Nice podcast it show that team behind ESO do care of game and when a Creative Director of mmo say the are listen to what the community want that show me that the company think this game have future and i cant wait for those future patch coming to bad at the moment the focus more big group thing the should look for 2 man and 3 man group thing as well and even solo thing for end game content and i hope add more lvl content as well in near future
what will happen once you unleash millions of players on your game,
Is it really true that the game has sold millions? Or is he referring to the 5 million beta signups again? It just dosen't add up to me, in some online stores Skyrim is selling better and they still sell preorder versions. I even saw TSW higher up on sales on amazon the other day.
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 couldn't believe that one either. I had to stop reading when he said the beta testers had gotten use to the phasing when grouping.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
I don't think I've ever played a game where you had to die on purpose to complete quests. I ran into two quests like that.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
I defended Zenimax and wanted to give them time to fix the wrongs.
But the whole game is starting to feel one big mess of frustration.....
Passives still not fixed
/ skill bugging out / veteran quest grind is extremely boring / infinite loading screens / exploits / lag / crashes / weird freezes / megaserver / no eu servers / werewolf not worth it / vampire to stronk / no auction house or badly designed cough / console ui / console graphics without Radeon Pro and ESO Launcher / 9/10 campaigns are ghostowns / bad gold sinks / insane cost for respecs if you happen to choose the bugged skills and passives / softcaps lol / etc etc
I missed tons of more frustrated stuff but these just came to mind within seconds.
Man o man where to see the positives at this point....
And still no ETA about all this crap man.
Free to play is not far away i can tell you that, and no idea how many subs are active but it sure as hell cant be that much as if they would have sold 1 million or more copy's we would have seen Zenimax boasting it around the net.
Some guild already dropped more then 50% of playes who dint logged in for days / a week.
subbed another month due to my guild being awesome, if it wasnt for them i already /quited
- There was no launch issues. If you had an issue, it is you, not the game.
- Players are playing it wrong. They don't understand the grouping mechanics and they level too fast. It is you again, not the game.
- New voice-overs are on their way. Hooray! Because, you know, this is what this game needs right now.
There. I saved you a lot of time by reading a PR bulletin.
It is interesting actually, to see how ESO is promoted around various websites. I wonder if other new games will get the same treatment too.
Stages of a new mmo: 1) It's just beta. It still has plenty of time before release. 2) It just launched. Give it time. WoW wasn't built in a day. 3) We don't need you anyway. 4) F2P announced. 5)Huge influx of players. 6) Look how much has changed. 7) Cash shop is the only thing developed lately. 8) It has been a long journey and we thank everyone who was part of it. Shutting down in 3 months. (Courtesy of Robokapp.)
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!
That was quite funny indeed. It has arguably been the roughest launch in recent times, with issues still persisting for EU players as they refuse to move the EU server to, you know, the EU. It has been a quit point for many players I know, as being killed because of slow server response times is unacceptable in this day and age, especially when you're supposed to pay a subscription for it (news flash, many people won't).
But it's good to hear they got their priorities set right, I can't wait for new voice overs... To be honest, this interview just about made me decide to not resubscribe, if it wasn't for the fact some of my clan members want to hold out for 1.1 before their final verdict. I already know the outcome of that verdict, seeing as most of them stopped playing around VR1-5, and Craglorn being unplayable until VR9 because of the VR-exp penalty still being in place for killing things more than two levels above yours.
Where were all of you complainers when Vanguard launched? Too many young pups that started playing WOW years after it launched and think it was the first MMO to start with and that a game at launch should play like a game that's been out off years. If you are crying about this launch then you completely clueless. Is it perfect and bug free? Hell no, but all you that cry rivers about ESO name 1 top MMO that has ever launched in a bug free state? Come on, there has to be one doesn't there? Do some research about software. Not even Microsoft releases bug free software. Why? Because even .1 error per KLOC will result in 100 bugs per every million lines of code or so. Fix one and you very well cause more because the way everything is related. That's not even trying to optimize it to run on every possible configuration of PC out there, a Mac, and eventually consoles. That all takes time and money. If you think you know so much, become a PM in software development and come out of the ignorant bliss you currently live in.
Stop crying. If you love it, play it. If you hate it, play whatever makes you happy, but with most of you, that appears to be nothing.
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.
Bugs and glitches at launch...not launch related? Server stability complaints, not launch related?
