ESO moving forward in 2024

TheMessengerOfDeath

How do you as a player actually feel about being apart of ESO community. This is an important poll moving into 2024 to get a sense of where we stand as players.

SaffronCitrusflower

Were ignored completely

ZOS does occasionally implement some requested QoL suggestions. And they do occasionally fix bugs in a timely fashion. (always in a timely fashion if it's crown store related of course) But when it comes to PvP, it's total radio silence or lip service at best. They even ban people from their twitch streams for even mentioning Cyrodiil or PvP.

TheMessengerOfDeath

SaffronCitrusflower wrote: »

ZOS does occasionally implement some requested QoL suggestions. And they do occasionally fix bugs in a timely fashion. (always in a timely fashion if it's crown store related of course) But when it comes to PvP, it's total radio silence or lip service at best. They even ban people from their twitch streams for even mentioning Cyrodiil or PvP.

This is hopes to a new year and a new start between players and developers.

TaSheen

I don't care. I play the game, I have fun in the game, that's all I care about. Community.... *shrug*

SeaGtGruff

I think our voices are heard, although a lot of players feel otherwise because their specific feedback and requests were not acted upon. But that doesn't mean our voices weren't heard.

Pixiepumpkin

Somewhere in the middle

I definitely do not get the impression I am a valued customer, even though I would be considerd a whale. So I challenge my thoughts on this and think of games where I do feel like a valued customer. No Man's Sky is the first that comes to my mind. I always felt valued in WOW because when I'd engage with a GM (does ESO have GM's?) they'd do their best to solve my issue, and always told a goofy joke. It was often done in RP fashion and made me feel like I belonged in that universe.

I think this game just needs more communication/personal interaction by the team at large. Too much seem to happen behind closed doors.

DreamyLu

Can't vote, no option is matching for me.

I believe that ESO is like all other MMORPGS. ZOS implement that what allows for a business case, as in that what can be done at reasonable costs while generating a financial benefit. They have a budget and set priorities accordingly. As for what they "fix" in game: the list of bugs, troubles and requested improvements is so enormous, that they can only do picking as good as they can, what results in a limited amount of implementations over long time.

Beside, don't forget that the majority of players are enjoying the game as is. They're mostly PvE, rarely do trials, touch normal dungeons but rarely the vet version and moderately care about achievements, doing only those that are "reachable". Deeply involved players who care about skills, equipment, PvP, working on high level activities and discussing combat technics are not the majority. This forum is representative of this minority, but not of the player base.

Araneae6537

Somewhere in the middle

Sometimes… although I think that better communication is needed, especially on topics there is some discontent about. If concerns were addressed and answered, even if the answer is not what I’d prefer, I’d feel better. Like with housing slots, sure I’d love to have more, but ZOS has made an official statement as to why that’s not possible now. I can live with that. In contrast, when account-wide achievements were implemented, very valid player concerns were never even acknowledged before it went live; instead there was an official Q&A that didn’t represent the issues players had at all, which just made it feel even worse.

James-Wayne

Somewhere in the middle

I submit feedback through the game, have done since 2014 and they have always put my ideas into the game in some way... for example in Necrom there is an achievement where when you are fishing you might pull an creature out and will need to fight it, well I submitted feedback regarding a total fishing makeover and what you could do with it in mid 2022 and this is what part of that idea I had.

The developers do listen at least through the in-game channels.

Muizer

Somewhere in the middle

James-Wayne wrote: »

I submit feedback through the game, have done since 2014 and they have always put my ideas into the game in some way... for example in Necrom there is an achievement where when you are fishing you might pull an creature out and will need to fight it, well I submitted feedback regarding a total fishing makeover and what you could do with it in mid 2022 and this is what part of that idea I had.

The developers do listen at least through the in-game channels.

This is probably how feature suggestions work. We can throw them at ZOS but from that point on it's beyond our control what, if anything, happens to them. That's just the way it is. To ask for more engagement around this kind of feedback is basically just asking ZOS to expand their PR apparatus: People working solely to make you feel you are heard. Well, personally I think that would be a waste of time and resources.

