And the most important fact … did choice of race which we play ever had meaning in other aspects of game then look or special racial abilities? If u played as an Nord in Morrowind, you couldn’t become Hortathor, or Nerevarin and help Dunmers fight with Dagoth Ur? Or as an High Elf u couldnt stop Mythic Dawn in Oblivion cause Camoran was the same nationality as you and served Summerset? No I don’t think so… If USA starts war with Europe that means i had to kill every single US guy I met ? Nope… People are free, can make they own decisions. U know what would broke the most lore of the game ? If races would lost they special abilities, skills with which they born. For ex. my beloved race are bosmers. I love to play as an archer. But I don’t want to play as an part of the Aldmeri Dominions cause we all know they are pricks of TES world… more or less bosmers are not part of the Aldmeri, cause they wanted. They are occupied by High Elfs and forced to be part of the Dominion… as always used, but soon Tiber Septim will “free” all the nations, and create Great Empire of Tamriel.

I agree. Think of modern society. We still have racism through out every race, however that does not mean we are all racist. Even if are relatives are the racist ones.

Bethesda announced in their store FAQ that everyone will be able to “upgrade” to unlock the Imperial race and all the other CE bonuses. Which is a brilliant idea; if you can’t afford the extra $20 up front, it can be something you can still opt to get access to later on.

https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/storefaq

In all tes games, they’ve never limited what content you get access to depending on race.. Your article is full of misguided and false information… Useless article that is misguiding readers.

Also allowing races across factions also makes balancing of the difference factions easier. If we learn anything from WOW the big debate over races abilities for horde and alliance that finally they decided to give similiar abilities to both sides.

So imo, TESO is doing the right thing but allowing ppl to do whatever they want help balance out the factions alot easier.

Rumors are that the game cost about 100 million to make. If thats true it would take half a million users an entire year of paying subs and having bought the game to break even… I don’t fault them for wanting to recoup investment. I purchased the CE.

Is bigger always better? I’d rather have a great loyal smaller fanbase than the toxic f2p leap from mmo to mmo crowd. we don’t need that type.

I think they set up an alliance sistem primarily for PvP, the other solution was the Guild vs Guild system and i think that would not suit well for TESO. Even in end game there will be PvP because Tamriel needs an emperor, someone has to take the amulet of kings and light the fires… and everyone wants the throne!

Your English is fine! I have played the game as well and it didn’t seem any more fragile than every other MMO faction system I’ve seen. However, maybe you’re right and by end-game the factions will be meaningless and it is just a free-for-all. In which case…why have a faction system to start with at all?

Since all of your other responses rely on details that we won’t know until the game launches, I’ll just address #3 – there is no indication that they will take the extra step to make cross-factional races woven into the lore of the franchise. My point isn’t so much about RP as it is about franchise consistency. They’ve made no indication that you will be able to play as a “spy” or that you will contribute to solving racism in Tamriel. In fact, Skyrim taking place 1000 years later and the still existing racism is proof that doesn’t happen.

At the end of the day, this just goes back to my core complaint of the game (that isn’t really brought up here) and that’s the fact that it’s essentially an MMO that happens to take place in TES, not a TES game that is also an MMO.

2) I Beta-tested the game and i will say only this: the alliances are fragile and you can sense it playing the various quests: In the Ebonheart Pact the Dunmers don’t trust argonians and Nords, still the scaly humanoids are treated like beasts from most people from Vvardenfell and you have to do many missions focused on the unification of the various forces against a common enemy.

Also your WW2 example is wrong: think about Hitler & Stalin 😉

(sorry for my bad english)

4. I don’t know if it is true that it is the “fastest mount in the game”, only that it has a speed bonus, and may be the faster of any unknown number of tiers of mounts. In other words, it could be no more than a slightly faster starter mount.

3. This one truly makes no sense. If your complaint is immersion or RP, it should not be hard to come up with any number of plausible storylines. Spying, raised by an opposing faction from childhood, injured on campaign and coming to respect your enemies, etc etc etc. Comparing this to N. Korea and S. Korea being “best friends” makes no sense, as who has to say that an Orc allied with elves would be treated well by the people at large, or even liked at all. Look at RA Salvatore’s Drizzt character. Seriously, this one is just complaining.

