TLDR: I’m not sure what I should be excited about in this new chapter, other than it’s just new stuff (which is still pretty cool).

So maybe this just hasn't happened yet, and I'm not sure what's going on, but I wanted to sort of reason it out in public I guess.

So far, I like the new chapter. It has cool new stuff, the zone is really pretty in some places (extraordinarily so), and scribing is pretty neat and seems to have a lot of potential. I love the new trial, it is super fun. All of the delves and the new public dungeons are great. I really love The Fox character – he should be a houseguest at some point.

However, I don’t know what I am chasing for.

In prior chapter releases, the value proposition for grinding new content seemed pretty obvious. ZOS always seemed to make the shiny new thing in a way that it became part of the meta. There was always a new, obvious set, new class, new mythic item, etc etc that became the thing to chase because it was OP relative to the old stuff. I don’t have that sense with this chapter. I don’t know what I am chasing or why, apart from the new recipes and motifs because those are strong gold generators at any chapter or DLC launch. Why do I feel this way? Here are some thoughts:

1. ZOS did not make anything OP because the game is now in better shape with respect to combat balance, in that there are multiple existing gear and skill options that give us the ability to play effectively at a veteran level.
2. There is some combination of class/skills/scribing that results in some crazy stuff that no one has discovered yet. If so, the most likely reason that no one has discovered it is because the theorycrafters are moving slower on content production due to a number of causal factors, such as splitting time with other games, losing interest, or maybe just having life stuff happen that reduces leisure time.
3. Maybe scribing is not beneficial as a PVE thing as much as a PVP thing, and PVP is dwindling relative to other in game activities so it is not getting a lot of “press”.
4. Maybe I’m not the target – I mostly DPS in PVE and group heal in PVP, and maybe this chapter is about tanking or something else outside my typical player viewpoint.

On top of that, Steamcharts shows that Gold Road has not made much of a dent in the number of active Steam players. I know that there are a lot of non PC players and we’re not counting console either, but the Steam population has definitely been relatively predictable with respect to patches, events, and launch dates, and a recent regression analysis appears to show that Gold Road is not driving the expected influx of players.

If I were to put an industry term on what’s happening, it’s that the chapter reception is “meh” across the board. Some content creators are phoning it in, some are weirdly specific in some things (e.g. the scribing quest guides on Alcast are really excellent but the Lucent Citadel guide is just a template), and some are charging for content that ends up not being that great or insightful in any way. I also suspect that the recent controversy about Google’s AI search feature has put the final nail in the coffin for some people who host websites – ad blockers and all of that have always made it difficult for them to justify putting in time to generate content, but if Google continues to give answers without linking to websites, why would anyone who was hoping to work a small website side hustle ever start to begin with?

Right now, I know that I need ink, and that it’s a crazy grind to get ink. But is it worth it? No idea, and at the moment, it seems like it’s really not. If you want me to grind for ink, someone needs to give me a good reason, otherwise I’m just going back to my usual structured appointments of completing writs and doing trials. No one has yet given me a good reason. Every site I’ve been to that has scribing recommendations have zero insights on how scribing integrates into builds or anything like that at all. It’s all super vague opinions – nothing with math or concrete justifications. I could spend a lot of time to do this myself and post the results, but I don’t have the time or the gold at this point, and I didn’t go to the PTS at all this round because my hard drive is pretty full. As such, I rely on content creation to point me in a direction. There is a lack of direction from content creators, and I think it’s because they were not given enough information, time, or incentive to provide meaningful insights, and on top of that, many are dividing their time with other games and pursuits.

My suggestion to ZOS is that they:
(a) do more to support and incentivize content creators,
(b) provide enough lead time and information to allow content creators to highlight the cool stuff I should be caring about,
(c) leave more breadcrumbs that lead to the crazy and exciting thing I should be grinding for.

An off the cuff idea: one possible solution to aiding content creation: host creator websites on your own site, and give the ability to generate a revenue stream to those content creators, which would centralize the information, provide a more stable side hustle for creators, and allow for some templating and curation to ensure content quality. Stream team members could get their own page that links to YouTube and Twitch. Guys like skinnycheeks and Nefas would have an official ZOS host site that would generate some income on hits because ZOS would be subsidizing it instead of relying on ads that get blocked. Maybe this is an ignorant suggestion, I don't do streaming or make websites - those guys would definitely know more than I.

So there you go, ZOS. My attempt to be a helpful consumer, as always.