rewards, but where they want them from can vary greatly.

If ZOS gives PvPers cosmetics those who dont like it will complain. If they put them in trials, people complain. People have even said that they felt putting cosmetic rewards in challengers was too much.

It feels like a legitimate question to me.

Destai

chessalavakia_ESO wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Destai wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Which part of the interview are you basing your opening comments about contributions on?

That was a general statement, just given some historical reactions I’ve seen. I’m gonna rewrite when I get home and quote the interview for better context.

In other words, it was nothing to do with the interview but you wanted to make a personal rant at the top of the post to attract the most attention. I suggest you delete it in your edit, it devalues your entire response to the interview.

Eh, the interview has his usual style of comments that could be considered dismissive/combative.

For example:

Will there be more earnable cosmetics (like skins) through content in Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom? The community is hoping to get them.

I would love to dig into that because we do have that already. Like, there are skins for completing dungeons. There is a mount that you can get for completing the hardest of the child's things.

There's all kinds of cosmetics that we put into the game. My question to them would be if they just want skins to be easier to get or if they want more skins. I think last year alone, there were over 200 different cosmetics that you could go and grind for and earn in the game. That would be a question I would love to have answered.

He took a clear window to talk about the new exciting cosmetics in Necrom the art team has likely made and instead choose to make his response primarily challenging that their was a lack of earn-able cosmetics.

You appear to see a similar approach additionally in this recent German interview:

German:

https://mein-mmo.de/chef-eso-neue-klasse-so-gut-weitere-klassen-folgen/

Google Translate to English:

https://mein--mmo-de.translate.goog/chef-eso-neue-klasse-so-gut-weitere-klassen-folgen/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp

Yandex Translate to English: (Google's Translation appears to be far better but I checked a second one to reduce the chance of it being totally off.)

https://translated.turbopages.org/proxy_u/de-en.en.f85602fe-63e7f8a9-b7cfdb90-74722d776562/https/mein-mmo.de/chef-eso-neue-klasse-so-gut-weitere-klassen-folgen/

MeinMMO: The big highlight for many is the new arcanist class. However, there is also criticism that it is too similar to existing classes instead of bringing something completely new. What do you think about that?


Rich : Nobody has played the class yet, so I'm not sure how anyone can say it's too similar to one class or the other. We've only just scratched the surface of what this class is, what it can be, and how it works.

The new class really stands out, it comes with a very different mechanic than our old classes. We have the combo scoring system, or crux as we call it, a system where some skills build up points while others use them up. Here the players have to make many decisions. And Crux is important. Using Krux can change how an ability works.

I've healed a lot with my Akanist and one of my favorite skills is called Remedy Cascade. This is a beam of energy that you shoot in front of you and that you have to aim accurately. So if you look up, the beam goes up, you look left to left and right to right. So you aim at that beam and try to hit people with it. And that's how you heal.

However, if I turn it into an ability to consume Krux, then the ability not only restores health, but also stamina and magicka. The arcanist feel is very different, you don't follow a set rotation, you look at how best to spend Krux for the situation at hand.

The playing feel is very soft, very fluid, and the sounds are outstanding. I can't wait for players to finally get their hands on the new class.

If you've got an awesome new unique class and somebody that doesn't know anything about it says that you don't the effective approach is to focus on showing that the class is what you say rather than opening with you haven't tried it.

Some people are better at doing public appearances/press interactions than others. Having everyone do it isn't effectively playing to people's strengths.

Remedy Cascade gets less than 100 ESO related hits on google at this time (It was mentioned on https://www.mmorpg.com/interviews/interview-talking-elder-scrolls-onlines-necrom-reveal-with-rich-lambert-2000127206 over a week ago) despite the fact that an aimed beam heal (it might also do damage as well as in one of the trailers a beam is used to kill things) could be quite cool/impactful (It might be a pain to balance so it's useful for PvE (many of the heal targets unfortunately run like chickens with the heads cut off when they get hurt which could make the aiming part an issue) and not overpowered in PvP (People already complain about ball groups not dying so if it packs even more healing power it could meet with complaints).

This is a good example of him being defensive but, I can understand why. People haven’t seen much of the new class, so to have that criticism on a nascent idea feels a bit premature. I can understand why he’d feel and respond as he did. I think it’s fair. Personally, I appreciate the insights from him on this one.

Katheriah

ProudMary wrote: »

Northwold wrote: »

.

SaffronCitrusflower wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Like @Northwold, it seems that I was reading a different interview transcription to the OP.

Keep in mind that Lambert is being payed to participate in ESO related activities. And the customers are paying to participate in ESO activities. That means the customers should be getting respect and consideration from ZOS employees at all times....at least that's how it works in every other business I'm aware of.

The original post completely misrepresents what the interview says and uses that as a pretext to air their personal grievances. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's dishonest for the poster to do that, because it may not be intentional (perhaps English is not their first language), but the narrative they imply is unrecognisable from the interview linked to.

So before people get agitated as if the interviewee actually said what the OP insinuates he did, I would strongly recommend they read the interview itself.

[snip]

I share your sentiment there. The knee-jerk tweet is basically the same story for me. Since those things happened I struggle to view things which could be interpreted multiple ways the positive way. Those incidents also don't really help in the trust going back and forth. I notice a lack of trust from the paying customers community to the developers and vice versa.

We're here because we love the game and we want to see it do well. And let's be honest; we were right about the LA changes and I never saw any apology for those two atrocities of incidents. A bit more trust in the community wouldn't hurt. Especially in active communication with the community (which is by the way his job, not his hobby).

And don't get me wrong, I'm not vouching for 'the customer is always right', I'm trying to state that ZOS has not been great with communication in the past years. While there's many examples out there of good communication with your playerbase.

[edited to remove quote]

Caligamy_ESO

TBH I skimmed this wall of text but the one thing that really popped out at me and irked me was the housing furniture limitations spiel.

If the clients would crash from being packed too full as stated, then why are the smaller & medium houses slot allotments so abysmal when compared to 700 furnishing houses? Is it the render distance to the entrance we're talking about here? I feel like further clarification is definitely needed because at face value it sounds like absolute nonsense.

Elsonso

Caligamy_ESO wrote: »

TBH I skimmed this wall of text but the one thing that really popped out at me and irked me was the housing furniture limitations spiel.

If the clients would crash from being packed too full as stated, then why are the smaller & medium houses slot allotments so abysmal when compared to 700 furnishing houses? Is it the render distance to the entrance we're talking about here? I feel like further clarification is definitely needed because at face value it sounds like absolute nonsense.

Simple. The "client crash" is an issue, but it is not the only issue. It is just the issue he decided to focus on. He only needs to say one issue for the interview. There are also pathing issues (ability to move in the space) that they have mentioned, object density issues (furniture per square foot) that I believe they did mention, as well as marketing issues, which I am pretty sure they have not mentioned.