How would you rate Zenimax Online Studios performance in 2020.

  • AyaDark
    AyaDark
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    Underwhelming
    It is bad. But it can be even worse, if they did not fix loading screens.

    All is buged, skills do not work, all lages.

    Buttons work not on press like in ALL normal world, but on release - that is unhealthy.
    Target do not work for 2 years correct.

    You select target to hit it , not the target behind you or near it, but all attacks go to the wrong target again, that you did not even SELECT !!!

    But !!! You can see it through the walls !
    Shameless !!!

    A lot of bugs and bad made content of gameplay.

    Animation/Models/World/Graphick - 5/5

    Gameplay (All) - 2/5

    Optimuzation - 0/5 ok +1 for removing loading screens 1/5.

    How skills works with on press, target, dethinks, skips animations in pvp - lags, bugs and etc - combat gameplay is: 0/5

    Quests:
    Before new LOR master: 4-5/5
    Now: 2/5

    Combat:
    Before new combat team: 3-4/5
    Now: 0-1/5
    Edited by AyaDark on December 15, 2020 6:00AM
  • SammyKhajit
    SammyKhajit
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    ✭✭
    Underwhelming
    I voted underwhelming because whilst being a PVE player I have had fewer issues but when it comes to events like Undaunted or bugs from the Markath DLC, as an ESO+ customer it’s not good enough. COVID and working from home is definitely a huge setback, but we (esp those of us lucky to keep our jobs) have been practicing working from home since March this year and some of the ESO issues are pre-2020.

    I remain hopeful that the game will improve, but am disappointed by the continued poor communication and poor player experiences which translate into bad customer experience. This is not raised often but I think the Zenimax board members and performance need to be externally reviewed, and I sincerely hope changes to the board members, dynamics and focuses will be reflected when Microsoft takes over.
  • Uryel
    Uryel
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    Abysmal
    Every time they "fix" or add one thing, they break 10 other things. I'm especially thinking about werewolf skill progression reset and lost skill points, but that's one among many other things.

    Maybe rushing content over a year just to meet some self-imposed deadlines isn't that smart an idea.

    Gotta be fair though, if the amount of bugs this year has been staggering, at least Greymoor felt like a properly built and itemised place, unlike Elsweyr.
    Edited by Uryel on December 15, 2020 4:18PM
  • novemberhhh
    novemberhhh
    ✭✭✭
    Abysmal
    uninstalled
    404
  • Hanokihs
    Hanokihs
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    Abysmal
    Yeah, this year just sorta sucked for me. I haven't really played much since, wow, July? There haven't even been many other good games to come out, so I'm actually a little surprised I skipped out for this long.

    The overarching story for the dlc was "meh." But this isn't the first year I've been annoyed by having part of the story locked behind dlc dungeons and a raid, so... Hopefully next year, I can follow an arc without characters I hate coming back from the dead or needing to find a coordinated group to taste all the lore. Gimmie some "prophet" style questing where I can chill out and enjoy the story by myself. (I still want solo versions of dungeons and raids. It's unrealistic, but I still want it).

    The combat balance tanked hard. It just wasn't fun to play with all their changes; it felt even more unpolished than it did in the beta, which is a huge step backward for me. Including the grapple gimmick. I really wanted to love the new Arena, but... nope. I feel so slow and weak and useless, and all my characters have become a series of rhythm-pressing, like, three or four buttons over and over again. I can't even go back to being a healer; they're more obsolete than ever before.

    Performance in general was a misery; don't even get me started on PVP. I continue never being enticed to go there. The double IC-involved events were tedious and disappointing. It felt like a chore; that's about where I just outright started skipping content and events altogether...

    Speaking of PVP, actually, I'm still waiting for a way to do BGs with a single buddy without getting facerolled by a coordinated team. Solo was nice while I was still logging in, but after a while, it was just the same people over and over again... A little too predictable for me outside of leveling alts. Idk, though, it's been a while since I gave it a look and read up on things in that area, it may have changed for the better.

    Doing the same basic events over again has gotten really stale. Similar note, fashion this year was kinda lackluster... I don't even care about getting rich anymore because there are no motifs to buy, and all the good gear is raid gear I can't spend coin on.

    The houses were all too big, too empty, and poorly designed in terms of layout. I haven't really been pressed to buy and decorate a new one... The decorative items they've added have been... okay. But not something I was excited to see. Even the guests are bland.