Well, it is splitting hairs for sure. But I was discussing this with my friends the other day and we agreed that ESO had a better launch than some others - the game most referred to in comparison was FF XIV. To define what we meant we referred to "launch" as such things as being able to log in, even at prime time, server uptime and overall stability. In these areas ESO scores quite well for a brand new MMO as we have all been able to get in to the game without queues, there has not been a lot of server downtime for unexpected maintenance, and none of us have experienced random disconnects.
Not say there aren't a hell of a lot of other problems though
The part where you said "able to get in to the game without queues", don't you think that happened because ESO isn't that much anticipated than FFXIV back then? Plus, thats what ESO did right, the "Mega server". Say if both titles are doing the same thing, no mega server and overly expected population, ESO would have the similar issues.
what will happen once you unleash millions of players on your game,
Is it really true that the game has sold millions? Or is he referring to the 5 million beta signups again? It just dosen't add up to me, in some online stores Skyrim is selling better and they still sell preorder versions. I even saw TSW higher up on sales on amazon the other day.
Its looking increasingly likely, that sales overall, numbered only in the 100's of thousands, and this is even after Zenimax reduced the price for the game in the hope of increasing sales to over 1 million for the first month. With pre-orders of the console versions being extremely low anyway, although that may be due to the less than imminent launch of the console versions. When you consider the server behaviour even with the numbers as they were, have to wonder if the game would have had even more problems if they had managed to sell a million, or even 2 million copies of the game, kind of wonder if they did use the Hero Engine after all, as it would go a long way to explain the issues the game has been having, particularly with phasing.
The rewards for completing a Trial also change each week, and the best completion times are tracked on a public leaderboard.
This always struck me as odd in any game that has a PTS - aren't the guilds on the test servers in a superior position to be on top of the leader board? It'll take weeks for other guilds to learn the mechanics to the point of guilds that have run this 100x.
Unless you go into youtube and watch them play and then repeat the steps.
So, either try to catch up to leader boards and skip any of the challenges of discovering and figuring out a new raid, trial, etc., or be content to play for weeks, months to learn all mechanics, so you maybe are starting to master that part when the next raid comes out.
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.
Everyone in my guild has chat and combat latency. Not all the time, but often, especially in Cyrodiil or even in a 4-man dungeon. The biggest problems with combat are skills not firing and weapon swapping not happening as well as still taking damage when well out of red AoE zones. We are all from a variety of European countries and have all checked jitter, packet loss etc. The problem exists only in ESO and not in any other games we play as a guild. The issue is clearly on the server side and has even been acknowledged by ZeniMax as something they need to look at.
what will happen once you unleash millions of players on your game,
Is it really true that the game has sold millions? Or is he referring to the 5 million beta signups again? It just dosen't add up to me, in some online stores Skyrim is selling better and they still sell preorder versions. I even saw TSW higher up on sales on amazon the other day.
Its looking increasingly likely, that sales overall, numbered only in the 100's of thousands, and this is even after Zenimax reduced the price for the game in the hope of increasing sales to over 1 million for the first month. With pre-orders of the console versions being extremely low anyway, although that may be due to the less than imminent launch of the console versions. When you consider the server behaviour even with the numbers as they were, have to wonder if the game would have had even more problems if they had managed to sell a million, or even 2 million copies of the game, kind of wonder if they did use the Hero Engine after all, as it would go a long way to explain the issues the game has been having, particularly with phasing.
Here we go again! The Hero Engine has nothing to do With this. It's a very solid game engine, especially the last Version!
No matter what engine you License! No engine is going to automatically create the Perfect MMO for you! You still need good Developers and a hell of an experience to build something rock solid!
The problem with Bioware and SW:TOR is similar to Zenimax. Both dev houses come from SRPG's and entered the MMO Space inexperienced!
Bioware's problem was that they were forced the pre-release Version of the Hero Engine through their throats by overzelous management, had to heavily modify it to make it work for their design and vision of the game and so ended up in a CATCH 22 situation!
1. Hats off for them of managing to make it work as it did.
2. Due to Extreme modification, they were unable to recieve and implement updates and patches to the Hero Engine!
And back to ESO! The game has great graphics and it runs extremely well performance wise for the kind of Graphics it has!
Unlike Wildstar With it's stylish Graphics that runs absolutely crap. Horrible performance!
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.
I'll agree on your last point... Yuck springs to mind... Another Yuck are these planned guild Kiosks.. Guilds bid on them enabling them to sell from a point in town rather than the bank to the public... If they don't get the botters out of the world I can see them all being owned by super rich bot/gold sellers.. Perfect way to raise gold for RMT !!
