As far as I know the Faction lock for PvE and PvP remains in place, right? What I don’t understand is what exactly are the benefits when compared to the Skyrim/TES model – because to be honest, I only see drawbacks, not benefits.

I really don’t understand why ESO is moving away from the Skyrim/TES model, which to me, would seem to work perfectly in an MMO also. In Skyrim you could choose your faction later, no matter what race you chose to play as. For example, even if you played as an Altmer you could still join the Stormcloak rebellion (who were not only racists but also mortal enemies to the Altmer). As a player you had that freedom to roleplay as you wanted and it was awesome. In ESO, the Skyrim model would have worked perfectly:

A) You could play with your friends no matter what race you wanted to play as. It could also be easy to change Allegiances later, maybe by doing a quest.

It would fit the TES philosophy of giving freedom to the players to roleplay the way they wanted. For example, I would love to play as an Argonian who supports the AD ideals. TES games have always been like that. It is definitely a lot more realistic also – sympathizers have played a significant role in human history.

C) Under such a model, it would be easier to balance the number of players in a PvP Alliance – For example, if Alliances with fewer people got PvP bonuses, then many players would switch Alliances to get the bonuses and the population would then be easily balanced. I don’t think anyone will dispute that it is better to have balanced Alliances.

Conversely, in the current ESO model, potentially you will not be able to play with your friends (crazy, right?). Logically it would also seem that the EP races will be much more popular with the general public since that’s were most modern TES games take place. I don’t think anyone will argue that it is not optimal for PvP.

Now, I assume that there are amazing and great benefits for the Faction lock, otherwise ZOS would not implement it. But what are they??? Do I give ZOS too much credit?

Because lore.

But really are we bringing all the dead horses back this week? This feature isn't going to change.

You opened a huge can of worms with this post , May talos have mercy on your soul, but in short there are obviously reasons for the faction lock otherwise ZOS wouldn't have sacrificed a big part of TES, secondly please tell me more about the awesome depth being a storm cloak added lol, come on the storm cloak and imperial thing was a shallow attempt at choice depth and it was very bad I love Skyrim but that was bad

-thanks Stephen Bane

The faction lock is there to push the idea of the 3way alliance war. It pushes the idea that you know who your enemy is. There is no guessing, when you see them attack before they get the jump on you. It also pushes the idea of alliance pride. It gives you a feeling that you need to protect your lands. when you in Cyrodiil and you see an enemy alliance member on YOUR territory it will make you angry because that player is an invader trespassing on what is yours. the faction lock will also keep balance in the world and give huge goals. like trying to obtain the enemy alliances Elder Scroll Artifacts. Without a faction lock system like this cannot be in place and there is no real sense of purpose or goals in the world if everyone is just running around togeather.

The faction lock system is being taken directly form a game called Darkage of Camelot. It places 3 sides against each other. Camelot (knights od king aurther, albion legend), midgard (trolls, dwarfs, ect with norse mythology.. thor, odin), and Hibernia (lands of elves and celtic lore) This system in that game worked very well and is still praised after 12 as being the best PVP MMO. Matt F the leading dev for ESO came from that game and is using the same formula with the ES skin to try to bring back the unque system with an updated game. (a lot of people have been asking for a game to do this)

I am not sure I understand. According to TES tradition (Skyrim, Oblivion, Morrowind etc.), you always play as a nameless hero who goes out in the world with the freedom to choose his/her own path. I don't know why ESO is moving away from the standard TES lore of the nameless hero.

So if you think about it, the current ESO model is actually contrary to the standard TES lore.

you can twist your words as much as you want.

the makers of ESO makes the lore, so you loose the argument.

ESO is an MMO so should all players be named NAMELESS HERO as far as i played ES games, i always named my hero or heroess.

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Faction lock is in place so we can have a game, without it the whole concept of confrontation is void, and would prolly rise more twisting then a simple 3 factions fighting it out.

Because you are ONE person. You aren't playing an entire faction. So, yeah, it's not contrary to TES lore in anyways. That os a dumb excuse anyways.

It would be against the lore if tens of thousands of humans worked for the AD since their philosophy os about Mer Supremacy.