Artist does not a game designer make. As irony would have it, I design and maintain infrastructure for mission critical data. Development for mega server tech is nothing new, and not the primary focus of a game design. It is part of the design yes, but is not, in fact, a game. Find out how long it took arena net to roll it out and maybe you'll discover how un-new this tech is. Its still clusters, no master how you shift loads.
Also, my comment was no more snarky than your first statement...That the game is poorly designed. Back it up, or leave it out of a public forum. The fact is this -- you just don't like it -- and that's OK.
Aw cute, you didnt read my post and then tried to start an argument... well thats something you just wont get.
I already made a strong point with some content to back it up. I noticed you didnt show off any pics of your armor thats not just a body texture. I can guess why...because it doesnt exist. But hey its ok, attack my character instead...thats what you do right?
Correct me if I'm wrong, Rabenwolf, but as a game artist, it would seem to me that your job is intimately tied in with the design of the game itself, along with its technical limitations, etc.
I don't know specifically what your role is an artist (texture artist? modeler? environment? character? etc), but I am aware that for any given game, there is a budget that must be maintained. There are limits on memory and CPU time to be allocated, at any given time, and the modelers, artists, designers, etc.. all must know, understand and be able to work within those limitations.
Hence, it would seem to me that saying "artist does not a game designer make" is a rather silly remark to make, considering how everything is ultimately tied together in such a project.
I would also guess that saying the server technology is not the primary focus of a game design is also somewhat short-sighted and ignorant, for much the same reason.. In a MMO, the server architecture is where the rubber hits the road. You can have all the best art, sound, music, etc. You can have the best design ever conceived. Your game client can run like butter on a given player's hardware. But if the infrastructure is not up to snuff, and can't keep up with all of that... then it's all for naught, because the game is going to run like crap. So, once again, the art, the design... everything is built around the requirements, capabilities and limitations of the infrastructure.
Look how a poorly designed engine and infrastructure hurt FFXIV 1.0. Even with all the improvements they made to it, there was only so far Yohsi-P and co. could take it, because the hardware and the engine simply couldn't handle any more. Meanwhile, ARR runs like silk while still managing to look great and have, arguably, a lot more detail and substantially more players on-screen at any given time. And this is because everything was designed, created and optimized to work as one large integrated system.
So... Again, correct me if I'm wrong here, because I'm not in the industry myself... but I am a fan of game design in general, and MMO design in particular. That's my understanding of it.
Artist does not a game designer make. As irony would have it, I design and maintain infrastructure for mission critical data. Development for mega server tech is nothing new, and not the primary focus of a game design. It is part of the design yes, but is not, in fact, a game. Find out how long it took arena net to roll it out and maybe you'll discover how un-new this tech is. Its still clusters, no master how you shift loads.
Also, my comment was no more snarky than your first statement...That the game is poorly designed. Back it up, or leave it out of a public forum. The fact is this -- you just don't like it -- and that's OK.
Aw cute, you didnt read my post and then tried to start an argument... well thats something you just wont get.
I already made a strong point with some content to back it up. I noticed you didnt show off any pics of your armor thats not just a body texture. I can guess why...because it doesnt exist. But hey its ok, attack my character instead...thats what you do right?
Nope, I choose what I wanted to respond to. I don't see you're Picts. Show us Mr designer. The proof is not mine to bear, is it? (Plus I'm on a tablet). So knock yourself out.
I'm against anything that takes the social or multiplayer aspect out of an MMO, so I agree wholeheartedly about the auction house. I loved the fact that I had to manually sell my stuff or seek out players selling things I wanted.
In the same respect, I disagree with the part that requires other people. The game can be punishing if you're bad or you play a class that really benefits from other players like a melee, but too many classes can actually solo most of the content they probably intended to be group. To me, this is the biggest failing of ESO and why I chose not to buy it. Until a game comes out that requires players to seek out others to survive and progress, I have no interest in MMOs (because they are just massive online games, not massively multiplayer).
