Hell no.
Have you ever played a TES game?

Your idea is awful and harmful for the game that already has little to no substance.

I am amazaded, I really am

ESO is based on The Elder Scrolls games, which are based on tabletop RPG games like D&D. In all of these games races are not only a funky element to flesh out a fantasy world but also a tactical element you need to take into account when creating your character. There is not any rule against you wanting to be a dwarf ranger, and you can actually create such a character and even a story justifying its existence, but your dwarf will be at a disadvantage against other better suited races like elves. The fact that each race has their own differences is not only tactically sound, but it also allows for a far more interesting roleplay experience.

So no, racial passives are fine where they are. You do not buy a lambo aventador if you want to go cross country.

As for your counter arguments, I do believe your pro-arguments are far more telling about why you want this, and none of your points justify such a change.

Allows true diversity of races, allowing every race to do whatever they want without being useless compareatively. Imagine being able to see wizard redguards around in high end content! how pleasant.

No, the true diversity is in accepting that each race has some strengths and some weaknesses, and planning your character tactically around that fact. Gaming is an experience that requires a certain ammount of learning, skill honing and being able to plan your strategy to maximize your skills while making up for your weaknesses. This is why glass cannons exist as concepts. What you're basically asking for is to remove the whole tactical aspect in the game for purely cosmetic reasons.

fully seperate appearance from stats, allowing people to fashion exactly as they want (aside from weapons)

Purely cosmetic reasons.This is a game, not DeviantArt.

Cosmetics are an important part of ESO and I will not deny it. However right now the options are absolutely enormous so this argument is pretty weak. Right now you can fashion your character in pretty much whatever way you want, while naturally keeping the consistency of its race. You can also play any class you want. You have absolute freedom about what to do with your character and how to create it. The only "limitation" are its racial passives, which are part of the game's mechanics, so you have to weight your options and decide what is more important for you; battle performance and optimizing your selected class, or cosmetics?

I'll set an example; I practice a certain dog sport. My favorite dog breed in looks and temperament is the dobermann. I have a malinois. Why? Because it outperforms the dobermann by a mile. I had to choose between cosmetics and performance, and since I was buying a dog for sport, not a pet, performance won. Making a weird cross-breed to have the performance of a malinois in the body of a dobermann is not a valid reason to change a breed.

i wont get made fun of in trials

I will not justify anyone making fun of you for playing an argonian because I'm not that type of monster, but I believe your suggestion is purely driven by emotion, not reason. I am sorry but even though they are not right to do this, this is not a reason to change how races work. If you have an issue with other players mocking you (something I've personally not experienced myself that often, as I tend to ignore idiots in general) use the report tools and consider toughening up. This last part is not intended to harm you in any way, but to help you. You'll be much happier if you don't let these things hurt you.

Gets zos more money via making us pay for it! they like money!!!!!!!!!

Not an argument to convince me. I couldn't care less about a company that already makes millions of dollars getting another bonus.

ends racism

I will be blunt; no, it doesn't.

Honestly, the fact that there are racials help encourage me to try different ones. I like that.

They don't make so much if a difference that I need to swap all the time, but I also like the added complexity they provide when thinking about making a new character.

Maybe I'm lucky but I have never had an issue with any group or anything I have ever tried to do in ESO because of my race. No one has commented on it or ever told me I was the "wrong" one. Most people seem to respect the choice of selecting based on min/max or because you like it.

However each race should have useful racials and even though it didn't affect me I am still on the "fix Bosmer" train.

No.

You will not sway the traditionalists. They are far too set in their ways. It's kinda like on of those "MMOs require grind" things. People think it's true, and therfore act like it's true. I'm not trying to belittle anyone's beliefs here, merely pointing out that it is a belief, not a fact. Racials on themselves, as purely game mechanical constructs, do serve a valid function in offering build diversity. However, tying such mechanical attributes to a purely cosmetic factor, is a rather old fashioned way of doing it. Better ways have been devised in the game industry to offer such mechanics, while also fostering greater creativity and ways to express that within the fiction of the game world.

Changing the racials to be irrelevant and purely fluff, and offering selection of natural talents, would not harm the game in anyway, and would make it better for many. But many people will resist the idea simply because of ingrained beliefs that having racials matters.

You will also see lot of people touting past games as proof that they are integral, that they are part of Elder Scroll lore. And that ZOS is simply respecting that. Heh, like lore ever stopped ZOS from doing what they wanted. They retcon stuff left and right to suit their needs.

Besides, racial passive of the Elder Scroll universe have always been a racial bias, not a racial imperative. That is to say, that it is more likely for a member of a specific race to have leanings towards martial or magical learning. Or be more swift and agile than one from another race. But at the same time, those racial aptitudes have never prevented exceptional persons from rising to the very top of their chosen trade thru study and dedicated training, or by the benefits of being unusually gifted in said activities. Those racial tendencies have made certain paths easier than others for a member of a given race, but they have never stood as an absolute barrier in their way. In ESO though, an Altmer is always going to be better an magic than a Nord. The mechanics of the game prevent the Nord from ever achieving the same level of power as an Altmer. No matter what the player does.

In pretty much every Elder Scroll game, except ESO, you can master all trades just as well, regardless of what race you chose at the beginning. In ESO the racials are a dominant feature that explicitly make you better at certain things. You can go across the grain if you want, but the loss of actual ingame power is perceivable. Now some will say it doesn't mater, that you can finish 99% percent of the games content even when playing against your racial stereotypes. Which is true, but doesn't' change the fact, that at the very top of the chart, chasing leadeboard scores, or trying to master PVP, it pays to go toady up to the party line as far as racials go. Which is a shame.

Wanna be like Shalidor? A true master wizard of the arcane arts, who also happened to be a Nord? Well, "No soup for you!", says ESO. Nords are dumb big brutes, best left to take hits for others, and not much else.

But enough already, this wont change. Its a relic of an archaic game design philosophy, but one that is still deeply entrenched into the psyche of gaming population. Heck, I used to subscribe to it like most of everyone else. It took me years and years of convincing by others to finally see the light. Racials do not add anything tangible to the game, and only end up limiting the players creativity.

./danceargonian like no one is watching, tiny lizard dancer.

Not opposed to the idea.

I voted no because I don't trust ZOS to not screw it up.

The racism and other antisocial behaviours are sad reflections of the players who are &$”@. This one doesn’t think the above changes will stop them behaving badly.

Having said so, Sammy is sorry to hear OP being mocked for playing as Argonian. The community is mostly great and very diverse but yea, this one hears the occasional slurs and stupid comments as well.

BlueRaven wrote: »

The problem with racials in eso is that they are SUPPOSED to be based in lore, but in many respects steer far from it.

Orcs are supposed to be heavy armor tanks, but other then the nod to blacksmithing, it’s not there.

Nords are supposed to be leather wearing bezerker fighters, but other then a nod to two handed weapons, it’s not there.

And BOSMERS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE STEALTHY!!! 😡

It goes on. Where are the stealth bonuses for dunmer and argonians is another example.

•••

Another issue is that the races are not very pliable for builds.

Argonians should have assassins, Nords and Bosmers have mages, but you would not know that by their current racial passives.

It’s hard to sit here and fight for the integrity of traditional hard coded racials, when zos themselves keeps doing them so badly.

This 1000%
I have been complaining about how ZOS just made up their own version of racial passives and lore. To the people saying they are following the lore need to read up on them or look up the 100's youtube video on this subject.