Way back when... A letter to ZoS.

Ulvich · March 2022

I sit here and read through these forums and see one complaint after another. Most are truly legit. It would appear that our latest update from last week isn’t a popular one.
Way back in 2013 (and early 2014) I was part of a Beta group testing ESO. It was our duty to play as much as we could all the while report ANYTHING that may have been wrong. In our UI was included a special tab just for our reports. Way back then ZoS took bugs seriously. I would get at least two or three emails asking if there was anything more they could assist with, and/or that the problem would be resolved soon. My faith in ZoS was solid. To this very day I still have all those original emails and screenshots.
Once in while I will look back on those old emails or screenshots and think “This is not the same ZoS we have today. Today, I am lucky they write back once. Today there is no back-and-fourth communication like there was.
Today I ask ZoS a simple question: What happened?
It appears that ZoS has falling flat in their communication abilities.
I won’t go into detail regarding my experience with interactive media, but I will say that it does include Full Sail. So trust me when I say this.... You are doing this all wrong. Player first, game second. If you don’t have the player then you won’t have the game.
I’m not asking for free in-game items, or free extended ESO+ time (I won’t speak for others). I am asking for a better communication between us and you.
I have screenshots of game masters coming into the game and interacting with players. This happened several times way back when. Not anymore.
I challenge you to just log into the game and pick someone at random. Ask them how their day is. Don’t even tell me you guys haven’t logged into the game. I’ll prove you wrong.

guarstompemoji · March 2022

I have met other former members of these groups, and they say much the same.

I miss the staff responses to support, where they'd reply in-character. It was joyful and kind, and just gave me the sense that this was the game to play and spend time in.

Ulvich · March 2022

guarstompemoji wrote: »

I have met other former members of these groups, and they say much the same.

I miss the staff responses to support, where they'd reply in-character. It was joyful and kind, and just gave me the sense that this was the game to play and spend time in.

There is truth in your words.
I have a few screenshots of gamemasters speaking in chat asking players for help in locating bots. I also have screenshots of gamemasters standing with a group of players. It happened. Interaction back then meant something.
To have a ghostly figure appear in front of you out of nowhere and say "Hello" was a bit wild, but it made people feel good about the game and ZoS.

wenchmore420b14_ESO · March 2022

Ulvich wrote: »

I sit here and read through these forums and see one complaint after another. Most are truly legit. It would appear that our latest update from last week isn’t a popular one.
Way back in 2013 (and early 2014) I was part of a Beta group testing ESO. It was our duty to play as much as we could all the while report ANYTHING that may have been wrong. In our UI was included a special tab just for our reports. Way back then ZoS took bugs seriously. I would get at least two or three emails asking if there was anything more they could assist with, and/or that the problem would be resolved soon. My faith in ZoS was solid. To this very day I still have all those original emails and screenshots.
Once in while I will look back on those old emails or screenshots and think “This is not the same ZoS we have today. Today, I am lucky they write back once. Today there is no back-and-fourth communication like there was.
Today I ask ZoS a simple question: What happened?
It appears that ZoS has falling flat in their communication abilities.
I won’t go into detail regarding my experience with interactive media, but I will say that it does include Full Sail. So trust me when I say this.... You are doing this all wrong. Player first, game second. If you don’t have the player then you won’t have the game.
I’m not asking for free in-game items, or free extended ESO+ time (I won’t speak for others). I am asking for a better communication between us and you.
I have screenshots of game masters coming into the game and interacting with players. This happened several times way back when. Not anymore.
I challenge you to just log into the game and pick someone at random. Ask them how their day is. Don’t even tell me you guys haven’t logged into the game. I’ll prove you wrong.

Awesome letter and agree 100%.
I still look at my original Beta Key from time to time. I was SOO excited!!
And like you had full faith in ZoS and it's team.
But that respect and faith has gone out the window, especially after the last few months.
I guess this is our "Fall-out 76"...

