because pve'ers and rp'ers would lose their collective s*** lol

As far as an actual answer, I think ZOS had a great story in mind for their game, but didn't want it to be the wild west with people killing each other literally everywhere w/ many being unwilling participants. I love the way it ended up. Though I was sad when they axed the enforcer part of the justice system

Before One Tamriel, I remember visiting Daggerfall on my EP character as part of Cadwell's Silver and, aside from some other EP there presumably doing the same thing the city was pretty desolate of other players. It seems that at the time opposing faction territory were "Faction-Phased" if you were there as an agent of Meridia.

It was useful for finding secluded grinding spots though I must admit, even though I think only the Cadwell's Gold zones offered any decent Champion Experience past V16.

KerinKor wrote: »

BellatorMortalis wrote: »

But since this is not the game, I assert the factions are not really at war. It is all fake. Which means the lore is fake.

It is fake, there is little real TES lore in this, it's entirely artificial to provide a basis for adding PVP to a game where PVP has no reason to exist.

Play through Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim and you'll find precious few references to this period of history at all and those that do exist have no mention of the politics of this period nor of any alliances as ZOS dreamed them up: it has nothing to do with Bethesda's timeline for TES.

Lore and stories are made up by devs. All of it, every single bit of lore that exists. It's all fake in that way. And they make it up as they go, they don't always have a detailed plan for the next twenty years. When Bethesda was developing Arena, they didn't know they would one day tell the story of the Last Dragonborn. When they were developing Oblivion, they didn't know about the Three-Banner War yet - and now they can't retroactively insert any information about it into earlier games even if they wanted to.

That's why people usually create sequels. It's easier to work with events in chronological order, continuity problems are easier to avoid. But if you make a prequel like ESO, you need to be careful to make it fit into the existing timeline. That's why ZOS picked this period of the Second Era: very little was known about it, only that it was a time of strife and many short-lived emperors. They could fill in the blanks however they wanted, it gave them more creative freedom.

This doesn't mean the new lore isn't canon. Any new lore can be canon, no matter which period of Tamrielic history it pertains to, as long as it doesn't directly conflict with previously established lore (and even if it does. People don't like retcons, but the creators have the final say in what's considered official canon).

We closed this discussion years ago, Bethesda officially embraced the lore of ESO, only the most stubborn and bitter people still deny it. You don't like the story and think it doesn't make sense? Fair enough. But you not liking it doesn't automatically make it uncanonical, that's not how it works.

BellatorMortalis wrote: »

But since this is not the game, I assert the factions are not really at war. It is all fake. Which means the lore is fake.

They are at war. The wayshrines don't, really, port you around Tamriel. At least not in the way you're thinking and understanding.

The wayshrines port you to other times, and (in some cases) parallel universes. Again, this is the lore, as provided in game.

It used to be much more pronounced, where you'd never interact with players who weren't native to another alliance, though One Tamriel has removed that, along with allowing you to jump into another alliance without getting the explanation for what's happening.

This is also why you can interact with a character on the Gold Coast, then go back to the base game, and they don't remember you. The events in the DLC zones happen after the planemeld threat has been dealt with. The core zones happen while it's ongoing. This is also why the planemeld will continue in those zones after you've finished the main quest. It's not just that you're now in a different timeline, you're also there before anyone stopped the planemeld.

Guards in "hostile" alliances don't attack you, because you're a member of their alliance, regardless of the faction on your character sheet. You're always hero to their alliance, and an enemy to the other two. When you're in Covenant territory, you washed up on the shores of Stros M'kai, when you're in Dominion territory, you were found after the armada wrecked on Kenarthi's Roost, when you're in Pact territory, you're a refugee from Bleakrock. All of these histories are mutually exclusive and simultaneously true.

If this doesn't make sense to you, then you haven't been spending nearly enough time looking at TES's metaphysics, because the setting itself is bonkers.

tinythinker wrote: »

Enodoc wrote: »

You are not identified as a spy in other faction territories because your identity is being hidden. It's a simple Daedric illusion effect, no lore issues here.

Except that this isn't explained when you first arrive, so actually if you are a new player it is lore breaking. I offered a simple, quick solution as did others. Maybe they have a fix for this with the first expansion. Maybe not. But it's been left like this for several months.

