General:Ask Us Anything: Roleplaying

Originally published July 29, 2013. The original article can be found here.
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Like to roleplay? Then today’s Ask Us Anything is just for you!

Roleplaying is an activity that we know many of you enjoy in MMORPGs. We’ve seen quite a few questions about how roleplaying will fit into The Elder Scrolls Online, so we decided to answer some of them here. Read on to find out more. If you have a question for us about ESO, please send it to community@elderscrollsonline.com and we’ll consider it for an upcoming Ask Us Anything article. Take a look at this week’s answers:
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'''''Will the megaservers dedicated to PC/Mac players be one megaserver for the US and one for the EU, or will it be one megaserver worldwide? Our community is worried that the friends they have made from either side of the pond won't be seen on their server.''

We do plan on having one megaserver located in the US and one in Europe for PC and Mac players, but you won’t be forced onto one or the other. You’ll be able to play with your friends, but it’s important to note that you may encounter higher latency if you choose to play on a distant server.


Can you expand on any social functions, such as player-created emotes (an ‘/em’ function, or anything the likes) or chat bubbles?

We have a long list of animated emotes in the game already that will add flavor to your conversations and interactions with other characters, and you can create your own text emotes with the /emote command. Currently, we don’t have plans for chat bubbles.


''We know we'll get cross-faction chat through guilds, but will there be anywhere that all factions can congregate and communicate? Like is there anywhere in-game an Ebonheart character could unfortunately share a mead with a Daggerfall character (you know we roleplayers enjoy conflict)? Can these characters group together if they are in the same guild?''

Though we haven’t implemented areas expressly for this purpose, there’s nothing stopping you from sharing a peaceful (if tense) round of drinks with characters from another alliance in Cyrodiil—except maybe their allies! Though you can’t group together if you’re from different alliances, many of our social systems are focused on you as opposed to on your characters individually, and you’ll be able to communicate across alliances through these systems.


''How interactive is the world? Can players toggle a 'walk' function instead of running everywhere? Will we be able to interact with objects like chairs, ladders, etc? Will you be able to enter houses, or, for example, an inn? How about setting up a romantic camp fire at night? Will we be able to build our resting places, for example by placing a blanket?''

Walking is already available (along with a whole slew of emotes, which we mentioned above). You can enter lots of the buildings you’ll come across, but there are a few you can’t. There are tons of shops, inns, and temples you can enter, and even many residences. Right now, we don’t have any special camps you can set up, but there are tons of beautiful (and, yes, even romantic) vistas all across Tamriel that you can visit.


Is there a plan to have an in-game “profile” so to speak, where players can include a back story for their character and add some vital stats? If not, is there a plan to allow people to create add-ons that will allow one to do so? 

We don’t plan to support this feature officially, but our add-on system will be fairly flexible. We know that the roleplaying community is extremely resourceful when it comes to creating add-ons to enhance their roleplay experience, and we’re excited to see what you create.


''Will friend lists offer any kind of privacy? For instance, if you create an alt that you don't want certain members of your friend list to know you are playing, will there be the ability to not let those people see you are online on said alt?''

To us, privacy is just another way to play the way you want to, and we’ll offer the option to play as invisible if you’d prefer. You won’t even have to create an alt if you just want some time playing alone! We want to allow you even greater flexibility with privacy customization, as well.


''Regarding armour/clothing customization: What's there to set players apart from one another?''

You can definitely expect to have options that will set you apart and allow you to customize your character’s appearance. We can’t go into great detail right now, but you won’t be disappointed (or end up looking like everyone else!).


What will the weather be like in ESO? Will it always be the same or will it change? Will we see a day/night cycle?''

From snowstorms in Skyrim to rain showers over the moors of Glenumbra, you’ll experience lots of weather as you explore—through the day and night—in ESO. 


A big thanks to the TESO-RP and ESO-Rollenspiel communities for submitting these great questions to us!