Dear ZoS,

For the first time in years, I have only positive things to say. Y'all crushed it. So many of the things I've complained about over the past 4-5 years are being addressed -- most notably, ESO's notoriously anemic approach to rewards. The forums are always full of negativity from single-issue voters, so I'm here to gush a little about what I'm most excited about & why.

Without further ado...

The addition of a "play the game, get rewarded" bazaar vendor is clutch. I know this is a contentious take, but I actually enjoy playing this game. Crazy, right? I also enjoy being rewarded for that, and feeling like the time and effort I expended was worthwhile. There are a few big dopamine hits in this game (big cyro bomb/dtick; new clear/trifecta), but far fewer than in other MMOs. The prospect of a steady supply of new shinies to chase that won't require me to take out my wallet is very welcome.

Consolidating "daily checklist" tasks into a unified reward framework is a huge step in the right direction. Endeavors, login rewards, golden pursuits -- they've all been small, flaccid stabs at the "how can we fix rewards?" problem. Going all-in on a tiered battlepass with premium cosmetics is a safe bet with plenty of industry precedent, and I imagine is going to make ZoS/MSFT a lot of money. Personally, I like exclusive cosmetics, and I like supporting the game; I also *don't* love gambling. Thus, buying premium battlepasses and knowing I'll get the things I want is an appealing alternative to pounding crown crates for cosmetics, or stockpiling tends of thousands of endeavor seals "just in case" something I want shows up in the crown store.

Seasonal game content being given away for free is going to save me so many headaches. I run a small discord server for endgame content, and we have had a lot of friends join over the years who have wanted to give raiding in ESO a shot. Having to explain to them the "you need ESO+ for XYZ, but you also need the newest chapter for ABC" has always been a hassle; prioritizing making it easier for people to play with their friends is going to be sooo nice.

Event Zones to expand the footprint of endgame sounds promising. Endgame content in ESO is fun and consistently high-quality IMO (Finn's team rocks, and IMO Black Gem Foundry was the best dungeon made to date) -- but it's also become pretty predictable in terms of the form it comes in: dungeons, trials, arenas. IA shook things up, but once you have all the style pages and have gone past arc 10, it's repetitive, with little reason to return. But the Night Market sounds fun, combining the limited-time exclusivity/FOMO of events with (hopefully) meaningfully challenging content reminiscent of veteran rank Craglorn from the olden days. Excited for this.

Quality of life stuff is appreciated. A lot of the little items on the laundry list of "player experience upgrades" are actually huge. I audibly gasped when I saw the transmute & furnishing limits were being raised.

Modernization of the look/feel of combat is polarizing, but so are most things worth doing. The fact of the matter is that skills/animation in ESO look stiff and robotic, and have for a long time. Other games offer combat that dazzles, with visceral impacts, satisfying explosions, and way more eye-candy. Obviously this is a subjective topic and not everyone is going to appreciate changes to such a core part of gameplay after so long, but I personally found the new DK animations we got a peek at to look snazzy and am eager to see more.

---

The only thing Big Thing we didn't really get a lot of details about is the elephant in the room of class balance. I don't mind the class-by-class revitalization approach, even if it means that things may still not be well-balanced for some time. What matters to me is that balance is a priority, that progress is being made, and that it's going to be done right, by people who understand the game they're balancing. Verdict is still out on this, but considering how pleasantly surprised I was by today's other announcements, I'm inclined to be cautiously optimistic.

(I guess we didn't hear much about PvP either... I'm a vengeance hater with three 5-star generals, so I'm kinda in wait-and-see mode on that one.)

Thank you for such an exciting reveal stream!