10th Anniversary in-game aftertaste: What's your impression in total?

ZOS_Kevin

Hi All, just wanted to take the time and thank everyone who provided constructive feedback and anecdotal feedback. The team is aware of many of the good points and pain points mentioned in this thread already, but we'll make sure they have this thread as well as the poll and commentary is good to review as we look to improve the event for next year.

NettleCarrier

I did writs as usual on all characters for about a week and then ran out of steam, the event is just too long. I heard horror stories of how long the style pages were taking to drop from world bosses and such and knowing my luck with leads I just decided to sit those out. I had to spend 12 tickets buying confetti pieces to finish the horse so that didn't feel great, but it is what it is I guess.

WinterBelle08

It was OK, but some parts were unpleasant.

The passive 100% xp boost buff didn't work most of the time. Doing a random normal dungeon with a 100% xp scroll added to that would usually give about 2-3 champion points worth of xp in past Jubilee events, and it didn't give enough xp for any champion points.

shalalaA7X

Usually I do guild events around daily quest shares during this event which is a good way to spend time with other guild members but with the low drop rate of the style pages and everyone painfully trying to farm them we weren’t able to do those as we used to. I liked previous year’s version better without the style page added farm. On top of that when you are farming the style pages too many people were there so even though bosses etc dropped boxes many didn’t get drops so many hours wasted with no rewards all around.

I did enjoy the drops I got but should have been able to get more with the activities I did.

EdjeSwift

Everything was great. I enjoyed it.

For an Anniversary Jubilee, the event was great. Lots of loot, plenty of stuff to do. I love grinding so the style page grind was a nice break from my other grinds. Since we're talking about the Jubilee, I had no issues. Outside of the Jubilee however, that's a whole different story.

Hamfast

It was OK, but some parts were unpleasant.

I have been doing these events for about 10 years... This year I did writs on 14 characters daily and failed to get a single motif chapter that my main crafter needed... I did get a bunch my wife needed, and some for friends, but alas, I did not get a single one I could use... had I, I would have been surprised, as I have all that are currently in the game. (Snare drum sound goes here)

I also gained quite a few plans for housing prices, which is always nice...

I spent quite a few hours attempting to get the special style pages, with absolutely no luck...

Oh, and I got reminded again that years ago, the cakes from the year before worked, so I skipped making the cakes... now they are furnishings, and I can't get them all... a bummer...

My only real gripe is that when we were given a 2-day extension due to the problems, I spent my tickets with the idea that I could get the tickets on the last day only to have "Maintenance" block those last 3 tickets...

UrQuan

The worst event ever. I hate everything in it.

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi All, just wanted to take the time and thank everyone who provided constructive feedback and anecdotal feedback. The team is aware of many of the good points and pain points mentioned in this thread already, but we'll make sure they have this thread as well as the poll and commentary is good to review as we look to improve the event for next year.

I hope the team is clear on what the actual problems were, and don't learn the wrong lessons from this.

The grinding for style pages that absolutely everyone hated wasn't in itself a bad idea. Style pages that drop from various kinds of activities that have been in the game for a long time and that people might not have had a reason to revisit for a while was not a bad idea. It was a good idea.

Where it became a massive pain point and something that nobody wanted was in having an insanely low drop rate (and I use the word "insanely" very intentionally, because nobody with a shred of sanity would have thought that drop rate was appropriate), combined with the style pages being bind on pickup, and not available to buy from the impresario. If the drop rate had been reasonable, people would have been fine with it. If the pages had been available from the impresario, people would have been fine with it even if the drop rate was still stupidly low. If the pages hadn't been bound and the drop rate was still ridiculously low, well people would have hated that too, but not quite as much as everyone hated what we actually got, because at least then it would have been theoretically possible to buy style pages that didn't drop for you from guild stores, although I'm sure the prices would have been through the roof.

ivelbob

It was OK, but some parts were unpleasant.

A mount that needs you to log in every day + spend event tickets is a bad idea. Unforeseen circumstances IRL or sudden in-game changes like server shutdowns / event extensions threw off the math for a lot of people resulting in situations where it became impossible for people to get the mount even if they had sunk a lot of time and resources into it already.

