Studio Director’s Letter: 2025 & Beyond

Pixiepumpkin

SilverBride wrote: »

I have no concept of what seasonal content even is.

Its basically a battle pass. WoW does it now, New World does it now, SWTOR does it now. Its basically a way to get players to engage with limited time items (usually 3 months).

In New Worlds case, they charge 20 dollars for each battle pass. You get one line of "free content" and then a second that gives better rewards (but you pay for them, and then have to meet the goals to obtain them).

I do not personally like battle passes. They are fun at first, but like anything else it becomes mundane/same thing different day.

For sure ZOS will put there own twist on it, but it will be a battle pass and most likely involve the crown store, on top of some other monetization, on top of a monthly sub.

EDIT: Essentially season passes are a way to deliver less content (reused content) while generating more revenue.

TaSheen

Pixiepumpkin wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

I have no concept of what seasonal content even is.

Its basically a battle pass. WoW does it now, New World does it now, SWTOR does it now. Its basically a way to get players to engage with limited time items (usually 3 months).

In New Worlds case, they charge 20 dollars for each battle pass. You get one line of "free content" and then a second that gives better rewards (but you pay for them, and then have to meet the goals to obtain them).

I do not personally like battle passes. They are fun at first, but like anything else it becomes mundane/same thing different day.

For sure ZOS will put there own twist on it, but it will be a battle pass and most likely involve the crown store, on top of some other monetization, on top of a monthly sub.

EDIT: Essentially season passes are a way to deliver less content (reused content) while generating more revenue.

Yup. My sister plays WoW.... she's okay with it. I'm not.

Parasaurolophus

All of this sounds very encouraging, especially the changes that ZoS has announced. The overhaul of Overland content—wow! Particularly Cyrodiil, I honestly thought that was something that could only be fixed with a complete rework of the game (I never thought the issue was just ZoS' unwillingness to work on it). The fact that ZoS completely reworked BG is surprising too, considering that ZoS rarely starts things from scratch.

But... there's still a lingering discomfort. The sharp decline in player numbers is hard to ignore. So, is ZoS adapting the game for a smaller player base? Or are these changes truly aimed at fixing the situation?

I really want to believe that this game has been given a third chance. The second chance came with the introduction of TU, and that was a success. I really do believe that both TU and the main chapter formats were successful decisions at the time. But now it’s clear that this approach couldn’t last in the long term. The game was too focused on the casual audience, and that audience just isn’t sustainable. Eventually, they move on to new and more appealing projects, and ESO is already quite old and can’t attract new players in the same way it used to.

Let’s assume that ESO has learned from its mistakes—can ZoS bring the player base back to the levels of 2019-2020, at least?

shadyjane62

I some little experience with Battle Passes. I hate them. It won't be something that will keep me in the game, on the contrary, it will hasten my departure.

In my opinion rolling back U35 and the AWA will do a lot more to bring people back.

Vonnegut2506

I know "seasons" doesn't mean a battle pass necessarily, but it's a term that is already used commonly to refer to something like that. There are also several different levels of battle passes from Fortnite's seasons that can actually be free if you play the season prior and earn vbucks from it to Throne and Liberty that decided to have a battle pass and a leveling pass and charge you per character for both. I hope ZOS is just using the term with no intent of a battle pass system, but I worry it is going to be heavily monetized to the point everyone is going to be paying more for less content in their plan.

Elvenheart

Vonnegut2506 wrote: »

…to Throne and Liberty that decided to have a battle pass and a leveling pass and charge you per character for both.

<gasp> 😲

tomofhyrule

alpha_synuclein wrote: »

Dear ZOS....
While I'm not exactly hating what I'm reading, this whole "we drop a bomb and shut up for 4 months" is very obviously not doing the trick...

Your vaguenes do not create hype. It creates concerns. You're planning rather divisive changes that will affect pretty much your whole playerbase. Asking us to wait until April for anything concrete is absurd.

