... Guildwars 2 didn't invent the system WvW used at all... that and its only 1 feature of the game....

 

Do you know what an actual 'clone' of a game is?

Originally posted by boxsnd
But GW2 copied a lot of things from other games too. WvW from DAoC/WAR, sPvP from WoW arenas/bgs, dynamic events from WAR/RIFT etc. 

No - copied from GW1. GW1 had arenas BEFORE WoW. GW2 was planned with dynamic events before Rift was even a glint in the developers eye also. HoH in GW1 was 3 teams playing against each other - WvWvW is just bigger.

 

Rift DE's are not dynamic - they happen every day at the same time (they are scripted).

 

Where to begin.....

GW2 pretty much sucks after you reach a certain point.  All it is is the same thing, zone after zone after zone.  That's definitely not going to be for ESO.  I've 3 max leveled characters in GW2, played GW1 till I had 9 level 20's with 4 of them all geared with all the fancy faction armors and so on....  Just like GW1, GW2 got boring fast.  Fun to play but gets boring.  They didn't do ANYTHING that I would call over the top in innovation for MMO's.   Warhammer Online had Dynamic events before either Rift or GW2 and the problem with them is the same across the bored.  People just aren't all that interested in most of them.  There was nothing truely rewarding about them and their dungeon system is no different.  They just reinvented the GRIND was all they did.

ESO isn't without flaws already, I have my gripes with it as well and it's not even out.  Like I don't care for the way they're doing the Class thing based on Race.  I'd rather them give you the choice of a Race to play, level to a certain point in a Racial Starting Zone.  Then say at 15 or 20 you have to decide which side of the fence you're playing on.  From that point on you're permanently on that side with that character, no going back once you make your decision.  This would have let the players get to play the Race they want without having to worry or not about which side their friends had chosen.  Which is how the Elder Scrolls games have always been.  You chose your race, then later you picked your side to follow.  This is the biggest gripe I have which to some will be looked at as minor.

The other thing I'd like to point out about all the hotbar gripes, of ESO having one to begin with.  All a hotbar is, is a set of skills that are -HOTKEYED- onto those keys.  Which you did in Skyrim and previous games.  Just you could not visually see them on your screen which ment you had to memorize them well.  So the gripes about this game having one is stupid.  More than likely you can turn the UI off like in other games and not worry about it? Who knows, but it's no different than hotkeyed skills just you can visually see them.  Big deal!

Quite frankly I have worries over this stupid Mega Server System, I see nothing but bad coming from this.  Yeah looks good, sounds good, on paper and on their limited amount of people at this time having access to it.  But we all know when you put everyone on basically one big server, cluster or whatever and have it all tied together with thousands of other players.  It normally causes a lot more problems once something like this goes live than it ever even was thought of while they are testing it and using it as it is currently.  So I do worry about that.

The other thing I don't like is the Zerg-Fest mantality this game ( As did GW2 and Rift ) promotes.  Just means all this game is looking to be is another one of those play it for a month and beat the end game scenarios.  That is NOT what an MMORPG should ever have become but today's lazy players want everything handed to them so that is what these game companies now cater to.  Quick buck, turn around rinse and repeate.  When you pretty much make it so people can share kills without grouping and get full experience and rewards, all they do is zerg the entire game to  the end and wala!  Completed in no time without any major challenge once so ever.  Now I can't say that ESO is going to be like this, all I am saying is from what I've read and heard from others posting that is what we're heading for.

This is why I'd rather had Elder Scrolls just have a bloody Multiplayer ability to games like Skyrim where the game would have a host server or you could host it yourself and have 2 to 3 others join your game and just have the game become a tad harder for every extra person over you joining.  That would have been PERFECT for Skyrim, I hope they do it for ESVI because MMO's in my opinion are becoming so short lived they're not worth the money anymore.  They might as well hand you a fully leveled and decently geared character at the start and be done with it.  Because lately that's all the MMO's are worth.

I've been in MMO's since 2001, started with DAoC, did WoW, LotRO, AoC, SWG, SWTOR, Vanguard ( Which was great for a while ), RIFT, Lineage II, Warhammer Online along with countless others I've been in Beta with and tried out for a free month and just could not stand them.  Now I understand something that others do not wish to.  No game company is ever going to please everyone, so I wish they'd stop trying to.  in the early days of gaming, this goes for all games, not just MMORPG's...  When you got a preview copy, trial, whatever you wish to call it, you could play a little of it and decide if you were going to be interested enogh to buy it or not.  Once you bought the game, you could get a lot further, but at least you got a good enough start in it to find out if you liked it or not.