Reward should be for engaging in the Jubilee for some days, not rewarding perfect attendance.

Low chance of the rare motifs. All the community excitement for the staves and trueflame swiftly turned to anger when we realized that this was going to be a second job. And if players sink a lot of time into your event but still don't get those rare motifs they were so looking forward to, they are going to turn into your biggest critics and burn down any goodwill you might have tried to build.

Shadow-Fighter

The worst event ever. I hate everything in it.

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi All, just wanted to take the time and thank everyone who provided constructive feedback and anecdotal feedback. The team is aware of many of the good points and pain points mentioned in this thread already, but we'll make sure they have this thread as well as the poll and commentary is good to review as we look to improve the event for next year.

Hi Kevin

Next year, can we go through Vaermina's vision back to the date to get the missing style pages etc? And in other years to eat the different anniversary cakes?

Vaermina should allow us! Can you please talk with her?

Thank you

Freilauftomate

Other

I don't participate in events anymore and i really don't care about achievements and rare items. So i have no opinion about the last event.

But the anniversary in general didn't do anything for the game. Nothing changed for the better. At least not when it comes to real issues. Repair kits and all the quality of life stuff is cute, but it doesn't help when you can't really play the game.

Credible_Joe

Everything was great. I enjoyed it.

Played normally, with the exception of doing writs on one other character. I normally do them just on my main.

Got over a dozen motif pages I needed, sold as many as I didn't. Got enough rare alchemy ingredients that I won't need to shop for dragon bits, clam gall, mother of pearl, crimson nirnroot, chaurus eggs, or vile coagulant for quite a while. Got so many furnishing recipes.

Took a morning to fish out Trueflame, and called it a day. Had little interest in the other hyper rare style pages. The Earthbone pages were easy; even if I got a lot of dupes near the end. Didn't need to buy a single one.

Got both morphables, and the pet is ready for next event.

Maybe I got extremely lucky with Trueflame, but I think that's exactly the point. Most of the pain I've seen around this event had everything to do with grinding out what I interpreted as lottery prizes, things we weren't expected to collect a set of. I had no intention of spending more than one morning fishing; I never fish anyway. Needed a podcast to get through it. But I got it, and spent the rest of the event playing as I normally do, and getting hugely increased rewards for doing so.

The only thing I would adjust for future events is making it clear in both communication and implementation that some rewards are extremely low odds sweepstakes level drops. And similar to the Aetheric Cipher and Aetherial Dust, attach them to a huge range of activities that are equally accessible to everyone in any activity. Any killed monster, any farmed resource, any daily quest loot box, any event reward box, any mailed in reward box: undaunted, PvP, tales of tribute.

Make sure not to incentivize any particular activity.

That way, once the more attainable rewards are collected, players can enjoy the rest of the event with the understanding that there's still a chance for one last huge drop if they're extremely lucky.

Lastly, make it curated and tradable. So if players want to cash in on it for other high value content they need or want, it's an open option. Or, if a player can afford it, empty their bank account to get one. Or better yet, make them incentives for guilds to raffle or tournament off.

Just my personal experience, and two cents.

kiheikat

It was OK, but some parts were unpleasant.

Loot boxes were decent.
Good: Lots of trading with guildies to complete styles. Variety for getting loot boxes was decent. Decent drop on gold mats, furnishings. More folks interested in doing dailies.

Bad: Not getting a loot box when the horde nuked the boss before it spawned. Too many provisioning recipes, although I did get one I'd never seen before.

Style pages awful.
Good: Lore related. Fishing was surprisingly easy to get.
Bad: Low drop rate without any understanding of whether you'd get anything out of it. Got 3 pages in 3 hours, then nothing despite heavy farming. Most friends got upset and gave up before the end of the event.

Confetti horse
Bad: some folks didn't figure out until it was too late that they had to buy extra tickets to get the horse.

Cake slices
Bad: some folks got confused over eating cake vs cake slices. Luckily this was pointed out before I bought a bunch of cakes.

demonology89

It was OK, but some parts were unpleasant.