Feedback surrounding bugs is a different matter though. As paying customers, we are entitled to see them fixed at some point, and when they're not (yet) that merits some sort of explanation.

Destai

Were ignored completely

I incorrectly voted. I believe it's somewhere in between, but given how little they engage us, it's very easy to assume we're being ignored.

I believe they mainly listen through support tickets and data. When they eventually adjust to our feedback, it tends be reactions to overall sentiments. Examples are slowing down combat changes, releasing ToT, and adding some QoL changes. These types of things seem to be a matter of time more than anything else.

I also believe they favor their vision over our feedback, at least from the forum's perspective. They could better listen on granular stuff like PTS feedback and bug reports. There's a long history of PTS changes being poorly received and released anyways. When they do address bugs, it seems to be the top-of-stack ones. Persistent bugs don't seem to be getting the follow up that new ones do.

Few examples:
Grim Focus. First, I don't understand why this change was even made to begin with. So right away, there's confusion around that. Then, we have a ton of feedback against the change, which impacts monetized experiences like weapon skins, and we still cannot get an update.
Removing the ability to leave Dungeons while in combat. This is one of those "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" moments. There's oodles of stuck in combat bugs, and all too often, it happens in dungeons. Of course, there was PTS feedback against this change and it went in anyways. Then it was fixed, and then it was reintroduced.
Skyshard Hints are broken. I first reported this issue back in June 2022 and 1.5 years later, it still hasn't been resolved despite being slated for U36. In fact, it's been seen in every release since I reported it. It supposedly will now be fixed in U41. Let's hope it's another U36 situation.

The core problem here still is one of engagement. The focus here seems to be linking news articles and moderation. They could better communicate their overarching technical goals and progress. We haven't heard much on how performance and PVP fixes are progressing; nor have we been given a roadmap for those major projects.

DrNukenstein

Were ignored completely

-The last several patches have introduced very weak sets, compared to the patches that brought us amazing sets like Rallying Cry, and (the original) Hrothgars chill and Plaguebreak

-Inflation is out of control for gold mats and Columbine

-BG leader boards are still bugged since ToT came out

-Stale PVP meta since update 36 with no developer insight on what's next or how they plan to shake it up

-Still no one-handed/duelist transmog for 2h weapons

-No signs of a Battlespire chapter on the horizons

-Dual wield heavy attacks do a weird amount of not much damage

-Changes to Vateshran 2h and BrP DW that are anti fun for the players that use those, and are supposedly designed to reign in multi-step exploitative use by PvE-ers trying to get up to an extra 300 WD/SD in the first 30 seconds of that scripted fight.

-They went like 80% of the way with hybridization and then stopped on the last 20%. Mainly potions and mundus

-Does anyone actually like where light and heavy attacks are since the weaving nerf on update 35?

Freelancer_ESO

I think that feedback on forums has a high chance of being read and a low chance of changing the direction that content is already moving in at least in the short term.

Most of the bugs I've reported on the PTS forums have been either addressed or added to known issues quite quickly after posting them.

Some of the non-bug related things I've commented on have also been changed. For example, in one of the new dungeons last year on the PTS I mentioned that I healed an npc hoping they'd help me fight once they got to full health but that I was happy they did help us later in the fight. A little bit later, the PTS update includes a change that makes them help you fight if you heal them up to full health.

Areas where I disagree with the game's direction haven't really changed.

Fata1moose

Our voices are heard and feed back is listened to.

I think ZOS listens for the most part it just takes a while. They of course have to balance whatever they are already developing and player feedback, pivot when they can or get to it when they finish whatever they’re working on.

It’s actually insane how good their release cadence is, even with the pandemic Greymoor got what delayed a couple weeks? They probably don’t get enough credit in the industry with how efficient they are.

With that said I think they’ve dropped the ball on PvP and I don’t even particularly like PvP. Also if the cries weren’t heard on vet overland this year then that’s a glaring oversight.

Mansquito

Were ignored completely

Stuck in combat bug still persists in the game which clearly indicates that in most cases, we are completely ignored. This is a bug that can be game breaking and can be found in every aspect of the game, and has also been reported for years and years by hundreds of posts and people. This is just one bug but it clearly demonstrates a lack of care and lack of response.