Artist does not a game designer make. As irony would have it, I design and maintain infrastructure for mission critical data. Development for mega server tech is nothing new, and not the primary focus of a game design. It is part of the design yes, but is not, in fact, a game. Find out how long it took arena net to roll it out and maybe you'll discover how un-new this tech is. Its still clusters, no master how you shift loads.
Also, my comment was no more snarky than your first statement...That the game is poorly designed. Back it up, or leave it out of a public forum. The fact is this -- you just don't like it -- and that's OK.
Aw cute, you didnt read my post and then tried to start an argument... well thats something you just wont get.
I already made a strong point with some content to back it up. I noticed you didnt show off any pics of your armor thats not just a body texture. I can guess why...because it doesnt exist. But hey its ok, attack my character instead...thats what you do right?
Correct me if I'm wrong, Rabenwolf, but as a game artist, it would seem to me that your job is intimately tied in with the design of the game itself, along with its technical limitations, etc.
I don't know specifically what your role is an artist (texture artist? modeler? environment? character? etc), but I am aware that for any given game, there is a budget that must be maintained. There are limits on memory and CPU time to be allocated, at any given time, and the modelers, artists, designers, etc.. all must know, understand and be able to work within those limitations.
Hence, it would seem to me that saying "artist does not a game designer make" is a rather silly remark to make, considering how everything is ultimately tied together in such a project.
I would also guess that saying the server technology is not the primary focus of a game design is also somewhat short-sighted and ignorant, for much the same reason.. In a MMO, the server architecture is where the rubber hits the road. You can have all the best art, sound, music, etc. You can have the best design ever conceived. Your game client can run like butter on a given player's hardware. But if the infrastructure is not up to snuff, and can't keep up with all of that... then it's all for naught, because the game is going to run like crap. So, once again, the art, the design... everything is built around the requirements, capabilities and limitations of the infrastructure.
Look how a poorly designed engine and infrastructure hurt FFXIV 1.0. Even with all the improvements they made to it, there was only so far Yohsi-P and co. could take it, because the hardware and the engine simply couldn't handle any more. Meanwhile, ARR runs like silk while still managing to look great and have, arguably, a lot more detail and substantially more players on-screen at any given time. And this is because everything was designed, created and optimized to work as one large integrated system.
So... Again, correct me if I'm wrong here, because I'm not in the industry myself... but I am a fan of game design in general, and MMO design in particular. That's my understanding of it.
Intrical parts of a game? Sure. But those in and of themselves are not a game. Its important to separate because you cannot rate a game design with a blanket statement. If that's ignorance to you, then I guess its personal bliss. If you prefer to throw it out because an item won't stack or you don't like the look of the armor, so be it. But these are systems, and like living MMOs, a continuous work.
The OP made a really poor attempt to argue against these "common misconceptions". Basically just stating their dislike for said issues as if that held any weight in proving them wrong. Hopefully I will do a bit better of a job countering the OP's "arguments".
Point 1: One major way to obtain faction pride is to give factions obvious differences from their counterparts. This can include restricting races to certain factions. Faction pride in a video game is born from the same cloth as nationalism in the real world, but I would agree with the OP in that every race/every faction is not a game breaker for pride. With this IP any race playable for any faction should have been an obvious design choice. HOWEVER, this game does nothing to facilitate faction pride by allowing people to change their PvP campaigns very easily, refusing to easily display player name tags or even guild name tags to generate rivalries between players, and possibly the worst offense by creating zero sense of urgency in the War between the three factions due to the storyline (along with most quests I have encountered) and lore of the game revolving heavily around Molag Bal. ESO does a terrible job at generating faction pride in its current state, there is no arguing against this.