Originally posted by onemanwolf 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...
The auction system works great. You do not understand how it works. I am in two guilds the guild auctions are great since the prices are low because people do not want to gouge their guild mates. There is also a guild bank so people can freely give things to other members. So far I am geared well at a low price because of guild bank. I also have received a lot of free stuff including resources from guild members. If you left because of how guilds are structured you left for the wrong reasons. The guilds I am in are very family and friend oriented.
It has been a very smooth launch for me. I have had only one game crash and only one bug that stopped progression on a quest. I have encountered a small amount of other bugs and glitches that did not effect my progression. I did wait to start 5 days after launch to allow the first days to pass so I may not have experienced some issues others did the first days. So far game is really fun and works very well. I am surprised that I like it as much as I do. I have been disappointed by a few major releases the last couple years but I am having a great time with ESO. Overall I think the developers have done a fine job with the game. I am also not a fan of the ES single player games so my enjoyment of ESO was unexpected.
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.
I'll agree on your last point... Yuck springs to mind... Another Yuck are these planned guild Kiosks.. Guilds bid on them enabling them to sell from a point in town rather than the bank to the public... If they don't get the botters out of the world I can see them all being owned by super rich bot/gold sellers.. Perfect way to raise gold for RMT !!
Shite idea IMO...
Yeah I am staunchly opposed to timed PVE content. It's just a lack of understanding on ZeniMax's part I guess. You know how this will go - people will work out how to skip trash, or do room pulls and generally plot the quickest way to get through it. Sure, you can say this takes skill, and it does, but if you're a dev taking care to craft the content, don't you want people to appreciate it? I guess that's how I would feel.
On the guild kiosks, I agree it's a lame move to appease those who are complaining about the current guild stores. But they only need to look at Age of Wushu, which has a similar kiosk system, to see how this doesn't work well.
I have no experience of game development, but it always surprises me that when devs have these kinds of ideas it seems that no one thinks to look at how these ideas work or don't work in other games before implementing them.
As usual, the thousands of players who had "significant" issues are here to loudly remind us about their suffering.
The hundreds of thousands of players who had no serious problems with the first month are all too busy enjoying the game to come here and say so.
Besides, coming here to say how much fun you're having in ESO is not going to improve your game experience, whereas if you're unhappy, whining loudly might actually get you noticed and result in something being done about your problem...
”Zenimax is aiming for an update cycle of 4-6 weeks and in fact the company started working on their first update roughly a year ago.
So, these updates that are coming out in 4 to 6 week cycles takes a year to complete?
the Zenimax team is “enjoying the heck” out of seeing players online and having fun...
And just how many players would that be? everyone's dying to know. Surely your megaserver can tell you how many players are online at any one time - I mean, I realise your developers couldn't balance all the skill lines (or ensure they were all working) in the five years development before release - couldn't you use a flowchart or something? but surely the server does all the counting in this instance.
Oh yea, and any chance of even a generic time frame for the EU server move rather than 2014 and beyond? Many Thanks.
What's most disappointing and disturbing from this article is how very very very low are the standards for success and quality ESO is being held to by folks like Paul Sage. This guy's statements? What a stinking pile of falsehoods, exaggerations, and insincerity.
This launch has been a debacle by any measure: goofy phasing, lack of AH, bugs, botting, mob camping, gold spammers, trainers, speed hacks, false account banning, lost items, bugged quests, exploits to VR10 in a few days, etc. etc. I'm just waiting for player's credit card information to be posted to a public web site. I think that's the only thing left in an experience we pay to have, LOL.
I am sick and tired of these developers creating linear themeparks cost millions and millions of dollars and then acting so SURPRISED that players burn through the content so fast. REALLY? Mr. Sage, have you not paid attention to any other MMO released in the last decade? That wasn't anticipated? How long did you expect it to last? Especially with minimal replay value because of the way veteran levels work.
Apparently these big-name developers think MMOs are filled with casual players that gain a level every 2 weeks and are willing to plop down $15 a month for the privilege despite all evidence to the contrary that even casual players burn through content quickly.
Comments
Is it really true that the game has sold millions? Or is he referring to the 5 million beta signups again? It just dosen't add up to me, in some online stores Skyrim is selling better and they still sell preorder versions. I even saw TSW higher up on sales on amazon the other day.
I couldn't believe that one either. I had to stop reading when he said the beta testers had gotten use to the phasing when grouping.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
I defended Zenimax and wanted to give them time to fix the wrongs.
But the whole game is starting to feel one big mess of frustration.....
