I have to agree with Pangscar. They joy i had in running into my favorite Daedric Prince almost out of the blue during this last beta is worth any small annoyance over where my character starts off after the intro.

Those first few hours which set the stage for the rest of the game are the most important. And it sets a very bad precedent that ZOS is willing to completely destroy that in an inexplicable fashion when there were easy solutions that would have pretty much made everyone happy.

This is what I don't get. They made this major story-destroying change for what turns out to be just the first 3 to 5 hours of game play (quicker if one wants), when all anyone was actually asking for, and all they needed to do was provide a means to skip or exit early the starter islands. Who buys a $50-$80 game and plays the first couple hours (even if forcibly stuck on this island) and decides it's not for them when they will spend many more hours in their first 30 days of game time outside of that zone?

They don't have to worry about those people because they weren't going to stick around to begin with. But for players like myself who put the Elder Scrolls quests, stories, and story-telling as a top priority, we hardly care about 90% of the things other MMO players complain about (like loot tables and PvP balance), and are more than happy to live with those things just so long as they keep a good story going. Once that take a back seat to other considerations, then we're gone.

Except that the same stage is also set by the first city. The starter islands are I think mentioned once when you first got to the main city. Otherwise they aren't mentioned at all. They are some deeply meaningful part of the story seeing as the same stage is set by the first city.

This X1000 and +1

Yeah agree in that those Islands aren't that important, actually i think the Coldharbour Tutorial is what sets the stage for the game. It introduces you to the Main story line, ie Molag Bal, The Prophet, your soul.

Agree with both posts.

I admit i'm odd, but to me and the characters i play, where i regain consciousness

why not take you to the started islands by default, and there have an NPC right by the start that will let you skip if you want?

Oh those, I didn't even realize they where islands. So will the game now start at the next place after those islands? Won't that mess up leveling? Anyone have a link to the AMA?

I think the question of why your character would do this stuff is irrelevant. I mean why did your character gather bear pelts or dwemer cogs? Why did your character do anything in any of the games? You just have to role play a reason. Like my character was gathering dwemer cogs because he has a real interest in the dwemer and would like to help in research in any way.

this would have been the cheaper, logical, and easier method to handle things but what ever it is they are smoking in that office i want some it must be some good shizzle.

And had they done it that way you wouldn't now be seeing people in the forums saying "No. No. No. We didn't want a way to skip or leave the starting island early! What we wanted was to be dropped off in the main city after Coldharbour. Fix it Zenimax!"

You will start on the main continent now and the zone around the city and quests have been retweaked for lower level and island slightly upped. You can reach them again by talking to the very first quest giver youll encounter (other then the prophet).

People just complain to complain, everytime there is a change, even a minor one, people voice conscern over it. Just look at Call of Duty where the guy tweaked a bit the reload time of a sniper (i think) for a ridicule low amount in milisecond and people went over to his twitter and it was a flood of death threats.

They changed it because the vocal majority didnt find the game open enough at the start, which was kinda true. Now if people need a rp reason to go back to the island its only because they can never really be pleased.

it wouldnt change to problem sadly.

New players would be like "huh why would i want to quit the island? whats going on" and then they would still quest on it and feel its not enough open.

I think the best way of doing things right now its the way they made it, we t ake a quest and we go back to it. Perhaps better dialogue/insentive to go back other then "the guy who saved you went there, they need you"... to show thats it not just a tutorial island but a huge side quest on its own.

This a terribly incorrect assessment of the situation.

This wasn't just a 'minor' change. It was a story breaking, immersion breaking, change to the world they built, to solve a problem that could have been solved in a way that would have made everyone (99% anyway) happy. Nobody is just complaining to complain. Even those of us who LIKE the starter islands and would do them over-and-over on every character we create, were perfectly happy with giving those who didn't like them a way to skip them or get off of them earlier.

Had they done it that way, which made more logical sense to begin with, almost everyone would have been happy, there would be no complaint threads, and everyone would be singing the praises of Zenimax for being responsive to their customers and their wise solution to solve the problem some players seemed to have.

Actually the story wasn't broken at all. The main story was set in Coldharbor. The starting zones basically just set the story for your faction, which is also set in the main city. The starting zone isn't even really mentioned outside of teh starting zone itself. No story was broken at all.

You know what? In a month after launch, i don't think anyone will care. For three reasons:

1) Anyone still playing from beta will be over it(if it bothered them at all to begin with).

2) Any new player won't even know there was a change out side of anecdotal stories from guildmates.

3) Anyone that really and truly couldn't get over it will be long gone from TESO.

It is not story breaking nor immersion breaking, at least on the side i play (Aldmeri Dominion)

When you get out of Coldharbour, the prophet dont talk about Kernari Roost or whats going on on this island. You get out in Auridon and everything still make sense.

On Kernari Roost there is nothing worth of Main story element or immersion

You could ignore the island and not lose a single hint of the main story or didnt even know it existed since its not referenced anywhere in the main story.

The island stories are broken. Finding yourself on it and needing, along with the others you help, to get off the islands. Things like the ship The Prowler being docked in port at the main city, but going back to the starter island where it's damaged and washed ashore from a hurricane. NPCs on the mainland who reference your activities on the island, etc... Even the prophet suggesting you might and then indicating you wound up in two different places after leaving Coldharbour.

These are just a sampling of the story elements they broke with this change.

Unless they plan on a complete revamp of all these story lines and providing us with a compelling reason to travel to the islands as one of the first things we do, then I don't see how the change they made makes much sense.

How is it story breaking and immersion breaking when the game was in Beta? How the game releases is how it was meant to be...thats kinda the perogative of the game developers, isn't it? I can understand if this were a change that was being done after the game had been out in public release form for several months (or several years, like when SOE screwed up the EQ2 starter island). But as it stands...this isn't a change to the existing game at all.

You realize they're going to remove those inconsistencies right? You really are picking one of the stranger things to quit this game over. paywalls, pvp, no endgame, questing with friends, etc. If you had played this last beta and it had been your first, you'd be loving the game right now. That's the weird part. If all the dialogue was fixed would that make you happy?

This is simple polishing, they already said the would do it and it was pretty obvious its still work in progress (missing voices)

actually this is incorrect. the people you save on the starter island follow you to the next area and the actual gameplay and storyline revolves around those same people, some join the army to protect the new home some die in combat and some become craftsman and vendors in the new area, the storyline was very integral as it allowed you to relate with the people around you that you saved from certain death.

but honestly Zenimax is not going ot reverse their decision any more than they have reversed any of their other decisions, you may as well accept this and turn a blind eye ot the broken lore and you will be ok, I played this last beta with the broken lore and while I didnt necessarily like it, it was still able ot be done

@Poisinivy Correct! Unless they don't want us to care about what happens to the characters or for us to grow any attachment to them then the way it is now is fine. To many they are not just NPCs especially if you're a role player.

Speaking as an actor: there is nothing more annoying than hearing another actor ask the director what their motivation is. If you're RPing, find a reason for your actions, and stop blaming other people for "messing up" your character.

That's still the starter area. Literally after you get to the main city (where the game really opens up and takes the training wheels off), you get a maybe a passing mention of the starter area, maybe.