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[Interview] Elder Scrolls Online: Creative Director Paul Sage on Launch, Craglorn, and the Future

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Comments

  • EndoRobotoEndoRoboto Member Posts: 275
    Durr hurr wired cans SO FUNNAY
  • fiontarfiontar Member UncommonPosts: 3,682
    Originally posted by flizzer
    About the launch ,"It may have seemed pretty smooth to players".  I didnt't realize this was a comedic interview. You must warn me. I was eating at the time and almost lost it!

    My thoughts exactly. That line set me up to accept all that followed as spin. Even if you really like a game, ignoring obvious issues and playing spin doctor is just going to be detrimental, as most will see right through it and assume that actual positives in the article are just more fluff.

    Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
    image

  • GeezerGamerGeezerGamer Member EpicPosts: 8,857

    "Turning one of the most beloved single player game worlds ever into an online experience was always going to be a challenge."

    Translation: Game didn't meet the expectations of an ES title.

    "Fans of the previous Elder Scrolls games are used to a highly personalized experience with strong sandbox systems, while MMO players often focus more on social tools and repeatable end-game content."

    Newsflash: "Sandbox systems" can be incorporated into MMOs.

    "the game’s classes are more familiar to MMO players and work within the traditional “tank, healer, DPS” group roles concept."

    What for? Zerg PVP or the soloable dungeons?

    "As for the launch itself, Paul is pleased with how everything went from a technical perspective."

    What about all the players who weren't?

    "Paul says that they considered how to handle botters and gold spammers but didn’t realize how big the problem would be until after the game launched."

    They would have been the only ones in the world who didn't

    "Even the legitimate players can cause unexpected issues. MMO fans are famous for chewing through content at an incredibly fast rate, and although the team expected some speedy levelers they were still surprised by just how fast some people are progressing.

    Blaming the player base didn't work for SWTOR either.

    "Another post-launch discovery was that many players find grouping confusing because of the game’s layering mechanic." 

    Oh, so you are saying they are actually doing it wrong? (see reply above this one)

  • obocoboc Member UncommonPosts: 189
    Feels like I'm reading the first two months of SWTOR all over again, weird .
  • docminus2docminus2 Member UncommonPosts: 184
    No word on how to handle existing mechanisms making it easy for bots & gold-spammers?

    --------------------------------------------
    Youtube newb:
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC96N3cxBuqKTPV2BQNlzGUw

  • PiscorePiscore Member UncommonPosts: 263

    No new for F2P ??

     

    I'm still waiting...

    l2p

  • trancefatetrancefate Member UncommonPosts: 146

    "As for the launch itself, Paul is pleased with how everything went from a technical perspective."

     

     

    Really? you are PLEASED with how that went? ... FIRED?

     

  • onemanwolfonemanwolf Member Posts: 20
    No Auction House no sub sorry just sealed the deal with me Guilds are now place to conduct business Guilds are family not customers so thank you for making up my mind canceled my Sub what a shame.   This company doesn't understand how MMOs work doomed to fail until they fire that guy you interviewed.   He has to go and he will when the see people leaving by the droves.   DOA...
  • SamhaelSamhael Member RarePosts: 1,534
    Originally posted by Kuinn
    Originally posted by flizzer
    About the launch ,"It may have seemed pretty smooth to players".  I didnt't realize this was a comedic interview. You must warn me. I was eating at the time and almost lost it!

    I thought the launch was quite smooth for most people, no queues, ok stability, etc. Most of the whining was and has been about bugs and glitches related, not launch related.

    What you are describing was not our experience. My wife and I would get disconnected (not at the same time either) at least once every 20 minutes. So stability wasn't approaching an acceptable level for us.  And bugs/glitches are rightfully part of and reflect upon launch experiences. I've been through a few MMO launches over the last decade now and some are relatively smooth and some are not. I, personally, did not find the ESO launch to feel polished. That wasn't the reason we canceled though. ESO just didn't offer anything appealing. It felt like too much of the same. I was... bored.

  • ShamorauShamorau Member UncommonPosts: 181
    Originally posted by Vonatar

    Lots of positive spin from Mr Sage, sidestepping the big issues of the many bugs people are experiencing (some which impede progress), the combat and chat latency, the queues for Cyrodill preventing people from PVPing at all. New content is great, but these are some of ESO's biggest issues right now.

     

    Oh and time trials for PVE content? Way to promote rushed exploitative play over skill and knowledge.

    you might want to try the game again. the quest bugs have been fixed and there is no reason now for your progress to be stopped. earlier at launch sure, but they have fixed those issues. as for your latency i would check with your ISP. i play from australia and dont have any issues.

  • Yoda_CloneYoda_Clone Member Posts: 219

    Tap tap tap tappity tap tap tap tappity tap tap...

    That's the sound of ZOS, paid shils, paid reviewers, and fanbois tap-dancing around the issues.  I'd really appreciate some integrity from ZOS; it'd be refreshing.

