I won't lie. I didn't read much of the OP. The whole "World of Warcraft" argument needs to be dropped. Everyone has heard it a million times by now, across many different MMO's.
However.
The simple harsh truth is that the problem we have here is that they've called this "The Elder Scrolls" Online. They're putting the name of a finely tuned, beautiful machine to something that, from the screenshots, looks nothing... at all... like what we have come to expect from the Elder Scrolls name.
And in a world of up and coming MMO's I think we all had such high expectations for a heavyweight contender as this franchise. But from the little I've seen.. this just looks miles... years in fact... behind its competition.
What a shame.
The thing is, I'm not so much comparing the looks and feels of the game. My point was more based around the idea that the idea behind making this MMO (draw players away from other MMOs) is completely flawed and would mean the death of this game.
That is what my points and this thread is based around.
It's not a so much a complaint about that it isn't and Elder Scrolls game or a WoW clone, it's more about why it would be a financially bad idea to launch this MMO based around drawing in people from other MMOs.
I don't think they've put any wrong feet forward. The "community" is jumping to a lot of conclusions based on an article that really didn't go too in-depth about actual gameplay mechanics.
Also, it's worth noting that Blizzard was met with an onslaught of criticism when they announced World of Warcraft.
The same reply I can give to this. I don't criticize the gameplay mechanics or the graphics. I criticize the idea behind this MMO and give plenty of reasons why it's a bad idea.