Please don't drop those 10th anniversary items again (let alone so soon)

Jordan_Black · January 2025

I've seen something flying around the interwebs about some possible event coming up soon with a lot of pretty cool stuff, but one not-cool stuff is that it was suggested that those crazy-hard to get anniversary items are going to return at lower drop rate.

I spent literal days grinding sload dolmens for that staff because I thought it would never drop again, not because I really wanted it last year and wasn't willing to wait until this year for it to drop in 2 hours.

Plz no.

TX12001rwb17_ESO · January 2025

They can be brought this time for event tickets.

Jordan_Black · January 2025

TX12001rwb17_ESO wrote: »

They can be brought this time for event tickets.

lame

Jordan_Black · January 2025

Maybe make the 2025 versions just a tad different? Just a tad?

Vaqual · January 2025

Exclusivity based on time limited events is a silly thing for video game items. I am glad they bring back the opportunity to get many old event items for newer players, even though I have all that I want from that selection. Waiting for literal years to get the one cosmetic item in game is just dystopian.

AnduinTryggva · January 2025

Jordan_Black wrote: »

I've seen something flying around the interwebs about some possible event coming up soon with a lot of pretty cool stuff, but one not-cool stuff is that it was suggested that those crazy-hard to get anniversary items are going to return at lower drop rate.

I spent literal days grinding sload dolmens for that staff because I thought it would never drop again, not because I really wanted it last year and wasn't willing to wait until this year for it to drop in 2 hours.

Plz no.

I can understand that feeling. But maybe this helps: If others get it simpler than you did it does not take it away from you. Nothing would have changed for you if others would now have to grind as much as you.

BTW: I did grind that stuff as hard as you but I am still happy for others to get it. If it is easier. So be it.

I still hope I can put my hands on the anniversary mount as I missed out on that due to the ticket grind that I had to miss out on a couple of days due to some private constraints.

Syldras · January 2025

It's slightly annoying to have spent many hours grinding last year (Trueflame dropped very fast, withing maybe half an hour, but it took 10 hours for Sunna'rah, and I ran dolmens for longer than that until the event was over and the Staff of Worms didn't drop at all for me - for the other items, there was no time left then), but instead of disagreeing with these items being available easier this year I rather wonder why it hasn't been like that the first time. At least this is a good opportunity to get the missing items now, and I don't know at all why I would be worried that other people can easily get them too.

spartaxoxo · January 2025

Games, like society, would never progress if mistakes were never corrected and things weren't just made generally better simply because people went through it the harder way. Games should constantly improve for its users imo. Imagine if we didn't have the sticker book because grinding drops used to suck.

I'm happy for the players that will get it now. I hope they enjoy it more than I can because that grind was incredibly awful. And I hope ZOS doesn't make another event drop work like this again.

Limited time only, bound, rare. Please ZOS, only pick 2. Thanks 🙏🏿

ETA

Btw I already have all of them.

Jordan_Black · January 2025

AnduinTryggva wrote: »

Jordan_Black wrote: »

I've seen something flying around the interwebs about some possible event coming up soon with a lot of pretty cool stuff, but one not-cool stuff is that it was suggested that those crazy-hard to get anniversary items are going to return at lower drop rate.

I spent literal days grinding sload dolmens for that staff because I thought it would never drop again, not because I really wanted it last year and wasn't willing to wait until this year for it to drop in 2 hours.

Plz no.

I can understand that feeling. But maybe this helps: If others get it simpler than you did it does not take it away from you. Nothing would have changed for you if others would now have to grind as much as you.

BTW: I did grind that stuff as hard as you but I am still happy for others to get it. If it is easier. So be it.

I still hope I can put my hands on the anniversary mount as I missed out on that due to the ticket grind that I had to miss out on a couple of days due to some private constraints.

Oh hey thanks for clearing it up I genuinely thought that if other people got what I spent days grinding for by using easy to get event tickets I would lose all those items them from my inventory all good peeps have a fun day.

But seriously, you're missing the point, and though I doubt this will help, I'll explain further. For the most part I'm with you on this, but like those collector loyalty mounts I had the sense this would be something special you could only get once, and I think ZOS insinuated this though of course they didn't outright say it. The point is that I would absolutely not have spent all that time grinding just to get them 9 months early.

TaSheen · January 2025

Very little in an MMO is ever going to be permanently exclusive to just a few people. There's a couple of things in this one - the beta monkey, a mount or so.... but I really doubt there will ever be any exclusivity of an item for more than a few months to a year.

If that's something you expect to have happen, you may be continually disappointed by the rewards setup in this game.

virtus753 · January 2025

Jordan_Black wrote: »

AnduinTryggva wrote: »

Jordan_Black wrote: »

I've seen something flying around the interwebs about some possible event coming up soon with a lot of pretty cool stuff, but one not-cool stuff is that it was suggested that those crazy-hard to get anniversary items are going to return at lower drop rate.

