State of the Game Address

Singular · April 2014

Thank you for the update and hard work!

Great game. Please work on producing a better grouping tool (i.e., the lfm/lfg, phasing) and fix dungeon and pvp xp (they're greatly lagging behind quest xp).

And remember to take a day off sometimes. Get drunk, relax.

kirnmalidus · April 2014

I for one would like to add my thanks. Due to the bug fixes over the past couple weeks, I'm now to the point where I only have one incomplete (bugged) quest in all of the Aldmeri Dominion zones and Coldharbour, and I haven't run into any bugged quests yet in the Pact zones I've visited.

I do agree with the comments that point out the CS spending 85% of their time on something that could be considered mostly an annoyance, as opposed to helping players resolve progress blocking issues is probably not the best prioritization.

This should be inverted, and in fact it could be argued that CS shouldn't need to touch these reports at all as they aren't really CS issues but rather moderator/GM issues. As many have pointed out having a few GMs in game would go a long way to resolving these issues more promptly and probably alleviate the load on CS dramatically.

Klarick · April 2014

TGEK wrote: »

keondre.branchcub18_ESO wrote: »

[snip]

Forums being dead is the biggest shock to me. I would love to see how many subs they have, and how many they are going to lose when the 1 month is up.

The game won't die, but it will definitely go F2P within 12-18 months.

Thanks for the awesome update and communication. It is appreciated whenever you guys take the time and post updates, regardless of what players like TGEK may think.

TGEK, it is obvious here, and in the guild we both belong to, that you are not a fan of TESO. Just let it go brother...let...it...go. You dont have a crystal ball, you are not an expert in the field, and you have no idea of the health of this game that has been out for less than a month. You seem to be getting some sort of odd joy with YOUR opinion that the game is bad. It kind of weird.

[edited to remove quote]

Rapscallion74 · April 2014

Dionysis wrote: »

@Rapscallion74 You bought an MMO at release. Bumps, bugs, glitches, hacks, downtime, maintenance windows, hotfixes, bots, and gold spammers should have been expected. These happen at every MMO release. Hell, even non MMOs, like SimCity, had crazy problems the first few weeks. If you want a polished fixed, patches, shiny game, buy it a few months after release. This is not ZOS's fault you have unrealistic expectations.

LOLOLO expecting a purchased product to work is unrealistic? I could be forgiving it it was just a couple things, but there are soooooo many things that are broken, that they game should have stayed in BETA longer.

Also, I dont buy this "it's always been this way" [snip] arguement. The fact it's always been this way means companies should really be stepping up to anticipate these problems before launch, [snip]

I was originally a staunch supporter of this game pre-launch. I was the voice of reason telling people "just wait and see guys. I am sure they'll have all this stuff worked out". I even dropped $750 on a new monitor for this game. Not saying other games wont benefit from the monitor, but this game was the inspiration for the purchase.

What I am more curious about is when did society lose it's principles? When did it become acceptable to purchase sub-par products and expect us not to say anything about it?

[edited for bashing & profanity bypass]

Monsoon · April 2014

The Mac Client has been crashing every 5 minutes in Cyrodill. I know nobody cares about the mac players but we are paying the same amount for half the game. An ETA would be nice because as I see thing there is no reason for me to pay for a subscription in 10 days if half the game is not available to me.

mike_buglione_ESO · April 2014

What about optimization fixes, sli, crossfire, "true" fullscreen, and busted vsync, any of that even being looked at?

Mailmann · April 2014

For people that are suggesting that new game devises need to be added to ESO now (such as open world PvP or individual character banks), please understand that it is far better that the devs put all their effort into fixing many of the game breaking issues that are currently plaguing the game rather than adding new content that will inevitably make fixing these issues harder. I'm all for new content. I would love to see new PvP options in the future and I will be overjoyed if ZOS adds personal banks so that I can truly enjoy playing multiple characters. However any work done on new content is work not be done on fixing some rather serious issues... everything in due time.

DewiMorgan · April 2014

I honestly don't get why restoring lost bank slots required a ticket.

We know that the information about how many bank slots you should have is right there in your user data, since it knows how much to charge you for the next upgrade.

So why couldn't something like this be done?

UPDATE `account_data`
SET `bank_slots` = `bank_cost` * %scalingFactor;

Are there factors other than bank upgrades that can affect bank size? That's the only reason I can think of that simply *fixing* every entry in the DB might be impossible.