FluffWit · March 2022

https://mobile.twitter.com/GinaLBruno/status/1475905404316045323

FluffWit · March 2022

After our head of communications put out that tweet someone here posted like ten well thought out paragraphs responding. Dozens of other people offered constructive feedback too. I said at the time I doubted they'd get more then a single line in response.

I was right.

ArchangelIsraphel · March 2022

I wasn't in beta, but what you say speaks to me. I came to ESO around the end of 2018 at the tail end of my experience with another MMO that left me feeling very jaded about the genre. Discovering ESO was what made me leave that game for good.

Even back in 2018, ESO felt more loved and cared for to me than it does now. I know it had its problems, and I am certain those who have played longer than me likely had things they weren't happy with. But to me, it was an amazing experience to play a game where long, well thought out discussions concerning the lore took place on live streams. I felt like the stories being told mattered- and that the characters that we played in the world mattered. I had never seen an mmo that seemed so universally loved by its playerbase and its devs.

But...this year in particular, it feels like something has gone cold. As if a flame of true passion for the game has somehow been extinguished in the Devs and its creators, and suddenly the focus has shifted away from the importance of those stories.

I know MMO's are always, ultimately, in existence to make money for the companies that own them. But...the love of those that created ESO was in this game, once. I saw it in previous expansions, and in the excitement of older livestreams- even if what I experienced is only a shadow of what you saw back in beta, I understand how you feel.

What on earth happened to this company? I'm constantly just left asking...why...and the usual answers don't satisfy me.

Zyva · March 2022

These posts really get me. I came in with Homestead, and things just felt entirely different. I do wish they would just fix bugs and stop taking down posts talking about them. I've never seen a gamemaster and thought they were a myth. But A couple years ago, dungeons were exciting.. we got skins for CONTENT, not crown crates. Overland content felt more challenging and so did most everything in an exciting way. And PTS actually seemed like a pts where things got fixed, not just where players found problems and got ignored.

FeedbackOnly · March 2022

The problem is they outsource customer support. This is compounded on the fact that the two don't communicate well between each other. I submitted a ticket early on for the latency issues.

What they should have showed me is the dead response and that they're working on it instead they showed me a generic unplug your router kind of thing.

The thing is if they stop being cheap with customer support a lot of these prevailing problems with be lesser.

DarrowLykos · March 2022

Most of these companies start out this way. Then they buy a few really big boats and well that all gets flipped around, this is a business 1st and game second. Just watch anytime anything is being released you can hardly get a word in edge wise over what is getting sold. Granted yes the game could be played for free, just hope you don't want to craft anything. I just read in another post how it's funny while we are always struggling with server problems, lag etc etc that the crown service is never down and neither is the system that takes in those monthly payments

In the end this game is like a drug to most and if for one second you think they don't know this and take full advantage of this . . well good luck !

zharkovian · March 2022

The problem perhaps is that they are too big, or because of management decisions, too small to cope. The patch 33 hit and an absolute tidal wave of badness hit the game and broke it, I put a ticket in and guess what, I received a vanilla reply from some support bot that said I should update the firmware on my router, open the ports (they had been open for years) and power cycle, move my router away from electrical devices, to add insult to that I received a customer support feedback survey piggybacked onto that. Day before patch, fine, day of patch, broke. I'm sure @ZOS_Kevin is doing all he can, within whatever constraints, to fix things but they have to get out of the mindset that game issues are just because us stupid players don't know how to operate our computers or routers. The red banner has gone, they must of fixed it, nothing to see here, right?

renne · March 2022

FeedbackOnly wrote: »

The problem is they outsource customer support. This is compounded on the fact that the two don't communicate well between each other. I submitted a ticket early on for the latency issues.

What they should have showed me is the dead response and that they're working on it instead they showed me a generic unplug your router kind of thing.

The thing is if they stop being cheap with customer support a lot of these prevailing problems with be lesser.

