Elder Scrolls online. Why they just don't " get it" with FACTIONS

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

Being a huge fan of the series, I was very excited about this game coming, but then I read the dreaded words "race alliance". Do they not understand how alliances work? They are not predefined by developers, they are player created. They " just happen" in the course of gameplay. Rivalries are not scripted, they happen in the same 'hood. They happen when two people in the same neighborhood start arguing over something stupid. They happen when guilds cannot agree and split and become mortal enemies. They happen when two people are fighting for the same thing, or when someone wrongs another. You don't force people into alliances and rivalries, the players create them themselves.

When you try to force people into a set faction related to a choice they make when they start, in order to change that later they have to start over in a race they may not even wish to play. You often get good guilds in one realm and crappy guilds in another. Just because there is population on server does not mean that the people there are actually good at what they do, or that they are who you wish to hang and fight with. When you tie race to realm you force people to have to play a race simply because their guild is. None of that was necessary to have good pvp. It takes away from the game not adds to it.

When you have the situation of one side being over populated in a game where you choose your own side at will, you can just go to the other side to even out the battle. That is lost in locked in factions. When this is left to players, you can choose to be the underdog. You can choose to spilt your guild for a match and fight one another. You choose who your friends and enemies are. All that adding predetermined factions does is force people to play another race in order to enjoy the game. You can be playing the game a while and meet someone outside of the game you wish to have join your guild but then they don't have a character for that race and have to start over in order to do so. That isn't adding another " dynamic" to the game, it is just a lame hassle.

Why oh why would they do this to such a great series?! This was completely unnecessary.

 

[Dryk]

I get this feeling that most MMO developers take one look at EVE slowly and consistently ticking away in its corner with all its wonderful (and horrifying) ideas, say "aww that's cute" and then go back to trying to steal WoW subscribers.

 

[SajuukKhar]

You are aware people are able to join guilds, no matter their race, and make alliances between guilds, no matter the races involved?

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

You are aware people are able to join guilds, no matter their race, and make alliances between guilds, no matter the races involved?

Of course you join guilds & have your own alliances that happens regardless of story lines. You just can't play RvRvR that way. Races are locked into realms, realms are locked into sides in RvRvR, so it doesn't matter if you are a part of a guild or not, you are stuck on the other side. 3 races per realm, so if you are a Breton, you cannot be Ebonheart ect. In order for you to play Ebonheart, you would have to create a new character of another race. It is an unnecessary hassle. Lots of logging in and out and making characters. That takes away from gameplay.

EDIT: Now just in case I am jumping the gun on this, and what I read was incorrect, I just asked them directly, and will see if I get a response.

I do hope they allow different races to play for different realms in RvRvR. It is possible they can make those changes before release.

 

[Cavan]

I don't see the problem. It's a very heavily used and widely accepted trope in fantasy. Races will most of the time end up having near universal motivations/personalities/alliances.

It's also not all that different in non fantasy things. WW2 based games for example are quite heavily reliant on Alliance/Axis being very clearly defined in their weapons and various other things.
In a lot of games the bad guys are bad guys simply because they come from x place or because they are black people from Blacktopia and are out to spread stereotypes and reinforce prejudices of their own evilness.

I think the mistake you're making is trying to obfuscate things with the word 'rivalry' as a replacement for what is essentially a racial war. Just because in your mind a rivalry is a small scale personal thing doesn't mean that an entire race allied or at war with another is invalid. Nor does it mean that they simply don't 'get' it, because you arbitrarily said so.

All of what you are arguing the word 'rivalry' should involve and be can still happen under the framework of a racial war.

Personally I would find it more interesting because then you can split up your own motivations between: the people you're told to fight, the people you actually want to fight and the people you want to be friends with within the setting regardless of what you're told to do.


This was never a problem in WoW; you either joined up with your friends or played whatever the hell you wanted and found plenty of people on the side that you chose to have fun with. Often being on the side of the supposed 'good' guilds was more of a disadvantage. Those people suck the fun out of everything they do and cause massive balance issues just by being popular and having people worship them.

 

[piinyouri]

Meh, I'm more concerned with playing races than alliances.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

I don't see the problem. It's a very heavily used and widely accepted trope in fantasy. Races will most of the time end up having near universal motivations/personalities/alliances.

It's also not all that different in non fantasy things. WW2 based games for example are quite heavily reliant on Alliance/Axis being very clearly defined in their weapons and various other things.
In a lot of games the bad guys are bad guys simply because they come from x place or because they are black people from Blacktopia and are out to spread stereotypes.

