I had read some discussions of people talking about wanting to start as something other than a prisoner in TES VI. Personally, I wouldn't want to start as anything other than a prisoner. It's just the classic Elder Scrolls way! Besides, I like that "blank slate." Thoughts?

Prisoner..

Like you said, it gives us more of a blank slate. which is great for those of us who RP.

You can RP that you were caught for *Insert crime here*, or you can RP you were Innocent, or it was a political arrest, etc.

Most other possibilities (Being a Citizen of a town, a farm, crew of a boat, etc) would limit and make Role-playing more difficult

No preference. But I will say, I despised the way skyrim was handled in this regard. It killed role-play by making it too epic. That and having to do it 1,000 times whenever I want to make a new character...

Oblivion was a little more subtle and I could play around with the pacing. Skyrim was just too abrupt.

I have no preference, either. And I didn't mind how Bethesda handled the traditional prisoner theme in all titles (except Daggerfall and spinoffs, of course).

It should definitely be prisoner or some variant thereof (captured by bandits, about to be sold into slavery, etc). Not only does it make for a good blank slate RP-wise, it just sort of adds one more thread of continuity between the games. It's just kind of like, a TES thing.

No preference.

But seriously, everyone, I don't see how starting off as a prisoner gives you any more of a blank slate than anything else.