Dubious balancing methodology used instead of Dynamic balancing = BLAND GAME now

Enkil · August 2019

I applaud the Dev team's efforts to try to balance skills, classes and such. However, it is extremely apparent that the dev teams have used a lowest common denominator, homogenizing, and over-standardizing philosophy and methodology.

A common misconception is that balancing means standardizing and making things more similar, level or even. However, this is not a spreadsheet simulator, it is an MMO-RPG with the best intellectual property a dev team could dream of and the purpose is fun.

Balancing efforts should be dynamic; increasing and emphasizing the unique attributes of various skills and classes. Keep what works and is fun, tweaking as needed. Changes should be made with finesse to fine tune where needed to achieve Overall Balance and ensure that it is maintained.

Other games have done this well with far less resources, so it is not beyond reason to expect that one of the biggest can also do at least a decent job with just 6 classes. This patch is horrendous and the philosophies behind it will keep diminishing the quality of the game even further if a more sophisticated approach is not adopted instead.

Gameplay feels more bland, even more unbalanced (DoTs on steroids being one example), and just more boring now.

D0PAMINE · August 2019

Im finding the DoT focused combat boring.

mb10 · August 2019

Incompetence has lead to ESO’s decline.

Game had so much potential but was in some of the wrong hands in all honesty. Not the nicest truth but, the truth.

If you have to make major updates and “balance” to skills every 3 months for years and years it says that you’re just not doing a good job and there isn’t a strategy in place. It makes no sense for such changes in direction literally every 3 months lol it’s such an embarrassing mess on ESO.

eso_lytw8 · August 2019

If you look at Alcast builds you see that he is using only a few class skills, I am pretty sure you can make competitive builds without using class skills at all. Hardly anything left to differentiate the classes but passives...but oh wait that is what they will be watering those down next. Pretty discouraging state.

You have to agree that the fewer class skills and watered down passives does create class balance because you effectively have not class differentiation. No difference = balance.

idk · August 2019

mb10 wrote: »

Incompetence has lead to ESO’s decline.

Game had so much potential but was in some of the wrong hands in all honesty. Not the nicest truth but, the truth.

If you have to make major updates and “balance” to skills every 3 months for years and years it says that you’re just not doing a good job and there isn’t a strategy in place. It makes no sense for such changes in direction literally every 3 months lol it’s such an embarrassing mess on ESO.

I have basically been saying this from day one. We complain about the combat dev or another dev when all they can do is the bidding of the person who manages the show/presides over Zos.

Matt Firor has set the "vision" and priorities since early in the development of this game. I have never seen a major MMORPG with such a pitiful launch nor have I seen an MMORPG have such drastic changes to combat this many times since the game launched.

Heck. I can go back to pretty much any title I have played and my characters pretty much still play the same way though the builds might be a little simpler than at launch. I know raiders who have left the game because of the to frequent heavy handed changes in ESO.

SirMewser · August 2019

Zos has an Elder Scroll title at least.

Vapirko · August 2019

The second they tried to balance spin to win like any other AoE I knew it was over lol. Though they may belong to the same general category, skills are not equal in function and trying to balance them like they are leads to more imbalance than ever.

Heyodude · August 2019

the real beginning of this insanity was Stamsorc. Instead of actually providing actual in class alternatives to sorcerer they just kept buffing weapon skills to make it viable, which in turn made all stam characters abandon the majority of their own class identity in favor of these overtuned universal skills.

This made developers at zos grow lazier and lazier with each incremental implementation of damage class balances. Them knowing that if they just kept the dps going up and up, they really wouldnt have to touch on the issues with class balance. In fact, they could just abandon classes for a universal bandaid in the form of classless skills.

