Now this is something I have been complaining about for a long time now, in private, and since this topic has just been alluded to in yesterday’s http://tamrielfoundry.com/2013/08/eso-allstars-3/ I felt it’d be appropriate to voice some of my thoughts in public.

I think ZOS’ PR, especially their information policy, is damaging to the game they are trying to sell. The two main reasons why I think so are that information about ESO is publicized through the press and fan sites exclusively, and that ZOS seems to be very reluctant to give away information at all which leads people to see ESO as incomplete and unsound.

When you go visit the official website, you don’t learn a thing. There’s no information on there. The setting and the alliances are explained in short texts, but the actual game, the game I’m trying to figure out if I can see myself playing it for many years to come, isn’t described at all. What are the classes? How’s questing going to work? Can I join multiple guilds? What they have is lists upon lists of articles written by press and fan sites. Now what am I supposed to do with that? Read miles and miles of text, filter out the important information myself and overlooking many details in the process? This really isn’t the place someone should find himself when trying to look up that upcoming MMORPG they’ve just heard about.

This invites misinformation and confusion. One guy read about a certain feature on one site, another guy on another site. Now they’re having a look at the forums and see each other’s posts and learn about an aspect of that feature – unsourced, of course – that hasn’t been mentioned in the article they’ve read. Then they go and tell others about it. In the end, there’s been so much word-of-mouth going on that most people don’t know where the information originally came from or if it is true at all. Also, the information has changed on the way and some people believe something to be in the game that won’t be at all, at least not in the way they think they know. Even I, who devours every bit of new information, am confused about some things and have no idea what ZOS is playing at with others. And I sure as hell can’t associate information with sources any more, it just got too much.

Now where’s a comprehensive write-up on that feature people can just look up and be sure it’s true? There’s nothing on the official site except breadcrumbs. We have to research everything on our own and we better read every article there is to be sure we didn’t miss anything. And even if we have all the facts, we still lack the development context. The half-information gained from combining a number of articles on any topic leaves people with a picture of a feature that seems fundamentally unsound and easily attackable. We don’t have the context; What reasons did ZOS come up with to implement this feature? What are they trying to achieve? How much would it take to write up an article on the official site explaining in how certain things will work and why ZOS wants them to work that way after they felt comfortable enough to talk to the press and fan sites about it?

I’m alluding to Carbine here, because that’s what they are doing with Wildstar, another MMO currently in development. There was an http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/news/wildstar_uplink_anolysis_money_sinks.php where they talked about Money Sinks and what lines of reasoning they went through when designing money sinks for Wildstar. ZOS, on the other hand, gives us a bi-weekly small selection of regurgitated factoids from the event coverage articles while trying their best to be patronizing. “Let the fans do all the work spreading information and covering our ass when we stepped wrong.” There aren’t even class pages on the official site so the more attentive people can explain to newcomers whatever happened to the Warden class over and over again. The amount of people who need to be told the very basics of Elder Scrolls Online is staggering, and until the official site becomes way more informative than it is now we are doomed to repeat the same pieces of information day after day to new waves of people.

And that just can’t be good for the game. When I want to learn more about a game, see if I want to buy it, and the official site offers me nothing whatsoever except a thinly veiled “You go look for information yourself, peasant,” I wouldn’t bother. I like exploring and finding stuff out on my own in TES games, not about them. There are enough other games out there more forthcoming with even the most basic facts about themselves.

Or remember the outcry when they said there wouldn’t be raids? What did ZOS do to save face? Nothing. Let the fans do it. By now, we can piece together some information on raid content – nothing concrete of course – months after the disaster, when many people already forgot about the game.

The time when the name Elder Scrolls kept people interested in the game is over. Now that we actually have information on how the game’s supposed to work, they actually need to be told directly, not just by those who followed its development for the last 15 months.

I just want to point out this. A article writer misunderstood when they said no raids like other games. You can tell that the people that actually put thought into what was actually said, that Adventure zones were going to be the raids in this game (because ZOS told us that AZs would be the large group content). This was simply people freaking out about something. They didn't have to save face. It is no wonder that they don't give out more information because people just either rip it apart or take it a completely wrong way. Elder Scrolls has such a passionate following that even releasing info can be bad because of how people would take it.

Yes, people were freaking out about it. People were jumping ship because of it. Saying it's IGN's fault for taking the quote out of context and therefore all the sales lost can't be blamed on ZOS won't help the game, though. ZOS did nothing to clear up the misunderstanding.

And if they had bothered to explain their stuff properly in the first place, this wouldn't have happened, or there would have been citeable articles showing everyone that IGN got it wrong.

There was cited sources telling everyone IGN was wrong. There were links to interviews that flat out said AZs were the large group content like raids. People ignored them and just continued freaking out.

If they took the time to put the correct information on their website, people would have much better understanding of the game as a whole.

This would cut down on all the arguments of what is real and how things would work. This would also inspire a lot more fans to play the game. Right now, I can not tell my friends to go to their website. There is nothing there for them to get excited about.

We knew back then that there would be adventure zones for large-group PvE endgame. We didn't know what they would include. And when we heard "no raids," we knew what to eliminate from the list of possibilities: instanced - and therefore competitively comparable - challenging fights. And it basically left zergable open world encounters. Without competition, what's the point for PvE hardcoe gamers to play an MMORPG?

