[2024] Feedback on Yesterday's Battleground Brawl Livestream

Hi all, just wanted to follow up here. Normally, we do not leave threads open that specifically call out an individual dev team member. We will be editing the title for that reason. However, it seems like there is some constructive conversation here in this thread. So we want to make sure to keep constructive conversations around for us to reflect on later. All we ask is that those conversations try to address criticisms more generally, rather than at an individual team member. As along as we stay constructive, we can keep the thread open. We do want to note the that Brian is not a rep for "sweaty PvP". He said that on the stream as well. He takes a more causal route now when he plays PvP himself. Also, part of the stream was meant to showcase that you don't have to be a sweat to jump into PvP. Brian's take on being more causal in PvP was meant to speak to that. Also wanted to note that Brian was responsible for running the livestream and keeping things on track. If anyone has livestreamed before, you know there are a lot of moving parts to make sure things stay on track, so sometimes questions get missed. We're all human, so these things happen. Just as a reminder, all we ask for this thread is to keep conversations and/or criticism more generally, rather than at a specific team member. We're taking feedback to the team for how we can better address Battlegrounds, livestreams showcasing content, and the PvP community in general. As along as we stay constructive, we can keep the thread open. Thanks for the feedback so far.

Hey all, adding onto what Kevin posted earlier in this thread we'd like to address a few pieces of feedback we’ve seen about yesterday’s stream and more broadly touch on some of our communication philosophies. First and foremost, thank you to everyone who has maintained constructiveness in this discussion thread. We’ve always said that constructive critical feedback is welcome and valuable, and we do mean it. As many of you who have been around awhile know, we also typically do not allow discussions about specific developers or the dev team. We prefer discussions focus on the game, as discussions about individual devs or the team often turn personal in a bad way. That said, we appreciate the efforts by most in this discussion to remain constructive and will leave it open so long as that continues. We do still encourage focusing commentary on the game, though, and not individual devs. On the topic of our developers, we’ve seen through the years commentary around expectations of developer skill levels, especially with the more competitive PVP and PVE content. It's not expected that a developer has god-tier skill at the game. We have a wide range of skills and interests on the team, just like within our community. We range from progression pushers to casual players and everything in between, and that allows us to account for all player types - not just the god-tier ones. This goes for knowledge about the game, too. ESO is a huge game with a lot of remember and track. We don't expect perfect encyclopedic recall of every piece a developer has ever worked on. Spacing on a name of an ability while running a stream or taking part in an interview doesn't mean that developer doesn't know the game or skills. It means they’re human. On the topic of communication, we want to be able to talk with you all more, get out there and play with game with you more, do more livestreams, etc. When a developer puts themselves out there and is met with unrealistic expectations and general personal attacks, it makes them not want to do any of those things again. So please, if you want more communication from us, keep in mind to be respectful and constructive. It’s okay to be frustrated, disappointed, unhappy with something, etc. and we only ask that you communicate that to us without bashing our developers in the process. Anecdotally, we also want players of all skill levels to feel welcome to try out things like PVP Battlegrounds, Cyrodiil, dungeons, and trials, and feel okay with not necessarily being top-tier at it. It's always disappointing to see gatekeeping commentary and behavior – that’s not in the spirit of our community. On the topic of some of the issues and concerns you all have called out, we are looking into why there are still some queuing issues like the ones you saw us encounter yesterday during the stream. We are aware of them and are digging into whether they’re due to people disconnecting, people declining the invite, or if something else is going on. We are also working on improving our MMR logic so that it provides a better experience and more balanced matches. This was long, so if you read it all, thank you. 😊 The team here does care, very much, and we want to get out there and interact with you more. Please remember there are hardworking individuals behind the names, and a little kindness can go a long way.

Hey all, it's late but I wanted to hop in and say thank you for the many constructive and thoughtful responses since I last posted, especially those from @Destai @ESO_Nightingale @ForumSavant and @Turtle_Bot. There are fair concerns, criticisms, and suggestions here. While I can't respond to all of them, please know I've read every post and we are discussing best steps forward. I know we've said this before, but we can always do better with our communication. In that line of thought, beyond forum posts what method do you all most prefer for answers to questions? What is the most visible? A Q&A post/article? A Reddit AMA? Something else?

Hey all, thank you for the additional replies - there are many good insights here. Increasing the amount of Q&As/AMAs we do, and adding more regular feedback surveys does seem doable. As Kevin touched on in this post earlier tonight, many of us are going to be out for Thanksgiving holiday, and we'll follow up when we return. We are making an effort to be here on the forums a bit more, and we don't want our lighter presence over the next week to send the wrong message. The Community team will still drop by as we're able in to check on things here. For those of you who celebrate, we hope you have a restful Thanksgiving with family and/or friends. :smile:

Aldoss;c-8229969

I'm very eager to read the replies from @ZOS_Kevin and @ZOS_JessicaFolsom (and hopefully a statement from @ZOS_BrianWheeler or even @ZOS_MattFiror, as well) about this thread, now that the holiday is over. I hope your vacation was enjoyable and I hope the extra time to aggregate player feedback in this thread was constructive. Should we expect a reply this week or will there be more time with internal discussions before addressing the concerns shared within this thread? Thanks y'all!

Hi @Aldoss! Thank you and thanks for the ping. I've been fighting the inbox boss all day today, catching up. Kevin is out this week, enjoying a much sunnier locale than Maryland. We're all very jealous. :D We're putting together our thoughts on some steps we'd like to take to improve overall communication, especially the cadence consistency. And much of that is taking into consideration the recommendations here. We'd like to share that soon (it its own thread) to get everyone's input. For this thread, we've all been reading it and taking the feedback to heart. There are things we can improve for future streams, for sure, and opportunities to utilize members of the dev team. Are there specific questions you have regarding Update 44 and battlegrounds for which we could help get you answers?

DemonicGoat;c-8234124

Wondering if this thread is gonna get forgotten or if were gonna get some official response on the very real problems with BGs/PVP that frankly are indicative of issues in the dev cycle. A failure analysis might be prudent given this "new" feature apparently took 2 years to develop,barely works,seems unready and which has had a terrible reception. @ZOS_JessicaFolsom You said, "We're putting together our thoughts on some steps we'd like to take to improve overall communication, especially the cadence consistency. And much of that is taking into consideration the recommendations here. We'd like to share that soon (it its own thread) to get everyone's input" a week ago, Any idea on when this will be?

This is still being worked on and it also needs to be translated so that other language speakers outside of English get this as well. We are hoping to have this up before the New Year. But it is in progress. I read a draft for it this morning.

Hey all, we wanted to let you know we posted a follow-up over here to answer some questions and concerns from a few different discussion threads. Thank you. :)