Ya, crown store and casual players is where the money is at. I dont blame them though since thats likely where the money is at... not that i agree with them tho.

Aliyavana wrote: »

Ya, crown store and casual players is where the money is at. I dont blame them though since thats likely where the money is at... not that i agree with them tho.

Yeah, thinking about it, perhaps I should of merged the crown store into the no answer. As I tend to believe they do care more about the crown store as well as not caring very much about fixing the problems in game.

I'm sure the devs care very much about this game and not as much about the crownstore as it often appears. Zenimax higher ups who give out their paychecks on the other hand . .

I believe they care and do want to fix the problems. You only have to watch ESO Live or meet with ZOS staff at events to see the love and passion they have for ESO.

However. I do feel that the marketing/sales/corporate side of the company (and their parent company) gets in the way far too often and makes things about increased revenue rather than improved player experience.

I also feel that the promise to release new content four times a year puts far too much strain on their resources and stops them from focusing on support and improvements on previous releases. Personally I prefer slower content releases with dedicated fix time afterwards then moving on to the next update.

OF COURSE they do care about the game. You’d have to be a total amateur to not see just how much potential this franchise has and just how much money can be made with MMOs of this scale. So yes, ZoS will do what’s possible to keep ESO going.

However, they do have tremendous difficulty fixing some problems. I believe the reasons aren’t just not knowing how, but also because the programmers aren’t given the resources needed to do so.

Think about PvP, for example: fixing it would require most likely a massive server or coding overhaul, which would be expensive and very difficult to do. However, what revenue would it give? PvP is one of the less demanding contents in terms of DLC sets, expansions and such. I can play it effectively without needing anything but the base game. Mementos can’t be used. Non-combat pets can’t be used. See where I’m getting? A considerable part of the crown store, and crates, isn’t appealing to PvP players. Not just that, the population in PvP is considerably small, so I believe reunions about game problems go like this:

Programmer: “Sir, we need to fix the laughable performance in Cyro.”

Chief: “how much will it cost?”

Programmer: “multiple thousand dollars, or maybe a few hundred thousand. Perhaps even more”.

Chief: “What is the estimated revenue?”

Economist: “less than the cost”

Chief: “leave it as it is and do what is possible with this limited X budget”.

It’s very easy to understand how quickly they fix crown store issues or PvE related ones. Most of the game population is there. It’s also easy to understand how most of the game balance is with PvE in mind. The end-game PvE community just tends to spend more. We also have all the non-endgame community that spends A LOT, with housing and cosmetics. That’s where ESO’s cash cow is and, unfortunately, where most of the efforts most likely will go. That’s why we have so many performance issues, mostly in PvP, and why we basically don’t see new PvP related content most of the time.

As always, this is a business they are running here. And as other mention above, the one who is making the decision have a higher up to report to, which eventually lead to stock holder (if it is listed) who only care about stock price, meaning how profitable the company is. Given that, when the decision maker is given the choice to spend the limited resource on bug fix, with the opportunity cost being generating less product to sell, it is a no-brainer.
People said they should stop their ESO+ subscription so that ZOS start caring most likely won't work cause the day when the upkeep cost more then what it is bringing in is the day ZOS will pull the plug.

How do u think they are trying to fix problems when cyrodill has the SAME horrible performance for a couple years now? In 2 eso live streams the response was "the mayhem pvp event went great"... If u keep defending this kinda behavior then u are people with no personality and your money means nothing to u.

I know it takes time and its really difficult to fix something like this , but they dont even recognize the problem. As an ex pvp player i will say this. If someone here answers to my post with your internet connection or your pc cant handle vivec then u dont play pvp at all. And NO, no one wants to play on shor or any other dead server.

I made a post right after midyear mayhem on pvp performance and things are still the same. I dont play the game anymore, but just cause i love it , i visit the forums once a while to see if anything changed. Instead i see some posts about same issues that have been running bad for a very long time now.

To end this, i honestly think people that keep defending this company are really bad for the game. They are the reason i quit. Not having to criticise anything makes the developers have no pressure to make things better, but instead keep on pushing new pve zones that people play for 3 hours and thats it. Yet people are soo happy with 3hour questing, but the dungeons,trials ,bgs and even the character gameplay( NO IM NOT TALKING ABOUT CLASS BALANCE) are destroyed every major patch .

