katanagirl1 wrote: »For those of us who want to be able to continue to support the game amidst all this, it could be challenging.
I’ve already done all of the new season content and am running out of things to do. I usually spend my time in Cyrodiil, and could entertain myself there indefinitely, but the combat imbalances due to former classes, OP gear and subclassing, with ball groups thrown on top, can make it really frustrating. Some days I just log out because I can’t do anything.
New players have a whole world to explore, but those of us who have kept up all these years aren’t excited about overland questing, running pledges, and such anymore because we have done that so many times before. If we get less new content this year and even less than that next year, we need to feel like the future will be better. I doubt they are looking that far ahead though. So it’s just wait and see at this point.
That's the boat I'm in. I still have a few things to do, mainly leads to get or achievements I want to get/finish, but after that, I won't have anything to do. I'm glad we'll get more content in October. It's 2026 I'm worried about. My annual sub renews in November, and I'll be cancelling it and going to a shorter sub period. I have serious doubts that there will be enough to do to keep me around until November 2026.
Part of the problem is that the systems they're introducing have no variety. Right now, endeavors and golden pursuits rehash the same activities and content over and over again. I wish they'd introduce something random, so it's not all the same. Daily bounty quests where some random NPC in the game is chosen (and it's not the same for everyone). Scavenger hunts. More collections activities like Vivec's books. Stuff like that, all of which can be implemented with no new zone required. They have a vast world now, and it would be great if they'd make more use of the zones beyond the usual WB, delve, and incursion dailies.
SeaGtGruff wrote: »Hopefully once they figure it out they'll let us know. We shall see.
They already did. They told us at around the beginning of the year how ESO is changing. They ended the chapter model. We can see the result in the game right now.
I keep repeating myself because I'm amazed that people can't see what's right in front of them. They didn't just change the name of the annual update for no reason. ESO has entered a new phase.
It's an 11 year old game, so this kind of thing is to be expected.
Let's not forget that some people in these forums had been complaining for years about how the annual chapter releases had become formulaic in structure-- every year, there was a new dungeon DLC in Q1, a chapter in Q2, another dungeon DLC in Q3, and a zone DLC concluding the year-long story in Q4. To be sure, there were also people who defended that formula and said they liked the year-long stories. But if I remember correctly, there were even some people posting polls about this topic.
ZOS responded by announcing that the year-long story formula was going to be changed up by making story arcs spanning multiple years. Naturally, some people reacted negatively to that announcement.
Also, there had been people complaining for years that there were too few bug fixes. Again, some people suggested dropping one of the quarterly DLCs each year for a release of bug fixes, and even posted polls in these forums about that topic.
ZOS responded by announcing that the Q3 and Q4 DLCs would focus more on fixing bugs and adding new game systems. It may have been part of the decision to do away with year-long story arcs and do more story arcs that span multiple years-- I'm hazy on the specifics-- but my point is, it was more or less something that people had been suggesting in these forums, and of course some people reacted negatively to it.
I could go on.
The card game that a vocal percentage of the playerbase loves to hate on and has said ZOS needs to delete from the game? A response to people in these forums asking ZOS to incorporate Legends into ESO (which I don't think would have worked) or add some kind of "tavern game."
The first version of the Vengeance test where we had very limited templates of skills and sets to reduce the calculations the server needs to deal with? A response to people in these forums voicing their opinions about how unbalanced PvP is, how ZOS needs to balance PvE and PvP separately, praising other MMOs where PvP and PvE have separate gear sets, etc.
And etc. (Destructible bridges.) And etc. (Update old zones with new graphics.) And etc. (You get the idea.)
It seems to me that ZOS has been bending over backwards for years listening to the playerbase and trying to give the people some workable version of what have they been asking for. And whenever ZOS has announced some change that's essentially a response to suggestions or complaints in these forums, somebody starts yelling about "maintenance mode."
It seems to me like it's tiime for the players to go look in their bathroom mirrors for answers.
