its never stated that they do. i dont realy see any lore problems there. the Ebonheart pact i said to be formed out of the fact that these 3 nations were up against strong opponents and had to form the pact to stay alive, the hatred still burns to quote the game informer article.
As for Orsinum, that is the second era, we hardly know anything about it and what we know is from the time Tiber Septim came around, wich is not when this game is set.

Ive reposted my explanation of the Ebonheart alliance on so many threads now that it shouldnt be hard to find.
In any case, Nord and Dunmer have collaborated before and will do so again.

Orsinium was a recognised Imperial territory until the interregnum and they would not regain that status until after the events of Daggerfall.
When it comes to the Western block, I believe the arch-politicians of High Rock did all they could to get themselves a power block, faced with the Dominion on one side, the Ebonheart pact on the other and a dire threat in the heartlands.
Better to join up in a block of their own than be the only fragmented region in such a dangerous political climate.
If anyone can do this its Bretony, their courts make a Manchurian one look childishly uncomplicated.

I think 'the most negatively received reveal EVER' is a bit far-fetched. But I'm certainly not happy. I get it - a TES MMO is going to be different to a regular TES. But that doesn't mean it needs to be TES:Warcraft, nor does it need to be completely different to a regular TES game. I feel like they've slapped the Elder Scrolls title on WoW, and I'm less than happy about it.

Still, we all need to keep an open mind. We're basing our opinions on two screenshots. Perhaps we're mistaken?

i guess it kind of is. i cant remember an MMO game from a that weighty franchise beeing that negativeley recieved. Not only from fans but also from Gaming Sites.

Actually you are the ignorant one, most of us actually play mmo's we just expected more, we do not need another reskinned wow.

I'll look for more of your posts, maybe on the lore forums, because they're alleviating my concerns. But I still can't shake the feeling of these alliances feeling completely forced just so that the game can have factions.

How about Argonians and Dunmer teaming up? Can you put my fears to rest there too? Don't the Argonians hate the Dunmer, especially in this time frame, for the Dunmer forcing their people into slavery?

Yes, but the Argonians must always be viewed in conjunction with the Hist.
There is good evidence that the Hist calls the shots when it comes to long term goals and politics and they are, well, sentient trees that share a hivemind.
They are unknowable, alien and we cannot comprehend them.
As has been pointed out by another poster on the forum somewhere, the Argonian slaves that we see in third era Morrowind sometimes come from raids on the edges of Black Marsh, but more often are sold into slavery by the Argonians themselves.
A possibility is that for the Hist an individual Argonian is simply not that important, in the same way that one cell of your hand is not important to you, they are a hivemind do they even understand the concept of individuality?
They may trade slaves with Morrowind in order to realise some short term goal, placate the powerful neighbour and at the same time already realise that in the long term their machinations or fate will ensure that they get everything back they handed over and then some.
Remember that when Red Mountain erupted after the Oblivion crisis the Argonians took back all of the territory lost over the years to Morrowind and exacted a psychological victory on the Dunmer that will be felt for centuries to come.

I believe that the events of the MMO, Tamriel being svcked into coldharbour, may be a reason for the Hist to turn to the living gods of Morrowind for protection against something they themselves cannot handle as well.

Ill msg you what I wrote on the Ebonheart alliance as I dont want to keep reposting the same stuff

The problem I have is it doesn't really look like they've taken the series and tried to make it work as a MMO. Instead, it just looks like they've made a fairly generic MMO and slapped the TES label on it. Yes, the gameplay was always bound to differ from the main series... but I still expected it to have kind of the same vibe and style to it.

Same thing happened with Fallout 3 and it's older community and it sold well.

I didn't like what they did with Fallout 3 and I hope they follow New Vegas' example and stray farther away from TES with Fallout but I can't ignore the facts.
Fallout 3 is nothing like the older games and it sold really well.

Ignorant to think you speak for the entire world.
Ignorant to think everyone will come to the forum and talk about something that isn't even released or in beta.

Most of you are here talking negatively all the time, repeatedly because you don't do anything else at the moment, it seems.

Yea I have to admit, I have been seeing some negativity from the press which is not good for them... and not usual with the Elder Scrolls, but like I said, I'll keep an open mind. Maybe it's because I'm not a huge MMO fan, so I'm not worn out from them, and the possibility of TES Online intrigues me.

I have read so much negative comments to the MMO it's insane. Looks like those five years they put into this game are going to be for nothing.

If it were actually true that would indeed be an ironic headline.

Pretty much this, from what I've read it sounds like it will be a standard MMO structure with TES lore, and that doesn't really add much competition to the MMOs that are already out there. But we'll see, there aren't much footage of it yet.

But you can have 50,000 people have their souls stolen by Molag Bal and have to reclaim it. Then they can become the Emperor of Tamriel!

