Threads drop if people aren't interested in them. The handful of forum warriors flogging their agendas eventually left or got bored, and without a critical mass to prop the threads up they go away.

Of course, you can also invoke conspiracy theories (as if this venue has somehow consistently lacked critical threads.) I've noticed that the critics have become more strident and intolerant of disagreement with their ideas and assertions...which also cuts down the lifetime of threads. There's no point in talking with someone who only wants to hear from those who agree with them.

They are all here now!

EDIT: (J/K, just in case...)

Crumpy wrote: »

[snip]

Thanks loads - the coffee I was drinking spurted from my nostrils as I read this.

[edited to remove quote]

ZOS has been improving the game over the last few months. A lot of people will take exception with that statement, but I think it is true when you look at the game as a whole. I think they need to kick it up a notch, especially in Cyrodiil, but they seem to be making forward progress in all areas of the game.

It is clear that they have a number of people working on stuff related to PVP and Cyrodiil. It is obvious from the way they talk and what they are doing that these things are important to them. The last two hotfixes have been for PVP and Cyrodiil related bugs. I have no doubt that they will get there, they just need to get there faster.

There is room for improvement in other areas. Update 4 was better quality than Update 3, but there were still problems with Update 4 that should not have been. I have high hopes for Update 5, but it is a big update. They really need a solid Update with no major bugs or regressions and I hope they have everything in place to do this.

With Update 5 in mind, I might suggest a couple things. Both Update 3 and Update 4 did ship with high profile bugs that should have been fixed first. If there are high profile bugs or regressions in Update 5, I do hope that they will give strong consideration to fixing them before delivery, even if it means a delay. I also think that there is a development and QA benefit to putting everything on PTS before moving it to Live. Now that there is user data on PTS, this is even more beneficial.

They still need to work on communication about bugs discussed by players in the forum. They are getting better, noticeably better than a couple months ago, but I still see threads that seem to get ignored for too long. This results in responses where they shoot the messenger. You can go through a lot of messengers that way. I think a more frequent update may reduce that problem.

@ZOS_BrianWheeler‌ has been doing an outstanding job communicating on the forum and he seems to browse through it quite frequently and he posts information. People may not like what he has to say, and some people are just rude no matter what he says, but his continued participation places Cyrodiil at the top of the list as far as information goes. No other part of ESO gets this much direct information.

Maria Aliprando‌ has recently posted in here. She has not been back to post something since she originally posted, but I do hope this developer turns into a second Brian Wheeler. Jessica, Gina, and crew do a great job with the developer ventriloquist act but nothing beats hearing from the developer directly, and regularly, and having them clarify things in the forum.