The things that you're releasing this year are in motion already. You obviously have a plan.
Share it.
Timelines are obviously flexible, but tell us what we're getting. Without the usual dripping info in glacial speed and expecting us to be excited about the who knows what...

Because with the current attitude you will start loosing people before they even get to hear what's actually coming.

I want to highlight this post here.

This entire desire to keep things secret to try to build hype has consistently backfired. Every patch so far was met with disappointment because the playerbase hyped themselves up based on the smallest bits of information, and then were let down because the result wasn't at all what they wanted.

This looks like it'll go the same way.

We know there's a reveal in January for a March patch. It seems like that'll be dungeons (?), but we don't know. And then after that, we'll find out in April what this new model even is, much less what kinds of things we can expect. But without Chapters, we have no idea if we'll end up seeing new Classes, new Skill lines, new Trials, or new Game modes ever again. Sure, they're implying it, but...

Please reveal a few more details than you have been. We're not asking you to tell us everything already, but the fact that Kevin and Jess had to come in and try to reassure people that this wasn't maintenance mode should show that players are confused and disappointed. And we're expected to sit with these uncomfortable feelings for over 4 months? And... we expect that nobody's going to leave because of that?

SilverBride

Making us wait about the overland changes in particular has just stirred up conflict in the pinned thread again, when there had been a consensus among most of the posters about what optional changes would be acceptable.

Vonnegut2506

Elvenheart wrote: »

Vonnegut2506 wrote: »

…to Throne and Liberty that decided to have a battle pass and a leveling pass and charge you per character for both.

<gasp> 😲

Ya, I gave up that game pretty quick.

ArchMikem

I'm pretty interested in base game zone visual updates as well as "DLC Sequels", bringing us back to existing zones for new Quests.

Though I'd also appreciate under the hood updates to Consoles. Noticed the UI refresh only mentioned PC, and Consoles have gone this entire time without having a Vertical Position and Offset Camera slider.

Dimorphos

- As we know that they are making a brand new MMO game, many of us in the community have feared and took educated guesses that they are working ESO with a skeleton crew. These news really feel like feeding those guesses. After reading all that my thoughts are: Either this is a good thing and they will improve the game with small but steady bites, or this is just a fancy way to say they are bringing in even less content than before and making very little changes leaving us with a feeling of nothing really happening/going on. I sadly admit I believe the latter thought being the more stronger candidate.

Turning the Page on Chapters, Introducing Seasons:
This really sounds like a way to give us only bread crumbs instead of a healthy good meal. But we will see as always.

A new focus on change and experimentation:
This is either a very good thing or very very bad. I myself am not a fan of "here is a new thing, enjoy" "it wasn't good at all so we removed/nerfed it after a week, so forget it". I value things that are made to last and I would like a game company to really put a good amount of effort on releasing new stuff. Arcanist class for example was a fantastic thing and success and you can really see the time and effort put to it.

Cyrodiil campaign where all classes will have PvP-specific (and more performant) skills that replace the standard player skills:
Does this mean there will be even less class/spec identity and/or less skills to choose from in general? The changes they made to set bonuses concerning pvp was already something I disliked very much. Stripping away things is not a good way to "fix" issues. Why have all the skills and sets if you are not allowed to use them? I must say this too doesn't bode well. But we will see as always.

Visually improving base game zones, Sprucing up the game's PC UI:
Visual improvements are always welcome and truly a good way to keep up with the flow of time. Visual candy is very important thing in MMORPG genre in general. One of the reasons I really struggle to get back with World of Warcraft is because its graphics and visuals are undoubtedly really old and because that game is twice the age of ESO, they can't improve them enough without remaking the whole game and game-engine. I hope ESO will keep up adding more fresh graphics and visuals so it can compete with newer MMO titles in the future too.

instead, we will use existing zones and areas to tell new stories. Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild, Fighters Guild, and Mages Guild:
This is all good news, you never should forget the old content completely because there are great many ways to keep them going as relevant content. Dark brotherhood is one of my favorite things in this games because I happen to like all dark, twisted evil and mysterious things. Doing DB storyline the first time really gave me the chills. We do not always need new continents and areas to explore, sometimes it is good to visit older areas and see them going through a little revamp.

