Why can't I play as an Imperial in the empire. Seems so dull to fight against my own people.

Because Cyrodiil is designated as a PvP zone, there's no room for there to be a faction there in the first place. Originally you weren't going to be able to be an Imperial in the first place, I think it's a pretty good compromise. There's already 3 factions, they can't make 4 playable factions, it would split the playerbase up too much, and the 4th one would in a sense be an evil faction, which goes against the grain of the game.

Wait so now you can be an imperial? I'm not up to speed on this stuff.

this screams of "damned if you do and damned if you dont". they announce that you can be an imperial and instantly people want more. be happy they changed their tune and opened op imps?

Only if you fork out for the Collectors Edition in one of the most blantant exmaples of exploitation and bullcrap I have ever seen in my life.

Details http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-uk/preorder?gclid=CITSza7hpLwCFQYjpAod2y4AvA.

20$ for something you were never going to get anyways, clearly the most blatant example of exploitation and bullcrap ever.
/sarcasm

It's still exploitation, I won't argue with that, it's just nowhere near as big of a deal as you're making it.

It's not "damned if you do, damned if you don't" is it? That would be the case if they allowed you to be an Imperial, then people complained that you shouldn't be able to. This is simply the case of Zenimax charging extra for something that really could come with the standard purchase.

You do not know if you cannot unlock imperials in the game.

They cut a race from the game and then reintroduced it as a bonus intended to exploit people into spending an extra $40 (at least, $40 in Australia) for the collectors edition. Not the worst case of exploitation ever (although one of the worst I've ever seen in gaming), but still horribly anti-consumer bullcrap. Remember when Mass Effect 3 cut a Prothean (some of the most important figures in the Mass Effect universe) squadmate from the game to sell to people as DLC? Remember the [censored] behind that? This is the same.

If it was announced for Skyrim that you'd have to pay extra to play as an Imperial I bet you'd be peeved. A game with a box fee and subscription is also placing content behind a paywall in a F2P-style, and this is NOT okay.

the empire is at this point more an idea(its only one province IE Cyrodiil) and is pretty much gone after the deaths of the Akaviri potentates and the end of the second empire. also the game has the head of the imperials as a figure who seems to help the Daedra and would go against the whole stop the Daedra thing if we sided with him.

It all starts small. I learned that the hard way from several games.

The only chance to turns devs around on this point is by being both loud and numerous.

True. But as of now, we only know that you can get them by essentially buying them. I think it's fair to judge Zenimax on that, as they are the ones who have decided to be picky with what they reveal.