Angry/Negative Feedback is GOOD

ESO_CenturionPlayer

People only get angry about those things they care about. The forums may seem negative, but it’s better than the alternative… ambivalence.

Anger expressed here is by long-time players recognizing long-standing problems. Rather than address what has upset experienced players, it feels like ZOS tries to recruit a new round of naive players who haven’t yet gotten to the frustration.

Do others feel this way? I am no longer upset (because I stopped caring so much) and not posting as much. Similarly not going to play a game that continually disappoints. Eventually you have to move on when the attempts at change are fruitless.

The forums have turned into nothing more than a wastebasket of unaddressed angry posts which serve no purpose other than catharsis. In my experience, it is emblematic of the player base at large who is transitioning from feelings anger/disappointment into ambivalence/acceptance.

Gray_howling_parrot

ESO_CenturionPlayer wrote: »

People only get angry about those things they care about. The forums may seem negative, but it’s better than the alternative… ambivalence.

Anger expressed here is by long-time players recognizing long-standing problems. Rather than address what has upset experienced players, it feels like ZOS tries to recruit a new round of naive players who haven’t yet gotten to the frustration.

Do others feel this way? I am no longer upset (because I stopped caring so much) and not posting as much. Similarly not going to play a game that continually disappoints. Eventually you have to move on when the attempts at change are fruitless.

The forums have turned into nothing more than a wastebasket of unaddressed angry posts which serve no purpose other than catharsis. In my experience, it is emblematic of the player base at large who is transitioning from feelings anger/disappointment into ambivalence/acceptance.

Yea, the big thing is knowing what ESO is and what it isn't. If I was a PvP player for instance, I would've left long ago. I stopped caring about PvP a while ago because I just know nothing is going to come of the forum posts about it.

ESO is a casual MMO - great for collecting stuff in the sticker book, questing, getting achievements, etc. My biggest thing has always been my gripe with how insanely over-the-top the crown store is both in pricing and in breadth. The 2 biggest pillars for end game rewards are power/gear & cosmetics (mounts, the way your character looks, housing cosmetics, etc.). ESO is effectively cutting their end-game in half and replayability because of that. No matter how many forum posts I make or talk about - do I think they're going to fix that? Probably not. It's great for horizontal progression, achievements, and chillin. If my enjoyment was founded on anything other than that? (mounts, pvp, etc.) I would've moved on probably. Theres a ton of positive stuff about this game, but when I start feeling overwhelmingly negative about my future in this game or whatever, I just try something else, step away for a while, etc.

Endless archive, the grand master crafting stations, etc have really reinvigorated my love for the game and frankly, i've been pretty obssessed with it. Just gotta find what you enjoy - it's a video game and if its not bringing you relief of stress from real life and it's ADDING that, you gotta play something else or step away. Just my opinion

wilykcat

I don't know about everyone. There are a lot of negative posts, but mostly those are constructive and not personal.

I'm very passionate too. I remember a few weeks ago, I was very frustrated that this one quest "Order of the New Moon" was bugged. I was getting angry. I went to the forums to see if anyone else was having the same problem. I found a post abut the same bug, and added my own comment about it. Just recently that bug was fixed.

Even though I was angry, the forums helped me to know I was not the only one with this problem.

ikzaa

I will never understand why there are people who take the game too seriously.

But after many years I have lost interest in the game, I only log in to do Writs and collect the Surveys every Sunday, so at least I don't feel like I'm wasting the 3 ESO+ months I have left.

And play trials with friends, a lot of fun in that, but sadly every day they connect less.

But get angry about it? nah, I just step aside.

Now negative...

What can be considered a negative critic?

JemadarofCaerSalis

I have often noticed this in myself.

If something is 'just nice' or 'okay', I am much more willing to ignore and overlook any flaws there might be. Because I feel it isn't worth my time or effort to mention them. Often it won't change how I view that thing.

However, if I really like something, the 'flaws' become much harder to ignore, and I am much more likely to want to see that thing be improved, so I am more likely to want to give feedback.

I feel that there are two things to note: The first is that while just ranting can help someone release frustration, it doesn't really help the developers of the media (whether book or video game or whatever) improve. The second is that if someone really likes something and doesn't want to see negative feedback, DO NOT click on threads that seem like they might contain negative feed back, and learn to ignore any negative feed back they can't avoid.

Freelancer_ESO

I think it depends if the issues where people are angry can actually reasonably be fixed.

Sometimes the things that made something work at one point are a reflection of the time when they occurred and aren't repeatable. Sometimes, financially it simply isn't viable to do x or y.

You also can run into the issue that once people start coming up with ideas for "fixing" things they don't necessarily stop and it can become incredibly hard for something in reality to ever match the idea in your head which can lead to more angry/negative forum postings.

OBJnoob

I don't really disagree with anything being said here... A lot of pretty insightful stuff actually.

But I will say. In addition to people being more mad because how much they care... It perhaps goes too far with some people. Both the anger and the caring.

Some people have played this game for 5, 8, even 10 years (wasn't the 10th anniversary recently here?) That's pretty long for a video game. It's hard to understand people who've played the game for 10 years but act like it's garbage. I don't remember playing Call of Duty for 10 years. Or Halo, or Fortnite, or Forza, or Madden.

Games I have played as long as I've been playing ESO? World of Warcraft and EverQuest.

Something about MMORPGs is pretty addictive. I think we all know it. So. If people get angry when they care... How do you suppose they get when they're addicted?

I think that is more the case with some people... And therefore not quite as understandable.

TaSheen

OBJnoob wrote: »

I don't really disagree with anything being said here... A lot of pretty insightful stuff actually.

But I will say. In addition to people being more mad because how much they care... It perhaps goes too far with some people. Both the anger and the caring.

Some people have played this game for 5, 8, even 10 years (wasn't the 10th anniversary recently here?) That's pretty long for a video game. It's hard to understand people who've played the game for 10 years but act like it's garbage. I don't remember playing Call of Duty for 10 years. Or Halo, or Fortnite, or Forza, or Madden.

Games I have played as long as I've been playing ESO? World of Warcraft and EverQuest.

Something about MMORPGs is pretty addictive. I think we all know it. So. If people get angry when they care... How do you suppose they get when they're addicted?

I think that is more the case with some people... And therefore not quite as understandable.

Spot on. The one thing I can say with perfect truth is that both WoW and RIFT, while initially addictive, wore out their "welcomes" with me when things got changed (my characters in WoW for instance - they no longer were the characters I'd created and spent years with, after the "character update") - and at those points I simply quite paying (7 accounts in WoW, 5 in RIFT) and playing. And to this day the only thing I miss in either of those games is RIFT's housing.

Of course, I've been a TES addict since Arena released in 1994. I'm just hoping that I can still play when TES VI lands. If that's "ever"....

spartaxoxo

Constructive criticism is good. Angry feedback is an unproductive way to communicate criticism.

Edit

Not saying it's not good to have passion, but all of us can do is say what we'd like to see and hope for the best. In addition, anger is not only counter productive to communication, but it can make it harder to enjoy things we like. Because it can make us forget how much we like something in the first place.

Sarannah

Anger shouldn't be a thing with entertainment, especially games. If you get angry about things you should enjoy, you should step away for a few days/weeks. Create some distance.

I think it's good that players post about things that are wrong with/in the game. As any problem posted, could be an issue ZOS may be addressing at some point.

No matter how much we argue amongst ourselves, or how often we disagree with other posters, we just have to remember we all want the game to improve in any way possible. We just often differ on the how.