- Few things sounded actually good and promising but I can't escape it that in general it feels like we are left with a skeleton crew on game developer side and we are not getting enough in terms of content and fixes to be satisfied. Hope that is not the case but I do not have my hopes up and I am really trying not to spend any money on this game because I think at this state it is not worth investing. As the crowns are now on sale and there are many things I would desire to buy and maybe get a few months of ESO+ time too, but I am actually fighting against my desires so that I would not invest in a game I feel is being left aside to slowly "decay". Games like this rarely die completely but if you get my point..

EDIT:
Not to sound too negative I had to add that I really like ESO universe in general, never was a fan of Asian anime or things that feel too childish. ESO is surely aimed for more mature audience and for that I love it. I wish for the day to come that "they" decided to really save this game and made true effort to grow it and keep it going on for many many years to come. I would love to see the community and the whole game to grow in size exponentially. But that means contributing and committing.

OtarTheMad

tomofhyrule wrote: »

alpha_synuclein wrote: »

Dear ZOS....
While I'm not exactly hating what I'm reading, this whole "we drop a bomb and shut up for 4 months" is very obviously not doing the trick...

Your vaguenes do not create hype. It creates concerns. You're planning rather divisive changes that will affect pretty much your whole playerbase. Asking us to wait until April for anything concrete is absurd.

The things that you're releasing this year are in motion already. You obviously have a plan.
Share it.
Timelines are obviously flexible, but tell us what we're getting. Without the usual dripping info in glacial speed and expecting us to be excited about the who knows what...

Because with the current attitude you will start loosing people before they even get to hear what's actually coming.

I want to highlight this post here.

This entire desire to keep things secret to try to build hype has consistently backfired. Every patch so far was met with disappointment because the playerbase hyped themselves up based on the smallest bits of information, and then were let down because the result wasn't at all what they wanted.

This looks like it'll go the same way.

We know there's a reveal in January for a March patch. It seems like that'll be dungeons (?), but we don't know. And then after that, we'll find out in April what this new model even is, much less what kinds of things we can expect. But without Chapters, we have no idea if we'll end up seeing new Classes, new Skill lines, new Trials, or new Game modes ever again. Sure, they're implying it, but...

Please reveal a few more details than you have been. We're not asking you to tell us everything already, but the fact that Kevin and Jess had to come in and try to reassure people that this wasn't maintenance mode should show that players are confused and disappointed. And we're expected to sit with these uncomfortable feelings for over 4 months? And... we expect that nobody's going to leave because of that?

Here is the worse part in my mind is that there is no global reveal anymore and while we will get dungeons in Q1 but what about substantial content? I don’t do dungeons that much.

So, I don’t have anything to look forward to. Sure, we have more information dropping in April but by then I am using my free time on other things or other games but typically ZOS is super silent and likes to drop hints… that does nothing for me.

So, why even play ESO in 2025? I am not trying to be a downer, I am just saying no chapter, small to medium sized content so can be quickly done… idk… without knowing more about what the Seasons are I am not even going to mark April on my calendar. Sure, we will know more info but when will it drop? Not June apparently.. August? September? Pass.

Destai

OtarTheMad wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

alpha_synuclein wrote: »

Dear ZOS....
While I'm not exactly hating what I'm reading, this whole "we drop a bomb and shut up for 4 months" is very obviously not doing the trick...

Your vaguenes do not create hype. It creates concerns. You're planning rather divisive changes that will affect pretty much your whole playerbase. Asking us to wait until April for anything concrete is absurd.

The things that you're releasing this year are in motion already. You obviously have a plan.
Share it.
Timelines are obviously flexible, but tell us what we're getting. Without the usual dripping info in glacial speed and expecting us to be excited about the who knows what...

Because with the current attitude you will start loosing people before they even get to hear what's actually coming.