    Also, and this is the biggest blow for me since ESO has basically become The Sims 5: Medieval, the crates were trash this year! Even by my standards!!! The new radiants weren't something I was compelled to try for and/or build new character aesthetics around. I haven't even bothered to check what the new ones are because I know I'm gonna be disappointed, and at this point, I actually don't want to give them any of my money.

    Like... I don't feel like I've outgrown the game. It still interests me. But every time I go in, I end up just... sighing and doing something else.
    "I haven't really played much yet, but lemme tell you all about how the game should include X and be a lot more like Y!" - Half the posters on this forum.
    "I've been here for years, and lemme tell you all about how they should never change or evolve Z, because then the game would be ruined forever." - The other half of posters on this forum.
  • AyaDark
    AyaDark
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    Underwhelming
    You enter, it do not work normally, you have bugs and lags, you do event, try to play, get angry and go away ;)

    Try to play quest it buged, ok.
    Try to hard content - crashes, skills do not work.
    PVP the same.

    Enter PVP deathmatch - was happy, get disconnected from the server with crush ... watch to it, close TESO, go other game.

    God do not want me play, OK.
    Edited by AyaDark on December 15, 2020 6:59AM
  • Grandchamp1989
    Grandchamp1989
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    Underwhelming
    We did HM Stone Garden yesterday.. Crashed 3 times... Sometimes midfight.. Baaaad.

    Couldn't complete White Gold Tower HM the other day because a ghost would always glitch out leaving the boss immortal.
    after 3 tries we gave up on the buggy mess.

    Honestly... The game is still a mess.

    I still get stutter, desynch and skill delay at the most random times.

    Every patch and every release the game release with 50 new problems.

    I think it's at a stage where even the Zos team is completely overwhelmed.

    Only think that works okey is questing... For the most part.
  • Joy_Division
    Joy_Division
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    ArchMikem wrote: »
    This poll cannot be taken seriously as many are voting with their emotions and not objectively.

    An objective case can be made for any rating. It's easy to see why there are so many low votes.

    Anyone who PvPs was promised a year's worth of performance increase that began with an update that crashed every 10 minutes that ZOS only fixed by making performance worse, and then ended with them basically throwing in the towel by subjecting us for 2 months of unfun tests that resolved nothing, but prompted ZOS to change Cyrodiil's rules so that it gives those who cause the worst lag (organized groups) an advantageous rule-set over ungrouped players.

    That is as abysmal as it gets. We literally would have been better off had ZOS did nothing for PvP and just spent their time on PvE.

    The new zones ZOS releases are ok, but there isn't really a compelling reason to go back to them once you finish the quests and if you actually like the game that you play it and have a high CP, the combat in the quests is so mind-numbingly boring because the ancient big bad evil boss can hardly scratch you. No, I'm not constantly turning on and off my CP and wearing green gear and then switching back every time I want to quest. That's the devs job to make these new zones accessible for everyone, and because they can;t do this while other games managed, that's another reason for a low rating.

    The only thing in ESO that came in 2020 that I'd give high marks are the sticker-book system. But then again, it's hard for me to get excited about it because the aspects of the game that I enjoy, PvP mostly, is in such a sorry state.
    Make Rush of Agony "Monsters only." People should not be consecutively crowd controlled in a PvP setting. Period.
  • JayKwellen
    JayKwellen
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    Abysmal
    It's the "year of performance" and performance is worse than it was before they started. We all know that if it ain't broke you don't fix it, but what about when it is broke, you try to fix it, and you end up making it far worse than it was originally?

    Honestly don't think anything else needs to be said.
    Edited by JayKwellen on December 15, 2020 8:04AM
  • GrimTheReaper45
    GrimTheReaper45
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    Pretty good
    Personally I feel we have had worse years. 2020 was ok, better than late 2018-2019, at least imo.

    - Game stability wasnt great, again I have seen it worse though.
    - Not a fan of the changes and tests with cyrodil. I think its a big step back.
    - Vamp rework kinda sucks

    Other than that really no complains

    - Antiquities was a fun addition to the game.
    - Good chapter and dlc zome
    - good story
    - Didnt have a billion nerfs shoved up my....... every 3 months (Thats enough to get me to like this year on its own)
    - Based on my admittedly limited experience with them, vet dungeons seem to be a bit more accessible to pugs and average players.
    -
  • Miswar
    Miswar
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    Abysmal
    The 2020 year of the performance plan. Epic failure. The game got worse and worse each month via lag, crash, desync and bluescreens.

