They have never been a company that jumps right on answering questions.

I think that this is partly due to the fact that the Community Team just does not know the answer, so they have to go pester the right person to answer the question. Those people might be busy doing their jobs. There may be questions that no one really knows the answer to without going off and researching it. Some of the questions they simply won't answer because they are about unannounced stuffs. Questions that have already been answered, at any time in the past, tend to also get ignored if that answer has not changed.

I would say that things are considerably better than they were in 2014, and right now we seem to be in a period of almost uncontrolled jabbering by ZOS due to the TG release. Well, at least in comparison to the norm.

I'd like to see more answers for AUA questions, and I am not picky. I like the "chamber pot" questions as much as I like the more serious ones. The community asks very complex questions, and I am sure that some questions get set aside because they are just too complicated to answer on ESO Live.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOCD_Jzre3c

IrishGirlGamer wrote: »

lordrichter wrote: »

... The community asks very complex questions, and I am sure that some questions get set aside because they are just too complicated to answer on ESO Live.

While I believe this statement is true, I want to believe that Zenimax has a plan when it comes to things like game balance. Do they feel the game is balanced right now? If they don't, then what is their plan for balancing it? Are they doing it incrementally? Are they listening to their player base at all or just those few that stream a video channel.

While I've tried to hold my tongue with respect to the Templar nerfs/changes, I am really frustrated with what looks like a collection of random changes that make little if any sense. I sincerely want to know: What were they thinking when they thought this would be a good idea ...

There is a book called Flatland that I read back before they invented paper that really applies to balance changes in the game. What I take from that book is how a limited perspective defines how we see things around us. That perspective controls not only how we perceive things, but limits what we are capable of perceiving. What appears to be one thing is really something completely different when viewed from a larger perspective.

I think a lot of people are looking at the class and skill changes as a collection of individual changes and they cannot see the perspective of the game. For example, when they change the Radiant Ward shield strength bonus by 1%, or increase Radial Sweep's radius by 1 meter, a player might see a tiny change that almost seems pointless. ZOS has to look at each change that they make across the entire game. What ZOS sees might be a cascading change that touches other classes, NPCs, world bosses, DSA, MSA, trials, etc. Is 1% (or 1 meter) too much? That is their job, to try and figure out how all of the changes to classes, skills, and races all fit together in the whole game, not just from the perspective of a player who wants to play their character. There is a lot more to balance in this game than one class vs the others, or how well a particular build or play style performs.

Are they going to get it right? I have no idea. I hope they can. Is Wrobel the right guy to handle this sort of thing? I hope that he is. I do think Wrobel and his team have a better chance to get it right than any of the players here in the forum. There are some pretty smart number crunchers in the forum, and I like to read what they come up with, but I am under no illusion that they are better at balance than ZOS.

Personally, I doubt that they could explain this on ESO Live, even if they had 2 hours to do it. This does not mean I would not like to see them try.

Cazzy wrote: »

I've noticed many, many threads with concerns and questions, some of which are considerably important to ESO players. The video card query, for example. There's also a lot of debate on the current state of gameplay balance and whether people are actually being listened to. Costumes are also an issue in the cosmetic department with warping bodies and prices rising in the Crown Store...I've also noticed a considerable decline of mods for a couple of months.

So this leads me to ask; is there enough interaction between Zenimax and their consumers? If no, what can we suggest to improve that?

Newsletters? More interaction between mods and users? Forum AMAs?

The 'Ask Us Anything' is a great way to answer questions but is very restrictive in how often and what is being answered.

There is no interaction with ZOS, just forum moderators. You post they tell you to be polite and hopefully you convince them to get some attention to something the team might care about.

The Dev team needs to have discussion with each class to gather thoughts on class balance and the future of the game and such. Reading the forums is time consuming and largely a waste of time with people calling for a nerf to the guy that just killed them and people trolling.

The discussions could be done Live via twitch and invitation given out by class representatives and moderators. A handful of people could be select by those participating so that not everyone will be talking and they communication can have a voice(s) of reason and hopefully respect. There would be the normal text chat moving along the side and questions could be gather from there as well as compiled by the moderators and representatives before hand to keep the conversation constructive and moving.

This should be happening every 1-3 months and with different members of the team each time so that we might have the chance to peak someones interest rather then have someone who doesn't care what you have to say. That would be interaction.

These forums are just for players to post and reply. In previous MMO We had discussions with moderators and answers from devs on the server I played regularly. Here you lucky to get a response from a mod let alone someone how's has something to do with the developing of the game, though i got to give props to Wheeler who posted pretty regularly in the discussions I followed.

I think there could stand to be more communication as far a the development process goes. I absolutely love the way Star Citizen does it. They go into so much detail, they have a whole YouTube series dedicated to "squashing bugs" where they don't just show you what they are working on fixing, they often show what they have fixed right down to the source code level.

Yeah it's pretty geeky stuff I guess, but I find that kind of thing really interesting. It also shows how much work goes into something so you develop a sense of appreciation for the whole development process rather than "Yeah, that's coming" or "It's being worked on" or just the well anticipated "Soon™".

Also it would be nice to have a GM host events or something interactive with players on all platforms.