Yeah, for real. The way you have to reply at least twice before you get anything other than a canned bot response that shows no human read your ticket... it might be easier outsourcing of support on their end to have a bot just do it but it's not good customer service.

I once had 3 or 4 responses for not receiving an end of campaign geode where I provided the exact info they needed every time just to have the "how to set a home campaign" text sent to me every time before a human eventually stepped in. By that stage you can bet I was steaming mad. (It was pre- dungeob transmute increase so it wasn't easy to get the darn things, especially for someone not great at PvP).

Also reminds me of the thread about PS5 trophies, where they were like "we'll keep you updated" but left us in the dark for literally months before eventually coming back because it had been announced on a live stream of all things like a basic functionality was something to celebrate. Sometimes someone just saying "we're still working on it but we don't have anything to report right now"/"this is still on our radar"/etc is enough. That's all we wanted, to know we weren't being ignored or forgotten or any of that.

Hell, even acknowleding issues raised on the PTS and not ignoring them patch after patch just to push them into the live game and THEN having to bear the brunt of the criticism every time. Like with the PS5 trophies - you don't even necessarily have to have the fix at that point in time for most people, but acknowledging an issue shouldn't be treated like it's so impossible by ZOS.

The customer service is frankly rubbish, on all levels.

FeedbackOnly · March 2022

renne wrote: »

FeedbackOnly wrote: »

The problem is they outsource customer support. This is compounded on the fact that the two don't communicate well between each other. I submitted a ticket early on for the latency issues.

What they should have showed me is the dead response and that they're working on it instead they showed me a generic unplug your router kind of thing.

The thing is if they stop being cheap with customer support a lot of these prevailing problems with be lesser.

Yeah, for real. The way you have to reply at least twice before you get anything other than a canned bot response that shows no human read your ticket... it might be easier outsourcing of support on their end to have a bot just do it but it's not good customer service.

I once had 3 or 4 responses for not receiving an end of campaign geode where I provided the exact info they needed every time just to have the "how to set a home campaign" text sent to me every time before a human eventually stepped in. By that stage you can bet I was steaming mad. (It was pre- dungeob transmute increase so it wasn't easy to get the darn things, especially for someone not great at PvP).

Also reminds me of the thread about PS5 trophies, where they were like "we'll keep you updated" but left us in the dark for literally months before eventually coming back because it had been announced on a live stream of all things like a basic functionality was something to celebrate. Sometimes someone just saying "we're still working on it but we don't have anything to report right now"/"this is still on our radar"/etc is enough. That's all we wanted, to know we weren't being ignored or forgotten or any of that.

Hell, even acknowleding issues raised on the PTS and not ignoring them patch after patch just to push them into the live game and THEN having to bear the brunt of the criticism every time. Like with the PS5 trophies - you don't even necessarily have to have the fix at that point in time for most people, but acknowledging an issue shouldn't be treated like it's so impossible by ZOS.

The customer service is frankly rubbish, on all levels.

Iets talk about long long last bugs. Sugar skull food has been bugged litterally for years.

It's a simple UI fix and can borrow code from werewolf fixes on load screens

tsaescishoeshiner · March 2022

FeedbackOnly wrote: »

renne wrote: »

FeedbackOnly wrote: »

The problem is they outsource customer support. This is compounded on the fact that the two don't communicate well between each other. I submitted a ticket early on for the latency issues.

What they should have showed me is the dead response and that they're working on it instead they showed me a generic unplug your router kind of thing.

The thing is if they stop being cheap with customer support a lot of these prevailing problems with be lesser.

Yeah, for real. The way you have to reply at least twice before you get anything other than a canned bot response that shows no human read your ticket... it might be easier outsourcing of support on their end to have a bot just do it but it's not good customer service.

I once had 3 or 4 responses for not receiving an end of campaign geode where I provided the exact info they needed every time just to have the "how to set a home campaign" text sent to me every time before a human eventually stepped in. By that stage you can bet I was steaming mad. (It was pre- dungeob transmute increase so it wasn't easy to get the darn things, especially for someone not great at PvP).