Kingslayer · April 2014

TGEK wrote: »

keondre.branchcub18_ESO wrote: »

[snip]

Forums being dead is the biggest shock to me. I would love to see how many subs they have, and how many they are going to lose when the 1 month is up.

The game won't die, but it will definitely go F2P within 12-18 months.

I think it was something like 1.6 million subs.

[edited to remove quote]

Caroloces · April 2014

Thanks for the update. I love this game, and have not had many problems aside from a couple of quest bugs, one of which was fixed the following day. Keep up the good work. I look forward to the new content coming down the pike.

Tyr · April 2014

Gadamlub14_ESO wrote: »

do whatever you must to combat the bots and gold sellers, i just kindly ask that you DO NOT put bogus copyright claims upon them to get, for example, their advertizements removed from youtube.

doing such things will only temporarily remove the vid as they can and will get it reinstated because your copyright claim, had no grounds. ontop of that, it puts YOU in an even worse light than the gold spammers and bots you are trying to get rid of.

please, do deal with them, but do so Legitimately.

what gold farmers are doing is a violation of TOS and grounds for a civil law suite which they are only avoiding because it's impossible and too expensive to sue all of them.

psufan5 · April 2014

Tyr wrote: »

Gadamlub14_ESO wrote: »

do whatever you must to combat the bots and gold sellers, i just kindly ask that you DO NOT put bogus copyright claims upon them to get, for example, their advertizements removed from youtube.

doing such things will only temporarily remove the vid as they can and will get it reinstated because your copyright claim, had no grounds. ontop of that, it puts YOU in an even worse light than the gold spammers and bots you are trying to get rid of.

please, do deal with them, but do so Legitimately.

what gold farmers are doing is a violation of TOS and grounds for a civil law suite which they are only avoiding because it's impossible and too expensive to sue all of them.

Agree. How does it put Zen in worse light ?! Sounds like this guy runs a bot service, or buys gold regularly.

Halrloprillalar · April 2014

TGEK wrote: »

This game needs open world pvp.

There is: it's called Cyrodil. Not everyone wants childish trolls or griefing in their regular play.

TGEK wrote: »

and lol @ there being no one on these forums. What a farce.

Uh what? Did you look in all the categories? The fact that this post alone has 6 pages (atm) of replies to it? I don't see why you think 'forums are dead', considering there are plenty of posts and the game is only a month old.

My only concern is with some of the UI features and the economy. UI features I can get past with some addons (shouldn't have to be necessary though), but the economy...

I do hope they add a more reasonable way to sell things (yes, there, I said it, I want an AH) even though I do see why there isn't one at this point (to protect the economy early on).

As much as I want to be optimistic about the gold spam issue, I doubt they will ever be fully eliminated (if ZOS figures it out, they should patent their method imo; any game with trade-based economy has a plague of these things).

And please, continue to fix the broken quests!!

Rantog · April 2014

ZOS_MattFiror wrote: »

all erroneously banned accounts were reinstated within about 8 hours. Contrary to some reports,

EXCUSE ME!?
I am calling a challenge here!

I want to see a Single player - admit that their account was banned in that mess, and that their account was "Reinstanted within about 8 hours."

Because I was on the Phone for longer than that and never got an answer.
Most of us were on here for nearly that long trying to find out WHY we had been suspended.
And THEN we lost forum access and went elsewhere.

First you suspend us for Not cheating.
Then you publicly claim that it was Not Automated, insinuating that each of us had been investigated by a Human and found Guilty somehow.

[snip]
[edited for bashing]

WeeMadAggie · April 2014

Thanks for the update - any update was sorely needed.

I hope you will find time to redesign your forums into something more user friendly but whether you do or not I strongly recommend opening dialogues on social media.
Getting the message out that you are, in fact, working on the issues at hand isn't a task done once every few weeks but a daily reminder and you need to speak to your players where they are, not where you would like them to be.

I am sure to take a lot of flak for bringing an example of well-handled developer/player interaction from another company but please look to the EQNext team's use of social media for inspiration at least.

I think you have the beginnings of a really great game, but the work has only just begun and I hope to see you successfully handling the follow-through.

Bardidar · April 2014

Still no Xbox One info? So lame <\3. On the plus side we won't have these annoying gold bots and black markets on console

.

tclark_ESO · April 2014

Thanks for the update! Love the game!

