Idea threads

DigiAngel · July 2022

I see a TON of ideas and thoughts for improvements on these forums, which, I think is pretty awesome. I do have two questions though:

Has anyone actually seen an idea here implemented in game?
...I don't want this to sound harsh, but this is the only way I can think of to phrase this: If ZOS ignores PTS player input, what makes people think ZOS will consider input on these forums?

Thank you.

AcadianPaladin · July 2022

I get that many ideas players bring up are either impractical, unworkable for multiplayer or not endorsed by many other players.

But. . . there are many ideas that have been submitted numerous times that seem to be guilty of none of that; that is, no one really objects to them. Such ideas include: Hide more armor pieces, more warden bear skins in addition to the gray, headgear for companions, a small inventory for companions to carry their own extra gear, fixing the butt cheeks on the Timbercrow Wanderer costume. . . .

At least for those popular and oft-submitted ideas, I'd sure appreciate some feedback from ZoS to let us know if they have plans to address them or have seen them but decided they won't work on them and possibly why. It it natural, I think, to be less enthusiastic when so many ideas seem to fall on deaf ears.

Syldras · July 2022

I think it has improved a bit. At least I've seen moderators posting about having read suggestions and forwarding them to the developers lately.

VaranisArano · July 2022

Yes, I've seen ideas brought up on the forums implemented in the game, but it tends to be:

A. Requests that have been made by multiple players consistently over a span of time that aren't counter to the design intent of the Devs. i.e. just because there are recurring requests doesn't mean it's going to happen.

B. It takes longer than you'd think for it to happen.

So I'd never advise people to stop asking, even for stuff I think is a dead horse like Auction Houses and balancing PVE and PVP seperately. But at the same time, it's a good idea to keep expectations in check.

Non-exhaustive list of stuff I'm seen ZOS implement from player requests, in no particular order or importance:

One Tamriel
Tales of Tamriel (or similar tavern/Gwent style games)
Alliance Change Tokens
Alliance Locked Campaigns returning
No Proc Campaigns
Battlegrounds
Seperate Imperial City Campaigns
Purchasable Skill Lines and Skyshards
Transmutation
Stickerbook
Necromancer
Jewelrycrafting
Companions

And so on.

DigiAngel · July 2022

Beautiful..thanks for the replies.

Freelancer_ESO · July 2022

DigiAngel wrote: »

I see a TON of ideas and thoughts for improvements on these forums, which, I think is pretty awesome. I do have two questions though:
Has anyone actually seen an idea here implemented in game?

...I don't want this to sound harsh, but this is the only way I can think of to phrase this: If ZOS ignores PTA player input, what makes people think ZOS will consider input on these forums?

Thank you.

It's part of the cycle of playing games for some of us.

First, we enjoy the game.

Then, we run into things we dislike and start using forums.

After that, we start providing more feedback as we run into more things we dislike.

Then, we start suggesting ideas for how to change things.

Eventually, we hit the point where we have so many ideas for to how to change things we no longer enjoy much of the game because we keep thinking how things would be better if x or y was different.

Realistically speaking, ideas players have that the developers also have may hit the game but, it's rather rare for ideas that players have that the developers have never thought of at all to hit games because many of the people in game development are in it out of passion and generally will have strong views about the direction they want things to follow.

Edit: Posted wrong version of comment

Tandor · July 2022

Some player ideas have certainly been implemented, and the odd one was an improvement - an example being the ability to re-position your characters on the character selection screen.

Against that, some ideas were implemented that I deeply regret - one example being the Crown Store offering skyshards (by which I mean skill points) to alts, another being the switch to account-wide achievements.

In some cases, such as achievements, the real issue has been with the way in which the idea was implemented rather than the principle of its implementation, but time and again the real problem is a failure on the part of those lobbying for an idea to realise that in practice if implemented it would be through more and more monetisation.

Players often assume that their idea is great for everyone, whereas it's usually just something they want, or possibly just those who play the game the specific way they do want, and they often don't think ahead to how it would be implemented in practice - hence my frequent warning in such threads "Be careful what you wish for".

One other thing I'd suggest is that those who come up with ideas for "improving" the game do so in an open-minded way, that is by putting forward the idea and then throwing it open for a full exchange of opinions on it - rather than as sometimes happens, answering every single comment and rejecting out-of-hand any comment that puts a contrary opinion to their own! Not only does that approach weaken their argument but it inevitably ends up in a heavily moderated thread which will therefore be ignored by the developers.