Does anyone employed by zos pvp?

xiphactinus · February 20

See title.

edward_frigidhands · February 21

Are you alright friend?

React · February 21

I've seen Gilliam in PVP exactly one time in the past four years that I've spent on PC NA. It was in IC during a PVP event maybe two years back.

I'm not familiar with the @names of any other zenimax employees, but I would wager that PVP is not the preferred activity for the majority of them.

SeaGtGruff · February 21

Back when Rich was streaming, I'm pretty sure I saw him joining in on some of the action in Cyrodiil. ZOS employees probably have to be very cautious about playing on account names and character names which are publicly known, as it opens them up to being badgered by other players. We probably play beside ZOS employees quite frequently without realizing who they are.

xiphactinus · February 21

React wrote: »

I've seen Gilliam in PVP exactly one time in the past four years that I've spent on PC NA. It was in IC during a PVP event maybe two years back.

I'm not familiar with the @names of any other zenimax employees, but I would wager that PVP is not the preferred activity for the majority of them.

That would explain a few things.

xiphactinus · February 21

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

Back when Rich was streaming, I'm pretty sure I saw him joining in on some of the action in Cyrodiil. ZOS employees probably have to be very cautious about playing on account names and character names which are publicly known, as it opens them up to being badgered by other players. We probably play beside ZOS employees quite frequently without realizing who they are.

They should interact with us more. I get it but a smidgeon of that 'badgering' would be down to frustration caused by the lack of comms.

xiphactinus · February 21

edward_frigidhands wrote: »

Are you alright friend?

Yes I'm fine thanks for asking! You good?

DrNukenstein · February 21

Devs Vs Streamers BG this MYM, make it happen!

SaffronCitrusflower · February 21

Sure doesn't seem like it to me. They for sure don't using an official ZOS account. I very much doubt a company with devs that played in Cyrodiil would neglect Cyrodiil as severely as they have.

xiphactinus · February 21

SaffronCitrusflower wrote: »

Sure doesn't seem like it to me. They for sure don't using an official ZOS account. I very much doubt a company with devs that played in Cyrodiil would neglect Cyrodiil as severely as they have.

I don't think they play either, I don't think they care. Hence I cancelled my sub last year.

xiphactinus · February 21

DrNukenstein wrote: »

Devs Vs Streamers BG this MYM, make it happen!

Nah, Cyrodiil...Let everyone have a crack at them.

DUTCH_REAPER · February 21

No way they play on the reg.

tincanman · February 21

React wrote: »

I've seen Gilliam in PVP exactly one time in the past four years that I've spent on PC NA. It was in IC during a PVP event maybe two years back..

Who won?

React · February 21

tincanman wrote: »

React wrote: »

I've seen Gilliam in PVP exactly one time in the past four years that I've spent on PC NA. It was in IC during a PVP event maybe two years back..

Who won?

3:40 - 4:20

https://youtu.be/rdBRIK4zZBA?si=Mz4q4JHOn0HLzKLD

ZOS_Kevin · February 21

We do have members of our team who play PvP regularly both at work and personally. Both in a casual and more hardcore setting. But unless those team members want to share their accounts, we do not provide that information. Privacy and whatnot.

React · February 21

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

We do have members of our team who play PvP regularly both at work and personally. Both in a casual and more hardcore setting. But unless those team members want to share their accounts, we do not provide that information. Privacy and whatnot.

That's good to hear. There has been a question I've seen asked here on the forums quite a few times, which is "Is zenimax happy with the current state of PVP balance, and is it what they envisioned?".

If there are team members who regularly participate in meaningful PVP combat, it would be great to hear from them what their opinions are on that. If they were willing to share, of course.

tincanman · February 21

React wrote: »

tincanman wrote: »

React wrote: »

I've seen Gilliam in PVP exactly one time in the past four years that I've spent on PC NA. It was in IC during a PVP event maybe two years back..

Who won?

3:40 - 4:20

https://youtu.be/rdBRIK4zZBA?si=Mz4q4JHOn0HLzKLD

Thanks (actually watched most of it before I saw the time posted).

ZOS_Kevin · February 21

React wrote: »

That's good to hear. There has been a question I've seen asked here on the forums quite a few times, which is "Is zenimax happy with the current state of PVP balance, and is it what they envisioned?".

If there are team members who regularly participate in meaningful PVP combat, it would be great to hear from them what their opinions are on that. If they were willing to share, of course.

We'll answer this generally here, but we'll take the question back and see if anyone is open to sharing personal experience.