I enjoyed the event. Sure, the grind was unpleasant at times, but I did obtain the 5 style pages. I had to put in hours for each drop. But you know what I did to make it a little less miserable? I turned off zone chat to not be bitter about lucky players claiming they got the style page from 3 dolmens, I'd change zones for different scenery and less populated instances, I'd take breaks, etc. It was great that boxes dropped from more than daily quests. Therefore, if the page didn't drop from the dolmen, geyser, or WB, I at least still got a box. A big thanks to ZOS for that!

I will comment too that the purple provisioning recipes were way too frequent as loot. And possibly the mount could have been reduced to say 20 fragments instead of 25. I'm also still a little upset the event wasn't extended for ALL platforms to keep with precedence for past years, especially when console was dealing with a lot of crashes going into the event after U41. And I do think locked players should have had their compensation increased and been given purple boxes.

Edited to add: Having the Jubilee event, PTS, and the Thieves Guild/Dark Brotherhood event happen all within the same time frame was a pretty silly and a not very well thought out decision.

Elvenheart

The worst event ever. I hate everything in it.

Even after all the feedback, I am sure there are people at ZOS, some directly involved in planning this event, scratching their heads in a befuddled way and saying, “Why, we just don’t understand why people didn’t like so many things about the event!”

Parrot1986

It was OK, but some parts were unpleasant.

Feels harsh to call it a total disaster and I hated everything but it was close.

The decision to make the style pages so rare was awful. The total silence on the reaction of it was horrible too. “Fixing” it next year is pointless and won’t matter really, doing stuff like this when the even is meant to celebrate the game just smacks that the devs don’t have a clue on how to really engage players rather than force players into stupid grinds just to make it look like numbers are higher.

The plus points were as normal, lots of motifs and materials and good rewards for doing writs. Just a pity I didn’t get as much of a chance to earn rewards through playing content I really wanted to like pvp which for the first time got them through rotw boxes.

Eclipse318

It was OK, but some parts were unpleasant.

I'm somewhere between "everything was great" and "it was OK." I don't care about style pages so I don't have an opinion on that grind, but I understand why others were frustrated.

I loved the generous mats and motif drops in the jubilee boxes, but there were too many purple food recipes -- I only ever use 2 of those (Longfin Pasty and Artaeum Pickled Fish Bowl) which I already have, and don't need any more. What was the deal with dropping buckets of food recipes? As others have mentioned, inventory management became a problem.

I would rather have had blue and purple furnishing patterns and a chance at a piece of purple companion gear. Speaking of which, I LOVED the decorations, especially the little rugs with roses on them, and saw many people saying that they would like the patterns for them, or to be able to buy them at an achievement furnisher. I loved the cake slice furnishings and achievement. I did get the horse on the last day (whew) and the cake plate is both completely stupid and hilariously awesome, I'm still not sure how I feel about that...

I didn't do much jubilee box grinding, most of mine came from doing the daily crafting writs on 6 characters. My guild had fun doing group dailies and boss runs for the boxes.

At least one of my guildies was extremely frustrated that he couldn't get the mount, especially because he planned on getting up early on the last morning to get the last tickets he needed, and maintenance made that impossible.

In other words, don't say your event is ending at a certain time, then take the game down for hours before that scheduled time. At the very least, extend the event for one more day if there's some kind of sudden critical update that's unavoidable so that players aren't screwed out of their final rewards.

Overall very good, happy with it, but it could have been better.

Serpari

The worst event ever. I hate everything in it.

Ended with me canceling my yearly ESO subscription, as it made me rethink my entire relationship with this game. Not happy ZOS refuses to listen to player feedback regarding needless RNG grinds, not happy about the constant down time and the constant issues month after month, event after event. Not happy where the game's headed regarding expecting players to sink more money to acquire items that are advertised as part of a celebration, and then poor communication pulling the rug from people being able to acquire those items in the first place (the confetti horse).

In isolation all of these things would've been bearable, but we're only in April and ESO has seen this much down time and these many issues? Cannot justify paying money for this game anymore. A long break is needed. See you all in Gold Road, maybe, half a year after its debut. I'll probably be too busy playing Dawntrail instead.

Eclipse318

It was OK, but some parts were unpleasant.

liliub17_ESO wrote: »

Not a fan of mini-Molag hanging off this year's otherwise pretty cake, though.

