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

sleepy_worm

The worst event ever. I hate everything in it.

Marketing is dead. Talk to us.

Anachronian

It was OK, but some parts were unpleasant.

My impression is that ZOS is likely working on a public response of some sort, though they might need to measure it against community potential responses to their response.

Essentially, they need cover what went wrong, how to prevent it, and how to cover both those that were interrupted by maintenances and those that lost up to 10 days of game time during the most lucrative event of the year, as well as how to encourage people to return to the PTS.

KlauthWarthog

Or they could come and promise a Q&A. No way that could possibly go wrong, right?

Rowjoh

NettleCarrier wrote: »

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...

or alternatively, the rewards were so mundane (literally in some cases!) and not worthy of a celebration, let alone a special 10th one.

AlienSlof

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

code65536 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.

@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, 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.

Couldn't have put it more eloquently than this.

The anniversay events were my favourites for a long time until the last two or three years.

We used to get gold boxes of goodies for EVERY daily quest, writ, etc. Then they nerfed that. OK, some of us have a lot of characters, but it costs them nothing to give out in-game rewards. This should never have been nerfed.

This year they added the grind of all grinds and to top that off, the style pages were BOUND. Why? That was the crowning turd on top. Some people like grinding, so why not let them sell the duplicates to those of us who don't? I play games to have fun, and that does not include grinding. I just ignored the style page nonsense altogether. I would likely have bought a couple of the staves pages had they been sellable. PTS testers told you it wasn't right, but you ignored them and went with this nonsense anyway.

The mount - 1 confetti thing per day for 20 days of event (+2 for PC) but the mount is actually 25 confetti things. Again, why? To try and funnel people into the crown shop again? On top of this, it was a poor example of texturing that looked like a toddler had coloured outside the lines on the horse's bum! Do any of your artists actually KNOW what a horse looks like?

It didn't feel like a celebration of 10 years to me. It felt like a big 'thumb your nose' at us. It is we, the paying customers, who gave you that 10 years of longevity, and this is how you say 'thank you' to us?

My interest has been waning steadily as the incompetence and gambling and grinding gets worse. This so-called 'celebration' just added to that lethargy in me. If it was not for my saturday evening trial fun group, I would have uninstalled ESO after this fiasco of an event. I've been here since early beta and stuck with it through all those years, but now I don't feel the love any more.

In short, I don't spend any money on this game at all any more. It doesn't grab me in the feels any more.

Barovia87

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

My impression after this Event is that ESO doesn't value the 10 years I've spent playing and paying for their game. My impression is that they 100% do not care whether their Event was at all fun for the average player. They wanted user-engagement data, I am a statistic to them, and they felt entitled to my time no matter what it took to entice that time out of me. The grind for the Style Pages felt downright disrespectful and mean-spirited. I put in many hours and still came away empty-handed for pages I actually wanted to use during their limited-time "celebration". It was sour and unpleasant. The Geysers were a complete fetchshow, and only rewarding the top-12 DPS with Jubilee Boxes during that inflicted grind was in extremely poor taste.

There are plenty of other games that respect my time better.

I liked the mount, and that it wasn't a cash-grab. That felt genuinely celebratory. And if we momentarily ignore the drop-chance fiasco completely: I liked the addition of the Replica Style pages themselves, and was (initially) very excited to get a couple of them. The World Bosses/Geysers/Dolmens might have actually even been fun if they weren't gated behind completely horrific RNG-odds that force anyone who cares AT all into multi-hour, multi-DAY camp-and-run sessions that SEVERELY bloated the number of people at any given location. It was unreal and 100% unnecessary. The mood was SOUR on the ground. Even people who got their drops were just relieved. No joy. Just glad the punishment was finally over.

And that's before we even touch on all the downtime, the bugs, the PTS/Live fiasco, the locked accounts, the confetti management/confusion, the lost tickets due to your errors and your decision to cut PCNA off from the final day of your extension. It's been WILD, with almost no functional communication.