"Now wouldnt that be nice" Zos said, "if only we could have everyone use all the same skills then balance would be achieved"

and the kicker is that its true, some people even like it, i would argue those same players werent good at the game and never will be. But here we are, pressing 1, 2, 3 swap 1, 2, 3, 4 swap isnt it fun guys, it doesnt even matter where you put what guys, its all dots.... its all balance.

psycoprophet · August 2019

All classes should feel vastly different than each other which is obviously possible, perfect balance isn't unless all classes are identical which seems like where the devs are going with their direction but I'd have to think they'd know that they may as well disregard any thought they had about the game having a successful future if they make all classes feel the same lol. Having unique classes and non perfect balance is far better than the alternative of have harmonigized classes. Of course better balance should always be sought after through patches but not at the expense of the class designs.

Vercingetorix · August 2019

Folks need to learn to adjust to the changes - the sky isn't falling, but yes, stamina is being sidelined for magicka - FINALLY after 2 years. Heavy Attack channeling builds while rotating through DoTs will be at their strongest in this patch. Newer, more inexperienced players and guilds can quickly get their feet wet in veteran trial content since DoT DPS is much easier to obtain - this is the biggest reason why Scalebreaker is great patch.

fastolfv_ESO · August 2019

i have a different theory, while i do agree they are dumbing down the game to try and make it even more noob friendly theres also something else that has bothered me for quite some time. Since the announcement ZoS would be developing another mmo each update has been pushing classes to guild skills over class skills to generalize dps rotations for every class, but why would they do that? simple eso is going to be on the back burner for a new game. You put every class on the same rotation for stam and mag and you can balance one skill to balance everyones dps at once so a skeleton crew can manage this game while resources are diverted and maximum profits are made. Most of the money comes from crownstore whales that eat up everything put on the store anyways right?

KerinKor · August 2019

mb10 wrote: »

Incompetence has lead to ESO’s decline.

Game had so much potential but was in some of the wrong hands in all honesty. Not the nicest truth but, the truth.

Perfect summary of ZOS' incompetent attempts to balance this game over 5+ years ...

... and before some ZOS moderator gets their underwear in a twist because I used the word 'incompetent' READ a dictionary to understand what it means; given the game's been going for over 5 years and we're still getting massive patches in an attempt to balance things that is clearly a LACK OF COMPETENCE!

Enkil · August 2019

Vercingetorix wrote: »

Folks need to learn to adjust to the changes - the sky isn't falling, but yes, stamina is being sidelined for magicka - FINALLY after 2 years. Heavy Attack channeling builds while rotating through DoTs will be at their strongest in this patch. Newer, more inexperienced players and guilds can quickly get their feet wet in veteran trial content since DoT DPS is much easier to obtain - this is the biggest reason why Scalebreaker is great patch.

Thanks for the admirable optimism, but I rarely if ever do PvE personally. However, I cannot imagine how making fire and forget dots helps people learn to complete more challenging veteran trial content and improve their skill level. If that is in fact the impetus, they can make skills have “NPC-only” damage/effect component which is readily used by many competent dev teams to fine tune PvE shortcomings without affecting overall balance. This is standard procedure. Why not go that arguably much easier, but wiser, more efficient and cheaper route instead of all this cyclical nonsense every few months?

Applying a bunch of non-class dots to a player enemy that is applying identical dots to me and then heavy attacking is not my idea of fun PvP. This game is mature at this point so it’s not the time to dumb things down to basic bland boring gameplay. The unique skills and attributes of each class should be maintained and emphasized not every skill classified and “brought in line” with some spreadsheet value.

I’ve played quite a few PvP mmos over the years and in them, few skills and classes were changed beyond minor adjustments 1-2x in the life of the game. Not so in ESO where they change many, many skills drastically with every other big patch and claim it’s all done in the name of balance.

What are you balancing things against when you are changing too much stuff, on both sides of the scales, far too drastically and all at once. This is absolute incompetence and shunning of skilled development process. I’ve read a lot of post with people saying this happens in all mmos. Total BS. There has likely never been a game developed where this was done so frequently. FFIV did huge drastic change but they acknowledged the first iteration was a disaster, shut it all down, and re-released a much better game that has stayed pretty similar since then.