YES, thank you, agree totally. I've turned that to the wall in my house, like the ugly part of a Christmas tree.

SilverBride

The worst event ever. I hate everything in it.

Parrot1986 wrote: »

The decision to make the style pages so rare was awful. The total silence on the reaction of it was horrible too.

This was the worst part for me. The grind was horrendous and the complete silence about all the feedback was beyond frustrating.

Actually this was the only part. What else was there to do? There weren't any fun anniversary quests or activities to enjoy. There was nothing but the grind. That's all I'll remember about it.

CrashTest

The worst event ever. I hate everything in it.

Extremely bad RNG annihilates fun wherever it's implemented, everything from leads to uncurated drops, and this event was a prime example of that.

Destai

It was not OK. I found only a small part acceptable.

UrQuan wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi All, just wanted to take the time and thank everyone who provided constructive feedback and anecdotal feedback. The team is aware of many of the good points and pain points mentioned in this thread already, but we'll make sure they have this thread as well as the poll and commentary is good to review as we look to improve the event for next year.

I hope the team is clear on what the actual problems were, and don't learn the wrong lessons from this.

The grinding for style pages that absolutely everyone hated wasn't in itself a bad idea. Style pages that drop from various kinds of activities that have been in the game for a long time and that people might not have had a reason to revisit for a while was not a bad idea. It was a good idea.

Where it became a massive pain point and something that nobody wanted was in having an insanely low drop rate (and I use the word "insanely" very intentionally, because nobody with a shred of sanity would have thought that drop rate was appropriate), combined with the style pages being bind on pickup, and not available to buy from the impresario. If the drop rate had been reasonable, people would have been fine with it. If the pages had been available from the impresario, people would have been fine with it even if the drop rate was still stupidly low. If the pages hadn't been bound and the drop rate was still ridiculously low, well people would have hated that too, but not quite as much as everyone hated what we actually got, because at least then it would have been theoretically possible to buy style pages that didn't drop for you from guild stores, although I'm sure the prices would have been through the roof.

@ZOS_Kevin just to tag along, as I was going to share similar sentiments. I think it’s really important that you as a CM give us a recap of what you think the pain points are. Like, we had one thread where we asked ZOS for input on the drop rates and no one joined that discussion.

When events like this happen, more than “we see your feedback” is necessary. Since you are likely passing this information to multiple teams, it’s likely that the notes are getting massaged as they’re passed along. It would be a shame if that feedback got misinterpreted and implemented in a way that would be poorly received.

So, given how poorly received this event was, I think it’s only important to know what pain points are recognized, who will be looking at them, and ultimately what you will do differently as a team.

It would also be nice if these suggestions were at least acknowledged. Obviously there’s bumps in the road for you and the CMs and many helpful suggestions seem to get not implemented, with little to no explanations why.

Aashiana

I always like Jubilee, but there were some differences this year. For those of us that use this event to stock up on mats and recipes for the rest of the year, it's great - but going on for this long was a little too long for me - grinding writs on all my characters on two accounts and then doing all the surveys and master writs, and THEN spending several hours a day trying to get those style pages.... The prices drop so much that you basically have to find ways to store all that stuff to sell later, inventory management adds to the tediousness.

Rather than the things you had to do neverendingly to get the style pages, it would have been better to put them in the regular jubilee boxes - with the same low drop rate. Then people are not spending hours every day trying to farm something in particular doing the same thing over and over. Especially when there is 5 minutes of down time between each spawn...

The confetti should have been that you could farm nearly every day and still get the horse without buying tickets - when it's supposed to be a fun event where you're giving stuff away in celebration, it doesn't sit well with people to make them spend money.

One thing I did like and could be a good model going forward was the Thieves' Guild approach, even though it was not technically part of Jubilee. Having a theme to focus on and the endeavors related to that that gave extra rewards was cool. One thing I liked about it was that every day was different things to do (something I like about endeavors in general). If you could make the festivals be more like that so that there's some change or rotation of things to do and obtain during them, that might help jubilee. Even if maybe different types of things would drop from the event boxes every week, including the ultra-rare things.

Parrot1986

It was OK, but some parts were unpleasant.