Bwaite43 · April 2014

@ZOS_MattFiror Just want to add my Thanks! I am enjoying the game even with the bugs ( that I know will be fixed soon ). Keep working on making this a great game!

Dominulf · April 2014

ZOS_MattFiror wrote: »

players could manipulate stacks of items in their inventory to create copies. We fixed the problem and banned the accounts of the worst offenders

Contrary to some reports, exploitation of this bug did not result in destabilizing the ESO economy in any way.

So, you banned "the worst offenders", not everyone. This says nothing and a lot at the same time.

How did it not hurt the economy? Should we just take your word for it?
I know someone who duped 800 Dreugh Wax, is still playing the game, and still has their items circulation.

This 'State of the Game Address' is a public relations and damage control attempt.

A useless post that shed no new information and highligthed shortcomings of the product and public staff denial in the name of good marketing.

Nylan · April 2014

Good Job ESO team, and btw, don't feed the trolls.

masrawy · April 2014

ESO is really awesome game and I believe its going to get a lot better but something need to be done to the bots and gold spammers

Valerien · April 2014

I would be interested to know what the plan is for solo and duo Veteran play.

New quest zone for 4 and 12 man groups great, get your group together and off you go. But what about those down times when you can't get a group together? Is the entire new zone going to be best avoided.

On a side note is there any plans for class/skill specifics in the future content. As a Vampire I have just had to listen to an irate master mage act shocked that I am going to set vampires free and question why I would assist Vampires. Sorry to disappoint mate but the guy your putting all your faith in is a Vampire but it completely seems to have missed your grasp of the obvious.

It would be nice if class played a role in the dialogue or options rather than just being a solely game play mechanic and separate from how people view you or interact. I know its difficult to do but it would make these choices seem more meaningful and not just about finding a fotm build.

Pyatra · April 2014

No, we don't need more inventory. I have 4 crafting skills including provisioning, just saying, if you have the mats... craft it. Unless you get to VR don't let them sit there wasting away in your bank. Otherwise make some items from friends/guildies to deconstruct to help them level crafting.

Noguchi · April 2014

Thank you kindly for the update. This is very reassuring to the community. Please keep up the communication & all the hard work.

Zafu · April 2014

You need to, and should of, banned all the V10 cheaters. It is simply impossible to get to V10 a week or so after release. You've created a totally in-balanced PVP world until non-cheaters can catch up. It's really disgraceful.

PS: Fix the mage blink already. It's absurd to the extreme.

Outside of the above two items, loving the game.

Thank you.

Winnower · April 2014

Thank you for the communication, which is as important to me as many things "in game".

And I'm thoroughly enjoying the game so far, and appreciate your efforts to stabilize and remedy those issues and problems that have come up.

Winnower

Pinhead · April 2014

@ZOS_MattFiror

Matt, what about the Server move to EU/DE? The Ability delay and the not proper working AOE Fields are a pain for a lot of the EU ppl.

Any News on that? You told us that this would be "short" after release. So what does that mean to us EU guys? Is there any time frame we can look for?

pcs3219b14a_ESO · April 2014

The most depressing part of the launch is that in 2014 Devs still talk about "unexpected" problems with bots and gold sellers. One of the most "expected" problems in MMOs ever. Also, foregoing sufficient beta time is another sad problem to have at this late date. Beta weekends? Who did you think you were kidding? Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it, welcome to the rinse and repeat cycle.

Greyhaven · April 2014

pcs3219b14a_ESO wrote: »

The most depressing part of the launch is that in 2014 Devs still talk about "unexpected" problems with bots and gold sellers. One of the most "expected" problems in MMOs ever. Also, foregoing sufficient beta time is another sad problem to have at this late date. Beta weekends? Who did you think you were kidding? Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it, welcome to the rinse and repeat cycle.

Become a designer and maybe you will aqurie some understanding on the reality of game devlopment

Rantog · April 2014

Hrithmus wrote: »

[snip]

1. Because my wife says No.
2. Because mom needs us to take care of her.
3. Okay, you got me on that one

Not a V level at all, just liked the list.

Being maxed out at this point does not indicate cheating at all - it only means they are focusing on Quests (much better exp than kills) and skipping those with a lot of travel.

Personally, I have no reason to rush to max level. PvP will be there when I am ready - but in the mean time i want to enjoy the game world and all it has to offer.
Rushing through it seems like cheating myself out of something.

But that doesn't mean that those who see it Otherwise are wrong, just that we don't play it for the same reasons.

[edited to remove quote]