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[Lyn Farel]

Some personal feedback on the character creation (the only thing I have played with intensively) :

It's a good character creator overall, but I was a bit disappointed eventually.

+ The options : probably more or less as many as in Eve. If not more, like the size of the hands/feets, and most importantly, the size of the character itself, which lacks in Eve. So you can customize pretty much every bit and element of the body, mostly in size (coming back to that later on). There are a lot of classic options, like the positioning of eyebrows, eyes, mouth, their size, etc. In terms of morphology, it's rather good with a decent amount of sliders.

- A big issue tied to that is that most of those sliders are actually modifying the size of the body parts. But there is absolutely no control on their shape or type themselves : for example, there is only one eye shape, one mouth shape, etc. Which is extremely disappointing and make every character look the same, even if you can customize their position and size.

+ Skewed parameters for eyebrows is an awesome feature. It helps make a face look asymmetrical, because symmetrical faces are unnatural and just can't be found in reality, except after heavy surgery. Also, the asymmetry in some of the features themselves, like on some eyebrows and the likes, is very appreciated. It makes character look more realistic and adds an appreciable rugged aspect to them.

+ The details are quite good, and the quality of the textures used is rather good. Well, at least for male characters, female characters looking completely bland in comparison.

- Like in Eve though, the graphic quality in the char creator is good (maybe not totally as good as Eve but close enough), but the actual result ingame is totally dumbed down, which is rather frustrating and misleading. At least in Eve the actual character portrait uses the high quality of the creator itself (server side, which is even better), and the ingame result was still ok. From my experience, the downgrade between the character creator and the ingame result in TESO is rather huge at times. Maybe it was just the rendering from the starting level though (I have yet to get past that xD).

+ Their triangle shaped sliders for the global anatomy (athletic, soft/plump, and skinny) is interesting and allows you to find a mix between all of those features. It offers a decent range of scales (but could have gone further on the big fat asses, like Eve that was too shy on that too).

- However it means that you can't set them up independently. It's a shame, it would have allowed even more differences between characters. Like being able to make a huge, obese character that is still muscular for example.

- On the bad sides, their main triangle shaped slider for the face follows the same principle between angular/soft/heroic (whatever heroic means...), but the differences are not so huge. Every portrait looks the same, even when changing all the sliders for all the face bits like the nose, eyes, etc, since you can't also change their shape and type.

- Even worse, the haircut options are totally limited with very FEW of them available, male or female, which doesn't help to differentiate characters. Considering that more than 20-30% of them are stupid classic mohawks (what the hell do all MMO have with mohawks ? It's easy to make, that's it ?). Not that I dislike mohawks, it can be fun, but having them making more than a quarter of the available haircuts is rather baffling.

----- Where the hell did they learn anatomy ? I mean, their male arms are very good, their male torsos not bad too, but wtf happened with the legs ? Legs are completely bizarre and unnatural. Double the effect on female bodies, which are completely bland and flabby/spineless. Add to that legs that do not seem to belong to the main curves of the body, where said curves are even detectable at all. Female bodies are awful and just look like cheap meatbags.

[Katrina Oniseki]

Elder Scrolls has always had rather bland lore. The universe isn't that great.

I choose option E, "Strongly Disagree".

Elder Scrolls has always had incredible lore. If you take the time to read the books in the games, you'll find a complex web of interconnected events all affecting each other. If you want a good starting location for book reading, start with the series "2920 The Last Year of the First Era". The first book is called Morning Star. The order of books is the order of months, so follow that format until you get to book 12, Evening Star. It follows several characters through their travels across an entire year of history.

Also try reading the shorter book series in the following order, as they are not named in a way that suggests they are a series (though the first page of each book will advise you to read the previous volumes); Beggar, Thief, Warrior, and King.

I'll give you the assumption that you didn't start Elder Scrolls at Oblivion as Gwen suggested. I assume you're from Daggerfall or Morrowind (the two best), but if not... Oblivion was widely panned by many fans for being too stereotypical 'medieval' in nature. The reason is that for whatever reason Bethesda completely retconned and changed Cyrodiil from thick humid jungles to a temperate paradise. They added an ingame book to try and handwave the discrepancy as something that happened somewhere in 2E, maybe. There's no Bethesda meme smiley, so we'll just blame CCP for this one too: 

Anyways, there's the relationships between the Aedra, Daedra, mortals, the celestials, and now dragons too. There's the multiple political upheavals that, while each game only covers a certain province, are happening all the time everywhere. The ancient strife between the Dunmer and their enemies such as Norn, Dwemer, Argonians, and Imperials. There's the recent machinations of the Aldmeri Dominion. There's the races of Akavir and their influences to be seen all over the place. There's the constant interference of extra-planar beings (such as Aedra and Daedra). There's you're standard vampires and giant rats and stuff, sure... but there's more to it than that.

