Studio Director’s Message Key Points

thedocbwarren

This is a business decision. It's cheaper to work on PvP and other basic systems than new content. They are working on an older game that wasn't cheap to make and difficult to maintain. Given the high revenue in MS for gaming is coming from COD, it makes sense to switch to limited content and mostly group. I'm imagining business is hoping it becomes another COD and it's cheaper to make and maintain. They don't want Skyrim: the MMO.

I'm here for the story and the lore. I'm also here for casual PVE and exploration. Will see how this goes but I'm not spending any more for lots of little stuff throughout the year. Will wait and see.

My 2 cents, maybe 1 cent.

MasterSpatula

Well, now I know why the forum mods have stretched their already-laughable definition of bashing to include the word inadequate when describing the amount of content this year.

Rohamad_Ali

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Just to follow up here. The changes here are to make us more agile and produce more engaging and varied content. So from our prospective, it is not us "going into maintenance" but rather being able to address several concerns the player base has noted over the years.

I don't mind if you went into maintenance mode. IMO it's long overdue.

RomanRex

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Just to follow up here. The changes here are to make us more agile and produce more engaging and varied content. So from our prospective, it is not us "going into maintenance" but rather being able to address several concerns the player base has noted over the years.

I don't mind if you went into maintenance mode. IMO it's long overdue.

we call it maintenance mode. they may use a different term, but we are all referencing the same thing.

Lylith

ohaphazardo wrote: »

Once again ZERO love for solo players...

nothing new in that.

manukartofanu

Well, from the letter, it’s clear that this year’s success was simply incredible, so next year we will have even more of the same success.

licenturion

Danikat wrote: »

The one part of this which does give me hope is they specifically said they're going to make further improvements to the start of the game to help new players learn how it works and stop them getting overwhelmed. That's not something they'd bother doing unless the game was regularly attracting new players and ZOS expected that to continue.

They already reworked this 2 times.

I know of another game that has reworked their questing 3 times and has seasonal content: New World.

And we know how that one goes. The main complaint from players has always been that there isn’t enough exciting content.

Jaraal

Tannus15 wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

LatentBuzzard wrote: »

Not to mention that if they're only announcing details a quarter of the way through 2025 then 2025 is pretty much going to be a write off in terms of new content.

Just following up on this. We have new content coming in 2025. We have our normal Q1 content for 2025 (we’ll touch on that next month), and April will have details for the rest of 2025. So it will not be a write off regarding content.

people are freaking out and are very anxious about what these changes will mean. You can't leave it to April. 4 MONTHS before giving some sort of outline about what your seasonal model will look like.

Seriously, this is what we mean about communication issues. The letter is super exciting, and has heaps of potential, but it's also promising some big changes and a lot of people are really not comfortable with change. You CANNOT just say "we're changing everything but we're not going to tell you how this is going to work for almost half a year!"

It will be very interesting to watch the ESO Steam Charts over the next few months.

There's no doubt that encouraging players to pre-order chapters so they can get "free" goodies helps to drive the engagement. People want to keep playing, in anticipation of what the next big thing (and their already paid money) brings. Simply telling players, "Well, we have stuff planned, but we aren't going to tell you about it for a few months, or whether you have to pay for it, where it is, what's included, etc. But we may or may not be experimenting with various things.... you just have to trust us that it'll be worth your while" is such an open ended and nondescript concept that it allows players to walk away from the game without really having a reason to.

It's one thing to have a roadmap, and a completely different thing to have an old farmer working on his tractor tell you, "Oh, just head on down the road a ways 'till you see a big tree, take a left and go up that hill over yonder until you find what yer looking for."

People will actually pay for a map.

Castagere

The game world is huge. And they will do what just about every MMO should be doing and give us a reason to revisit all those older zones. So I'm okay with that, and I'm tired of all the chapter stuff and over-the-top chapter boss fights. Of course, it will suck for those of us that do zone completions.

RomanRex

Jaraal wrote: »

People will actually pay for a map.

The last roadmap had a big “housing feature” and major “PvP update”. Both were very poorly received.

The ambiguous roadmap gives people too much hope and then backfires when people are disappointed.