Point 2: This game is similar to Guild War 2, in that most "grouping" happens dynamically. In other words, this is not a game that encourages much group play beyond the occasional meeting up of random players trying to do a Dark Anchor or kill an elite mob. Questing in this game is easy, there is little challenge to be had here. Even worse, phasing makes it difficult to quest with friends (even more of a nightmare with random strangers). This game offers no more of a challenge than any other AAA MMO to be released recently. You will never have to group in order to level, ever. Anyone who tells you differently is being disingenuous.
Point 3: The current Auction system in the game is very clumsy, encourages people to join guilds just to access trade which diminishes the quality of a guilds' members and reeks of poorly thought out design. You can join up to 5 guilds at a time, and you will need too so you can have access to 5 different Auction Houses. I am not really sure why having so many smaller Auction Houses is a good thing yet combining them into 1 overall Auction House for a Faction is a world ending proposition. A server wide Auction House does nothing but facilitate trade and create an economy. MMO's that have Auction Houses still allow players to trade amongst themselves using chat communication, so the whole argument against server wide Auction Houses is just silly.
I will add my own "common misconception" about this game. If you think that Elder Scrolls Online is a MMO, you are incorrect. This is just another single player minded game floating around in the MMO universe.
2. The Game is too easy, you never have to group, ever.
3. The Lack of Auction House ruins trade
Anyways, thats mine, anyone else got one?
1. All Race Unlock Destroys Faction Pride.
In my opinion it is the allowance of guilds to carry members of all factions that destroys faction pride.
It is pointless to pretend that factions even exist if the walls can be so easily scaled that the only thing that separates you is which character you choose to play that day. Cross faction guilds destroy the research progress, security, and tactical advantage of being in a different faction at all and not only that it destroys the entire point of opening up the lands of the other faction at endgame when, by then, you could have already done most of the group content just by joining up with your buddy from the other faction.
Totally bad move in my opinion, but nothing to do with the Race unlock.
2. The Game is too easy, you never have to group, ever.
This is an incomplete statement.
The complete statement should be..."The game is too easy to level through and gimp yourself because it never forces you to group up."
Everyone knows by now that skill points are more important than levels, and skill points come from participation, in ALL aspects of the game. No, the game doesn't force you to do anything you don't want to, except maybe move, every once in a while. You can literally log into the game and just stand there all day though, and with the exception of hitting a key to move every once in a while, you don't have to do one other thing. When called upon to tackle something with substance however, you will not be able to succeed.
Likewise, for those players who are ignoring their skill points in lieu of level and gear, there will be a reckoning sooner or later where that lack of skill points manifests itself into gimpness. And why would they change the game to stop you from crying when, by then, you will be so bought in that you won't have any other choice but to fix what you did?
3. The Lack of Auction House ruins trade.
Allowing other people to research traits from crafted gear ruins trade. It also ruins replay value. Not knowing what to sell and what to keep also ruins trade, but that can never be helped, not even in real life. Cross faction guilds also ruin trade, as, coupled with the research thing, they make it easier for all three factions to attain the fruits of any of the three factions labors thus weakening the faction with the most intellectual pursuits while strengthening the factions with the least.
In hindsight I believe that Zenimax was a little afraid of any one faction or any particular people really being able to rule the game and so they made it completely neutral with only their "Empororship" a defining feature of dominance.
Still a pretty fun game to play though and so most of the time I don't say anything.
Let's not get crazy though, it's not an answer to sliced bread. It's just a fun, immersive, game, and I really can't ask for a lot more than that.
I don't usually have a lot of bad things to say about the game because I like it a lot. These particular things that you picked though are a couple of things that, in my opinion, could have been handled a lot better.
What are you gonna do though now? Game is out, people are guilded, people are taking advantage already.
For the record I did apply for early beta, I just didn't get in.
Originally posted by ultrastoat Originally posted by human106I must admit I do prefer games that have clear factions with certain races being part of those factions. No particular reason to really. I just do.
Because it's a staple of PVP games. Even the races in WoW are distinct enough to identify on the battlefield.