    Lots of disconnects; lots of freezes during gameplay; lots of crashes, some of them hard crashes (not just to desktop); no launch issues?  Really?  I got very familiar with that wonderful post-crash dialog "unknown error" and "Please describe what you were doing..."

    What was I doing?  Usually something as simple as moving from point A to B... that's a good reason to crash.

    All of you rationalizing the bugs that were in-game at launch and saying those aren't launch issues; really?  Bugs that impact character progression aren't launch issues?  Bugs that impact grouping aren't launch issues?  Bugs that were identified in Beta, but ZOS decided not to bother fixing before launch, aren't launch issues?

    Tap tap tap tappity tap tap tap tappity tap tap...

    Seriously, who are you trying to convince?  I suspect most people on these forums have IQs over 80...

  • reeereeereeereee Member UncommonPosts: 1,636
    Originally posted by trancefate

    "As for the launch itself, Paul is pleased with how everything went from a technical perspective."

     

     

    Really? you are PLEASED with how that went? ... FIRED?

     

    I know right.  I always thought wide spread economy ruining duping at launch was for garbage f2p games from PWE, not hundred million AAA titles, but Zenimax managed to really show me something new there.

  • Entropy14Entropy14 Member UncommonPosts: 675
    Smooth launch ?? yes if you mean no queues and servers running, but with all the dupes, the people getting to level 50 through bugs, all the free gold, all the bots, all the gold sellers, I would say not that smooth at all.
  • RukushinRukushin Member UncommonPosts: 311

    I actually played from early access through launch and all. I have to say I have yet to encounter massive problems like some people are saying. Never had disconnects or freezing issues occurring more than about 2-3 times total.

    Overall I agree with very smooth launch and I think the game is great. I personally see a whole lot of complaining and no one actually explaining how to make things better. I also mean technical explanations, not just some well make it more like single player TES. No that's not an answer or explanation on how to make it better. Just the equivalent of a "Why?" "Because I said so" approach.

    They said they read all the forums so people who want to sit and complain why don't you do something useful and really delve into explaining what needs to be changed, how you think it needs to be, why it should be that way, how you think it can be achieved.

    Can't stand the trolling about a game that has single handedly brought a breath of fresh air to the MMO genre that in all honesty should have happened at least 2 years ago, if not earlier.

    Wildstar? A joke and a slap to the face of the MMO community in my opinion. No! We do not want a WoW v2.0....No, we don't want crappy cartoony graphics...No, do not patronize us by calling it "stylized"...No, don't make excuses for it by saying it allows an MMO to stand the test of time, its actually just laziness.

    AKA...JUST SAY NO TO WILDSTAR...erm...I mean WILDJOKE...

  • hammarushammarus Member UncommonPosts: 196
    Originally posted by GeezerGamer

    "Turning one of the most beloved single player game worlds ever into an online experience was always going to be a challenge."

    Translation: Game didn't meet the expectations of an ES title.

    "Fans of the previous Elder Scrolls games are used to a highly personalized experience with strong sandbox systems, while MMO players often focus more on social tools and repeatable end-game content."

    Newsflash: "Sandbox systems" can be incorporated into MMOs.

    "the game’s classes are more familiar to MMO players and work within the traditional “tank, healer, DPS” group roles concept."

    What for? Zerg PVP or the soloable dungeons?

    "As for the launch itself, Paul is pleased with how everything went from a technical perspective."

    What about all the players who weren't?

    "Paul says that they considered how to handle botters and gold spammers but didn’t realize how big the problem would be until after the game launched."

    They would have been the only ones in the world who didn't

    "Even the legitimate players can cause unexpected issues. MMO fans are famous for chewing through content at an incredibly fast rate, and although the team expected some speedy levelers they were still surprised by just how fast some people are progressing.

    Blaming the player base didn't work for SWTOR either.

    "Another post-launch discovery was that many players find grouping confusing because of the game’s layering mechanic." 

    Oh, so you are saying they are actually doing it wrong? (see reply above this one)

    Nice!

     

    If Paul were the creative director at my architectural firm, he would have been fired for incompetence, laziness, and lying.

     
  • hammarushammarus Member UncommonPosts: 196
    Originally posted by Rukushin

    I actually played from early access through launch and all. I have to say I have yet to encounter massive problems like some people are saying. Never had disconnects or freezing issues occurring more than about 2-3 times total.  

    I Agree, I had no issues with launch.

    Overall I agree with very smooth launch and I think the game is great. I personally see a whole lot of complaining and no one actually explaining how to make things better. I also mean technical explanations, not just some well make it more like single player TES. No that's not an answer or explanation on how to make it better. Just the equivalent of a "Why?" "Because I said so" approach.

    How about taking phasing out so people can group for quests?

    How about taking the rubber stamp away from the dungeon creators (aka PAUL!!!)?