The “good vibes” projected by community managers and player facing employees has started to feel super forced and fake. Too much lip service and not enough results.

Vonnegut2506

If you thought they couldn't monetize things more, just wait until you see the new seasonal model.

DaniimalsSF

Lylith wrote: »

ohaphazardo wrote: »

Once again ZERO love for solo players...

nothing new in that.

It’s so interesting how we can come to such vastly different perspectives. It’s my perception that 90% of the game is solo content. I don’t know if people can solo trials, but everything else right? Keeps in Cyrodill can even be taken solo.

the1andonlyskwex

Defatank wrote: »

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

"Seasons" feels like a code word for less real content, more FOMO, and a good excuse to switch to a different game.

@ZOS_JessicaFolsom has already stated that "Seasons" are not going to be removed.


ZOS is simply going to be adding more content for players to do as it is ready throughout the year as opposed to waiting each year to dump what the team has worked on for months and then players play that content for 3 mo and then leave. The new design I believe is to try and keep "new" content in the pipe through the year while still having all the other content to complete for new / returning players or even your daily players who decides to switch up some content they're playing.

They may not be taking away "Content" at the end of each season, but you can bet that every season will have it's own golden pursuit, and its own event ticket / cosmetic grind, and possibly it's own set of activities that provide bonus drops, etc..

I already have trouble keeping up with events and endeavors. Maybe it won't be as bad as I fear, but I'm not sure I'm willing to stick around and find out.

MedicInTheWild

LadyGP wrote: »

licenturion wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

licenturion wrote: »

So no more zone expansion to look forward to, no new story, no new world events, no new soundtrack release etc

I am going to wait and see but I will probably lose interest rather quickly. But good they announce this well in advance so that I don’t invest financially in ESO+ or crowns. It will be interesting to see how much the PvP crowd will invest financially, now that they become the priority for a year.

Just to clarify, no one said we are not doing things like this anymore. They just won’t be packaged under a chapter. We still plan on story content, music, world activities, etc. We’ll have more info to share in April.

Well that is good I suppose. So are you going to sell a ‘year pass’ instead of an expansion?

However this is very bizarre way of communicating. You drop basically a bomb shell of news on the community and will clarify the details in 4,5 months?

The fact that you had to post several times in a short span about this clearly shows this was not the way to deliver news of this kind of magnitude. Especially when clarifications are almost 5 months away. Just my 2 cents…

I think Matts letter a nice PR way of addressing current challenges this year has faced and a way they plan on handling them.

It's a "hey we want to give you a heads up this is coming.. but as for the specifics of the content we want to wait to do our global reveal". Global reveals/season reveals are important for PR and pushing new players into the game. If they didn't give anyone heads up and dropped the bomb on us then everyone would be asking questions like they are right now instead of focusing on the specifics of the content that was unveiled - which would not drive new players.

As for them coming into this thread.. this is them improving communications. They are immediately stepping in and clearing up any confusion before it goes off the rails - something we all have been asking for.

The biggest takeaway from the letter to me is they waited to release the poor PVP performance statement in the letter. We all know the performance is horrible, they should have addressed this months ago. I fear they have waited to long as many new games have been released and people are moving on and all you have to do is look at streamers that were almost exclusive to ESO weather PVP or PVE and see they are into other games recently. Also i believe I seen a post that seems more on this wont be released until April........ That's 4 more months of unknown/poor performance before we see their plans to fix this astonishing issue which could take an unknown amount of time.

They think they will be able to grab people back which is true, but not at the numbers which they have lost to other games. To give an example I play with a few that have moved to POE2 and are having a blast, does it have lag....some but I dont crash every 30 minutes. Will I return to ESO? Not if the fix is 6 months from now. The community begging for a fix to a problem that has been ongoing and they wait to place the notice in the yearly letter shows they want it to be a yearly goal, not a lets fix this problem for a community that has kept us alive for over a decade has an issue with.

I have said very few repetitive things in post which has seemed to do nothing but ended in nothing but "timeouts".

