David Posted January 28, 2014 Report Share Posted January 28, 2014 A promotional image that was accidentally published to an Amazon product page (now removed) has led to speculation that The Elder Scrolls Online will launch with a special edition dubbed the "Imperial Edition."The image boasts the following perks.Physical Items[*]Collector's Edition Box[*]Steel Packaging[*]12" Molag Bal Statue[*]Map of Tamriel[*]224-page "Emperor's Guide to Tamriel" BookDigital Content[*]Playable Imperial Race (any alliance)[*]White Imperial Horse[*]Mudcrab Vanity Pet[*]Rings of MaraAlthough many expected some form of a "Collector's Edition" to be included at launch, the alleged bonuses in the Imperial Edition - especially the addition of the Imperial race - come as a complete shock. With ZeniMax justifying their $15 monthly subscription model as a way to distribute expansions and additional content without additional costs, it will be interesting to see how this edition - if legitimate - is received by the community.UpdateIt's now official. There are also additional perks.[*]Unique Imperial Bonuses[*]Unique Crafting Styles[*]Unique GearThose who have purchased the the game via the official site are also reporting receiving the following email regarding an "Explorer's Pack."Thank you for purchasing The Elder Scrolls® Online Digital Imperial Edition. In addition to the Digital Imperial Edition, you’re now registered for The Explorer’s Pack, which includes the following digital rewards:[*]The ability to play as any race in any alliance[*]The Scuttler vanity pet[*]Exclusive treasure maps[*]Early game accessYou’ll receive these digital rewards when you first log-in to The Elder Scrolls® Online game at official launch. We’ll also contact you at your account’s registered email address with information about early game access as we get closer to game release in April 2014.This has been officially announced as a pre-order bonus available with either edition.Uh... Yeah. This is a completely different game than what ZeniMax has been selling up to this point.Click here to view the article Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blake Posted January 28, 2014 Report Share Posted January 28, 2014 Honestly, I would definitely pay more to be an Imperial. They are/were arguably my favorite race. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest Posted January 28, 2014 Report Share Posted January 28, 2014 Not good. Not good at all. Day 1 DLC race and other things on top of subscription. Seriously hoping this is just a console thing, even if it's unlikely. I support the idea of a subscription model because in theory it should eliminate the need for any other fees. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted January 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2014 I personally hate things like this. With how much the subscription is, the initial cost, the cash shop, a potential Live subscription... Are they seriously going to charge $30+ extra to unlock a new, exclusive race? Since I'm assuming they're going to have their own unique bonuses, it could impact actual game-play. If this is just a "shortcut" to unlock things everyone can get... It's not AS bad. But if this is all unique for pre-ordering or whatever, it's straight-up bullshit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fergal Posted January 29, 2014 Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 When I read the title, I thought you meant play as an Imperial defending Cyridil or something. I really have little interest in playing as an Imperial though really; unless they do have a unique ability that sets them apart from the others - Which I doubt, if you are playing with any alliance, which I can only assume to be limited to the 3. I do agree, that paying for exclusives is utter bullshit. So many games do it, money-hungry. The overall cost of ESO is already really high, irrelevant to whether its worth it or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted January 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 The funny thing is that ZeniMax justified the insanely high subscription cost as being a good thing because they wouldn't charge extra for updates such as new content and expansions. What do they think this is? Day 1 exclusive DLC. It's a joke. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeMelonia Posted January 29, 2014 Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 Show me the source Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted January 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 Show me the source The original product page image has apparently been removed, but you can still see it here on what I'm assuming is an Amazon CDN server. Here's the original Amazon discussion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thal Posted January 29, 2014 Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 Good find, David!I do also have to agree - given their own statements about why they charge so much for the game, this additional content for paying more for the base game is ridiculous.Cannot wait to see how much money could be spent on in-game store on top of the expensive subscription. You can just tell that there may be in-game store stuff that will be highly tempting and only acquired through purchase (like this Imperial Bullshit). Who knows, they may even go back on free DLC in the future - after all, this imperial thing is dlc content in a way... P.S. Would probably buy just so I can have a horse early on lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thousandcats Posted January 29, 2014 Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 I looked up the who-is, and images-amazon.com is hosted by Go Daddy. What are the odds that Amazon, one of the biggest online companies out there, uses Go Daddy as their host for their image servers? [Edit] Hm, that's actually the registrar, not the host. Looking at the other images hosted on this site and the details of this story...this is looking pretty legit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted January 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 It's official. Other Bonuses [*]Unique Imperial Bonuses [*]Unique Crafting Styles [*]Unique Gear The Ring of Mara offers an "experience bonus" when playing with a friend. Pay to win. Sigh... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knightblazer Posted January 29, 2014 Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 Well I bit the bullet and bought the digital Imperial version. I got an interesting E-mail. "Thank you for purchasing The Elder Scrolls® Online Digital Imperial Edition. In addition to the Digital Imperial Edition, you’re now registered for The Explorer’s Pack, which includes the following digital rewards: [*]The ability to play as any race in any alliance [*]The Scuttler vanity pet [*]Exclusive treasure maps [*]Early game accessYou’ll receive these digital rewards when you first log-in to The Elder Scrolls® Online game at official launch. We’ll also contact you at your account’s registered email address with information about early game access as we get closer to game release in April 2014." So does that break Alliance races now too? I can be a Dark Elf and be with daggerfall? What are your thoughts on this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest Posted January 29, 2014 Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 Seems like a bad joke, why would they shit the bed at this point. Pre-order the $30 DLC and you get to choose from 10 races within your alliance, otherwise just 3. And what will all this mean for the future? Fun to explain to new players...:"Oh, you didn't pre-order the extra ultimate edition before the game even came out, so you're a second-class citizen and there's nothing you can do about it". Also in future guides: "If you can't roll an Imperial just forget it, this build is optimized for their racials". Not really good for long term. I'd think they'd have more foresight than this. In any case I recommend voicing your opinion to ZOS regarding this, Twitter, FaceBook, whatever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blake Posted January 29, 2014 Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 I was okay with the Imperials and some early gear, but... The Ring of Mara offers an "experience bonus" when playing with a friend. Pay to win. Sigh... [*]The ability to play as any race in any alliance [*]Early game access They better announce the game to be F2P at this point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeMelonia Posted January 29, 2014 Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 I think that the Imperial race is just a skin. You choose what race your imperial is gonna be like (in perks and so on) and then you get the faction the race is in. I hope... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
