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News from: Tamriel Foundry
Hello TF community, today has been a landmark day for The Elder Scrolls Online with two major announcements shaking the internet community. Most obviously, the unveiling of the distribution packages for ESO have revealed a set of exclusive bonuses for pre-orders and enhanced game editions which are both compelling and controversial. Secondly, a major announcement [...]
Read More at: Tamriel Foundry
I'm sitting on the fence - yes, I'm a fence sitter.
Personally, I'm happy to pay the extra $20 to unlock a race - but I can understand why some wouldn't be happy with this.
I like that you can choose your race and alliance separately now - mainly because I think it really opens up RP potential. I find it much more interesting to be able to choose a race then create a backstory for my character on why it's in an Alliance - especially if it goes against the grain ie. just because I was born a Dark Elf doesn't mean I HAVE to follow along like a sheep (yes, I love Drizzt). I think that some of the softening like being able to have x-alliance contact does take away from the whole Alliance concept... but hey, I can live with that and see how things go.
I have absolutely no problem with the deluxe edition items - still debating if I'm going to buy the physical deluxe or just the digital.
I'm not particularly happy with opening all alliances to all races, given that races in ESO each have very different cultures and political goals. (As opposed to GW 2 where most of the races were willing to put aside differences and work together against the dragons).
I might have been ok with a difficult quest at max level that would let you switch sides as a mercenary, but I don't like the current proposed system.
Oh, I really like that mercenary idea Dallos. Or other difficult quests at max level that could have you switch sides for particular reasons. I haven't played many ES games - that's more my husband's forte - but from what I've seen watching him play, that fits more in line with the feel of ES... like choosing the vampire or werewolf stuff etc.
I guess finding a way to try and make the game appealling to the most people is a difficult thing to do. Hopefully the decisions they've made don't backfire for them.
Note: I'm not a big ESO lore fanboy. I care more about gameplay. That said...
Imperials being able to join any alliance doesn't bother me - you can make a case that they're "above all that" except where individuals decide to throw in their lot with one alliance or another. So to me, no big deal.
The thing that bugs me a little, though, is the regular pre-order bonus, the "any race can be part of any alliance." Seems like this would be much more of a bastardization of the game than letting Imperials in. I mean, the whole AvAvA aspect of the game was, I thought, predicated on the fact that these guys joined with those other guys and those third guys against the evil <insert enemy races here>. So now, to all of a sudden say "well, yeah, Ebonhart alliance hates Bretons, but all these Bretons joining, well they're defectors who've seen the error of their ways." I could see this aspect tearing a lot of the cohesiveness out of the alliances. Take Ebonhart for example: they've got the Nords, the Dunmer, and the Argonian. I could have envisioned it being easy to peer over the battlefield and see your alliance - Nords charging in, Dunmer spinning magic, Argonians here and there - they're all distinctive. Now though, mix in all the other races and ... it seems mess.
I suppose at some level I don't think this is game-breaking, and I don't think this will cause the game to go F2P, but it sort of saddens me because if feels like a game design change for economic reasons. Think how different WoW would have felt if pre-orders could create Orcs on the Alliance side ... that'd be crazy!
Wait a minute!
They removed the racial locks for all the versions? Even if I don't buy a pre-order I can still make a Khajiit in Ebonheart? Can someone explain this to me because I'm a pompu?
(Re-reads the article with more coffee and sunshines)
Ah, no, it is a pre-order bonus. Oh well, it's rice and giblets for the kitty then :3