1. The only thing we seem to get in forums is reprimanded for bashing and being "off topic". I think this is the wrong way to go personally. It is rare they can answer anything which I understand the forum mods can only release what is allowed but telling what the community feels should not be blocked it should encourage actions on the management side to get results.
2. The crown store will always have new stuff to sell no matter how bad of a state the game is in. I understand that is their way of income to support a game. How much more could it be if they would fix the issues that players are leaving the game over. I know myself I am in the tens of thousand in money spent and I am done supporting the cause. Why would anyone continue to spend their money to support a game when you cant even do something as simple as use the damn mounts you spent $20+ dollars on when your stuck in combat.
3. HOT's (Healing over time) - This is way to much currently. I can walk into a ball group and not die, I went to make a cup of coffee and came back and still wasn't dead on a 26k health 19K resistance toon and wasn't in stealth. Until they reduce the amount per instance on you they will never have a healthy combat progression. They fail to utilize Battle spirit when I have run across multiple forums with this suggestion. Until they make a wide difference with battle spirit they wont have balance in the game.

With Love, Medic

Enodoc

Vonnegut2506 wrote: »

If you thought they couldn't monetize things more, just wait until you see the new seasonal model.

I predict "Season Passes" which will unlock content early (I think someone else suggested a similar thing further up), and Season content won't be added to ESO Plus for at least 2 or 3 cycles.

But maybe they will finally get around to completing the "Larger Delves" project which they started in Update 3 (and postponed after Update 6). They still have the delves in the Tier 2 and Tier 3 base game zones to expand to a comparable size to the rest.

"Experimenting with more zones like Craglorn" sounds interesting too - could this be the return of Adventure Zones?

Also I would suggest a Unique Icon for Prologue Quests rather than removing the prologue quest pin completely. Even if new players won't initially see them, returning players should still get some sort of indication that it's something a bit different from a Story quest or Side quest.

J18696

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

Defatank wrote: »

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

"Seasons" feels like a code word for less real content, more FOMO, and a good excuse to switch to a different game.

@ZOS_JessicaFolsom has already stated that "Seasons" are not going to be removed.


ZOS is simply going to be adding more content for players to do as it is ready throughout the year as opposed to waiting each year to dump what the team has worked on for months and then players play that content for 3 mo and then leave. The new design I believe is to try and keep "new" content in the pipe through the year while still having all the other content to complete for new / returning players or even your daily players who decides to switch up some content they're playing.

They may not be taking away "Content" at the end of each season, but you can bet that every season will have it's own golden pursuit, and its own event ticket / cosmetic grind, and possibly it's own set of activities that provide bonus drops, etc..

I already have trouble keeping up with events and endeavors. Maybe it won't be as bad as I fear, but I'm not sure I'm willing to stick around and find out.

We already have this now the event ticket cosmetics are already seasonal then at the end of the year we get the opportunity to earn the prevoius items again.

When they say seasonal I think its just them saying we will release content over the 3 month? Period as it's ready rather than wait for all of it tobe ready and leave the playerbase with nothing new untill that point.

Jaraal

RomanRex wrote: »

Jaraal wrote: »

People will actually pay for a map.

The last roadmap had a big “housing feature” and major “PvP update”. Both were very poorly received.

The ambiguous roadmap gives people too much hope and then backfires when people are disappointed.

Yeah, the palpable let down after such a hopeful tease has many people questioning what these upcoming things mean. If people start expecting fabulous things, but are instead given minor tweaks to existing systems as 'new content,' then why should they remain optimistic? Actions speak louder than words. And how many people are actually satisfied with the "new PvP and housing content" that was promised last year?

duagloth

So a copy of the destiny model? I smell autopilot mode

MidniteOwl1913

DaniimalsSF wrote: »

Lylith wrote: »

ohaphazardo wrote: »

Once again ZERO love for solo players...

nothing new in that.

It’s so interesting how we can come to such vastly different perspectives. It’s my perception that 90% of the game is solo content. I don’t know if people can solo trials, but everything else right? Keeps in Cyrodill can even be taken solo.