Point I'm trying to make, no game should be tailored to a majority of anything.  It should be designed from the ground up to be DIFFERENT and CHALLENGING in it's own UNIQUE way.  If the player doesn't like it?  They don't buy it, they get one they do like and play that one.  Game companies need to get off of this Quantity over Quality and go back to the old ways of doing these games.  Then they'll last longer than a month, have far less bugs, become far more in-depth, have far more options for players that are of the most demanding in skill and want the best.  Not just settle for whatever a COMPANY says is or claims is the best just because they make it.

Lastly, I do hope that ESO is a lot better than what I'm feeling it is as of this time.  I absolutely LOVE Elder Scrolls, I've almost 900 hours played in Skyrim alone and still playing it.  I have the same with Oblivion, fixing to start playing Morrowind, but I've been an RPG fan for decades.  I've done D&D Table Top, loved the Forgotten Realms games, I love a lot of lore, detail, exploration, crafting, questing, I love it all and a lot.  So here is to hoping for the best for ESO, I'm just not going to hold my breath on it.....

I was listening to a video with a friend about TESO's "massive PvP zone" and everything they said sounded exactly like GW2's WvW and the promises of ANet.  Now she is the only friend of mine that was disappointed with GW2 so she tells me "Yeah but GW2 was rushed, if you do it right you can influence player behavior".

Pretty naive if you ask me.  If there is the possibility of zerging, a zerg will happen.  And that's exactly what's going to happen in TESO.

I sure hope it isn't. That would be a big downer.

 Hehe you knew it was only time before every new MMo coming out was gonna be refer to as a GW2.

WoW is so 2010.

Some differences
TESO has trinity, it just doesn't have an agro table (more like gw1 or warhammer in that regard)
TESO has open dungeons like daoc, EQ & ac
TESO will have very different crafting to the themepark norm, you will have soul gems and what have you from the single player games
TESO will have more meaningful RVR, it will take place in a bigger area (whole of oblivion single player), feature distinct and different sides, won't let people hop sides to join the zerg, will let you see the names of your enemies to foster true rivalry and will have an ultimate goal (getting crowned emperor)
While they are aiming to get rid of quest hub type gameplay they aren't taking the gw2 route, what they describe sounds more like a cross between tsw, gw2 and war for outdoor pve. (plus the open dungeons)

TESO won't feature any tupperware pvp either.

Originally posted by botrytis

Originally posted by boxsnd
But GW2 copied a lot of things from other games too. WvW from DAoC/WAR, sPvP from WoW arenas/bgs, dynamic events from WAR/RIFT etc. 

No - copied from GW1. GW1 had arenas BEFORE WoW. GW2 was planned with dynamic events before Rift was even a glint in the developers eye also. HoH in GW1 was 3 teams playing against each other - WvWvW is just bigger.

 

Rift DE's are not dynamic - they happen every day at the same time (they are scripted).

 

 GW2 De's are not Dynamic they are scripted loops that repeat over and over with no permanent changes to the world

Originally posted by Eir_S

I was listening to a video with a friend about TESO's "massive PvP zone" and everything they said sounded exactly like GW2's WvW and the promises of ANet.  Now she is the only friend of mine that was disappointed with GW2 so she tells me "Yeah but GW2 was rushed, if you do it right you can influence player behavior".

Pretty naive if you ask me.  If there is the possibility of zerging, a zerg will happen.  And that's exactly what's going to happen in TESO.

gw2 has a longer dev cycle than teso and four people who worked on the rvr part of daoc vs one person who contributed a gear treadmill to doac(aka its demise) for teso.

your friend is really in for it.

Originally posted by Foxxen

Where to begin.....

GW2 pretty much sucks after you reach a certain point.  All it is is the same thing, zone after zone after zone.  That's definitely not going to be for ESO.  I've 3 max leveled characters in GW2, played GW1 till I had 9 level 20's with 4 of them all geared with all the fancy faction armors and so on....  Just like GW1, GW2 got boring fast.  Fun to play but gets boring.  They didn't do ANYTHING that I would call over the top in innovation for MMO's.   Warhammer Online had Dynamic events before either Rift or GW2 and the problem with them is the same across the bored.  People just aren't all that interested in most of them.  There was nothing truely rewarding about them and their dungeon system is no different.  They just reinvented the GRIND was all they did.

