What concerns was this supposed to address exactly?

Just saying that they've been involved for a long time doesn't really inspire confidence in me. The last few years have been rocky and content has gotten thinner. Personally, I think the new leadership should find ways to differentiate themselves from the old. I'm glad they've been involved for a while and have context to ensure some design continuity, but the game needs some fresh ideas and energy. It also needs better communication around the long-term strategy of the game.

We already knew they want the game to be a 30 year endeavor, which is great. But, it'd be far more assuring to see concrete, quantitative information in these blogs. Right now, it's really just "we love our product and want it to last as long as possible" type commentary. We'd all hope so.

Where's the game actually going? What ideas are you testing, what's planned for combat. What QoL issues are you addressing and when?

Hopefully something of substance would be also released soonish as this doesn't gives any information beside that the team is happy with a product they're working on, which isn't really telling much if there's any positive changes coming, what is about to change and what's about to go back on track. Would be interesting to know if they're aware of the current weak points and how each subsequent update in recent years shows the decline in overall quality and testing of it. And ultimately if that's the ESO going forward still or was it an unfortunate period, caused by juggling couple projects or other internal issues, which is coming to an end eventually.

I hate to be that guy but this sounded like it was all written and edited by a PR person. Like it came from a politician. It's really cool to hear that these people are gamers like us, been into ESO and mmorpgs for a long time. I liked hearing the story from, I believe Nick, about a pug run in vMHK. Cool. But the part about the direction of the game was all empty platitudes. Communication, listening to players, taking feedback and making the community feel heard. It feels like I've read those lines before and not just in this game.

I'm sure Kevin with his plus 20 to speech craft will pop in and assure us that more info is on the way. And to be fair, these guys just started. They deserve a shot from the community, they deserve time to lay it out for us. I said the other day that idk if these changes will be good or bad for us but I'd like to find out. I also think though, for all the talk of a 30 year game, looking too far into the future can make it so you can't see what's happening today. Let's hope they can do both.

I found the 30 year comments to be interesting as the direction one might take while aiming for another 20 years would be a bit different than those aiming for another 5-10.

Was this a roundtable meant for players of ESO or for investors/stakeholders? Did anyone (at ZOS) actually think that anything discussed in there is what (a fair share of) players are waiting to hear about?

I'm not saying learning something about the professional background and personal quirks can't be interesting, but I (and I would assume many more players) was waiting for something a little more factual about the actual game and something that amounts to more than "20 years to come". I don't know (but I have some guesses as to) why many developers seem to be so out of touch with their playerbase to believe that corporate marketing lingo is contributing in a positive way to the discussions around the recent upheavals at ZOS.

If you actually want input: next time deliver facts about the upcoming plans (e.g. an actual roadmap) for the game first and add irrelevant personal details at a later point.

I will say that it is very nice to hear that the new leadership seems fully intent on continuing ESO and making it the best it can be. But I will echo a bunch of the comments above: we've been hearing platitudes for years at this point. It doesn't matter to us how many people say "we're listening to the players" if they never actually do. We want to actually see that.

It was extremely nice to get the message from Amy during the U47 PTS - even though there really weren't many changes for U47 (and after Subclassing, we needed them), but the fact that we were being heard did make it a lot better. The "what was your play experience like" sticky in General was also a really nice development since U46 did feel (to a lot of players) that it was being foisted on them and they were supposed to like it or leave... and I'm sure that a number of players chose "leave."

It's hard to deny that there's been a sense of despair in the community for a while: players here for the stories have been seeing the writing quality going downhill for years now, and the pendulum combat swings are tiring, and the utter lack of balance is frustrating... and then Matt's letter in December all but screamed "maintenance mode incoming." We also lost our NA big meetup, January reveal event, and now we're supposed to be happy that every month is a surprise? Add to that the Microsoft surprise layoffs and then PTS being a brick wall especially for U46, and now a lot of leadership shuffles. Long story short, just a bunch of "we promise it's all good here!" using a lot of PR-speak isn't going to magically make us think nothing's wrong.