Also reminds me of the thread about PS5 trophies, where they were like "we'll keep you updated" but left us in the dark for literally months before eventually coming back because it had been announced on a live stream of all things like a basic functionality was something to celebrate. Sometimes someone just saying "we're still working on it but we don't have anything to report right now"/"this is still on our radar"/etc is enough. That's all we wanted, to know we weren't being ignored or forgotten or any of that.

Hell, even acknowleding issues raised on the PTS and not ignoring them patch after patch just to push them into the live game and THEN having to bear the brunt of the criticism every time. Like with the PS5 trophies - you don't even necessarily have to have the fix at that point in time for most people, but acknowledging an issue shouldn't be treated like it's so impossible by ZOS.

The customer service is frankly rubbish, on all levels.

Iets talk about long long last bugs. Sugar skull food has been bugged litterally for years.

It's a simple UI fix and can borrow code from werewolf fixes on load screens

This is NOT a bug, it is a well-beloved feature. The sugar skull food is bewitched, and it looks the part. 10/10 immersion, please never nerf it.

gariondavey · March 2022

Great post!

Celephantsylvius_Bornasfinmo · March 2022

Hi Op,

I'm also from Beta.
I remember the overwhelming customer support too in the beginning and the call/customer support offices in Ireland (from memory) and the more active and relaxed community streams from our producer.

I'm here 8 years down the track, so ESO has done something right, but I will agree with you that it's been a bumpy road.

- I remember the class reps program which I never really hear of them any more (be it from the producer nor in game)
- The Youtube streams from the community team
- The fact that almost all players were hardcore Elder Scrolls fans at launch (My age now 35+ years)

Things change and time has passed and like in any enterprise the wheel turns. I will agree with you that the family aspect of ESO has dwindled over time. We can't really deny it as we can see prior posts pointing to this these past few years, and yes it coincides with your comment on communication.

You are a veteran like me so perhaps you share the same sentiment. Sometimes I feel the drastic changes were made to ESO for the company's sale. Sorry but the thought still roams around in my mind now and then (no bash).

LesserCircle · March 2022

Reading this makes me feel really sad, it really isn't the same game as it used to be, if we had good communication people wouldn't be so mad about changes. I feel like I'm talking to a wall when providing any kind of feedback, we're so disconnected from the devs.

karekiz · March 2022

If they took beta comments seriously why was release such a *** show they had to literally redo the game?

PvP_Exploiter · March 2022

Bugs get pointed out Week 1 of PTS and go live, every patch. They're not even acknowledged.

Ulvich · March 2022

karekiz wrote: »

If they took beta comments seriously why was release such a *** show they had to literally redo the game?

I do agree that release was a very bumpy road. Every aspect was totally new, and higher level content had mostly been untested, so they had virtually no idea what to expect when mass numbers of players reach VR10. ZoS did have a better communication with it's players back then. They did try. Today they just seem out of touch.

"The Elder Scrolls Online was designed and developed to be a premium experience: hundreds of hours of gameplay, tons of depth and features, professional customer support--and a commitment to have ongoing content at regular intervals after launch." - Matt Firor August 2013

ectoplasmicninja · March 2022

I only started in 2017 so nowhere near a beta player, but Steam tells me I've spent upwards of 11,000 hours in 2E Tamriel. I love this game.

I would love to see more engagement with the community. I don't think players are expecting ZOS employees to jump at their whims, but more communication, acknowledgement of pain points, asking questions for clarification would all be great. Take this AWA furor, where people are concerned about achievement-based character interactions like Choixth and Melina Cassel - the devs haven't said a word about that. Not "this shouldn't be a problem so this must be a glitch and we'll check it out" or "we understand this sucks and intend to work on it but it may take some time" or even just "we can't do anything about this, sorry". Even if they haven't researched the issue yet because it's at the bottom of a long list of stuff they need to look at, they could acknowledge that this is an issue for players and let us know they've heard us.