Imagine you are supposed to be doing calculus homework and use addition and subtraction to solve the problems and pass it off as complete and acceptable because you filled in some kind of answers. It’s unacceptable. This game title and the community deserve much better than this garbage.

Tan9oSuccka · August 2019

While your definition of “fun” may be at the expense of someone else. (PVP).

Since PvP and PVE are balanced the same both are impacted.

When class skills are above and beyond others, balance is not present.

While Necro basher and Overload super stars are having “fun” it’s far worse for the greater community to allow broken or unbalanced stuff.

magictucktuck · August 2019

idk wrote: »

mb10 wrote: »

Incompetence has lead to ESO’s decline.

Game had so much potential but was in some of the wrong hands in all honesty. Not the nicest truth but, the truth.

If you have to make major updates and “balance” to skills every 3 months for years and years it says that you’re just not doing a good job and there isn’t a strategy in place. It makes no sense for such changes in direction literally every 3 months lol it’s such an embarrassing mess on ESO.

I have basically been saying this from day one. We complain about the combat dev or another dev when all they can do is the bidding of the person who manages the show/presides over Zos.

Matt Firor has set the "vision" and priorities since early in the development of this game. I have never seen a major MMORPG with such a pitiful launch nor have I seen an MMORPG have such drastic changes to combat this many times since the game launched.

Heck. I can go back to pretty much any title I have played and my characters pretty much still play the same way though the builds might be a little simpler than at launch. I know raiders who have left the game because of the to frequent heavy handed changes in ESO.

That sounds awful

Wifeaggro13 · August 2019

Enkil wrote: »

I applaud the Dev team's efforts to try to balance skills, classes and such. However, it is extremely apparent that the dev teams have used a lowest common denominator, homogenizing, and over-standardizing philosophy and methodology.

A common misconception is that balancing means standardizing and making things more similar, level or even. However, this is not a spreadsheet simulator, it is an MMO-RPG with the best intellectual property a dev team could dream of and the purpose is fun.

Balancing efforts should be dynamic; increasing and emphasizing the unique attributes of various skills and classes. Keep what works and is fun, tweaking as needed. Changes should be made with finesse to fine tune where needed to achieve Overall Balance and ensure that it is maintained.

Other games have done this well with far less resources, so it is not beyond reason to expect that one of the biggest can also do at least a decent job with just 6 classes. This patch is horrendous and the philosophies behind it will keep diminishing the quality of the game even further if a more sophisticated approach is not adopted instead.

Gameplay feels more bland, even more unbalanced (DoTs on steroids being one example), and just more boring now.

I have been echoing your sentiment for a long time.smaller teams have had done more emerging game play with better group dynamics. With far less of a budget. 6 classes , one of the worst alternate advancement systems I've ever played. Eso had massive potential and they seem hell bent on doubling down on churn base populations to support their game. Long term community is non existent. One role play style and very bad decisions

joseayalac · August 2019

OP speaks the truth.

Balance is not homogenization.

Balance means that every class can be competitive with it's own playstyle. Not that every class has the same playstyle.

Enkil · August 2019

Tan9oSuccka wrote: »

While your definition of “fun” may be at the expense of someone else. (PVP).

Since PvP and PVE are balanced the same both are impacted.

When class skills are above and beyond others, balance is not present.

While Necro basher and Overload super stars are having “fun” it’s far worse for the greater community to allow broken or unbalanced stuff.

I’m not sure if you’re replying to me or someone else? PvP and PvE balance needn’t be the same, nor impact each other as much as they do currently.

Everyone is here to have fun and occasionally there are going to be skills that are too powerful like those you mentioned. The abundantly obvious way to address that type of imbalance is to tone those particular skills down and tweak until they are more reasonable.

