ZOS, what do YOU need from US?

Gidorick · October 2014

Because of the thread on the Guild Summit (on which I was guilty of some knee-jerk whining – sorry about that, some excellent material has come out of that meeting!) I have been considering what the use of the forums could be and the way they can better be utilized. From what I can tell the forums have largely been used as a frustration depository, but not entirely.

The vast majority of us are here because we love ESO and we want to see it thrive. We want it to have a long, successful, and profitable future. We hope that in ten years we can look back and say “I was there at the beginning”… And we are here because we really do want to help.

Hopefully the forum redesign will provide a more organized environment in which we can more effectively communicate with ZOS and with each other. In preparation for that communication I think there is one question that needs to be asked.

What suggestions/feedback does ZOS need from us?
I ask because I am not sure what information ZOS is looking for from the community.

Fixes!
The game breaking bugs, balancing issues and technical problems are all things that should be reported on. ZOS is no doubt looking for feedback on anything that fixes a problem with the currently implemented systems that will make the game stronger or more accessible.

This CAN be done in-game using the /bug feature, which is the most effective method? Which provides the best feedback?

Improvements?
How about ways to improve upon the systems that exist within the game? Are suggestions like the ability to ride tandem on horseback and single/tandem horse combat welcomed?

Expansions?
The last type of feedback I am wondering about is expansion suggestions. I am the type of player that plays a perpetually developed game and can’t help but think “wouldn’t it be cool if”… and my mind goes wild. I know I am not alone in this.

Does ZOS even WANT suggestions on things that are currently not in the game? ZOS, no doubt, has a plan for ESO and I’m curious if new ideas for new content are even sought. Does ZOS need ideas like those for player housing or what possible player races can be included in future updates? Or are player suggestions of this type largely ignored?

If ZOS isn’t looking for any of these types of above suggestions I, for one, would like to know so my time on the forums can be spent in the most effective way as possible. I want to help and I want to make sure what I post is welcomed and useful.

Thanks!

Gilvoth · October 2014

if you realy want to help then go to the pts and help in there, lots of buggs in there. would realy help alot of us out when what they have in pts goes live and it dont have buggs.

DuelWieldingCheesyPoofs · October 2014

Hlaren_shortsheath wrote: »

if you realy want to help then go to the pts and help in there, lots of buggs in there. would realy help alot of us out when what they have in pts goes live and it dont have buggs.

why? they dnt fix them did you miss the memo ? Nemo, BUBBLES!

NetViperX · October 2014

I know what ZoS needs from me. Another request for a Frog vanity pet!!!

C'mon Zeni, I'm not gonna let it go, you might as well break down and hook us up with that Frog!!

jeevin · October 2014

There's no way ZOS isn't aware of all broken or buggy bits of the game. They just don't know how to fix them! All they really need from you is $15 a month

Inversus · October 2014

What does zos need the most from us?

Well I suppose the answer to that must be...
moneyyyy

Gythral · October 2014

To answer the question:

Our Money & silence about the issues

Gidorick · October 2014

See... this is the attitude that prevails on this forum. Snarky sarcasm.

I wouldn't blame them for ignoring these forums. the amount of effort it would take to rake through the BS to pull out the few rings of sincerity just wouldn't be worth the effort.

But the answer of "Nothing but your money"... is probably pretty close to the truth.... thanks for responding guys.

Gidorick · October 2014

Hlaren_shortsheath wrote: »

if you realy want to help then go to the pts and help in there, lots of buggs in there. would realy help alot of us out when what they have in pts goes live and it dont have buggs.

I actually did play on the PTS when they put out the call for help. The thing is... I haven't finished the game so playing the content they are developing felt like it was spoiling my main characters on the NA server for me... so I stopped. I want to help but not at the expense of my enjoyment of the game.

Good note though.

Inversus · October 2014

gideon_nine_ESO wrote: »

See... this is the attitude that prevails on this forum. Snarky sarcasm.

I wouldn't blame them for ignoring these forums. the amount of effort it would take to rake through the BS to pull out the few rings of sincerity just wouldn't be worth the effort.

