» Sun Jun 30, 2013 2:13 am I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but this issue still weighs heavily on my mind.
So we know that the devs want us to have a sense of faction pride, and it's understandable, that, to tell us the story they want to, the PvP and main quest line have to be segregated into these factions.
But what of the other PvE aspects of the game? Exploring other faction areas, adventure zones, fights against Molag Bal and the forces of oblivion. What does the segregation of factions add to this? After playing WoW for many years I am still a strong supporter of the alliance, but would have not minded if some horde players had come along in my raids and dungeons. It would almost be expected in fights were the horde and alliance are actively fighting against a common foe, such as the Lich King. Its actually something that really bothered me, that the devs went to such extreme lengths to give me sense of faction pride that I already had. And that they would implement it in the form of restrictions on who I can and cannot play with.
I would also argue that it hinders RPers to some extent. Most of the people I RPed with in WoW had characters far different from the character they played trough the main story line. A friend of mine enjoyed playing the role of a bartender. Another, was a man who came into the tavern and played cards with other players. Others were mercenaries, merchants and entertainers, and had little at stake in the war between the Horde and the Alliance. Many people enjoyed roleplaying neutral characters, but were forced to use other mediums to communicate with members of opposing factions. Some games, such as Rift and SWToR we kind enough to let the factions speak in /say so that these kind of interactions were possible using only the game as a medium. Although, these games had many contested areas, where you get players from opposite factions in the same area. Unfortunately (in my opinion its unfortunate), ESO does not seem to be gearing towards having any such areas, other than Cyrodiil. This really limits the possible encounters for people who wish to roleplay characters such as these.
But, maybe you don't roleplay, maybe seeing players from other factions would really hurt your experience. One solution that I feel would give everyone what they want, is to set aside a few instances that allow cross faction grouping. And then have other instances that do not. That way, if you and your friends want to enact a scenario with a Kahjit merchant on a business trip to Daggerfall, you can do that. And anyone who doesn't want to see you, never will.
On the subject of PvE, it would seem simple to allow players of any faction to join up for adventure zones and some instanced dungeons. That way the player base is not divided for the PvE content, and someone can join a "raiding" group that really looks fun to them, without having to roll up another character it that group happens to be on another faction.
I'm sure there some holes in this option, but I really feel that allowing things like this would really add to the experience of RPers, especially in a game that is doing so much to make a great environment for roleplay. I also believe that this won't take away from faction pride, and that good story, as well as continuing to flesh out the faction leaders, will add more than game mechanics ever could.