Also as I mentioned, certain skills can be given an additional NPC/mob-only component that doesn’t affect players to allow for balancing of PvE without hurting the overall balance. (i.e. add the desired DoT component to entropy as NPC-only and leave the skill intact otherwise) This is a standard and arguably essential tool in any mmo developer’s toolkit, yet ESO devs don’t even employ it. Why not? It is unreasonable to ask they start doing so in one of the biggest titles on the market? If devs are reading this, please start doing this.

Changing every other skill drastically, converting many into DoTs is akin to hammering in a finishing nail with the Volendrung hammer. You’re gonna destroy the whole thing and create a huge mess.

Shantu · August 2019

Some really good thoughts and perception here. Balancing the math is NOT balancing the game. One can only hope that some of it permeates the minds of what appears to be a very confused development team. Not holding my breath though.

Tan9oSuccka · August 2019

Enkil wrote: »

Tan9oSuccka wrote: »

While your definition of “fun” may be at the expense of someone else. (PVP).

Since PvP and PVE are balanced the same both are impacted.

When class skills are above and beyond others, balance is not present.

While Necro basher and Overload super stars are having “fun” it’s far worse for the greater community to allow broken or unbalanced stuff.

I’m not sure if you’re replying to me or someone else? PvP and PvE balance needn’t be the same, nor impact each other as much as they do currently.

Everyone is here to have fun and occasionally there are going to be skills that are too powerful like those you mentioned. The abundantly obvious way to address that type of imbalance is to tone those particular skills down and tweak until they are more reasonable.

Also as I mentioned, certain skills can be given an additional NPC/mob-only component that doesn’t affect players to allow for balancing of PvE without hurting the overall balance. (i.e. add the desired DoT component to entropy as NPC-only and leave the skill intact otherwise) This is a standard and arguably essential tool in any mmo developer’s toolkit, yet ESO devs don’t even employ it. Why not? It is unreasonable to ask they start doing so in one of the biggest titles on the market? If devs are reading this, please start doing this.

Changing every other skill drastically, converting many into DoTs is akin to hammering in a finishing nail with the Volendrung hammer. You’re gonna destroy the whole thing and create a huge mess.

It was directed to your opening post. Boils down to a Sorcerer skill that was over performing.

Since they can’t balance them separately, we have to deal with the shifts and changes.

I think you are partly right it the sense they adjust things in too drastic of measures. Are the PTS guys failing or is Zenimax not listening? I’m not sure.

For example: Incap and surprise attack. They were over-performing, but the changes a while back were too drastic. I want to give Zenimax the benefit of doubt, but NBs are pretty gutted right now.

Rungar · August 2019

they did fire the guy who made all this mess.

i think the new guy is doing a good job so far.

Chilly-McFreeze · August 2019

Heyodude wrote: »

the real beginning of this insanity was Stamsorc. Instead of actually providing actual in class alternatives to sorcerer they just kept buffing weapon skills to make it viable, which in turn made all stam characters abandon the majority of their own class identity in favor of these overtuned universal skills.

This made developers at zos grow lazier and lazier with each incremental implementation of damage class balances. Them knowing that if they just kept the dps going up and up, they really wouldnt have to touch on the issues with class balance. In fact, they could just abandon classes for a universal bandaid in the form of classless skills.

Interesting point. But doesn't that mean that the downhill ride began when they forced the dichotomy of stam and mag builds into the game to artifically increase the available class count? I'd like to read about how that all came to be and especially why.

mook-eb16_ESO · August 2019

Rungar wrote: »

they did fire the guy who made all this mess.

i think the new guy is doing a good job so far.

I think he made it much worse

Enkil · August 2019

Tan9oSuccka wrote: »

Enkil wrote: »

Tan9oSuccka wrote: »

While your definition of “fun” may be at the expense of someone else. (PVP).

Since PvP and PVE are balanced the same both are impacted.

When class skills are above and beyond others, balance is not present.

While Necro basher and Overload super stars are having “fun” it’s far worse for the greater community to allow broken or unbalanced stuff.

I’m not sure if you’re replying to me or someone else? PvP and PvE balance needn’t be the same, nor impact each other as much as they do currently.