But the answer of "Nothing but your money"... is probably pretty close to the truth.... thanks for responding guys.

It wasn't supposed to be sarcasm, they're a business so of course they want money - more money hopefully = more funding for updates

But if you do want to help more, do what the other people in this thread have said, try out the pts

Gidorick · October 2014

Inversus wrote: »

It wasn't supposed to be sarcasm, they're a business so of course they want money - more money hopefully = more funding for updates

But if you do want to help more, do what the other people in this thread have said, try out the pts

I guess I just misread the tone of the responses. I have tried the PTS but I really don't want to play end game content.. I haven't gotten there yet.

Izzban · October 2014

I find it unlikely that the only way a player can help is the PTS. I think there are other ways, just need to dig deeper.

Gidorick · October 2014

Izzban wrote: »

I find it unlikely that the only way a player can help is the PTS. I think there are other ways, just need to dig deeper.

Is this forum one of them or is it MOSTLY a place for us players to come and discuss... whatever it is we want to discuss?

SURE.... when there are multiple threads with thousands of views about the same complaint ZOS will see it and it will be legitimate feedback. What about threads like this:

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/comment/1294139#Comment_1294139

There are some ideas presented here and do we just assume ZOS sees these ideas and they go into some report that gets sent to the team or do we assume the report goes into the round-file?

Inversus · October 2014

gideon_nine_ESO wrote: »

Inversus wrote: »

It wasn't supposed to be sarcasm, they're a business so of course they want money - more money hopefully = more funding for updates

But if you do want to help more, do what the other people in this thread have said, try out the pts

I guess I just misread the tone of the responses. I have tried the PTS but I really don't want to play end game content.. I haven't gotten there yet.

Well, if you spot any bugs or have any feedback while you're playing through the game, you can type /bug or /feedback in-game and send info to zos that way.

Gidorick · October 2014

Inversus wrote: »

Well, if you spot any bugs or have any feedback while you're playing through the game, you can type /bug or /feedback in-game and send info to zos that way.

Always do!

Probitas · October 2014

Bottom line with any company, they need you to give them money. Your justification for that doesn't matter to them at all really. Welcome to Marketing/Econ 201 - The Reason for Doing Business. Surely you don't think it's to sell something. It's all about the Benjamins. And the less it costs them to get your money the better.

Not a dig at this company, just a fairly blunt assessment of what a company is ultimately all about.

LonePirate · October 2014

I'm guessing ZOS needs us to be more tolerant of the crashes and lag in Cyrodiil as well as the poorly designed and implemented group quests in Craglorn.

Woolenthreads · October 2014

I'm here to entertain myself while eating breakfast. I don't have an issue with ZoS getting something out of it though

Varicite · October 2014

gideon_nine_ESO wrote: »

See... this is the attitude that prevails on this forum. Snarky sarcasm.

I don't think I've visited a gaming forum in the past decade that didn't fully fit this description.

/shrug

Leeric · October 2014

They know what is wrong, we given them proof but their customer support are a bunch of *** nozzles with no more education that a few classes at a community collage. Ya I went there. I love the game but, their customer support staff is nearly as bad as Apples "you aren't doing it right" shenanigans.

AngryNord · October 2014

Our money :P D'uh :P

Varicite · October 2014

Leeric wrote: »

their customer support are a bunch of *** nozzles with no more education that a few classes at a community collage.

I'm curious exactly what you think the requirements for an entry-level position are...

You're lucky if they've even been to college. : P

Leeric · October 2014

Varicite wrote: »

Leeric wrote: »

their customer support are a bunch of *** nozzles with no more education that a few classes at a community collage.

I'm curious exactly what you think the requirements for an entry-level position are...

You're lucky if they've even been to college. : P

Well rational and logical is all I want, and you don't really have to go to college for that but it helps. But they don't even posses that. I would expect anyone at support to be able to understand basic game functions and basic computer functions. And not just essentially make up an answer because they don't want to do their jobs. I use to work for customer service, not with ESO obviously but thats exactly how it is.