I spent literal days grinding sload dolmens for that staff because I thought it would never drop again, not because I really wanted it last year and wasn't willing to wait until this year for it to drop in 2 hours.

Plz no.

I can understand that feeling. But maybe this helps: If others get it simpler than you did it does not take it away from you. Nothing would have changed for you if others would now have to grind as much as you.

BTW: I did grind that stuff as hard as you but I am still happy for others to get it. If it is easier. So be it.

I still hope I can put my hands on the anniversary mount as I missed out on that due to the ticket grind that I had to miss out on a couple of days due to some private constraints.

Oh hey thanks for clearing it up I genuinely thought that if other people got what I spent days grinding for by using easy to get event tickets I would lose all those items them from my inventory all good peeps have a fun day.

But seriously, you're missing the point, and though I doubt this will help, I'll explain further. For the most part I'm with you on this, but like those collector loyalty mounts I had the sense this would be something special you could only get once, and I think ZOS insinuated this though of course they didn't outright say it. The point is that I would absolutely not have spent all that time grinding just to get them 9 months early.

That’s exactly what FOMO is designed to do. And as was pointed out above, very little is one-time-only here. The loyalty mount was a reward for a specific, controllable action that is no longer possible to do because the game model changed. The anniversary rewards, on the other hand, rewarded only RNG. Some people got style pages on their first attempts. Others didn’t get them in many, many hours worth of grinding. I got them all, and it still made me feel like player time was not being respected or valued. I’m glad they’re rectifying that, as I don’t derive value from possessing something RNG gave me but not others. I’ll leave that to things that reward skill and experience.

Stx · January 2025

Advocating for items to be unobtainable because you “put in the work” in a video game is wild.

How about we learn from these cancerous FOMO practices and stop making cosmetic rewards limited time? Keep all rewards in the game after they are introduced. Hint: this gives players more incentive to play your game, grind currency’s etc.

Dagoth_Rac · January 2025

If the anniversary event was a case of, "Close 100 geysers to get Staff X," then I might agree. But there were people who got it on first try. And people who closed far, far more geysers than you and never got it. It was not a special reward for long-time players or a reward for participating enough. It was luck. Just pure luck. And the idea that we should go, "Ha ha. You weren't as lucky as me! I rule! You drool! No staff for you, ever!" feels kind of excessive and unnecessary.

tomofhyrule · January 2025

I completely disagree.

The way the Anniversary was set up was atrocious. Grinding endlessly, hoping for RNGeesus to favor you with no way to help that along was an absolute mistake and should never have been done. The burnout from that dropped the population in a way we haven't seen before, and we're still seeing the effects of that.

I am happy that ZOS is doing it this way. This is honestly how it should have been done for the first anniversary - to have the drop chance increased by various achieves, and to make the pages buyable from either players or the Impresario if your RNG isn't playing along.

And remember: you didn't "put in more work" than others. Everyone was grinding and it was all just a dice roll. Some people high-rolled and were done within three geysers, and some did it endlessly for the whole time and still never got what they wanted. Are you really suggesting that the person who got it within 3 geysers "did more work" than the person who closed 1673 over the event and just never got the prize?

I remember farming for these. I remember spending a few days on geysers trying to get it, and then the day after I finally got my 5th page (ignoring everything else to do from the event, I might add), I got smacked with the 11-day PTS ban. I missed the whole event outside of grinding for pages. And I'm so happy that people who weren't blessed by RNGeesus can finally get theirs.

Eliahnus · January 2025

A bit selfish, no ?

Wolfkeks · January 2025

The rng grind was horrible so I'm quite glad others don't have to suffer through that and have the chance to get the items too.

valenwood_vegan · January 2025

Now if they decided to give out the sunspire senche or something, I could see being annoyed... but as others have mentioned, the drop on these anniversary pages had a horrendous design and depended on nothing more than rng. (A rng system that many believe is flawed and not truly random, but that's a discussion for another place).

I got a couple of the pages within hours of the event going live, while others grinded for the whole event and walked away with nothing. I definitely didn't "earn them" and I don't feel like they reflect some amazing accomplishment on my part and should be gatekept from others because they got a bad roll. I'm glad zos is giving people (who were / are actually *here* for the anniversary, mind you... it's still going) another bite at the apple, and going about it in a more reasonable way this time.

I do feel for players who tortured themselves grinding the pages the first time, I really do... but your beef is with zos. Other players don't need to be punished for their mistake.

Stx · January 2025

I will also add that I love the idea of increasing drop chances for style pages based on achievements you have completed.

That incentivizes doing those achievements and completing content! Fantastic middle ground that doesn’t completely remove RNG but gives you hope as a player that you won’t get screwed.