    How about if you got to copy something, copy dungeon layouts from previous ES games and use those instead of the letter b?

    How about creating range/random stat items similar to what was done in Path of Exile an excellent FREE game.

    How about giving crafting the ability to make said random stat items?

    How about creating a reason to group in the first place, (group(guild) quests, group activities, group construction projects, group(faction) zone activities, etc..

    They said they read all the forums so people who want to sit and complain why don't you do something useful and really delve into explaining what needs to be changed, how you think it needs to be, why it should be that way, how you think it can be achieved.

    Can't stand the trolling about a game that has single handedly brought a breath of fresh air to the MMO genre that in all honesty should have happened at least 2 years ago, if not earlier.

    It has done absolutely nothing that hasn't been done before.  I dare you you state one thing that hasn't been done in another game in some form or another.

    Wildstar? A joke and a slap to the face of the MMO community in my opinion. No! We do not want a WoW v2.0....No, we don't want crappy cartoony graphics...No, do not patronize us by calling it "stylized"...No, don't make excuses for it by saying it allows an MMO to stand the test of time, its actually just laziness.

    AKA...JUST SAY NO TO WILDSTAR...erm...I mean WILDJOKE...

    I agree with you about WS.

     

    And for the record I still play ESO, as I am waiting on AA to go beta.

  • GameByNightGameByNight Hardware and Technology EditorMMORPG.COM Staff, Member RarePosts: 811

    Hey everyone! Chris here. Jacob and I did the interview. If you haven't already, I would really encourage you to listen to the podcast. There's a banner link at the top of the page. Context added a lot to this conversation.

     

    Also, on the point of voiceovers... in case there is any confusion, he was referring to voiceovers in future content. Not redoing anything that's already in the game.

  • SuperDonkSuperDonk Member UncommonPosts: 759
    Originally posted by oboc
    Feels like I'm reading the first two months of SWTOR all over again, weird .

    SWTOR was better at launch though.

  • WolfmeisterWolfmeister Member UncommonPosts: 50

    New players find groupng confusing because when 2 of your group members are STUCK in another facet...and CANNOT get to yours NO MATTER WHAT... then that is game design fail. 

    It is not the customers fault if the store makes a piece of crap product!

    We are the Founding Fathers in this virtual world in which we create. As such it seems we must do what our Founding Fathers had to do.. in order to let our fellow gamers have a fair shake.

  • primetheusprimetheus Member UncommonPosts: 28

    I am really really enjoying the game so far yes there ae bugs but at lvl 43 I have yet to come across any that have stoped me completing a quest or continue playing.

    Launch was pretty smooth a few server down times unplanned but I don't think ive played an mmo in the last 20 years that faired better .

    People will hate for hates sake ive come to learn in my opinion though the game is the best mmo out there and with wildstar turning to pay2win (however you sugar coat it being able to buy stuff for real money and turn into in game currency is pay2win) this is gonna be my mmo of choice for quite some years I hope

    image

  • WolfmeisterWolfmeister Member UncommonPosts: 50

    It does get better as you leave newbie areas... but that they would launch allowing Spindle.. the first dungeon to have such issues like PLAYERS GROUP NEVER BEING IN THE SAME ZONE.... it is a fail.

     

    It is made worse by the fact that complete forum trolls think it is their duty to patrol the forums to talk about how they never had a problem... when Imyself have seen entire zergs have to break up due to tech issues.

    We are the Founding Fathers in this virtual world in which we create. As such it seems we must do what our Founding Fathers had to do.. in order to let our fellow gamers have a fair shake.

  • WolfmeisterWolfmeister Member UncommonPosts: 50

    When they have a Mage Guild quest that I spend 3 hours trying to solve... Turns out when checking forums it is confirmed uncompletable... then that is game-breakng.

    No there is no excuse for this kinda shit. If its that broken take it out.They did fix it, but not after annoying the sht out of their player base.

    We are the Founding Fathers in this virtual world in which we create. As such it seems we must do what our Founding Fathers had to do.. in order to let our fellow gamers have a fair shake.

  • ImpsyImpsy Member UncommonPosts: 53
    Moved on. Nothing to see here people. Might be back when it goes F2P in 6 months.
  • firefly2003firefly2003 Member UncommonPosts: 2,527
    Originally posted by Xiaoki

    Its what fixing those bugs and glitches(and economy wrecking dupes and exploits) lead to.

    Why do you think they gave away 5 free days?


    Launch was about as smooth as sand paper.

    Launch was about as smooth as wiping your ass with sandpaper :P


  • firefly2003firefly2003 Member UncommonPosts: 2,527
    Originally posted by SuperDonk
    Originally posted by oboc
    Feels like I'm reading the first two months of SWTOR all over again, weird .

    SWTOR was better at launch though.

    SWTOR was bragging about all the player numbers also until months later.... funny ESO isnt bragging about numbers yet.....I wonder why...


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