agelonestar wrote: »Let's be honest though: if we compare what we got in 2025 (a real low point), or what we're getting in 2026 (apparently even less content than 2026), with Summerset or almost any other Chapter, we're being short-changed by a country mile. This feels like maintenance mode, not an expanding game.
The fact that you're having to reference what's coming in 2027 kind of proves my point - I'm excited for some Skyrim content in 2027, but we're in 2026. And based on what I have seen in the past 18 months, and what you have shared for the next 6-8 months, I'm no longer convinced you'll do Skyrim any justice at all.
agelonestar wrote: »agelonestar wrote: »agelonestar wrote: »Very disappointing.
2025 was a total write-off. It looks like 2026 will be too. Where's a new content? I mean real content, not just some added quests or updated systems? If you're a long term player, there's nothing new here.
What would you like to have seen content wise?
I understand the desire from a studio perspective to move away from a crushing schedule - and I'm not saying the changes being made aren't welcome. That said, let's be honest - most of what we're seeing is a change/upgrade to existing game structures, with a few quests and bit and pieces thrown in.
Where's the new zone to explore? The new architecture? The furnishing that goes with it? The stories? The new characters? What about new classes, new skill lines, new weapons, new races..... anything actually NEW?
When I think about the breadth and scope of what was delivered with - for example - Summerset, versus what came out last year and what appears to be planned for this year, there is just no comparison. There is a distinct lack of new content. Period. But your pricing structure won't reflect that.
So just a few things to follow up on. Thank you for providing your thoughts on some of the content we showed today.
Where's the new zone to explore?
The Night Market is a new event zone to explore and patriciate in. But we also noted that there will be a new zone in Early 2027. In order to make all of the changes and try the event zone, we could not do a full zone this year. But we have one in development, as Jason, Susan , and Nick mentioned.
The stories?
We talked about the new Thieves guild questline, Sheogorath questline, and Rumors. All meant to give story content.
We noted new characters in both the Night Market and Thieves Guild questlines.
What about new classes, new skill lines, new weapons, new races
The team is in the middle of the class refresh, so these are out of scope for time being. Once we get through a good portion of these, we can get back to working on items like this. But they are things we would like to get to in the next few years.
The note on price. Everything you saw today. Everything new, will be free for anyone who owns base game. The Tamriel Tome will have additional cosmetics and currencies if you would like to pay for those on the Premium track.
I appreciate you coming back.
Let's be honest though: if we compare what we got in 2025 (a real low point), or what we're getting in 2026 (apparently even less content than 2026), with Summerset or almost any other Chapter, we're being short-changed by a country mile. This feels like maintenance mode, not an expanding game.
The fact that you're having to reference what's coming in 2027 kind of proves my point - I'm excited for some Skyrim content in 2027, but we're in 2026. And based on what I have seen in the past 18 months, and what you have shared for the next 6-8 months, I'm no longer convinced you'll do Skyrim any justice at all.
The Night Market is a new event zone to explore and patriciate in.
But we also noted that there will be a new zone in Early 2027. In order to make all of the changes and try the event zone, we could not do a full zone this year. But we have one in development, as Jason, Susan , and Nick mentioned.
We talked about the new Thieves guild questline, Sheogorath questline, and Rumors. All meant to give story content.
The note on price. Everything you saw today. Everything new, will be free for anyone who owns base game. The Tamriel Tome will have additional cosmetics and currencies if you would like to pay for those on the Premium track.
The Tamriel Tome will have additional cosmetics and currencies if you would like to pay for those on the Premium track.
tomofhyrule wrote: »I do hope that we don’t swing the pendulum in the other direction. I understand that a lot of people were bored with Chapters and the standard zone style, and the Features could be hit and miss, and there are a lot of people who dislike Dungeons…
But not all of us hated those things. In fact, I know the Dungeon crowd hardcore loves Dungeons. A lot of people enjoy just running through the zones.
I’d hate to give up all of that for good for experiments. I hope we will still see some more standard things come in in the future.
I was also thinking last night - as much as people get frustrated by FOMO, there is a lot of it this year. Yes, we know the Night Market is coming back after it’s over… but it will only be active for a limited time each time. The High Seas of Tamriel has all of the boat sets and the underwater areas, but it will be an event and not a permanent zone.
It does feel a bit awkward that a lot of time is being put into things that are only going to be around for a limited time. I felt the same about the Wall event - it was a great set piece and lots of fun while it was there, but I couldn’t help thinking about if that dev time had been put into something that we could visit whenever and not during a short period.