Obviously the forum staff aren't responsible, nor is probably any single person - it's a big company and there are a lot of moving parts. But somehow there's been a breakdown in communication and in community involvement in general. We all bought the game, many of us pay every month to play it, and/or buy items from the store. The players help make MMOs what they are - we are the community, we are the guilds, we are the ones grouping up and helping each other accomplish goals and answering questions in zone chat and making the world alive. It's important to feel heard.

purple-magicb16_ESO · March 2022

I think you are absolutely right and I think that their main challenge with respect to this is capacity. They simply don't have the staff available to respond to everything or respond in a timely fashion. It seems to me that the priority there is selling the game; continuously putting out dlc. There needs to be more focus on maintaining the game proactively and the key to that is communication with players. Who's knows their game the best? The players. Yes, devs are the ones programming and know every 'in and out' of how it's built, but what is key here is to know is implementation, how it hits the ground. How does it all come together create a virtual world experience?

I feel bad for forum 'frontliners' like Gina and Kevin. They're doing the best they can as intermediaries. In this current state, it must be incredibly tough to be the main source of communication. That shouldn't be. There should be other ways for players to communicate. As you said, this great communication happened at beta (I know bc I was there too), but that was a phase and now that it's done, the focus is on adding on to the game to keep it relevant in the market. I understand this is necessary, but there's a balance there that needs adjusting.

I don't blame the devs for this situation either. They're simply juggling too much. Eventually, something's gotta fall. Players have been trying to voice this for quite some time now amidst the cloud of "buff this", "nerf that" and "that's op" specific type complaints. They need to take a step back and look at how their balancing new content vs maintaining quality of what exists.

wenchmore420b14_ESO · March 2022

Ulvich wrote: »

karekiz wrote: »

If they took beta comments seriously why was release such a *** show they had to literally redo the game?

I do agree that release was a very bumpy road. Every aspect was totally new, and higher level content had mostly been untested, so they had virtually no idea what to expect when mass numbers of players reach VR10. ZoS did have a better communication with it's players back then. They did try. Today they just seem out of touch.

"The Elder Scrolls Online was designed and developed to be a premium experience: hundreds of hours of gameplay, tons of depth and features, professional customer support--and a commitment to have ongoing content at regular intervals after launch." - Matt Firor August 2013

How many MMORPG's have a awesome launch? 2 in 10? They all have problems and yes, so did ESO.
But I agree with @Ulvich that communication was 100% better then.
I was in closed Beta and yes, they were VERY active in feedback.
After live, I interacted with some incognito ZoS employees who were just playing and chatting in Zone Chat. I had friends on the Circle of Nirn who confirmed who they were.
Which brings my next point, they had a "roundtable" with GM's, Forum contributors, etc, that would meet and discuss new content, what would work, changes etc. Too bad they didn't have this pre UD33.
Yes Virginia, GM's were real. First year or two, they were seen often and were VERY helpful.
First few years of ESO Live. They answered questions, promoted guilds and guilds events, gave up-dates on current goings on in ESO and behind the scenes. Had writers, devs, artists, etc come on and talk about their contribution to ESO and answer questions and talk about what they were up to for future improvements.
Tamrielic Name Pronunciation skits with the Loremaster, and SO much more!
Re-watch QuakeCon 2014 again. Compare that to our last "World Reveal". Night and Day.

So yes, "Way Back Then", ZoS showed that they CARED. They interacted with the community. They played ESO, incognito, with the community. They listened to the community.
But what they are doing now with their lack of compassion, lack of empathy, lack of communicating with us like adults, well, I just don't have the words to express how I feel...

Ulvich · March 2022

wenchmore420b14_ESO wrote: »

Ulvich wrote: »

karekiz wrote: »

If they took beta comments seriously why was release such a *** show they had to literally redo the game?

