The Elder Scrolls Online

Rescorla_sl said:

You have a bad habit of twisting my words and resorting to strawman arguments.

I did not say the influx from Steam was more than it was at launch. It was nowhere close to the number of initial box sales. What I did say was that the number of new playersvia Steam was noticeable.

If you are going to criticize something I say at least make sure you understand what I am actually saying.

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Rescorla_sl said:

Adding it to Steamcreated a huge influx of new playersinto the game who didn't have to experience the technical problems with launch and the bot infestation.

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You claimed there that the amount of Steam players created a "huge influx". Look at the graph. That shows a steady decline of players in the game over this time you are claiming you see MORE people in it.

Once a game goes up on Steam, that's the biggest boost of sales they are ever going to get because it reaches the last widest possible gaming audience, there isn't any more. The regular sales through third party sites are just about dried up. Even if they are selling discounts on the game, that still doesn't mean those people are subbing so just because they got into the game for $30 doesn't mean they pushed a sub.

It just means that out of the "huge influx" of people who did go through Steam that you were talking about, almost 1/3 aren't even logging in anymore. I'm still not sure how you don't arrive at that conclusion given those actual numbers, not "I see 100 people in my guild all the time" thing.

I'm sure that in the final days of Warhammer, there were guilds that still had the same amount of players (rotated in/out) or evenmorethan they started with, so they probably thought the game was just fine too.

I don't see how so many MMO companies can make the mistake of not being extremely active and present on their own forums. ZOS is just as guilty. Devs RARELY post, and instead we get community reps who every now and then reply to posts, but usually just to pass information along.

The lack of communication is really bad in this game. It's like they threw a bunch of cool ideas out at Quakecon and then decided that was good enough. They clearly don't realize how high maintenance MMO players are. I need fucking weekly updates on that shit, at least.

It's because their forums are/were the worst piece of shit I've ever seen.

Alot of places, particularly with people that were around for ultima online, don't allow most of their employees to post on forums without permission. No idea if this team is like that.

Kharza-kzad_sl said:

Alot of places, particularly with people that were around for ultima online, don't allow most of their employees to post on forums without permission. No idea if this team is like that.

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Zos doesn't even allow their employees to use the restroom without permission from a Lead Dev.

Cold Harbor was "Re-Shiterated" 3 times as a result of this.

SWTOR lead devs will chime in from time to time on a hotbutton issue to explain design philosophy. They did it recently when the community took them to task for the shitty Season 2 Arena rewards.

I think the problem is that the people playing the game know more about the game then the devs. How many times have we seen devs post something that was complete bullshit that was destroyed by posters as false or a lie? It's honestly better for them to just keep quiet and let community managers deal with it instead of hanging themselves.

Riot does a pretty good job communicating with the community.

Draegan_sl said:

Riot does a pretty good job communicating with the community.

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GGG (Grinding Gear Games - Path of exile) does a real great job as well.

Blackwulf_sl said:

Devs RARELY post, and instead we get community reps who every now and then reply to posts

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Because for nearly all projects of even modest size most low level devs, the ones that do all the real leg work and know the most about the game, have little to no influence or say in anything even remotely high level or important. This is especially true for stuff design related.

Would you subject yourself to answering for horrible decisions that weren't yours, that you disagree with, and can't explain because they make no logical sense? You wouldn't. You'd mentally check out of the whole thing and go full Office Space. You let the reps do it because it is their job to take abuse and try to communicate what the clueless high level people were thinking (hint: they weren't) when they made some decision or design or whatever.

It's pretty simple really.

Update 4 is live:

Patch Notes v1.4.3 - Elder Scrolls Online

That PVE doubledown tho

free to play yet?
ha

Krysanth_sl said:

free to play yet?
ha

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Still waiting to try it so I can see what all has changed first hand since the last time i played in early beta. So even though its talking shit about the game by saying that - Im also looking forward to it! ha

Daidraco_sl said:

Still waiting to try it so I can see what all has changed first hand since the last time i played in early beta. So even though its talking shit about the game by saying that - Im also looking forward to it! ha

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I think it will be at least a few months before any sort of change in the sub plan. I think they'd be insane to change things before the console launch.

Blackwulf_sl said:

I think it will be at least a few months before any sort of change in the sub plan. I think they'd be insane to change things before the console launch.

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Why haven't they had free weekends yet? I'm not going to pay 15 bucks to see if things really have improved but I sure would give it a shot on a free weekend.

Blackwulf_sl said:

I think it will be at least a few months before any sort of change in the sub plan. I think they'd be insane to change things before the console launch.

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I've always assumed long before the game was launched that the console version would end up B2P with no monthly sub. Just don't see the console generation paying $15 a month to play.