A roadmap would be a godsend.

auz wrote: »

Do you really think there is a plan?

Yes. I do. They likely have a plan that goes out at least a few years.

More openness on why they are doing these changes would be very welcome. It would go a long way towards stemming my anxiety over ESO.

When they were working on Cyrodillic lag, they wrote a blog explaining how hard the server had to work per second with all the calculations it had to do with AoE's and such. If the changes have helped resolve the problem is another question, but they were honest and it gave me a lot more patience.

There have been other blogs on server updates. (So EU server!) and a few more generic ones on combat.

When it comes to PvE combat changes, where they seem to be primarily concerned with high end DPS in trials and low end user enjoyment, there is a LOT less transparency. Take the route you took with Cyrodill lag, talk about it. People will always be pissed about something but many of us also will give you credit where it is due.

further more, #savejabs

I assume they have a rough idea what content / zones / dungeons / themes they want to do. You can call that a plan. Other than that I think there is nothing.

Simply due to the announcement of the combat changes for U35 was when? 8 weeks ago? Literally in the first thread on the matter many, me including (which is why I remember that so “fondly”) asked for a vision / roadmap / explanation as these changes were in itself a seemingly astonishingly stupid idea and a vision was even mentioned.

We now have week 8 after the first question. Week 2 since U35 hit live on PC and day 1 of U35 hitting consoles…

ZoS on the vision / roadmap: <crickets>
ZoS on the promised Q&A: <crickets>

For something where so many in the community are up in arms to take 8 weeks can IMHO only mean one of the following:
1. ZoS doesn’t consider the topic relevant / important
2. ZoS hopes the storm will cease soon so they can get back to earning bucks without being concerned about communities leaving (as some foristas like to point out, that the endgame community leaving is no big deal)
3. ZoS is simply extremely bad at doing that specific job, creating a good explanation on the roadmap / vision etc. cause, if they weren’t, 8 weeks is more than enough time to outline and draft a post. Of course in case there is a vision / roadmap. Else, 8 weeks won’t likely suffice in corporate world to come up with the roadmap and do the communication on it.

Maybe there are other options as I prefer to give people and also sometimes companies the benefit of the doubt. But I can’t see any and it boils down for me to not be a good picture on ZoS.

A detailed roadmap would be nice.

Ok but how does that increase profits for zenimax online studios? The problem is they relied on a certain model to generate revenue. I warned them over the years that it would cause the collapse of the game if they kept continuing it. I told them they were like those YT prank videos of the past that always tried to go even more over the top until they went too far.

Guess what? Oakensoul was that thing in their model that went too far. Thanks to their model, people expect now to BUY power. When they predictibly removed the broken power of the set, people got angry. I told them this cheap quick way of making money wouldn't last and would be the destruction of the game. Following what other MMOs did to make money isn't smart. It was new in the past, but people nowadays know what's up. Now they are in a corner they are fighting hard to back out of. They can continue the path of making the content for a certain group of people and selling them the solution in later chapters. This unfortunately will cause every new and mid-tier player to quit over time.

That is why I am wondering, if this is the moment where they just accept the losses and build for the core that is left. It's far easier to and profitable to clean up the excess and target a certain audience. YT, FB, GG, MS, NTFX, APPLE, etc. do. They start broad and opened attracting everyone then they clean up their playerbase. EVERY MMO does this.

When I learned that certain studios were trying to maximize profits even though they had no investors to answer to, I wondered. Yes, it's great to make a blanket even if the game flops with the initial sales. However, people may not be as forgiving.

I don't know what game development adheres to but it fails. I play the games of the past and they had to put everything into it. I still feel the heart and soul of the human brimming in them from even DAIKATANA!! Nowadays games are broken, and feel like they have no soul in them.

I played Deus Ex for the first time in 2022...wow...just wow....All I can think the difference now is that games are made for profit and not to share an experience with the users.

Sooner or later, I'll make a game. I'll find a team and the first one will probably be a 5/10 maybe a 6/10. The first thing I will tell you is that it's not being made for money. Everyone in the team will contribute something into it that they can say "I thought of that and put it in there." This not only makes them want to finish creating the game, it makes sure parts of their soul is transferred into it.

There is always someone with a vision of a game. Forcing others to share the same vision is stupid. Have flexibility in your vision and it will succeed. For example, I might not want to put pets in a game I am making. Yet someone wants to because they think it will add something to it. We add it in as an optional feature that players can use. Then come to find out it's a hit with the people.

barney2525 wrote: »

Zuboko wrote: »

auz wrote: »

Do you really think there is a plan?

Yes. I do. They likely have a plan that goes out at least a few years.

Custer had a plan....

True. And technically, while I believe they have a plan, and I hope it is a good one, I cannot actually tell you that it is any better than Custer's plan. I hope it is. I believe it is, but that is just the optimist in me speaking.