ESO isn't without flaws already, I have my gripes with it as well and it's not even out.  Like I don't care for the way they're doing the Class thing based on Race.  I'd rather them give you the choice of a Race to play, level to a certain point in a Racial Starting Zone.  Then say at 15 or 20 you have to decide which side of the fence you're playing on.  From that point on you're permanently on that side with that character, no going back once you make your decision.  This would have let the players get to play the Race they want without having to worry or not about which side their friends had chosen.  Which is how the Elder Scrolls games have always been.  You chose your race, then later you picked your side to follow.  This is the biggest gripe I have which to some will be looked at as minor.

The other thing I'd like to point out about all the hotbar gripes, of ESO having one to begin with.  All a hotbar is, is a set of skills that are -HOTKEYED- onto those keys.  Which you did in Skyrim and previous games.  Just you could not visually see them on your screen which ment you had to memorize them well.  So the gripes about this game having one is stupid.  More than likely you can turn the UI off like in other games and not worry about it? Who knows, but it's no different than hotkeyed skills just you can visually see them.  Big deal!

Quite frankly I have worries over this stupid Mega Server System, I see nothing but bad coming from this.  Yeah looks good, sounds good, on paper and on their limited amount of people at this time having access to it.  But we all know when you put everyone on basically one big server, cluster or whatever and have it all tied together with thousands of other players.  It normally causes a lot more problems once something like this goes live than it ever even was thought of while they are testing it and using it as it is currently.  So I do worry about that.

The other thing I don't like is the Zerg-Fest mantality this game ( As did GW2 and Rift ) promotes.  Just means all this game is looking to be is another one of those play it for a month and beat the end game scenarios.  That is NOT what an MMORPG should ever have become but today's lazy players want everything handed to them so that is what these game companies now cater to.  Quick buck, turn around rinse and repeate.  When you pretty much make it so people can share kills without grouping and get full experience and rewards, all they do is zerg the entire game to  the end and wala!  Completed in no time without any major challenge once so ever.  Now I can't say that ESO is going to be like this, all I am saying is from what I've read and heard from others posting that is what we're heading for.

This is why I'd rather had Elder Scrolls just have a bloody Multiplayer ability to games like Skyrim where the game would have a host server or you could host it yourself and have 2 to 3 others join your game and just have the game become a tad harder for every extra person over you joining.  That would have been PERFECT for Skyrim, I hope they do it for ESVI because MMO's in my opinion are becoming so short lived they're not worth the money anymore.  They might as well hand you a fully leveled and decently geared character at the start and be done with it.  Because lately that's all the MMO's are worth.

I've been in MMO's since 2001, started with DAoC, did WoW, LotRO, AoC, SWG, SWTOR, Vanguard ( Which was great for a while ), RIFT, Lineage II, Warhammer Online along with countless others I've been in Beta with and tried out for a free month and just could not stand them.  Now I understand something that others do not wish to.  No game company is ever going to please everyone, so I wish they'd stop trying to.  in the early days of gaming, this goes for all games, not just MMORPG's...  When you got a preview copy, trial, whatever you wish to call it, you could play a little of it and decide if you were going to be interested enogh to buy it or not.  Once you bought the game, you could get a lot further, but at least you got a good enough start in it to find out if you liked it or not.

Point I'm trying to make, no game should be tailored to a majority of anything.  It should be designed from the ground up to be DIFFERENT and CHALLENGING in it's own UNIQUE way.  If the player doesn't like it?  They don't buy it, they get one they do like and play that one.  Game companies need to get off of this Quantity over Quality and go back to the old ways of doing these games.  Then they'll last longer than a month, have far less bugs, become far more in-depth, have far more options for players that are of the most demanding in skill and want the best.  Not just settle for whatever a COMPANY says is or claims is the best just because they make it.

Lastly, I do hope that ESO is a lot better than what I'm feeling it is as of this time.  I absolutely LOVE Elder Scrolls, I've almost 900 hours played in Skyrim alone and still playing it.  I have the same with Oblivion, fixing to start playing Morrowind, but I've been an RPG fan for decades.  I've done D&D Table Top, loved the Forgotten Realms games, I love a lot of lore, detail, exploration, crafting, questing, I love it all and a lot.  So here is to hoping for the best for ESO, I'm just not going to hold my breath on it.....

