The Elder Scrolls Online gives player feedback a new home with Feature Upvote
For the past two months, we’ve been working closely with ZeniMax Online Studios, and now we can finally share the news: The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) is using Feature Upvote!
We’re thrilled to help the team behind this much-loved MMORPG connect with its large, passionate community. Together, we’ve been getting everything ready for launch: finding the right setup for the boards, listening to the team’s needs and making improvements to Feature Upvote along the way.
A clearer picture of what matters to players
The ESO team already had many ways to hear from its community. But with conversations spread across forums, Reddit, Discord, Twitch and social media, understanding what mattered most to players was a challenge. They wanted a clearer view of players’ wants and needs, as defined by players themselves, to help inform development priorities.
Feature Upvote gives those topics a dedicated home where players can share suggestions, vote and follow official status updates. The team can compare the priorities emerging on the boards with insights from other community spaces and data sources.
For the ESO community team, one of Feature Upvote’s most valuable qualities is the agency it gives players. Players can raise the subjects that matter to them, rather than only responding to questions selected by the team, and see whether those ideas resonate with others.
“It’s like giving our players a seat at the table – a way to personally weigh in – and aligns perfectly with our renewed focus on the dev-community feedback loop and desire for a more collaborative development philosophy.”
— The Elder Scrolls Online community team
Related reading: Internal communication for community managers: How to talk to your team
Building the experience together
In August, the ESO team opened its Feature Upvote boards to players as part of a beta test ahead of the full launch. This gave the team time to get comfortable with the tools, understand how many submissions to expect and work out how managing the boards would fit into their daily routine. It also helped them populate the boards with hundreds of unique suggestions and identify improvements, such as adding more category tags.
One of the great things about working so closely with the ESO team is that their feedback has helped us improve Feature Upvote itself.
Early in the project, the ESO team asked whether moderators could preview images directly in the moderation queue. We thought it was a great idea that every Feature Upvote customer could benefit from, so we got to work! We added attachment thumbnails to the queue, allowing moderators to see images before approving them without opening each attachment individually.
It’s a small change that can make a real difference when reviewing lots of submissions.
“The Feature Upvote team has also been amazing to work with. It’s been an incredibly collaborative relationship. We bounce ideas off each other, talk through questions, and have even seen some feature requests already come online.”
— The Elder Scrolls Online community team
We also worked with the ESO team on the look and feel of the boards. Using custom CSS, we helped bring ESO’s visual identity into Feature Upvote, making the boards feel more familiar to the players!
Making community feedback easier to understand
The ESO community team actively participates in and monitors many community spaces. Feature Upvote helps the team see which priorities remain important over time and compare them with the conversations happening elsewhere.
For example, when a subject repeatedly appears in forum and Reddit discussions while also attracting substantial interest on Feature Upvote, it provides another indication that the topic deserves closer attention. The boards add context and player voices to the other information the team uses when considering development priorities.
“While it is not the only datapoint we use to help us identify opportunities and make development decisions, Feature Upvote has quickly become an incredibly valuable addition. It provides added context and voice to some of the numbers, helps us understand community priorities, and is included as a consideration point for future development.”
— The Elder Scrolls Online community team
Listening to players is essential, but if they never see your response, they can feel like their feedback went unheard. With updates spread across different channels, even when the team has shared an answer, it can easily get missed.
“Over the years, we’ve noticed that despite sharing status updates on specific topics, depending on where those updates are, some players miss them. We knew we needed a solution to improve the visibility of what we’re working on and related status updates and make them easier to find.”
— The Elder Scrolls Online community team
By keeping submissions, discussions and official status updates together, Feature Upvote gives players a place to return to and see where a topic stands. It also gives the community team a clear place to direct anyone asking about it.
An enthusiastic response from players
Since the boards opened in August, the ESO team has received more than 1,200 unique submissions across the two boards.
Players have welcomed another way to contribute, including those who may not feel comfortable posting on forums, Reddit or Discord.
“Thank you for this. I’m hopeful because I’ve seen a similar system do a lot of good work for other places so hoping it does the same here. I also see more people engaging with it who didn’t engage with feedback in other ways already which makes me hopeful we’ll see more voices being heard/feeling comfortable sharing feedback.“
— Emeratis, ESO player
Others have highlighted the visibility of feedback and the opportunity to share the boards with their own communities.
“I like the way we are able to see which category the suggestions/what they are pertaining to are actually classified as according to the Developers. It’s not always clear on the forums but in this case, it offers more clarity.”
— CatalinaWineMixer2, ESO player
“Really like the platform, especially the fact that there is public visibility and searchability on pain points/feedback.
– GlandePas, ESO player
A new home for ESO player feedback
After two months of preparation, testing and collaboration, ESO players now have two dedicated, evergreen boards: Feedback & Suggestions and Bugs & Pain Points.
Separate boards aren’t necessary for every game, but for a project of ESO’s scale, they help keep different types of feedback organized. Players have a clear place to go, whether they want to suggest an improvement or report a bug. They can also see what other players are saying, join the conversation and upvote ideas they support.
If you’re playing ESO, come take a look at the boards, share an idea, leave a comment or cast a vote!
We’re proud to have helped the Elder Scrolls Online team bring this new home for player feedback to life. A huge thank you to everyone involved, and to the players already sharing their ideas!
Managing a community of your own? Watch a demo and learn more about Feature Upvote to see how it could help you organize player feedback!