Lyraen_Skyforge · January 2025

virtus753 wrote: »

Jordan_Black wrote: »

AnduinTryggva wrote: »

Jordan_Black wrote: »

I've seen something flying around the interwebs about some possible event coming up soon with a lot of pretty cool stuff, but one not-cool stuff is that it was suggested that those crazy-hard to get anniversary items are going to return at lower drop rate.

I spent literal days grinding sload dolmens for that staff because I thought it would never drop again, not because I really wanted it last year and wasn't willing to wait until this year for it to drop in 2 hours.

Plz no.

I can understand that feeling. But maybe this helps: If others get it simpler than you did it does not take it away from you. Nothing would have changed for you if others would now have to grind as much as you.

BTW: I did grind that stuff as hard as you but I am still happy for others to get it. If it is easier. So be it.

I still hope I can put my hands on the anniversary mount as I missed out on that due to the ticket grind that I had to miss out on a couple of days due to some private constraints.

Oh hey thanks for clearing it up I genuinely thought that if other people got what I spent days grinding for by using easy to get event tickets I would lose all those items them from my inventory all good peeps have a fun day.

But seriously, you're missing the point, and though I doubt this will help, I'll explain further. For the most part I'm with you on this, but like those collector loyalty mounts I had the sense this would be something special you could only get once, and I think ZOS insinuated this though of course they didn't outright say it. The point is that I would absolutely not have spent all that time grinding just to get them 9 months early.

That’s exactly what FOMO is designed to do. And as was pointed out above, very little is one-time-only here. The loyalty mount was a reward for a specific, controllable action that is no longer possible to do because the game model changed. The anniversary rewards, on the other hand, rewarded only RNG. Some people got style pages on their first attempts. Others didn’t get them in many, many hours worth of grinding. I got them all, and it still made me feel like player time was not being respected or valued. I’m glad they’re rectifying that, as I don’t derive value from possessing something RNG gave me but not others. I’ll leave that to things that reward skill and experience.

They are rectifying this FOMO drop, which was widely criticized.

RNG is the method they use to artificially boost playtime. It’s manipulative and preys on players with OCD or anxiety, which is a major reason I’ve moved on to games that offer a better return on my time investment.

I don’t want to play a game that constantly tries to make me anxious about missing something important, only to give it away for free later.

They’re not suddenly going to start respecting players’ time.

SilverBride · January 2025

I have some bitter feelings about bringing these back with better drop rates. I spent all day every day grinding for these items and only got the last one because the event was extended a day.

We begged that they increase the drop rates and begged for some communication but there was none.

I think those of us that went through this should receive something for the mental frustration this caused. Give us some crowns or seals or something.

Or make the ones being released again look different to distinguish them from the ones we grinded so hard for. Keep ours special to show how hard we worked for them.

DenverRalphy · January 2025

I get what the OP is saying. I support the idea of exclusive/rare items. It's like a badge to be proudly displayed because not everyone will have it. It gives players something to strive for. Is there envy involved for players that don't achieve it? Sure. But that's what drives the excitement.

That being said.. In this particular case, I would give ZOS a pass. The dumpster fire that we call Jubilee 2024 was just so poorly executed when it came to handing out rewards. I got all the style pages after days upon days upon days of grinding. I still throw up a little whenever I so much as hear mention of shutting down a geyser. And after all that, I saw the multitudes who worked just as hard and got squat. So yeah.. Let em have this one.

Soarora · January 2025

It never was a one-time exclusive. It puzzled me seeing people complain on the forums about spending so much time because of FOMO because to me it was already clear that they would be back next year?

Ezhh · January 2025

I'm 100% in favor of them being available again and easier to get than last time.

I say this despite spending more hours than I care to remember grinding them last time round, only to then get banned for most of the event (due to the PTS issue, not anything I did), and then get given the things as untradable compensation items which I couldn't even pass to friends who hadn't managed to get them. This was all while having the joy of people being outraged and telling me I did not deserve the pages, even though I'd grinded them already, and the compensation items are sitting unusable on my account to today.

Yes, I'm still bitter about that event and how it was handled, but no, it doesn't make it right to deny the style pages to anyone else.

The real problem is that the pages were so ridiculously difficult to farm in the first place, and a lot of us had our time well and truly wasted because we wanted them and there was no guarantee they would ever come back, but the past can't be changed and them coming back now like this might be a sign of a lesson learned.

Elvenheart · January 2025

I just really, really hope they’ve learned from the awful experience of the 10th anniversary and never do anything as bad as this again. To think that the concept of a 10th anniversary has been so completely ruined and forever marred for so many players (including me, I was one of the very vocal ones about how bad this was during the experience). I see this as possibly being their attempt to rectify the mistakes that were made then.