The team is always proud of the work done with PvP. However, we also recognize the room for improvement and player expectation within that. There are always times in game design when teams want to do more, but for various reasons can't or can't at that point in time. Especially when original ideas were devised and established 10+ years ago. We are constantly looking at the evolving market and looking to see how we can improve and what could be added in the future. What we will say is we are aware of various perspectives on PvP within the community and are always looking for ways to help address problems and adjust QoL expectations. It's just some problems are much harder to tackle and require far more time to address. But it is something the team is talking about consistently.

React · February 21

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

React wrote: »

That's good to hear. There has been a question I've seen asked here on the forums quite a few times, which is "Is zenimax happy with the current state of PVP balance, and is it what they envisioned?".

If there are team members who regularly participate in meaningful PVP combat, it would be great to hear from them what their opinions are on that. If they were willing to share, of course.

We'll answer this generally here, but we'll take the question back and see if anyone is open to sharing personal experience.

The team is always proud of the work done with PvP. However, we also recognize the room for improvement and player expectation within that. There are always times in game design when teams want to do more, but for various reasons can't or can't at that point in time. Especially when original ideas were devised and established 10+ years ago. We are constantly looking at the evolving market and looking to see how we can improve and what could be added in the future. What we will say is we are aware of various perspectives on PvP within the community and are always looking for ways to help address problems and adjust QoL expectations. It's just some problems are much harder to tackle and require far more time to address. But it is something the team is talking about consistently.

Thanks for the insight, Kevin.

It's good to hear that the concerns and expectations from the community are still being considered, despite the relatively little communication we receive in regards to the PVP side of the game. I do think that the communication is often the biggest pain point when it comes to PVP, and for us consumers it can be easy to assume nothing is happening at all in regards to our concerns when we don't hear about them directly from the studio, hence threads like this one. Appreciate you taking the time to follow up here.

Here's to hoping we see more communication about, and focus on PVP with the Q4 system and onwards into 2025! The PVP systems in ESO are truly some of the best in the industry despite their issues, and have an insane amount of unexplored potential with how long it's been since we've seen a development focus on them.

ZOS_Kevin · February 21

Yeah, we'll have more communication around the Q4 system as we get closer. Teams are still working and testing, so we're a ways off from having conversation on that front. But the team is excited for when we get to that point!

ForumSavant · February 21

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Yeah, we'll have more communication around the Q4 system as we get closer. Teams are still working and testing, so we're a ways off from having conversation on that front. But the team is excited for when we get to that point!

I have been PvPing at a high level for years and I think the current state of the game is fine. The last few patches have been great for the most part and the balance is fair. The only things that I wouldn't agree with are adding the heal to sorc shield, the NB buffs, and Necro not receiving the help it needs, but you can't appease everyone. Siege damage and azureblight hit a little harder than they should, but nothing jumps out as a huge problem.

SeaGtGruff · February 22

xiphactinus wrote: »

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

Back when Rich was streaming, I'm pretty sure I saw him joining in on some of the action in Cyrodiil. ZOS employees probably have to be very cautious about playing on account names and character names which are publicly known, as it opens them up to being badgered by other players. We probably play beside ZOS employees quite frequently without realizing who they are.

They should interact with us more. I get it but a smidgeon of that 'badgering' would be down to frustration caused by the lack of comms.

Just to be clear, I chose the word "badgered" because I thought it was neutral-- that is, encompassing anything from adulation to animosity. Not all badgering is mean-spirited, just potentially annoying. "By Azura! By Azura! By Azura! It's <insert ZOS employee's name here>! I can't believe it's really you! Standing here! Next to me!"

We saw Rich play ESO on the live servers on his streams, and he occasionally pops in during certain players' streams. We've also seen Gina and Jessica playing ESO on the live servers during some of the ESO Live streams. We see Mike playing ESO on ZOS's internal server. And we see Kai and other ZOS or Bethesda employees playing ESO from time to time during streams on one or another of Bethesda's international Twitch channels. I would imagine that-- if they're smart-- they likely have accounts which they play on for those types of public streams, and other accounts which they play on privately so they can enjoy their game time without being innundated with chat messages from other players.

Even everyday players who happen to stream can have to deal with over-eager fans. I was turning in my crafting writs one day a few years ago when some player started sending zone messages to another player who was some streamer I'd never heard of and who was also turning in their crafting writs. The random player was going on about how he couldn't believe he was there turning in his writs at the same time as the streamer, and the streamer responded with something like, "Yeah, I have to do my writs, too, just like everybody else."

I remember watching a streamer a few years ago who used to enjoy streaming her PvP gameplay in Cyrodiil, although she later moved to strictly Battlegrounds, and then eventually moved on to other games. One day she was helping her alliance capture or defend a keep in Cyrodiil when some enemy player started bouncing up and down all around her and whispering to her, "You are a streamer? Are you a streamer?" She had to put him on ignore because he was so distracting.