Passives still not fixed
/ skill bugging out / veteran quest grind is extremely boring / infinite loading screens / exploits / lag / crashes / weird freezes / megaserver / no eu servers / werewolf not worth it / vampire to stronk / no auction house or badly designed cough / console ui / console graphics without Radeon Pro and ESO Launcher / 9/10 campaigns are ghostowns / bad gold sinks / insane cost for respecs if you happen to choose the bugged skills and passives / softcaps lol / etc etc
I missed tons of more frustrated stuff but these just came to mind within seconds.
Man o man where to see the positives at this point....
And still no ETA about all this crap man.
Free to play is not far away i can tell you that, and no idea how many subs are active but it sure as hell cant be that much as if they would have sold 1 million or more copy's we would have seen Zenimax boasting it around the net.
Some guild already dropped more then 50% of playes who dint logged in for days / a week.
subbed another month due to my guild being awesome, if it wasnt for them i already /quited
So to sum it up:
- There was no launch issues. If you had an issue, it is you, not the game.
- Players are playing it wrong. They don't understand the grouping mechanics and they level too fast. It is you again, not the game.
- New voice-overs are on their way. Hooray! Because, you know, this is what this game needs right now.
There. I saved you a lot of time by reading a PR bulletin.
It is interesting actually, to see how ESO is promoted around various websites. I wonder if other new games will get the same treatment too.
Stages of a new mmo: 1) It's just beta. It still has plenty of time before release. 2) It just launched. Give it time. WoW wasn't built in a day. 3) We don't need you anyway. 4) F2P announced. 5)Huge influx of players. 6) Look how much has changed. 7) Cash shop is the only thing developed lately. 8) It has been a long journey and we thank everyone who was part of it. Shutting down in 3 months. (Courtesy of Robokapp.)
Yup, sounds just like SWTOR
Where were all of you complainers when Vanguard launched? Too many young pups that started playing WOW years after it launched and think it was the first MMO to start with and that a game at launch should play like a game that's been out off years. If you are crying about this launch then you completely clueless. Is it perfect and bug free? Hell no, but all you that cry rivers about ESO name 1 top MMO that has ever launched in a bug free state? Come on, there has to be one doesn't there? Do some research about software. Not even Microsoft releases bug free software. Why? Because even .1 error per KLOC will result in 100 bugs per every million lines of code or so. Fix one and you very well cause more because the way everything is related. That's not even trying to optimize it to run on every possible configuration of PC out there, a Mac, and eventually consoles. That all takes time and money. If you think you know so much, become a PM in software development and come out of the ignorant bliss you currently live in.
Stop crying. If you love it, play it. If you hate it, play whatever makes you happy, but with most of you, that appears to be nothing.
The part where you said "able to get in to the game without queues", don't you think that happened because ESO isn't that much anticipated than FFXIV back then? Plus, thats what ESO did right, the "Mega server". Say if both titles are doing the same thing, no mega server and overly expected population, ESO would have the similar issues.
Its looking increasingly likely, that sales overall, numbered only in the 100's of thousands, and this is even after Zenimax reduced the price for the game in the hope of increasing sales to over 1 million for the first month. With pre-orders of the console versions being extremely low anyway, although that may be due to the less than imminent launch of the console versions. When you consider the server behaviour even with the numbers as they were, have to wonder if the game would have had even more problems if they had managed to sell a million, or even 2 million copies of the game, kind of wonder if they did use the Hero Engine after all, as it would go a long way to explain the issues the game has been having, particularly with phasing.
The rewards for completing a Trial also change each week, and the best completion times are tracked on a public leaderboard.
This always struck me as odd in any game that has a PTS - aren't the guilds on the test servers in a superior position to be on top of the leader board? It'll take weeks for other guilds to learn the mechanics to the point of guilds that have run this 100x.
Unless you go into youtube and watch them play and then repeat the steps.
So, either try to catch up to leader boards and skip any of the challenges of discovering and figuring out a new raid, trial, etc., or be content to play for weeks, months to learn all mechanics, so you maybe are starting to master that part when the next raid comes out.
Everyone in my guild has chat and combat latency. Not all the time, but often, especially in Cyrodiil or even in a 4-man dungeon. The biggest problems with combat are skills not firing and weapon swapping not happening as well as still taking damage when well out of red AoE zones. We are all from a variety of European countries and have all checked jitter, packet loss etc. The problem exists only in ESO and not in any other games we play as a guild. The issue is clearly on the server side and has even been acknowledged by ZeniMax as something they need to look at.
