So I'd like to see what the forum's general views are on these two "bonuses". For anyone that is not clear on the news, at this time, the only way to play the Imperial race is to purchase the Imperial Edition($80). Anyone who pre-orders the game, whether standard or Imperial, receives the Explorer Pack, which allows you to play any race in any faction. The rest of the preorder bonuses and additions are largely superficial, with these to inclusions being the most incendiary so far, so what are all your thoughts on them?

Personally, I can remember back to over a year ago on the forums where we would argue for days if not weeks on whether to allow faction locking and as someone who did not support locking the factions I am happy that it has been done away with in a sense, but disappointed that they have decided to monetize this ability to choose. I still plan to preorder the game, but I really am disappointed to see just how far Zenimax will go to make us pay for content that should, arguably, be included in the subscription fee. Since we do not know if the Imperial Edition is the only way to play the Imperials, I'll withhold my judgment. If it turns out that there is an in-game way to unlock them( and it isn't a massive time sink, possibly beating the campaign will unlock them?), and the pre-order bonus is essentially a shortcut, fine, have it in there. Undoubtedly though, ZOS certainly needs to communicate with the community as it seems like a lot of people want clarification on the details, rather than leave anything up to ambiguity.

If the wording of the polls could be better, let me know.

Imperials being in any faction makes sense. Including them in the game makes sense.

Having any race in any faction seems like a direct contradiction of prior statements from ZOS where they said the reason for race-locking was to foster faction pride.

I'm fine with both. I mean, I'll never make an Imperial, or probably any human for that matter but it's nice for people who will.

Opening up the factions makes a fair bit of sense lore-wise. There would have likely been Altmer who hated the Dominion or Bretons who simply refused to fight alongside Orcs.

The digital "collection" in the collector's edition makes it sound like Zenimax just picked what they thought the players might appreciate having up front. It sounds, to me, like the stuff would be available in other ways in the game, the CE is just a way to get it quicker. I could easily be wrong though, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt.

I'm fine with including the Imperials and as NordJitsu said, it makes sense for them to join any faction, but I'm not okay with having to pay for them as it goes back on what they said about the pay gates for players.

I'm also not okay with the ability to have your players in any faction regardless of race.

If they'll allow you to go against what they were so adamant about doing so long as you pay extra, at this point it's like why bother?

And this lore rationale could have been handled 100% with NPCs and still maintain the faction pride.

I'm having a hard time figuring out if it's right or wrong because I can't tell exactly what the benefits are. One thread suggests that that all the "CE" digital bonuses are available to anyone at any time through the store. If that is the case it sheds a new light on it. Games usually need to recoup as much as they can on day 1and making incentives for customers to go beyond a basic purchase will help out a lot toward that. Around release time they are usually running dry on funds so I can understand it to some degree.

I don't want this to become a trend, but if it's just a means to quickly recoup the development costs I can understand it. I plan to vote but I got to think more about it. I think it would interesting to see how many people bought it anyway even though they answered no to everything.

I bought the CE and would have bought it even if I said no in the poll. I plan to play a nord, but the exclusion of not having the CE options would haunt the back of my mind.

I have been pro Imperial and opposed the faction lock from the start. I gladly welcome all of it.

It's not something that is exclusive to preorder. I mean, the 5 days obviously but even if one purchases the Standard Edition they can always upgrade to an Imperial Addition later and receive all of the bonus materials.

Im certainly happy that they included both in the game, but the fact that they've hidden Imperials through a paywall just seems so low to me. The last time I saw a studio make a player pay for a race was EQ2 after it went free to play, and SOE even removed paying for races a while back too, and EQ2 still seems to generate money. Why would a brand new game with a subscription fee ever need to charge players for a race? And at this point, it appears that having the ability to play any race in any faction is only available to those who pre-order the game. We wont know if they'll implement it for free until after launch.

I don't see it as a contradiction so much as yet another compromise to the playerbase.

We've asked for a ton of things that went against their original plan, and we have gotten more of them than people are willing to admit or even really know outside of the beta.

Ever since Morrowind we've been free to choose any of the ten races and now they decide to lock one behind a paywall? Are you serious, Zenimax? Is this what it's gotten to now? Do you not realize this is making your game look weak? Yes, why not just grab some extra cash of every Imperial player who has grown accustomed to their race and established lore, their go-to race in this franchise. Just make them pay extra or be forever left out. Brilliant idea, now you get a little bit more money before you go free-to-play.

Bethesda Game Studios wouldn't have done this with their game. You know why? They have faith in their product and steers clear of greedy marketing schemes like this.
I actually have this game pre-ordered already (standard edition, is it now?) and I am going to cancel that pre-order because I've just witnessed that this certainly is no Elder Scrolls game at all.

