Where I am from people usally say thank you when having their questions answered.

I have felt feelings about feelings felt in this thread.

/s

SilverBride wrote: »

fizzybeef wrote: »

In addition what these dont understand is, nobody wants to mock their and our favorite game.
We are here because we want it to perform well.
Im in no other games forum & im sure im not alone with that.

Of course everyone wants the game to perform well. But not everyone is having the same experience, and all our experiences need to be taken into consideration.

Okay but the 'everything is fine' attitude doesn't really add anything to the discussion, especially when it overlooks the potential for changes that could significantly extend the game's lifespan.

I think it's pretty obvious that the game has declined in numbers. I'm not sure that console has seen as much as Steam due to less competing MMOs. But, stuff don't sell the way it used to, there's less people outside of events, etc.

The event populations show there's still a lot of people that want to like this game. But between the lack of new content and the mistakes in the way the existing content is handled, there's just not as much interest. Hopefully 2026 can turn things around.

SilverBride wrote: »

I never said everything is fine because there are things that need worked on. But I'm not going to say that our guilds are losing members when they aren't. And I'm not going to say that I don't see other players when I'm in town or out questing when I still see as many as I always have.

Do you have any statistics that show the player count isn't in decline?

You asked me for proof and now I'm asking you.

Facts over feelings.

I mean.. I took myself some time to research and answer your questions with real facts and I honestly think I can expect the same effort instead of you just showing up with your anecdotal evidence.

You somehow flipped hard from "steam count doesn't matter" to "everyones experience matters".

lostineternity wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

And I'm not going to say that I don't see other players when I'm in town or out questing when I still see as many as I always have.

You won't notice any difference between for example 5k players on the server and 20k because of how layers on megaserver work. You will notice difference when online is so low to fill even one layer but it will be to late to do something about it.

^^

amiiegee wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

I never said everything is fine because there are things that need worked on. But I'm not going to say that our guilds are losing members when they aren't. And I'm not going to say that I don't see other players when I'm in town or out questing when I still see as many as I always have.

There have been several threads over the years saying players are leaving and there aren't many players around any more, but that isn't what we are all seeing. It would be more beneficial to just directly address the problems that need worked on.

Declining Population is deffo one of the main problems wich should be worked on, otherwise the game will shut down at some point. Not everyone plays on the most populated server, PC NA.

I do play on PCNA which may be why I'm not seeing a decline like the other platforms are. I'm not sure why they are losing more players when we are all playing the same game with the same problems, but this IS being worked on with their plans for crossplay.

SummersetCitizen wrote: »

The “feelings” and “opinion” camp have been using those defenses for years as the game numbers continue to fall and all publicly available FACTS indicate decline.

They will be offering anecdotal evidence how the game “feels” great until the day before they shut down the servers.

To engage with them, especially in this thread, is always a mistake.

Yeah people see what they want to see. I don't get the point of arguing about it - zos has all the numbers and they're the only ones who can do something to reverse the game's decline. It really doesn't even matter if some players insist everything is going great... and you know, maybe they really are enjoying the game and in their bubbles, there aren't the same signs of decline that some are seeing, and that's valid too.

What really matters is that zos sees the issues that many players are seeing, and that zos and acts on them.

I guess we'll have to see what the plan is during the January reveal stream, and I sure hope it's impressive.

SilverBride wrote: »

valenwood_vegan wrote: »

Yeah people see what they want to see. I don't get the point of arguing about it - zos has all the numbers and they're the only ones who can do something to reverse the game's decline. It really doesn't even matter if some players insist everything is going great... and you know, maybe they really are enjoying the game and in their bubbles, there aren't the same signs of decline that some are seeing, and that's valid too.

What really matters is that zos sees the issues that many players are seeing, and that zos and acts on them.

I guess we'll have to see what the plan is during the January reveal stream, and I sure hope it's impressive.

Any player that is not having a bad experience is not enjoying their game in a bubble. They just simply aren't having a bad experience.

We all play in a bubble. You aren't doing the same things in the game in the same guilds on the same server with the same friends as other posters, to whom it appears that the game is doing poorly. It's not some kind of insult.

Recycled zone. Recycled story. Recycled system. Recycled event.
Every year prior to this one, we have had more value for our money… Solstice in its entirety should have been a Q4 zone, not a substitute for our Chapter. The plot of the zone should have been more creative, rather than exhuming the dead for cheap nostalgia. Updates like Subclassing should be much more frequent, and continue to be free to everyone for all of our investment into the cash shop, yet our purchase of the Content Pass didn’t give us access to a new system. Writing Wall was the huge selling point this year and the first 2 phases were nothing short of daily quests the like of which we’ve been doing for a decade now.

All of that said, I’m still playing the game and enjoying it, even if I feel like this year left a lot to be desired, and it’s understandable why people would be taking a break from the game, I would rather a game have a low population at it’s worst, than at it’s best…

SilverBride wrote: »

valenwood_vegan wrote: »

Yeah people see what they want to see. I don't get the point of arguing about it - zos has all the numbers and they're the only ones who can do something to reverse the game's decline. It really doesn't even matter if some players insist everything is going great... and you know, maybe they really are enjoying the game and in their bubbles, there aren't the same signs of decline that some are seeing, and that's valid too.

What really matters is that zos sees the issues that many players are seeing, and that zos and acts on them.

I guess we'll have to see what the plan is during the January reveal stream, and I sure hope it's impressive.

Any player that is not having a bad experience is not enjoying their game in a bubble. They just simply aren't having a bad experience.

You are in a bubble as well. Using objective data to trend to the overall population of the game is viable. Your bubble is doing fine - great, but that doesn’t translate to the overall direction of the game or population. Is the game dead? Absolutely not. But to say the game’s population is not trending down heavily is just false.

Also, you won’t see a massive decrease suddenly in player numbers with sharding unless there is a super significant drop or you play at very weird times for instance.

SilverBride wrote: »

But I'm not going to say that our guilds are losing members when they aren't.

Well, glad your guild is in a probably fairly unique bubble where not a single one has left the game lol.

Because crossplay doesn’t address why players are leaving and until that is done, players will continue to leave the game. Crossplay will just mask the problem until it’s too late.

FieryPhoenix wrote: »

Because crossplay doesn’t address why players are leaving and until that is done, players will continue to leave the game. Crossplay will just mask the problem until it’s too late.

Considering how long it took ZOS to realize the balance has gone out of control and look towards redoing the class structure and how long that class structure re-balance will take on its own(they've been working on Dragonknight for awhile already btw); I think it's already too late to start addressing the core problems.

Crossplay is kind of like when other MMOs used to do server merges without addressing core problems, until so few people remained that they ended up just shutting down.

They need to address the core issues, not mask them.