Here we go again! The Hero Engine has nothing to do With this. It's a very solid game engine, especially the last Version!
No matter what engine you License! No engine is going to automatically create the Perfect MMO for you! You still need good Developers and a hell of an experience to build something rock solid!
The problem with Bioware and SW:TOR is similar to Zenimax. Both dev houses come from SRPG's and entered the MMO Space inexperienced!
Bioware's problem was that they were forced the pre-release Version of the Hero Engine through their throats by overzelous management, had to heavily modify it to make it work for their design and vision of the game and so ended up in a CATCH 22 situation!
1. Hats off for them of managing to make it work as it did.
2. Due to Extreme modification, they were unable to recieve and implement updates and patches to the Hero Engine!
And back to ESO! The game has great graphics and it runs extremely well performance wise for the kind of Graphics it has!
Unlike Wildstar With it's stylish Graphics that runs absolutely crap. Horrible performance!
I'll agree on your last point... Yuck springs to mind... Another Yuck are these planned guild Kiosks.. Guilds bid on them enabling them to sell from a point in town rather than the bank to the public... If they don't get the botters out of the world I can see them all being owned by super rich bot/gold sellers.. Perfect way to raise gold for RMT !!
Shite idea IMO...
The auction system works great. You do not understand how it works. I am in two guilds the guild auctions are great since the prices are low because people do not want to gouge their guild mates. There is also a guild bank so people can freely give things to other members. So far I am geared well at a low price because of guild bank. I also have received a lot of free stuff including resources from guild members. If you left because of how guilds are structured you left for the wrong reasons. The guilds I am in are very family and friend oriented.
Yeah I am staunchly opposed to timed PVE content. It's just a lack of understanding on ZeniMax's part I guess. You know how this will go - people will work out how to skip trash, or do room pulls and generally plot the quickest way to get through it. Sure, you can say this takes skill, and it does, but if you're a dev taking care to craft the content, don't you want people to appreciate it? I guess that's how I would feel.
On the guild kiosks, I agree it's a lame move to appease those who are complaining about the current guild stores. But they only need to look at Age of Wushu, which has a similar kiosk system, to see how this doesn't work well.
I have no experience of game development, but it always surprises me that when devs have these kinds of ideas it seems that no one thinks to look at how these ideas work or don't work in other games before implementing them.
Haha, Dejavu.
Pardon my English as it is not my 1st language
As usual, the thousands of players who had "significant" issues are here to loudly remind us about their suffering.
The hundreds of thousands of players who had no serious problems with the first month are all too busy enjoying the game to come here and say so.
Besides, coming here to say how much fun you're having in ESO is not going to improve your game experience, whereas if you're unhappy, whining loudly might actually get you noticed and result in something being done about your problem...
”Zenimax is aiming for an update cycle of 4-6 weeks and in fact the company started working on their first update roughly a year ago.
So, these updates that are coming out in 4 to 6 week cycles takes a year to complete?
the Zenimax team is “enjoying the heck” out of seeing players online and having fun...
And just how many players would that be? everyone's dying to know. Surely your megaserver can tell you how many players are online at any one time - I mean, I realise your developers couldn't balance all the skill lines (or ensure they were all working) in the five years development before release - couldn't you use a flowchart or something? but surely the server does all the counting in this instance.
Oh yea, and any chance of even a generic time frame for the EU server move rather than 2014 and beyond? Many Thanks.
What's most disappointing and disturbing from this article is how very very very low are the standards for success and quality ESO is being held to by folks like Paul Sage. This guy's statements? What a stinking pile of falsehoods, exaggerations, and insincerity.
This launch has been a debacle by any measure: goofy phasing, lack of AH, bugs, botting, mob camping, gold spammers, trainers, speed hacks, false account banning, lost items, bugged quests, exploits to VR10 in a few days, etc. etc. I'm just waiting for player's credit card information to be posted to a public web site. I think that's the only thing left in an experience we pay to have, LOL.
I am sick and tired of these developers creating linear themeparks cost millions and millions of dollars and then acting so SURPRISED that players burn through the content so fast. REALLY? Mr. Sage, have you not paid attention to any other MMO released in the last decade? That wasn't anticipated? How long did you expect it to last? Especially with minimal replay value because of the way veteran levels work.
Apparently these big-name developers think MMOs are filled with casual players that gain a level every 2 weeks and are willing to plop down $15 a month for the privilege despite all evidence to the contrary that even casual players burn through content quickly.----------
Life sucks, buy a helmet.