ZOS is hiring an ESO Monetization Designer

xeNNNNN · May 2018

DoctorESO wrote: »

Mojomonkeyman wrote: »

BadSerpico wrote: »

Morgul667 wrote: »

Hopefully Zo$ will stop the cash grab madness

I doubt though

Games are made to make money and pay worker salaries. Crazy concept

You know what made games become mainstream? Artists who were proud to deliver the most polished, balanced pieces of art they could create. Those old gems from back then were foundation for the big industry names we see now.

The greatest games actually weren't primarily made to make money, they were made by passionate, freaky people who were aiming to create the games they always wanted to play themselves but didnt exist at their time. Those kind of characters were very different to the business type ones we are seeing nowadays since the industry became mainstream.

I miss those freaky game designers from back then, and their games. They created art, not business. Business success was just a side effect of trying to make the best product they could think of.

Crazy concept, I know.

Yeah, gaming has changed. Now, every game is basically a movie budget production that only the big companies can compete it. And consumers now seem to demand it.

Demanded only by the standards set by certain games.

I.e first it was crysis 1 the graphic standard, then there was Mass effect, witcher and DA which set the RPG standard, wow had already set the MMO standard etc....

As time went on each became more ambitious and each time people throthed at the mouth over shiney CGI cinematics that were never indicative of gameplay and thus if theres no hype cinematic these days with awesome visuals and over hyped gameplay then they must be a terrible company with no money.

In other words its ignorance given form and substance (only too an extent).

laksikus · May 2018

I want that job.

I can recolor skins, mounts and pets with paint

DoctorESO · May 2018

The job is not as easy as it sounds. What if there were revenue goals that you were responsible for reaching?

DanteYoda · May 2018

All i hope for is they don't employ any ex Arenanet Financial Advisors.. People think its bad here Guildwars 2 economy and cash stores were garbage.

Doctordarkspawn · May 2018

xeNNNNN wrote: »

Doctordarkspawn wrote: »

Hopefully they'll encourage ZOS to have a bloody auction house.

ALSO, WHOEVER GETS THE JOB.

STOP WITH THE CROWN CRATES. LET US BUY GOODS. STOP WITH THE TIMED EXCLUSIVES. ENFORCED SCARCITY JUST PISSES US OFF.

Only downside too this means apex mounts will probably be between 10k and 20k crowns. You know it will happen.

Pricing stuff reasonibly, as in, something someone would reasonibly buy, is also likely something we need to keep doing.

Doctordarkspawn · May 2018

DoctorESO wrote: »

Mojomonkeyman wrote: »

BadSerpico wrote: »

Morgul667 wrote: »

Hopefully Zo$ will stop the cash grab madness

I doubt though

Games are made to make money and pay worker salaries. Crazy concept

You know what made games become mainstream? Artists who were proud to deliver the most polished, balanced pieces of art they could create. Those old gems from back then were foundation for the big industry names we see now.

The greatest games actually weren't primarily made to make money, they were made by passionate, freaky people who were aiming to create the games they always wanted to play themselves but didnt exist at their time. Those kind of characters were very different to the business type ones we are seeing nowadays since the industry became mainstream.

I miss those freaky game designers from back then, and their games. They created art, not business. Business success was just a side effect of trying to make the best product they could think of.

Crazy concept, I know.

Yeah, gaming has changed. Now, every game is basically a movie budget production that only the big companies can compete it. And consumers now seem to demand it.

That's the fault of big companies.

Wanna know where most of that goes? Marketing.

Wanna know how I know it's false? Payday 2 did some remarkable work back in the day with an out-dated engine and let advertising go almost unilatterally through word of mouth. It reached the people they needed it to, and Payday 2 was a immesurable success.

Several indie games have prioritized gameplay and function over graphical buggery and have made massive profits. Darksouls itself was a game budgeted for it's own audience and that sheer profit off that budget for that audience, was enough to guarentee two sequels.

It isn't that games are more expensive, it's that companies are bad at budgeting. And that they are not interested in merely profit, only insane profit. This comes from a combination of band-wagoning, and the fact that many of the executives of the industry, as of a few years ago, came from physical goods. They were outdated, and not suited to a new market, a new product, with new rules.