The real - well, I say real, but it is more than lacking - explanation came months later. Too late for any damage control.

Most things are in flux, pretty much no company is going to put info on their website that could possibly change, particularly when it comes to game mechanics. It can cause just as much confusion.

I knew that it would be the raid content just from the description of the AZ. It was just common sense. By the end of that thread it basically just camne down to people not believing they were the raid content because just because they weren't called raids

Also keep in mine they have pushed the release date all the way out to like the middle of 2014. With a release date so far off I would say that if anything, the hype and even official marketting that does exist already may be a bit premature in and of itself.

I don't see the way Zenimax is doing things as being any different then any other developer I have followed as they develop an MMO. There is no developer out there that will post any speculation on their game, it just does not happen. So unless they have decided on a feature we will not be reading about, or watching it in video interviews, simple as that.

I have never known any developer that will speculate on anything about the game they are developing it is way worse then what the OP suggests is a void of information that is hurting the promotion of ESO. If they released information about things that are not finalized yet and then decided to not go ahead with such a feature it would be far more damaging then not releasing information until the feature is in the game.

As I said I don't see anything any different with the way Zenimax is going about things for ESO other then I think they have listened to the community and made some changes and that is a good thing.

Six months ago it was join an alliance and if you wanted to see the other alliance areas you had to roll a character in that other alliance. The community complained about that and Zenimax added the feature where you can see all three alliances with one character.

Six months ago there was to be no communication between alliances, that has been changed and apparently they are even testing to see if a close quarters /say function can be part of ESO and as I said six months ago none of that was possible and Zenimax was dead set against it. Again the community complained and they decided to change that with cross alliance guilds and even the close quarters /say function in Cyrodiil.

I am certain there is something I have missed here that says Zenimax is listening to the fans of ESO and making changes where they can and that is about the only thing I can see that is radically different from other developers I have followed when they are developing an MMO.

I understand that some things are not set in stone yet, but most game companies, especially MMOs have a lot more info than what is on ESOs site atm.

Every Dev has their own way. Can disagree and want more info all you want, but doesn't mean they are "wrong" or "bad" for doing it that way.

Having followed several MMOs to launch now there are a few constant facts in all this, first like I said every dev is different in how they release info and second ALL devs are the same in not releasing info until its assured to be in game.

Personally i just think most of those who complain about info just need to relax, drop the entitlement and grow some patience. The success or failure of the game will depend on the game itself at launch and not how much or little info you think you deserve to know.

This has nothing to do with entitlement or lack of patience. This is not saying the devs are "wrong" or "bad".

Fact is they have released a crap load of information, just none of it is easy to access because they do not put it on their site.

It would be nice for new people to be able to go to the offical site and see what information that is already released in one official spot.

My peronal belief? They won't say anything until it is set in stone/gone gold.

Every time there is information released, someone somehow somewhere manages to read into, between the lines, take out of context, and see what they most want to see. And no amount of devs saying "that isn't what we said" *ever* changes that.

Anyone remember the outcry/outrage/massive ranting that happened when Todd said there wouldn't be another Elder Scrolls game? Except that wasn't what he said. It wasn't close to what he said. But the paraphrase of the statement that Todd made changed when it was written down and reported.

I would rather they not release any information until they know for sure that what they are discussing is absolutely in the game and working as intended, or definitely out of the game for whatever reason. That way "There will be horses" isn't morphed into "teleporting rainbow cyborg unicorns for level 1 players".

You have seen the title of the thread, haven't you?

How ZOS' information policy cripples ESO

"Cripples" implies that there is harm being done and this harm is being attributed to the actions of ZOS. That is the very definition of saying "the devs are bad".

There is.

http://help.elderscrollsonline.com/

and as far as the interview and articles thats always on the fan sites and such to keep track of. Which I find kind of ironic because the OP is a part of Tamriel Foundry, one of a few sites that gathers info and displays it for the fans.

and also http://elderscrollsonline.com/en/news Most articles and interviews and such are posted there as well a link to the twitter account where they post links to articles.

So the insinuation by the Op that the Main site doesn't contain any info is very wrong.

I guess he should of said was it was not organized very well. There is not even a FAQ page yet.

Go to EQN website. They don't come out until 2016, but their website is more organized and has a FAQ page already.

Just saying....

If you click on "Support" it takes you to FAQs.

Folks will see what they want to see and assume what they want to assume, regardless. I think the devs smart to remain not to comment until features are ready to show, even more for this game than most given the built in tension between folks looking for TES with friends and folks looking for an MMO.

Also, it's the better part of a year until release. Of course things are incomplete. Not to mention that whipping folks into a frenzy of excitement serves no good purpose this far out. It seems much more sensible to pace information so that excitement peaks at the point of purchase (and once folks start playing) not months before they have an opportunity to buy the game.

lolwut? The first page I linked IS the FAQ page did you not even click on it? Then there is also a search box where you enter a topic you want to know about and it will find info on the site about what you typed in.

See this is what I was leading to, the info is there, if you can't find it for yourself and need to be hand held to everything then sorry thats on you not the dev.

The devs aren't going to release every tidbit of information about their game until it is released. There has to be some stuff left for the players to discover. Additionally, the game isn't even set for a release for a minimum of another 7 months. They have to drag out information, otherwise there won't be anything left to reveal later. Finally, almost everything that has been revealed has had fans in an uproar.