Everyone is here to have fun and occasionally there are going to be skills that are too powerful like those you mentioned. The abundantly obvious way to address that type of imbalance is to tone those particular skills down and tweak until they are more reasonable.

Also as I mentioned, certain skills can be given an additional NPC/mob-only component that doesn’t affect players to allow for balancing of PvE without hurting the overall balance. (i.e. add the desired DoT component to entropy as NPC-only and leave the skill intact otherwise) This is a standard and arguably essential tool in any mmo developer’s toolkit, yet ESO devs don’t even employ it. Why not? It is unreasonable to ask they start doing so in one of the biggest titles on the market? If devs are reading this, please start doing this.

Changing every other skill drastically, converting many into DoTs is akin to hammering in a finishing nail with the Volendrung hammer. You’re gonna destroy the whole thing and create a huge mess.

It was directed to your opening post. Boils down to a Sorcerer skill that was over performing.

Since they can’t balance them separately, we have to deal with the shifts and changes.

I think you are partly right it the sense they adjust things in too drastic of measures. Are the PTS guys failing or is Zenimax not listening? I’m not sure.

For example: Incap and surprise attack. They were over-performing, but the changes a while back were too drastic. I want to give Zenimax the benefit of doubt, but NBs are pretty gutted right now.

I said first and foremost that I applaud the efforts of the dev team, and rather than just *** and complain about the patch, I am offering up very thoughtful constructive criticism. I will do my best to ensure the thread continues in a respectful and constructive fashion. However, the benefit of the doubt has been extended for years and it's being abused by ZOS and their extreme lack of community interaction or responsiveness to PTS feedback. They are no longer entitled to such deference. This team may be new to this game as devs, but the game is mature and established, warts and all.

Just throwing out what works well, then shifting mainstay skills and unique class flavor and characteristics to a grossly cookie cutter, "everyone just use majority guild skills" is not gonna work.

For background, I had hoped since the late 1990s for an Elder Scrolls mmo, and begged for it on the Bethesda forums way back then. When it was announced I immediately signed up for the beta. During that time I, along with many others, advocated vociferously for a class-less system, which is a hallmark Elder Scrolls element, but the devs insisted on having 4 classes (now up to 6).

Unless they want to really do radical change and do away with classes, their current approach is absolutely misguided and will continue to result in a game inferior to its own previous iterations. Side note: If they ever were to eliminate classes, it should be released as a finished product, not "put it on live even though it's clearly broken" patch and call in a “continuing audit" silliness.

One of my main points is that they CAN balance PvE and PvP harmoniously. Game design by it's very nature is not supposed to be an elementary, simplistic endeavor relying on simple math, standardization and homogenization. Even the simplest of games like PONG needed calculus. They can easily add NPC-only damage/effect components to skills and abilities to further enhance the uniqueness of each class and skill line in PvE as well. It would be a win-win and much easier to balance.

Another approach could be to add a third morph to all skills (beginning with perhaps class skills 1st patch, weapons 2nd, etc.). Then these morph options could become home to PvE-centric skills, and/or morphs that for example provide a heal option for Sorc's while maintaining the 2 existing morphs that work well and are already balanced.

A very commonly used method to balance PvP and PvE harmoniously is by adding NPC-only components or skills and fine tuning them while not impacting other game areas. MMOs have been developed since the late 1990s so ZOS doesn’t need to reinvent or innovate in such a way that is far inferior and detrimental compared to tried and true methods.

I don't know where things are falling through the cracks and don't care to speculate too much. Maybe it’s their leadership, overall direction, teams, hierarchy, dumb directives from non-creative sources, but one thing is certain and apparent for all to see. The shortcomings and repeated failure to polish this game, 5 years after launch, shows in a blinding fashion by the work product, aka the game we love, with patch after patch messing up just as many or more things up than it fixes. We all know what is possible and easily within reach if the director and team would only pursue it with gusto and precision.

eso_lytw8 · August 2019

It appears a lot of us are really disappointed with class homogenization. We like to have each character feel unique, its an important part of what makes the game fun. Yes I am part of the crowd that has desubbed because the game is no longer fun but I am still passionate about the future. I hope ZOS's leadership hears us and makes some changes in direction quickly.

