That's exactly the point, your character may simply not be interested in going there. You might be playing a mage who is more inclined to help Valaste with some arcane research in an Ayelid ruin, for example.

Or another character you play next time might be more interested in what is going on on this island. If you don't do every single quest with your first character, it enhances the replay value.

In other TES games your character has a primary mission, at least that's the way they design it and that's the way I and probably most people play it. We may get diverted from that main story on occasion and help out the people where we happen to be which may send us off into various other directions, but how many people just up and say, "Meh, I'm gonna just ignore my overriding goal and go wandering off to some far flung location that doesn't really make any rational sense for me to go." While that may be the 'appeal' of TES games, you can do that, and you may do that on subsequent characters, that's really not how most people play TES games. If they get diverted, even for long times, away from the main goal, they usually have some rational justification for having gotten diverted. In the changes so far, ZOS has not provided any rational or logical reason why I would go on a long oversea voyage to a remote island to say 'Hi' to the people who just so happened to fish me out of the water when I arrived from Oblivion.

They took what was a great story telling device and threw it out the window.

This was the solution they ought to have implemented. Had they simply done this, none of these threads and none of this controversy would have happened, and we would ALL be singing the praises of Zenimax right now.

I see nothing wrong with this change at all.. I really don't understand at least for my faction it was pretty clear when I dropped out, the guy said what happened to me and that the guy saved me from drowning.. He also stated he needed my help if I was interested.. Which I was and I was sent off to the dingy back to the island to meet him to help.... What is the problem!@!@!@

I think people just rush through the words and do not pay attention to what people or in this case NPC's are telling you... No wonder you get lost. It's like stopping to ask for directions but instead of listening you talk with your friends in the car and only hear parts of it.. Sheesh..

For me there is much higher issues that I would like the devs to focus on then this..

In fact the only thing that irks me about this change is the change itself, why was it such a priority over say phasing grouping issues and quest issues at the time?!@!@!@ This irks me that development time was spent on stupid things like this then real issues.

One thing is for sure once I start supporting it with my money and I see them waste development time on whiners and stupid fluff problems I am gone!

I think our friendly moderator pretty much nailed it there. The fact that you don't "have" to do the starter island is what makes it so great: you get to choose where your character goes next. I think it would have been nice if everyone was dropped on the starter islands anyways and were then offered the choice to sail back to the mainland, but I'm not bothered by the fact that it's no longer working like that.

And I can't speak for everyone, but I played Elder Scrolls games exactly as your described. I do whatever I feel like doing, sometimes ignoring the main storyline altogether, because why not? I can come back to it later, it's not like the big bad villain is going to destroy the world while I'm busy touring some island. And if he does destroy then world then uh... well... woops?

I still don't get the change myself. I get things evolve. Maybe the devs thought it was too similar to another/other MMO starts or something..?

One game that comes to mind is EQ2. There is a starting island (previously a boat too). Play on the island if you want or take the boat to the city. Simple.

I guess we'll see if it makes sense when release happens.

I would imagine most anyone who has played a TES game more than once or who has played more than one TES game does this. 90% of my characters flat out ignore the MQ.

TES games have never forced you into a Main Quest, or any quest for that matter. Well, Skyrim did on some Faction Main Quests.

this. I have over 300 hours in Skyrim. Haven't finished the MQ once

What he said about the alternative doesn't make sense at all. Players won't know what they mean by "skip"? Why would you even word it that way? I imaged a guy with a boat saying "would you like a ride to Ebonheart? Just 1 gold!" or some such.

I am going to be doing those islands, three reasons for me, sky shards, resources, story continuity... they don't take that long and you get a few levels out of it as well, but that is just what I plan on doing for me..

Again nobody is denying that there should be a means to skip the starter island. Pretty sure everyone is on board with that. It's a matter of keeping a consistent and good story the way it was originally designed. That entails dropping us on the starter island. They could then allow a player to entirely ignore that and leave early. It makes far more sense to do that, than to decide to sail to it after having just woken up in the main city.

I still don't fully understand what difference it makes whether players and initially dropped on the island or on the main land, besides just personal preferences. You have no more reason to visit the islands than you do venturing outside the city walls. In fact, you could very well choose to stay inside, drinking ale and wooing the ladies all day long (if you do lemmie know, we'll share a drink sometime!). In all seriousness, the motivation is basically the same in both cases: adventuring. Will you follow the people to whom you owe your life and set sail to lend a hand or take part in whatever conflicts ail the city you were brought to? Both options sound equally appealing to me.

