If he did buy it knowing full well what is going on, it wouldn't be so surprising.
I've been reading the Reddit page of ESO, and some people are perfectly fine with what Zenimax is doing. It was to be expected, they didn't bet on a greedy opening as a shot in the dark, they know people will be buying the game and that a good chunk of them will buy the Imperial edition.
Not happy about the Imperial race exclusivity, but in the end, meh. It's not a serious competitive game, and will never be my main game... it's a way to play in the Elder Scrolls franchise with friends. And hell, in the end of the day, if it's nothing more than a glorified cash grab that goes into funding TES:VI, I won't be too upset.
Incidentally, the real way to save this problem (exclusive race promised, but obviously bad for game) is to announce that, if level a character to 50, you can create a "mixed-race" character, in any alliance, with the visual traits of one race but bonuses mixed and matched from others (including Imperials).
All that said, I rather enjoyed what I played of the beta, taking the game for what it is. A ton better than the other "Universe Spin-Off" MMOs I've tried out, and the combat system is a welcome change from huge-hotbar-stupidity.
Edit: Is there any confirmation on what the Imperial bonuses will be? They've varied considerably over past games.
On January 31 2014 06:25 Yoav wrote: Not happy about the Imperial race exclusivity, but in the end, meh. It's not a serious competitive game, and will never be my main game... it's a way to play in the Elder Scrolls franchise with friends. And hell, in the end of the day, if it's nothing more than a glorified cash grab that goes into funding TES:VI, I won't be too upset.
Incidentally, the real way to save this problem (exclusive race promised, but obviously bad for game) is to announce that, if level a character to 50, you can create a "mixed-race" character, in any alliance, with the visual traits of one race but bonuses mixed and matched from others (including Imperials).
All that said, I rather enjoyed what I played of the beta, taking the game for what it is. A ton better than the other "Universe Spin-Off" MMOs I've tried out, and the combat system is a welcome change from huge-hotbar-stupidity.
Edit: Is there any confirmation on what the Imperial bonuses will be? They've varied considerably over past games.
Good discussion. Even though the racial bonuses are supposed to be pretty minor, the min/maxer in me wants to use the best combo possible while still staying in the same alliance as my other characters and friends/guild. A long time ago I did read that once you hit max level, you can switch alliances to experience the other content the other alliances offer. Not sure if this is still in but I wouldn't doubt it if they let pre-orders choose whatever alliance they want. If I do decide to play the game, I will definitely pre-order and then make a character for each class with whatever race I want for the same alliance. Here is the break-down of the min-maxed race/class combos (keep in mind that class and race skills are the only exclusive skills in the entire game with only 1 active skill, the ultimate, for a race choice):
Dragon Knight: Orc, Nord, Redguard (Argnonian to a less extent). NightBlade: Redguard, Dunmer, Bosmer, Khajit (Breton to a lesser extent). Templar: Redguard, Breton, Argonian, Nord (Khajit, Bosmer and Altmer to a lesser extent). Sorcerer: Breton or Altmer (Dunmer to a lesser extent: if you want fire specialization).
Obviously these are not set in stone and the skill system is quite versatile from what I've seen so far (picking the 'wrong' race won't make your character unplayable by any means). Templar is the class that could actually use any race since it is incredibly flexible (ranged magic damage, heals, spell tank). Redguard seems to also be the race that seems to have no clear pros/cons for choosing a class. I'm guessing the Imperial race will be pretty general as well.
Personally, the only one I've decided on is Breton for my sorcerer.
The entire point of character building in this game is finding strong race/class combinations. The reason being that race is an integral part of what skill combinations your character has available. If you have the ability to use more combinations than other players, you have a tremendous advantage over the others. I would imagine that you will start to see cookie cutter builds come out after a few months. Logically it is likely that some of those builds are going to be dependent on race/class combinations that are exclusive to pre-order or special players. That is one of the most egregious cases of pay to win I've ever seen.