SilverBride wrote: »

Parrot1986 wrote: »

The decision to make the style pages so rare was awful. The total silence on the reaction of it was horrible too.

This was the worst part for me. The grind was horrendous and the complete silence about all the feedback was beyond frustrating.

Actually this was the only part. What else was there to do? There weren't any fun anniversary quests or activities to enjoy. There was nothing but the grind. That's all I'll remember about it.

Yup, this is my main issue with Zos’ engagement in general . The selective interactions they do can be really frustrating, as they can come across as being really interested and on the ball at times and others just plain ignore major things and pretend like they arent happening.

It’s very obvious when there’s a clear “don’t say anything” approach to something that’s happening and they just don’t acknowledge it until way too late. This was definitely one of those times since the forums were littered with threads and post and just radio silence.

My only guess would be they didn’t want to address or fix the drop rates mid event because players who spent hours grinding would’ve been annoyed. This is obviously a guess but when there’s no info coming back from zos that’s all you can do really.

In this instance it really spoiled what should’ve been a good event.

FluffyBird

The worst event ever. I hate everything in it.

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi All, just wanted to take the time and thank everyone who provided constructive feedback and anecdotal feedback. The team is aware of many of the good points and pain points mentioned in this thread already, but we'll make sure they have this thread as well as the poll and commentary is good to review as we look to improve the event for next year.

"The team" decided in the first place that:
- drop rates are ok
- herding players for gring to a handful of locations and activities is ok
- making the big prize unobtainable without spending tickets is ok
- robbing players of the last hours of event is ok, instead of extending the event

This is also the team that has issues every event, that releases bugged half-baked content, that provided ZERO communication on horrendous drop rate until the event was over.

I'm not holding the glorious PTS mess up against them, but now I don't trust these people to [snip], let alone "improve" anything. You may also pass along heartfelt thanks to Matt Firor for making sure that any promise "to do better" is worth nothing now.

And last, but not least, this was THE ten year anniversary event. It happens ONCE. I don't know how any dev [snip] could treat issues with such an important celebration with "oh well, we'll 'look to improve' next year".

[edited for bashing]

Carcamongus

It was not OK. I found only a small part acceptable.

FluffyBird wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi All, just wanted to take the time and thank everyone who provided constructive feedback and anecdotal feedback. The team is aware of many of the good points and pain points mentioned in this thread already, but we'll make sure they have this thread as well as the poll and commentary is good to review as we look to improve the event for next year.

"The team" decided in the first place that:
- drop rates are ok
- herding players for gring to a handful of locations and activities is ok
- making the big prize unobtainable without spending tickets is ok
- robbing players of the last hours of event is ok, instead of extending the event

This is also the team that has issues every event, that releases bugged half-baked content, that provided ZERO communication on horrendous drop rate until the event was over.

I'm not holding the glorious PTS mess up against them, but now I don't trust these people to [snip], let alone "improve" anything. You may also pass along heartfelt thanks to Matt Firor for making sure that any promise "to do better" is worth nothing now.

And last, but not least, this was THE ten year anniversary event. It happens ONCE. I don't know how any dev [snip] could treat issues with such an important celebration with "oh well, we'll 'look to improve' next year".

Damn, thanks for reminding me of Matt Firor's promise! How could I have forgotten about that? Humm, maybe because things didn't really go that way...?

[edited to remove quote]

Idinuse

It was OK, but some parts were unpleasant.

• I really appreciated the drops from the jubilee boxes and that they dropped from so many things/activities.
  
• You need to figure out a way for items like the 5 Style Pages to drop in some sort of manner that feels rewarding for the players. As it was this time, it takes away joy, time and any festive feeling from the celebration itself. Even if some would get mad, it would have caused less "damage" to increase the drop rate of those styles mid celebration. As it is now, plenty feel that they are completely done with the game, canceling subs etc which is a recoil I don't think you intended.
  
• I think there needs to be more of a feeling of celebration all around the game not just decorations. References to the story line, idk something more to do than just grind writs, bosses and such.
  
• Not really fair to have a Jubilee mount that you can't get unless you spend tickets or Crowns in the CS for it. It's a little like inviting someone to your birthday celebration and then charging you for eating the cake.
  
