Please give us a Feedback section on the forums

WolfCombatPet · July 6

This is the first game I have played where we don't have a place to give feedback.

The votes on someone's post when someone Agrees with them is INVISIBLE unless we mouseover a specific area and try to search for where those upvotes could be.

The forums themselves are designed so player feedback does not easily make it back to the devs.

Right now the general sentiment about ZOS is that the company does not care about player feedback/"They don't listen to us"/"They don't care"
I hear these lines throughout the day. In guild chats. In ESO guild Discords.

Devs went on that update 43 livestream expecting that they were delivering this awesome update that players would be enthusiastic about. Update 43 was hyped up as a mystery update since January. ZOS was so confident that this would go over well that they decided to give players 6 months of speculation. And whatever players would come up with in 6 months, it wouldn't be as good as the final reveal. Gaming companies only do speculation-hype when they are this level of confident. Clearly the devs are out of touch with what players want. And the first thing that came to mind is how horribly the forums are designed.

Maybe if the company wants to avoid another PR fiasco, give us a place to give feedback. Fix the forums.

Our upvotes on a topic should be BIG numbers next to a thread before we even click on the thread. That is how other games' feedback threads are designed.

I want to know why ESO's forums are designed with upvotes invisible and no feedback section to the forums. It *looks* like the company is trying to not hear players intentionally.

Whatever the reasons for not wanting to easily gather raw feedback data, it is not working out for the company.

spartaxoxo · July 6

The entire forum is a feedback section. The different categories are for the areas you wish to receive back on. The votes aren't hidden on mobile. So, can't really speak to PC interface as I seldom use it. But, I don't agree that things should be decided by upvote anyway. Upvotes get decided based on a variety of factors, some of which have nothing to do with what is being said or if something is possible.

ZOS gave us information about Q3 in January because we specifically asked for roadmaps and they delivered on that. They lay out the main thing about the entire year in the January stream as well as the roadmap. It's been going on for a couple of years.

WolfCombatPet · July 6

spartaxoxo wrote: »

The entire forum is a feedback section. The different categories are for the areas you wish to receive back on.

That is not helpful.

It's convoluted.

It is someone's job to specifically gather data on what players want. As it is now, that person has to read through ALL the forums. The chit-chat. Someone promoting their house. Someone asking a basic question about the game. Etc.

Why not make it easy for that person and have a feedback section of the forums?

Now players know that if they want their feedback to go to the devs, they write in there.

spartaxoxo · July 6

Because different categories allows them to see them feedback about a specific thing they are actually working on easier. If they are working on a PvP update, it's a lot easier to go to a PvP section and only see feedback about PvP. Rather than having to wade through 5 pages complaining about endeavors.

LunaFlora · July 6

Pelanora wrote: »

[snip]

they do read the forums and Kevin and the other mods are from zos.
Kevin also often replies on threads that he will relay or pass on feedback.

But reading the forums and the devs getting feedback from here or in-game reports doesn't mean they can or will do anything about it very soon or at all.

[edited to remove quote]

LikiLoki · July 6

this forum is a big cauldron in which players cook, but the developers do not look into it. Only a couple of administrators who control the rules. We are voices in the void.

AzuraFan · July 6

The devs have a lot less power than everyone seems to think when it comes to what gets implemented and what doesn't. It's management that decides, and who knows how much time (if any) they spend reading the forums. They probably rely on reports from Kevin, Gina, and others on the community team.

TaSheen · July 6

There's already too many forums, most of which aren't used (because no one goes there - those are the forums where posts are moved to die mostly).

Sarannah · July 6

Pelanora wrote: »

[snip]

Not 100% sure about this, but it does feel/seem that way to me. Especially if you look at every news post ZOS makes, in which they always ask for feedback on the three major social media networks and NEVER for on the official forums. Which seems odd as these are the official ESO forums, which should be their main feedback source and should be their main link to ask for feedback.

On topic: A feedback forum would make the general ESO discussion seem empty, as most things posted on general are feedback/suggestions from players. And most players check general, so it is a good source to see everyone's thoughts.

[edited to remove quote]

Tandor · July 6

LikiLoki wrote: »

this forum is a big cauldron in which players cook, but the developers do not look into it. Only a couple of administrators who control the rules. We are voices in the void.

I believe that developers do read the forums, but it's a sensible decision on their part not to post on them so as to avoid getting drawn into arguments. Where there is an important topic such as the recent one about performance issues since a particular update the forum team compile data from the forums to present to the developers.

The game's history is full of changes made to the game as a direct response to feedback on the forums.

MageCatF4F · July 6

I had a very nice, friendly message exchange with a ZOS employee and while it was fun and nice and I really respect that person - that person didn't know much about a certain very well known (among actual players) housing aspect. Like nothing. Never heard of it.

I had a nice (in-game) email exchange with cardinal05 (everyone knows his real name but whatever) over a year ago (at least a year ago?) and he does know what is going on, but probably needs to stay in line and keep a low profile. He's also very nice.

So there you go - take that as you may. I think the real big shots haven't got a clue.

SilverBride · July 6

There is an expectation that if something is suggested it should be implemented, and if it's not then they aren't listening. But maybe a suggestion isn't implemented because it's not really doable, or there are other things taking precedence at the moment, or maybe it was just a bad idea.

spartaxoxo · July 6

TaSheen wrote: »

There's already too many forums, most of which aren't used (because no one goes there - those are the forums where posts are moved to die mostly).

Absolutely! If anything, the forums are already too well organized. Some of this stuff needs to be rolled together.

spartaxoxo · July 6

Tandor wrote: »

The game's history is full of changes made to the game as a direct response to feedback on the forums.

The latest update is genuinely a response to a long-standing request by console players to have more add-on functionality be turned into base game features. Heck, that specific function was one requested a while by console users.

It's the latest example but far from the only one.

SilverBride wrote: »

There is an expectation that if something is suggested it should be implemented, and if it's not then they aren't listening. But maybe a suggestion isn't implemented because it's not really doable, or there are other things taking precedence at the moment, or maybe it was just a bad idea.

It's amazing the number of people who are angry that we didn't get more housing slots or a furnishing bag after we were already explicitly told it is technologically impossible.

Tandor · July 6

TaSheen wrote: »

There's already too many forums, most of which aren't used (because no one goes there - those are the forums where posts are moved to die mostly).

Classic example of ZOS communication. We responded to a request for feedback on a planned major restructuring of the forums, gave a lot of detailed responses which were stated to be appreciated at the time which may well have been the best part of a couple of years ago - and nothing has happened since.

Northwold · July 6

As someone else has said, just because you or I may think something is a good idea, doesn't necessarily mean it IS a good idea. People seem to throw their toys out of the pram here, sometimes, when their idea doesn't get a direct response from everyone at ZOS and then immediately patched into the game.

Maybe they can't, maybe they don't want to, maybe the curated feedback they do receive by running targeted surveys (when they've tried to pick a representative sample of players to curate views on the game) completely disagrees with the suggestions.

And it's always worth remembering that this forum is not really representative of the broader player base because it tends to harder core players. It does get listened to. Sometimes, in my opinion, it gets listened to *too much*, and to the detriment of other types of player.