No self-respecting Nord would join the Aldmeri scum anyway. Those who do are milk drinking traitors, as for the Argonians... who would trust those scaly fiends further than the reach of your swordman?

That race better.. have all the same beliefs.. or they get cut down.. no room for gods of other races... the god of your race is it.. your enemies god is not your friend.. you are not a person to.. you are a thing.. a play thing.. something for enjoyment.. other then that the other race gods will kill you one sight..

The best case scenario would be NO, at all, since that would solidify the alliance war theme and give you a sense of prive.

BUT on the other hand it removes some freedom, so they've allowed us to do it for a limited time.

I guess they decided on a time limit compromise and of course the suits readily jumped at the opportunity for more cash.

All in all, I find that it's a great deal, since we can't have it forever enabled, alliances would truly mean squat, 0, nada, nords running the aldmeri dominion...dunmer running the DG and so forth...

Yes, im glad they are doing this as i wanted to be a nord sorcerer but the racials are terrible for casting. This way i can play a Breton in Ebonheart and have great caster bonuses while still making a avatar thats similar looking to myself

Still waiting on seeing what the Imperial racials are before making a final decision, but i think Breton's current ones will be hard to beat

No worries! I have a... special relationship with Azura. I don't think my mistress would be pleased if I turned my back on her to help the lolmer.

Let's just get this war over with so we can continue bickering among ourselves

I've been working on a Silt Strider war machine that involves tossing out Nords in full spike armor from the top of one on to unsuspecting Aldmeri and Daggerfall. I tried to talk the Argonians into it, but they are too busy swimming circles in a pond trying to abuse their racials. And besides, you fatties weigh more

Because complainers are always louder than non-complainers

Yes. I've never played a TES game and could not care less about the lore that came before. I'm playing ESO not Skyrim.

For the folks saying "Why join the Dominion", well, have you met their queen yet? She is someone I would follow into battle. She seems genuine and wants to have more people united. My Argonian would definitely follow her more than the Dunmer in the Ebonheart Pact who, literally, says "Oh, We're just freeing you to fight for us". Screw them...

And when my Khajiit met the queen, she did not have an air of superiority, she treated her like a *gasp* -PERSON-!

The Ebonheart Pact fights for independence and to defeat Molag Bal. I can see why Argonians would hate the Dunmer, but surely Independence is better than being ruled by the Elves?

As far as I can see, argonians can get the same working for the queen of the dominion, without the risk of 'Hey we won! Get back in your cages!'

Translated: Argonians will always be slaves. But at least the Aldmeri queen is something to look at.

No, she actually seems like a viable ruler from my initial impressions. She fought against the racist bastards and condemned them. She seems legitimate in the alliance, unlike the Dunmer.

I'm happy that I can now make all my mer in the same alliance (AD).

Yes. Any race any alliance.

So your saying its not ok for a Nord to go "rogue" or become outcasted, to be picked up by a different faction/alliance? (for roleplay purposes, etc). Really, it isnt that big of a deal and its not a roleplay/immersion breaker at all. Just because i was raised with the catholic religion doesnt mean im going to follow in those footsteps like the rest of my family did. Same concept, just because a nord was raised a nord in the ebonheart pact, doesnt mean that hes going to agree with what those beliefs are. There are always people who revolt.

Uh, no. I was saying that is the main counter-argument.

I am actually all for the pre-order bonus.

Exactly... any race any faction is far more realistic. Every human culture has always had immigrants throughout the world's history, including very successful immigrants and some who went on to positions of great power and influence. And also immigrants who have been subject to discrimination, a real issue that the TES games have always dealt with explicitly.

The other TES games reflect this, but even if you're not a TES fan you should embrace it because it's a REAL thing, not just a TES thing.

It's only a problem for people who cling to a fantasy about "racial purity", which is a losing proposition in games just like in life And MMO players who have been indoctrinated by other games to think that racial purity in fantasy worlds is somehow the norm. That's not the case either; if you look at the whole high fantasy tradition, you have plenty of racial mixing on all sides, and the more sophisticated versions also deal with the related stresses from that.

That's not what it's like. It's like Japanese-Americans fighting for the US in WWII, which they DID, even though their relatives were interned back home. Or Americans of middle eastern origin fighting for the US in Iraq and Afghanistan, which they are still doing right now.

TES provinces have always had long-term residents of varying racial backgrounds. Race doesn't always or even usually trump being a citizen of a nation, or even sympathizing with another nation's ideology and traveling there to take up their cause... as happened extensively among Americans and Western Europeans of various backgrounds, who sympathized with communism and traveled to the Soviet Union, China, and Cuba, for instance. Or the people from all over the world who travel to America or Europe because they believe in democracy.

People fight members of their own race ALL THE TIME.

Why assume that fantasy characters are simple-minded bigots who regard all members of other races as interchangeable? Sure SOME of them have that kind of attitude. But all of them? Neither ESO nor the SP TES games support the idea that this kind of crude stereotyping is universal.

Queen Ayrenn would like to have a talk with you about your attitudes towards race

There will always be someone revolting. No reason or problem to have that same concept when you see a Nord Aldmeri!

I prefer if you couldn't but some people want to play a specific race in any faction they want so if that would make their game funner then I guess I wouldn't mind that much. Still I was excited as how it was in the beggining.

Prior to the announcment it was probably the MOST hot-button issue and polls usually were a landslide for wanting races unlocked from factions. After that, the vocal minority were the only ones protesting, and everyone else was just happy.

I actually wrote a massive essay about it on the beta forums and sent it to Paul Sage directly. I'm pretty sure it had something to do with their decision.

So if you need somebody to blame, I'm your guy.

Eh, I would disagree with that. America wasn't the faction trying to rule other "lesser" races. Your second example makes more sense, but again, America shares values closer to the Ebonheart Pact(Independence), so it is a backwards example. I think what the factions are fighting for is more important than just the example of a race fighting his own kin.

But America DID intern Japanese-Americans, regardless of their politics, and treat German-Americans pretty badly too. So it's not like race/culture/language/ethnicity was not a factor here as well as there.

However, I totally agree with your second sentence, and you're right that in ESO as in the real world, motivations are diverse.

Well done Capitol98.

I was against ARAA - any race any alliance at first... But then I read the stories for ESO and realized that these are not the same factions that we see in Skyrim. The AD are not the Thalmor people are equating them to. This game takes place 1000 years prior to Skyrim and the War between the AD and The Empire. So any race any alliance is fine as they all pretty much have the same common goal.

Now I haven't played the beta yet so dunno if it changes during the quests.

I'm a lot happier with it than I was with the silly race locking.