I will say not everyone is disappointed. There appear to be some people who like class balance from a PVP perspective and some that may like a simpler game from a PVE perspective. Some folks just like change and its fun to adept and see whats possible. Maybe class uniqueness ranks lower in enjoyment factor then does these other elements.

My concern is this ...marketing is looking to grow market share and they determine PVE is tapped out. They look at games like fortnite and want to grow PVP (or vive versa), maybe even add a battle royale feature. Big market, maybe its known this group would actively spend in the crown store. So what is a common feature in these markets....100% balance. No classes you just play. So now we are left with a vision of needing a highly balanced system...hence the skills audit. This kills two marketing birds with one stone, it changes the game to potentially pull in a new target market and creates the need to use less class skills and more world skills which they can now monetize by selling in the crown store. Once the passives are minimized next round the classes will be really balanced yes nearly the same and then they can announce the next big thing.

Please don't over read anything into this example, its just that its an example of how a business might work. But understanding this is a business and they need to do certain things to remain viability might be what is driving the change. It definitely feels like something else is driving it because we aren't getting much information. The good thing is if enough people are not happy, if we are a paying contingent, and we are heard, we might make enough difference to sway things back on course.

TheBonesXXX · August 2019

Its always been mismanaged.

GrimTheReaper45 · August 2019

idk wrote: »

mb10 wrote: »

Incompetence has lead to ESO’s decline.

Game had so much potential but was in some of the wrong hands in all honesty. Not the nicest truth but, the truth.

If you have to make major updates and “balance” to skills every 3 months for years and years it says that you’re just not doing a good job and there isn’t a strategy in place. It makes no sense for such changes in direction literally every 3 months lol it’s such an embarrassing mess on ESO.

I have basically been saying this from day one. We complain about the combat dev or another dev when all they can do is the bidding of the person who manages the show/presides over Zos.

Matt Firor has set the "vision" and priorities since early in the development of this game. I have never seen a major MMORPG with such a pitiful launch nor have I seen an MMORPG have such drastic changes to combat this many times since the game launched.

Heck. I can go back to pretty much any title I have played and my characters pretty much still play the same way though the builds might be a little simpler than at launch. I know raiders who have left the game because of the to frequent heavy handed changes in ESO.

Honestly I think Matt firor is pretty hands off. Could be wrong but you never see him really talk about the game or address the community.

It is very clear though that there is problems with the combat team. I really dont understand it either. Like I personally didnt think wroble was a good pick for the lead combat dev. Brain wheeler though is a pretty solid choice as far as im concerned. Dudes competent and has done very well with the pvp team. Like ya, pvp is dead asf but that because of the poor server performance and the combat getting worse and worse. Its just like for whatever reason the combat team isnt working. I dont know if their having trouble deciding on a vision for how combat should work or if their just over worked with 4 updated a year or if they just cant get pvp and pve combat to work together. The lack of consistency and frequent shifts in just combat in general is getting really frustrating and off putting.

Heyodude · August 2019

Chilly-McFreeze wrote: »

Heyodude wrote: »

the real beginning of this insanity was Stamsorc. Instead of actually providing actual in class alternatives to sorcerer they just kept buffing weapon skills to make it viable, which in turn made all stam characters abandon the majority of their own class identity in favor of these overtuned universal skills.

This made developers at zos grow lazier and lazier with each incremental implementation of damage class balances. Them knowing that if they just kept the dps going up and up, they really wouldnt have to touch on the issues with class balance. In fact, they could just abandon classes for a universal bandaid in the form of classless skills.

