And now you can be a human in Aldmeri Dominion. yay!

I think at this point it's a little ludicrous* to say that they don't listen to feedback, considering the sheer amount of things altered that fans were begging for since the game was first announced. They listen, and I think they are doing a good job at reshaping this game to fit the fans needs/ wants, while tempering the fact that they have to cover the multi-million dollar costs. I promise you this isn't some elaborate scam to take money from people who like TES

*please note I'm not calling you ludicrous, I am sure you are a fine stand-yup citizen that looks great in corduroy pants... which isn't easy.

In gameplay terms, I don't care about this at all.

But I do have a pretty big RP problem with it. It makes absolutely no sense that I can pick a faction playing an enemy race - without any in-game change.

The LEAST they could do would be to include some kind of penalty for interacting with NPCs. You're supposed to be at war - and having the game completely ignore you're actually from an enemy race makes me worry A LOT about the integrity of the game and the lore.

It's pretty damned cheap - and I'm speaking as a fan of ESO.

No i havent made my mind at all! Because i never really liked MMO's in general! TESO is an exception because i am an Big Elder Scrolls Fan, oh and a Die Hard Imperial Player so this is not Easy for me right now!

Don't play the game if you don't want to pay. Have fun waiting for a pirate version of The Elder Scrolls: 6. Or continuing playing a F2P game of your choice.

I don't care at all about Imperials being a playable race to be honest. I already liked the game with faction-lock and without that race ... So ... Its just some additional stuff and I'd probably not going to play them anyways although I will preorder the Imperial Edition anyway.

I am of the opinion that game features such as these should not require an account upgrade.

Even though I probably will end up doing it anyway.

All this proves is that race and faction are not the same thing. Faction is ideology and government, not race. Races are not your enemy because they are a certain race, the people of the other factions are your enemy because they support a different faction than you. Germans helping the allies in WW2, the French aiding the Germans, John Walker Lindh the Taliban fighter from Sonoma, California.

As I've been saying for months now, and finally the devs have proven me right: race =/= faction.

I'm fine with people getting bonus vanity content for collectors editions, I'm not happy about it, but I can deal with the exclusive race and increased xp gain. What I can't stand is the change of stance on factions. I'm really disappointed in the removal of closed factions, I don't even see the point in having them anymore. Allowing humans to join the dominion or elves to join the convenant is a stupid decision for a lore and game play standpoint. What happened to fighting for faction pride and dedication to the alliance Zenimax hyped up. Me and my friends were excited for the factions and would fight over who we should support, even though we couldn't come to an agreement we still loved the idea of factions. So who was this decision for? Was it made to sell more preorders?

It seems I was wrong. But in that case wouldn't this be good news? You now have ability to play as an imperial!

I'm certain that it will work out Exactly as you describe. But I don't care. And I'm not a whiny baby that wants to be "exclusive". I just typically buy a CE. And in this case I chose a digital CE from the Bethesda Store for the Early Access. Heck, the Hard Copy CE for the Xbox is going to be $99. And I may well buy that as well. (That hinges on if the PvP is better on the Xbox.) So I might end up not even using my PC version in the long run.

The other thing that doesn't bother me in the least is that ZOS will have a "cash shop" of some sort in this game. Now I would hope that most of the stuff there were things that had no effect on gameplay. But some things like the Imperial race are an exception. Its just that they (ZOS) have to be allowed to generate more cash flow so they can afford to offer more content. And I don't just support the "idea" of cash shop. I will gladly spend money there immediately if they offer some of the things I want.

Some of the items I would like to see are: The option to increase my bank's capacity. And to increase the size of my character's inventory. Maybe something like a barbershop. Where I could recustomize parts of my characters (Yes, I am vain). And, finally, some type of respec token. Because I don't want to have to use all my "in-game" currency to try a new build.

Yeah, and if you were a German in America or Great Britain in 1944 - people wouldn't treat you any differently, right?

I'm sorry, but what you're saying has no bearing on reality. People judge each other on race all over the world, as sad as that may be, and if you're at war with a faction that's DIRECTLY connected to three races - people will treat members of those races accordingly.

Trying to claim anything else is either complete ignorance or denial, sorry.

They've spent months telling us Imperials are unplayable because others see them as bad guys and that races are so important to the alliances, and now they go "to hell with that, if you give us money it will work". I consider it a **** move.

+1. Nice fail ZOS.

Another one is pre-purchase when NDA is still not lifted.

Yea I agree the explorers pack should be in the cash shop with it being a pre-order bonus. But I'm saying it shouldn't have been a pre-order bonus, for reasons I mentioned earlier. Not that I'm gonna bother with it anyway lol. And I know you can upgade to the imperial edition later on . That was not was I was talking about though. I was talking about the explorers pack. And I meant "quality and reputation" in a way that I think adding a questline to change you faction, or releasing an expansion later on to explain this possibility would add more to the games overall quality and reputation. More than adding it as a pre-order bonus, which adds nothing in value or content to the game.

As far as the Imperial race goes. I don't mind it as much as the explorer pack, although I'd have preferred them to make it playable not through the CE or digital imperial edition, but just by default. That would require some explanation storywise though. I'm all for CE offering fun and usefull stuff, but a race is disputable. It makes me think of opening day DLC, which I'm generally not a fan of.

Don't get me wrong though. I love the game and will play the crap out of it as well! I just think there are better ways to implement the ability to play any race in any alliance. That's all.