• We who actually were here on day one and have stuck and celebrated every anniversary with you since, should have something rewarding to show for it in my opinion. It's not a small thing to stick with and play a game for over 10 years (not even mentioning the ESO+ subs).

Wiseau

It was not OK. I found only a small part acceptable.

Terrible drop rates, no communication from the devs about maintenance times or proper event extension, cutting the event short 4 hours only for NA server at exactly the reset time, (nice going on that one, devs. couldn't have picked a better time for maintenance) insane drop rates, [snip]

[edited for discussing disciplinary actions]

Rowjoh

I'm sure I speak for the majority that there was excitement and anticipation ahead of the 10th Anniversary and was sure there would be something unique and special on the cards given the magnitude of the occasion and on the back of some great real life celebrations like the one in Amsterdam.

I was expecting that there would be some unique give-aways and was half hoping with fingers crossed that there might be some sort of token of appreciation for players who have been part of the ESO journey since launch.

None of this happened.

Instead we got a style-page farming nightmare, the PTS disaster, and the same old event boxes that were mostly filled with trash and base mats most players have stacks of anyway.

BlueRaven

The worst event ever. I hate everything in it.

FluffyBird wrote: »

And last, but not least, this was THE ten year anniversary event. It happens ONCE. I don't know how any dev [snip] could treat issues with such an important celebration with "oh well, we'll 'look to improve' next year".

The bolded part was what really disappointed me. To me this did not feel like a 10 year anniversary event. This event felt rushed from a planning perspective. Like the people involved in planning it had less than an hour to think and implement it before some internal deadline.

In the end I think I wanted something more special than a grind, and a horse that feels like a meme.

Edit: But it doesn’t matter anymore. Next year is whatever, the tenth anniversary came and went with a thud and until a twentieth rolls around that is the tone for the next ten years.

You only get one shot for a tenth anniversary.

code65536

The worst event ever. I hate everything in it.

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi All, just wanted to take the time and thank everyone who provided constructive feedback and anecdotal feedback. The team is aware of many of the good points and pain points mentioned in this thread already, but we'll make sure they have this thread as well as the poll and commentary is good to review as we look to improve the event for next year.

@ZOS_Kevin If people are "aware of many of the [...] pain points", then perhaps they can demonstrate that awareness with an apology. To tell your paying customers that you are "aware" of things that went wrong without at the very least offering an apology is quite disrespectful, wouldn't you agree?

"We're sorry that we unexpectedly cut short the compensatory extension of that event, thereby short-changing everyone on PC/NA of a fragment and daily tickets." would be a good starting point.

You know, I was one of the people affected by the lockout, and I emerged from it to reminders of all the things that I missed: inventory that was not encumbered by boxes, enlightenment that had built up to nearly full, a noticeably emptier mailbox due to expirations, the empty spot that I had reserved in my house for the 2024 replica cake that I didn't get a chance to buy before the lockout, and the thing that topped it all off was that I emerged from the lockout realizing that there was nothing to do, because the event was already over. As such, the end of the lockout felt depressing rather than joyous.

Look, I've written software for long enough to understand that catastrophic mistakes can and do happen, so I'm sympathetic and I'm not holding that against you. And, yes, sometimes fixing something turns out to be more complicated and more time-consuming than expected, so I can understand and accept that too. What I cannot understand is how it was handled. Schedule gets repeatedly delayed and pushed back? Don't just tell us that it's delayed, but tell us why. Restoration took so long that it went past the end of the event? Then give us an extension so that we can still interact with the event, or at least have the decency to tell us why you are unable to extend such a basic courtesy.

You can have someone stand on a stage and talk all day about how it's the players who matter and how much you appreciate us, but those are just words; actions speak louder, and the actions that were and weren't taken were deafening.

Finally, on the topic of reviewing commentary, need I remind you that during the previous PTS cycle, people already called into question the problem of the style pages being both rare and untradable? This feedback was clearly not heeded, since the event went live with no adjustments from PTS. So, again, actions speak louder than words. Telling us that you will "improve the event" in the future means very little when those words are drowned out by the actions (or lack thereof) that were taken.