I think the mistake you're making is trying to mix in the word 'rivalry' with what is essentially a racial war. Just because in your mind a rivalry is a small scale personal thing doesn't mean that an entire race allied or at war with another is invalid.

This was never a problem in WoW; you either joined up with your friends or played whatever the hell you wanted and found plenty of people on the side that you chose to have fun with. Often being on the side of the supposed 'good' guilds was more of a disadvantage. Those people suck the fun out of everything they do and cause massive balance issues just by being popular and having people worship them.

I personally thought WoW sucked, but that is just me I guess. It IS a problem for those who play with friends/ family and in guilds that play different games together. You have to get everyone to be the "right race" and make the proper accounts to be able to pvp on the same team. If I were to play with my old guild, you are talking 600 people. That Is an issue when you are talking about switching teams to fight against one another changing sides, taking turns as the underdog. Of course everyone is going to eventually make a character for each alliance anyhow, it is just a real pain to have to switch all the time in between battles.

You are going to have massive balance issues regardless. This is going to make them more of an issue if you make switching realms harder. Instead of just being able to hop over to the side that needs the most help, you will have to go train a char first. Even once you have them all trained, you will still have to log in and out and may miss the battle, ect. Which really serves no purpose other than to be a hassle. If you just pick your side quickly, it allows for the balance issues to be solved quickly and easily, rather than people leaving in the middle of a game because everyone didn't get in. It causes many more problems that way, and you get horribly imbalanced games when people evacuate due to it.

When you just have a bunch of random people only playing, you do not have good battles. They lack coordination and strategy. You need at least some coordinated groups among the masses, otherwise it just turns into a mess and everyone winds up just fighting aimlessly instead of actually trying to win. Why play an mmorpg for mindless combat? Isn't that what COD is for? LOL

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

Meh, I'm more concerned with playing races than alliances.

Why are races a concern? Races already existed in the series, it wouldn't make any sense to remove them for the mmo. The storyline wouldn't make any sense. " suddenly all the races disappeared with the dragons.." That would ruin the game. LOL

 

[piinyouri]

Meh, I'm more concerned with playing races than alliances.

Why are races a concern? Races already existed in the series, it wouldn't make any sense to remove them for the mmo. The storyline wouldn't make any sense. " suddenly all the races disappeared with the dragons.." That would ruin the game. LOL

Of course they didn't remove them, I was just saying that when I want to start a character, I think "Which race do I want to be?" I can fit my mind into any alliance, so it doesn't bother me that the races are locked to certain sides.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

Meh, I'm more concerned with playing races than alliances.

Why are races a concern? Races already existed in the series, it wouldn't make any sense to remove them for the mmo. The storyline wouldn't make any sense. " suddenly all the races disappeared with the dragons.." That would ruin the game. LOL

Of course they didn't remove them, I was just saying that when I want to start a character, I think "Which race do I want to be?" I can fit my mind into any alliance, so it doesn't bother me that the races are locked to certain sides.

I think it would matter if you wanted to play a specific race and play with your friends and they all wanted to be part of an alliance that your race couldn't be in so you would be forced to play a character you didn't want to just to be able to play with your friends. I see that as more of an issue than choosing the race. I hate starting a character then later finding out I can't play with my sis because her husband chose a different one and they are stuck there. Been there, it sucks having to log in to play with guild log into another character to play with sister, not being able to be on same team. Ugh it is just a hassle.

 

[thatonedude11]

They're doing it because it is a lot easier to have massive pvp battles when the players don't have to organize the teams. In addition, the RvR battles are persistent, and that would loose all meaning if you could just switch sides willy nilly. They also want to have people form a sort of bond with their team, hoping that they win even if you're not actively in the fight.

Eve Online is great, and I wish more MMO developers would use that game as inspiration, but not every MMO needs to be like Eve Online.

You are going to have massive balance issues regardless. This is going to make them more of an issue if you make switching realms harder. Instead of just being able to hop over to the side that needs the most help, you will have to go train a char first. Even once you have them all trained, you will still have to log in and out and may miss the battle, ect. Which really serves no purpose other than to be a hassle. If you just pick your side quickly, it allows for the balance issues to be solved quickly and easily, rather than people leaving in the middle of a game because everyone didn't get in. It causes many more problems that way, and you get horribly imbalanced games when people evacuate due to it.

I have the feeling that people would switch to the side that is winning in order to get the rewards for doing so.

In addition, I've never had a problem coming to a conclusion about what side to join with my friends. You may have had a different experience, but that's where I'm coming from.

 

[piinyouri]

Meh, I'm more concerned with playing races than alliances.