And I was constantly coming in behind others because of how badly they messed up. It gets to a point, even with ESO that it becomes a huge liability.

Razzak · October 2014

Nice thread. Was thinking of making one myself. Not for the criticism, but for simple question.
What can we do in here, on this forum? What can we do in order to become more appreciated as forum users? Let's leave the topic of summit and how it was implemented to the side. But I would like to know what to do here in order to get more feedback from officials in here?
Is it really just the attitude we project that prevents devs and others from Zeni to come here and help us understand or just simply answer some of the more talked about problems?
You have to understand, simply saying "more constructive communication" or anything similar is easy to talk about but very difficult to achieve. And that's not because we, forum users, are incapable of such a thing. It's simply because all of us are incapable of true constructive ... anything. We, forum users, those outside this forum that get Zeni's attention and Zeni's employees.
We all see ESO and it's problems from at least two different sides. And many times the chasm between those two sides is the biggest reason for the lack of constructive behavior by us, forum users. But that's not due to the malicious intentions we might have. That's because our understanding of certain problem is many times drastically different than that of devs. And this is why we need a proper communication.
The problem that has become apparent is, that this chasm is getting bigger. But truth be told, forum users' attitude is only half of the reason for it. The other is lack of communication (constructive or not) by Zeni's side.
So, it would probably be best to say that both of our sides have to try harder.
But will it get any better if we, forum users, somehow manage to lighten up the tone of this forum? Would this really brings us more interaction with the officials?
If not, what can we do to earn the right to communicate with someone else beside ourselves?

dodgehopper_ESO · October 2014

I'd like to add that the chasm between player and developer will always be there to some extent, on every game. There's no way they can talk amongst themselves completely much less with the masses who play the game. I think it would be interesting if someone found a way to really get players involved with bug reporting in a meaningful way. It can be frustrating to find a bug, and not know if the right people have heard about it. For instance, I'm aware of the Illuminate passive not working on Templar. This is frustrating to me so I send a bug report, and have commented on it in forums. I try to be constructive about it. The reality is though, that we don't even know to what degree anything we have to say is of value or use. We'd all love to get our thoughts across to ZoS, but do they? I do not think it is because ZoS isn't well meaning in this regard either, once again its the issue of scope. A few forum moderators can only glean, and then convey so much between the Developers and the Players and back.

Koensol · October 2014

They need your dollar, dollar, dollar that's what they need!

Sindala · October 2014

All they 'need' is your unbridled silence when unhappy, lots of fanboi praise, open wallet and your monthly sub.
Bad part is, they get it from half the peeps here too.

Razzak · October 2014

Any chance in getting some official response?
Not from devs, of course, but from CS dept employees who would know what to do on our side, to at least begin having constructive communication about a chance of having a real constructive communication some day. And that was not meant to be sarcastic. We just have to start somewhere and if the main problem is on our side, this is our side saying "help us".

jeevin · October 2014

How can you honestly believe that we as players aren't doing our bit? We're playing, paying our subs and reporting on game issues. Sure the the tone on these forums often leaves a lot to be desired, but the frustration levels with both the game and the devs is through the roof.
When problems, bugs, exploits and a lack of usability(oh god the issues) have been reported numerous times and aren't addressed it's one thing. When they aren't even acknowledged, well frankly, it's maddening. Then theres the old "we've fixed it" but haven't really. There are things in this game that haven't worked since launch. At over six months live it's ridiculous.
This game should have been amazeballs but it's so underdone. There is nothing you or I can do that can miraculously make this group of devs the right team to make this game better. But we can fork out $15 a month and live in hope.

Gidorick · October 2014

@Razzak‌ I too was hoping for some official response. I don't need to know that my input is USED but it would be nice to know that what we write here... our ideas and our feedback that isn't complaining about fixes reaches those that are building the future of this game.... because we all know the complaints reach them...

Varicite · October 2014

Pay, play, give feedback.

Pretty much all you need to do, I imagine.