Even the Orcs take a page from Tolkien in how they are literally corrupted elves. The Orismer, corrupted by Malacath, turned hideous and aggressive, regressed to a tribal society. There's the Khajiit and their moon worship, and the various problems and intracacies that stem from that. Hell, the Khajiit are literally born differently based on what moon they are born under! From the same mother, a Khajiit's sibling can be completely different because he/she was born under different moons. There's always ancient and dead races, leaving clues and mysteries that later turn to define the nature of events. There's prophecy and destiny intertwined ingeniusly.

The Elder Scrolls has incredible lore. I'm sure if you squint your eyes and turn the corners of your lips down real far you can find flaw with anything, any game. But if you priase EVE for shades of gray, you should be praising TES... because TES arguably does an even better job at it than EVE.

I don't know, honestly, how you could find TES lore to be bland. Is it the swords and sorcery that turns you off? Is it the way the lore is presented in the games, hidden in dusty books and cryptic references placed throughout the story and world instead of in-your-face with news articles and live events? Is it the games themselves and the environments that don't capture your imagination?

I really just don't get why you'd call it bland.

[Lyn Farel]

Considering that I am a pure neophyte in ESO lore since I have never bothered to play one of their games that do not fit my definition of single/solo play, and am starting to play this one with friends, I was trying to find what define exactly the 3 main factions and their political beliefs, ideologies, culture, etc. I mean, what makes them special and what they are, not just "hello, i'm the green team, you are the blue team, and the other one here is the yellow team".

When I say Amarr, there is immediately a lot of things and ideas that come with it instantly. When I say gallente, same.

But when I say Aldmeri, Daggerfall, or Ebonheart, it just tells me that one is yellow, the other blue, and the last one green...

Does someone have something better than the brief, blank description they have on their main site ?

[Dessau]

Well, have fun on Nirn, you guys.

[Kala]

WELCOME TO ESO

Ouch.  It looks even worse than I feared.

Elder Scrolls has always had rather bland lore. The universe isn't that great.

Can't agree there.  Very detailed, and enjoyed how the lore interacted with the game world in Daggerfall (such as particular festivals and dates being important for summoning daedra).

But when I say Aldmeri, Daggerfall, or Ebonheart, it just tells me that one is yellow, the other blue, and the last one green...

Does someone have something better than the brief, blank description they have on their main site ?

Worth scrolling around here for lore - preferably outside of the ESO stuff as well  :

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Daggerfall_Covenant

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Aldmeri_Dominion

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Ebonheart_Pact


Edit: my links were somewhat shonky, and I feel a bit snarky about this three faction business. "It was a creation of unlikely allies, who had long histories of strife between them, but united for mutual defense..." to make things convenient for faction pvp. 

[Kala]

Oh, also -

Even considered looking into getting Morrowind for my laptop, if I can still find it out there.

DO EET 

Also keep an eye out for Skywind: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJwpaVwOaHM

Do want.  So very, very much.

[Charles Cambridge Schmidt]

Elder Scrolls has always had rather bland lore. The universe isn't that great. It was the exploration and freeform sandbox-ness of it that made it a good franchise.

I don't agree with the former, but the latter is definitely a hard truth. The lore behind the Scrolls series was occasionally a more subtle flavor, with you as a player having to often times immerse yourself in the books and dozens of other things. Kat put it all quite nicely and into a tasty block of text, so I'm not going to make like a broken record. I feel like Skyrim really dropped the ball on the lore, and - dare I say - casualized the more "you're in over your head" scenario. When it gets to the point where staring straight at an Elder Scroll causes you to blink a few times and be done with it, then the lore's already broken. Speaking of, I'm not sure if this is even true, but I hope it really isn't an actual quote:
[spoiler][/spoiler]

One of my many gripes with TESO is how a huge amount of in-game canon bible-tastic super-not-changed-since-the-start stuff is being thrown out the window simply because whatever. In addition to an already clunky combat system and unsatisfying and unimpressive questing, it's turning into

a stock WoW-clone instead of adhering to the franchise's strengths. Ergo, no point in playing.

That being said, my personal favorite book in the entirety of the Elder Scrolls series is http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Spirit_of_the_Daedra.

[Gwen Ikiryo]

Considering that I am a pure neophyte in ESO lore since I have never bothered to play one of their games that do not fit my definition of single/solo play, and am starting to play this one with friends, I was trying to find what define exactly the 3 main factions and their political beliefs, ideologies, culture, etc. I mean, what makes them special and what they are, not just "hello, i'm the green team, you are the blue team, and the other one here is the yellow team".