I'm personally OK with either one or the other. THe big problem for me is that early-access people (myself included) can now create characters of any race in any faction, but if friends of yours pick up the game post-launch, they're locked into their race's respective factions.
Not quite .. send them to a site like Kinguin and they can get the Explorers pack DLC code, so Scuttler pet, bonus maps and any race, it's £1.28 or if you get the game with 30days + explorers about £22 (downloading now lol)
To me this has to be number 1 because lets be honest here, there is no physical difference between say a beast race and a humanoid race besides small facial features...which are completely pointless when everyone wears helmets, full body armor, robes, etc.
What does this mean? It means everyone complaining about the removal of Race-Lock for select players has NOTHING to do with faction Identity. Not only that but combat is so fast paced and colorful in ESO that to actually stop and look at someones face long enough to determine their race would virtually be suicide.
A Misconception that needs to end, so that constructive criticism can be established and true faction pride can be accomplished
Disagree. First of all, sure, you cant see the difference easily when it comes to humans, but you have to be blind if you cant tell the difference of Khajiit, Argonian, or any of the elves. Also the racial armors are very easy to spot from one another, sadly you can craft on other alliance styles for whatever stupid waahwaah we haz to haff freeedom to do whatever we wish to be the cool kid in Altmer armor standing in Deshaan!
I made a character on Daggerfall Covenant as soon as I installed the game couple of days ago, and frack me it took a dozen of Khajiit and Elves (non orc) and a couple of Argonians before I saw the first Redguard! It's so stupid and un-immersive to see these "coolkids" making whatever alliance/race combos on a regular basis to be special snowflakes, the problem is, when too many does it they are not special anyway.
There should be game mechanics implemented that would send all the NPC guards to kill any player that runs around as opposing faction race if they are also using the racial armor style of the said race, so at the very least these turncoats would be forced to use the faction armor styles of the alliance they currently work for or be executed. I mean it's pretty damn easy for Altmer army to walk into Morrowind it seems, just walk in there wearing your own racial armor too, no one seem to give a fuck about Altmer running around in Ebonheart Pact areas wearing Altmer armor too.
If developers dont give a frack about their own setting they have made for the game and lore, how the hell am I supposed to then? Enemies running around in my faction land and I cant attack them, it's a real turn-off and makes the setting feel pointless.
To me this has to be number 1 because lets be honest here, there is no physical difference between say a beast race and a humanoid race besides small facial features...which are completely pointless when everyone wears helmets, full body armor, robes, etc.
What does this mean? It means everyone complaining about the removal of Race-Lock for select players has NOTHING to do with faction Identity. Not only that but combat is so fast paced and colorful in ESO that to actually stop and look at someones face long enough to determine their race would virtually be suicide.
A Misconception that needs to end, so that constructive criticism can be established and true faction pride can be accomplished
Disagree. First of all, sure, you cant see the difference easily when it comes to humans, but you have to be blind if you cant tell the difference of Khajiit, Argonian, or any of the elves. Also the racial armors are very easy to spot from one another, sadly you can craft on other alliance styles for whatever stupid waahwaah we haz to haff freeedom to do whatever we wish to be the cool kid in Altmer armor standing in Deshaan!
I made a character on Daggerfall Covenant as soon as I installed the game couple of days ago, and frack me it took a dozen of Khajiit and Elves (non orc) and a couple of Argonians before I saw the first Redguard! It's so stupid and un-immersive to see these "coolkids" making whatever alliance/race combos on a regular basis to be special snowflakes, the problem is, when too many does it they are not special anyway.
There should be game mechanics implemented that would send all the NPC guards to kill any player that runs around as opposing faction race if they are also using the racial armor style of the said race, so at the very least these turncoats would be forced to use the faction armor styles of the alliance they currently work for or be executed. I mean it's pretty damn easy for Altmer army to walk into Morrowind it seems, just walk in there wearing your own racial armor too, no one seem to give a fuck about Altmer running around in Ebonheart Pact areas wearing Altmer armor too.
