REMINDER: ZOS “Ask Us Anything” Post

Gray_howling_parrot

Just a reminder in case yall didn’t see it - today from 1:30p-3:00p EST ZOS is hosting an AUA thread on the ESO subreddit pertaining to Gold Road & the game at large. Ask your questions!

https://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/s/bletQap7cp

Link to the announcement^

Gina ( @ZOS_GinaBruno ) will be posting a brand new thread around then!

Syldras

I have one question: Why do they host it at Reddit and not here?

alternatelder

Syldras wrote: »

I have one question: Why do they host it at Reddit and not here?

Reddit AMAs are usually held on...Reddit.

Syldras

alternatelder wrote: »

Reddit AMAs are usually held on...Reddit.

But they couldn't do the same thing in their own forums, too, or would that be too weird of a request?

TaSheen

*shrug* I don't use reddit. I don't really have anything I need to ask about that's urgent enough to mess with reddit.

thinkaboutit

I guess its time to ask about why the servers have been broken for three weeks.

Syldras

TaSheen wrote: »

*shrug* I don't use reddit. I don't really have anything I need to ask about that's urgent enough to mess with reddit.

The issue I see (that has been critizised by other people before) is that ZOS often makes announcements or asks questions on Reddit, Twitter and other websites before there's anything on their own website or this forum. I've seen it several times over the years that there was some issue and people were asking questions here, waiting for a reaction, getting no answer, and it later turned out that ZOS had replied to the same question hours before already - on Reddit. But not a word here. No info banner, no forum post, no announcement/news post on the website. And all this while there were mods present who did their usual censor and deletion work. I do understand that mods may normally have different responsibilities, although in urgent cases it would be nice to forward a message to them that they can post here as an announcement. Which does happen at times (thanks for that!), but not always, and it remains quite obvious that ZOS communicates more on Reddit and Twitter than on their own website, so I understand that some forum people might feel left out. People just wish for more official communication and interaction here, especially when it comes to important topics.

RomanRex

thinkaboutit wrote: »

I guess its time to ask about why the servers have been broken for three weeks.

Would love to get some answers why the wheels are falling off right now.

Servers seem to be in worse shape than ever before. New content is fine, but getting existing content to work correctly should be a higher priority.

DenverRalphy

Syldras wrote: »

I have one question: Why do they host it at Reddit and not here?

Reddit is simply better equipped to handle an AMA. They provide Multi-Threading, so different devs can continue to respond to individual threads without having to wait for a question they're qualfied to answer or contribute to. They can also continue the thread while others are going on. AMA's also tend to spike server bandwidt, which I know I'd prefer were to happen on a server other than the forums here.

Message board forums like here aren't equipped for that. Reddit is.

Syldras

DenverRalphy wrote: »

Reddit is simply better equipped to handle an AMA. They provide Multi-Threading, so different devs can continue to respond to individual threads without having to wait for a question they're qualfied to answer or contribute to. They can also continue the thread while others are going on. AMA's also tend to spike server bandwidt, which I know I'd prefer were to happen on a server other than the forums here.
Message board forums like here aren't equipped for that. Reddit is.

While it might be too much input at once when they do it "live" here, they could still open a thread for people to send in their questions, and then publish their answers in another thread or an official news piece later?

WhiteCoatSyndrome

Syldras wrote: »

DenverRalphy wrote: »

Reddit is simply better equipped to handle an AMA. They provide Multi-Threading, so different devs can continue to respond to individual threads without having to wait for a question they're qualfied to answer or contribute to. They can also continue the thread while others are going on. AMA's also tend to spike server bandwidt, which I know I'd prefer were to happen on a server other than the forums here.
Message board forums like here aren't equipped for that. Reddit is.

While it might be too much input at once when they do it "live" here, they could still open a thread for people to send in their questions, and then publish their answers in another thread or an official news piece later?

I would also like to see this. I’m not on Reddit, but I would love to ask, for example, if we’re going to see the new Daedric Prince have an effect in future Elder Scrolls games.

Yes I know how Gold Coast ends. We can still dig up her shrines and artifacts, even without dragging in multiverse shenanigans.

RicAlmighty

thinkaboutit wrote: »

I guess its time to ask about why the servers have been broken for three weeks.

Someone did ask that. Rich said they are aware and they've been dealing with DDOS attacks that have had an impact

furiouslog

RIch Lambert kinda blew off my RNG question. I don't like that, Rich.

katanagirl1

RicAlmighty wrote: »

thinkaboutit wrote: »

I guess its time to ask about why the servers have been broken for three weeks.

Someone did ask that. Rich said they are aware and they've been dealing with DDOS attacks that have had an impact

So that’s what is happening?