On January 30 2014 07:03 On_Slaught wrote: Wait... I know they didn't care about lore, since they're shitting all over the canon, but now if you get the Explorers pack you can play ANY RACE in ANY FACTION? So we can have Altmer players fighting alongside Dunmer? Argonians with Redguard? Wtf? How can they claim this is an Elder Scrolls, story driven game with a straight face.
This is essentially my reaction to having Chiss force users in Swtor. Or empire Cathar. If you are going to have factions, don't make them meaningless.
Having the odd X race mingling with another that hates it is not unheard of in TES, its pretty common actually to have a few here and there that are being discriminated against and struggling against it.
Cant believe you guys would say that really, not like everyones going to be a different race.
On January 31 2014 12:45 TheFish7 wrote: The entire point of character building in this game is finding strong race/class combinations. The reason being that race is an integral part of what skill combinations your character has available. If you have the ability to use more combinations than other players, you have a tremendous advantage over the others. I would imagine that you will start to see cookie cutter builds come out after a few months. Logically it is likely that some of those builds are going to be dependent on race/class combinations that are exclusive to pre-order or special players. That is one of the most egregious cases of pay to win I've ever seen.
The racial abilities are definitely not as integral as you are making them out to be.
Racial isn't gonna be a huge deal. But they're something. Redguards get 4% more max stamina and 3% more regen... not a huge deal, but it's something.
Resists are interesting. Some will be very useful, some quite weak. The Breton spell resist will often be useful, though it's lower in magnitude. Dunmer fire resist will be strong against destruction Dragonknights. The poison/disease and cold resists that Bosmer, Argonian, and Nords get are probably nearly worthless, due to how few class and weapon abilities seem to actually use these damage types.
Still, racials will always be marginal. Which is good for any Argonians in the house, since their racials really suck.
My prediction for Imperials: health and magicka bonuses (a combo as yet unseen) as well gold find bonuses. Extra mount speed would be cool, though probably unlikely.
I think poison/disease resist will actually be a really big factor. The reason is because bows will be really popular in pvp, and poison arrow is the main single target dps skill.
I think the most useless racial skill is the Redguard's one where you get 1 stamina after performing a melee attack, max 1 per 3 seconds. Once you get higher levels, your resource pools go into the thousands, and skill costs go in the hundreds, so percentage based bonuses will scale well, but you are never going to recover enough stamina with this racial ability to even use a single skill.
Anyways, excited to see what the Imperials will possess!
On January 31 2014 07:06 willoc wrote: Dragon Knight: Orc, Nord, Redguard (Argnonian to a less extent). NightBlade: Redguard, Dunmer, Bosmer, Khajit (Breton to a lesser extent). Templar: Redguard, Breton, Argonian, Nord (Khajit, Bosmer and Altmer to a lesser extent). Sorcerer: Breton or Altmer (Dunmer to a lesser extent: if you want fire specialization).
Obviously these are not set in stone and the skill system is quite versatile from what I've seen so far (picking the 'wrong' race won't make your character unplayable by any means). Templar is the class that could actually use any race since it is incredibly flexible (ranged magic damage, heals, spell tank). Redguard seems to also be the race that seems to have no clear pros/cons for choosing a class. I'm guessing the Imperial race will be pretty general as well.
Personally, the only one I've decided on is Breton for my sorcerer.
This is a good analysis, but I just thought I should point out that all classes are "mage" classes. Class skills are the magic you inherently have access to. The more stats you pump into magicka, the better your class abilities will be. The more you pump into stamina, the better your weapons will be. If you are using staves, never put any points in stamina, which becomes a resource merely for sprinting, dodging, and CC break.
The result of this is that Stamina heavy classes will be able to take on a variety of classes, but only because they'll barely be using class skills, and only then to support their weapon abilities. So Redguards and Bosmer can be expected to focus on weapon skills, while Altmer and Bretons will focus on class skills. Any class that means to focus on class skills will do well to play mage archetypes.