I want to highlight this post here.

This entire desire to keep things secret to try to build hype has consistently backfired. Every patch so far was met with disappointment because the playerbase hyped themselves up based on the smallest bits of information, and then were let down because the result wasn't at all what they wanted.

This looks like it'll go the same way.

We know there's a reveal in January for a March patch. It seems like that'll be dungeons (?), but we don't know. And then after that, we'll find out in April what this new model even is, much less what kinds of things we can expect. But without Chapters, we have no idea if we'll end up seeing new Classes, new Skill lines, new Trials, or new Game modes ever again. Sure, they're implying it, but...

Please reveal a few more details than you have been. We're not asking you to tell us everything already, but the fact that Kevin and Jess had to come in and try to reassure people that this wasn't maintenance mode should show that players are confused and disappointed. And we're expected to sit with these uncomfortable feelings for over 4 months? And... we expect that nobody's going to leave because of that?

Here is the worse part in my mind is that there is no global reveal anymore and while we will get dungeons in Q1 but what about substantial content? I don’t do dungeons that much.

So, I don’t have anything to look forward to. Sure, we have more information dropping in April but by then I am using my free time on other things or other games but typically ZOS is super silent and likes to drop hints… that does nothing for me.

So, why even play ESO in 2025? I am not trying to be a downer, I am just saying no chapter, small to medium sized content so can be quickly done… idk… without knowing more about what the Seasons are I am not even going to mark April on my calendar. Sure, we will know more info but when will it drop? Not June apparently.. August? September? Pass.

I think they’re making a big mistake waiting so long to give us more information. I worry it’s going to really hurt the long term health of the game. Like, the game is already in a slow state. We’re having this discussion here, we got Matt’s letter, and just a single paragraph of reassurance.

From a PR perspective, I just don’t think that’s enough to drown out the concerns of some people. People who will leave if they feel like there’s a big content drought coming.

IMO, they should be going on an information blitz after the holidays. The tight-lipped approach doesn’t help them, evidenced by where the game is.

Dimorphos

I am only writing down my random thoughts and fears here and I have no knowledge about the reality of things but what if:

life-support mode
skeleton crew working with minimum costs maximizing profits
main focus on new game in development
being uninformative because there sadly is not much to give from

As said, those are just some words and thoughts popping in my mind out of the blue. Just felt like I should share them. Will those random thoughts shared live for a day, an hour, some minutes? Who can tell..

But as I mentioned earlier, and this is totally unrelated to anything written above, I am truly fighting against my desires to invest anymore real money in ESO to buy discount crowns or eso+ time because, that is how I feel. Not worth the investment. But just my honest and random feeling.

Edit: In all honesty I would like nothing more than to see ESO become more and do so with great success. But at this moment I really do not feel too optimistic.

RomanRex

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

Let’s assume that ESO has learned from its mistakes—can ZoS bring the player base back to the levels of 2019-2020, at least?

i would bet money… no way.

especially with ES6 and other, more recent games being released.

Erickson9610

RomanRex wrote: »

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

Let’s assume that ESO has learned from its mistakes—can ZoS bring the player base back to the levels of 2019-2020, at least?

i would bet money… no way.

especially with ES6 and other, more recent games being released.

I'd expect TES VI to revitalize interest in the series, and that means ESO as well. Provided TES VI doesn't have co-op, ESO will continue to be the go-to for playing a TES game with your friends.

colossalvoids

SilverBride wrote: »

Making us wait about the overland changes in particular has just stirred up conflict in the pinned thread again, when there had been a consensus among most of the posters about what optional changes would be acceptable.

I'm sorry but the conflict is coming from handful of the same overly angry people, same as always has been. There was never a broad consensus, there were people saying that everyone else is wrong and they are right whilst it's a feedback thread mind you, not a developer discussion board or something of that sort. There's no jury for an "acceptable" solution either.

darvaria

estimate the daily player count of The Elder Scrolls Online to be 23,328, with a total player base of 24,556,255

2024 .... favorite year? You can't fix a problem if you don't see there is one. As for Cyrodiil fix, I am skeptical.

