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On topic: that's a good point. If the content is soft gated anyways, what's the point of allowing free roam?

I won't be skipping the starting areas, but I hope that a lot of people do. I'd like to have less competition for the resources in those areas. Would make my life a little easier anyway

in morrowind we had free roam immediatly after the start boat and census office and we ran very quickly into high level mobbs especialy if you went exploring.

that was the BEST part of the game!

I didn't really hear anyone complaining much about Coldharbor, but there was a lot of griping about the starter islands. Starting with a prison escape is essential, and I'd complain if it wasn't there, but I wasn't too wild myself about the fact that, after escaping, you were still confined to an island. Now that you can leave, I'll probably stay there and finish the quests quite happily, at least on my first couple characters! It's the principle of the thing, silly as that might sound.

Oh, yea, for sure. I remember every single time I started a new play through of Morrowind, the very first thing I always did was run off and get myself hopelessly massacred by enemies I couldn't possibly defeat o.o

knowing that we had serious danger if we didnt train and learn the ropes is what drew me to elderscrolls

I enjoyed the content in the starter islands quite a lot. However, it did feel that the game opens up and feels a bit more like the exploration experience in previous TES games when you get past this part.

Once you reach the first big city, there is a lot more freedom to go anywhere and do your own thing. Imagine if after completing Helgen you were not in Skyrim yet, but on a small island, where you had to follow a particular questline to go to a second island, before you could get to Skyrim.

Then it wouldn't be a TES game. It would be an mmo *ba dum tish*

I didn't, because I found the starter area useful.

Then again, I don't tend to rush through games like this, sinc I want to see and experience everything.

Which is really sad. Those same people were also complaining that they did not have any mats for crafting, had no idea how to craft, did not understand the need to block, and were clueless why killing 50 rats did not raise you a level. They are also the ones who will be bored with the game before level 10, because they think its a race to 50 and cant figure it out.

This.

Plus MMO's in general usually don't have lengthy and restricted tutorials. There is usually one small are to do a few quests as the tutorial, then you are placed in the main game world.

This change makes ESO feel more like BOTH a proper MMO and TES game.

I am ok with the option, I plan on doing the Starter area, just like before, I would like to keep my story continuous and explore the area, for books, skyshards, and what ever else may be there, then off to the main area, I am no hurry to get to max level..

But a good option for those that want to move a bit faster I guess.. Options are good

Eh, they should still dump us at the starter island, just don't block us from going elsewhere by a ship or whatever. That story on that island is important.

Ooops....well, at least its not inaccessible.

Besides,, they have achieved quite a bit of work in such a short time......they are on the ball.

Its all good.

Once you've done the starters some eight times, it's very nice to be able to skip 'em. Very good option to have.

For some reason I never skipped the oblivion tutorial, I must have done it dozens of times by now.

Well I didn't ask, not that they would listen...

Having the option to skip the island I see nothing wrong with. When it automatically skips it then gives you the option to go back I think it's a problem.

wasn't it like 10 - 20 minutes max?

No more starter islands. You now start in the major cities after Coldharbour

But you only get 8 character slots lol. But the islands arent the starting zones anymore

I agree, Coldharbor wasn't bad at all. It actually helped me out a bit. Going in to the first starter zone was kinda...meh.. and then having to do a second one i really started to think Tamrial wasn't open to explore lol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd7kachAfSc

I wish you could skip Coldharbor, I'd like to just go straight to the starting islands and then do that and go to the main land afterwards.

In all fairness, the starter islands cannot hold a candle to the rest of the game. The AD's was the best I tried, but was still not on the level of the rest of the game.

I will do the starter island for my first few characters, but will likely skip it on alts. The "alt skipping" functionality is what I requested specifically. While it's not EXACTLY what I asked for, I'm glad the option is there. IMHO, being able to skip coldharbor on alts would be good too. I know in Skyrim I would always load a save from just before Hadvar asked me who I was (unless adding a new mod that was a major overhaul requiring a new save), and sprint to the keep without stopping after the first few times.

I'm surr that after my umpteenth time through it, the undertuned noob island would feel like a drag. I am REALLY excited that they're upping the difficulty starting at 5, as this is one of the areas where I sent the most negative feedback. There were a few tough solo quest bosses that were some of the most fun I've ever had soloing in an MMO, but most "normal" mobs were such pushovers that I felt like I could beat them half asleep while watching a movie and using one hand to feed myself popcorn.

ZOE just have to improve the NPC AI in the early levels and no one wants to skip it. But right now its too [censored] boring.