I do agree that release was a very bumpy road. Every aspect was totally new, and higher level content had mostly been untested, so they had virtually no idea what to expect when mass numbers of players reach VR10. ZoS did have a better communication with it's players back then. They did try. Today they just seem out of touch.

"The Elder Scrolls Online was designed and developed to be a premium experience: hundreds of hours of gameplay, tons of depth and features, professional customer support--and a commitment to have ongoing content at regular intervals after launch." - Matt Firor August 2013

How many MMORPG's have a awesome launch? 2 in 10? They all have problems and yes, so did ESO.
But I agree with @Ulvich that communication was 100% better then.
I was in closed Beta and yes, they were VERY active in feedback.
After live, I interacted with some incognito ZoS employees who were just playing and chatting in Zone Chat. I had friends on the Circle of Nirn who confirmed who they were.
Which brings my next point, they had a "roundtable" with GM's, Forum contributors, etc, that would meet and discuss new content, what would work, changes etc. Too bad they didn't have this pre UD33.
Yes Virginia, GM's were real. First year or two, they were seen often and were VERY helpful.
First few years of ESO Live. They answered questions, promoted guilds and guilds events, gave up-dates on current goings on in ESO and behind the scenes. Had writers, devs, artists, etc come on and talk about their contribution to ESO and answer questions and talk about what they were up to for future improvements.
Tamrielic Name Pronunciation skits with the Loremaster, and SO much more!
Re-watch QuakeCon 2014 again. Compare that to our last "World Reveal". Night and Day.

So yes, "Way Back Then", ZoS showed that they CARED. They interacted with the community. They played ESO, incognito, with the community. They listened to the community.
But what they are doing now with their lack of compassion, lack of empathy, lack of communicating with us like adults, well, I just don't have the words to express how I feel...

And here is proof they interacted as you mentioned.

Inaya · March 2022

One of my favorite memories of EQ2 is when the GM's would just pop into game and play with us. They would have simple surprise events and have prizes for everyone.

It would be awesome to get a random whisper from one of them, or a random party invite or have a random surprise event with a few GM's.

I think this kind of interaction would go a long way to uniting us as opposed to the us vs. them feeling we have now.

Ariont · March 2022

wenchmore420b14_ESO wrote: »

How many MMORPG's have a awesome launch? 2 in 10? They all have problems and yes, so did ESO.
But I agree with @Ulvich that communication was 100% better then.
I was in closed Beta and yes, they were VERY active in feedback.
After live, I interacted with some incognito ZoS employees who were just playing and chatting in Zone Chat. I had friends on the Circle of Nirn who confirmed who they were.
Which brings my next point, they had a "roundtable" with GM's, Forum contributors, etc, that would meet and discuss new content, what would work, changes etc. Too bad they didn't have this pre UD33.
Yes Virginia, GM's were real. First year or two, they were seen often and were VERY helpful.
First few years of ESO Live. They answered questions, promoted guilds and guilds events, gave up-dates on current goings on in ESO and behind the scenes. Had writers, devs, artists, etc come on and talk about their contribution to ESO and answer questions and talk about what they were up to for future improvements.
Tamrielic Name Pronunciation skits with the Loremaster, and SO much more!
Re-watch QuakeCon 2014 again. Compare that to our last "World Reveal". Night and Day.

So yes, "Way Back Then", ZoS showed that they CARED. They interacted with the community. They played ESO, incognito, with the community. They listened to the community.
But what they are doing now with their lack of compassion, lack of empathy, lack of communicating with us like adults, well, I just don't have the words to express how I feel...

Just another beta participant (Member Since September 5, 2013) that remembers those things. ESO was/still is my only MMO and at the time. I did not believe in having to pay to play a game on a subscription base. A dear friend I invited into beta with me and I had a lot of discussions and amongst ourselves about this. What was it that convinced us to readily jump on the bandwagon? It was customer service. We took our concerns to the support personnel and through a series of personal phone calls, we decided this was going to be a great adventure worth being a part of.

