I have no idea how anyone can look at the road map above (that only contains new content or features) and say we are only getting quality of life stuff when quality of life isn’t even present there and has its own slide.

In all honesty, I’m glad they’re taking this approach. I would much rather have less content and more QOL. It’s all about quality over quantity and this way we can get higher quality content and an improved experience.

Radiate77 wrote: »

I wonder why we haven’t seen anything on the Overland Update and PvP Progression system scheduled for the upcoming patch?

From the top-right of the roadmap image:

Technically they're not selling it, but yes we are getting QoL updates (some of which are fixes to previous QoL updates) in place of new activities.

They've advertised the new "event zones" as similar to a dungeon, so effectively we're getting 1/2 of a smaller DLC and then the QoL updates. It's less work for ZOS but I'm still sceptical they can fund it by selling a few novelty items.

twisttop138 wrote: »

Danikat wrote: »

Technically they're not selling it, but yes we are getting QoL updates (some of which are fixes to previous QoL updates) in place of new activities.

They've advertised the new "event zones" as similar to a dungeon, so effectively we're getting 1/2 of a smaller DLC and then the QoL updates. It's less work for ZOS but I'm still sceptical they can fund it by selling a few novelty items.

I also wonder what motivation they will have to create new zones, if everything is free. Zones cost money, and take work. Obviously Zos is moving away from that. If there is no return, what motivation do they have to give us a very meaty zone for this teased winterhold? Easier and more in line with the new way to make it a small thing with some events. Time will tell.

One of the issues I have with ESO is that with all the unbalanced classes, overpowered items and the green beam meta the game stopped being fun for me. If ZOS can rebalance all the classes, add a new overland difficulty and rebalance some of the old trials and vet dungeons; suddenly I can go back and enjoy the old content.

I reckon I'd be happy with 2 years of no new zones if they did this.

The thing that makes me, who is actively playing ESO and following its developments for a decade now (joined in February 2016), most sceptical is that we've heard the promise of "This year will be lower on content because we concentrate on QOL, next year it will be more again!" several times. Just that it never was.

Or even other explanations for why the current year would be a little less, always with the promise that the next one will deliver then. The first time we heard it was in the Greymoor year, where the reasoning for less content (though it wasn't even that bad, it was just a little less compared to Morrowind and Summerset) was that working was harder due to Covid and people being in homeoffice, so cooperating was difficult and things took longer (which was understandable). But, once the lockdowns were over, things would get back to normal. What did we get? Blackwood and then High Isle. It never got back to Summerset level.

Of course there's a new leadership now, so I hope things will turn out better this time, but after being here for 10 years, all I can really do is wait and see.

no. they aren't selling those things. the things they are selling are cosmetics

moderatelyfatman wrote: »

twisttop138 wrote: »

Danikat wrote: »

Technically they're not selling it, but yes we are getting QoL updates (some of which are fixes to previous QoL updates) in place of new activities.

They've advertised the new "event zones" as similar to a dungeon, so effectively we're getting 1/2 of a smaller DLC and then the QoL updates. It's less work for ZOS but I'm still sceptical they can fund it by selling a few novelty items.

I also wonder what motivation they will have to create new zones, if everything is free. Zones cost money, and take work. Obviously Zos is moving away from that. If there is no return, what motivation do they have to give us a very meaty zone for this teased winterhold? Easier and more in line with the new way to make it a small thing with some events. Time will tell.

One of the issues I have with ESO is that with all the unbalanced classes, overpowered items and the green beam meta the game stopped being fun for me. If ZOS can rebalance all the classes, add a new overland difficulty and rebalance some of the old trials and vet dungeons; suddenly I can go back and enjoy the old content.

I reckon I'd be happy with 2 years of no new zones if they did this.

As a vet and hm trials guy, I'm looking for balance, a meta change up or shake up and some dial back of subclass power. But that's not the only kind of player I am. Idk, but I could just never say "hey I'm willing to trade 2 years of the thing you like for what I want." That doesn't seem right at all, but pretty on point for the world today, even if that's not how you meant it.

I can see that this year is different. I think we all can. my only question is how does ESO do these things it used to, even if not every year, with no financial motivation? It's a curious question but valid in my opinion. Regardless, I think we all know the game was in a sorry state and needs a turn around.

Gabriel_H wrote: »

In part, I think we are losing some content this year and maybe next in exchange for class refreshes and QoL improvements - ZOS has finite resources and development time.

It would be nice if we could get both at once but that isn't how the real world works. That said, we are still getting new content and some content that appears to be a completely new spin on things. It's going to be the quality that matters in the end.

I've said this before, but I cannot stress this enough - if Seasons 0 & 1 fail, we may get Season 2 but I doubt we'd see a Season 3. If Seasons fail, the game fails.