See I’m not on Reddit or Twitter so I didn’t know that.

vsrs_au

Enter reddit? I'd much rather climb down into a stinking sewer. I'm not happy with ZOS for posting "ask us anything" type threads in reddit and not in their own official forums.

Gray_howling_parrot

[quote

vsrs_au wrote: »

Enter reddit? I'd much rather climb down into a stinking sewer. I'm not happy with ZOS for posting "ask us anything" type threads in reddit and not in their own official forums.

Well, to be fair, there’s a variety of social media platforms that they need to be active on as a company. A vast majority of their communication is done via the forums. To expect them not to do anything on Twitter (X), Reddit, or other platforms (eg. interviews with gaming journalists, twitch streamers, YouTubers) is kinda silly and unrealistic.

I think it was also fairly brave of them to even do an AUA considering how ravenous the forums and Reddit can be. Both are virtually talking about how crappy the game is, how performance sucks, etc etc etc over and over again nonstop lol.

Elsonso

vsrs_au wrote: »

Enter reddit? I'd much rather climb down into a stinking sewer. I'm not happy with ZOS for posting "ask us anything" type threads in reddit and not in their own official forums.

I find it super hard to extract the answers out of a reddit thread... separating the wheat from the chaff.

Hopefully, someone creates a simple list of questions and the answers from ZOS and posts it somewhere. I know I won't be doing it. I miss too much trying to expand everything.

Gray_howling_parrot

Elsonso wrote: »

vsrs_au wrote: »

Enter reddit? I'd much rather climb down into a stinking sewer. I'm not happy with ZOS for posting "ask us anything" type threads in reddit and not in their own official forums.

I find it super hard to extract the answers out of a reddit thread... separating the wheat from the chaff.

Hopefully, someone creates a simple list of questions and the answers from ZOS and posts it somewhere. I know I won't be doing it. I miss too much trying to expand everything.

I believe @ZOS_GinaBruno said she was going to be compiling a list of the questions and answers that they themselves answered in order to translate them to other languages for players in other countries - not sure if that’ll just include an English list of the Q’s & A’s though

JustLovely

Cooperharley wrote: »

[quote

vsrs_au wrote: »

Enter reddit? I'd much rather climb down into a stinking sewer. I'm not happy with ZOS for posting "ask us anything" type threads in reddit and not in their own official forums.

Well, to be fair, there’s a variety of social media platforms that they need to be active on as a company. A vast majority of their communication is done via the forums. To expect them not to do anything on Twitter (X), Reddit, or other platforms (eg. interviews with gaming journalists, twitch streamers, YouTubers) is kinda silly and unrealistic.

I think it was also fairly brave of them to even do an AUA considering how ravenous the forums and Reddit can be. Both are virtually talking about how crappy the game is, how performance sucks, etc etc etc over and over again nonstop lol.

Everything game related should be posted on this, the official forum first. Social media platforms are the playground of those trying to misinform.

furiouslog

JustLovely wrote: »

Cooperharley wrote: »

[quote

vsrs_au wrote: »

Enter reddit? I'd much rather climb down into a stinking sewer. I'm not happy with ZOS for posting "ask us anything" type threads in reddit and not in their own official forums.

Well, to be fair, there’s a variety of social media platforms that they need to be active on as a company. A vast majority of their communication is done via the forums. To expect them not to do anything on Twitter (X), Reddit, or other platforms (eg. interviews with gaming journalists, twitch streamers, YouTubers) is kinda silly and unrealistic.

I think it was also fairly brave of them to even do an AUA considering how ravenous the forums and Reddit can be. Both are virtually talking about how crappy the game is, how performance sucks, etc etc etc over and over again nonstop lol.

Everything game related should be posted on this, the official forum first. Social media platforms are the playground of those trying to misinform.

If I were interested in taking a cheap shot at ZOS, I'd say that, based on your logic, Reddit is therefore the perfect platform for them. But I would never do such a terrible thing.

That sub-reddit is practically owned by ZOS anyway. It's super locked down by the moderators. Anyone who goes there to complain about the game or speculate about anything that would get locked down on this forum gets downvoted and moderated with a pretty heavy hand.

OtarTheMad

JustLovely wrote: »

Cooperharley wrote: »

[quote

vsrs_au wrote: »

Enter reddit? I'd much rather climb down into a stinking sewer. I'm not happy with ZOS for posting "ask us anything" type threads in reddit and not in their own official forums.

Well, to be fair, there’s a variety of social media platforms that they need to be active on as a company. A vast majority of their communication is done via the forums. To expect them not to do anything on Twitter (X), Reddit, or other platforms (eg. interviews with gaming journalists, twitch streamers, YouTubers) is kinda silly and unrealistic.