I think in part that depends on skill level. Some players have trouble with soloing dungeons and WB's for instance. And I couldn't take a keep in Cryo solo if my life depended on it...

the1andonlyskwex

J18696 wrote: »

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

Defatank wrote: »

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

"Seasons" feels like a code word for less real content, more FOMO, and a good excuse to switch to a different game.

@ZOS_JessicaFolsom has already stated that "Seasons" are not going to be removed.


ZOS is simply going to be adding more content for players to do as it is ready throughout the year as opposed to waiting each year to dump what the team has worked on for months and then players play that content for 3 mo and then leave. The new design I believe is to try and keep "new" content in the pipe through the year while still having all the other content to complete for new / returning players or even your daily players who decides to switch up some content they're playing.

They may not be taking away "Content" at the end of each season, but you can bet that every season will have it's own golden pursuit, and its own event ticket / cosmetic grind, and possibly it's own set of activities that provide bonus drops, etc..

I already have trouble keeping up with events and endeavors. Maybe it won't be as bad as I fear, but I'm not sure I'm willing to stick around and find out.

We already have this now the event ticket cosmetics are already seasonal then at the end of the year we get the opportunity to earn the prevoius items again.

When they say seasonal I think its just them saying we will release content over the 3 month? Period as it's ready rather than wait for all of it tobe ready and leave the playerbase with nothing new untill that point.

I'm saying that I expect all of the same event stuff we have now, plus a bunch of "seasonal" (possibly paid or semi-paid) stuff on top of that. Golden Pursuits are a good example of the new model in action. More limited-time grinds, that are stacked on top of the ones we've already had for the last few years. I fully expect (paid) battle passes too, because that's what games with seasonal models do.

J18696

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

J18696 wrote: »

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

Defatank wrote: »

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

"Seasons" feels like a code word for less real content, more FOMO, and a good excuse to switch to a different game.

@ZOS_JessicaFolsom has already stated that "Seasons" are not going to be removed.


ZOS is simply going to be adding more content for players to do as it is ready throughout the year as opposed to waiting each year to dump what the team has worked on for months and then players play that content for 3 mo and then leave. The new design I believe is to try and keep "new" content in the pipe through the year while still having all the other content to complete for new / returning players or even your daily players who decides to switch up some content they're playing.

They may not be taking away "Content" at the end of each season, but you can bet that every season will have it's own golden pursuit, and its own event ticket / cosmetic grind, and possibly it's own set of activities that provide bonus drops, etc..

I already have trouble keeping up with events and endeavors. Maybe it won't be as bad as I fear, but I'm not sure I'm willing to stick around and find out.

We already have this now the event ticket cosmetics are already seasonal then at the end of the year we get the opportunity to earn the prevoius items again.

When they say seasonal I think its just them saying we will release content over the 3 month? Period as it's ready rather than wait for all of it tobe ready and leave the playerbase with nothing new untill that point.

I'm saying that I expect all of the same event stuff we have now, plus a bunch of "seasonal" (possibly paid or semi-paid) stuff on top of that. Golden Pursuits are a good example of the new model in action. More limited-time grinds, that are stacked on top of the ones we've already had for the last few years. I fully expect (paid) battle passes too, because that's what games with seasonal models do.

I understand but if it's true eso plus subs are falling off I fully expect them to just implement these premium passes into that but I get u in the worst timeline possible we see exactly what you describe

TX12001rwb17_ESO

Hopefully now we will beable to get smaller DLC in areas of the map that are missing like Central Elsweyr, also it will be great to get new DLC for Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood.

Defatank

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

Defatank wrote: »

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

"Seasons" feels like a code word for less real content, more FOMO, and a good excuse to switch to a different game.

@ZOS_JessicaFolsom has already stated that "Seasons" are not going to be removed.


ZOS is simply going to be adding more content for players to do as it is ready throughout the year as opposed to waiting each year to dump what the team has worked on for months and then players play that content for 3 mo and then leave. The new design I believe is to try and keep "new" content in the pipe through the year while still having all the other content to complete for new / returning players or even your daily players who decides to switch up some content they're playing.

They may not be taking away "Content" at the end of each season, but you can bet that every season will have it's own golden pursuit, and its own event ticket / cosmetic grind, and possibly it's own set of activities that provide bonus drops, etc..

