Community,

I was thrilled when ESO was first announced. The game had been in development for a number of years, and I was sure that when the game finally released, it would be in tip-top shape. However, I have begun to realize that Zenimax does not truly seem prepared for the production of this game. In terms of PR, they have done a terrible job promoting the game: little to no content from the game has been shown (the 'big video' had 20 seconds of gameplay), they regurgitate the same information in their interviews, and they have had little to no commercial advertising. Then in terms of the loyal fanbase, what have we received? A "Thank you" video for giving one million likes? Three pieces of armor concept art--they couldn't even give us all of the races? No official forums? Oh thats right we'll probably get the forums when the page hits 2 million likes. Then in terms of logistics, the closed beta has not started, and the game is set to release in 2013. Don't fret--I will still buy the game, but I am certainly losing faith in Zenimax. On top of all of this, MMO's are a genre where even after the release of the game the developer has to constantly give updates, patches, and stay in communication with the fans.


Sincerely,

A Concerned Fan.

Closed Beta will likely start within the next month and we are closely approaching gaming Convention season. They announced a week ago or so a Food Truck Tour across the country. So we can see things developing on the horizon.

A little patience and we'll be swimming in info and buzz. So just relax and enjoy the ride.

Their PR will most certainly be hyped up in the coming months, and as more information on the game becomes available. They still have around 9 months to work with, which gives them plenty of time for any large scale ad campaign. The official forums are suspected to come with the start of the beta. I do want the forums, but I think these forums do just as fine for now. All we do is discuss the same old stuff anyway.

As a "loyal fan", you shouldn't need anything else but the game itself when it comes out. Its nice that companies do things like thank us for support and face pic, and then release cool pictures of armor that we haven't see before. They don't have it do that. Don't become entitled - the only thing you are entitled to is a good game. Nothing more

They won't release too much information early, nor show too much. Not until the closed beta is under way at the least.

The last thing that they want to be doing is showing off some feature that then gets cut or changed. Betas can turn up a lot of things that need changing, for example, DC Universe: Online was supposed to launch with Lantern Rings, but they were discovered to be massively overpowered, so they were cut from the release and then added later via DLC (Allowing them time to balance them and make additional cash)

Plus I imagine they saw how massivley hyped TOR was and are keen to avoid the same mistakes.

Has crossed my mind.

Worst case: They haven't got very far with it, and are hoping the "lore" news will keep people quiet while they try to get on schedule.

Best case: They are keeping it a big surprise, but haven't yet learnt to adopt the "WoW" style of breaking content news piece by piece to drum up excitement. This may be because they haven't actually decided on it yet.


Likely case:

Players are most interested even at this early stage in planning their first character. What you want to know are racials, birth signs, anything relevant to character creation. Classes if any, skill trees. Perks. Abilities and what happens as they improve and you level up.

The game mechanics are likely to be there and the bulk of the game in place ready for beta. It's logical to think that balance and skill trees / spells etc are a VERY big part of the finished product and are frequently tackled as one of the last tasks. I would say it's highly likely they are on this phase now but are yet undecided or unfinished. Without coming to some decisions it's unlickly they will move on to Beta and release more snippets of news.


Personally, I'd approach it as a loose class system - pick a race (racials apply - perhaps let players pick from limited options), pick a class (for ultimate ability), pick primary skill trees (previews up), to let you pick a couple of trees you can unlock all the way. Tough choices.

I'd break news on racials first. Perhaps for each race have a set of bonuses (pick one) and penalties (pick one) to choose from and a small stat boost of some sort or something. List class names with them and state they will be fairly loose. Include planned ultimate abilites and be vague.

Next I'd break the skill trees - name them all first, then one by one. Slip in comments about abilities or attacks relevant to each tree as you go, and what happens as you gain skill / level up.

That's enough to get people planning their steps into the world (and putting their cash to one side).