The Elder Scrolls Online‘s new seasonal model is one of its biggest shakeups yet. By rethinking rewards, adding in a new battle pass system, and making all future (and some past) gameplay content free for all players, it aims to future-proof itself further as it strives to become a “30-year MMO.” Zenimax Online Studios has already revealed loads of details about this transformation, as well as some of the big changes that are coming in Update 49 in March and Season Zero in April. But I got the chance to dig a little deeper with executive producer Susan Kath and game director Nick Giacomini, while also asking them about concerns around the value of the ESO Plus subscription service in the new seasonal era, as well as its commitment to increasing “trust” and “transparency” with players.
If you’re not fully clued up on what this new seasonal model looks like yet, then my piece on ZOS’ reveal stream for the future of The Elder Scrolls Online is worth reading first. But if you’re already in the know, you’re probably more interested in the why – why is ZOS tearing up the old Chapters model in favor of these shiny new Seasons that dish out gameplay content for free?
Giacomini tells me that, from a development standpoint, Chapters were “all hands on deck” pieces of content that were great at expanding Tamriel, but were “limiting” the team when it came to swiftly actioning player concerns and improving gameplay features.
“We’re an almost 12-year-old game at this point,” he says. “[We can’t] pretend that player expectations haven’t changed, [or] pretend that our technology that was built way back then is up to the task […] We’re talking about overhauling visuals, overhauling combat mechanics, addressing core systems in the game. Foundationally, to achieve that milestone, we felt that we needed change. We couldn’t just continue adding new zone, new zone, new zone. We had to address fundamentals. And I would say that that’s probably one of the biggest shifts and things that Seasons enable us to do.”
“We’re trying to provide interesting, compelling things for players, and sometimes that is going to be continuing to the next new zone, because that’s still important for us,” Giacomini adds. “But we have way more flexibility now to address those fundamentals, to address that core experience, which we think is needed for this to truly be a 30-year MMO.”
While there’s been quite a lot of support and optimism for Seasons, there is one section of the playerbase that feels a little hard done by. Aside from buying DLC Chapters separately, ESO Plus subscriptions were one of the ways in which players could access paywalled content, alongside receiving loads of other in-game benefits. With Seasons, that paywall has of course been removed for everyone going forward. ZOS has reworked the rewards you get with ESO Plus in order to increase its value in other areas. The rate at which you progress through the new Tamriel Tomes battle pass system will increase if you’re a subscriber. For every month you’re a member, you’ll also accrue tokens which can be put towards getting a free premium Tamriel Tome.
However, many subscribers have been complaining that these new benefits aren’t enough, with a common suggestion being that ESO Plus members should get access to every premium Tamriel Tome without having to pay extra. Both Giacomini and Kath confirm that they’ve seen this feedback, but it doesn’t sound as if there are plans to change course just yet.
“We’re going to watch it and pay attention to the feedback that folks have, but this is one of those areas that’s made tougher by the fact that we can’t just sit everyone down and walk through it and play it with them at this point,” Kath says. “The paid Tamriel Tome tracks are not like a Chapter. They’re completely optional, cosmetic aspects to the game that layer on top. So I think it’s a tough conversation to have, to actually have feedback discussions about [something] before people can sit down and start playing with it.”
Giacomini says that ESO Plus subscribers remain incredibly important players to ZOS, but reinforces how crucial it is for the game’s future that it “walks away” from paywalled gameplay content. He also flags that there are still loads of in-game bonuses for members, and notes that limits on things like Transmutation Crystals and house furnishing items are being increased in Update 49 and Season Zero. However, it is worth noting that while ESO Plus subscribers still get more allowance, the base limits for non-subscribers are increasing too as part of ZOS’ sweeping quality of life improvements.
To me, it seems like this necessary (and positive) move to make gameplay content free has created an ESO Plus void that’s proving quite hard to fill. ZOS seems keen not to give away every single premium Tamriel Tome track as a benefit, but I’m personally not sure that the increased progression rates and ‘one free Tome a year’ incentives are enough to make up what’s been taken away.
However, the fact that ZOS has already seen those concerns and is willing to discuss them with me shows its taking its repeated promises of more “transparency” seriously. It was a word that came up several times during its Seasons reveal stream, and “trust” was mentioned a lot too. I ask why there’s such a big focus right now on improving in these areas.
“We want to build [ESO] together,” Kath explains. “We’ve said we want this to be a 30-year MMO. That’s more of a collaborative thing in its very nature. And I think that’s something not unique to MMOs, but that relationship between the developer and the player is different in MMOs. We’re kind of building this space, this world, and this community together, and so it’s absolutely [about] going harder on how we do that collaboratively with them.”
Kath adds that this transparency push will see new content dropped into ESO, taken back into development to apply suggestions and feedback, and then brought back even better in the future. This will be the case with the Night Market, Season Zero’s new limited-time event zone, which will stick around for seven weeks, leave, then return in Season Two .
“Trust is not easily earned,” Giacomini also says. “It’s not something that we expect to just, you know, flip a switch [and get more of it]. Like, with this reveal [of Seasons], we don’t think that this is going to magically gain the trust of all of our players. It’s a journey. But we’re committed to being transparent, to being honest, [and] trying to give players more insight into what we’re thinking and what we’re building.”
Update 49 of The Elder Scrolls Online drops Monday, March 9, and Season Zero will kick off this new era of the game on Monday, April 2. While the reworks, quality of life improvements, and removal of paywalls are all huge reasons to be excited, we’ll have to wait and see how well new content like the Night Market lands, and whether ZOS decides to make changes to ESO Plus.
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