If developers dont give a frack about their own setting they have made for the game and lore, how the hell am I supposed to then? Enemies running around in my faction land and I cant attack them, it's a real turn-off and makes the setting feel pointless.
Originally posted by jesad
Originally posted by sludgebeard
1. All Race Unlock Destroys Faction Pride
2. The Game is too easy, you never have to group, ever.
3. The Lack of Auction House ruins trade
Anyways, thats mine, anyone else got one?
1. All Race Unlock Destroys Faction Pride.
In my opinion it is the allowance of guilds to carry members of all factions that destroys faction pride.
It is pointless to pretend that factions even exist if the walls can be so easily scaled that the only thing that separates you is which character you choose to play that day. Cross faction guilds destroy the research progress, security, and tactical advantage of being in a different faction at all and not only that it destroys the entire point of opening up the lands of the other faction at endgame when, by then, you could have already done most of the group content just by joining up with your buddy from the other faction.
Totally bad move in my opinion, but nothing to do with the Race unlock.
You guys are racists, lol. Why do you need the enemy to be a different race for you to feel faction pride? Why not play some competitive pvp just for the fun? Or get yourself involved in the lore? The alliances are just types of goverments, it's not because you have a green skin that you won't be accepted into AD. Looking at the lore I saw stories of Orc defects, argonians far away form home that just want a piece of land to live, traveling merchants from other races, people that settled in the middle of a foreign land and are getting mistreated by others just for being of "the race of the enemy". Theres enough lore for anyone to get a background on what they are fighting for.
The game was made that way so it's way more convenient to experience all of it's content without having to level a new character from scratch.
To me this has to be number 1 because lets be honest here, there is no physical difference between say a beast race and a humanoid race besides small facial features...which are completely pointless when everyone wears helmets, full body armor, robes, etc.
What does this mean? It means everyone complaining about the removal of Race-Lock for select players has NOTHING to do with faction Identity. Not only that but combat is so fast paced and colorful in ESO that to actually stop and look at someones face long enough to determine their race would virtually be suicide.
A Misconception that needs to end, so that constructive criticism can be established and true faction pride can be accomplished
Disagree. First of all, sure, you cant see the difference easily when it comes to humans, but you have to be blind if you cant tell the difference of Khajiit, Argonian, or any of the elves. Also the racial armors are very easy to spot from one another, sadly you can craft on other alliance styles for whatever stupid waahwaah we haz to haff freeedom to do whatever we wish to be the cool kid in Altmer armor standing in Deshaan!
I made a character on Daggerfall Covenant as soon as I installed the game couple of days ago, and frack me it took a dozen of Khajiit and Elves (non orc) and a couple of Argonians before I saw the first Redguard! It's so stupid and un-immersive to see these "coolkids" making whatever alliance/race combos on a regular basis to be special snowflakes, the problem is, when too many does it they are not special anyway.
There should be game mechanics implemented that would send all the NPC guards to kill any player that runs around as opposing faction race if they are also using the racial armor style of the said race, so at the very least these turncoats would be forced to use the faction armor styles of the alliance they currently work for or be executed. I mean it's pretty damn easy for Altmer army to walk into Morrowind it seems, just walk in there wearing your own racial armor too, no one seem to give a fuck about Altmer running around in Ebonheart Pact areas wearing Altmer armor too.
If developers dont give a frack about their own setting they have made for the game and lore, how the hell am I supposed to then? Enemies running around in my faction land and I cant attack them, it's a real turn-off and makes the setting feel pointless.
Originally posted by jesad
Originally posted by sludgebeard
1. All Race Unlock Destroys Faction Pride
2. The Game is too easy, you never have to group, ever.
3. The Lack of Auction House ruins trade
Anyways, thats mine, anyone else got one?
