But this is not WOW or any other MMO. Please anything to avoid this game being made into a clone of something else. I hope that ZeniMax and Beth does not borrow any weapons, stats or any other concept from any other MMO. No I am not putting down WOW or any other MMO. The Elder Scrolls worlds in single player has their own armor, weapons and stats. I like the number of bunnies killed. There should be locked chest or open ones with random loot. Except other players enemy NPC can be looted for their armor or weapons. Otherwise you can purchase armor, weapons or other gear. I hope that there is all types of gear that is elven, orc or imperial at different levels that is in other Elder Scrolls games.

Seriously? lol

Oh and Walis, since you decided to use UO as such a mighty example... While I personally enjoyed UO very much, and wish games would go back to a more difficulty, less handholding style of play there's a huge reason why none of the games out these days are anything like UO and you'll rarely ever see systems like that implemented. MAJORITY. DON'T. WANT. IT. Not sure why you're getting so butthurt about me saying the majority would hate and rage at gear breaking permanently, its not really an opinion and again I dare you to poll that up and see how it turns out.

I for one really really like the fact that crafters can at some point use your favored armor and craft it to be up to date (so to speak)! To me that sounds like your older gear will never be rendered obsolete which is a good thing for those that aren't in it for the stats alone but esthetics as well! http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?s=a20edcc31175decf8c25232d250c136c&&app=forums&module=extras§ion=legends#

When did I ever say that you had to carry 2 different sets of armor? All I said was that there was no PvP stats on gear to make specific PvP gear. If they did it that way, yes, you would have to carry two sets of armor with you. When I said you get items FROM PvP (think the BG items you got from WoW in Vanilla) they just had more Health on them, because they wanted you to last longer in fights and not die right away. BG armor back in Vanilla WoW had no "PvP Stat" on them. All it did was have a lot more health on it compared to other items around it's same item level.

Anyways, you might want to carry two different sets anyways. Because, you might want to have a bit more survivability in PvP, so carrying gear that has a bit more health and dropping your other primary stat might make the difference between being a glass cannon who dies in 5 seconds to someone who can fight and win.

If you can demonstrate that a system has a number of clearly defined advantages over another system, then the prior is at the very least a "better" option, which would make it a "good" choice. I'm afraid in this context, the term "opinion" is inaccurate.
I'll gladly give you that people have difficulties understanding the concept nowadays, and that it unfortunately undermines the prevalent reward mechanics in themepark settings.. but that doesn't detract from the concept's inherent logic and advantages.

You're also arriving at some funny conclusions.

1. Very few sandbox MMOs were produced, even fewer (none?) had a high production value.
2. There are no successful sandbox games.
3. There was a slurr of themepark MMOs, a fair share with AAA rating.
4. Few of these met projected revenues, none I recall exceeded expectations and became a huge success.

So I'm not really sure on which basis you deduct that sandbox titles do not fare well in this climate. There is nothing with a realistic chance to fare one way or the other.
All we know with absolute certainty is that there's an oversaturated market, especially in the themepark genre. If even major franchises (LotRO/SW:ToR/STO) fall behind projected numbers with this concept, then it's possibly time to try something else.

In an entertainment product adding mechanics should invariably be done for one end. To provide entertainment. Whilst your system does add mechanics, and they have some impact on other mechanics, it doesn't (for the lager target playerbase) add anything in the most important aspect, entertainment. You are asking for the feature on the basis of adding a feature. The only other reason would be you find it entertaining (your opinion having more weight than any other). If we were discussing a real world similation the benefits you bring up would be more relevant, but it's a game..a linear themepark game.

1) Ultima at it's time had a roughly comparable budget to many themepark style games. Even then it had the benefit of an established playerbase over many releases following it.

2) Ultima, EVE.

3) Is this supposed to reinforce anything? Are you infering that without AAA status no game can be successful? Why haven't sandbox MMOs recieved AAA funding?

4) Few games ever meet expected revenues in todays market, that has far more to do with unrealistic expectations of companies and the belief that spending more always returns a higher yield (a line of thinking less common outside the media industry), there was an article on the escapist recently that highlighted this very real problem. Lots have been successes, though how success is defined by some is worrying. My brother, for example, cited EVE as 'not a success', despite it running for over a decade and having currently ~500k subs.

