I'm posting this in hopes that the devs will take a look at this and consider changing the combat animations for everyone's sake.

First argument is the speed of the animations. They are waaaay too fast. Slow them down. It is almost annoying to watch. One example is a character taking an arrow shot and instantly falling to the knees as if in pain and then with the second shot taken, instantly stands up and then instantly falls to the ground all happening within a split second. It is rather annoying to watch.

Second argument is the types of combat animations. One that really catches my attention and makes absolutely no sense is the flip-up animation. It is annoying to watch every NPC do this animation when they are knocked to the ground and with the speed of the animations added it makes it that much more annoying. Honestly, why is a guy decked out in full heavy armor able to do a stupid flip-up? It makes no sense. And judging by what I've seen, it looks like every character type and race can do this animation.

Constructive criticism: I am not posting this to bash the game or to generate negativity to purchasers and subscribers. I am posting this in hopes that you drastically change these animations to better benefit all parties. I for one am NOT buying this game with these combat mechanics. It is just too annoying to watch and is unappealing. Just scrap the flip-up animation all together and have characters get up in a more realistic fashion. Or if you are completely hooked on this animation at least make it only available to assassin type characters. I hope you take this criticism and run with it because I am not the only one that feels this way. You can google this topic and find many related forum posts by disappointed fans and gamers.

Also the combat system is one of the main features of an MMO. It has to be appealing or it won't go far.

Not buying a game because the animations are too fast.

Ok.

I agree animations need work and I am hoping that for instance the death animation is expanded upon to have different animations rather then them all just being the "flop down pancake" animation we see currently.

However the animations left the same or changed for better ones would not be something I would say "I am not buying this game because I hate the animations" I would like them to be better but it is definitely not something that would stop me from wanting to play ESO.

The game is at least 6 months from release, you can't judge the final game based on anything from the videos you have seen.

We haven't seen the animations in months, since the Quakecon demo. A reasonable person might assume alot of them have vastly improved since then.