When I say Amarr, there is immediately a lot of things and ideas that come with it instantly. When I say gallente, same.

But when I say Aldmeri, Daggerfall, or Ebonheart, it just tells me that one is yellow, the other blue, and the last one green...

Does someone have something better than the brief, blank description they have on their main site ?

To the games credit, there's a little bit more to the stuff that defines the factions then just the stuff in plain sight on the wiki.

It's hard to explain in a way that won't seem a long-winded, but the conflict between the Daggerfall Covenant and the Aldmeri Dominion, which are both extremely Man-centric and Mer(Elf)-centric alliances respectively, goes all the way back to the creation of the mundane world, where the primeval spirits that would eventually become the mortal races were essentially tricked into diminishing themselves and being shackled to creation against their will. Some percieved this as a curse and despised the fact that they were "trapped" and burdened with finite lifespans, while others thought it was a blessing that gave their existances meaning where they previously had none. Those two groups became the Mer and Men respectively.

This fundemental different reaction to life as a whole - One embracing it, and the other viewing it as a test at best and something to be hated at worst, persists to this day in a fashion, being the basis for a bunch of religious and cultural divides. Since Nirn is a weird reality where the ideas people have can literally change the universe, both are profoundly uncomfortable about being put in a state of submission to the other. But since there's sort of a historical precedent and literal celestial mandate in the form of the Empire for one individual to rule over everything (and both having been subject to said rule at points in the past), they both want to make sure it's not them.

The Ebonhart pact is a little bit different, in that it's members don't really like eachother or really want to rule at all. They just want to destroy the idea of the Empire completely, so they can continue being isolationist for various reasons (keeping slaves and the faith of the Tribunal in the Dunmers case, continue being subservient to weird hive mind tree gods in the Argonians).

Though that's far from all there is to it! Elder Scrolls lore is extremely complex and often abstract in a way that EVE, which is a very literal this-is-how-it-is-and-that's-all-there-is-to-it setting, doesn't really try to be. So approaching the two with the same mindset probably won't work.

That said, I won't deny there's a bit of contrivance on the part of the developers to make the three factions, but from playing the game for a while and reading all the lore books, I'd still hardly call them shallow.

[Morwen Lagann]

If you've got a few hours to waste, ShoddyCast is doing a large series of youtube videos about different bits and bobs of the Elder Scrolls lore.

Season 1 - Season 2

[Kala]

It's hard to explain in a way that won't seem a long-winded, but the conflict between the Daggerfall Covenant and the Aldmeri Dominion, which are both extremely Man-centric and Mer(Elf)-centric alliances respectively, goes all the way back to the creation of the mundane world, where the primeval spirits that would eventually become the mortal races were essentially tricked into diminishing themselves and being shackled to creation against their will. Some percieved this as a curse and despised the fact that they were "trapped" and burdened with finite lifespans, while others thought it was a blessing that gave their existances meaning where they previously had none. Those two groups became the Mer and Men respectively.

This fundemental different reaction to life as a whole - One embracing it, and the other viewing it as a test at best and something to be hated at worst, persists to this day in a fashion, being the basis for a bunch of religious and cultural divides. Since Nirn is a weird reality where the ideas people have can literally change the universe, both are profoundly uncomfortable about being put in a state of submission to the other. But since there's sort of a historical precedent and literal celestial mandate in the form of the Empire for one individual to rule over everything (and both having been subject to said rule at points in the past), they both want to make sure it's not them.

The Ebonhart pact is a little bit different, in that it's members don't really like eachother or really want to rule at all. They just want to destroy the idea of the Empire completely, so they can continue being isolationist for various reasons (keeping slaves and the faith of the Tribunal in the Dunmers case, continue being subservient to weird hive mind tree gods in the Argonians).

The Daggerfall Covenant kinda makes sense, given they're all in the same kind of area (I seem to remember Orsinium wedged in the Illiac bay somewhere) but I struggle to see much common ground between the high elves and the Khajiit - with such incredibly disparate cultures, and re: the Dunmer's case and keeping slaves...they want to enslave the Argonians!  I know it's set in a much earlier time period, but sheesh. And they're all neatly three each? Brr.

From the wiki (emphasis mine):

In an unprecedented show of cooperation between races with a great deal of historical enmity, Jorunn and Almalexia worked together to encircle Dir-Kamal's forces in Stonefalls.[4] It was a close-fought engagement until the surprise arrival of Argonian reinforcements, who helped drive the invaders back into the sea, ending their threat to Tamriel.[2].