I so think the new leadership is on a good track, and the communication during the last PTS was excellent, so I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt. I just don’t want to lose the ability to do what I want when I want because of a bunch of events that force everyone to be at a specific point in the story whether they want to be or not.
Also, regarding the PTS: it’d be great if we got more stuff go up now that we lost a week per patch. They could definitely use the PTS off-cycle to test some things (like combat stuff) that’s not ready to release but would allow feedback early in the cycle so we don’t end up with a repeat of Subclassing.
(I’m still mad that that we’ve got two solid years of things to fix what Subclassing broke, which means two solid years of no new Classes or really anything else new for Combat)
twisttop138 wrote: »tomofhyrule wrote: »I do hope that we don’t swing the pendulum in the other direction. I understand that a lot of people were bored with Chapters and the standard zone style, and the Features could be hit and miss, and there are a lot of people who dislike Dungeons…
But not all of us hated those things. In fact, I know the Dungeon crowd hardcore loves Dungeons. A lot of people enjoy just running through the zones.
I’d hate to give up all of that for good for experiments. I hope we will still see some more standard things come in in the future.
I was also thinking last night - as much as people get frustrated by FOMO, there is a lot of it this year. Yes, we know the Night Market is coming back after it’s over… but it will only be active for a limited time each time. The High Seas of Tamriel has all of the boat sets and the underwater areas, but it will be an event and not a permanent zone.
It does feel a bit awkward that a lot of time is being put into things that are only going to be around for a limited time. I felt the same about the Wall event - it was a great set piece and lots of fun while it was there, but I couldn’t help thinking about if that dev time had been put into something that we could visit whenever and not during a short period.
I so think the new leadership is on a good track, and the communication during the last PTS was excellent, so I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt. I just don’t want to lose the ability to do what I want when I want because of a bunch of events that force everyone to be at a specific point in the story whether they want to be or not.
Also, regarding the PTS: it’d be great if we got more stuff go up now that we lost a week per patch. They could definitely use the PTS off-cycle to test some things (like combat stuff) that’s not ready to release but would allow feedback early in the cycle so we don’t end up with a repeat of Subclassing.
(I’m still mad that that we’ve got two solid years of things to fix what Subclassing broke, which means two solid years of no new Classes or really anything else new for Combat)
The limited time thing sucks. I also remember in 2025 they promised they would never do that. That's battle pass seasonal content though. While I'm excited for what's coming, I'll always be a unapologetic chapter model guy. And dungeons? I love trials, but there's something about ESO dungeons that are special. Some of the best showing of this game, hands down. It's a real bummer to not get any and now have the additional worry that the next dungeons will be some experimental, time limited content.
tomofhyrule wrote: »But if ESO gives players something that TES6 won’t (like group content and PvP), then it will still have a playerbase after TES6 comes out.
tomofhyrule wrote: »twisttop138 wrote: »tomofhyrule wrote: »I do hope that we don’t swing the pendulum in the other direction. I understand that a lot of people were bored with Chapters and the standard zone style, and the Features could be hit and miss, and there are a lot of people who dislike Dungeons…
But not all of us hated those things. In fact, I know the Dungeon crowd hardcore loves Dungeons. A lot of people enjoy just running through the zones.
I’d hate to give up all of that for good for experiments. I hope we will still see some more standard things come in in the future.
I was also thinking last night - as much as people get frustrated by FOMO, there is a lot of it this year. Yes, we know the Night Market is coming back after it’s over… but it will only be active for a limited time each time. The High Seas of Tamriel has all of the boat sets and the underwater areas, but it will be an event and not a permanent zone.
It does feel a bit awkward that a lot of time is being put into things that are only going to be around for a limited time. I felt the same about the Wall event - it was a great set piece and lots of fun while it was there, but I couldn’t help thinking about if that dev time had been put into something that we could visit whenever and not during a short period.
I so think the new leadership is on a good track, and the communication during the last PTS was excellent, so I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt. I just don’t want to lose the ability to do what I want when I want because of a bunch of events that force everyone to be at a specific point in the story whether they want to be or not.
Also, regarding the PTS: it’d be great if we got more stuff go up now that we lost a week per patch. They could definitely use the PTS off-cycle to test some things (like combat stuff) that’s not ready to release but would allow feedback early in the cycle so we don’t end up with a repeat of Subclassing.
