Taken from the closed topic...
I don't think this discussion was the reason it was closed .. IfI'm wrong feel free to close this and smash it to oblivion. Yeah I mean the daedric plane..

Never played Ultima online before?
Check it out..

Anyway
1) Guards... is not like you can do that in singlke player eiter... the moment you attack an npc in town guards will stomp you .. hard... in a Single player they assume you should have a fair chance to do it, just because you are the special nerevarine/dragonborn/etc.. and the whole story is about you... I say screw that .. make the guards fast .. and stomp you hard... I doubt anybody will do that... Anyway ultima had invulnerable NPCs... that's a viable option to me..
2) they may fail and trigger the guards or they may succeed and you lose money. Pretty straightfoward. Unless you think that in an mmo you should always be a winner and nothing bad should happen to you. Ultima online worked pretty well with thieves .. of course whiners exist but seriousl, unless thieves are overpowered, or punishment for being caught are non existant or too soft.. Thieves are no problem at all
3) And what item should you exactly "need"? You shouldn't need specific Items.and when they are quest requirements (they shouldn't IMHO) they may be personal.. meaning they only spawn for you .. but that would be clumsy. To be honest .. I feel quest should probably not exist at all.. let the players just play and set their own goals... I want to explore the cave, I want to hunt down dragons, I want to find some ebony ore for my equipment, i want to hunt down golden saints to fuel my items. When you can interact with thousands other players, be at war with them, ally with them etc.. who cares about interaction with an npc that gives you the same repetitive quest? If you want to give a quest give me something to kill, even better ... If I'm doing a dark brotherhood quest give me another online player to kill... someone that reacts and thinks like a human... not an exploitable AI

You can make a TES MMO playing like an MMO

Just the only MMO wort mentioning I believe is Ultima online .. and not today ultima online .. the early ultima online... a free environment to play as you like.

If TES mmo is similar to LOTRO I'll be a happy guy.

Same here.

1.) Then it's not like TES. In TES you can kill guards. If you make them invincible you just added (again) an aspect that is in Skyrim that a lot of people dislike: unkillable NPCs.

2.) How exactly do you defend against Thieves, especially Thieves with high Stealth and/or Invisibility?

3.) Having no quests at all is just asking for a giant headache. And I'm just meaning from an exp and leveling angle alone.

1) well maybe but seriously... is that ruining the game... expecially, more than making it a instanced grindfest? I for example can pretty much live with that.
2) Mortal online has a prety good way to do it. If someone steals from you is flagged criminal but in a hidden way, so you don't reconnize it by the flagging system, but if you see someone stealing your stuff or you are anyway pretty sure that you are facing a thief you just smack him in the face and the guards will not come hunting you down, they will hunt the thief down.
3) EXP? what kind of elder scrolls game did you play with Exp? Pratice makes perfect.. you pratice a skill, the skill goes up...

Im curious if you are at all familiar with EVE online? Its a completely open game outside of high sec and has created some incredible unforgettable moments for a large many people outside of being a simple economy simulator.

To speak to anyone else who is reading this. Remember people themselves tend to be interesting and will do interesting things when you give them an incredible amount of freedom in a sandbox. As much as its unlikely the ES mmo will follow any of these tenants you can make an mmo that is player driven and interesting in this way even if it really isn't for everyone.

It just too bad that I don't see a big company taking a BIG risk on an MMO like this and actually innovating. Alas and oh well.

Edit: As an addendum, In Ultima Onlines beta however many years ago one of the developers "Lord British" was in fact surprised that what most people ended up doing was killing other players. He at one point spawned his character in the world to give some kind of speech and forgot to use the dev command to make his character invincible. Someone did something involving fire and then people noticed that he was in fact not invulnerable. His character, its safe to say, didnt last for much longer. If you REALLY think an MMO has to be as WoW or of similar nature i'd advise to think of the situation in a more creative manner. Player actions make for an infinitely more interesting setting than what a time limited quest designer can accomplish.

Edit the second: Also remember progression systems dont have to be tied to an arbitrary exp point system. There are a ton of different ways to allow a character to progress. And even when exp. systems are used they dont have to force exponential character growth but could instead be used to diversify a character from others without simply giving them more stat points and Hit points. If anything is unique about this game I'd certainly hope the Devs endeavor to create a system in which there isnt any real need for an incredible increase in power being tied to a leveling or loot system instead of one that focuses on how a player can creatively make a character cool in the players own eye. Though seeing as how RvR pvp seems to be a selling point in the game informer announcement I would imagine the inevitable quest for balance would put a sad damper into that possibility.