[Mariana]

Auridon shouldn't be "scaled down" to look more gritty...

The whole point of it is to stick out. So you're in this world where everything is dark and gritty, and then you go to this strange Island with all these Altmer and you see buildings built out of insect wings. It would enhance the mystical aspect.

[Nice one]

Auridon shouldn't be "scaled down" to look more gritty...

The whole point of it is to stick out. So you're in this world where everything is dark and gritty, and then you go to this strange Island with all these Altmer and you see buildings built out of insect wings. It would enhance the mystical aspect.

A whole world shouldn't be grimdark just for the sake of grittyness, anyway. It's a whole world, not a big battlefield for everyone to be hard and grim upon.
Even then, what is grimdark grittyness without a good contrast? Not nearly as effective at provoking emotional response than when being complemented by happybright cheerfulness

[bimsy]

A whole world shouldn't be grimdark just for the sake of grittyness, anyway. It's a whole world, not a big battlefield for everyone to be hard and grim upon.
Even then, what is grimdark grittyness without a good contrast? Not nearly as effective at provoking emotional response than when being complemented by happybright cheerfulness

That's exactly what I'm saying.

The contrast would have been great.

[saxon]

So what's our take on this:

Source: http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/elder-scrolls-onlines-game-director-explains-how-youll-be-a-standout-badass

Doesn't sound that nice, after all the complaints regarding ESO and TES lore, that Firor still describes it as "down to earth."

Ok, thats terrible.
The whole point of Altmer is that they are not 'grimdark'.
They are the cultured people.

So one would expect to see a landscape that is very alien, it should be completely unnatural in that each feature of the landscape is mer-made and has a function.
Think the rice fields of China where people have been moulding the land for thousands of years and then multiply that by itself, and insert non-human aesthetics.

[Manuel rivera]

The un-selected comes for parlance.

Regarding the Altmer: That's... really unfortunate. I mean, I'm not surprised that there's an Altmer underclass, but that they would abandon the aesthetics of the Altmer in favor of stereotypical (and, frankly, Ayleid if anything) architecture is disappointing. I can only hope that at the very least, they do Crystal-Like-Law justice - if it's just an ape of White-Gold or something, that'd be truly and utterly terrible.

Crystal-Like-Law IS still standing at this point, right? Or... lit, anyway, I can't remember what supposedly happened to it, though my gut says Big Stompy.

[Dean Ashcroft]

I think they'll blame this change on a transcription error just like Cyrodiil and that makes me afraid after all they could baically get away with anything by saying "It was a transcription error".

[vicki kitterman]

They only get away with what we let them get away with.

They haven't mentioned the transcription error since the original tweet.

Hopefully they've abandoned it and will pretend like it never happened.

[Marcia Renton]

Looking at the poll results, I think we're going to have a problem.

Crystal-Like-Law IS still standing at this point, right? Or... lit, anyway, I can't remember what supposedly happened to it, though my gut says Big Stompy.

Aren't we still ~300 years before Big Stompy visited the Summerset Isles?

[dean Cutler]

Talos has yet to even coalesce himself out of his component parts, so I'd say that we're a ways off Big Stompy yeah. I just wasn't entirely certain if Crystal-Like-Law fell in the siege of Summerset or if it was something else at an earlier/later time.

[James Hate]

Ok, thats terrible.
The whole point of Altmer is that they are not 'grimdark'.
They are the cultured people.

So one would expect to see a landscape that is very alien, it should be completely unnatural in that each feature of the landscape is mer-made and has a function.
Think the rice fields of China where people have been moulding the land for thousands of years and then multiply that by itself, and insert non-human aesthetics.

This. This. THIS!! A thousand and eight times this.

The "poor peasants" of Summerset should make every well-off contemporary farmer who uses fertilisers and tractors and milking machines and whatever state-of-the-art technology we have here on Earth to aid in food production GREEN WITH ENVY and feeling outdated and inferior.

It can be done. Dinmenel did it in his novel.

Can I just say that I think Auridon is a terrible name.

My thoughts exactly. What do they think it means? Assuming they do think, of course.

[Bee Baby]

Crystal-Like-Law fell during Oblivion, at the end of the Third Era.

[Annick Charron]

You'd think at the VERY least they'd have taken a look at the map of Summerset and tried to match the phonemes there. I imagine there's plenty more in the way of Altmer language to be found, but just there, we have Lillandril, Alinor and Shimmerene. Auridon just sounds... overly harsh next to them.

EDIT: Ahha, I was wrong about Big Stompy then. So yeah, here's hoping they at least do the Tower justice.

[Connor Wing]

You'd think at the VERY least they'd have taken a look at the map of Summerset and tried to match the phonemes there. I imagine there's plenty more in the way of Altmer language to be found, but just there, we have Lillandril, Alinor and Shimmerene. Auridon just sounds... overly harsh next to them.

They probably believe they at least deserve a cookie for the effort. "We took the first four letters from Auri-El and the last two from that funny "ALTADOON" word we saw in that looong book... how d'ye folks call it, you quote it all the time... doesn't it make it lore-friendly?"

