Greetings!
I've been a supporter of ESO since its launch. On and off. I always felt comfortable logging into ESO, as I loved the combat system and graphics. It's a gorgeous mmo. However, one thing keeps getting repeated, time after time.
Zenimax disregards player feedback. I'm not making this thread to bash Zenimax, I'm making it because I just love the foundation ESO is build on, and the potential for this MMO is huge in my eyes. I want to TRY to be more involved.
Let me first emphasize that I have little to no experience in this field. I haven't been too involved with providing feedback and seek attention from Zeni staff in ESO. Usually when I "main" a game, I like to be involved. A great example is Warframe, where the developers are very active on the forum and geniunly cares about player feedback. Their main focus is that the players are satisfied, while keeping THEIR vision of the game of course. Because of this, the game has become one of the best free to play games, and players LOVE the developers. The game is still progressing very well.
I never got that vibe from Zenimax. They never really directly address issues on the forum, as 90% of their answers are "please keep the thread clean etc". While I understand that it's important to keep the forum clean, it's even more important that the community feels acknowledged. Both on the forum and on social media, zenimax does not communicate well with the playerbase, and it's leaving us wondering how much they actually care.
Because of this, I've personally stayed off the forum for the most part, and just kinda accepted how the game would develop. But is that really fair? That players should feel completely powerless?
I want to address a video by a youtuber named "FENGRUSH". He addresses what he consideres major issues, and when I saw the video I felt kinda sad.
I dont necessarily agree with his statement, but I think it's important to at least consider them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o33iczl2PxE
My main concern at this point, is that Zenimax has either given up on ESO as a mainstream mmo, or simply milking it for whats left. From my personal point of view, I see no passion from their side. There is no active communication to the players, addressing the issues they post, social media is almost purely advertisement and no communication, and hardcore players feels neglected.
A good example in my eyes, is Cyrodiil. I play on NA when Im from Denmark, so I expected a bit higher ping rate. However, when I played pvp, EVERYONE was complaining about absurdly high ping rate. And phrases like: "welcome to ESO", "working as intended", "Working on a fix, no ETA, new upcomming pet in crownstore", are becomming running jokes through the entire playerbase. Those are of course ignorant, but Is that really the kind of trust and respect you aim for Zenimax?
Granted I have only done pvp for a few days now, but it's mixed feelings. When the ping is huge and no one is doing anything, I feel like Im wasting my time. When the ping is stable and people are working together, clashing zergs against zergs, it feels like a LOT of fun. So I think pvp has a lot more potential if Zenimax would address the players' frustrations.
I don't think it's possible to satisfy everyone, and I have absolutely no idea how difficult it is to fix the main issues like server stability. But the fact there is no active communication to the playerbase, leaves players wondering if anything is ACTUALLY being done.
I want to end my thread by saying that I plan to continue supporting ESO, and that many of these concerns are based on assumptions and other player feedback. But I don't think it's irrelevant because of that.
Wether you agree or disagree with these speculations, please keep it civil.