An ESO State of the Game Address was recently given by Matt Firor, Game Director of The Elder Scrolls Online. The Address was originally published on the ESO forums here.
The Address covers a lot of ground, including the efforts ZeniMax has undertaken to combat black market activities in the game (for more information on some of these schemes, please see the articles Elder Scrolls Online Spam: Can It Be Stopped? and Elder Scrolls Online Dupe Bug Is Problematic).
ESO State Of The Game Address
The ESO State of the Game Address provides welcome news, and it’s good to see ZeniMax communicate openly with players and fans. Firor’s words are reassuring to the community. Here are some of the Address’s highlights:
- Gold Spammers and Bots
- ZeniMax has been fighting a running battle with spammers and bots
- The accounts of offenders are being banned on a regular basis
- Better systems to ID black market accounts and characters are being worked on
- Up to 85% of customer service calls and emails are related to the black market
- Customer service has been slower to respond to other issues as a result of black market calls/emails
- “Fighting black market activity like gold selling spam and farming bots is a marathon, not a sprint, but we will do whatever we can to reduce their impact on the game.”
- Dupe Bug
- Dupe bug has been fixed (dupers no longer able to manipulate stacks of inventory items to make copies)
- The accounts of worst offenders have been banned
- Some legitimate accounts were inadvertently banned, but have been restored
- “Contrary to some reports, exploitation of this bug did not result in destabilizing the ESO economy in any way.”
- Maintenance Periods
- More maintenance periods than planned for
- Everyone hates downtime, but server maintenance make the game better
- “We are working on shortening the length of maintenances, this will get better over time.”
- Updates
- In process of releasing first major game update
- Update includes class and weapon ability tweaks, content fixes, and updates to almost all systems
- Update includes new Craglorn Adventure Zone (for more information please see Craglorn: Why We Should Be Excited)
- “This is a major update to the game, so it will be on PTS [Play Test Server] for at least a week or 10 days for testing before we take it live.”
- Conclusion
- Thanks community for patience and support
- “ESO is already an awesome game, and it will only get better from here.”
Final Thoughts
As Elder Scrolls Online fans, I think we all realize that ESO would undergo some growing pains. It’s reassuring to know that the ZeniMax team is addressing issues to make the game even better, and Firor’s candid communication is much appreciated. Hopefully we’ll see another ESO State of the Game Address in the future.
