I get the sense that Wroebel did not leave entirely voluntarily, so I wouldn't take his departure as a sign of a "sinking ship" as it were. (Big indicators: "We wish him luck in his future endeavors," and the contrast between his exit and that of the loremaster).

For the loremaster, I would take him at his word that he's leaving for legitimate family reasons, and while he's done a great job, there have been a few issues (e.g. "senche-tiger mount is not actually a sentient senche"). Those issues don't disparage his legacy, but rather highlight that foibles can exist without ruining the in-game world or story.

BomblePants wrote: »

Who else is leaving?

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/453748/combat-team-news-and-updates/p1
Eric Wrobel - Lead Combat Designer

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/457682/official-discussion-thread-for-a-letter-to-the-community-from-esos-loremaster/p1
Lawrence Schick - Loremaster

It might be a simple coincidence.. but idk.. something feels wrong here.
I just hope that game won't get worse without those people... :'(

Your poll options suck.

I wish the Loremaster was sticking around.

I was initially optimistic about Wrobel leaving because I'm in the camp that thinks he was in over his head. I'm sure he was doing his best, but it's a complex job. I've seen massive improvements in balance with Rob Garrett and Gilliam onboard.

...but then this High Elf stamina thing happened on PTS Monday, so I don't know anything anymore.

Reverb wrote: »

I am concerned about what the departure of Lawrence will mean for the game’s future. My wife, who specializes in tech sector Marketing Strategy (and image rehab), surmises that the initial game design appealed to TES fans, with the simplified, “realistic” zones, characters, mounts, armor types, and lore friendly writing.

A few years in, there’s no market growth from TES fans, so development needs to chase traditional mmo fans, and will become increasingly flashy, gimmicky, cartoonish, and cash driven. Until eventually it crosses a line and becomes unpalatable to almost everyone.

Regarding the Wrobel departure and Brian’s new role I have only one comment: Stuck in combat bug, coming soon to pve!

That "Insightful" is for your wife. You get an approving nod.

Vahrokh wrote: »

Actually, Wrobel's departure should spell a fresh, brighter future for this game.

Current reaction to racial passives changes says otherwise.

I think they did a great job while they've been around, but in order to free the game up from dogmatic convention it's nice to get fresh faces in that can do things that people more locked in tradition are afraid to do. Dragons coming back was obviously something that was a hard move, but now it's opened the door to lots of other exciting possibilities now that we've broken our lore-chains.

A playable dwemer race is something we could see now, along with playable daedra and ayleids. We could have dragon mounts that could fly, and pet dragons, and a dragon breeding event ticket thing, where we get a dragon and hatch it and raise it into the way we want it to grow. Unicorn mounts, that I have long lobbied for, could be a thing. Spell crafting, can you say levitate spell along with boots of blinding speed!

Finally we might see some truly sexy "armours" unbound from virtual practicality, can you say pumps, elevator shoes, and platforms? Good stuff is coming and its a great time to be playing ESO.

It's concerning, but not at the level of the mass exodus from Bioware, for example. I'm just waiting for tes6, so hopefully zos can hold it together until I'm ready to leave.

Money

technohic wrote: »

No offense to the lore guys as he did a fine job at what he did, but otherwise I see only positive to start changing some things up. Really its only 2 people and 1 of them is just lore, which is nice; but doesnt effect development of the game.

Lore is the game. It is a TES game.

Sygil05 wrote: »

I've seen announcements of people leaving, but haven't seen any announcements of people being hired. This is pretty concerning to me, since I was already sort of under the impression that they're reducing the resources they put into this game while increasing their focus on only the most profitable aspects of the game.

Coupled with the fact that they've not even been able to articulate a long-term plan for combat that they promised us almost 3 months ago (while also saying they're reducing the scope of future updates), I don't have a optimistic outlook on the direction of the game right now.

The people leaving are known by the community. That is why there are announcements. New hires aren't known (apart from former streamers/community members).

A grand total of TWO people left, one of which had to due to family reasons. There is literally no reason to make this poll or even to speculate on the topic.

things will always change in the rat race of life, people will always move on, remember everything is just temporary even life itself.

Turelus wrote: »

Vahrokh wrote: »

Actually, Wrobel's departure should spell a fresh, brighter future for this game.

Current reaction to racial passives changes says otherwise.

Whereas I believe Gilliam's "era" won't be perfect, it cannot possibly be worse than Wrobel's. That guy had really a "flatten everything down to the minimum common denominator" attitude.

Gilliam became famous for his ability with the game and with the numbers. I am concerned about him prioritizing "fair numbers" over "lore and racial identity" but it's still LEAGUES above someone who just couldn't get numbers right and also killed diversity and identity.