Thats not a minor thing at all, honestly its something more mmos should do.  Sadly ESO looks more and more like an atempt to just shove the TES IP into an mmo.

they did better copy WoW then GW2

---

Originally posted by Eir_S
I was listening to a video with a friend about TESO's "massive PvP zone" and everything they said sounded exactly like GW2's WvW and the promises of ANet.  Now she is the only friend of mine that was disappointed with GW2 so she tells me "Yeah but GW2 was rushed, if you do it right you can influence player behavior".

Pretty naive if you ask me.  If there is the possibility of zerging, a zerg will happen.  And that's exactly what's going to happen in TESO.

---

except that there will be other meaningful things to do in cyridiil besides zerging keeps, like GW2

the WvW in GW2 feels like an over sized battle ground. from reading about teso, the entire zone wuil have pve and pvp elements.

it will be a true open pvp zone with players doing other things besides mindless zerging.

Originally posted by baphamet

 

---

Originally posted by Eir_S
I was listening to a video with a friend about TESO's "massive PvP zone" and everything they said sounded exactly like GW2's WvW and the promises of ANet.  Now she is the only friend of mine that was disappointed with GW2 so she tells me "Yeah but GW2 was rushed, if you do it right you can influence player behavior".

 

Pretty naive if you ask me.  If there is the possibility of zerging, a zerg will happen.  And that's exactly what's going to happen in TESO.

---

 

except that there will be other meaningful things to do in cyridiil besides zerging keeps, like GW2

the WvW in GW2 feels like an over sized battle ground. from reading about teso, the entire zone wuil have pve and pvp elements.

it will be a true open pvp zone with players doing other things besides mindless zerging.

You just proved my point.  That's EXACTLY what ANet said about WvW.  And yeah, when people read about it, it sounded unlike what it turned out to be... which might be exactly what you're doing now.  We'll know when it's done, but until then, promises, promises... ones I think will fall flat.  Again.

Originally posted by Rthuth434

Originally posted by Eir_S

I was listening to a video with a friend about TESO's "massive PvP zone" and everything they said sounded exactly like GW2's WvW and the promises of ANet.  Now she is the only friend of mine that was disappointed with GW2 so she tells me "Yeah but GW2 was rushed, if you do it right you can influence player behavior".

Pretty naive if you ask me.  If there is the possibility of zerging, a zerg will happen.  And that's exactly what's going to happen in TESO.

gw2 has a longer dev cycle than teso and four people who worked on the rvr part of daoc vs one person who contributed a gear treadmill to doac(aka its demise) for teso.

your friend is really in for it.

She's no different than most people on these forums.  She hypes herself up for something then gets upset when it doesn't blow her away.  I don't see anything mindblowing on the MMORPG horizon, just fun time wasters (hence why I'm rarely disappointed).  Maybe if people calmed down, they wouldn't jump from game to game hoping for something godlike, because as far as I can see, it's not going to happen this year either.

Originally posted by Eir_S

Originally posted by baphamet

 

---

Originally posted by Eir_S
I was listening to a video with a friend about TESO's "massive PvP zone" and everything they said sounded exactly like GW2's WvW and the promises of ANet.  Now she is the only friend of mine that was disappointed with GW2 so she tells me "Yeah but GW2 was rushed, if you do it right you can influence player behavior".

 

Pretty naive if you ask me.  If there is the possibility of zerging, a zerg will happen.  And that's exactly what's going to happen in TESO.

---

 

except that there will be other meaningful things to do in cyridiil besides zerging keeps, like GW2

the WvW in GW2 feels like an over sized battle ground. from reading about teso, the entire zone wuil have pve and pvp elements.

it will be a true open pvp zone with players doing other things besides mindless zerging.

You just proved my point.  That's EXACTLY what ANet said about WvW.  And yeah, when people read about it, it sounded unlike what it turned out to be... which might be exactly what you're doing now.  We'll know when it's done, but until then, promises, promises... ones I think will fall flat.  Again.

I have yet to see large scale pvp that isn't zergball.   The ability to control players and their behavior is rather limited.

Originally posted by Torvaldr

Originally posted by Eir_S

Originally posted by baphamet

 

---

Originally posted by Eir_S
I was listening to a video with a friend about TESO's "massive PvP zone" and everything they said sounded exactly like GW2's WvW and the promises of ANet.  Now she is the only friend of mine that was disappointed with GW2 so she tells me "Yeah but GW2 was rushed, if you do it right you can influence player behavior".