SeaGtGruff wrote: »Hopefully once they figure it out they'll let us know. We shall see.
They already did. They told us at around the beginning of the year how ESO is changing. They ended the chapter model. We can see the result in the game right now.
I keep repeating myself because I'm amazed that people can't see what's right in front of them. They didn't just change the name of the annual update for no reason. ESO has entered a new phase.
It's an 11 year old game, so this kind of thing is to be expected.
.....
It seems to me that ZOS has been bending over backwards for years listening to the playerbase and trying to give the people some workable version of what have they been asking for.
katanagirl1 wrote: »Maybe that would help, but for me the excitement is a whole new zone to explore, something new to see. It’s always been my favorite part, and a smaller zone just isn’t as exciting as a larger zone with more content.
SeaGtGruff wrote: »It seems to me that ZOS has been bending over backwards for years listening to the playerbase and trying to give the people some workable version of what have they been asking for. And whenever ZOS has announced some change that's essentially a response to suggestions or complaints in these forums, somebody starts yelling about "maintenance mode."
SeaGtGruff wrote: »Let's not forget that some people in these forums had been complaining for years about how the annual chapter releases had become formulaic in structure-- every year, there was a new dungeon DLC in Q1, a chapter in Q2, another dungeon DLC in Q3, and a zone DLC concluding the year-long story in Q4. To be sure, there were also people who defended that formula and said they liked the year-long stories. But if I remember correctly, there were even some people posting polls about this topic.
ZOS responded by announcing that the year-long story formula was going to be changed up by making story arcs spanning multiple years. Naturally, some people reacted negatively to that announcement.
SeaGtGruff wrote: »Also, there had been people complaining for years that there were too few bug fixes. Again, some people suggested dropping one of the quarterly DLCs each year for a release of bug fixes, and even posted polls in these forums about that topic.
ZOS responded by announcing that the Q3 and Q4 DLCs would focus more on fixing bugs and adding new game systems. It may have been part of the decision to do away with year-long story arcs and do more story arcs that span multiple years-- I'm hazy on the specifics-- but my point is, it was more or less something that people had been suggesting in these forums, and of course some people reacted negatively to it.
SeaGtGruff wrote: »The card game that a vocal percentage of the playerbase loves to hate on and has said ZOS needs to delete from the game? A response to people in these forums asking ZOS to incorporate Legends into ESO (which I don't think would have worked) or add some kind of "tavern game."
SeaGtGruff wrote: »The first version of the Vengeance test where we had very limited templates of skills and sets to reduce the calculations the server needs to deal with? A response to people in these forums voicing their opinions about how unbalanced PvP is, how ZOS needs to balance PvE and PvP separately, praising other MMOs where PvP and PvE have separate gear sets, etc.
SeaGtGruff wrote: »It seems to me that ZOS has been bending over backwards for years listening to the playerbase and trying to give the people some workable version of what have they been asking for. And whenever ZOS has announced some change that's essentially a response to suggestions or complaints in these forums, somebody starts yelling about "maintenance mode.".
ImmortalCX wrote: »
While it will be traumatic for many players, I think we should look forward to an elevated experience available in the near future.
colossalvoids wrote: »ImmortalCX wrote: »
While it will be traumatic for many players, I think we should look forward to an elevated experience available in the near future.
Sounds like people should be looking forward to more slop than ever due to developers not understanding what's can be done with help of AI and what's should remain hand crafted in their pursuit of having to deal less with professionals and workers that value their craft in favour of playing way less for some Asian cheap labour. It's same difference as reading magazines and cheap novels that multiply every day rather than timeless classic and specific genre stuff written by a person with deep knowledge base
It's an incredible pity that Zenimax didn't/couldnt go private, instead of being acquired by Microsoft.