Just reroll and start over ... ESO Classic. There doesn't seem to be a performance fix.

Avran_Sylt

tomofhyrule wrote: »

alpha_synuclein wrote: »

Dear ZOS....
While I'm not exactly hating what I'm reading, this whole "we drop a bomb and shut up for 4 months" is very obviously not doing the trick...

Your vaguenes do not create hype. It creates concerns. You're planning rather divisive changes that will affect pretty much your whole playerbase. Asking us to wait until April for anything concrete is absurd.

The things that you're releasing this year are in motion already. You obviously have a plan.
Share it.
Timelines are obviously flexible, but tell us what we're getting. Without the usual dripping info in glacial speed and expecting us to be excited about the who knows what...

Because with the current attitude you will start loosing people before they even get to hear what's actually coming.

I want to highlight this post here.

This entire desire to keep things secret to try to build hype has consistently backfired. Every patch so far was met with disappointment because the playerbase hyped themselves up based on the smallest bits of information, and then were let down because the result wasn't at all what they wanted.

This looks like it'll go the same way.

We know there's a reveal in January for a March patch. It seems like that'll be dungeons (?), but we don't know. And then after that, we'll find out in April what this new model even is, much less what kinds of things we can expect. But without Chapters, we have no idea if we'll end up seeing new Classes, new Skill lines, new Trials, or new Game modes ever again. Sure, they're implying it, but...

Please reveal a few more details than you have been. We're not asking you to tell us everything already, but the fact that Kevin and Jess had to come in and try to reassure people that this wasn't maintenance mode should show that players are confused and disappointed. And we're expected to sit with these uncomfortable feelings for over 4 months? And... we expect that nobody's going to leave because of that?

I’ll the honest, I don’t think they’re being vague to generate hype.

They’re being vague to generate discussion, because they don’t know what players want, and are probably going to be pulling ideas from said discussions, so they get an understanding of what they should do.

That being said, if they push out those changes too far into the future, people forget about that discourse and compare immediate changes (that were planned a year ago) with their current vagueness. And you get friction.

Rkindaleft

Avran_Sylt wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

alpha_synuclein wrote: »

Dear ZOS....
While I'm not exactly hating what I'm reading, this whole "we drop a bomb and shut up for 4 months" is very obviously not doing the trick...

Your vaguenes do not create hype. It creates concerns. You're planning rather divisive changes that will affect pretty much your whole playerbase. Asking us to wait until April for anything concrete is absurd.

The things that you're releasing this year are in motion already. You obviously have a plan.
Share it.
Timelines are obviously flexible, but tell us what we're getting. Without the usual dripping info in glacial speed and expecting us to be excited about the who knows what...

Because with the current attitude you will start loosing people before they even get to hear what's actually coming.

I want to highlight this post here.

This entire desire to keep things secret to try to build hype has consistently backfired. Every patch so far was met with disappointment because the playerbase hyped themselves up based on the smallest bits of information, and then were let down because the result wasn't at all what they wanted.

This looks like it'll go the same way.

We know there's a reveal in January for a March patch. It seems like that'll be dungeons (?), but we don't know. And then after that, we'll find out in April what this new model even is, much less what kinds of things we can expect. But without Chapters, we have no idea if we'll end up seeing new Classes, new Skill lines, new Trials, or new Game modes ever again. Sure, they're implying it, but...

Please reveal a few more details than you have been. We're not asking you to tell us everything already, but the fact that Kevin and Jess had to come in and try to reassure people that this wasn't maintenance mode should show that players are confused and disappointed. And we're expected to sit with these uncomfortable feelings for over 4 months? And... we expect that nobody's going to leave because of that?

I’ll the honest, I don’t think they’re being vague to generate hype.

They’re being vague to generate discussion, because they don’t know what players want, and are probably going to be pulling ideas from said discussions, so they get an understanding of what they should do.
.