If I did say they fare badly it was my bad wording, it's not so much that they fare badly, than that they fare less well than themeparks. People view their spare time as precious and we now have far more choices in the entertainment industry than were available 10 years ago, the competition is fiercer. What worked yesterday may not today as people's demands change, today we live in a world were people want entertainment now, delayed gratification is less prevelant, as with choice people leave before the pay off if the journey itself isn't entertaining.

This debate either way is pointless, there will be no permenant item loss.

Still not sure we're on the same page. You seem to be defaulting back to: "The whole market consists of themepark games, therefore people want themepark gameplay."
If there is only one type of MMO available, you can not tell me people prefer it over another. They simply have no choice. It's like they're being held hostage in a themepark setting. (There are exceptions, but sub-par production value often translates into sub-par games. EVE turned out well over time, but other attempts that could have appealed to a wider audience in their setting simply failed due to a lack of funding and experience.)

I'm part of a different demographic, so my perspective may be somewhat skewed, but the last games producing ripples on my radar were Minecraft and Day-Z (which is a mod, strictly speaking, but you get the idea). Both garnered interest by providing everything of which you claim it doesn't appeal to people nowadays.
After reading a few pretty enthusiastic posts about ArcheAge around here, it's going to be interesting to see how it does on the western market.

Does any of that change ESO's design? No. However, that doesn't render open discourse pointless.

Considering every one can wear anything, and if they have randomized stats, they can just make the same model and add a few things (better than just blantly recolour), like in skyrim the iron/steel armor had the version with shoulderpads (which i never understood...)

Im afraid that the same reason i stated, may instead make zenimax to simply put 3-5 different armors for each class (leather, plate, and w/e else) and then randomize the stats on it.

I would love if they made the armor change its model to what the stats give, if its a plate with stats for a mage it should have some sort of robe underneath (since we won't get that anyway), if it has stats that benefit agility classes have it change just a tiny bit around the arms and legs to represent it better, but not too much, and also keep the armor value of it.

Nobody said it wouldn't appeal to "people", just that it wouldn't appeal to the "majority of people".

I think there should be a point when the repairing cost of your gear is higher than the cost of making a new one.
durability gear = 100% - repair = 0 gold - new gear = 100 g
durability gear = 75% - repair = 20 gold - new gear = 90 gold
durability gear = 50% - repair = 50 gold - new gear = 60 gold
durability gear = 25% - repair = 80 gold - new gear = 30 gold
durability gear = 0% - repair = not possible - new gear = 10 gold

How do you go from new gear = 100 gold to new gear = 10 gold though

You are able to get materials back (and the lower the durability the easier getting materials).
Ofcourse the above number should be made more realistic, but that's something for the developers. (New gear a bit more expansive, sound realistic in my example)

Ah, gotcha. I don't really like your idea. That's personal opinion though.

But theres the rub..there are sandox games out there. If there was none I would agree, but there is choice based on past successes. Now you may not like those games but they exist, they have fanbases.

As someone has pointed out I am not saying sandboxes shouldn't exist nor that there are those that want to play them because there are. Nor am I saying they are bad games, they aren't. What I am saying is that prior sandbox games have not garnered the numbers of themeparks and thus the market panders to the themepark market. The inference isn't from the lack of games being made, but that those that do get fewer players than themepark launches. The majority of the MMO market at this time prefers a guided experience with small time expenditure.

Minecraft is a one time purchase, DayZ is free (being a mod of an existing game). That is a world of difference from current MMO models. Would people have paid a subscription for DayZ when it launched? Would people pay a subscription for Minecraft? Would either survive a F2P model? Would either lose if MMO payment models would be imposed? Both of these games also prove big budgets are not needed for success.

Just so you are clear. I never said it doesn't appeal to people. I said it doesn't appeal to the majority of the MMO playerbase.

I too am interested in Archeage I'm hoping it does well, even if it turns out to not be a game I enjoy because more choice is good for we gamers

Still can't quite see why we need to repair gear surely we just need to just repair used enchanted items with soul gems such as in Skyrim