But in ES, Mage doesn't necessarily mean squishy, or even long range. A Breton DK Draconic Sword+Board with points pumped into Mana and Health could conceivably be a really strong tank, as a battlemage type. Dunmer Fire affinity will actually lend itself to being boss at Dragonknight DPS, with a bonus of fire resist against enemies trying a similar build.
Edit:
On February 01 2014 04:49 Chairman Ray wrote: I think poison/disease resist will actually be a really big factor. The reason is because bows will be really popular in pvp, and poison arrow is the main single target dps skill.
I think the most useless racial skill is the Redguard's...
Maybe. I'm not convinced the bows will be more popular than destruction staves, but it really depends on balancing.
I was actually assuming the Redguard melee skill numbers are wrong. They really have to be.... I hope?
I finally learned my lesson after Warhammer + Tor + GW2
Not buying Not buying.
We should start a bet thread where people guess how long it will take for a game to go f2p.
I have 0% confidence in any MMO now a days. I will not buy a single one until a game comes out that has very detailed reviews on a thread in TL of it changing this atrocious black plague of bad MMO's we have had to endure post WoW.
On February 02 2014 03:39 XXXSmOke wrote: Another MMO eh?
I finally learned my lesson after Warhammer + Tor + GW2
Not buying Not buying.
We should start a bet thread where people guess how long it will take for a game to go f2p.
I have 0% confidence in any MMO now a days. I will not buy a single one until a game comes out that has very detailed reviews on a thread in TL of it changing this atrocious black plague of bad MMO's we have had to endure post WoW.
Good sales, 70% quit at the end of the first month, f2p within a year.
On February 01 2014 15:53 Omnishroud wrote: What a pointless trailer. Not only did it look nothing like elder scrolls, it looks nothing at all like the game will be.
I wonder how much it cost to produce.
That was a very clear cash-grab attempt. The kids and casuals will watch that trailer and immediately rush to pre-order buy without knowing shit.
Im pretty ashamed at that lol. nearly 9 minutes?
If might have been pointless for you, but there is a reason companies like Valve, Blizzard and Bethesda spend millions on trailers like this. It is a good investment. It brings the average joes to the game as you said. It also brings gaming fans who were clueless about about the game to the game. One of the main reasons I bought Vanilla WoW was the Vanilla WoW trailer which looked amazing to me when I was a kid. It is probably one of the better investments they make.
To say it is not Elder Scrolls is laughable. To a TES fan this is a loregasm trailer. It has a lot of things TES fans love. In fact that trailer was more true to TES than the trailers for Oblivion and Skyrim. If you want more details on the many things within TES lore it has take a look here:
On February 02 2014 03:39 XXXSmOke wrote: Another MMO eh?
I finally learned my lesson after Warhammer + Tor + GW2
Not buying Not buying.
We should start a bet thread where people guess how long it will take for a game to go f2p.
I have 0% confidence in any MMO now a days. I will not buy a single one until a game comes out that has very detailed reviews on a thread in TL of it changing this atrocious black plague of bad MMO's we have had to endure post WoW.
Good sales, 70% quit at the end of the first month, f2p within a year.
Given the current market, that is probably a possibility. Even World of Warcraft is bleeding subs rapidly and will do so more within the next two quarters. Which is why initial sales are extremely important, if they sell 3-4 million copies and if 50% quit they will still have 1.5 to 2 million subscribers in the West which is quite a lot. The challenge is keeping them which no other MMO has been able to do.
For comparison sake, WoW probably has about 3 million subscribers in NA/EU. And SWTOR peaked at 1.7 million subscribers.
On January 31 2014 06:25 Yoav wrote: And hell, in the end of the day, if it's nothing more than a glorified cash grab that goes into funding TES:VI, I won't be too upset.
I wouldn't be so hyped for TES VI. Everything after III was slowly but steadily going downhill (IV and V were somewhat saved by the mods, but that's not to the developer's credit).