TLDR: Companies budgeting themselves poorly and being unhappy with merely profiting is why games cost alot to make. Not the players, not the economy. It's on them, to improve their monitization through budgeting. Not us. To say otherwise is buying into propaganda, or outright advocating on behalf of a companies interest. And unless you are a member of that corporation, you should be doing neither.

adeptusminor · May 2018

I wish they would hire a make server better person

Thunderknuckles · May 2018

@ZOS_MikaS , I don't know a thing about Monetization Design, but I can do ingame traffic reports for you guys.

"In DeShaan heading into Mournhold through the southwest gate, just past the House Dres Farmstead , a severe bang up between a guar caravan and an Ebonheart Pact warhorse has both directions of the road blocked. No jam up on the southbound side, but the northbound direction is jam packed all the way back to the West Narsis Wayshrine.

The Tribunal Royal Guard has let me know, quite harshly, that they don't know yet when the road will be re-opened. Travelers are being diverted to the south east gate until this clears"

Or do you think that might break the immersion for some players?

Darrett · May 2018

Thunderknuckles wrote: »

@ZOS_MikaS , I don't know a thing about Monetization Design, but I can do ingame traffic reports for you guys.

"In DeShaan heading into Mournhold through the southwest gate, just past the House Dres Farmstead , a severe bang up between a guar caravan and an Ebonheart Pact warhorse has both directions of the road blocked. No jam up on the southbound side, but the northbound direction is jam packed all the way back to the West Narsis Wayshrine.

The Tribunal Royal Guard has let me know, quite harshly, that they don't know yet when the road will be re-opened. Travelers are being diverted to the south east gate until this clears"

Or do you think that might break the immersion for some players?

This is fun stuff; we did something similar to this in Dark Age of Camelot where players were asked to provide travel brochure-esque writeups on various in-game locales. It was a blast, and had a really good response. Good community builder too.

Huyen · May 2018

Not to burn everyones hope down but you realize they will only hire someone that makes sure zos makes more money right? Hope (in this regard) only leads to dissapointments...

Elsonso · May 2018

Huyen wrote: »

Not to burn everyones hope down but you realize they will only hire someone that makes sure zos makes more money right? Hope (in this regard) only leads to dissapointments...

This is a given. Nowhere does history record that a marketing person made a product better.

More seriously, marketing people are there to make money, and in our current world, driving new initiatives for monetizing the customer base is antithetical to making the game better.

Ragnarock41 · May 2018

Darkmage1337 wrote: »

ESO's Outfit-slot per-character (not account-wide) is most-likely the worst monetization example in ESO.

[Edited for removed content]

I still feel bad because I thought it was an account-wide upgrade. I feel scammed.

AbysmalGhul · May 2018

I see they have fancy shmancy requirements for the job. But as usual, it's not what you know, but who you know. *feels discriminated against * produces a super hard...double chin... frowny face

iiYuki · May 2018

This is either a good sign that the cash shop is failing and they need someone to try make it appealing to players again, that or the shop is doing really well and they need more *** to try scam us with. It might also be a sign of gamble crates going as it garners more media attention, they may need some to individually price stuff that would be in the scam crates.

Tabbycat · May 2018

You know I use Adblock and don't watch commercials and still tend to buy too much stuff.

If a company provides people with stuff they want to buy they'd spend less money advertising the crap we don't want to buy.

gnarlyvandal · May 2018

Ragnarock41 wrote: »

Darkmage1337 wrote: »

ESO's Outfit-slot per-character (not account-wide) is most-likely the worst monetization example in ESO.

[Edited for removed content]

I still feel bad because I thought it was an account-wide upgrade. I feel scammed.

Maybe this is why they’re hiring a new staff member, too many complaints from the customer base about their current strategy

Ragnarock41 · May 2018

gnarlyvandal wrote: »

Ragnarock41 wrote: »

Darkmage1337 wrote: »

ESO's Outfit-slot per-character (not account-wide) is most-likely the worst monetization example in ESO.

[Edited for removed content]

I still feel bad because I thought it was an account-wide upgrade. I feel scammed.

Maybe this is why they’re hiring a new staff member, too many complaints from the customer base about their current strategy

I mean it is such a low move on their part. Why would you scam people on something as silly as an ''outfit slot''? It is so predatory, soooo sinister that I don't want to keep on talking about it,because the more I think about it, the more salty I get.

I do hope they get their *** together and stop trying to scam their own loyal customers.

