First off I apologize if this has already been made known, and if so if someone has any information please let me know.

It's common in my experience for some pre-order bonuses to not be available during any early access periods, and only upon the official launch, so I got to wondering if we'd even be able to make real use of the 5 days of early access, since we're playing non-standard races for the Alliance we intend to play on.

Specifically, will we get access to the following two pre-order bonuses in time for use DURING early access.

Play as an Imperial

Ability to play as any of the nine races in any Alliance

I'm planning to play as an Imperial, and my girlfriend is planning to play a Khajiit, with friends and guild mates from other games in the Ebonheart Pact. So we would need these features if early access is going to be of any use to us on our intended main characters.

I ordered ESO Imperial Edition from Green Man Gaming, and have talked to both them and Bethesda/Zenimax about how the early access period works in conjunction with the other pre-order bonuses. Neither has so far directly answered my questions on these aspects of the purchase, it's like they don't know, despite them - you know - selling it. Bethesda says I have to talk to my retailer. My retailer first said they'd have to talk to Bethesda. Then came back saying they can't comment on when they will provide the other keys to the customers. So zero help there. I'd think they get these from Bethesda in the first place, so how no one knows what's going on is just unfathomable and extremely frustrating.

Looking into these features in writing on websites, I noted the following:

"All those who pre-order or pre-purchase either the Imperial Edition or the Standard Edition in physical or digital formats will also receive The Explorer’s Pack bonus at launch, which includes: Scuttler vanity pet, four bonus treasure maps, and the ability to play as any of the nine races in any Alliance."

The keywords there are "at launch". So it seems like if you're planning on playing an Imperial or a race not native to your intended faction, that you're screwed as far as early access goes. If that's the case, it seems like poor planning and a bad way to start your new MMO by annoying a lot of your players/customers.

EDIT:

ESO Support page mentions only these bonuses for use during early access for Imperial Edition, no mention of the explorer's pack. Perhaps it's assumed it's included.. But you know the perils of assuming too much.

• Play as an Imperial and craft Imperial gear
• Transform any gear to look like Imperial gear
• Imperial Horse
• Rings of Mara

This whole situation could have been prevented with better communication and just flat out specifying exactly how things are going to work, once and for all instead of getting different answers and information all over the place.

Here you go mate. From - http://elderscrollsonline.com/en-uk/news/post/2014/02/18/ask-us-anything-variety-pack-13

When do I receive the full benefits of the Explorer’s Pack?

The full range of in-game benefits from the Explorer’s Pack will be unlocked on April 4th. From the start of Early Access, players who pre-ordered or pre-purchased any edition of The Elder Scrolls Online will be able to take advantage of the ability to play as any race in any alliance. To enable this, pre-order customers and customers who pre-purchased from a 3rd party online retailer must first redeem their 3-day or 5-day Early Access code at our official site before the start of the Early Access period.
If you have pre-purchased any edition of The Elder Scrolls Online from the ESO Digital Store, you do NOT need to take any further action.

If I pre-ordered or pre-purchased the Imperial Edition, will I be able to play as an Imperial during Early Access?

During the Early Access period, Imperial Edition customers who have entered their 5 Day Early Access code at https://account.elderscrollsonline.com/login will have access to the following:

• Play as an Imperial and craft Imperial gear
• Transform any gear to look like Imperial gear
• Imperial Horse
• Rings of Mara

Customers who pre-purchased the Imperial Edition from our ESO store have no further action required, as the above items will unlock automatically for you at the start of Early Access.
From April 4th, customers who pre-ordered the physical Imperial Edition must enter their Imperial Pack code in the box in order to retain these items and to fully unlock the full Imperial Pack contents.

Indeed it is a bad way to start the game. Getting people to pay $20 more for a special edition that they cant even use until almost a week after they start. How is that a bonus?

Only if you purchased through Zenimax would the code be applied immediately. Kind of a corner in the market isnt it? Pay us, or pay someone else and have to start over in 5 days to do what you really wanted in the first place.

They have put out conflicting statements in the past week. Being the realist I am, i'll believe it when I see it.

From past experience with preorders and CE, all the games worded "at launch" but gave the benefits during early access.

@http://www.gamesas.com/user/926838-highrisedrifter/

Thanks. Which makes me want to scream WHY DIDN'T BETHESDA OR GREEN MAN GAMING KNOW THAT?!