 

Pretty naive if you ask me.  If there is the possibility of zerging, a zerg will happen.  And that's exactly what's going to happen in TESO.

---

 

except that there will be other meaningful things to do in cyridiil besides zerging keeps, like GW2

the WvW in GW2 feels like an over sized battle ground. from reading about teso, the entire zone wuil have pve and pvp elements.

it will be a true open pvp zone with players doing other things besides mindless zerging.

You just proved my point.  That's EXACTLY what ANet said about WvW.  And yeah, when people read about it, it sounded unlike what it turned out to be... which might be exactly what you're doing now.  We'll know when it's done, but until then, promises, promises... ones I think will fall flat.  Again.

I have yet to see large scale pvp that isn't zergball.   The ability to control players and their behavior is rather limited.

Yeah, that's what I'm getting at.  This isn't an RTS.  Whether the obstacle is a gate or a boss, people will group up and they will mash buttons.  Does that mean it won't be fun?  I don't see it that way, but people expecting something wildly different are in for a shock.  Don't expect anyone to follow orders either, "Commanders" in GW2 already try and no one listens to them.

Originally posted by Caliburn101

Originally posted by hikaru77

Originally posted by Destai
I think the features it wants to use are simply good features. Guild Wars 2 used those things because they make a great game and signify a push forward for MMOs. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a clone. From what I've read and seen, it seems a deeper game. Guild Wars 2 , while fun and large, is a large kiddy pool. It's fun, there's a water slide, but it is still 4 feet deep.

GW2 wasnt a push forward for MMOs, it was just a bad copy of warhammer, Rift and Daoc, they have lost active players even more fater than D3 did. And thanks god, ESO wont be like GW2 at all. 

This is an entirely unsupportable statement which has been disproven again and again on these forums.

I am not a GW2 'fanboi' - I don't play GW2 anymore. But that's because it's set in a 'popcorn and bubblegum' world, not because it was a copy of the average to crapola games mentioned (except for DaoC ofc).

Dynamic events and the fluid combat are both excellent in GW2, and they made a non-trinity model really work.

So yes it was a push forwards, in all kinds of ways - it just didn't come together as a whole for me due to the fluff and the lack of guild features and support.

While I play the game, I can certainly relate to your sentiment. The world lacks drama in the way an Elder Scrolls world would, or even World of Warcraft. I feel like ArenaNet is too tolerant, too unity-focused. Not to mention their writers are horrible...the personal story, oy vey.

Originally posted by Destai

While I play the game, I can certainly relate to your sentiment. The world lacks drama in the way an Elder Scrolls world would, or even World of Warcraft. I feel like ArenaNet is too tolerant, too unity-focused. Not to mention their writers are horrible...the personal story, oy vey.

Yeah the dialog is painful most of the time, at least with the Norn story and what I've seen of the Charr story so far.  I bet ESO will have better writing just because it can't get much worse.

ESO isn't going to be a copy of GW2.  That's silly.  How many games are actual WoW copies?  It will be great if it takes some combat concepts from GW2 and TSW and refines them, adds, or puts its own twist on it.

Originally posted by maddog15a

Originally posted by Foxxen

Where to begin.....

GW2 pretty much sucks after you reach a certain point.  All it is is the same thing, zone after zone after zone.  That's definitely not going to be for ESO.  I've 3 max leveled characters in GW2, played GW1 till I had 9 level 20's with 4 of them all geared with all the fancy faction armors and so on....  Just like GW1, GW2 got boring fast.  Fun to play but gets boring.  They didn't do ANYTHING that I would call over the top in innovation for MMO's.   Warhammer Online had Dynamic events before either Rift or GW2 and the problem with them is the same across the bored.  People just aren't all that interested in most of them.  There was nothing truely rewarding about them and their dungeon system is no different.  They just reinvented the GRIND was all they did.

ESO isn't without flaws already, I have my gripes with it as well and it's not even out.  Like I don't care for the way they're doing the Class thing based on Race.  I'd rather them give you the choice of a Race to play, level to a certain point in a Racial Starting Zone.  Then say at 15 or 20 you have to decide which side of the fence you're playing on.  From that point on you're permanently on that side with that character, no going back once you make your decision.  This would have let the players get to play the Race they want without having to worry or not about which side their friends had chosen.  Which is how the Elder Scrolls games have always been.  You chose your race, then later you picked your side to follow.  This is the biggest gripe I have which to some will be looked at as minor.

