Choice

So I was thinking, isn't it kind of silly that Factions are race specific? I mean in all Elderscrolls game each province has been filled with multiple races, look at Skyrim Dark Elves join the Stormcloaks, in Oblivion the empire was lead by an High elf , and in Morrowind the land perhaps least friendly to outsiders had members of all races in their Great houses. Let's not also forget the main characters of all the games can be any race and join nearly any factions (in most cases end up LEADing the faction)

So far Zenimax studios has me impressed on the combat choices but this is a very annoying decision, any one agree?

It's not something I like, but I can live with it.

Come on can people seriously not understand the entire story behind the game?

I am well aware of the story, it's no different than many of the main games there are people of all races on all sides, it's clearly you who has no grasp on TES.

Factions are fighting against each other - not races. Continents are continents. Races are races. Races are not tied to their homelands. They may have been born and raised elsewhere or moved from their homelands.

Clearly.

Let me break it down for you, champ.

This isn't Morrowind, it isn't Oblivion, it isn't Skyrim, nor is it any of the other various titles. All of which had a key story element that you could not opt out of, because it was, wait for it, the key story element. You can no more avoid the war in the Elder Scrolls Online than you could avoid being the Nerevarine or the Dragonborn.

Sure, you could just not go do the quests, but you were still the Nerevarine or the Dragonborn. This was unavoidable. There was nothing you could do.

The same goes for the war. Its there, its how it is, you can not go fight in it but that doesn't mean it isn't there. The factions are a key story element.

You can choose to ignore them but they are there and won't change.

And there are other races in the other factions zones. Just not us, the players.

We're not the same as the normal NPCs. We're part of the key story element.

Hasn't this been rehashed so many times here?

It's part of the story. It's part of the MMO. I'm not going to go in-depth about it. Not many here like it, but we have to deal with it.

Personally, I like the way it's all laid out.

I don't see why. If there are NPC Argonians in Elsweyr, I don't see why a player Argonin can't join the AD.

Quite simply, because the AD doesn't want you. I'm not saying its the route I would have taken with the game and its story, but its the route they chose and its not up for debate.

If I had it my way it would be a free for all faction/race war, alright. And we'd all be able to just hack each other apart whenever we wanted regardless of race. But its not my game.

There's plenty of choice in the game.

http://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1183/kw/

http://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1417/kw/

http://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/answers/list/kw/choice/sno/1/search/1/session/L3RpbWUvMTM3NTQ5NTQwMC9zaWQveTg3WEJPd2w%3D

The lack of a choice you would prefer to make doesn't mean choice itself is being ignored. Seems like you might need to research the game more and not focus on just one single part of it and ignore the rest.

You aren't taking many factor's into account from my point of view. It may seem very presumptuous to guess the way you think... But you wouldn't be the first to sideline many factor's for your own personal desires.

Each race is allied to a faction to participate in a War. If the Army the player's race is aligned to loses the war, it would be assumed a fairly terrible overall fate would beset their land and peoples. It would seem unrealistic anyone would fight to destroy their own race... and while there are anomalies like that both in TES and IRL, the ability to " pick and choose " your faction would effectively stop it from being an anomaly... and something common... which it shouldn't be.

Also, previous TES titles allowed for strange happening's, because you were one person... With a multitude of player's in the game you could easily wreck traditional TES with too much freedom. Did the Thalmor line up to join the Stormcloaks by the Battalion in Skyrim? No, no they did not. A few may have, but not in the hundreds.

I've never liked factions. I always liked that the elder scrolls was about freedom and choice and I think regardless of race you should be able to fight for whoever you want.

People may argue that it's an MMO. But this is how I feel about it and my opinion and I don't care if people don't agree with me.

I don't like the restriction the MMO has. It would be just like since Iam half Asian but Iam born in Australia and have lived here all my life. I would fight for Australia and would not want to be forced to fight for an Asian country just because of race.

It seems stupid to me.

Blah blah story blah blah.

Not a problem for me personally but I see this being a problem for guilds or groups of friends coming to the game.

At 50+ and 50++ you can change Alliances. So, yes, you start out in the prescribed faction, but once you are strong enough to handle yourself in areas where your race is seen as an enemy, you are free to join the other Alliances.

Which other TES game was set in this time period? Which one had a full on war for control of the Empire?

Starting to see a pattern? This isn't like the other games. There's an actual war on.

This game isn't about the exceptions. It's about the norm. Also, so sure there are Nords who are loyal to the Aldmeri Dominion, but they aren't represented in this game. In many games it's the other way around. Take Mechwarrior Online. It's all about the mechs, even thought there are literally 10's of thousands of tanks for every single mech in that universe. But people want to see mechs, so it focuses on the rare fights involving mechs. TESO is the other way around.

When I first read the OP, I thought they were referring to the Mages Guild and Fighters Guild. Anyways, I accept that this is the direction they wanted the game to go, and I have no problems with it.

Don't really care about the race locks. Would I be fine if they did away with it? Sure, I'd be ok with it. But I don't care either way.

Not exactly. You can adventure there and experience the content, but will not interact with the actual PCs of that faction.

The only real problem I have with the race/faction lock is that my friends/family may want to play a race of one faction while I may want to play a race of a different faction. I also don't want to deal with those smelly Nords.

Without factions PvP would not be as compelling or satisfying (factions are a good plot device).

Different races can be harbored in different provinces and still choose to fight for a different faction (from an NPC perspective--I would assume). Remember Windhelm in Skyrim? The Nords were not exactly tolerant of outsiders. Would you be happy if a sly Argonian male was courting your strapping Nord daughter? (HAHA totally JK here I think interracial dating in real life and in games is awesome)

That being said, I think we will find all the races dispersed somewhat throughout the provinces and definitely a mix within Cyrodil. As a player character it adds to the story and the excitement that you are part of a faction with a certain viewpoint and loyalty. Just look at real life news with the incident between the US and Russia about spies and expats. I think the majority of Americans are American and not Russian spies . . . the same can be said of Russian citizens and American spies that work for Russia =P

There will be cross-faction guilding, but we don't know how deep that system goes just yet. You can atleast chat with them even if you can't group. (as of right now we know that much atleast)

I can chat with them in real-life too. It's not the same as slaying mudcrabs with them.

I agree, unfortunately its just how the game is gonna be though. It'll be a fun system if people can learn to coordinate and compromise what they want to play with their friends and family. Hell, if nothing else, there's alts.