1. All Race Unlock Destroys Faction Pride.
In my opinion it is the allowance of guilds to carry members of all factions that destroys faction pride.
It is pointless to pretend that factions even exist if the walls can be so easily scaled that the only thing that separates you is which character you choose to play that day. Cross faction guilds destroy the research progress, security, and tactical advantage of being in a different faction at all and not only that it destroys the entire point of opening up the lands of the other faction at endgame when, by then, you could have already done most of the group content just by joining up with your buddy from the other faction.
Totally bad move in my opinion, but nothing to do with the Race unlock.
You guys are racists, lol. Why do you need the enemy to be a different race for you to feel faction pride? Why not play some competitive pvp just for the fun? Or get yourself involved in the lore? The alliances are just types of goverments, it's not because you have a green skin that you won't be accepted into AD. Looking at the lore I saw stories of Orc defects, argonians far away form home that just want a piece of land to live, traveling merchants from other races, people that settled in the middle of a foreign land and are getting mistreated by others just for being of "the race of the enemy". Theres enough lore for anyone to get a background on what they are fighting for.
The game was made that way so it's way more convenient to experience all of it's content without having to level a new character from scratch.
I think you misunderstood me. I don't care about what race you are, I care that people from Ebonheart or Aldmeri are able to get into a guild with people from Daggerfall, purchase from their guild store, research their items, report back on their pvp movements, and all kinds of other nasty stuff.
If you are supplying the enemy with every edge you have than the only competition is in who twitches the best. And that's weak.
Comments
Correct me if I'm wrong, Rabenwolf, but as a game artist, it would seem to me that your job is intimately tied in with the design of the game itself, along with its technical limitations, etc.
I don't know specifically what your role is an artist (texture artist? modeler? environment? character? etc), but I am aware that for any given game, there is a budget that must be maintained. There are limits on memory and CPU time to be allocated, at any given time, and the modelers, artists, designers, etc.. all must know, understand and be able to work within those limitations.
Hence, it would seem to me that saying "artist does not a game designer make" is a rather silly remark to make, considering how everything is ultimately tied together in such a project.
I would also guess that saying the server technology is not the primary focus of a game design is also somewhat short-sighted and ignorant, for much the same reason.. In a MMO, the server architecture is where the rubber hits the road. You can have all the best art, sound, music, etc. You can have the best design ever conceived. Your game client can run like butter on a given player's hardware. But if the infrastructure is not up to snuff, and can't keep up with all of that... then it's all for naught, because the game is going to run like crap. So, once again, the art, the design... everything is built around the requirements, capabilities and limitations of the infrastructure.
Look how a poorly designed engine and infrastructure hurt FFXIV 1.0. Even with all the improvements they made to it, there was only so far Yohsi-P and co. could take it, because the hardware and the engine simply couldn't handle any more. Meanwhile, ARR runs like silk while still managing to look great and have, arguably, a lot more detail and substantially more players on-screen at any given time. And this is because everything was designed, created and optimized to work as one large integrated system.
So... Again, correct me if I'm wrong here, because I'm not in the industry myself... but I am a fan of game design in general, and MMO design in particular. That's my understanding of it.
Nope, I choose what I wanted to respond to. I don't see you're Picts. Show us Mr designer. The proof is not mine to bear, is it? (Plus I'm on a tablet). So knock yourself out.
I'm against anything that takes the social or multiplayer aspect out of an MMO, so I agree wholeheartedly about the auction house. I loved the fact that I had to manually sell my stuff or seek out players selling things I wanted.
In the same respect, I disagree with the part that requires other people. The game can be punishing if you're bad or you play a class that really benefits from other players like a melee, but too many classes can actually solo most of the content they probably intended to be group. To me, this is the biggest failing of ESO and why I chose not to buy it. Until a game comes out that requires players to seek out others to survive and progress, I have no interest in MMOs (because they are just massive online games, not massively multiplayer).