The other thing I'd like to point out about all the hotbar gripes, of ESO having one to begin with.  All a hotbar is, is a set of skills that are -HOTKEYED- onto those keys.  Which you did in Skyrim and previous games.  Just you could not visually see them on your screen which ment you had to memorize them well.  So the gripes about this game having one is stupid.  More than likely you can turn the UI off like in other games and not worry about it? Who knows, but it's no different than hotkeyed skills just you can visually see them.  Big deal!

Quite frankly I have worries over this stupid Mega Server System, I see nothing but bad coming from this.  Yeah looks good, sounds good, on paper and on their limited amount of people at this time having access to it.  But we all know when you put everyone on basically one big server, cluster or whatever and have it all tied together with thousands of other players.  It normally causes a lot more problems once something like this goes live than it ever even was thought of while they are testing it and using it as it is currently.  So I do worry about that.

The other thing I don't like is the Zerg-Fest mantality this game ( As did GW2 and Rift ) promotes.  Just means all this game is looking to be is another one of those play it for a month and beat the end game scenarios.  That is NOT what an MMORPG should ever have become but today's lazy players want everything handed to them so that is what these game companies now cater to.  Quick buck, turn around rinse and repeate.  When you pretty much make it so people can share kills without grouping and get full experience and rewards, all they do is zerg the entire game to  the end and wala!  Completed in no time without any major challenge once so ever.  Now I can't say that ESO is going to be like this, all I am saying is from what I've read and heard from others posting that is what we're heading for.

This is why I'd rather had Elder Scrolls just have a bloody Multiplayer ability to games like Skyrim where the game would have a host server or you could host it yourself and have 2 to 3 others join your game and just have the game become a tad harder for every extra person over you joining.  That would have been PERFECT for Skyrim, I hope they do it for ESVI because MMO's in my opinion are becoming so short lived they're not worth the money anymore.  They might as well hand you a fully leveled and decently geared character at the start and be done with it.  Because lately that's all the MMO's are worth.

I've been in MMO's since 2001, started with DAoC, did WoW, LotRO, AoC, SWG, SWTOR, Vanguard ( Which was great for a while ), RIFT, Lineage II, Warhammer Online along with countless others I've been in Beta with and tried out for a free month and just could not stand them.  Now I understand something that others do not wish to.  No game company is ever going to please everyone, so I wish they'd stop trying to.  in the early days of gaming, this goes for all games, not just MMORPG's...  When you got a preview copy, trial, whatever you wish to call it, you could play a little of it and decide if you were going to be interested enogh to buy it or not.  Once you bought the game, you could get a lot further, but at least you got a good enough start in it to find out if you liked it or not.

Point I'm trying to make, no game should be tailored to a majority of anything.  It should be designed from the ground up to be DIFFERENT and CHALLENGING in it's own UNIQUE way.  If the player doesn't like it?  They don't buy it, they get one they do like and play that one.  Game companies need to get off of this Quantity over Quality and go back to the old ways of doing these games.  Then they'll last longer than a month, have far less bugs, become far more in-depth, have far more options for players that are of the most demanding in skill and want the best.  Not just settle for whatever a COMPANY says is or claims is the best just because they make it.

Lastly, I do hope that ESO is a lot better than what I'm feeling it is as of this time.  I absolutely LOVE Elder Scrolls, I've almost 900 hours played in Skyrim alone and still playing it.  I have the same with Oblivion, fixing to start playing Morrowind, but I've been an RPG fan for decades.  I've done D&D Table Top, loved the Forgotten Realms games, I love a lot of lore, detail, exploration, crafting, questing, I love it all and a lot.  So here is to hoping for the best for ESO, I'm just not going to hold my breath on it.....

Thats not a minor thing at all, honestly its something more mmos should do.  Sadly ESO looks more and more like an atempt to just shove the TES IP into an mmo.

Great post btw. I don't think the highlighted is a minor thing either, I think it's a plus. True faction rivalry is good for a game like this.

 

Alliance v Horde is a true rivalry in part due to appearences. As alliance lock, I hated the Horde, Blood Elves where snooty sissies (can I say sissy?), Orc were kinda scary, Turans just looked stupid, Trolls were stupid, and the Forsaken couldn't be trusted. The rivalry was even better when shamen and pallys were faction locked. 

 

I believe it was a big mistake that GW2  had no factions.