Hi there is something i have been wondering which puzzles me, When i read some articles they state about the open world of the game and how good it is etc etc but then i read others which talk about each of the zones are separated from each other, Like they were trying to say its impossible to travel from one zone to the next. Is their any truth to this or is it possible to travel to all zones within your own alliance?.

you will see a loading screen when you enter/leave a zone.

Only noticed when taking ports and between the nood zones and the rest. Once out of the noobzone, I was able to walk to other zones without a loading screen.

And quest gates. The world is not open, it's linear.

After the starter zones there are not quest gates to go to new zones. Stop basing the rest of the game on the starter zones.

There are quest gates, or so other long term beta reviewers state. Also everything I said is true, the game is very linear.

Yea and just been talking to a certain tester who is doing it behind close doors and he states more or less what what the rest do, the game is not linear except for the starting zones to help people ease into the game.

Explain how I can go from Stonefalls to the zone directly below it without doing any quests in the area and without loading zones? The only place I could see quest gates in for going back to Coldharbor, which is kinda expected. Game is only linear if you make it linear. All TES games have been extremely linear if you just follow the quests.

What else do you propose to do if you don't follow the quests? There is no other path to progression

Is there not?. Well considering i got to level 23 and stopped questing just after stros mkai how do you explain that Tonto?

Lets see, I explored, did dungeons (before quests every told me to, some never told me to), hunted world bosses, crafted, gathered, did Anchors, and more. I was well over leveled before I even attempted following quests in stonefalls. I could have easily hit 15 and moved on to the next zone without doing quests. I played it like I play other TES games. People complain that it is so linear, yet all they do is follow the quests instead of run off on their own.

No point even trying mate he won't have it that the game is open world.

The truth is somewhere in between.

Each alliance area is separate; you can't travel between them till level 50 (and then only in a special mode called 50+).

Within each alliance area, the land is divided into a starter area (one or two small locales) and then five VERY LARGE zones. You can see how they're set up here http://esohead.com/map#27.2.50.50 and here http://tamrielfoundry.com/map/ .

It seems the transitions between these five zones may be quest-gated, but I can't personally attest to that.

Within each of the large zones, there's a main questline for the zone, as well as the main story quest, and then there are lots of sidequests, each of which is a long and fairly involved questline in itself. You can explore freely in the large zone. It's really not correct to say that the game is linear, any more than Skyrim is linear because it has a main questline and the Civil War questline which organize the whole thing. But I believe it's the case that unlike Skyrim, you may not have the option of completely ignoring the main questline. That is a very small minority of the quests you'll be doing though

So, not FULLY open, but more open than most MMOs; not FULLY linear, but more linear than the single player TES games.

I think many or most of us single player TES types though are happy with the amount of openness there is, because there's so much content in every area and within an area you can traverse it however you want... bearing in mind that the mobs at the far end will be higher level than the ones where you came in

Hi mate yes i had confirmation on the five large zones themselves these are very much open and not quest gated. I can travel there if i want for example once i am in the main areas of course. Theres lots of ways to progress i've found really.

Yeah its also not at all on rails. Its obviously linear to the extent that this game is a level and themepark based. But the world is in fact Open World and you have many choices on how you lvl and go through the zones.

That's good to know, I've seen conflicting reports So you can go straight from say Auridon to Reaper's March without doing a single quest?

lol well you got me there, I am in Daggerfall you see but from what i am told this is the case Reapers march is Ad isn't it?. Thats a city in ESO?. If its confirmed in ESO then yes despite what some are saying. Very very few have been past the first/second main zone you see.

You obviously not expierenced 12+ content, dungeons pvp, quests, crafting, theres SO much to progress to or in its amazing.

Please don't buy this game if you base the game's potential on the early levels.

I wasn't questing, just exploring. I suddenly found my self in the same map as Riften. I started off in Ebonheart. I walked into Deshaan. No quests needed. Just like Morrowind though, if you go somewhere you aren't ready for, you're going to die eventually. Different areas have different levels of enemies. Think wandering from Seyda Neen to Red Mountain and going through the Ghost Fence...... Of course, if you're careful, you might end up surprising yourself and clearing higher level enemies than you thought you could handle.

By the way, I used to not care much about nix hounds. Now I have found a whole new depth of dislike for them. And shalks.

Proof right here ^^^ says it all case closed lol

God, please I was level 41 and could solo dungeons.

Dude you are arguing with everyone and can't see it. Its not everyone else here i am afraid to say. You've attempted to make some sort of point End of story really.

What's the point in it though? If you want to progress to cap you do quests in the area the devs want you to be in at that time, there is only one track to progress to level cap and everyone in your alliance follows the same path, that's linear. Just because you can do something in the game doesn't mean it's supported by game mechanics. If you want to do certain quests you go to your partition in the zone, get the quests and do all the quests in your zone partition.

That to me is linear.

Are you sure you know what linear means?

Really??? Really guy. You're trying so hard to suppress my opinion of an obviously designed game mechanic. I guess I should fall in line with everyone else and take up their talking points.