    ZoS communication is absolutely non-existant towards players. Only things that are acknowledged are crownstore related (ie. housing stuff). Rest... absolute silence.

    The game is total mess with no light in sight. I could go on and on with the list of things.

    Even Abyssmall rating feels like generous one.
  • Husan
    Husan
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    Abysmal
    ITT: people who are doing overland content, questing, and player housing are satisfied. People who do PvP, vet DLC dungeons, vet trials are not. No offense to the first group, but that content is so easy that it doesn't matter if you have 500ms delay, your character positioning is off, weapon swap doesn't work, skills don't fire - you can clear it all just using normal attacks. Also, crashes in overland are rare and even if you do crash you can just pick up where you left off whereas in group content crashes are commonplace and you are 100% to crash in certain content (scalecaller peak HM for example). When you crash, it takes about 5 minutes to relog because the game doesn't let you (account already logged in) and the loading screens are unbearably long. In addition, you have lost your no death achievement, you have to restart the boss fight, and you are wasting 3-11 other players time. Then repeat this process when one of the other guys crashes. Whether you are going to have a good or a bad time in this games depends solely on what content you do.

    It's all been said before many times: story is good, art is fantastic. On the other hand, both PvP and endgame PvE performance and balancing is wack. But the bottom line is this is an MMO, we want to play it because of that. We want multiplayer PvE and PvP content, not a single player action adventure, but online. If I wanted to play for story I would play Cyberpunk 2077, or just plain old Skyrim if I want to stick to TES lore.

    In any case, I've vastly reduced my ESO playtime. I log in to feed horses on alts, do writs, and a daily random for event rewards. Having fun with Shadowlands at the moment. Say what you want about World of Warcraft, but the game works. Loading screens are lightning fast, and I've yet to experience a crash.
    Edited by Husan on December 15, 2020 8:16AM
  • LalMirchi
    LalMirchi
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    ✭✭
    Okay
    Occasional crashes.

    As I mostly do overland content I haven't really encountered the problems that many other plays report.
  • GenjiraX
    GenjiraX
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    Pretty good
    I think they gone done a good job this year. My complaint is about bugs or, more specifically, bugs not being fixed in a timely manner. They did seem to address this, however, with a coupla three ad hoc maintenance runs.

    I’m still having tons of fun, I just wish there were more hours in the day for me to play.
  • svendf
    svendf
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    Pretty good
    On my PS4 pretty good, no bluescreen so fare. Haven´t seen any bugs eighter.
  • Eedat
    Eedat
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    Pretty good
    I've only had a couple issues, but with the caveat that I haven't played the entire year. I take breaks and I've only been back for two months. The only issues I've had were a crash in wayrest 2 which has been fixed and lag in Cyro during prime times which has not. Other than that I've been able to do dungeons and trials with no issue and no issues with overland stuff either.
  • Firstmep
    Firstmep
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    Abysmal
    Ratzkifal wrote: »
    iGotBaited wrote: »
    How does working from home impact doing your job as a dev? Honest question.

    They don't run into each other during work anymore. It always has to be scheduled an entire meeting even for the smallest of things because they just cannot discuss these things on the fly.

    As someone who also works for a big company from home office, I can tell you that it's not that restrictive.
    Plenty of business softwares out there that makes working from home a breeze.
  • Mythreindeer
    Mythreindeer
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    It a beautiful game that you can occasionionally have amazing moments in... I don't like to rag on the developers I think if they held the purse strings this game would be working a lot better. It wouldn't have adopted stadia at the begining of the year and made the game unplayable for all exisiting platforms. I think more recent issues would have felt more forgivable if the performance hadn't been hit so hard to begin with.

    It isn't too late to fix it, but I feel less and less confident they will. Not because I believe them incapable as often suggested, just totally handicapped from doing so by the shareholders.

    I mainly play PvP and between the terrible meta and performance it is very hard to find those amazing moments I first mentioned.