Ri_Khan · May 2018

I sincerely hope that whoever they find can help turn the current situation with the market around. I've been completely turned off from using both crown store or getting involved in the in-game marketplace.

This one has coin for honest merchants, unfortunately they seem to be too few and far between these days.

Elsonso · May 2018

iiYuki wrote: »

This is either a good sign that the cash shop is failing and they need someone to try make it appealing to players again, that or the shop is doing really well and they need more *** to try scam us with. It might also be a sign of gamble crates going as it garners more media attention, they may need some to individually price stuff that would be in the scam crates.

This is just normal business. Boring and mundane. This is just a designer level job. That translates to "worker-bee". Nothing to write home about, unless you are the person who gets the job. It is likely a backfill for someone who left, but they could be expanding the department. I still say they have another game hiding back there, and that will require more people.

I want to mention that this is a ZOS position, not a Bethesda position. This is probably under the ZOS Director of E-Commerce. The lady who came over from Wildstar and SWTOR that gets the credit for bringing Crown Crates to the game (whether she deserves it or not) worked for Bethesda, not ZOS. She has been mentioned in this thread, and her role is a different role.

One thing that has come of this is that I now have a ZOS title that I can attribute to driving me away from the game with oppressive monetization tactics, high Crown Store prices, limited time offers, and intrusive in-game ads: ZOS Director of E-Commerce

At least, until I find a more suitable one.

Jusey1 · May 2018

This is Zenimax we are talking about. I highly doubt they'll do anything that is pro-consumer with the Crown Store. However, with lootboxes finally being recognized as gambling in some countries, and this recognization is spreading... Zenimax might be looking into what they can do with their Crown Crates.

Probably gonna replace it with another system, but I'll be fine with that. I don't like gambling lootboxes. And I highly doubt they'll go the nicer route when it comes to lootboxes, because they'll lose a lot of money in the long run by doing such.

Lunatic_Dizzy · May 2018

I just hope that who ever they hire will be like "Yeah, so you guys said ALL DLC would be included with ESO+? How about we quit charging plus members for chapters, huh?" I know, wishful thinking at best.

Kalgert · May 2018

Doctordarkspawn wrote: »

DoctorESO wrote: »

Mojomonkeyman wrote: »

BadSerpico wrote: »

Morgul667 wrote: »

Hopefully Zo$ will stop the cash grab madness

I doubt though

Games are made to make money and pay worker salaries. Crazy concept

You know what made games become mainstream? Artists who were proud to deliver the most polished, balanced pieces of art they could create. Those old gems from back then were foundation for the big industry names we see now.

The greatest games actually weren't primarily made to make money, they were made by passionate, freaky people who were aiming to create the games they always wanted to play themselves but didnt exist at their time. Those kind of characters were very different to the business type ones we are seeing nowadays since the industry became mainstream.

I miss those freaky game designers from back then, and their games. They created art, not business. Business success was just a side effect of trying to make the best product they could think of.

Crazy concept, I know.

Yeah, gaming has changed. Now, every game is basically a movie budget production that only the big companies can compete it. And consumers now seem to demand it.

It isn't that games are more expensive, it's that companies are bad at budgeting. And that they are not interested in merely profit, only insane profit. This comes from a combination of band-wagoning, and the fact that many of the executives of the industry, as of a few years ago, came from physical goods. They were outdated, and not suited to a new market, a new product, with new rules.

TLDR: Companies budgeting themselves poorly and being unhappy with merely profiting is why games cost alot to make. Not the players, not the economy. It's on them, to improve their monitization through budgeting. Not us. To say otherwise is buying into propaganda, or outright advocating on behalf of a companies interest. And unless you are a member of that corporation, you should be doing neither.

Pretty much, yes.

We keep hearing developers and publishers talk about how expensive games are to make, and then we have some bleeding hearts buy that and then start making teary-eyed posts against people who call that statement out as complete Gryphon Guano.

Of course, we can't be sure to know if a game really was expensive to make, but I can safely guess that most of a Triple A game's budget goes in to marketing, and then possibly a CGI trailer, or other nonsense, while the rest goes in to the game production.

If developers/publishers focused less on making an insane marketing machine, and focused a bit more on the game side, there is a good chance that we'd get a more polished and complete experience, or at the very least, they wouldn't be losing a lot of budget because they did insane marketing.

All of this isn't to say "Games aren't expensive to make", just saying that the only expense comes when bloated marketing is involved.