People in this post answering that zos cares dont even explain why and how they care. Its just "they fix [snip]".. cool.


P.S. i will not answer to any "white knights" trying to defend any female's dev honour, just so they seem so kind and supportive in their eyes. Grow up and respect your hard earned money u spend on a game.

[Edit for censor bypass.]

ZOS cares about the game in that it makes them money (no shock there, it is a business).

They're going to do whatever nets them the most money right now. That means more shiny stuff in the crown store, more events, and new content every quarter, while chronic issues go unfixed or unaddressed and quality control takes a back seat.

There's no way to know how each employee feels about ESO, but whoever is making the decisions has made it pretty clear what the company's priorities are.

The poll is pointless. ZOS is a corporate entity, and as such has never ever, at any point, cared about the game. Only about how much money it can make. The higher ups and investors are in it for the money, pure and simple.

They care somewhat about the quality of the product, that is a turd wont sell, put a polished one will. A least as long as there is some hook in it, that pulls in customers. For ESO, it's the Elder Scrolls brand. When the game launched, there were hordes of eager scrolliates waiting for an MMORPG set in Tamriel. It didn't have to be the best, it had to be good enough.

And that good enough, is a taint that has languished on the Elder Scroll brand for ages already, and in a way, the reason for all the hullabaloo surrounding Bethesda these days... Put that is another topic for a different forum.

The point here is, that the people working for ZOS, the developers and designers, are not in it for the money. They are in it 'cause the like and enjoy making games, and ZOS provides them with a means of making a living while doing something they enjoy. If they were in it for the money, then there are other fields of work where they can apply their skills for much greater profit. That is not to say that the game industry is a bad way of making a living, just that there are other options out there that pay more.

But that is the key here - there is a difference between making a living and earning a profit, and our society has for far too long been fixated on the latter. We, as a society, do not seem to have figured out that you can't take any of it with you, once your mortal toil comes to an end, as we endlessly crave for more and more and more. For bigger margins, for more profit, an endless chase after eternal unlimited growth. You know what they call eternal unlimited growth? Cancer.

The thing is - our society is build on untenable principles and it shows up time after time, in large things as well as small. And as for ESO... Well the corporate entity behind it, is going to squeeze it harder and harder and harder, for more and more and more money, until it finally breaks and dies, and then they will come up with something else to peddle.

The people who actually are making the game, not just financing it, the devs and designers, are just normal people, and while there are bound to be some slackers and inept fellows in the mix, they are mostly talented and skilled individuals, who do care about the quality of their work, and do try to ship as good a game as they can.

But at the end of the day, if that quality comes at the cost of profits, then their bosses will nix it and the that's that. All we, as customers and consumers, can do is enjoy the game for as long as it is decent, and try to be responsible with our purchases and not reward predatory business models. Even if we personally can afford such things, and they are selling something dear to our hearts. Giving in will just incentivize the investors calling the shots to be even more predatory with their future products.

So yeah... Enjoy the game while it lasts, do not expect anything to get better, and be responsible with the way you spend your money. That's about all you can do about it.

We all saw what happened to Wildstar, an MMO known for catering exclusively to the hardcore mmo crowd. No other company is going to do that. They'll continue to cater to casual people and pve.

This game was created solely to make money, and that's what they're going to continue focusing on and prioritizing. I'd imagine they know how to fix some of the long-standing problems that have existed in the game, but the opportunity cost for fixing the problem is too high and there would be no direct monetary gain from doing so.

Thread will be locked soon, mark my words...

SanguineMyBrother wrote: »

Turelus wrote: »

I believe they care and do want to fix the problems. You only have to watch ESO Live or meet with ZOS staff at events to see the love and passion they have for ESO.

However. I do feel that the marketing/sales/corporate side of the company (and their parent company) gets in the way far too often and makes things about increased revenue rather than improved player experience.

I also feel that the promise to release new content four times a year puts far too much strain on their resources and stops them from focusing on support and improvements on previous releases. Personally I prefer slower content releases with dedicated fix time afterwards then moving on to the next update.

This^^^

I wish they would focus on fixing things rather than releasing new content that only adds new bugs and problems. Maybe release new content twice a year instead of four.

I believe the people who create the game care, but I don't think the suits and higher ups really care at all. And that's unfortunate.

This ^^

It's mostly the man in suits that only care about money. I believe if it was up to the devs they would be fixing stuff.