As it stands, I see no reason to renew my ESO+. And that makes me sad, because I've played since Beta. I've invested a lot in this game. Y'all have really dropped the ball lately, and seem rather unrepentant. Mostly it all just seems driven by greed and entitlement. I can't justify paying a company like that, especially not for a complete non-necessity like ESO.

HatchetHaro

The worst event ever. I hate everything in it.

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".

[edited for bashing]

Incredibly based take.

As one of the locked-out players, I would also add in alongside your post their inability to make good decisions with the PTS fiasco after it had happened, like deciding not to simply roll the whole server back 9 hours, putting players (the best of them) into an unfair lock-out during an event, stringing those players along from "2-3 days" to 10 whole days of lock-out (the entire second-half of the event), an unfair, inappropriate, and horrifically lacking compensation package, and their refusal to actually discuss the compensation package with the affected players.

[snip]
[edited for discussing moderator action(s)]

Blood_again

It was OK, but some parts were unpleasant.

I'm sorry to see how the topic of personal experience and impressions is turning into demanding feedback and pretending to be a majority among us.
Is it a practical application for the observer effect?
I see your frustration, but sorry, there are plenty of topics for demands and speaking for all Tamriel already.

Thanks to all who shared their impressions and opinions. I appreciate that they were different, open and honest. It is very insightful and touching to read them all.
I hope to see more responses here that are personal experience. Thank you!

Eiagra

Other

I got my yearly cake and then... just didn't feel motivated to do more. So I couldn't really say.

UrQuan

The worst event ever. I hate everything in it.

BlueRaven wrote: »

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.

Yeah, honestly that's a big part of why this event left such a bad taste in my mouth. It wasn't just that it was badly planned and implemented (with the insanely bad drop rates on the style pages being the worst example of that), it's that this was supposed to be a big celebration for the 10th frickin anniversary of the game! That's supposed to be a big deal! Who was stupid enough to think this was good enough for the 10th anniversary? Was the goal to make the entire player base angry at ZOS and not want to play anymore instead of celebrating 10 years of ESO?

GooGa592

Other

All I'll ever remember from the event is the insane grind for the limited availability style pages.

ake

It was OK, but some parts were unpleasant.

I did everything as usual, great satisfaction doing the writs on all my (scrupulously trained) characters.
I hated the gringind idea on the ​​style pages, I'll get them next year with 2 tickets and zero rng (or i hope so).
The 10th anniversary? Well for me it was like the other events only with a few more objects.

CGPsaint

The worst event ever. I hate everything in it.

The reward box grind was business as usual, however the inclusion of the new style pages with a beyond silly drop rate really marred an event that should have been a celebration for the people who have supported this game for a decade. Overall just another nudge from ZoS to play ESO less, and to focus on better games in my backlog. Just my 2 cents.

Grec1a

The worst event ever. I hate everything in it.

Blood_again wrote: »

I'm sorry to see how the topic of personal experience and impressions is turning into demanding feedback and pretending to be a majority among us.

According to the poll, only 51% of the respondents thought the event was "great" or "ok", leaving very close to half the player base dissatisfied with the event.

Of course ZOS don't have to provide feedback. They don't have to offer any explanation or apology for the event being extended then cut short on PC NA.

Equally, I don't have to renew my ESO+. I'm sure they won't miss my 15 bucks a month, but I'm also sure I'm not the only one who cancelled...

ETA: you can't blame people for using this thread to communicate with the team, as this was the only one they responded to.

.

nihonseanb14_ESO

The worst event ever. I hate everything in it.

It just felt low effort, even before the PTS debacle. Nothing from the ticket vendor was particularly interesting or exciting. The event mottif costume was so ugly literally no one is wearing it. The event mount looks like it was designed by an 8 year old girl fascinated with pretty ponies that poop a lot.

Just a series of bewildering choices. The only thing memorable about this event was how badly planned and executed it was.

