One of the biggest reasons that I purchased an Xbox One  was so I could play ESO. I’ve never really been a very big fan of traditional MMORPGs, but I’ve always been into Bethesda’s games. The Elder Scrolls is one of the best video game franchises in my personal opinion. However, since the beginning ESO has been plagued by a menacing, and quite frankly, malevolent presence; The MMO traditionalists (or more acurately, though not as poetic, World of Warcraft fanboys). There is still hope, but it has a cost, a cost that may prove to be more of a boon than a true deficit.

         At E3 Zenimax Online announced some very serious updates to the Elder Scrolls Online, the most important being the upcoming Update 12, a.k.a. “One Tamriel”. When it launches in October, U12 will remove many alliance restrictions in the PvE game, and adds one on one dueling in to the fray as well. It was originally planned to include player housing but this feature was pushed back to either late this year or early 2017. These things are all big improvements that will make the game more playable, and yes, even more lore friendly. 

      One might ask what I mean by “more lore friendly”, considering that the alliance war is currently waging during the game’s setting. Well, many people argue that you wouldn’t see any Bretons or Dunmer wandering around Auridon during this period, but those people are wrong. If you pay attention to the NPCs that you encounter you may note that there are many people that could be considered out of place. For example, there are Breton NPCs in Vaulkel Guard, Argonians in Grahtwood, Altmer in Glenumbra etc. This means that racial restrictions on travel simply did not exist from a lore standpoint. There may have been regulations or severe security checkpoints, but all we really have to go on are the plain facts that can be seen by anyone. The presence of these NPCs are not exceptional, but instead are the rule that shows the Three Banners War as a political construct rather than the race war that it is usually assumed to be. All of the gripping about Allience Restrictions being lifted, seems to stem from the same change-hating people that have held ESO back from the start.

          When ESO was announced all those years ago, I was excited to get to play an all new Elder Scrolls game. It was disappointing for me to discover that was mostly a WOW clone with a better story, graphics, and a first person option during beta. I gave up on it quickly and didn’t take it back up untill it was released on console. Admittedly, the game was far better the second time around, but still had problems, and after countless hours of browsing the official ESO forums it is obvious that Zenimax is constantly being attacked by people that want to make ESO into WOW!  I understand that WOW is the most influential MMO of all time, but people don’t  by something with the Elder Scrolls label just to get the same tired MMO  that they were playing 15 years ago. My advice to those people has always been; if you want to play World of Warcraft go fork out the subscription fee and play it, and don’t muddy up someone else’s game. You don’t see Rugby fans coming to the US and telling people how to play American  Football, or vice versa.

      One Tamriel is about bringing the freedom associated with the main TES series to ESO. Personally, the class system of ESO is very limiting, and I would have preferred a classless system like skyrim, or at least the old system used by TES I-IV.Even if you were a warrior you could master any school of magic, all that your class determined was the start of game bonuses. However, I am still more or less happy with the choices presented to me. Now that Zenimax is dropping alliance restrictions, I can play with my wife without having to make an alternate, (and if we have a disagreement we can duke it out.) When the update launches I can do Craglorn without out having to wait for my guildmates (who only come on at 3:00 am). 

       Not everyone likes the new freedom, but honestly, those who have a serious problem with this are not fans of The Elder Scrolls, they are just MMO junkies that are squatting on ESO untill the next game comes along. Zenimax  should do more to bring the experience of the main franchise to their MMO, because the only people we will lose are those who don’t have their hearts in the game anyway. Zenimax had the opportunity to make Elder Scrolls Online truly unique, and dropoed the ball, but they are taking that opportunity back, and making up for their mistakes. Slowly we are weeding out the people who have never played any other TES games that once had all the influence in the forums, and they are being replaced by die hard fans of the franchise. I have faith that if we stick with Zenimax we will eventually win out and have the game we were promised from the start.