I think you make a good point here. I think we're getting different things. They may be interesting. I think Zos made a mistake with their announcement stream. I think they buried the lead. They talked a lot about the new way to give them money, like it was a shareholder presentation. They should've been talking about the new system. The new trial. The ship combat thing. Whatever this new public event in Skyrim is. This thing where a zone gets invaded or something and people show up to fight it back kind of like a public event in fallout 76. This should've been the talking points. Battle pass is a dirty word in the industry. It was good they were up front but people want to hear about play not pay.

Because I think you're making another good point. If this year isn't a red letter year, idk if this game continues getting updates. I don't think it dies or shuts down but it will definitely be something we don't want to think about. In a way though, that's unfair to say. We're hostage if we love the game, we better pay and play cause there is a gun to the games head. But true none the less.

In the strictest sense? No, I don't think we are.

What I'm actually more concerned about is that event zones will be underwhelming attempts to reuse assets throughout the zones we already have and it will drive people away.

In theory event zones aren't actually a bad thing, we have a huge amount of Tamriel to explore and use, and most of us never go back to zones we've cleared. It would actually be good to push the stories in the time line to respond to the things we've done. Event zones would allow for that.

In practice though, this will become a complaint, we players are greedy and cry a lot, we will definitely start misrepresenting the content pass as a "pay just for making improvements we've been asking for".

I might've clicked maybe to make this point, but again, in the strictest sense this isn't really the case.

I voted Yes for me personally, as temporary group zone content isn't content I am interested in. I suppose it is content, but if it isn't something they are sure people will like and needs to be tested, then...maybe ultimately it turns out to be nothing at all in the future.

We don't really have real details on future seasons as far as actual story content, so for now most of what is presented is QoL. They are nice additions but unless you are interested in 6 weeks of Night Market I'm not sure what activities I am getting in Season 0.

I understand the argument that content is technically free - but what content is designed to do is get us interested in buying other items and services. It's just a roundabout way to encourage spending, like most FTP games.

spartaxoxo wrote: »

No. The Night Market is objectively content. Sage's Vault will be content. Quest lines are content. The new trial is content. And all of it is free.

Free is concerning to me but that's a different conversation. As I said above. They really buried the lead. If you go watch the video from ninja pulls that came out during the stream, he talks about things they had on screen in tiny letters but didn't mention. They needed to talk about the things that we can play, instead of how we get to pay. This won't make everyone happy. We are getting less this year. But I think they need to expound on the things this year and soon. Some of them may be really cool. I'm also pretty stoked on the night market. I have my concerns about there being a trial boss, I'm hoping they don't decide they don't need to do trials anymore cause they can throw an event boss in there but again, beyond that it sounds really good.

I think we can be apprehensive and concerned for the game and still think that they might just deliver some cool stuff this year. I know that for myself, I'm going to give it a try.

According to that roadmap, we're getting overland difficulty options, solo dungeons, story content, a new group event zone, three class reworks, the sage's vault (whatever that is), a new trial, and more. Are you looking at something else? Otherwise I don't know how anyone could suggest that we're only getting QoL changes.

Need a Dark Brotherhood new story as well.

I do have a few concerns with the new model.

Mainly, I'm pretty cynical and I realize that the world I live in is a late-stage capitalist one.

It sounds wonderful on the surface that they're making so much free, and that they're committing to making all new content from here on to be free as well. It sounds great that the only thing they're monetizing are cosmetics.
...it's too utopian.

No business on this planet can make money by giving everything away for free. And ZOS is governed by Microsoft, which is asking each of its subsidiaries to make a 30% profit margin or face the axe. How is ESO going to get ZOS a 30% profit margin by essentially making it so nobody has to pay a cent to play the game? Are we expecting that that many people are going to whale for cosmetics?

The other thing that this concerns me about is the fact that if "new content" is not monetized and "cosmetics" is, then what incentive does the team have to make new content as opposed to just new cosmetics? Surely this suggests that any second they're making new content is a second that they're not making money.

I'll admit, a lot of my feelings are because I'm disappointed after the last two years - I want new Classes more than anything else, and then last year dropped the nuke that is Subclassing on us, so now they need to spend a full two years essentially putting the game back together, and therefore not giving us any new Classes in the meantime. I'm also really bummed that my favorite type of content (Dungeons) was on the chopping block this time, so I'm really not getting anything new that I want at all until 2027 at the earliest. Questing in ESO has been pretty painful lately due to bad writing, but now we're getting stories on TG (I'm not into the unlawful guilds in most TES games) and Sheogorath (who I find to be absolutely insufferable in every one of his appearances and I refuse to acknowledge the Shivering Isles expansion for Oblivion since I hate it so much), so I'm not even getting any stories that sound interesting to me personally in the slightest.