Physical Imperial Edition from GAME.co.uk, I'm a disabled full time gamer and i have a large collection of game memorabilia, so stuff in the box is added to my collection, if i decide i like a game and they have a collectors edition i'll get it even if the price tag is a little heavy lol

1. Imperial edition
2. First I bought physical edition from retailer (I don't really need statues, maps, etc.) then upgraded it via ESO-store.
3. Imperial style and horse.

see i dont get it, so many people had issues with getting their physical editions from stores and not getting them in time, yet i pre-ordered mine from GAME online, not only did they post it 4 days before launch to get to me in time but i was woken early by the courier on launch day , must have been certain stores i guess, anyways i know it was off topic slightly but i know it affected a lot of people on what edition they elected to get in fear of not having the codes in box in time so they didnt get locked out of accounts until box arrived

Imperial edition physical.

Why? because i wanted the statue and the goodies. The book is awesome and i also got the soundtrack with it as a bonus. The map is nice and the statue rocks. Also the ingame items are good.

Playing as an imperial was my wish from the start. But now that they are ingame i decided to play a Breton (in DC) anyway. I do convert my armor to imperial style though. not always it can be done but i have the choice.

I even bought 2 of these version because my wife also wanted the goodies ingame. And i paid 90 euro each and the online version was 80. So i rather throw in the extra 10 euro for the statue.

And i got it right on time. When i came home from work friday they where on my doormat. I entered the keys and i could play.

I bought the Imperial digital download.

Why Imperial? Wanted a horse.

Why digitial? You only need to see the comments which are still flying about from people who pre-ordered physical copies of the game and are yet to receive them. That was me at the launch of WoW's second expansion. I didn't get it in time and ended up going to a 24 hour supermarket to get a copy at midnight in order to be able to play it at release. First supermarket ran out when I had just three people left in front of me, second one I got lucky. Never again.

I have gone over all that have posted so far, and I find them all interesting. I and my roommate tried (I guess what you would call and experiment).

We decided on some base ground rules:
1. what version, which was the imperial editions. And since both of us wanted the books and the very Nice Figure and goodies like that we went with the boxed versions
2. two the methods of how we were going to get them. We did one pre-order local, and the other pre-order via Amazon (which by the by I have always gotten good service from)

When we did the local which was the day the pre-order announcement was made. The first place we tried was Game Stop. Every Game stop in the area where sold out, they could not even place an online order, we tried other retailers in the area to no effect they were not even taking pre-orders at all. So in the last ditch try, we went to Best Buy and had no issue doing a pre-order and putting a good down on it to make sure we would get it. We were able to pick up the Best Buy one on 04-04-2014 (mind you we found out that the day after we pre-order they ran out of being able to do the hard box pre-orders.

So that was one down and one to go. which was doing an online pre-order for a Imperial edition box. Once again I fell back on good old Amazon. That is when went (lets just say odd), Amazon didn't get their lot of the Imperial hard box edition until 04-06-2014, at which point I got a notice that the order had been filled and should be delivered on 04-07-2014 before 8 pm (which kind of made me smirk)

Does being able to play any race in any faction really factor into it, does the vanity pets factor into it, does the horse factor into it (well maybe a little), does the extra treasure maps factor into it (still not sure on that one), does the material in the imperial hard box factor into... strangely enough for me and my roommate yes it did.

Would it over all been better to do the Digital Imperial editions. Yes most likely, reasons being:
1. would have saved money on it
2. would have had the authentication codes I think earlier.

But I am more satisfied with the sold box version than wondering what would happen if I needed to re-install that game due to a system burp on my side.

Figured since every one has been so nice to answer, that I should share as well. I was concerned that I was going to get flamed, it's nice that

1. Imperial
2. Digital
3. I wanted the horse, and the Imperial race... not that I rolled Imperial, but now it's there if I want to in the future.

Pre ordered Standard Edition from Granger Games. I had to get a physical copy to go with my other ES titles. A little disappointed that there was no physical map of Tamriel inside but, ahh well.

Just not bothered about playing as an Imperial. Never played as an imperial.

I pre-ordered the imperial download direct from the TESO/ZOS store.
Interestingly I've had none of the problems with codes, delivery or setting up my sub plan that seem to be plaguing those that purchased box sets.

I stopped buying boxed sets when they invented the internet and online gaming

Physical Imperial Edtion, I wanted that art book.

Digital Imperial from their store so I would avoid any 3rd party vendor issues. Went Imperial just so I'd have more options both in race creation and armor customization.

Digital Imperial Pre-Order from the official website. Because I don't trust stores to deliver things, including any kind of access keys. Getting it straight from the official website had no extra step for my account to be listed as Imperial and pre-order.

1 Imperial, 1 Standard both digital pre-orders.

Why? I always have two game accounts, makes muling and other activities a lot easier, I fancied the Imperial as an option for one, pre-orders for the Explorer's Pack (faction selection was key).

Was going to buy the boxed Deluxe but Game in the UK wouldn't accept PayPal and I don't trust Game with my CC details so I couldn't as Zenimax had given Game an apparent UK exclusive on this version.

As the for mentioned "roommate" lol, if you've read the post you know my answer :-)

ursacorb14_ESO wrote: »

Okay Here's the Question, it is a multi-parter:
1. Did you purchases the Imperial, Deluxe or Standard Editions of ESO?
2. Did you do the Digital Download of ESO or Get the Physical Boxed version?
3. Why?
****

1. Imperial Edition of ESO.
2. I bought the digital download from the website.
3. Because I wanted to play an Imperial and I find website purchases general work better than others.

I also find that I have to much junk sitting around my house from collectors edition purchases, so digital is fine for me these days.