    About sums it up for me as well.
  • Artorias24
    Artorias24
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    Abysmal
    svendf wrote: »
    On my PS4 pretty good, no bluescreen so fare. Haven´t seen any bugs eighter.

    You even logged in in the past 12 months?
  • UrbanMonk
    UrbanMonk
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    Underwhelming
    Would have voted Abysmal but Sticker Book saved their ***. The reason for low rating?
    1. Poor game performance in any competitive mode be it PvE or PvP. One suffered probably more than the other.
    2. Inability to listen to players feedback and taking the game in direction which was not only unpopular but unhealthy for the game in general.
    3. PROCS making a come back alongwith Tank meta at the same time.
    4. Did I already say poor performance?
    5. The biggest, despite promising it over amd over again, ZOS did not improve the communication. Every here amd there, we'd get some posts by gina or other forum managers but no actual communication. So many voices and opinions moderated to keep the forum quiet.

    As a casual player, not many would probably ever experience these things, but to those who have invested countless hours in the game, it HURTS.

    My 2 cents....
    Urban.Monk

    -Monk I- Magden- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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    -Pablo Necrobar- StamCro- AVA24



    youtube.com/c/UrbanMonkGaming
    Easiest mDK for vMA and vVH- https://youtu.be/dUxQO1FO1XQ

    ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
    Balance for the Sake of Balance is no Balance at all.
  • pod88kk
    pod88kk
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    Okay
    I understand that the disruption due to Covid will inevitably have caused issues but I feel like they should have pushed back updates if they weren't 100% rather than releasing busted content. People would have been more understanding if they were upfront and honest with us.

    The "sticker book" is a game changer though and I LOVE it. Definitely the highlight of the game in 2020 for me.
  • Aurielle
    Aurielle
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    Abysmal
    People need to stop using COVID-19 as an excuse for ZOS’s inability to improve performance or fix game breaking bugs in a timely manner.

    March 2019: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/463510/unacceptable-performance-ps4-na-bgs

    July 2019: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/485441/post-patch-porting-problems-ps4-na

    July 2019: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/486959/porting-and-performance-on-console-after-elsweyr

    July 2019: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/487183/please-fix-or-even-acknowledge-pummeling-goliath-bash-on-console-zos

    These are just some of the threads I started last year. ESO’s performance has been unacceptable on PS4 for almost two years now. I uninstalled the game about a year ago at the end of 2019 and kept a close eye on the forums since uninstalling. The issues have only gotten worse this year, and have extended to PC as well.

    COVID didn’t help, but please don’t insinuate that ESO’s performance issues and bug fix delays started in March 2020.
  • Muttsmutt
    Muttsmutt
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    Underwhelming
    please improve honest communication with players & present the company in a more human light.

    it will improve player opinion & thus decrease the likelihood of a player deciding to no longer financially support the game due to an affective dislike for the company; therefore increasing profits by decreasing dissonance between a player's opinion of the game itself (which may be good), and the game developer company (which, if very poor, may damage the former).

    when player opinion is as poor as it is now, and developers simply cannot keep up with release timeframes & thus deliver buggy patches, your damage-control policy must be flawless. get with the times- relatability sells. stoic company policies are going out of fashion, and players more easily take to a communicative game company- even if it increases overhead statement management requirements- it is worth it.

    acknlowedgement of failure is a powerful tool to increase consumer opinion: individuals feel empowered when they offer "forgiveness", as well as showing humility, which invokes empathy, thus evokes positive feelings in the players, regardless of company failure.

    you cannot behave like a machine, when you do not deliver the quality a machine would.
    honesty and empathy is paramount when your product is flawed.

    you need a consumer psychology consultant.
    as do many, many companies...
    Edited by Muttsmutt on December 15, 2020 1:39PM
    PC-EU // UNDEAD
  • colossalvoids
    colossalvoids
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    Abysmal
    I'm rating playability of their product and communication here, not new landmasses or their designers work.

    As I'm primarily "endgame" pve it was not that good of a year. Probably close to half a raids were cancelled due to broken instances, crash/dc issues introduction in the beginning of the year and that were reintroduced almost every single patch? We made little progress than was planned and lost a lot of time on nothing really which is underwhelming at the very least.

    Pvp was a safe place from this issues in the beginning of the year, but when they started to tinker here it was made close to unplayable and the last time i was pvping wad probably at aoe tests weeks, not sure i want to go back with current playability as it's yet again more of a time waste and not positive experience, also current meta completely closes pvp gates for me fro now, I'd rather not participate at all then be a procfest myself.