As a soldier of Skyrim, he was there when the Nords pursued the invaders into Stonefalls. He told me of an army on the brink of ruin, marching ever further into foreign territory, hungry and nearly broken, until the Dunmer brought in Argonian troops to aid the Nords.
No one expected this. I still cannot believe it. The Dunmer once held the Argonians as slaves, yet on that day, the Argonians' arrival changed the course of history. From the jungles they came, adorned with blood and mud. Akaviri fell beneath their claws, as well as the swords and spells of their Nord and Dunmeri allies. An alliance was forged that day and has never faltered since.

In the midst of such chaos, what choice do we have? Our alliance with the Dunmer and Argonians has stood for a decade. I have fought beside our allies in battle. And when I return home, I tell my children proud tales of victory over our foes, fighting with Dunmer and Argonians beside me.
The Pact never ceases to surprise me. I have spoken at great length with Argonian mystics, marveling at their view of the world. I have walked into the caves of Dunmeri priests, staring at shadows as they tell me tales of their gods.

Though we Nords of Western Skyrim, Your Majesty, were fortunate to escape involvement in the recent Akaviri invasion of Tamriel, it is nonetheless important that we try to understand this strange affair, especially as it has led our estranged kindred in Eastern Skyrim into a bizarre and ill-advised alliance with our ancient enemies, the treacherous Dark Elves of Morrowind.

Bizarre, ill-advised, surprising, unprecedented - I still cannot believe it. 
Le grumble. Even the npcs don't sound convinced.

[Gwen Ikiryo]

The Ebonhart pact is pretty much the most contrived alliance, yeah. But I don't see why Khajit don't make sense - They're Mer as well, if... Weird ones, with ultimately a belief system that leans in the same direction as the Aldmer. They were in the second the third dominions, as well.

[Lyn Farel]

Ok, thanks... That divide between men and mer sounds interesting.

Still feel a LOT contrived to me, or more exactly, rather vague and undefined. Those alliances just seem to be there, and that's it. They are just standing there without real basis. It all feels completely ephemeral.  I'm not really asking for a complete series of wiki articles like the eve wiki ones, but a few key sentences and definitions of the core beliefs and the history of each faction could be appreciated.

Well, maybe I will learn more while progressing into the game I believe...

[Gwen Ikiryo]

Ok, thanks... That divide between men and mer sounds interesting.

Still feel a LOT contrived to me, or more exactly, rather vague and undefined. Those alliances just seem to be there, and that's it. They are just standing there without real basis. It all feels completely ephemeral.  I'm not really asking for a complete series of wiki articles like the eve wiki ones, but a few key sentences and definitions of the core beliefs and the history of each faction could be appreciated.

Well, maybe I will learn more while progressing into the game I believe...

Well, the problem with that is that the factions, while they are (in extremely rough terms) each based around a rough set of ideals and goals, are ultimately invented just for the MMO. The real depth is the between the differences of the member states, not the alliances. For instance, I could give you a million reasons why, say, High Rock (Bretons) hates the hell out of Skyrim (Nords) in both idealogical and historical terms... But, not so much for why the "Daggerfall Covenant" hates the "Ebonhart Pact", if you understand.

You could basically sum the whole conflict up with "Aldmer hate Empire being ruled by humans who keep failing in their duties to safeguard the world from Daedra and decide to take over, form Aldmeri Dominion, Bretons terrified of Aldmer enslaving them again if this happens, form Daggerfall Covenant, Dunmer afraid of any new continent-spanning power and want to smother them both in their cribs, form Ebonheart Pact" as I understand it, though. It's a reactionary conflict.

[Tiberious Thessalonia]

Bought in, and I'll try to give it a go these next few evenings. From what I'm hearing, though, it's a very conventional MMO dressed up in Elder Scrolls fluff.

If they'd just, y'know, found a way to do multiplayer Skyrim...

This is why I'm not getting it.

Elder Scrolls has always had rather bland lore. The universe isn't that great. It was the exploration and freeform sandbox-ness of it that made it a good franchise.

With ESO, they decided to make a stock WoW-clone instead of adhering to the franchise's strengths. Ergo, no point in playing.

Wait what

[Morwen Lagann]

Bought in, and I'll try to give it a go these next few evenings. From what I'm hearing, though, it's a very conventional MMO dressed up in Elder Scrolls fluff.

If they'd just, y'know, found a way to do multiplayer Skyrim...

This is why I'm not getting it.

Elder Scrolls has always had rather bland lore. The universe isn't that great. It was the exploration and freeform sandbox-ness of it that made it a good franchise.

With ESO, they decided to make a stock WoW-clone instead of adhering to the franchise's strengths. Ergo, no point in playing.

Wait what

I was waiting for this response.