Yes there have been rocky times in the past, but I've managed to keep my subscription active non stop since day 1. Sadly my friend passed over into the great gaming world above about 2 years ago or we would still be playing together. This last patch has been a total disaster in my book and hopefully we'll get through this and "EVERYONE" including those at ZOS will learn a valuable lesson about quality and patience.

Ulvich · March 2022

Inaya wrote: »

One of my favorite memories of EQ2 is when the GM's would just pop into game and play with us. They would have simple surprise events and have prizes for everyone.

It would be awesome to get a random whisper from one of them, or a random party invite or have a random surprise event with a few GM's.

I think this kind of interaction would go a long way to uniting us as opposed to the us vs. them feeling we have now.

I totally agree with you. It would help ease the pain of some of these issues. It would be like saying "Hey, we are right here with you".

VaxtinTheWolf · March 2022

I started lurking around the later open-beta sessions a few months before official launch of the game. Still 'playing' on and off as I can't just outright abandon this game. I'll even enjoy just staring at my and other character's appearances/outfits sometime. Used to see the hovering phantoms appear minutes after you reported bots farming a boss in a delve, and they were gone a few seconds later. That was nice.

Apparently I caught Rich on his Orc-Sorc in one of my random daily dungeon runs a few years back. I didn't even notice but someone left a comment pointing it out. I don't really think about it myself so it could have been other instances of that, however it's been a very long time since I've actually felt like ZoS is openly a part of the in-game community. More that they are very silent about it if you don't know the accounts they use to play on Live servers, probably since they are avoiding the attention/special treatment I guess.

Ulvich · March 2022

Ariont wrote: »

wenchmore420b14_ESO wrote: »

How many MMORPG's have a awesome launch? 2 in 10? They all have problems and yes, so did ESO.
But I agree with @Ulvich that communication was 100% better then.
I was in closed Beta and yes, they were VERY active in feedback.
After live, I interacted with some incognito ZoS employees who were just playing and chatting in Zone Chat. I had friends on the Circle of Nirn who confirmed who they were.
Which brings my next point, they had a "roundtable" with GM's, Forum contributors, etc, that would meet and discuss new content, what would work, changes etc. Too bad they didn't have this pre UD33.
Yes Virginia, GM's were real. First year or two, they were seen often and were VERY helpful.
First few years of ESO Live. They answered questions, promoted guilds and guilds events, gave up-dates on current goings on in ESO and behind the scenes. Had writers, devs, artists, etc come on and talk about their contribution to ESO and answer questions and talk about what they were up to for future improvements.
Tamrielic Name Pronunciation skits with the Loremaster, and SO much more!
Re-watch QuakeCon 2014 again. Compare that to our last "World Reveal". Night and Day.

So yes, "Way Back Then", ZoS showed that they CARED. They interacted with the community. They played ESO, incognito, with the community. They listened to the community.
But what they are doing now with their lack of compassion, lack of empathy, lack of communicating with us like adults, well, I just don't have the words to express how I feel...

Just another beta participant (Member Since September 5, 2013) that remembers those things. ESO was/still is my only MMO and at the time. I did not believe in having to pay to play a game on a subscription base. A dear friend I invited into beta with me and I had a lot of discussions and amongst ourselves about this. What was it that convinced us to readily jump on the bandwagon? It was customer service. We took our concerns to the support personnel and through a series of personal phone calls, we decided this was going to be a great adventure worth being a part of.

Yes there have been rocky times in the past, but I've managed to keep my subscription active non stop since day 1. Sadly my friend passed over into the great gaming world above about 2 years ago or we would still be playing together. This last patch has been a total disaster in my book and hopefully we'll get through this and "EVERYONE" including those at ZOS will learn a valuable lesson about quality and patience.