There really needs to be more communication and far more engagement with the community

jtm1018

Were ignored completely

This is how I feel.

Just give me the unarmed/fighter skill line.

TechMaybeHic

Somewhere in the middle

Probably not ignored, but probably not listened to.

Everyone has great ideas, I am sure; but they probably already have a business plan and budget for the year that does not allow for a lot of extra side projects or staffing. That I completely get. I think communication could be better by a long shot, but I'd rather hear nothing than some forced cryptic response that tells us nothing, or worse; misleads people to believe something is happening.

SilverBride

Our voices are heard and feed back is listened to.

Hearing us doesn't mean agreeing with us.

MindOfTheSwarm

Somewhere in the middle

Yes, they do. But they generally don’t implement ideas as suggested. This usually is a hit for the most part but sometimes a miss.
For example, I think most people have said in the past that Frost offensive identity is best served in AoE DoT effects. Most suggested outright buffs to these abilities, but instead they were given increased chill effect. In my opinion this was a great way to implement Frost as an offensive option. As such, it stands apart as a damage type now. Although, there aren’t quite enough abilities to allow Frost to shine as a solo option just yet. But the same is true for Shock and especially Disease.

Disease really needs some love. I think taking a page out of the Frost idea is the way forward. By having it apply Diseased or, having it work by dealing more damage against targets already affected by Diseased. But we need new skill lines for that.

Tyrant_Tim

Somewhere in the middle

IMHO, It’s definitely in the middle.

I’ve had the pleasure of being approached by members of ZOS on multiple occasions with questions regarding certain community topics, so it’s not quite fair to say they ignore everything around them.

That being said, there are oftentimes situations where certain topics do get lost in the web of threads, and my advice would be for anyone who feels like they’re not being heard to try and reach out, it doesn’t hurt.

Amottica

Somewhere in the middle

Somewhere in the middle is the best that can be expected since even we disagree with each other. Any company would be crazy to try to please everyone concerning everything as that is impossible.

SaffronCitrusflower

Were ignored completely

The PvP community is ignored completely.

Destai

Were ignored completely

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

IMHO, It’s definitely in the middle.

I’ve had the pleasure of being approached by members of ZOS on multiple occasions with questions regarding certain community topics, so it’s not quite fair to say they ignore everything around them.

That being said, there are oftentimes situations where certain topics do get lost in the web of threads, and my advice would be for anyone who feels like they’re not being heard to try and reach out, it doesn’t hurt.

I have reached out to @ZOS_Kevin quite respectfully several times on a bug for over a year. There's also a few others who have had the same experiences. I have given them and the other CMs professional advice on how to improve the forums and community experiences. 8/10 times I get ignored.

From what I see, they communicate on their timeframes, not ours. It happened with the U35 Q&A, it happened with the forum overhaul threads, it happened with the crown store issue - you get the point. Players ask for regular updates, and it's usually a delayed response if we get one at all.

Even with Kevin here, the tone of their posts is they're dropping in between all of their things they're juggling. I think many of us are expecting a more active and interactive presence here. The CMs need to better balance all of their internal goals like posting news links and organizing feedback, against the rather frequent asks for regular updates.

Tenthirty2

No offense intended but why is this an important poll?

Is the dev team going to read it and actually take note? It's not stickied soooo prolly not.
TBH if they want to gauge concerns about players, the community, relations and PR, etc, etc all they need to do is read the front page of 'General'

I'm not a board member, I don't vote on changes, so I fail to see how this "PR poll" is going to get any more traction than any other NUMEROUS threads that cycle REPEATEDLY across the front page of the General forum. Scroll back a year, same several topics\complaints slightly reworded, go back two years same thing. It's old.

I just play the game, if there is something I don't like I may state something about it, maybe I just go play something else.