And I certainly don’t mind that people who could not get them then are now able to get them in an easier manner, I’m happy for them, but still disappointed for myself and so many others that feel a milestone event such as the 10th anniversary should have been better planned to begin with. The only thing I can think of that may lessen that feeling of disappointment is getting a sense that ZOS did learn from all of this. The jury’s still out as to whether this is why they’ve brought the styles back the way they have, but it might be why.

Maybe when the 11th anniversary rolls around and IF it is just a stupendously marvelous event with nothing negative that can be said about it, finally the ghosts of the 10th anniversary will be laid to rest! 👻

ApoAlaia · January 2025

I have all of them on my main and some of them on my alts.

I am glad that they have course corrected and moving forward no player will have to experience the abomination that was the style page grind during the 10th anniversary event.

If it never, ever happens again it will be too soon.

AngryPenguin · January 2025

TX12001rwb17_ESO wrote: »

They can be brought this time for event tickets.

Wait? What? *facepalm*

If they ever give these items away without the same grind there are going to be a lot of us that endured that grind fest to the finish that will never again grind for anything rare. If they make these items easy to get it's going to change a lot of peoples perspective for the worse I think.

AngryPenguin · January 2025

Why doesn't ZOS release the tiger mount for purchase with crowns too? (everyone who has this mount will totally understand what I'm trying to say. These were limited time availability items that we were told would never be available again)

spartaxoxo · January 2025

AngryPenguin wrote: »

Why doesn't ZOS release the tiger mount for purchase with crowns too? (everyone who has this mount will totally understand what I'm trying to say. These were limited time availability items that we were told would never be available again)

We were never told these pages would only be available once neither is that how event items tend to work.

They almost always return.

Elvenheart · January 2025

AngryPenguin wrote: »

Why doesn't ZOS release the tiger mount for purchase with crowns too? (everyone who has this mount will totally understand what I'm trying to say. These were limited time availability items that we were told would never be available again)

We were never told the style pages would never be available again. In fact, for the past number of years with the way things come back on the Impressario it would have been normal to assume the style pages would be back at some point, possibly during the next anniversary event. Now, I didn’t want to count on that assumption myself so I put in all the work it took to grind for them. That was my choice. I still hate the way the anniversary was done and like many others hope that ZOS never ever does anything like this again. But if them making the the styles available this way is the result of all the complaining so many people including myself did during the anniversary event, then I’m happy, and I’m happy for the ones that can get them now.

MidniteOwl1913 · January 2025

Elvenheart wrote: »

AngryPenguin wrote: »

Why doesn't ZOS release the tiger mount for purchase with crowns too? (everyone who has this mount will totally understand what I'm trying to say. These were limited time availability items that we were told would never be available again)

We were never told the style pages would never be available again. In fact, for the past number of years with the way things come back on the Impressario it would have been normal to assume the style pages would be back at some point, possibly during the next anniversary event. Now, I didn’t want to count on that assumption myself so I put in all the work it took to grind for them. That was my choice. I still hate the way the anniversary was done and like many others hope that ZOS never ever does anything like this again. But if them making the the styles available this way is the result of all the complaining so many people including myself did during the anniversary event, then I’m happy, and I’m happy for the ones that can get them now.

Well I for one was sure that we were told they were a limited items. There was much complaining about it at the time. That was what drove the manic rush to get the items. So all of those people who thought that were just wrong?

spartaxoxo · January 2025

MidniteOwl1913 wrote: »

Elvenheart wrote: »

AngryPenguin wrote: »

Why doesn't ZOS release the tiger mount for purchase with crowns too? (everyone who has this mount will totally understand what I'm trying to say. These were limited time availability items that we were told would never be available again)

We were never told the style pages would never be available again. In fact, for the past number of years with the way things come back on the Impressario it would have been normal to assume the style pages would be back at some point, possibly during the next anniversary event. Now, I didn’t want to count on that assumption myself so I put in all the work it took to grind for them. That was my choice. I still hate the way the anniversary was done and like many others hope that ZOS never ever does anything like this again. But if them making the the styles available this way is the result of all the complaining so many people including myself did during the anniversary event, then I’m happy, and I’m happy for the ones that can get them now.

Well I for one was sure that we were told they were a limited items. There was much complaining about it at the time. That was what drove the manic rush to get the items. So all of those people who thought that were just wrong?

They never said one way or another. People knew that event items tend to come back. But, since they marked the 10 year there was also people that wanted them to grind them just in case they were among the very rare items that have never returned.

People repeatably asked for confirmation but afaik none was given.

ETA

In addition to the Gift Boxes and the rewards therein, you can also earn new cosmetic rewards that have never before been earnable in game, although they may be familiar to some players.

This is how it was explained on the anniversary page.

https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/65753