Sure. But I would say that's not an issue with the lore, that's an issue with the storytelling. The reasoning behind it is fine, but it's not presented to you until later, which is not fine. Wasn't it you who came up with the Mysterious Voice suggestion? That's still my favourite.

Publius_Scipio wrote: »

Firerock2 wrote: »

They cheesed the storyline so they didn't have to actually add more content. That's why

The gold and silver storylines should have you invading the enemy territory and acting on the side of the enemy troops in each zone, exactly like the covenant forces in the AD zones. I want to burn all the elves to the ground

"Cheesed" might be too harsh. ZOS simply wanted everyone to be able to run through each alliance without having to start over and level a character each time.

It still feels like a really quick and lackluster solution to what they could have done. I personally would have preferred my idea as DLC instead of the Thieves Guild or Dark Brotherhood or Console development. I find it stupid that I can go into Auridon and commit a crime yet get punished in Wayrest; I should be praised as a hero.

I am from the fighters guild and as such I have free passage to all factions.

GwJSVDShark wrote: »

Did any of you guys actually played the main quest?

Meridia does offer you the chance to explore your enemy faction, she says no one will recognize you, no one will know of your accomplishments.

You no longer have to play it that way. The order of quests is free now (one could say it is "messed up" now in light of the purpose it had).

Magdalina wrote: »

Dreepa wrote: »

GwJSVDShark wrote: »

Did any of you guys actually played the main quest?

Meridia does offer you the chance to explore your enemy faction, she says no one will recognize you, no one will know of your accomplishments.

You no longer have to play it that way. The order of quests is free now (one could say it is "messed up" now in light of the purpose it had).

I actually gave it some thought and isn't it kind of like a book that you can open in any place now? If you want to see the actual full plot where every chapter makes sense, read the book from the start. Start from page 1, then proceed to page 2, 3, etc...pick up the main quest and go where it points you, doing other things on your way...but if you're fascinated by that one picture in the middle and want to read the book chapter there, you can do so but you shouldn't be surprised that the plot has something missing after you skipped previous 15 chapters.

That would mean that the book has a table of contents that explain to you how this book is meant to be read/used.
Kind of like the old Donald Duck books: "If you want to go with Donald to the tower, turn to page 125. If you want to see what is behind the door, turn to page 198". (If that even makes sense to you, yes I am old...)

ESO doesn't do any of it. It just says: "Make a character, and run around. You ll figure out the rest!"

Dreepa wrote: »

Magdalina wrote: »

Dreepa wrote: »

GwJSVDShark wrote: »

Did any of you guys actually played the main quest?

Meridia does offer you the chance to explore your enemy faction, she says no one will recognize you, no one will know of your accomplishments.

You no longer have to play it that way. The order of quests is free now (one could say it is "messed up" now in light of the purpose it had).

I actually gave it some thought and isn't it kind of like a book that you can open in any place now? If you want to see the actual full plot where every chapter makes sense, read the book from the start. Start from page 1, then proceed to page 2, 3, etc...pick up the main quest and go where it points you, doing other things on your way...but if you're fascinated by that one picture in the middle and want to read the book chapter there, you can do so but you shouldn't be surprised that the plot has something missing after you skipped previous 15 chapters.

That would mean that the book has a table of contents that explain to you how this book is meant to be read/used.
Kind of like the old Donald Duck books: "If you want to go with Donald to the tower, turn to page 125. If you want to see what is behind the door, turn to page 198". (If that even makes sense to you, yes I am old...)

ESO doesn't do any of it. It just says: "Make a character, and run around. You ll figure out the rest!"

It kind of does though. There's the main quest popping up right into your face til you accept it. Now obviously you can skip it, but you can also skip the table of contents
By default you are put in the first zone of the alliance you chose which is like the start of the book. You can jump to a friend or guildie or groupmate to do another zone instead but that is akin to skipping some of the book. The order of zones in your alliance you find out by doing main quests in order(they generally send you from the city of the zone that you start in through all of the map and then the next zone), but your alliance zone's order is less important as they're pretty separate stories for the most part.

I agree it's somewhat of a very...soft and non-obligatory table of contents now but it's there.

Also I played a game on my cell just recently that was just like that - "if you want to continue to the tower, go to page 28. If you want to check where the path to the right leads, go page 137", was actually really cool