But in recent years when I scroll through the forum all I keep seeing is meme variations of "Won't somebody think of the children?!" and "Old man yells at cloud" >.<

Like I said OP, not meaning to offend and this rant is not directed at you specifically.
But this is really a been there and done and done and done that theme at this point.
If I were on the dev team and had to read the forum regularly (sry Kevin) I'd be clawing at my face in frustration like "WHAT do you people WANT!"

Destai

Were ignored completely

Tenthirty2 wrote: »

If I were on the dev team and had to read the forum regularly (sry Kevin) I'd be clawing at my face in frustration like "WHAT do you people WANT!"

Speaking solely for myself, I'd like to see more regular updates on things like where all the performance fixes are, how PVP stuff is going, and a general combat/performance improvement roadmap. IMHO, there should be a developer response on most, if not all threads in the bug subforum. Like I get it's not a ticketing system, but if there's no conversations there, then I believe that's a problem.

A lot of organizations have support dev rotations where junior devs get their chops by talking with customers. I don't see why they're not getting that here, other games do, and other industries do. We all want what's best for the game and having multi-year issues scantly updated isn't it.

XSTRONG

Somewhere in the middle

Hard to say! One thing is new Pvp content, alot of players are asking for it but havent happend yet but it dosent mean they dont listen, they might as well be working on it and not just push out some bad pvp content quick that would make players more upset.

BUT!! What about the mini map?? Would be really Nice on console and it wouldnt affect any gameplay in a bad way so I really dont get why we dont have it.

Anyway I think they listen to us but they cant put everything players want into the game.

Tenthirty2

Destai wrote: »

Tenthirty2 wrote: »

If I were on the dev team and had to read the forum regularly (sry Kevin) I'd be clawing at my face in frustration like "WHAT do you people WANT!"

Speaking solely for myself, I'd like to see more regular updates on things like where all the performance fixes are, how PVP stuff is going, and a general combat/performance improvement roadmap. IMHO, there should be a developer response on most, if not all threads in the bug subforum. Like I get it's not a ticketing system, but if there's no conversations there, then I believe that's a problem.

A lot of organizations have support dev rotations where junior devs get their chops by talking with customers. I don't see why they're not getting that here, other games do, and other industries do. We all want what's best for the game and having multi-year issues scantly updated isn't it.

This is something I could get behind, like a quarterly update kind of thing. With 3 or 4 main categories, PVP, PVE, Performance, Fixes\improvements. It's a good idea.

But it's been asked for before, in variations of threads themed around "communication".
Sometimes there is a communication thread, or a promise that they will do better, but it never lasts.
I don't think it's for lack of "care" as much as their focus and manpower is being directed elsewhere.
So they are trying to do what they can with the time they've been budgeted.

I honestly think the best thing they could do is 100% rework, with a new engine. The original foundation is very old and they don't even have some of the original devs around anymore to know what some sections of the game code do, so some things will NEVER be fixed.
Will ESO 2 happen? No. I don't think so sadly.
They make too much money on the Crown Store and subs so right now "good enough" is good enough.

Some would argue "Well then vote with you money! Stop subbing and playing and spending money on Crowns! That'll show em!"
Yeah it would and I could tell you exactly what would happen. Buh bye ESO. Profits dip too low and they'd shutter it.

It's not wrong to ask for more, to want better for something you love and enjoy investing time with. But we need to be realistic about what we can honestly expect from this platform and the resources budgeted to the team.

We are coming up on TEN years. If you've been in the industry, heck if you've even built your own PC or played games for the last ten years you should know that 10 years in this field may as well be 100 for how fast things are updated and technology advances. I feel the team knows well their limitations on the platform which is why we seem to get more new content than fixes\optimizations.

I think keeping that in mind would go along way to salving the frustrations many people voice.

Or maybe I'm just too much of a cynic and a rain cloud at this point to see anything but tarnished silver-linings lol.

Destai

Were ignored completely

Tenthirty2 wrote: »

This is something I could get behind, like a quarterly update kind of thing. With 3 or 4 main categories, PVP, PVE, Performance, Fixes\improvements. It's a good idea.