Being vague to generate hype has never worked and it will never work. Being vague only leads to more people speculating and continuing down a spiral of negativity because there’s zero clarity and nothing is explained.

We’re 10 years into the game now and I don’t know why they wouldn’t understand what players want unless you purposefully ignored literally thousands of posts not just on the forums but on YouTube and other social media. PvPers have wanted proper Cyrodiil updates and improved performance for years. Housing players have wanted furnishing bags, a search function for furnishings at crafting stations, better QoL, more medium style houses because big houses have too restrictive furnishing limits for years. Console players want more QoL in order to get closer to the accessibility PC has with addons. They should know exactly what players want. They just haven't followed through with any of it.

Aardappelboom

I think this is great. Especially building on the existing guilds is a great idea and the difficulty will bring me back to story content since long.

Animation updates are a good idea. I don't know how to feel about Cyro but I'm looking forward to the chnages and see what it's like. It's better than nothing and at least it's a step forward instead of stagnating in the current situation.

Honestly, I've done a few of posts about how these big reveals every year are a bad idea, and I really feel that this letter is a very open step in the right direction, the idea lf experimenting more and than implementing will be so much better, for the devs and community.

@ZOS_Kevin this is the first letter where I can see the feedback you're sending back and forth is taken into account, so good job and thank!

Syldras

OtarTheMad wrote: »

I am not trying to be a downer, I am just saying no chapter, small to medium sized content so can be quickly done…

Yes, that's something I also worry about. I mean, the Thieves Guild DLC was rather small, too, but ESO was newer overall, so there were still many other things to explore besides that, from the base game. After playing this game for many years, the only things (that interest me) that I haven't played to no end yet really are what ever comes with the current new release. Whatever we'll see in ESO in 2025, quantity is really one big aspect that will decide whether the changes are a positive or negative in total. Of course quality also matters, a lot, but even the best new idea (or writing, then it comes to quests) doesn't help much if the content is finished within two days and then we're waiting for 3 months for new content, that might or might not fit our personal interests, will be released. (A season could be entirely focussed on a specific aspect of the game, after all, like trials, or PvP, or companions, or housing - which is absolutely okay, of course, but this means even a longer waiting time for people who are not interested in that one aspect of the game).

By the way, I also miss the big chapter speculations we had every year with the items and letters sent out to a few people every January as a hint, as well as the reveal stream.

And I'm also very reluctant to buy crowns during the current sale without having any info how 2025 will look like.

Erickson9610 wrote: »

I'd expect TES VI to revitalize interest in the series, and that means ESO as well. Provided TES VI doesn't have co-op, ESO will continue to be the go-to for playing a TES game with your friends.

Indeed. Actually they could have already started now and use ESO to market TES6. They could have made an "Explore Hammerfell in the Second Era!" year and even create lore foundations for some things that will happen in TES6.

WhiteCoatSyndrome

Syldras wrote: »

Indeed. Actually they could have already started now and use ESO to market TES6. They could have made an "Explore Hammerfell in the Second Era!" year and even create lore foundations for some things that will happen in TES6.

This. Honestly I’m going to disagree with the previous posters about vagueness always being a bad idea, if Matt’s letter had solely consisted of ‘next year we’re going to set the stage for Elder Scrolls VI, oops I said too much, we’ll give you more details in April 2025!’ I think the community in general would be a lot more optimistic about it. I know I would be.

I_killed_Vivec

WhiteCoatSyndrome wrote: »

Syldras wrote: »

Indeed. Actually they could have already started now and use ESO to market TES6. They could have made an "Explore Hammerfell in the Second Era!" year and even create lore foundations for some things that will happen in TES6.

This. Honestly I’m going to disagree with the previous posters about vagueness always being a bad idea, if Matt’s letter had solely consisted of ‘next year we’re going to set the stage for Elder Scrolls VI, oops I said too much, we’ll give you more details in April 2025!’ I think the community in general would be a lot more optimistic about it. I know I would be.