Why are races a concern? Races already existed in the series, it wouldn't make any sense to remove them for the mmo. The storyline wouldn't make any sense. " suddenly all the races disappeared with the dragons.." That would ruin the game. LOL

Of course they didn't remove them, I was just saying that when I want to start a character, I think "Which race do I want to be?" I can fit my mind into any alliance, so it doesn't bother me that the races are locked to certain sides.

I think it would matter if you wanted to play a specific race and play with your friends and they all wanted to be part of an alliance that your race couldn't be in so you would be forced to play a character you didn't want to just to be able to play with your friends. I see that as more of an issue than choosing the race. I hate starting a character then later finding out I can't play with my sis because her husband chose a different one and they are stuck there. Been there, it sucks having to log in to play with guild log into another character to play with sister, not being able to be on same team. Ugh it is just a hassle.

None of my friends want to play this, I'll be going solo.

Don't get me wrong, I can see how this could be a negative of varying degrees for some people, I found it rather odd myself when I first learned about it, but it's something that's not really going to bother me personally.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

Meh, I'm more concerned with playing races than alliances.

Why are races a concern? Races already existed in the series, it wouldn't make any sense to remove them for the mmo. The storyline wouldn't make any sense. " suddenly all the races disappeared with the dragons.." That would ruin the game. LOL

Of course they didn't remove them, I was just saying that when I want to start a character, I think "Which race do I want to be?" I can fit my mind into any alliance, so it doesn't bother me that the races are locked to certain sides.

I think it would matter if you wanted to play a specific race and play with your friends and they all wanted to be part of an alliance that your race couldn't be in so you would be forced to play a character you didn't want to just to be able to play with your friends. I see that as more of an issue than choosing the race. I hate starting a character then later finding out I can't play with my sis because her husband chose a different one and they are stuck there. Been there, it sucks having to log in to play with guild log into another character to play with sister, not being able to be on same team. Ugh it is just a hassle.

None of my friends want to play this, I'll be going solo.

Don't get me wrong, I can see how this could be a negative of varying degrees for some people, I found it rather odd myself when I first learned about it, but it's something that's not really going to bother me personally.

Unless you meet someone later and find out they play and want to play together. Then you are going to be pissed because of this feature. " oh hey, you play ESO too? Awesome! I love that game.. Damn sorry I would have to start all over just to be able to hang with you in game. That sucks.." HAHA!

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

They're doing it because it is a lot easier to have massive pvp battles when the players don't have to organize the teams. In addition, the RvR battles are persistent, and that would loose all meaning if you could just switch sides willy nilly. They also want to have people form a sort of bond with their team, hoping that they win even if you're not actively in the fight.

Eve Online is great, and I wish more MMO developers would use that game as inspiration, but not every MMO needs to be like Eve Online.

You are going to have massive balance issues regardless. This is going to make them more of an issue if you make switching realms harder. Instead of just being able to hop over to the side that needs the most help, you will have to go train a char first. Even once you have them all trained, you will still have to log in and out and may miss the battle, ect. Which really serves no purpose other than to be a hassle. If you just pick your side quickly, it allows for the balance issues to be solved quickly and easily, rather than people leaving in the middle of a game because everyone didn't get in. It causes many more problems that way, and you get horribly imbalanced games when people evacuate due to it.

I have the feeling that people would switch to the side that is winning in order to get the rewards for doing so.

In addition, I've never had a problem coming to a conclusion about what side to join with my friends. You may have had a different experience, but that's where I'm coming from.

The players organize the teams regardless. You will have guilds all trying to get into the battle together. That is how people play mmos. People are going to make characters for all realms regardless and switch sides anyhow. Making it harder, just means " they wait for the next game" and log out when the game starts, leaving the game even more unbalanced. People just evac the game when it starts. Allowing for this to be resolved easier means they are more likely to have the game balanced before it starts.

Yea I have had a different experience, but when you have 600 people in a guild it is hard to have everyone agree on anything. Then you are just going with the majority vote, regardless of what character you really want to play. You also find out after the fact, that friends, or people you meet play and then in order to play together one of you has to make a new character in order to do so.

Guilds work around it regardless, so it would be better to have it work more efficiently, rather than force a work around. People will go to the winning side, and will leave the game in the middle of battle. Making switching harder to do, just makes that worse.

 

[piinyouri]

Meh, I'm more concerned with playing races than alliances.

Why are races a concern? Races already existed in the series, it wouldn't make any sense to remove them for the mmo. The storyline wouldn't make any sense. " suddenly all the races disappeared with the dragons.." That would ruin the game. LOL

Of course they didn't remove them, I was just saying that when I want to start a character, I think "Which race do I want to be?" I can fit my mind into any alliance, so it doesn't bother me that the races are locked to certain sides.