    Questing was... Ok? Nothing really good, some facepalm along the way especially comes to mind that new Orc settlement near Druadach mountains, want to erase it from my memory but nothing insanely broken here at least.

    New trial and dungeons were okay also (and stonegarden was actually pretty good, icereach and ug were nice also but didn't done em in a while to judge), but still you probably don't want to go there with broken instances of Harrowstorm nor with crashes of Markarth.

    New solo arena is underwhelming to say the least. Just not my cup of tea but the concept is interesting at least. Still it's pretty strange if half the good players got trifecta in the first day and the other half on the second one, it wasn't the case at all with vmsa introduction in Orsinium.

    I wanted to vote underwhelming at first to be more precise in judging but all the unplayable issues, communication, boring content, leaving players etc makes it far worse in a bigger picture.
  • Linaleah
    Linaleah
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    Pretty good
    considering that they had to adjust to working through pandemic in a hurry? (remember pandemic that is STILL going on and changed a lot of work to remote which can make communication within teams, let alone between different teams - much harder) pretty good all things considered. am I happy with performance of the game? no. but am I willing to cut them some slack given the circumstances? yes.
    dirty worthless casual.
    Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself. Guard your honor. Let your reputation fall where it will. And outlive the ***
    Lois McMaster Bujold "A Civil Campaign"
  • Faded
    Faded
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    Abysmal
    I wonder if the bean-counters who are calling the shots factored in the consequences of poisoning their brand. Not that there's any evidence they consider the long view.
    Edited by Faded on December 15, 2020 2:06PM
  • UGotBenched91
    UGotBenched91
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    Abysmal
    Yeah I haven’t been too impressed but what makes it worse for me is the lack of any kind of acknowledgement or responsibility [snip]

    [edited to remove discussion of moderation]
    Edited by ZOS_Ragnar on December 15, 2020 3:16PM
  • dinokstrunz
    dinokstrunz
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    Abysmal
    Linaleah wrote: »
    considering that they had to adjust to working through pandemic in a hurry? (remember pandemic that is STILL going on and changed a lot of work to remote which can make communication within teams, let alone between different teams - much harder) pretty good all things considered. am I happy with performance of the game? no. but am I willing to cut them some slack given the circumstances? yes.

    1. The problems with this game mostly stem back long before the global pandemic

    2. Other MMOs remain unaffected by the switch up. I think people can expect small delays maybe a few weeks behind schedule

    3. Communication would really be unaffected this it's so easy to stay in touch with other teams these days thanks to the digital age we find ourselves it so I really doubt this is a huge issue.

    4. The worst part is that despite the changes ZoS is still the same old ZoS. Complete silence from its teams regarding the growing unrest in this game, the mountain of issues caused by poorly managed balance problems and of course the woeful game performance plaguing everyone from PvE to PvP. It's just the same old same old.
  • Aurielle
    Aurielle
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    Abysmal
    Linaleah wrote: »
    considering that they had to adjust to working through pandemic in a hurry? (remember pandemic that is STILL going on and changed a lot of work to remote which can make communication within teams, let alone between different teams - much harder) pretty good all things considered. am I happy with performance of the game? no. but am I willing to cut them some slack given the circumstances? yes.

    Huh, I didn’t realize there was a global pandemic in 2019 as well (which is when ESO first started becoming unplayable for me and many others on PS4).

    [snip]

    [edited to remove discussion of moderation]

    Edit: I’m not going anywhere, even though the intent is very obvious at this point. :)
    Edited by Aurielle on December 15, 2020 6:53PM
  • flavmad09
    flavmad09
    Pretty good
    I separated content from performance.

    Content: I love the new dungeons and the new trial. The story and for both Markarth and Western Skyrim was very good, and I especially liked Blackreach. The collections were a blessing (no longer need 10+ sets clogging up bank space) and scrying is both fun, and it gives you nice rewards.

    Performance: It wasn't good at times. I haven't had as many issues as some of my friends did, but I did get kicked from the server from time to time. However it wasn't all year like this. There were times when everything was working fine. Some of the issues are as old as the game though, so it's not new in 2020.

    Overall it was pretty good.
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