I think it was also fairly brave of them to even do an AUA considering how ravenous the forums and Reddit can be. Both are virtually talking about how crappy the game is, how performance sucks, etc etc etc over and over again nonstop lol.

Everything game related should be posted on this, the official forum first. Social media platforms are the playground of those trying to misinform.

I think an Ask Us Anything on here would just be a mess. However, I do wish that they would share stuff that they’ve said on other platforms or websites like answering questions or just doing an interview because they may answer a lot of questions the community has but it’s so spread out that things get missed. That can lead to players thinking they are being ignored or ZOS not communicating.

So I am cool with them doing AUA on Reddit and answering and doing things on other social media platforms, interviews on websites and Live Streams but send us links on here so we can read/watch that.

Thormar

I find it super hard to extract the answers out of a reddit thread...

Imo, the most efficient way to view each staff member's answers on that AUA is to head to their Reddit account profile.
Once there click on the comments tab, their comments will be chronologically listed.

Click on an answer (or a link labelled context) and Reddit will take you to the part of the AUA containing that answer together with the question it's responding to.

Here are links to each staff member's Reddit user profile:

1. Rich Lambert, Creative Director (u/ZOS_RichLambert)
   https://www.reddit.com/user/ZOS_RichLambert/
   
2. Gina Bruno, Senior Community Manager (u/ZOS_GinaBruno)
   https://www.reddit.com/user/ZOS_GinaBruno/
   
3. Brian Wheeler, Lead Combat & PvP Designer (u/ZOS_BrianWheeler)
   https://www.reddit.com/user/ZOS_BrianWheeler/
   
4. Mike Finnigan, Lead Encounter Designer (u/ZOS_Finnigan)
   https://www.reddit.com/user/ZOS_Finnigan/
   
5. Bill Slavicsek, Lead Writer (u/ZOS_Bill_Slavicsek)
   https://www.reddit.com/user/ZOS_Bill_Slavicsek/
   
6. Ed Stark, Zone Lead (u/ZOS_EdStark)
   https://www.reddit.com/user/ZOS_EdStark/
   
7. Alec Verish, Combat Designer (u/ZOS_Gilliam)
   https://www.reddit.com/user/ZOS_Gilliam/
   
8. Kira Ross Schlitt, Project Lead (u/ZOS_KiraRS)
   https://www.reddit.com/user/ZOS_KiraRS/

sarahthes

JustLovely wrote: »

Cooperharley wrote: »

[quote

vsrs_au wrote: »

Enter reddit? I'd much rather climb down into a stinking sewer. I'm not happy with ZOS for posting "ask us anything" type threads in reddit and not in their own official forums.

Well, to be fair, there’s a variety of social media platforms that they need to be active on as a company. A vast majority of their communication is done via the forums. To expect them not to do anything on Twitter (X), Reddit, or other platforms (eg. interviews with gaming journalists, twitch streamers, YouTubers) is kinda silly and unrealistic.

I think it was also fairly brave of them to even do an AUA considering how ravenous the forums and Reddit can be. Both are virtually talking about how crappy the game is, how performance sucks, etc etc etc over and over again nonstop lol.

Everything game related should be posted on this, the official forum first. Social media platforms are the playground of those trying to misinform.

So... social media events should not take place on social media?

tsaescishoeshiner

That was a great AUA! I feel like we got a lot of new details and answers to some player concerns. It was nice to hear from the team in a casual, comfortable way.

Reddit is more more of a forum than social media. You don't need an account to just scroll and read the answers, which I recommend doing for anyone curious about Gold Road, recent connection issues, or common feature requests. People can't say "they don't listen to our concerns" if they haven't tuned in to see what's being said.

An AMA would not work on the forums. If people knew all the developers were going to be in a thread and responding, everyone would turn it into a space to derail the conversation into the issues they're most upset about, like necro balance or Cyrodiil performance--no matter the original topic of the AMA. Reddit doesn't force you to scroll past every comment in a thread, so every AMA wouldn't devolve into the same topics. If I worked at ZOS, I wouldn't feel comfortable posting here or asking my coworkers to post here with how conversations tend to go.

ZOS_Kevin

Hi all, wanted to follow up. For those who don't like Reddit or don't want to parse through the conversations there, we are working on getting the questions and answers on for forum in a few weeks. We're cleaning some things up and getting it translated so non-English speaking territories can enjoy the Q&A also. We'll have more to share soon.

cyclonus11

sarahthes wrote: »

JustLovely wrote: »

Cooperharley wrote: »

[quote

vsrs_au wrote: »

Enter reddit? I'd much rather climb down into a stinking sewer. I'm not happy with ZOS for posting "ask us anything" type threads in reddit and not in their own official forums.