Intrical parts of a game? Sure. But those in and of themselves are not a game. Its important to separate because you cannot rate a game design with a blanket statement. If that's ignorance to you, then I guess its personal bliss. If you prefer to throw it out because an item won't stack or you don't like the look of the armor, so be it. But these are systems, and like living MMOs, a continuous work.
The OP made a really poor attempt to argue against these "common misconceptions". Basically just stating their dislike for said issues as if that held any weight in proving them wrong. Hopefully I will do a bit better of a job countering the OP's "arguments".
Point 1: One major way to obtain faction pride is to give factions obvious differences from their counterparts. This can include restricting races to certain factions. Faction pride in a video game is born from the same cloth as nationalism in the real world, but I would agree with the OP in that every race/every faction is not a game breaker for pride. With this IP any race playable for any faction should have been an obvious design choice. HOWEVER, this game does nothing to facilitate faction pride by allowing people to change their PvP campaigns very easily, refusing to easily display player name tags or even guild name tags to generate rivalries between players, and possibly the worst offense by creating zero sense of urgency in the War between the three factions due to the storyline (along with most quests I have encountered) and lore of the game revolving heavily around Molag Bal. ESO does a terrible job at generating faction pride in its current state, there is no arguing against this.
Point 2: This game is similar to Guild War 2, in that most "grouping" happens dynamically. In other words, this is not a game that encourages much group play beyond the occasional meeting up of random players trying to do a Dark Anchor or kill an elite mob. Questing in this game is easy, there is little challenge to be had here. Even worse, phasing makes it difficult to quest with friends (even more of a nightmare with random strangers). This game offers no more of a challenge than any other AAA MMO to be released recently. You will never have to group in order to level, ever. Anyone who tells you differently is being disingenuous.
Point 3: The current Auction system in the game is very clumsy, encourages people to join guilds just to access trade which diminishes the quality of a guilds' members and reeks of poorly thought out design. You can join up to 5 guilds at a time, and you will need too so you can have access to 5 different Auction Houses. I am not really sure why having so many smaller Auction Houses is a good thing yet combining them into 1 overall Auction House for a Faction is a world ending proposition. A server wide Auction House does nothing but facilitate trade and create an economy. MMO's that have Auction Houses still allow players to trade amongst themselves using chat communication, so the whole argument against server wide Auction Houses is just silly.
I will add my own "common misconception" about this game. If you think that Elder Scrolls Online is a MMO, you are incorrect. This is just another single player minded game floating around in the MMO universe.
The only misconception about ESO is that it's a good game.
The game is terrible in almost every aspect, the only decent part of it is the PVP.
1. All Race Unlock Destroys Faction Pride.
In my opinion it is the allowance of guilds to carry members of all factions that destroys faction pride.
It is pointless to pretend that factions even exist if the walls can be so easily scaled that the only thing that separates you is which character you choose to play that day. Cross faction guilds destroy the research progress, security, and tactical advantage of being in a different faction at all and not only that it destroys the entire point of opening up the lands of the other faction at endgame when, by then, you could have already done most of the group content just by joining up with your buddy from the other faction.
Totally bad move in my opinion, but nothing to do with the Race unlock.
2. The Game is too easy, you never have to group, ever.
This is an incomplete statement.
The complete statement should be..."The game is too easy to level through and gimp yourself because it never forces you to group up."
Everyone knows by now that skill points are more important than levels, and skill points come from participation, in ALL aspects of the game. No, the game doesn't force you to do anything you don't want to, except maybe move, every once in a while. You can literally log into the game and just stand there all day though, and with the exception of hitting a key to move every once in a while, you don't have to do one other thing. When called upon to tackle something with substance however, you will not be able to succeed.
Likewise, for those players who are ignoring their skill points in lieu of level and gear, there will be a reckoning sooner or later where that lack of skill points manifests itself into gimpness. And why would they change the game to stop you from crying when, by then, you will be so bought in that you won't have any other choice but to fix what you did?