If it weren't only for CE Edition owners yes! Like i said i am not sure that the game will suit me and there for i will not pay that much for the Imperial Edition!

Part of having a subscription for an MMO is the promise that you have access to everything in the game, and that the game will continue to be supported. It would be one thing if ESO was going to be B2P, I'm pretty sure Anet did a similar thing with their CE, be we as future players are will be paying a recurring charge and it is a de facto rule in the MMO genre that sub fees give the player unfettered access to all the games content, either cosmetic or substantive. Even if you argue that the imperials are cosmetic(which they're not because they do offer their own skill tree and, if the preorder page is to be believed, exclusive crafting items) they should still be covered under the sub cost. This is pure and unadvlterated greed, simple as that.

So true!

"German" is a nationality, that is, a politicial identity, not a race. Contrary to what Hitler thought ><

And yes, the US interned Japanese people during WWII... which was racist and unnecessary and is generally now considered to have been a huge historical mistake.

I am in favor of allowing any race in any alliance... aside from anything else it'll help correct some of the balance issues (too many casters and not enough tanks in AD). Not sure about tying it to preorder, but that doesn't seem like a big deal to me since the price is the same.

As for making the Imperials CE-only, not so sure about that... but like others, I want to see what their racial abilities are before deciding Also, the Rings of Mara... I want to know whether this is the ONLY way to get married in-game; tying that gameplay system to CE doesn't seem right.

And, as for the price point, doesn't seem out of line to me. Plenty of other CEs cost more, whether for MMO or not. It might price some people out of the game, which is too bad, but I don't think it's "unheard of".

For the purpose of this comparison, it's a race and you know it.

It doesn't matter what's right or wrong - it matters that what happens is plausible and in aid of immersion.

Obviously, if you don't care about immersion and the plausible nature of what happens in the game, you won't care.

I do care, however.

I was pretty shocked to see so many ok with this CE idea. And one even saying this isn't compareable to microtrans? You have a whole race locked behind 20$..... Most MMO's that give you a new race for 20$ also have other new things for that 20$. Like new dungeons armors and quests, not just a race for 20$.

I understand some will buy it for the other added items as well and that's fine. But now i need to buy the CE to get full access to all races? I don't care much for the artbook and statue because i'm not a collector of such things. But having to pay the extra 20$ just to be able to use one race seems rather silly.

I mentioned something in a thread a while back about EA/Bioware and someone said that you couldn't compare ZOS to EA.... Well, now can we?

I care too. However, for the purposes of comparison, being German is NOT a race, and I know it. Are you really saying it's "implausible" and "anti-immersive" to have people of different ethnic backgrounds living as citizens in the same country? EVERY single-player TES game had this going on. There were people of every race living, often for generations, in every province. JUST LIKE IN THE REAL WORLD.

It would be implausible NOT to include it, both from the real world and the TES lore perspective.

This whole "ethnic purity" thing is a fantasy based on a lot of incorrect assumptions about the relationship between genes and identity which a small handful of rulers throughout history have embraced, always with disastrous consequences; but it is not by any means the "norm" in the real world OR in TES.

So I'm just wondering, all the people that are upset you have to pay extra money to get things like the imperial race, are you this upset when other games, mmo or even single player do it? There have been quite a few games that offered special characters, levels, items only for pre-orders and CE. Now a lot of the mmos that did it are F2P now but I'm fairly positive that was do to game play complaints driving people away and not because someone who bought a CE or pre-ordered or did a lifetime sub got something special that others couldn't.

My personal opinion I really don't mind it, I'm thinking of getting the imperial edition but might go for standard. And as long as the game is good I'm willing to pay a sub even if someone who paid more gets something I can't. And honestly I'd rather get something like a unique race then something completely useless for my extra $20 like some other CE have.

Yes, being German is like being a race in my comparison. It's not rocket science. Let's say you're a Bosmer playing in an area belonging to the enemy faction. YOU think it's completely plausible that the in-game NPCs wouldn't react to that at all. I don't.

You should have paid more attention playing Morrowind and Oblivion, because if people didn't like you based on race - you'd get a snide remark immediately. However, the races weren't in open war in any ES game that I can remember.

I think it's FINE to be able to play in a faction your race is not allied with - but I DON'T think it's fine that the game is going to ignore it completely, and I know that it will - because anything else would take extra voice work.

Understand?

No, I don't really care about the money. Greed is par for the course - and the suits are in charge of business. I do care about ignoring lore and the integrity of the game, however.

Unacceptable for this to be behind a paywall when we are already paying full price and 15 monthly. I have no issue with 5 days preload playing or even the play as any race within an alliance but the Imperial is crossing the line. That needs to be in the main game, if you want to put custom armor as a preorder while not the greatest idea, that would be better then this. I also have no issue with the mara rings, those aren't a big deal and it fact, I think you would be doing yourself a disservice, rushing through the game instead of enjoying the content.

So in simple terms, any race within an alliance, mara rings, unique mount, those are ok but a race within the collector's edition to me is too much and crosses a line. If this was F2P or B2P like Guild Wars 2, I would have no issue with any of these preorder options but since we pay a monthly subscription, that's where the line is crossed because when you pay a subscription, unlike a F2P game, you expect to get all the content in one package and this instance we don't get everything in one package. You have to preorder the game and not just the regular edition but the collector's edition and who knows how many of those editions will be out there. All in all, it's a bad business decision IMHO.

Yes, I agree that ZOS add more RP aspect to the NPC dialog based on player's race.