I think you just nailed it all with one word... Patience. I can totally relate with this. As a former programmer myself I know all too well the headaches scripts can give you. Trying to stay awake for two or three days... Most people don't think about or realize just how much scripting is involved in a massive game like ESO. And all it takes is one misplaced character in that scrip and the whole game can be junk. And the job then becomes finding it.

Inaya · March 2022

Ulvich wrote: »

Ariont wrote: »

wenchmore420b14_ESO wrote: »

How many MMORPG's have a awesome launch? 2 in 10? They all have problems and yes, so did ESO.
But I agree with @Ulvich that communication was 100% better then.
I was in closed Beta and yes, they were VERY active in feedback.
After live, I interacted with some incognito ZoS employees who were just playing and chatting in Zone Chat. I had friends on the Circle of Nirn who confirmed who they were.
Which brings my next point, they had a "roundtable" with GM's, Forum contributors, etc, that would meet and discuss new content, what would work, changes etc. Too bad they didn't have this pre UD33.
Yes Virginia, GM's were real. First year or two, they were seen often and were VERY helpful.
First few years of ESO Live. They answered questions, promoted guilds and guilds events, gave up-dates on current goings on in ESO and behind the scenes. Had writers, devs, artists, etc come on and talk about their contribution to ESO and answer questions and talk about what they were up to for future improvements.
Tamrielic Name Pronunciation skits with the Loremaster, and SO much more!
Re-watch QuakeCon 2014 again. Compare that to our last "World Reveal". Night and Day.

So yes, "Way Back Then", ZoS showed that they CARED. They interacted with the community. They played ESO, incognito, with the community. They listened to the community.
But what they are doing now with their lack of compassion, lack of empathy, lack of communicating with us like adults, well, I just don't have the words to express how I feel...

Just another beta participant (Member Since September 5, 2013) that remembers those things. ESO was/still is my only MMO and at the time. I did not believe in having to pay to play a game on a subscription base. A dear friend I invited into beta with me and I had a lot of discussions and amongst ourselves about this. What was it that convinced us to readily jump on the bandwagon? It was customer service. We took our concerns to the support personnel and through a series of personal phone calls, we decided this was going to be a great adventure worth being a part of.

Yes there have been rocky times in the past, but I've managed to keep my subscription active non stop since day 1. Sadly my friend passed over into the great gaming world above about 2 years ago or we would still be playing together. This last patch has been a total disaster in my book and hopefully we'll get through this and "EVERYONE" including those at ZOS will learn a valuable lesson about quality and patience.

I think you just nailed it all with one word... Patience. I can totally relate with this. As a former programmer myself I know all too well the headaches scripts can give you. Trying to stay awake for two or three days... Most people don't think about or realize just how much scripting is involved in a massive game like ESO. And all it takes is one misplaced character in that scrip and the whole game can be junk. And the job then becomes finding it.

Total agreement. I don't think the community gives them enough credit. They don't knowingly release a patch that goes bad. There is so much that goes into it, especially when you are rewriting to try to improve the game. ESO is so much bigger and more complicated then when it first came out. So much has been written and released and all the new stuff has to work and sync perfectly with the old stuff. The don't do it on purpose. They don't enjoy hearing that the game they work on and pour their hearts into is junk.... The don't WANT to bring the servers down to fix something knowing we all are chomping at the bit getting angry.

Jaimeh · March 2022

Ulvich wrote: »

Today I ask ZoS a simple question: What happened?
It appears that ZoS has falling flat in their communication abilities.

DarrowLykos wrote: »

Most of these companies start out this way. Then they buy a few really big boats and well that all gets flipped around, this is a business 1st and game second. Just watch anytime anything is being released you can hardly get a word in edge wise over what is getting sold.

Yup, in those days they wanted the game to take off, but since then millions of accounts and subscriptions later, and most of the cool stuff being delegate to the crates and houses costing 100$+, things turned greedy, minimum investment for maximum profit...