Hey there, everyone it's me again with another wall of text. Lol, just kidding, I'll try to keep it as short as possible.

Anyway... Cloaks. Yes, I'm aware they've been discussed already... a lot. But we've got some "new info" on them that is different from past explanations and something must be said...

(got this from the Guild Summit summary in Tamriel Foundry)

"Why no cloaks?

Cloaks are cool, but they are an artistic challenge to have them move, reflect light, and match the overall aesthetic quality of the rest of the game’s equipment. Adding cloaks which moved naturally would be incompatible with having a high number of character models on screen at a given time."

OOOOOH, come on, Zenimax! I mean... don't get me wrong, love the game and its art but... "painted" armor, low res textures... All of these are still issues and quality standards are your excuse? :P
I understand that the proper way would be a realistic cloth simulation like Assassin's Creed does, for example... and that would hit us hard in Cyrodiil, but there are plenty of options... make it so that only our own cloaks are rendered in real time, or the ones close to us, or none... anyway, make good fixed animations and give us options from "all real time cloth simulated" to "none" :P that is *not* impossible.

Anyway, now that this is out of the way... *ahem*... on with the post.
First of all: Why cloaks?
Well, cloaks are present on most of the loading screens artworks :P they're fairly common across history, lore-friendly if done right and useful enough for the people of tamriel to have invented it. Please, note... I'm talking about realistic, plain/fur/hide cloaks, not shiny and colorful skateboards people hang on their backs on some other games.

So, gameplay-wise, why should we have cloaks?
First off, they should be completely cosmetic. Some people seem to dislike them and giving them stats would "enforce" their usage. So no stats, should be optional/cosmetic items.

And what should their importance be?
Well, let's think it like this:
Armor style shows off racial/cultural affinity.
Armor color shows off our achievements.
Tabards show off our guild(s)

So, for me... cloaks should be a way to show off our sense of belonging or, in other words, regional/factional affinity.

So, for me, each region, faction and NPC guild (including the upcoming Enforcer - here's a way to allow both enforcing and guild tabard!) should have a cloak. They shouldn't be colorful representations of their region but their style should be evidence enough, so... Skyrim regions would probably have thick pelts and furs while Alik'r would have thin, plain silk cloaks with facial covering for sandstorms and such... Some of high rock regions could have more knightly/european capes and such....

So, this is pretty much one of the few ways I can see cloaks being added in a beautiful, lore-friendly and non-obligatory way

As an extra, I'd like to also leave a suggestion that... well... it's extremely cosmetic, fluff and difficult but if it ever gets into the game I swear to Akatosh I'll sub for the rest of my days (lol): make cloaks "interact" with the environment. So, if playing for a while in a snowy region, or the desert, it gets dirty... maybe damped and muddy on swamps, litttle scorch marks on volcanic/fiery places, ragged over time on Cyrodiil, etc... seriously, this would be like... best MMO change ever :P extra points if our characters raise their hoods and cover their faces during snow storms/sand storms/rain/etc...

That's it