And for the record, I don't play Imperial but I respect every one who does, as their place in this series is a core and central part of it all.

Perhaps, but there are always... contrarians ( is that the word?). I know I'm like that quite a bit. My orc may not want to deal with the poncy little bretons, my altmer may not want to associate with the dingbats in the rest of his race. Role-play is the name of the game after all.

I'm fine with Imperials joining any faction.

I'm not fine with people having to pay to play Imperials on top of the initial purchase of the game and the subscription model. That's ****ing ********.

I am ok with both of these questions because I have a feeling this will not just be an exclusive thing to just pre-orders; i'm sure you will be able to buy these options in the in-game store, kind of like what SWTOR did.

It's a brilliant move on Zenimax's part. It's something that may upset people, but they will eventually get over it and Zenimax will profit big time from it.

This announcement has made me think that ZOS is untrustworthy, I am SERIOUSLY rethinking just waiting until it goes F2P (which it now will, with them now proven they are just as untrustworthy as all MMO devs are) and spending the money on a company that is actually trustworthy, Square Enix.

Yes this is exactly what I was thinking. The whole point was faction pride.

Its very likely they've done this because they need to recoup massive losses, I'm sure the game cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make. But it does bring into question ZOS's own faith in the product; if they knew their game was good and would retain players then would they need to do this?

And when you think about it, they already made a lot of gamers pissed with Skyrim and the timed DLC/PS3 issues that it had. Bethesda and ZOS need to rethink what they're doing and how it's making their fans look at the games they produce. I give it just about as long as SWTOR had before going F2P.

It's brilliant from a business perspective, but it svcks for all of us because it shows that ZOS is now making decisions that won't make the game better but their business better. And I know, making games is a business, but I just can't respect a developer that needs to monetize simple things like races and race accessibility. Who knows, maybe their financial situation is dire and this was their only option. But if they did this purely because they figured it would be nice to make a few extra bucks, then I just can't trust them as a developer. They would rather pander to customers willing to throw out $20 without thinking rather than building a relationship of mutual respect with their players.

What, so we'd have to pay the extra $20 at a cash shop to buy that extra race? And you're okay with that?

Coming soon, extra quest packs, only $4.99 each! >_>

up until now, i would argue with you compltely, but now, now i would not be surprised.

Something people here do not realize, is that outside of these forums, and a small other forums, ESO is mud with the community. the game is the laughing stock of MMO gamers everywhere. People were already incredibly angry when they revealed $60 + $15 and that made a huge amount of people leave any thought of buying the game behind. With this, they have now split what little base actually LIKED them into little tiny pieces.

close poll so far OoO

The trouble that I have at this point, paying extra for DLC like content (aka the *new* playable race) on top of the sub fee. I still think that ALL THE CONTENT should be INCLUDED in the sub fee.

Changing fractions can be view as a service. Like transferring shards. A "new" playable race is CONTENT!

I dont care either way about the imperials or the other imperial edition benefits. I dont plan on playing one, and limiting them to a relatively expensive version of the game means they wont be showing up every 5 steps ingame.

I DO NOT like the idea of anyone who preorders being able to play any race in any faction, however. I think this severely detracts from the entire idea of factions in the first place, and does not offer enough benefit to justify the damage it's going to do to the game world. Typically I'm all for freedom of choice, but there are times when limitations enrich the experience, and this, IMO, is one of those times.

I simply dont want to see a bunch of nords or argonians or orcs running around my dominion.

I just created an account so I could vote on this poll and say that although I'll be pre-ordering this game, I don't like the Imperials being behind an additional $20 pay wall. I have played all of the Elder Scrolls games (including Battle Spire and Redguard) and this one is already the most expensive (at $60 + $15 / month). It seems like that should be enough money to get the "base game." I'm happy to pay for additional content after launch (hence my willingness do drop $15 / month as a subscription), but this just feels unnecessary and unfair to players who have been with this series (and with Tamriel in general) for almost 2 decades.

I hope you'll either move the Imperials into a "pre order bonus" for anyone who pre-orders, to reward loyalty and excitement (rather than personal wealth) or you'll just put the Imperials into the "core" experience for anyone.

I'm going to try to avoid getting really upset about this for now, because social media has allowed fans and companies to communicate more openly. It gives companies a chance to reverse a decision that leaves a "bad taste" in the mouths of loyal fans. I'm using SOE as a model here, with their recent decision to change how subscriber benefits worked (and their quick reversal based on fan criticism).

Why not?