(I’m still mad that that we’ve got two solid years of things to fix what Subclassing broke, which means two solid years of no new Classes or really anything else new for Combat)
The limited time thing sucks. I also remember in 2025 they promised they would never do that. That's battle pass seasonal content though. While I'm excited for what's coming, I'll always be a unapologetic chapter model guy. And dungeons? I love trials, but there's something about ESO dungeons that are special. Some of the best showing of this game, hands down. It's a real bummer to not get any and now have the additional worry that the next dungeons will be some experimental, time limited content.
Yeah, I’m right there with you.
Trials are ok, but honestly I’m not super into them - they reward minmaxing entirely too much, and it’s not easy to get 12 people to agree on how they want something to go.
Dungeons though? Much more intimate, and much more fun.
I have noticed that a lot of non-endgame players really don’t think there’s a distinction there - in either case it’s “group content that I’m gatekept from.” But the people who are in those communities are very different, and even having a (copypasta’d) boss in the Night Market isn’t going to give the Dungeons crowd what they want. Code made a great post a while back when the Night Market was announced as to why they are not the same thing.
I am getting a bit of an icky feeling that the new ESO is really on a “play alone together” idea - we have new solo stories in 2026, solo versions of dungeons (that are already soloable…), and then the event things in the Night Market and High Seas are being sold as “it’s designed for groups, but you can totally zerg surf and not interact with others!” It’s like the only ‘traditional group content’ is Crimson Veldt.
I can see this as both a good and bad thing. Good, because you can’t always be guaranteed to have your groups around whenever you want, but bad because having friends in game is a way to keep people logging in and keep the game alive.
I am scared that if ESO tries too hard to be TES6 and drives off the MMO crowd, then TES6 will release and the players they focused on will drop ESO like a hot potato. But if ESO gives players something that TES6 won’t (like group content and PvP), then it will still have a playerbase after TES6 comes out. And let’s face it, if ESO dies, it’ll be gone. This isn’t Morrowind where we can still reinstall it on an emulator or something so we can reexperience it years later; it’ll be like Legends and now Blades, which no longer exist in any playable form.
tomofhyrule wrote: »I do hope that we don’t swing the pendulum in the other direction. I understand that a lot of people were bored with Chapters and the standard zone style, and the Features could be hit and miss, and there are a lot of people who dislike Dungeons…
But not all of us hated those things. In fact, I know the Dungeon crowd hardcore loves Dungeons. A lot of people enjoy just running through the zones.
I’d hate to give up all of that for good for experiments. I hope we will still see some more standard things come in in the future.
tomofhyrule wrote: »I was also thinking last night - as much as people get frustrated by FOMO, there is a lot of it this year. Yes, we know the Night Market is coming back after it’s over… but it will only be active for a limited time each time. The High Seas of Tamriel has all of the boat sets and the underwater areas, but it will be an event and not a permanent zone.
It does feel a bit awkward that a lot of time is being put into things that are only going to be around for a limited time. I felt the same about the Wall event - it was a great set piece and lots of fun while it was there, but I couldn’t help thinking about if that dev time had been put into something that we could visit whenever and not during a short period.
tomofhyrule wrote: »I do hope that we don’t swing the pendulum in the other direction. I understand that a lot of people were bored with Chapters and the standard zone style, and the Features could be hit and miss, and there are a lot of people who dislike Dungeons…
But not all of us hated those things. In fact, I know the Dungeon crowd hardcore loves Dungeons. A lot of people enjoy just running through the zones.
I’d hate to give up all of that for good for experiments. I hope we will still see some more standard things come in in the future.
Content like zones and dungeons became formulaic because of the rewards too, not just the content itself. If I get a new zone or dungeon, there's gear sets to chase. I have to farm a dungeon 100s of times to get the full stickerbook - that's not fun after a while. On top of that, there's already so many sets in the game, that one more set isn't really appealing to me. What void will it fill? It can't replace a new class.
Mechanically, yes, I like most dungeons. Same thing with zones, but the rewards aren't there. A new set that will get nerfed or overlooked doesn't beckon me to grind it out. That leaves attractive cosmetics, which they seem to reserve for FOMO avenues. That's an issue they have to fix, no matter what content they put out.
I'm personally more interested in new tentpole systems. I was hoping Night Market would be that, but it's temporary, so it won't, at least from what we can tell now. IA was great, I want more things like that.tomofhyrule wrote: »I was also thinking last night - as much as people get frustrated by FOMO, there is a lot of it this year. Yes, we know the Night Market is coming back after it’s over… but it will only be active for a limited time each time. The High Seas of Tamriel has all of the boat sets and the underwater areas, but it will be an event and not a permanent zone.