Finedaible

It was OK, but some parts were unpleasant.

With the glaring exception of the database screwups between the PTS and Liver Servers which resulted in temporary bans, I think the Anniversary Jubilee was pretty great. The special Jubilee style pages were rare, but nowhere near as rare as some of the other more absurd RNG within the game, and I was able to complete them much earlier than anticipated even. I would like to see more rewards of this type available year-round however, since not everyone has time during an event to grind stuff like that. I got some even greater rewards from purple boxes this year like Minotaur chest motif, a few Aetherial dust, a LOT of gold upgrade materials, potent Nirncrux, and many recipes my characters never learned so I can't complain too much.

Vulkunne

Other

*Shrugs* it doesn't really matter what I think.

It wasn't terrible, I mean during the time waiting for bosses to spawn (especially in Vvardenfall), I did have some fun joking around with the other poor souls. Stayed out of PvP during the entire event so if you got shot down while questing that was not from me, least for this year.

It was alright. Its too bad we couldn't actually visit the party scene in Amsterdam I think. Would have been much better but unfort just not in the cards for everyone, including me. I bet any cake or refreshments they had over there were superb. Think I need to get out more but these days everything is just so damn expensive.

Amottica

Everything was great. I enjoyed it.

DemonicGoat wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

joe_schmo wrote: »

A total disaster

Edit: I just looked at the poll. It seems that the event is an overwhelming success since 75% felt it was ok or better. It is expected that most will not think it is perfect as one cannot please everyone 100% of the time.

Check your math?

I see "It was not OK. I found only a small part acceptable." 26% AND "The worst event ever. I hate everything in it."
19%"

Thats 45% that think it was not ok..

37% alone think it was only OK and "Some parts were unpleasant"

Where are you seeing an overwhelming success?

You are correct.

Still, only 43% did not like it. not bad really considering how much complaining about pretty much anything occurs in these forums and the forums are skewed due to the reality we are a vocal minority.

SilverBride

The worst event ever. I hate everything in it.

Amottica wrote: »

Still, only 43% did not like it...

We can't say what % liked it or didn't like it because of the "other" category. Unless we read all the "other" comments, if a comment was even posted, and count how many are mostly positive and mostly negative and add them to the other responses there is no way to get an accurate count.

Carcamongus

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

Amottica wrote: »

DemonicGoat wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

joe_schmo wrote: »

A total disaster

Edit: I just looked at the poll. It seems that the event is an overwhelming success since 75% felt it was ok or better. It is expected that most will not think it is perfect as one cannot please everyone 100% of the time.

Check your math?

I see "It was not OK. I found only a small part acceptable." 26% AND "The worst event ever. I hate everything in it."
19%"

Thats 45% that think it was not ok..

37% alone think it was only OK and "Some parts were unpleasant"

Where are you seeing an overwhelming success?

You are correct.

Still, only 43% did not like it. not bad really considering how much complaining about pretty much anything occurs in these forums and the forums are skewed due to the reality we are a vocal minority.

Bear in mind many of those who picked the "it's OK" option were critical of the event, even agreeing with the views from those who selected "not OK" or "worst event ever".

I_killed_Vivec

The worst event ever. I hate everything in it.

Amottica wrote: »

DemonicGoat wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

joe_schmo wrote: »

A total disaster

Edit: I just looked at the poll. It seems that the event is an overwhelming success since 75% felt it was ok or better. It is expected that most will not think it is perfect as one cannot please everyone 100% of the time.

Check your math?

I see "It was not OK. I found only a small part acceptable." 26% AND "The worst event ever. I hate everything in it."
19%"

Thats 45% that think it was not ok..

37% alone think it was only OK and "Some parts were unpleasant"

Where are you seeing an overwhelming success?

You are correct.

Still, only 43% did not like it. not bad really considering how much complaining about pretty much anything occurs in these forums and the forums are skewed due to the reality we are a vocal minority.