Also, tell me this: If a game belonging to a popular franchise would be made, do you really expect me to believe that it wouldn't sell enough copies by itself, just because it's a popular franchise? Do you expect me to believe that Shadow of War wouldn't be able to sell enough copies without microtransactions, knowing it's a Lord of the Rings game, an open-world game, and a sequel to an already well-loved game?

Oh yeah, I forgot, I am someone who doesn't know how business works, and games are far too expensive to make, therefore publishers and developers "Need" to shove lootboxes in to their games, or else they will have to eat regular food instead of caviar out of a golden plate.

Elsonso · May 2018

Jusey1 wrote: »

This is Zenimax we are talking about. I highly doubt they'll do anything that is pro-consumer with the Crown Store. However, with lootboxes finally being recognized as gambling in some countries, and this recognization is spreading... Zenimax might be looking into what they can do with their Crown Crates.

Probably gonna replace it with another system, but I'll be fine with that. I don't like gambling lootboxes. And I highly doubt they'll go the nicer route when it comes to lootboxes, because they'll lose a lot of money in the long run by doing such.

I doubt that ZOS is looking to do anything "pro-consumer" with Crown Crates. These are so far under the legal radar, for the moment, that nothing so radical is required. Stay the course. Steady as she goes. When something does happen that requires a change, then they can make Minimum Necessary Changes.

Lunatic_Dizzy wrote: »

I just hope that who ever they hire will be like "Yeah, so you guys said ALL DLC would be included with ESO+? How about we quit charging plus members for chapters, huh?" I know, wishful thinking at best.

The goal is to monetize the game without chasing the players away. From my perspective, they could start by hiring someone to do that. That would be a nice change.

CardboardedBox · May 2018

I really have to say, after quitting eso for a good while, and playing some other games, coming back to see these monetization complaints again honestly became kinda hilarious. This game has by far the most chill monetization system, crown crates included.

BadSerpico · May 2018

Mojomonkeyman wrote: »

BadSerpico wrote: »

Morgul667 wrote: »

Hopefully Zo$ will stop the cash grab madness

I doubt though

Games are made to make money and pay worker salaries. Crazy concept

You know what made games become mainstream? Artists who were proud to deliver the most polished, balanced pieces of art they could create. Those old gems from back then were foundation for the big industry names we see now.

The greatest games actually weren't primarily made to make money, they were made by passionate, freaky people who were aiming to create the games they always wanted to play themselves but didnt exist at their time. Those kind of characters were very different to the business type ones we are seeing nowadays since the industry became mainstream.

I miss those freaky game designers from back then, and their games. They created art, not business. Business success was just a side effect of trying to make the best product they could think of.

Crazy concept, I know.

Not anymore majority want better graphics and blockbuster games. If you want quality games then Nintendo is the answer. I love games like that but those days are pretty much gone

Rawkan · May 2018

Morgul667 wrote: »

Hopefully Zo$ will stop the cash grab madness

I doubt though

I doubt a buisness will stop making as much money as they can because people on an online forum are upset.

WhiteCoatSyndrome · May 2018

Kalgert wrote: »

Of course, we can't be sure to know if a game really was expensive to make, but I can safely guess that most of a Triple A game's budget goes in to marketing, and then possibly a CGI trailer, or other nonsense, while the rest goes in to the game production.

There was a panel/presentation at PAX East with some very interesting graphs; one of them was a breakdown of the budget. Marketing got about half (!!!) of it.

Elsonso · May 2018

Rawkan wrote: »

Morgul667 wrote: »

Hopefully Zo$ will stop the cash grab madness

I doubt though

I doubt a buisness will stop making as much money as they can because people on an online forum are upset.

You say that like the people in the forum are not customers that make purchasing decisions about the product that said business is making. You would be right in saying that not everyone who plays the game visits the forum. You would not be correct if you think that the people in the forum have nothing in common with the rest of the players, and they do not share common opinions.

SugaComa · May 2018

The may make more if items cost less ... The prices are so unrealistic and out of touch they put the majority of people off.

DoctorESO · May 2018

Rawkan wrote: »

Morgul667 wrote: »

Hopefully Zo$ will stop the cash grab madness

I doubt though

I doubt a buisness will stop making as much money as they can because people on an online forum are upset.

And these forums represent just a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of all people who play ESO.