It does feel a bit awkward that a lot of time is being put into things that are only going to be around for a limited time. I felt the same about the Wall event - it was a great set piece and lots of fun while it was there, but I couldn’t help thinking about if that dev time had been put into something that we could visit whenever and not during a short period.
100% this. We already had the Writhing Debacle, they shutdown Endeavors - clearly they want to reduce some FOMO. But then they pull moves like these. It makes me feel like the lessons from those mistakes weren't truly learned. It just feels like the message isn't being heard.
The game can't take another 2025. We need a year of massive wins. And it's fine if Night Market goes through iterations, but leave it in. Same goes for the High Seas event. With a lot of these FOMO events, I'm asking myself if I should abstain from playing them out principle.
Here in Brazil the game is being discussed a way lot more after the recent announcements. My guild is thriving with people, lots of newcomers, oldschool players came back to play the game.
I would very much like to shine some light on the crown crates controversy in Brazil.
Crown crates have been delisted from the crown store of Brazilians because of the new age law that prohibits gambling in games for minors.
It is very clear from the law text that adults are absolutely free to spend money however they like on games.
I see such a great influx of Brazilians to ESO, new and old players. It's such a shame we are left out of one of the big pillars in ESO character customization and probably one of the most profitable sources of revenue for Zenimax.
There are easy ways to remedy this, like raising the age rating of the game to 18+ (from 14+) or verifying the age of customers.
Please set this as a priority.
twisttop138 wrote: »tomofhyrule wrote: »I do hope that we don’t swing the pendulum in the other direction. I understand that a lot of people were bored with Chapters and the standard zone style, and the Features could be hit and miss, and there are a lot of people who dislike Dungeons…
But not all of us hated those things. In fact, I know the Dungeon crowd hardcore loves Dungeons. A lot of people enjoy just running through the zones.
I’d hate to give up all of that for good for experiments. I hope we will still see some more standard things come in in the future.
Content like zones and dungeons became formulaic because of the rewards too, not just the content itself. If I get a new zone or dungeon, there's gear sets to chase. I have to farm a dungeon 100s of times to get the full stickerbook - that's not fun after a while. On top of that, there's already so many sets in the game, that one more set isn't really appealing to me. What void will it fill? It can't replace a new class.
Mechanically, yes, I like most dungeons. Same thing with zones, but the rewards aren't there. A new set that will get nerfed or overlooked doesn't beckon me to grind it out. That leaves attractive cosmetics, which they seem to reserve for FOMO avenues. That's an issue they have to fix, no matter what content they put out.
I'm personally more interested in new tentpole systems. I was hoping Night Market would be that, but it's temporary, so it won't, at least from what we can tell now. IA was great, I want more things like that.tomofhyrule wrote: »I was also thinking last night - as much as people get frustrated by FOMO, there is a lot of it this year. Yes, we know the Night Market is coming back after it’s over… but it will only be active for a limited time each time. The High Seas of Tamriel has all of the boat sets and the underwater areas, but it will be an event and not a permanent zone.
It does feel a bit awkward that a lot of time is being put into things that are only going to be around for a limited time. I felt the same about the Wall event - it was a great set piece and lots of fun while it was there, but I couldn’t help thinking about if that dev time had been put into something that we could visit whenever and not during a short period.
100% this. We already had the Writhing Debacle, they shutdown Endeavors - clearly they want to reduce some FOMO. But then they pull moves like these. It makes me feel like the lessons from those mistakes weren't truly learned. It just feels like the message isn't being heard.
The game can't take another 2025. We need a year of massive wins. And it's fine if Night Market goes through iterations, but leave it in. Same goes for the High Seas event. With a lot of these FOMO events, I'm asking myself if I should abstain from playing them out principle.
I'm not gonna judge right or wrong but anyone that thinks they want to reduce fomo isn't seeing clearly. Even the bazaar, their anti fomo shop, is of course powered by the fear of missing out. Connected to is tomes. Need to engage with tomes to get bars to not miss out on seasonal offerings in the bazaar. Put some really cool stuff in the tomes so you'll buy it, because you'll fear missing that stuff. Fallout 76 brings old battle pass items in cash shop bundles but no promises they'll do that here. Again, I'm not gonna say they're right or wrong for that stuff, but I wish they would've left talk of wanting to get rid of fomo out of the conversation. It makes them look disengenous or like they're trying to fool people.