I shall explicitly avoid conspiracy theories, because I don't want a ban, but without further explanation there will still be questions...

"April? But chapters are announced in January!"

which naturally leads to

"So what's happened to chapters?"

and down the rabbit hole to a place where there is a lack of confidence that they will deliver...

Pretty much where we are now in fact.

TaSheen

colossalvoids wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Making us wait about the overland changes in particular has just stirred up conflict in the pinned thread again, when there had been a consensus among most of the posters about what optional changes would be acceptable.

I'm sorry but the conflict is coming from handful of the same overly angry people, same as always has been. There was never a broad consensus, there were people saying that everyone else is wrong and they are right whilst it's a feedback thread mind you, not a developer discussion board or something of that sort. There's no jury for an "acceptable" solution either.

I never was angry, just sad and expecting to be very disappointed if they increased difficulty when I'm already having trouble - and then they did exactly that with the latest zone story bosses (since Elsweyr really is when it got to be a major issue for me), so now I'm even sadder, and more disappointed - and I'm betting I'll be out of the game entirely by when we get any "real" information.

OtarTheMad

Destai wrote: »

OtarTheMad wrote: »

tomofhyrule wrote: »

alpha_synuclein wrote: »

Dear ZOS....
While I'm not exactly hating what I'm reading, this whole "we drop a bomb and shut up for 4 months" is very obviously not doing the trick...

Your vaguenes do not create hype. It creates concerns. You're planning rather divisive changes that will affect pretty much your whole playerbase. Asking us to wait until April for anything concrete is absurd.

The things that you're releasing this year are in motion already. You obviously have a plan.
Share it.
Timelines are obviously flexible, but tell us what we're getting. Without the usual dripping info in glacial speed and expecting us to be excited about the who knows what...

Because with the current attitude you will start loosing people before they even get to hear what's actually coming.

I want to highlight this post here.

This entire desire to keep things secret to try to build hype has consistently backfired. Every patch so far was met with disappointment because the playerbase hyped themselves up based on the smallest bits of information, and then were let down because the result wasn't at all what they wanted.

This looks like it'll go the same way.

We know there's a reveal in January for a March patch. It seems like that'll be dungeons (?), but we don't know. And then after that, we'll find out in April what this new model even is, much less what kinds of things we can expect. But without Chapters, we have no idea if we'll end up seeing new Classes, new Skill lines, new Trials, or new Game modes ever again. Sure, they're implying it, but...

Please reveal a few more details than you have been. We're not asking you to tell us everything already, but the fact that Kevin and Jess had to come in and try to reassure people that this wasn't maintenance mode should show that players are confused and disappointed. And we're expected to sit with these uncomfortable feelings for over 4 months? And... we expect that nobody's going to leave because of that?

Here is the worse part in my mind is that there is no global reveal anymore and while we will get dungeons in Q1 but what about substantial content? I don’t do dungeons that much.

So, I don’t have anything to look forward to. Sure, we have more information dropping in April but by then I am using my free time on other things or other games but typically ZOS is super silent and likes to drop hints… that does nothing for me.

So, why even play ESO in 2025? I am not trying to be a downer, I am just saying no chapter, small to medium sized content so can be quickly done… idk… without knowing more about what the Seasons are I am not even going to mark April on my calendar. Sure, we will know more info but when will it drop? Not June apparently.. August? September? Pass.

I think they’re making a big mistake waiting so long to give us more information. I worry it’s going to really hurt the long term health of the game. Like, the game is already in a slow state. We’re having this discussion here, we got Matt’s letter, and just a single paragraph of reassurance.

From a PR perspective, I just don’t think that’s enough to drown out the concerns of some people. People who will leave if they feel like there’s a big content drought coming.

IMO, they should be going on an information blitz after the holidays. The tight-lipped approach doesn’t help them, evidenced by where the game is.

