@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_RichLambert @ZOS_MattFiror
I hope that me "@-ing" does not misconstrued my intentions, I have not reached out to yours a means to attack you or insult or protest in childish manners seen so often on the forum but to in the hopes of reaching you directly. I also would like to apologize for my poor writing skills as writing papers was never my strength in college. I have including you three specifically for multiple reasons. Of which include 1) The fact that two of you are most active in the community whether it is talking directly to costumes/players via the forums, or making major announcements for the ESO community. 2) all three of you are very high up within the chain of command at ZOS and I hope to reach to either of you directly to express my opinions on the matter. I am aware that none of you picked these passive changes because you simply wanted it that way, but instead moved forward with them based on the recommendations of your combat development teams and I understand that. it is more often wise to listen to your advisors, that is a principle of leadership and I do applaud who ever had the final say on the matter for putting such a principle of leadership into practice.
But onto the matter at hand, I am very impressed with the decisions made to balance the racial passives for game performance. after seeing many streamers and OP's show their findings on the passives I must say you guys did a heck of a job balancing the races except the Imperials, to understand why it is only right that I start in the begining.
I began my TES journey with Skyrim, my brother introduced me to TES:Skyrim in early 2012. I was hooked I couldn't get enough of TES series after that, it was by far the best game I had ever played at that point in my life. I got interested not just the games but even the lore behind it and I found myself reading the fan page wikis on all sorts of material in TES lore. I even managed to pick my favorite race in TES series, the Imperials, so much spoke to me about them, the connections with real world Imperial Rome: I had always been a roman history buff due to my Italian heritage. The imperials being modeled after the Romans were just so cool to me. The Lore behind them in TES story was just awesome to read about the fact that they are both warriors and great examples of battlemages. To me made Imperials were not just awesome due to the connections to my real world heritage but also that they were the best of both worlds between wanting to swing a sword and wanting to rain down fire from above on my enemies at the same time.
Time went by and I had beaten Skyrim a dozen times, and then came ESO. without a doubt my favorite game. ZOS had manage to combine awesome graphics, spectacular combat, near flawless character appearance customization, and the best storyline for a video game in probably 15 years all rolled up into one game. But at the time ESO came out it was only on computer, and I am horrible with key boards(clearly you know this already because you have been reading this) and at the time I couldn't afford a computer that could run ESO. but then ESO was launched on console, yet at the time I was still in college and still broke as a joke unable to purchase an XBOX1.
Then in December of 2015 I picked up a good job and the first thing I did was I bought an XBOX1 and ESO, I had waited long enough to play ESO. and I loved it, still to this day more than three years later I play it almost everyday, although not as much as I wish lately with my first child being born a couple of months ago. I loved ESO so much I purchased the Imperial upgrade so I could play as my favorite race in the game, and not long after that I subscribed to ESO plus and would often buy crowns. I estimate I have purchase crowns in addition to ESO plus and all the Chapters around 5 times a year. if we did the math its fair to assume that I have given a lot of time and money to ZOS because of how much I believe in the success of ESO and TES as a whole.
I had even defended the dev teams and the community managers when the community was and is still at times very toxic. I spoke up for ZOS on numerous occasions, I provided my biggest defense when the community wanted much of the the combat dev team's heads' on pikes for nerfing the Sorceror's shields(which I still defend to this day and will).
But what has been done to Imperials is a TRAVESTY. people payed real world money for the ability to play as an Imperial and now they are without a doubt the worst performing race in the game. this doesn't make sense, it no longer is an upgrade, it is a downgrade. Customers payed for a digital Imperial "upgrade" nothing is upgraded anymore nor was it before because Imperials passives before this update were just "sufficient" nothing special about them. they did not even match up with the lore of ESO, which states the ethnic groups of Imperials; the colovians and the nibesnese, both specialize in stamina and magic respectively. now the new race passives come out and they make the digital upgrade not worth buying except the nostalgia of running a crappy performing character in game.
I have much faith ZOS and ESO's Year of the Dragon, but I must say as a loyal customer, players, and advocate for this game, these passives for Imperials are not a step in the right direction. I pray that this letter/post finds the three of you and the rest of the staff at @ZOS well.
your loyal customer, and advocate for ESO,
@rexagamemnon