I wouldn't expect 100% (some people don't even like Christmas!), but it is the Tenth Anniversary. Really the vast majority should have found it enjoyable - and consider it time well spent in Tamriel.

They could have done so much more.

One unique give away gift for logging in in April.

Bring back the separate gold boxes for writs, bosses, dolmen, etc.

Work out someway to bring people into Cyrodiil - maybe to salute those who made the ultimate sacrifice over ten years of war (possibly a bit grim...).

Have an anniversary quest linking together different zones - not just geysers in Summerset or bosses in Vvardenfell, include the base game and all of the DLCs.

It seems that they didn't put any thought into it at all. Just throw in a couple of new cosmetics and a mount. That's just minimal effort. They could have done so much more, they could have made it into an EVENT!

I would have preferred them to put time and money into an in-game event than put on an event in Amsterdam.

shadyjane62

It was OK, but some parts were unpleasant.

The number of useless gold style pages was terrible. By the third day you couldn't give them away.

code65536

The worst event ever. I hate everything in it.

shadyjane62 wrote: »

The number of useless gold style pages was terrible. By the third day you couldn't give them away.

No, I think that was a nice touch, actually. Sure, for people who have been here every year, getting copies of the previous years' pages would likely seem pointless, but I know that for people who had taken breaks or who are new, it was a welcome chance to catch up.

Yes, there is a grab-bag, but that costs tickets, and people who had missed previous years already have a lot of other things to catch up on with their tickets (e.g., the indriks or 2021 items from the assistant).

I don't mind a minor inconvenience if it means that the event is more inclusive. So this is something that I will give ZOS points for and hope that this is a practice that will continue in the future.

old_scopie1945

Other

Just glad it is over. It was just a soul destroying grindfest.

BlueRaven

The worst event ever. I hate everything in it.

old_scopie1945 wrote: »

Just glad it is over. It was just a soul destroying grindfest.

Rest up. Scribing is also being described in a similar way to “a soul destroying grindfest” on the PTS, but slower with expensive price tags.

Icy_Waffles

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

Endless grinding? And the PTS fiasco.. it has me feeling mixed playing.

MrGarlic

I just played the game as I usually do outside of celebrations. The jubilee boxes I did get were welcomed. I did not chase them down.

The horse was nothing to chase for. I thought as a 10th Anniversary mount, it was very under-whelming. (I did not get it.)

For those who were locked out, I think Zos did a pretty poor job for you. You have my sympathy.

I feel overall, that for a 10th anniversary, it could have been done better.

The Thieves Guild DLC for free and Wrothgar were welcome on my alt accounts.

MasterSpatula

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

BlueRaven wrote: »

old_scopie1945 wrote: »

Just glad it is over. It was just a soul destroying grindfest.

Rest up. Scribing is also being described in a similar way to “a soul destroying grindfest” on the PTS, but slower with expensive price tags.

Maybe so, but at least the ability won't expire if you don't grind it out in a couple of weeks. Nor will it be entirely RNG based, at least as far as I understand.

Stamicka

Other

I was expecting something different I guess. Overall it didn't get me interested in the game so I was indifferent towards it, still didn't play much. There's still so many big issues with the game that ZOS continues to ignore. Wanted some big improvements for year 10, oh well.

jad11mumbler

It was OK, but some parts were unpleasant.

Standard anniversary event for me.

Locking the newer bits behind such a grind / time gate isn't okay though IMO.

For the mount you'd need to log in daily and do a daily, and on top buy more parts.
Then a potentially massive, hours worth of grinding different bits for each style page.

First event in a long time where I didn't collect everything.
Barely got the horse, and the got lucky with Trueflame on my 9th cast.

Did a few Vvard WB's, a few dolmens, a few etc, etc, before calling it quits.
Working 12 hour shifts I don't want to spend hours upon hourson my days off / after work grinding more.
RNG for them is all over the place too, with some only needing dozens of dolmens, etc, many needing hundreds and a few going into the thousands.