Yeah, especially with this big of a change. They said we are getting dungeons with Q1 so that does not sound like a season, that sounds like leftovers they couldn’t adjust. So, the first season will be announced in April, but it most likely won’t be out by June because that’s one of the reasons they changed Chapters… not being held to a deadline so quick after Q1 so… when?

The uncertainty is bad because with chapters, although maybe getting dull, addressed a lot of playstyles… housing, difficulty lovers with dungeons, WB’s and wandering WB’s, and trials, casuals with stories and overland… but will Seasons?

What if one Season is more housing and the next is like an Adventure Zone for difficulty lovers… casuals left out? Just too many questions which can lead to the bad part of being vague.

OtarTheMad

I_killed_Vivec wrote: »

WhiteCoatSyndrome wrote: »

Syldras wrote: »

Indeed. Actually they could have already started now and use ESO to market TES6. They could have made an "Explore Hammerfell in the Second Era!" year and even create lore foundations for some things that will happen in TES6.

This. Honestly I’m going to disagree with the previous posters about vagueness always being a bad idea, if Matt’s letter had solely consisted of ‘next year we’re going to set the stage for Elder Scrolls VI, oops I said too much, we’ll give you more details in April 2025!’ I think the community in general would be a lot more optimistic about it. I know I would be.

I shall explicitly avoid conspiracy theories, because I don't want a ban, but without further explanation there will still be questions...

"April? But chapters are announced in January!"

which naturally leads to

"So what's happened to chapters?"

and down the rabbit hole to a place where there is a lack of confidence that they will deliver...

Pretty much where we are now in fact.

This.

You don’t want players getting to a point where it is like:

“Okay, I like ESO but have no idea what content will be. Maybe great, maybe disappointing, maybe all kinds but what I do know is games X,Y and Z have been on my wishlist for sometime now and i know what to expect so I’ll dump what money I was saving for chapter into those.” And the players pretty much never return.

Nothing wrong with playing other games obviously but I know I get lost in games. I was meaning for 2 years to replay the last Dragon Age to get familiar again with the series before Veilguard but never got around to it because of other games and life. It happens.

AzuraFan

Syldras wrote: »

And I'm also very reluctant to buy crowns during the current sale without having any info how 2025 will look like.

Same. I often buy crowns during the sale, but not this time because I have no idea what next year is going to look like, therefore no idea if I'll be around long enough to spend the crowns, especially since I still have quite a few left from my last ESO+ renewal.

OtarTheMad wrote: »

The uncertainty is bad because with chapters, although maybe getting full, addressed a lot of playstyles… housing, difficulty lovers with dungeons, WB’s and wandering WB’s, and trials, casuals with stories and overland… but will Seasons?

What if one Season is more housing and the next is like an Adventure Zone for difficulty lovers… casuals left out? Just too many questions which can lead to the bad part of being vague.

Yeah, depending on how this goes, there could be really long dry periods for different segments of the playerbase.

We'll just have to wait and see what's announced in April. I'm hoping they'll at least give a hint in January. Making us wait four months is too long.

colossalvoids

TaSheen wrote: »

colossalvoids wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Making us wait about the overland changes in particular has just stirred up conflict in the pinned thread again, when there had been a consensus among most of the posters about what optional changes would be acceptable.

I'm sorry but the conflict is coming from handful of the same overly angry people, same as always has been. There was never a broad consensus, there were people saying that everyone else is wrong and they are right whilst it's a feedback thread mind you, not a developer discussion board or something of that sort. There's no jury for an "acceptable" solution either.

I never was angry, just sad and expecting to be very disappointed if they increased difficulty when I'm already having trouble - and then they did exactly that with the latest zone story bosses (since Elsweyr really is when it got to be a major issue for me), so now I'm even sadder, and more disappointed - and I'm betting I'll be out of the game entirely by when we get any "real" information.

To my observation you have nothing to do with any conflicts, just venting out of frustration if I remember your username correctly. I mean conflict is an active act with provoking and misinformation/misrepresentation, not disagreement.

TaSheen

Nev'mind.... don't want to get into that.