I already have trouble keeping up with events and endeavors. Maybe it won't be as bad as I fear, but I'm not sure I'm willing to stick around and find out.

Oh I 100% agree with you. There is going to be unlocks / rewards tied to the seasons but its really no different than the achievement system that we have in place right now for completing content and getting rewarded for it, which I'm sure some of it will be for a "limited" time to obtain which again not really any different than what we've been given over the past 10 years. There's plenty of things I've missed out on that are only obtainable from impresario bags during certain events because I missed the actual event when they dropped so really no big drastic changes coming in those senses I dont believe. However going back to the changes at hand these changes will in fact encourage / carrot on a stick (if you will) players to stick around and be active on a more regular basis since content will be released more regularly as opposed to here's a mass amount of content to do at your own pace or burn through it in a week then complain for a year about not having anything "new" to do.

shadyjane62

ohaphazardo wrote: »

Once again ZERO love for solo players...

I too am a solo player closed out of a lot of content.

Jaraal

shadyjane62 wrote: »

ohaphazardo wrote: »

Once again ZERO love for solo players...

I too am a solo player closed out of a lot of content.

You'll be closed out of a lot more, too, if they make a harder overland.

Like somebody said earlier, fighting a skeever for two minutes so you can harvest a resource node is going to push a lot of players away.

Vonnegut2506

For harder overland difficulty, they should just let the person who designed the boss fights in West Weald be in charge. That way every overland mob could have several periods where they are immune to damage and take forever to kill.

RomanRex

Jaraal wrote: »

shadyjane62 wrote: »

ohaphazardo wrote: »

Once again ZERO love for solo players...

I too am a solo player closed out of a lot of content.

You'll be closed out of a lot more, too, if they make a harder overland.

Like somebody said earlier, fighting a skeever for two minutes so you can harvest a resource node is going to push a lot of players away.

just the idea of wasting time on trash while trying to do zone dailies is already enough to push me away.

Amottica

Fischblut wrote: »

While I am afraid that instead of paying once a year for chapter, we might be required to pay more times (per season)... The real concern for my playstyle is this part:

"Increasing the difficulty of standard overworld combat"

If this will be done, it will be the end of ESO for me personally I like easy fights in overland, casually exploring and not being afraid of mobs who guard treasure chests and resources. I already prefer to not participate in world boss/world events in chapters and DLC zones - but when I see an active Dark Anchor in base game zones, I always go for it.

And zones which force (or strongly encourage) grouping like old Craglorn are not how I wish to play nowadays

I doubt they increase the difficulty level by much. They know that most of the player base is not interested in a big challenge in overland or quests. They have said as much before. Today it is extremely easy so they will likely just ramp it up to be regular easy.

As for how often we pay, we have been paying multiple times a year. Either someone subscribes or they purchase the DLCs or they do without. They will not be getting rid of the sub as that is a cash cow that brings in a lot more than selling DLCs.

Sakiri

Jaraal wrote: »

shadyjane62 wrote: »

ohaphazardo wrote: »

Once again ZERO love for solo players...

I too am a solo player closed out of a lot of content.

You'll be closed out of a lot more, too, if they make a harder overland.

Like somebody said earlier, fighting a skeever for two minutes so you can harvest a resource node is going to push a lot of players away.

You mean, so someone else can walk up and take it while you're still fighting.

Toxicity at it's finest.

Ragnarok0130

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

licenturion wrote: »

So no more zone expansion to look forward to, no new story, no new world events, no new soundtrack release etc

I am going to wait and see but I will probably lose interest rather quickly. But good they announce this well in advance so that I don’t invest financially in ESO+ or crowns. It will be interesting to see how much the PvP crowd will invest financially, now that they become the priority for a year.

Just to clarify, no one said we are not doing things like this anymore. They just won’t be packaged under a chapter. We still plan on story content, music, world activities, etc. We’ll have more info to share in April.

You have to understand if things are released together as a chapter like we've historically received we can justify your rather hefty price tags whereas if you split content up I'm not sure one can justify the inevitable ZoS pricing schema for far less content released more frequently.