It's not news to anyone that people are in an uproar over the recently announced preorder/Imperial Edition bonuses. "ZOS lied!" "They're going against their original design philosophy!" and "They're ruining the lore!" are things I've been reading often. Obviously people are upset, and for very justifiable reasons! But after thinking about it for a while, I started to wonder "What if...?"

What if the ability to play any race of your choosing in any alliance was already a feature of the game, but as unlockable content later? Nobody has gotten to level cap and done the full quest line for pretty obvious reasons, and even if they did they wouldn't be able to talk about it anyways. But what if at level 50 you can get a quest line that allows you to defect and choose a new alliance?

"Your heroic deeds have not gone unnoticed, and you have been extended an invitation from the other alliances of Tamriel to join them."

What if, similar to above, being able to play as an Imperial was also unlockable in game content? Through some mechanic in the game, be it solo play or a group activity, you're able to make Imperials available for play? Perhaps it could be awarded to each alliance as they win the battle for Cyrodiil and crown an emperor?

"You have conquered Cyrodiil! All members of your alliance have permanently unlocked the Imperial race within the character creation screen."

For those saying they'd need to redo much of the voice acting and lore within the game to compensate for the "recently" added content, what if ZOS already has but just hasn't told us? What if the things were just learned were things that they have already planned out and intended to add from the start, but without releasing said information? Nobody has actually played a character outside of their default alliance, so nobody really knows if npcs have different dialogue for such an instance (and even if they did, ye olde NDA stops talk about it).

So, what if playing any alliance and being an Imperial weren't exclusive content, but merely early content as a reward for supporting ZOS in the early stages by buying early? Would you still be upset if it came to light that this is all content you can get in the game without having to pay for it? Would they still have "lied" about not gating content behind a paywall if you could get said content without paying extra for it? WOuld the lore still bother you, knowing it was their intended lore from the beginning?

IMO it's far too early to tell what they have have planned, but it may very well be that they haven't lied at all, and that we really don't have to pay extra for access to content. I, for one, still have faith in the company and The Elder Scrolls.

Quite many if's . But I really hope you are right!