Here in Brazil the game is being discussed a way lot more after the recent announcements. My guild is thriving with people, lots of newcomers, oldschool players came back to play the game.
I would very much like to shine some light on the crown crates controversy in Brazil.
Crown crates have been delisted from the crown store of Brazilians because of the new age law that prohibits gambling in games for minors.
It is very clear from the law text that adults are absolutely free to spend money however they like on games.
I see such a great influx of Brazilians to ESO, new and old players. It's such a shame we are left out of one of the big pillars in ESO character customization and probably one of the most profitable sources of revenue for Zenimax.
There are easy ways to remedy this, like raising the age rating of the game to 18+ (from 14+) or verifying the age of customers.
Please set this as a priority.
Too bad that crown crates cannot be sold on a game card in gas stations or where ever they sell restricted items like beer and smokes. Get ID'd at the station when you purchase the card, take it home, enter the code from the card into the game, there you have your crown crates.
twisttop138 wrote: »tomofhyrule wrote: »I do hope that we don’t swing the pendulum in the other direction. I understand that a lot of people were bored with Chapters and the standard zone style, and the Features could be hit and miss, and there are a lot of people who dislike Dungeons…
But not all of us hated those things. In fact, I know the Dungeon crowd hardcore loves Dungeons. A lot of people enjoy just running through the zones.
I’d hate to give up all of that for good for experiments. I hope we will still see some more standard things come in in the future.
Content like zones and dungeons became formulaic because of the rewards too, not just the content itself. If I get a new zone or dungeon, there's gear sets to chase. I have to farm a dungeon 100s of times to get the full stickerbook - that's not fun after a while. On top of that, there's already so many sets in the game, that one more set isn't really appealing to me. What void will it fill? It can't replace a new class.
Mechanically, yes, I like most dungeons. Same thing with zones, but the rewards aren't there. A new set that will get nerfed or overlooked doesn't beckon me to grind it out. That leaves attractive cosmetics, which they seem to reserve for FOMO avenues. That's an issue they have to fix, no matter what content they put out.
I'm personally more interested in new tentpole systems. I was hoping Night Market would be that, but it's temporary, so it won't, at least from what we can tell now. IA was great, I want more things like that.tomofhyrule wrote: »I was also thinking last night - as much as people get frustrated by FOMO, there is a lot of it this year. Yes, we know the Night Market is coming back after it’s over… but it will only be active for a limited time each time. The High Seas of Tamriel has all of the boat sets and the underwater areas, but it will be an event and not a permanent zone.
It does feel a bit awkward that a lot of time is being put into things that are only going to be around for a limited time. I felt the same about the Wall event - it was a great set piece and lots of fun while it was there, but I couldn’t help thinking about if that dev time had been put into something that we could visit whenever and not during a short period.
100% this. We already had the Writhing Debacle, they shutdown Endeavors - clearly they want to reduce some FOMO. But then they pull moves like these. It makes me feel like the lessons from those mistakes weren't truly learned. It just feels like the message isn't being heard.
The game can't take another 2025. We need a year of massive wins. And it's fine if Night Market goes through iterations, but leave it in. Same goes for the High Seas event. With a lot of these FOMO events, I'm asking myself if I should abstain from playing them out principle.
I'm not gonna judge right or wrong but anyone that thinks they want to reduce fomo isn't seeing clearly. Even the bazaar, their anti fomo shop, is of course powered by the fear of missing out. Connected to is tomes. Need to engage with tomes to get bars to not miss out on seasonal offerings in the bazaar. Put some really cool stuff in the tomes so you'll buy it, because you'll fear missing that stuff. Fallout 76 brings old battle pass items in cash shop bundles but no promises they'll do that here. Again, I'm not gonna say they're right or wrong for that stuff, but I wish they would've left talk of wanting to get rid of fomo out of the conversation. It makes them look disengenous or like they're trying to fool people.
It's definitely something where actions speak louder than words. I know they're living by that with their communications, but their development decisions need to better align to that. I worry this new system will not fare well, it certainly left a bad taste in my mouth over tome expiration. They need a successful revenue model. Having one that makes players isn't mad isn't going to accomplish that. If they're going all-in on temporary everything, it comes across as desperate. It guarantees the game has population spikes and the drops, rather than a steady population.