Here's what I would have liked to have seen: You always get dropped on a starter island. Period. Tough cookies (this is the movie Avatar, Avatar, and you're playing on Pandora's terms). When you just can't handle it anymore (because you've made your fifteenth character), you run screaming into the ocean and swim... and swim... and swim, seeking sweet watery respite from this nightmare. Cue Loading Screen. You now wash up, covered in seaweed, on the shore of your main city (they all have shores, right? -- hopefully) and you wearily pull yourself out. "Thank the Eight that's over with!", you cry. Julianos hears and is pleased. He descends to gift your character with much goods and XP, for such a swim as that has never been.

(The nice thing about this is that you don't even have to tell people how to get off the island. How do you get off the island? Simple. You get off the island.)

We'd rather give up guys about those starter islands who are no more.

I fought enough to now when a fight is lost, and this one is.

Don't waste your time anymore with that, don't expect you'll get the attention of the decision makers.

Now what is the most important is you and your dignity.

I have been proud of you and the the way you debated in the now closed thread, you welcomed those with a different opinion than ours.

But now, it's time to leave with the head straight up. There's no shame here to abandon what is a lost cause.

I bid you farewell dear fellows. Profit of the coming spring.

No i quite agree with him to be honest, dont throw conspiracy like that around.

On the Aldemeri Dominion island (Kernari Roost or something like that). I have read all the quests and nothing hint you at other factions (or introduce you to the world).

What did i do on this island?

So in my opinion, he is right to say the island dont actually bring something else then its own story and that the npc to get you to that island is pretty easy to find (right in front of the dock, like in your face).

Indeed. Farewell. My last blast has passed (or some-such).

What islands are you guys talking about? I played multiple beta sessions and I don't remember starter islands...

Then perhaps you are just rp your character too far? Its not like people have access to your character bio and what you did in the past with him like "Oh! he went back to the island? Oh! he helped the vampires?"

When i quest i quest, simple as that. I read the story and proceed to see whats next. I dont go like "hmmm is my character would trust this rowing boat?" "hmmm is my character would open the door to this ruin".

If your character isnt interested in going to the island then its not a problem, the area around the city have been redesigned so you dont need to go there anymore, you can start questing right off the bat. if you say "yeah but im missing some quests and story" then you are really whiny, stop roleplaying solo with a rowing boat and get on it and do the island.

It was the islands where you were dropped just after finishing coldharbour. Depending on your faction it might have look something like this. Daggerfall was a city in the desert. Ebonheart looked like skyrim, snowy place and Aldmeri Dominion was a tropical island (kernari roost). Its only in the last betaweekend that instead of dropping you on the island, they dropped you in the city.

this is all pointless, after the AMA i now realize that the only people they listen to are the ones on the PTS and major stream reviewers anything you post here is irrelevant unless you cause a media stir with it. I am done on these forums but i wholeheartedly agree that they butchered the starting experience of the game to the point of making not enjoyable. Just know that the GM's here are just volunteers and ESO devs likely dont even read anything here at all, seems they prefer reddit.

First world problems...

Lol, the PTSers seem to think they don't listen to them at all.

Well then I leave you guys to your game.

Believe me or don't but I've had the page to pre-order open for the last few days waiting to hear that Zenimax cared about good story telling with this game. They obliterated the one they had with no indication that they intend to fix it. Much of the story they had for the beginning of the game is now borked. The island stories make no sense. Several of the NPC interactions and even the Non-player Objects (like the ship the Prowler) on the mainland make no sense. Sorry, I don't care for a game like that. Nor one where they will take a great story telling element.... escaped from hell, stuck on a remote island, needing a way to escape to meet with the prophet, and throw that out the window for a few reviewers complaining that they felt 'constrained' for the first 3 hours of game play. I prefer a game that WILL forcibly stick me in an inescapable dungeon for a few hours of game play making me find a way to get out. That's good story telling, even inside an open world.

I LOVED what I saw in most of the beta. Alas, I won't be pre-ordering nor subscribing. That's not some 'threat'. I'm simply stating the reality for me. Should I later hear that they've turned over a new leaf and will put good, consistent, believable (though obviously in a fantasy setting) story telling as a top priority, then I may reconsider. In the meantime I don't intend on ruining the Elder Scrolls world with what ZOS apparently intends to do with it for some perceived expediency.

Well honestly if the first hour or so of gameplay is going to turn you off that much then likely you weren't very into the game to begin with. There is good story telling in the game pity you'll never get to see it because of being hung up on the first 5 minutes of the story.

My biggest issue is these people that complained got their way and if spending a couple hours in a starting island is "too constraining" for them they dont belong in an mmorpg much less an elder scrolls title go back to WoW where you can sit in org and queue up for crap. The even more disturbing thing is that ZOS changed the entire experience to cater some sort of instant gratification crowd i dont know how else to describe them if you dont have the patience to get to the mainland then you likely dont have the patience to play this game, these are likely the very people who skip all the dialogue and just "go go go i need loot". Infuriating this is only.