But it's been asked for before, in variations of threads themed around "communication".
Sometimes there is a communication thread, or a promise that they will do better, but it never lasts.
I don't think it's for lack of "care" as much as their focus and manpower is being directed elsewhere.
So they are trying to do what they can with the time they've been budgeted.

"We're working on communicating better" isn't really of any value to me. I've been given no reason to trust that statement. It feels like we have to chase down statuses for literal years. Even on stuff like forum management, there's not the responsiveness many of us are requesting and have been requesting for years.

And when players compile a list of what we think the open initiatives are, what we're asking for updates on, what impacts us the most, we get this. They haven't figured out a way to convey that information yet. That seems like a deep problem to me. So, no, I don't believe it's solely a matter of time or budget at this point. I think there's a cultural component too.

Like some others have said, these threads are rather frequent. And even with their frequency, I don't see any of their takeaways being realized. Just recently there was the thread on population testing in Cyrodiil. The whole thing felt like two different conversations, with players asking "what's this test for, why are we doing it" and ZOS basically saying "thanks for testing" after pages of people asking for the bigger picture. This was just a few weeks after the big thread where many of us gave very detailed feedback on improving again. It feels like none of that feedback was acted on.

They should know by now it's a sensitive issue and anything related to it will be met with a lot questions and concerns. They don't engage that but then anticipate people pestering them on streams. Just feels like there's a more proactive solution so we all could enjoy less drama on streams and here. I'm not even a PVPer and that situation bothers me. And it's not just PVP that needs better communication; it's all of the big efforts.

Tenthirty2 wrote: »

I honestly think the best thing they could do is 100% rework, with a new engine. The original foundation is very old and they don't even have some of the original devs around anymore to know what some sections of the game code do, so some things will NEVER be fixed.

I don't think a new engine is really possible without an entirely new game. And even if it were, I think there'd be such a massive pile of bugs and issues, just because it'd be essentially new software, that they'd play catch up for years.

I do believe they've made strides on technical issues, the new zones are progressively more performant and modern. And yes, there are older bugs, I just think it's a deeply technical problem. But if something's taking years to fix, and is possible to fix, then they should be providing regular statuses on that. I get that audience might be limited, but given people swarm their streams for updates, tells me it's necessity.

Tenthirty2 wrote: »

Some would argue "Well then vote with you money! Stop subbing and playing and spending money on Crowns! That'll show em!"
Yeah it would and I could tell you exactly what would happen. Buh bye ESO. Profits dip too low and they'd shutter it.

Voting with your wallet does help though. They have the data and see when their choices result in lower populations and income. I don't have the numbers, but it felt like U35 was a major dip for them, and they course-corrected. Sometimes it is necessary. There's no point in spending money on something if the direction is undesirable. I've spent $1000s on this game, but if they broke one of my favorite features or classes, I'd be tempted to stop.

It's a delicate thing though. I would think if players stop doing a particular activity or avoid a certain feature, that area of the game may not receive updates. With limited development resources, they have to target the most valuable areas. For that reason, I try to stick with the game despite its rockiness at times.

Tenthirty2 wrote: »

It's not wrong to ask for more, to want better for something you love and enjoy investing time with. But we need to be realistic about what we can honestly expect from this platform and the resources budgeted to the team.

Agreed. With all of the stress and business in my life, I try to relax in this game. I think there's value in taking something as it is, rather than for what one wants it to be. That's why I try to celebrate whatever the new feature is. I mostly avoid asking for new features, but rather focus my feedback on improving existing systems and communicating things better. Right now, I love where the game is and I'm really excited for this coming year. Got a newborn on the way, will probably get him into ESO.

KiltMaster

Somewhere in the middle

I think it depends what you're talking about. Bugs? Sure, sometimes.

PVP? No, never.

katanagirl1

Somewhere in the middle

I don’t think I’ve got feedback directly in any suggestions I have made, but a few of them have been implemented, even if it was just a comment in another thread. However, I have made other threads about specific improvements I think should be made and they got nowhere.

You win some, you lose some I guess.

NeuroticPixels

Our voices are heard and feed back is listened to.

Oh. I didn’t read well and just quickly chose. Thought it was asking what we wanted in 2024. 🥴