watzzup Posted January 29, 2014 Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 It's official. Other Bonuses [*]Unique Imperial Bonuses[*]Unique Crafting Styles[*]Unique Gear The Ring of Mara offers an "experience bonus" when playing with a friend. Pay to win. Sigh...Do we know any of the other bonuses? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Edhelliell Posted January 29, 2014 Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 Whats the big fuss? I love it! Besides, the ingame store sells upgrade such as the Imperial Edition after launch. Furthermore is it not pay to win, because you only receive passive bonusses, which in my eyes you lvl sh*t up faster. e.g. two handed for Nords. The perks such as improved sneak and poison resistance are also availible in other alliances. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Koolaid Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 This has been standard for MMOs for quite some time is everyone here new to MMOs? Also the standard digital $60 pre-order allows you to use any race with any faction. So really all this does is try to entice you to pre-order. This is done in MMOs because they prepare their servers for launch based partly on pre-orders and then partly by projections. This allows for a smoother launch normally as they know what kind of server stress to expect. Especially by allowing pre-orders in 5 days early, this trickles the fan base in a bit more slowly which from a technical stand point makes a lot of sense. I will not be buying the collectors edition because I don't care that much about the imperial race and don't feel like dropping $30 extra. I will however pre-order the standard digital version of the game. I always buy digital versions when available for MMOs anyway. $60 is standard for a new AAA MMO you get 30 free days and then the $14.99 after that is also standard for subscription based MMOs. One thing that caught my attention in this thread though is that they announced expansion packs would be free? This is actually not standard as WoW and other traditional MMOs normally charge $20-$30 dollars for a new expansion pack. Later they combine them with the sale of the game but that is well after each expansions release so getting these free will be a nice perk. Also it is standard for MMO companies to eventually release many of the collectors edition digital bonuses later for the rest of the player base and normally for free by unlocking it through in game events or story line. Of course this will cause the collector's edition people to get all up in arms and we get to have this kind of argument and bitch fest one year or so from now so there is always that to look forward to. lol 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 Uh.. what subscription MMOs have had an entire race, and the ability to cross factions with existing ones, as pre-order bonuses? I have only ever seen cosmetic stuff like face customizations and mounts, and low-level rings and the like. Besides, just because other games have done scummy things doesn't give anyone the right to do such practices themselves. All this is making me worried, seems like they don't have faith in the game and attempt to make as many opening sales as possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Koolaid Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 Yea sorry an entire race is a bit odd, I mentioned this in another thread. If you pre-order though I guess at least with the new any race option for alliances you can look at it as you have 9 options instead of 3. But yea an entire race is going to make a lot of people angry. I was mainly mentioning that bonuses are common and that normally they are given to everyone later. Also to note on the xp rings Age of Conan did this as well but it was a measly 2% xp bonus at the cost of a gear slot. So on that bonus I would want to know the actual bonus xp given before getting angry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blake Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 I think the big take home point of this whole issue is that you have a game that you pay a box price and a monthly fee, in hopes that you don't have to worry about DLC or anything else you are enticed to buy: you get the whole game for paying that much money. As much as I really want to play as an Imperial, Zenimax releasing an entire race, an early mount (not sure if that is a huge deal to be honest), and some xp boost in a pre-order deal is just crazy. I'm hoping that these type of deals are just to get some early money from the game and won't be a common occurrence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Benji Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 omg all forums are for is people to cry....get over it you fucking wingers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucas Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 Same thing as always - this shit might be bad but it doesnt have to be. We'll just have to wait and see. Imperial could be just a skin, it could be more. This system could make for the smoothest launch ever - it could hurt the playerbase. Time will tell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted January 30, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 Same thing as always - this shit might be bad but it doesnt have to be. We'll just have to wait and see. Imperial could be just a skin, it could be more. This system could make for the smoothest launch ever - it could hurt the playerbase. Time will tell. We already know it's not a skin because Imperial's have "unique bonuses," which almost certainly means racials. Also, I don't think they'd advertise a skin as a "playable race;" that would get a huge amount of backlash after disappointed people buy the CE. Whats the big fuss? I love it! Besides, the ingame store sells upgrade such as the Imperial Edition after launch. Furthermore is it not pay to win, because you only receive passive bonusses, which in my eyes you lvl sh*t up faster. e.g. two handed for Nords. The perks such as improved sneak and poison resistance are also availible in other alliances. How is that not P2W? You're buying something that gives you an in-game advantage. We also don't know what the racial skills (presumably) are yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Elder Fool Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 This might not be a big problem for people that already decided to buy the game. But for many undecided players this looks like a early installment of a in-game shop. Which also looks like the game will go F2P sooner than later.Which, as a result will make people not buy the game and wait and see. Promises broken before release? Withholding a whole race as "premium content" but telling everyone they will get 100% because of the sub. Smells fishy to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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