To quote myself on a comment I made on another thread. TLDR; Bring back 'The Road Ahead' with more of an emphasis of what's in store for ESO, potentially at the concept stages to help avoid a disaster as stated in the poll. promoting more community/dev open discussion during potential development going forward to make sure the content is best suited and at a high quality in time for its potential production/ distribution.

'This whole Crown Crate fiasco is as good a reason to bring back a more community/developer relationship via 'The Road Ahead' as any. ZOS are clutching at straws every time they surprise the community with their next instalment of content and sadly only ever drawing the short straws.

If the community had more insightful knowledge of the Crown Crates whilst it was at its conception then you would have seen how the majority feel about it and therefore not wasted and yes wasted so much in its development and implementation to the point you have no option, but to force it through and therefore dissatisfy the majority of your loyal customers.

The original pitch was along the lines of being able to potentially bag yourself a past limited item for a discounted price at a gamble and has now escalated to making content/cosmetics solely for the Crown Crates and now playing with the idea of implementing unique recipes for crafters also... All things nobody wanted or wants.

The majority of disgruntled customers accepted the Crown Store itself after a time and the current system of 'Sell this Buy this' for XYZ is a reliable and successful system. Real life applications should tell you that this is more successful method than 'Sell this Buy this (maybe)'

It feels so painful to watch a company shoot themselves in the foot like this and shows the company's disillusionment with the community. If you take anything away from this whole Crown Crates Facade (once the lambs of the slaughter have subsided) it is that bringing back 'The Road Ahead' would be advantageous to you in making your concepts aware to the community to decide whether or not you should pursue them or go back the drawing board. THAT would be a more so effective use of your 'Hard Data' (Suggesting that 'The Road Ahead' be more engaging and open for discussion than has been in the past).

ZOS are pushing out content so fast which to be honest imo is not at a quality to warrant its worth. The time we get to test on PTS is so limited and INCREDIBLY RESTRICTIVE where half the actual possible testing is way too short, to the point half the time is spent scratching our heads at multiple changes and making cases as to its reversal and amendments that takes another week to be implemented thus causing a vicious cycle that eats away at all the time.

Knowing at least what your plans were and knowing it is something desired and not (ironically as these Crown Crates are) a premeditated gamble on the ongoing success of your business, would make it a lot easier for all involved and would benefit the PTS for everyone testing since we the community will have a general idea of what to expect and therefore what to look for and how we feel about it as well as having forms of open discussion with the developers in making our concerns at least aware ahead of time.'