Well, to be fair, there’s a variety of social media platforms that they need to be active on as a company. A vast majority of their communication is done via the forums. To expect them not to do anything on Twitter (X), Reddit, or other platforms (eg. interviews with gaming journalists, twitch streamers, YouTubers) is kinda silly and unrealistic.

I think it was also fairly brave of them to even do an AUA considering how ravenous the forums and Reddit can be. Both are virtually talking about how crappy the game is, how performance sucks, etc etc etc over and over again nonstop lol.

Everything game related should be posted on this, the official forum first. Social media platforms are the playground of those trying to misinform.

So... social media events should not take place on social media?

Internet message boards are social media.

Destai

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi all, wanted to follow up. For those who don't like Reddit or don't want to parse through the conversations there, we are working on getting the questions and answers on for forum in a few weeks. We're cleaning some things up and getting it translated so non-English speaking territories can enjoy the Q&A also. We'll have more to share soon.

Thanks Kevin, look forward to seeing them here. I was a part of the AUA, so it'll be interesting to see things moved over here. Will all questions be included in this, and will be presented as-asked?

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

That was a great AUA! I feel like we got a lot of new details and answers to some player concerns. It was nice to hear from the team in a casual, comfortable way.

It was pretty good overall, appreciate them setting aside the time. We got some hints at what QoL requests are on their radar (stackable treasure maps, woot!). Beyond that, I didn't get much out of it, personally. I spent a lot of time working on questions, especially for Brian and Rich, only to get very short answers that didn't really close out the topics. I think I had asked "where's combat going" and was bummed that didn't get an answer. Gilliam did provide some other good commentary though.

Seems like they wanted people to ask questions about Gold Road, but there's so many longstanding topics that needed to be addressed. Would love an AUA on those at some point.

Cooperharley wrote: »

I think it was also fairly brave of them to even do an AUA considering how ravenous the forums and Reddit can be. Both are virtually talking about how crappy the game is, how performance sucks, etc etc etc over and over again nonstop lol.

I'm happy it was pretty civil. I was prepared for some snark from certain people, and was glad it didn't resort to that. It was only 90 minutes, so I think that helped contain conversations.

I specifically brought up the performance stuff to both Rich and Brian, trying to drive home the need for more clarity on it. The comments, while I'm happy they said something, didn't really provide the detail that I think many of us are asking for. Still, there were cool tidbits of information.

One of these days, I'd like an AMA with Brad Derrick. Just as a musician, I'd love to pick his thoughts.

Azphira

Questions like, does the dev team prefer boxers or briefs? or Are aprons required at work?

Erickson9610

I'm glad that I was able to ask a few questions at the AUA. The responses that the staff at ZOS have given were all genuinely insightful, and now I have a better picture of how things there work internally.

Some of my main takeaways from the Q&A include the following:

• If you want to see certain features be expanded, like Scribing or the Infinite Archive, then use those features. Due to having limited time and resources, features which are enjoyed by the community are more likely to be expanded upon than others are. Be sure to provide feedback, such as what you like about said features, and what you want to see more of.
  
  
  
  
• The Public Test Server (PTS) is for more than just receiving player feedback. It helps ZOS test technical things as well as ideas (which may just be short term solutions). Feedback is primarily received via the forums, or in-game with /bug or /feedback, and that feedback is added to internal notes to be discussed.
  
  

Destai

Erickson9610 wrote: »

I'm glad that I was able to ask a few questions at the AUA. The responses that the staff at ZOS have given were all genuinely insightful, and now I have a better picture of how things there work internally.

Some of my main takeaways from the Q&A include the following:

• If you want to see certain features be expanded, like Scribing or the Infinite Archive, then use those features. Due to having limited time and resources, features which are enjoyed by the community are more likely to be expanded upon than others are. Be sure to provide feedback, such as what you like about said features, and what you want to see more of.
  
  
  
  
• The Public Test Server (PTS) is for more than just receiving player feedback. It helps ZOS test technical things as well as ideas (which may just be short term solutions). Feedback is primarily received via the forums, or in-game with /bug or /feedback, and that feedback is added to internal notes to be discussed.
  
  

In the last picture there, I was happy that Rich responded to my question. It was quite long, surprise.

My only issue with that PTS answer is their handling of things when PTS feedback doesn't get implemented. Of course, not every feedback will be done as-is. But if there's tons of consistent feedback, it's best to address it head on. I wish that was something they did. I think of the grim focus glow changes, the anniversary style pages, those things - IMO, they should address head on. I think when they post to PTS, they should be setting expectations. If nothing else, people will be understand why things are as they are.