I hope that monthly roadmaps will continue, since those were excellent. I also hope that if large earth-shattering changes are coming (like Subclassing, for example) that they are announced with more than one PTS cycle to collect feedback before dropping it onto the live servers. But mostly, please interact more with your (unpaid!) PTS testers and listen to these dedicated players when they warn that the general playerbase will not like a change - they tend to have a good feel for the pulse of the community.

But mostly, I'm very interested to see what U48's PTS cycle will look like when that comes (probably mid-late September, if timelines are still consistent). I'm interested to see what will come out in the year-end review. I'm interested to see if the team will consider a reveal event in January again (particularly if the summer patch will include something big and paid like a new Class). Surprises can get tiring, so please give us something more than speculation to spend our money on next year.

I hope that 2026 will be the year that proves we were all scared for nothing. I hope that we get stuff that we're all so happy to open our wallets for and extol this game again. I have the best hopes for the new team. And I hope that the new team will live up to it.

It's great to hear from the new leadership. Hoping for more detail in the future, maybe a roadmap for the next few years to give a sense of direction.

I still have no idea what any of these people do. It all feels like one job. Or should be. Who is actually in charge?

Nice to hear from you. But where‘s the discussion. And where are the visions for the future besides „20 more years to go“?

I don‘t see anything of substance there.

Also, I'm sorry for the loss of your cats! I know how much joy a pet can bring to one's life and how hard it is when they go. I still think about some of doggos, even though it's been years since they passed. I hope the cat distribution system brings a new cat to you when if or when you're ready for it!

The point of this roundtable discussion is not to provide a detailed roadmap. Rather, it's meant to introduce us to the new leadership team and to help us better understand who they are and what they stand for. They aim to build upon existing groundwork and make the necessary changes to keep this game alive for us for many more years. It's genuinely fantastic that they care for so many different aspects of this game!

I know that combat balance is important to the people who use these forums, but that's not the focus of this discussion.

I have a lot of great memories running dungeons. My favorite one that comes to mind was with a PUG years ago taking on Vet Moon Hunter Keep.

My main take away from this is that Nick is an absolute mad lad (in the best way). Respect.

If I were to criticize one thing - assuming the main reason for this get-together was to introduce themselves to the community, I think a video of this roundtable discussion, hosted by Gina or Jess, ideally with Rich passing the baton, would have been much better received. I know not everyone's comfortable in front of a camera (me included), but first impressions matter as they say, and reading through a discussion feels strangely anemic.
Especially in light of wanting to introduce more of the developers to the community (looking forward to this, just hope they have nerves of steel ebony), it would have sent a better signal if leadership made the first step.

Faulgor wrote: »

I have a lot of great memories running dungeons. My favorite one that comes to mind was with a PUG years ago taking on Vet Moon Hunter Keep.

My main take away from this is that Nick is an absolute mad lad (in the best way). Respect.

If I were to criticize one thing - assuming the main reason for this get-together was to introduce themselves to the community, I think a video of this roundtable discussion, hosted by Gina or Jess, ideally with Rich passing the baton, would have been much better received. I know not everyone's comfortable in front of a camera (me included), but first impressions matter as they say, and reading through a discussion feels strangely anemic.
Especially in light of wanting to introduce more of the developers to the community (looking forward to this, just hope they have nerves of steel ebony), it would have sent a better signal if leadership made the first step.

Agree. A video would've been much better. I understand this was to introduce themselves and I liked a lot of the personal stuff. The use of pretty much every buzzword was a little wild lol.

I think a video would've been better, as text is flat. It could've been edited by someone to make it come across a certain way. I like to look at someone, to judge the veracity of what they're saying and judge whether I believe them or not or if they seem genuine. Now, I'm sure they're super busy in their new positions and probably didn't have time to do something like this. I'm also certain we'll see a lot of them in the near future so I don't take them not doing a video as a bad thing. Just that I would've liked it better.

"We also need to get better at listening to our community, communicating our plans, and showing you that your feedback is not only heard but a driving force behind our decisions."

If only I hadn't heard that every year these past 10+ years. I do hope that this time it's delivered.