Oh yeah. I'd be more happy if they assumed the islands were named after the biggest cities on each of them.

[Neko Jenny]

My hope for this game has just been pretty much demolished. There is no if or but now. Firor and his team are not capable of handling TES lore. Not even close. I am probably not even going to get this game now unless i hear something amazing. Just that one statement, coupled with what we have heard in the past, has crippled my expectations.

[censored].

[Agnieszka Bak]

Well, the Second Dominion named Summerset Alinor. It'd be a nice bit of historical connection if the FIRST Dominion also used that name - it'd enhance the Thalmor's already-existing fascistic "appeal to history/old power/old glory" thing if they were following historic precedent.

But nah, Auridon. =/

[u gone see]

My hope for this game has just been pretty much demolished. There is no if or but now. Firor and his team are not capable of handling TES lore. Not even close. I am probably not even going to get this game now unless i hear something amazing. Just that one statement, coupled with what we have heard in the past, has crippled my expectations.

[censored].

This is why we exist, the followers of the lost tribes of Heartland Imga. Every [NUMINIT]ing inane and backwards thing that ZOS come out with makes me even more intent on buying this game and painting a scar of divine mercy across Tam Rugh. I think it takes a special kind of bullish stubbornness to see things that way.

[Glu Glu]

Negative nillies.

[Miranda Taylor]

My hope for this game has just been pretty much demolished. There is no if or but now. Firor and his team are not capable of handling TES lore. Not even close. I am probably not even going to get this game now unless i hear something amazing. Just that one statement, coupled with what we have heard in the past, has crippled my expectations.

[censored].

Harsh.

Maybe wait till you actually see it?

[Alycia Leann grace]

I'm totally intent on still playing this game, at least to try it out if nothing else. Some of this info puts a bit of a damper on my enthusiasm but it's still relatively minor - the specific look of Summerset, while disappointing, could potentially be attributed to the war they just got out of or something, which needn't alter what it was/will be again. I will admit I'm kind of disappointed they didn't try harder to match the name of the city/island/whatever Auridon denotes to existing Altmeri language elements, but it's still not touching on anything big.

Now, if they did something like forget/totally fail to properly represent Crystal-Like-Law, or something else that tampers with a major element of the story, I'd be a tad bit more peeved.

[Angela]

Wait, I'm confused. Is this poll for different guild names on different factions?
I was under the impression you can be in the same guild over different factions.

[Kitana Lucas]

Harsh.

Maybe wait till you actually see it?

Exactly. Who cares if Auridon sounds like a Pokemon, Online could still be a good contribution to the franchise's lore.

[Phoenix Draven]

Well, the Second Dominion named Summerset Alinor. It'd be a nice bit of historical connection if the FIRST Dominion also used that name - it'd enhance the Thalmor's already-existing fascistic "appeal to history/old power/old glory" thing if they were following historic precedent.

But nah, Auridon. =/

appeal to history is not fascistic per se and complete misuse when used to describe actions of monarchy which the second Aldmeri Dominion is. Auridor most probably is derived from Auri-El

[Amber Hubbard]

that is really annoying. How old is Crystal-Like-Law? I don't imagine this could be prior to it's construction. Either way, it seems the Altmer groans of being trapped in a dirty mundane prison will have plenty of legitimacy.

[phillip crookes]

Harsh.

Maybe wait till you actually see it?

At this point. I don't even really want to see what they do. I'll probably try the beta. But at this point I don't think I am paying for this.

It might be harsh. But what have they shown that is their own make that is actually part of the unique and interesting parts of the lore? They seem determined to take the easy way out on almost everything interesting or remotely difficult to code in regards to the lore. From no sub-species, no walking tree cities, no ald cyrod, to this, etc etc...i understand they have a budget. But part of the problem of quantity over quality is that they fail to do things in the more interesting way. This isn't zeni's baby. The lore is BGS's baby. If you borrow someone's stuff make sure you treat it right.

The things I want to see. I am not getting to see. The things I wanted to see are getting changed into crap I have seen a hundred times. Thus, my interest is declining markedly.

[Chris Jones]

The things I want to see. I am not getting to see. The things I wanted to see are getting changed into crap I have seen a hundred times. Thus, my interest is declining markedly.

I kind of feel the same way.
No walking trees, no Khajiit subspecies, it seems like every time there is something interesting and unique they go out of their way to blandify it and make it 'easily accessible', by which I mean 'using tired old tropes we were bored with from oversaturation at age five'.

My hope now is that as a guild we will be strong enough to have a real voice in the game, a real presence there and on its forum.
If enough people petition for something, if enough people object to Tolkien-esque generics or anything else that violates the beauty and wonder of TES, we can get some changes made.
An MMO after all is a continuing work in progress and if enough people object to the portrayal of for instance Altmer on the grounds that it violates lore in a way as to take the interesting stuff out and replace it with bland been-dones, then maybe they will listen.

Who knows.
Walking trees by 2015.