Sigh. Well, now that just leaves one question remaining. Will 3rd party retailers get and provide the keys in time. Not knowing is frustrating, as is their refusal to say if they will. It makes me want to fight for a refund since they're refusal to admit if they will be able to provide that service makes me question their ability to do so.

As recently as Star Wars The Old Republic that was not that case. Not everything was available during early access. However in the previous cases it's usually been more "trivial" bonuses, not something as impacting as what Race/Faction you'll be able to use.

The post Highrisedrifter clearly states that as long as you pre-order you can start in any alliance with any race.

Imperial is unlocked for everyone who pre-ordered it as well, just in order to be able to continu playing as an imperial after launch date you need to enter the key you will be getting from your retailer.

From what I read everything but the mudcrap pet from the imperial edition is available if you pre-ordered.

I've heard horror stories of 3rd party developers being slow to send out the bonus keys in the past, which is what prompted my search for the answer. I really wish I had just preordered it from ESO Digital Store.. But I had a voucher code for 20% off that led me astray. And like I said, their refusal to say one way or the other does not instill me with much confidence. And Bethesda won't answer if at least they will make the codes available to the 3rd party retailers in time, and from there it's up to them.

Music to my ears

As far as I know most have already gotten the pre-order key, and the actual gamekey would be send close to launch (for those who ordered a digital edition). The boxes should arrive on the day of launch pending delivery services.

Lik OMG DOOM DOOM REPENT or BURN

What's up with the doom threads this morning? As long as you get your key from w/e retailer you pre-purchased the game from, you are good. If you went thru Beth, you are good. Beth can't control when other retailers send out their keys so they can't 'make promises' if ya know what I mean.

Unless you're a svcker like us and ordered from Green Man Gaming. They refused a refund request because their policy is no refunds for pre ordered games where a sensitive one use game key exists. However, they sneakily and unethically trap you into that policy by giving a key in the same message as the receipt, despite it being months out from release.

Because conflicting information still exists. See my top post for updated information

I wouldn't call you a svcker for ordering from a location that you had a discount on.

I solely went with the elderscrollsonline store because it supported payment through iDeal. And the physical retailers here were all way too slow to update their product pages.

I see no issues with your OP. I see nothing conflicting. See my OP again if you need to.

Those who buy direct don't have to enter any code and if we can play as imperial from early access is it?

Two official sources do not match. What I've been told in e-mails from ESO support does not match. And my retailer just refuses to answer.

Dude, read all the thread, not just skim it. The answers are there.

dude i ordered the game on GMG and i received my [censored] key the very instant i did it.

i then went on and redeemed my code on TESO official site and now in my account panel it says:

1_beta

2_3 days early access

which means that my registration process is complete and all i need to do is to wai.

srsly da[censored] is wrong with u ppl?!

After translating that mess... There is more to it than just early access, that's just one aspect. There is the Imperial Edition Bonuses, and the Explorer's Pack.

Dude.. failure to read the post above you and managing to jump to incorrect conclusions.. very clever

I never keep my initial characters anyway. I use them to learn more about the game then either delete or just use them as a pack mule. I'm a little disappointed and I can understand the frustration. What more concerns me is why I had to pay ￡70 for a digital edition. In hindsight I should have bought the physical box and just upgraded.

Anyone else a little confused how the can charge ￡50 for a boxed version and ￡50 for Digital download? Where is the incentive to use digital delivery systems.

Gamestop is bad about not getting the keys to you on time, swtor extended the EA access for gamestop customers to a few days after launch to wait for the full keys to get to people.

Incentive is that you dont need to wait for a key to come to you. the second you purchase its tied to your account. I ust to get the box sets until i had issues with keys and i finally realized all that ooo awww stuff would just end up in a shelf gathering dust and to me the digital stuff was more practical to me anyway, use it more that is. So i stopped getting boxs.

They charge that because they can. Not because it makes sense or is fair. I'd imagine a digital version is cheaper because it's only cost is the bandwidth to download it. Nothing physical exists, they don't have to pay for the material to make it (box, DVD, manauls, etc) and there are no shipping costs.

In all logical reality digital costs should be a fair bit less than physical. But it's like gasoline, it costs that much because they say so.