So, yeah, I imagine that ZOS employees who enjoy playing ESO at home must certainly have account names which they try to keep private and confidential.

GooGa592 · February 22

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

We do have members of our team who play PvP regularly both at work and personally. Both in a casual and more hardcore setting. But unless those team members want to share their accounts, we do not provide that information. Privacy and whatnot.

What is the name of the dev or devs that work on PvP content? (not asking which devs PvP, just which ones work on Cyrodiil while on the clock)

Stridig · February 22

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

We do have members of our team who play PvP regularly both at work and personally. Both in a casual and more hardcore setting. But unless those team members want to share their accounts, we do not provide that information. Privacy and whatnot.

Please tell me none of them run in any ballgroups. That would extinguish the pilot light of hope that Cyrodiil will ever see any improvements.

SandandStars · February 22

it would be curious to learn that there are any devs who main a templar or necro in pvp

i would sincerely love to hear their perspective on changes to these classes over the past couple of years

Turtle_Bot · February 22

SandandStars wrote: »

it would be curious to learn that there are any devs who main a templar or necro in pvp

i would sincerely love to hear their perspective on changes to these classes over the past couple of years

Agreed, also like to hear their reasonings behind it taking so long to buff magsorc too, especially since whenever sorc had done well over the past few years, it was always a proc build and 99% of the time those proc builds were stamina focused, not mag focused.

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Yeah, we'll have more communication around the Q4 system as we get closer. Teams are still working and testing, so we're a ways off from having conversation on that front. But the team is excited for when we get to that point!

Thank you for popping in with some communication and explanations, looking forward to seeing more of it in the future and having more open discussions with the team (if possible).

Darethran · February 22

ForumSavant wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Yeah, we'll have more communication around the Q4 system as we get closer. Teams are still working and testing, so we're a ways off from having conversation on that front. But the team is excited for when we get to that point!

I have been PvPing at a high level for years and I think the current state of the game is fine. The last few patches have been great for the most part and the balance is fair. The only things that I wouldn't agree with are adding the heal to sorc shield, the NB buffs, and Necro not receiving the help it needs, but you can't appease everyone. Siege damage and azureblight hit a little harder than they should, but nothing jumps out as a huge problem.

The problem with PvP is the low player cap in the Cyrodiil campaigns. All the other issues are less important imo, as the smaller scale feels sad no matter what balancing is done to sets and skills.

Hopefully we hear something about the pop cap being increased.

xiphactinus · February 22

So why did zos lower Cyrodiil's pop cap on more than one occasion?

Freilauftomate · February 22

GooGa592 wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

We do have members of our team who play PvP regularly both at work and personally. Both in a casual and more hardcore setting. But unless those team members want to share their accounts, we do not provide that information. Privacy and whatnot.

What is the name of the dev or devs that work on PvP content? (not asking which devs PvP, just which ones work on Cyrodiil while on the clock)

I heard the pvp dev is called "Someone Else" and is working for free in the basement. Allegedly. Noone has seem them for years. (Fyi: This is supposed to be a bad joke, no baiting, no sarkasm, no trolling going on here.)

Izanagi.Xiiib16_ESO · February 22

SandandStars wrote: »

it would be curious to learn that there are any devs who main a templar or necro in pvp

i would sincerely love to hear their perspective on changes to these classes over the past couple of years

@ZOS_BrianWheeler used to main magplar iirc and @ZOS_RichLambert stamplar

Not sure these days if this is still the case / if pvp is part of either's gameplay recently.

GooGa592 · February 22

Darethran wrote: »

ForumSavant wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Yeah, we'll have more communication around the Q4 system as we get closer. Teams are still working and testing, so we're a ways off from having conversation on that front. But the team is excited for when we get to that point!

I have been PvPing at a high level for years and I think the current state of the game is fine. The last few patches have been great for the most part and the balance is fair. The only things that I wouldn't agree with are adding the heal to sorc shield, the NB buffs, and Necro not receiving the help it needs, but you can't appease everyone. Siege damage and azureblight hit a little harder than they should, but nothing jumps out as a huge problem.

The problem with PvP is the low player cap in the Cyrodiil campaigns. All the other issues are less important imo, as the smaller scale feels sad no matter what balancing is done to sets and skills.

Hopefully we hear something about the pop cap being increased.

Agreed. That is why I asked who is responsible for the crazy low population caps. That way we could ping them directly with questions regarding this very significant issue we face if we want to play in Cyrodiil now days. This is extremely frustrating and disappointing to try to play with a population cap that is literally 10% of what the pop cap was in 2015. That's how much they've lowered the pop cap since 2015. This is painful.