2. If it is cosmetic, then this is a fair ticket to entry. You get what you pay for, and if you want the cosmetic of an imperial soldier, you will pony up the 20$. This is no different than any number of expansion packs.

1. I agree if the bonuses are game affecting. If it is simply cosmetics, then see #2.

No worries! If I got offended at things I read in the comments section of my articles, I’d never have a good day haha

I agree with you completely on that point, they definitely should not, under any circumstances withhold any main game content, such as races or customization options, that’s the whole point of subscription based games. The only things that should be included for the collectors edition, are extras, it’s fine to make them exclusive, that’s the point of a collector’s edition. Mounts, pets, maybe even an outfit/piece of vanity gear all would be fine. The race is an issue because it locks out content that people should get with the game, not because of the skill line. I realise I was not completely

Apologies. After re-reading my original post, it did seem a bit hostile and misdirected. You were obviously not reviewing the game. I was just generalizing how I felt about MMO coverage.

I just feel MMOs should be covered a certain way, like the way I described, which includes all of it’s content.

So many devs are hyping these collectors editions and things, but they are really meant for die-hard fans that want more, and thus deserve to be scrutinized. I understand how it seems like “smoke and mirrors” as you put it.

The thing that really peeves me is how EQ Landmark is charging for their alpha and beta test, which to me seems ridiculous and your post sort of reminded me of those types of things that devs do. EQ Landmark isn’t even the main game, just the building part. Looking forward to more MMO coverage. 😛

Was really just trying to provide a relatable analogy in terms of two races that very much hated one another (Nords and Dunmer, in the article). As for the rest of the comment, I’ll break it down into more detail:

1) As far as balance is concerned, it doesn’t really disrupt the game on a mechanical level persay, seeing as how all the races are seemingly equal in terms of viability.

2) Lore – this is the big one for me. During the time frame of this game, these races are NOT inter-mingling with one another at all – this is kind of the entire point of having the alliances in the first place. It would be like playing a WW2 game and having a Nazi and US soldier fighting together. From a lore standpoint, this is pretty horrendous. Not only does it undermine the established lore of this setting and time period, but it complicates the timeline moving forward for other games. Why are Dunmer still shunned in Morrowind? Why are Nords still extremely racist in Skyrim? None of that makes sense if over a thousand year prior, these races shed their alliances and fought side by side.

3) Design – This kind of goes back to the lore point. If all of the races can fight together, how does that impact game design in terms of mechanics and quests? I would imagine that Nords starting out in Skyrim probably have alliance-specific quests where they interact with those other races. Does this mean that now I can travel there as a Dunmer and participate in that content? How will the game reconcile my partying up with an Orc to level up and then having quests that are alliance-based and essentially contradict my playstyle with friends?

Ultimately, I don’t care that they are letting players play together, that’s cool and everything, but don’t allow that by undermining the lore and design of the game as a whole. Tons of MMOs have successfully implemented a faction system before (I mean come on, WoW is a great example of a two-faction system, this could have been the next great tri-faction game) and these decisions essentially ruin that to me.

Not to mention the fact that this isn’t even a universal change – they are once again implementing features that are not accessible to the standard $200+ paying customer and are hiding this stuff behind an additional and unnecessary pay wall.

Very good advice – MMOs are unique in the gaming world and are truly difficult to evaluate based on typical standards.

That said, I felt that the last paragraph was pretty weak, rhetorically. The part where you said that Any Alliance, Any Race impacted Balance/Lore/Design in negative ways was just a claim, I’m kinda at a loss as to the warrant, especially since the “Play as whatever you want with your friends” Advantage was conceded.

The other points were hella solid, I just felt the third point needed more polish to drive home why this is bad. (I can think of one or two scenarios off the top of my head, but they’re agnostic to the situation at hand.)

Yes. I know it wasn’t a review of the game, but my point still stands. It seems pointless to me to be hyped about new MMOs in particular, especially based off of a few collectible perks up front when the players haven’t experienced what the end game is going to be like. The question you posed to the readers was will you jump in right away or wait for more info, and I think I was pretty thorough with my reasoning for waiting. 🙂 I mentioned a few new MMOs I’m excited for, but I will not be jumping in right away with those either.