I'm not posting this to start any arguments, or even to start a discussion really. I just have some opinions to share with the developers. I doubt anything I have to say will make any difference in anything, but it costs me little to share my views.

I have mixed feelings about this game based on what I have learned so far. I've wanted for years to play an Elder Scrolls MMORPG, because I love the style and lore and storytelling of The Elder Scrolls. I'm also quite fond of most of their game mechanics. I love the idea of playing an Elder Scrolls game with a world shared with other players and dynamic content growth.

Unfortunately, everything I've learned about TES:O seems to imply that it is really just focused on being a never-ending PvP scenario. Even to the point where in one interview, one of the developers said "PvE is pretty much just there to teach players how to do PvP." Wow, that's pretty sad.

I don't mind the idea of the factions too much, though I despise the idea of faction locked exploration and interaction. I don't have a problem with a faction war for the Emperor's throne being the backdrop of the story either. What bugs me is that everybody seems to be viewing this way from the video game character's perspective... Life has no value because everyone has infinite respawns. So going to "war" with each other amounts to nothing more that fight, die, rez, fight and die some more. Maybe talk some smack and corpse-hump a little in between. Basicaly a three-way Street Fighter match that never ends. A virtual meat grinder.

For me at least that sounds tremendously boring, and rather short-sighted. There is so much more that can, and should, be done to express a war of this nature. Yes, combat is obviously mandatory for war. I'm not saying there shouldn' be combat. However, there should be other things.

Industry: A truly important part of any war is a nation's capacity to make war. And not just crafting uber gear for l33t PKs, but providing higher quality and quantity of arms and armor to the general mass of soldiers, paying and feeding them, mining resources, even transporting all these things back and forth along supply lines. Industry and logistics are of overwhelming importance to any serious war effort.

Diplomacy: International relations consist of so much more than ammassing killstat rankings. Even during time of war, many nations manage to find some way of maintaining some form of diplomatic communication. Even when some don't maintain these channels, it doesn't prevent others from trying to. For some people, forging treaties is a greater adventure than slogging knee deep through the blood of your enemies. And for others, Diplomacy is it's own arena of warfare, where a person of skill and talent may advance his faction's claim on the throne with influence of charm and grace where steel and blood could not.

Espionage: A mix of combat, industry, diplomacy, and then more that is none of these. Espionage is the battlefield of the shadows, where agents try to sabotage the combat, industrial, and diplomatic efforts of others, gather intelligence about their foes, and advance their faction's claims by denying the enemy their own. It's the side of war that shows Rogues exist for more than mere melee DPS.

The game I'd like to play would heavily incorporate these things into an ongoing "war," and not by means such as "Kill 10 spies in the 'spy fields' to the south of town."

Does anyone remember Babylon 5? One of the greatest things about that show was that there were a few distinct factions at work. Sometimes some were at war with others, sometimes they would be allies, sometimes they'd even be both, attempting to take advantage of one another while remining "friendly." Sometimes they would all work together for the greater good, or at least to oppose the greater evil. Sometimes they would betray each other for mysterious gains. But there was almost always some sort of interaction going on between the factions and their representatives. While there were certainly no shortage of battles, very vicious ones at that, there wasn't an ongoing theme that any faction was always "kill on sight" to another, regardless of the circumstances. Even in war, they would (usually) take prisoners or take part in diplomatic relations (even if it was sometimes done with the venom and rancor of a flame war on a forum.)

That's what I'd like to see in an ongoing, dynamic, Elder Scrolls game... Something where interaction between the factions wasn't limited to killscores or Forum ERP.

I'm not expecting the devs to redesign the game to suit my desires. I'm realistic. I'm just sharing my ideas on what I'd like to see. TES:O will probably not end up becoming everything in a game that I'd want to play. I doubt such a game will ever exist (I know I don't have the skills or the money to make it happen). But maybe some of the devs will read what I have to say, and hopefully something here or there might inspire someone, and maybe if I'm lucky, the industry might take a step closer to what I want from it before I'm too old to enjoy it any more.

Again, none of this is to start an argument, and I'm just not going to respond to anyone trying to "shout me down" or lay into me about all the reasons my opinions are wrong or useless. I may check in every few days and if anyone has anything constructive to say, I might engage in conversation about it... or maybe not.

You really haven't done any proper research, the game has a vast amount of PVE.

As Sheek said above ^ it doesn't seem like you've done a ton of research. The game has A TON of PvE content so much that if you really loathe PvP, you should be able to play for ages without ever having to partake in it. I'd recommend doing a bit more information hunting my friend because you seem to be a bit misinformed.