3. The Lack of Auction House ruins trade.
Allowing other people to research traits from crafted gear ruins trade. It also ruins replay value. Not knowing what to sell and what to keep also ruins trade, but that can never be helped, not even in real life. Cross faction guilds also ruin trade, as, coupled with the research thing, they make it easier for all three factions to attain the fruits of any of the three factions labors thus weakening the faction with the most intellectual pursuits while strengthening the factions with the least.
In hindsight I believe that Zenimax was a little afraid of any one faction or any particular people really being able to rule the game and so they made it completely neutral with only their "Empororship" a defining feature of dominance.
Still a pretty fun game to play though and so most of the time I don't say anything.
Let's not get crazy though, it's not an answer to sliced bread. It's just a fun, immersive, game, and I really can't ask for a lot more than that.
I don't usually have a lot of bad things to say about the game because I like it a lot. These particular things that you picked though are a couple of things that, in my opinion, could have been handled a lot better.
What are you gonna do though now? Game is out, people are guilded, people are taking advantage already.
For the record I did apply for early beta, I just didn't get in.
I'm personally OK with either one or the other. THe big problem for me is that early-access people (myself included) can now create characters of any race in any faction, but if friends of yours pick up the game post-launch, they're locked into their race's respective factions.
Not quite .. send them to a site like Kinguin and they can get the Explorers pack DLC code, so Scuttler pet, bonus maps and any race, it's £1.28 or if you get the game with 30days + explorers about £22 (downloading now lol)
Disagree. First of all, sure, you cant see the difference easily when it comes to humans, but you have to be blind if you cant tell the difference of Khajiit, Argonian, or any of the elves. Also the racial armors are very easy to spot from one another, sadly you can craft on other alliance styles for whatever stupid waahwaah we haz to haff freeedom to do whatever we wish to be the cool kid in Altmer armor standing in Deshaan!
I made a character on Daggerfall Covenant as soon as I installed the game couple of days ago, and frack me it took a dozen of Khajiit and Elves (non orc) and a couple of Argonians before I saw the first Redguard! It's so stupid and un-immersive to see these "coolkids" making whatever alliance/race combos on a regular basis to be special snowflakes, the problem is, when too many does it they are not special anyway.
There should be game mechanics implemented that would send all the NPC guards to kill any player that runs around as opposing faction race if they are also using the racial armor style of the said race, so at the very least these turncoats would be forced to use the faction armor styles of the alliance they currently work for or be executed. I mean it's pretty damn easy for Altmer army to walk into Morrowind it seems, just walk in there wearing your own racial armor too, no one seem to give a fuck about Altmer running around in Ebonheart Pact areas wearing Altmer armor too.
If developers dont give a frack about their own setting they have made for the game and lore, how the hell am I supposed to then? Enemies running around in my faction land and I cant attack them, it's a real turn-off and makes the setting feel pointless.
You guys are racists, lol. Why do you need the enemy to be a different race for you to feel faction pride? Why not play some competitive pvp just for the fun? Or get yourself involved in the lore? The alliances are just types of goverments, it's not because you have a green skin that you won't be accepted into AD. Looking at the lore I saw stories of Orc defects, argonians far away form home that just want a piece of land to live, traveling merchants from other races, people that settled in the middle of a foreign land and are getting mistreated by others just for being of "the race of the enemy". Theres enough lore for anyone to get a background on what they are fighting for.
The game was made that way so it's way more convenient to experience all of it's content without having to level a new character from scratch.
I think you misunderstood me. I don't care about what race you are, I care that people from Ebonheart or Aldmeri are able to get into a guild with people from Daggerfall, purchase from their guild store, research their items, report back on their pvp movements, and all kinds of other nasty stuff.
If you are supplying the enemy with every edge you have than the only competition is in who twitches the best. And that's weak.