I just realized that MS also owns another big company with another even bigger and older MMO (you know what I'm talking about). I wonder, is that game experiencing similar issues after the acquisition? Or different kind of issues? Is there any issues at all or is it only ESO who's not in favor?
dk_dunkirk wrote: »I just realized that MS also owns another big company with another even bigger and older MMO (you know what I'm talking about). I wonder, is that game experiencing similar issues after the acquisition? Or different kind of issues? Is there any issues at all or is it only ESO who's not in favor?
I don't think there's a reason to avoid naming the elephant in the room. Blizzard was also impacted with Microsoft's recent moves, though they reportedly "only" lost 100 people, and their mobile game got put on life support.
I floated the specter of what Microsoft would do when they had two fantasy MMORPG's under one "tent," where one was much larger than the other, and no one wanted to touch those comments with a 10 foot pole either. WOW Classic alone has 5x the daily players of ESO, and WOW Retail has 16x more. So WOW is literally 20x bigger than ESO. If you were in charge of such decisions at Microsoft, what would you do with ESO in the presence of WOW?
Asked a different way: If you had 2 stock market investments, and one was making $1M a year, and another was making $20M, would you keep the $1M stock, or sell it off, and roll that money into the $20M stock?
randconfig wrote: »It's an incredible pity that Zenimax didn't/couldnt go private, instead of being acquired by Microsoft.
Agreed. All publicly traded companies fall prey to enshittification due to a lack of government regulations. Really sad to see Microsoft cannibalize it's own studios and force AI & no privacy on everyone.
I still have hope Zenimax can weather the storm, maybe find a way to buy back their own stock/go private (I don't know how that works or if it's possible though), and I wish the all the laid off devs and their families the best, I hope they can find new work easily.. And the devs still here, I hope they don't burn themselves out by overworking to make up for Microsoft's failings.
ImmortalCX wrote: »Ai is going to fundamentally change the way MMOs and video games are developed as they can automate much of the content creation. AI generated voices are probably going to replace all the voice actors, but that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Nemesis7884 wrote: »Msoft thought gaming and streaming was the next big thing and the growth after covid didnt materialize yet the way they thought and now they think ai is the next big thing and shift resources towards that...
Nemesis7884 wrote: »Msoft thought gaming and streaming was the next big thing and the growth after covid didnt materialize yet the way they thought and now they think ai is the next big thing and shift resources towards that...
Any notion that ESO is somehow made redundant by the existence of WoW is completely unfounded. They are very different games with different audiences.
Yes, Warcraft is a significant IP, but TES is also a juggernaut. Neither product is going away.
Ironically, ZOS has given us signals they are pivoting ESO back to more of an MMO after being a vehicle for TES single player quest content delivered through chapters the previous 7-8 years. But even still, the existing library of chapters will be highly appealing to single player TES fans for many years.
TES is valuable to Skyrim, Oblivion and Morrowind players as well.Only in the ESO forums is TES possibly a valuable IP!
Not if most of the creatives get laid off.And AI is the future of content creation, period. There is nothing stopping this train outside of global conflict. It is completely misunderstood by most people. It will not replace human creativity and ingenuity, it will enhance it.
I was being critical of someone saying that it is possibly valuable when the series is actually extremely valuable.BretonMage wrote: »
Yeah, like all the magazine airbrushers and typesetters did. That's progress.Not if most of the creatives get laid off.
Ah, got it.I was being critical of someone saying that it is possibly valuable when the series is actually extremely valuable.
Those aren't creatives though, I'm worried about elements like writing and acting, which need a human creative element. You can't, for example, expect AI to be able to act out subtle emotional nuances, that is something even inexperienced VAs have trouble doing.Yeah, like all the magazine airbrushers and typesetters did. That's progress.
BretonMage wrote: »Ah, got it.I was being critical of someone saying that it is possibly valuable when the series is actually extremely valuable.Those aren't creatives though, I'm worried about elements like writing and acting, which need a human creative element. You can't, for example, expect AI to be able to act out subtle emotional nuances, that is something even inexperienced VAs have trouble doing.Yeah, like all the magazine airbrushers and typesetters did. That's progress.