I think everyone's entitled to be disappointed and express the feeling. There is enough info in those scans to know that the long awaited TES MMO is lacking some basic TES character.

hehehe Bingo

How does this impact the lore when lore wise they can do whatever they want with those events?
It really does not matter one iota how many heroes there are or who gets the ruby throne in the end as all that will eventually be canonical lore is that in that time of the second era three large factions stood at each others throat while at the same time facing a threat from the heartlands.
In the end one faction was victorious, but this entire political situation dissolved when emperor Cuhlecain took the ruby throne.
Just in time to be assasinated and followed by Tiber Septim.

Lore-wise there really isnt any disjunction like some make it out to be.

The main thing that people need to remember is that MMOs mean massive and the game threrefore needs to appeal to the masses. Therefore they will need to create a game that appeals to people who have very differeing ideas about what they expect and want in a game. The means that the Devs have to compromise and homogenize so as to appeal to a broad spectrum of gamers and this tends to make few people completely happy but hopefully is acceptable to as many as passible in order to pay the bills that these expensive games generate. If Zenimax were to make the perfect MMO that any gamer on this forum wanted I would bet that it would be a complete failure because it would appeal to a very limited audience. We can only hope that the Devs can achieve a good balance of what the huge universe of gamers want and produce an enjoyable game. Try to keep an open mind and see what we are given. The odds are certainly against the Devs hitting the balance right but time will tell.

I disagree. The TES fanbase is not limited audience, it's a HUGE audience. Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim have sold about 20 million copies together. That should be the main audience, not the random facebook gamer. I like to believe that's why it's called TES MMO and not [XYZ] MMO. The established fanbase should be the ones they cater to. And if everybody who bought Skyrim would buy TESO, it would beat WoW in terms of current subscribers hands down. Trying to steal the customers from other MMOs could fail miserably.

Skyrim sold 7 Million copies.
Thats if im not mistaken just a bit less (ok like 3 million less) than WoWs current subscription base. Thats a lot man. Also you need to understand that you can NEVER have the ammount of subscriptions WoW has. Not on launch. Also due to the massive numbers of recent MMORPGs you can never reach them, therfore that should never be the goal of any developer as you can never reach it.
The thing is WoW players stick to it cause its tried and proven good, but back in the day there was no competition besides a glitchy, badly designed Everquest 2 and the old MMORPGs like EQ 1 and DAOC that were hardly drawing new subs.

Times Changed. But realy 7 Million bought Skyrim. There are enaugh people in there to make an MMO that is just like a TES MMO should be, hell i bet if this game WAS a proper TES MMO without any of the WoW mechanics itll probably draw more players, especialy out of those 7 Million.

What makes me upset are all those people here claiming, that the freedom of choice, open world and combat mechanics of the single player games would not work in a MMO, while what they really mean is that it would most likely not appeal to them or to people who love the current MMO "Mainstream" (WoW, GW, SWToR). There are enough MMOs left and right of the mainstream that have proven, that realtime FPS combat can work perfectly fine (Neocron), that freedom of choice (Neocron) and open world can work also in a MMO (SWG).

Granted: This may appeal to a more niche and more special audience. But that alone does not make the wish for such games invalid.

And all the talk of "you can't adopt the single player game because there can't be 5.000.000 Dohvakins" is just plain rubbish because all those "Mainstream" MMOs do just that in their story: Make every player the hero of the world. That is the cause in the first place why many people don't like those MMOs, because they like good stories and RP but the story of those MMOs just does not make any sense at all. Also anyone reducing Skyrim to "being the Dovahkin and wreaking havoc as such" really did not get what the game is about.

It's going to be made like an MMO? What does that even mean? You do realize that there's more than one way to create an MMO, right? Or is that too difficult of a concept for you to understand? We get it, you're completely content with an MMO formula that's eight years old. Good for you! Go play the myriad of other WoW-esque knockoffs, your selection certainly won't be limited! I enjoy MMORPGs a great deal, but not the uninspired, themepark MMORPGs that the greedy suits like to churn out (SWTOR). The genre is stagnant and has been for awhile. People are tired of the same ol' song and dance. Going back to my first point, you speak of this MMO audience, but fail to realize that not everyone enjoys the same type of MMO. Some people love EVE (which is the polar opposite of a game like WoW) and hate Everquest.

I only ever played the WoW free trial.
I kinda enjoyed it though I could see a massive brick wall looming that I assumed was the grind people talked about.
The trial doesnt let you get that far though.

Eight years old or not, for a lot of people it will be relatively new. People that never went MMO before.
Then there is that if it is not broke, it should not be fixed.
Finally there is that at this point all these things are speculatory. We simply do not have enough info on game mechanics to make an objective judgement one way or the other.

This.