Interesting point. But doesn't that mean that the downhill ride began when they forced the dichotomy of stam and mag builds into the game to artifically increase the available class count? I'd like to read about how that all came to be and especially why.

It was the player base themselves taking zos at its word. ESO's slogan and supposed defining experience was "play your own way". it was the first words you were greeted with upon visiting this websites homepage. However, this slogan wasnt a true definition of this game. The original development team pretty much saw to the classes in a traditionalist fashion, templars as healers, dragon knights as tanks, Nightblades as cqc stamina damage dealers, and sorcerers as ranged magick damage dealers.

The weapon lines and universal skills were all but staples back then to modify the players role with 2nd rate abilities enabling them to be useful in disadvantageous situations. They where never meant to define a class but assist it. And to that end the slogan "play your own way" was a half truth in the eyes of players who picked a sorcerer and wanted to use stamina ablities.(which to this day, i find an incredibly stupid decision on the players behalf. not only as it is out right asking for disappointment, but placing an impossible endeavor at the feet of developers.)

so every character in the players eyes should be able to be every one thing at any one time, per the players choice in due to the slogan "play your own way". But that isnt the reality of any MMO that has class based structures. And for the developers to meet the requirement of their own supposed experience, well, you see that attempt right now. Everyone can play their own way, because everyone is essentially using 80 to 90 percent of the same abilities this go around.

The player base legitimately asked for this and ZOS delivered. Be careful what you wish for.

Purdomination33 · August 2019

No doubt there are many ppl on here who work directly for large corporate organizations, work alongside them, sell to them, etc and have experienced 1st hand what my little diatribe below tries to detail...

For years I have noticed similarities with ZOS and companies I work with everyday. These companies tend have a crazy high turnover rate at almost all levels of the organization. Often times new decision makers want to show up and go all D.E.N.N.I.S. system (demonstrate value, engage physically, nurture dependency, neglect entirely, etc etc haha). I have no idea how ZOS operates day to day but I would think video games require a constant onflux of creativity and ingenuity to evolve with the times. Corporate structures are about the worst environment imaginable to nurture and retain the type of talent who embody these traits, turning creative thoughts into reality.

I can imagine how this all plays out. Good development team given a lot of freedom to develop the game with a huge budget. Game comes out all good. Over time the talent slowly moves to the next project. Sales and numbers become the #1 focus of upper management. Sales stagnate. The more expensive and generally talented employees are let go or lesve. Cheaper new hires move in or up. Less focus on the "fun and exciting" aspects of the video game and all about that $$ ya'll. Less job security for new hires. Zero anonymity to make decisions, everyone becomes a cog basically. Creating repeatable templates and enforcement of strict adherence to corporate internal structures take precedent.

Wow, rambled there. Big generalization I know but hopefully I made my point. Not all industries are well serviced by a large corporate structure. Video games likely one of them. Catch-22 though, modern games are insanely expensive as wel all know. Hard to make it all happen without those juggernauts taking on all the risk and financial backing.

Has anyone read books like Masters of Doom or Console Wars? If not I highly encourage them of you are interested in both gaming and the business of gaming. B oth highly entertaining and educational in their own ways. They touch on what I mention above in more and better detail.

Emma_Overload · August 2019

Vercingetorix wrote: »

Folks need to learn to adjust to the changes - the sky isn't falling, but yes, stamina is being sidelined for magicka - FINALLY after 2 years. Heavy Attack channeling builds while rotating through DoTs will be at their strongest in this patch. Newer, more inexperienced players and guilds can quickly get their feet wet in veteran trial content since DoT DPS is much easier to obtain - this is the biggest reason why Scalebreaker is great patch.

I agree completely. A lot of the long winded complaints about this patch are ridiculous. Since when has PvE DPS *not* involved pressing buttons and watching timers?

The new meta is fine. It's really not much different from the old meta, and there have been plenty of improvements. Some people just don't react well to change.

master_vanargand · August 2019

ZoS is a sadist who enjoys watching people suffer.