I think it would matter if you wanted to play a specific race and play with your friends and they all wanted to be part of an alliance that your race couldn't be in so you would be forced to play a character you didn't want to just to be able to play with your friends. I see that as more of an issue than choosing the race. I hate starting a character then later finding out I can't play with my sis because her husband chose a different one and they are stuck there. Been there, it sucks having to log in to play with guild log into another character to play with sister, not being able to be on same team. Ugh it is just a hassle.

None of my friends want to play this, I'll be going solo.

Don't get me wrong, I can see how this could be a negative of varying degrees for some people, I found it rather odd myself when I first learned about it, but it's something that's not really going to bother me personally.

Unless you meet someone later and find out they play and want to play together. Then you are going to be pissed because of this feature. " oh hey, you play ESO too? Awesome! I love that game.. Damn sorry I would have to start all over just to be able to hang with you in game. That sucks.." HAHA!

No, depending on the character limits they have. If it's a 2-3 slot limit thing with the option to buy more, then yes, it could get a tad constricting, but still I'll manage.
While I don't have any IRL friends to play with, I'm pretty decent at running into other nice folk online who want to have some fun. And I don't really mind starting over.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

Meh, I'm more concerned with playing races than alliances.

Why are races a concern? Races already existed in the series, it wouldn't make any sense to remove them for the mmo. The storyline wouldn't make any sense. " suddenly all the races disappeared with the dragons.." That would ruin the game. LOL

Of course they didn't remove them, I was just saying that when I want to start a character, I think "Which race do I want to be?" I can fit my mind into any alliance, so it doesn't bother me that the races are locked to certain sides.

I think it would matter if you wanted to play a specific race and play with your friends and they all wanted to be part of an alliance that your race couldn't be in so you would be forced to play a character you didn't want to just to be able to play with your friends. I see that as more of an issue than choosing the race. I hate starting a character then later finding out I can't play with my sis because her husband chose a different one and they are stuck there. Been there, it sucks having to log in to play with guild log into another character to play with sister, not being able to be on same team. Ugh it is just a hassle.

None of my friends want to play this, I'll be going solo.

Don't get me wrong, I can see how this could be a negative of varying degrees for some people, I found it rather odd myself when I first learned about it, but it's something that's not really going to bother me personally.

Unless you meet someone later and find out they play and want to play together. Then you are going to be pissed because of this feature. " oh hey, you play ESO too? Awesome! I love that game.. Damn sorry I would have to start all over just to be able to hang with you in game. That sucks.." HAHA!

No, depending on the character limits they have. If it's a 2-3 slot limit thing with the option to buy more, then yes, it could get a tad constricting, but still I'll manage.
While I don't have any IRL friends to play with, I'm pretty decent at running into other nice folk online who want to have some fun. And I don't really mind starting over.

There are other issues with starting over. It does no good for you to start over if they are so far ahead of you, you cannot even do the same activities together. Say you create a new character, "well, in a month we can play together..." "Yay! that will be great! .. In a month." LOL

 

[thatonedude11]

The players organize the teams regardless. You will have guilds all trying to get into the battle together. That is how people play mmos. People are going to make characters for all realms regardless and switch sides anyhow. Making it harder, just means " they wait for the next game" and log out when the game starts, leaving the game even more unbalanced. People just evac the game when it starts. Allowing for this to be resolved easier means they are more likely to have the game balanced before it starts.

Yea I have had a different experience, but when you have 600 people in a guild it is hard to have everyone agree on anything. Then you are just going with the majority vote, regardless of what character you really want to play. You also find out after the fact, that friends, or people you meet play and then in order to play together one of you has to make a new character in order to do so.

I'm not entirely sure you understand what the RvR content is like. It is more like what's offered in Planetside 2 then the PvP in most other MMO's. Very large scale combat, without really a win condition. Imagine if people had to organize themselves in Planetside 2. It would be a fucking madhouse.

Choosing races also has the benefit of being able to easily tell which side everyone is on, whereas in Eve Online, you have to be very vigilant about making sure you aren't shooting an ally.

In addition, there are a lot of people who play MMOs without a big group, and who just pick random groups or solo the content. If guilds were required to organize the combat, these people would be left in the dust.

Don't get me wrong, there are many advantages to not having per-determined alliances. But doing that would create a very different game then the one that Bethesda is trying to make. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

 

[piinyouri]

Meh, I'm more concerned with playing races than alliances.

Why are races a concern? Races already existed in the series, it wouldn't make any sense to remove them for the mmo. The storyline wouldn't make any sense. " suddenly all the races disappeared with the dragons.." That would ruin the game. LOL

Of course they didn't remove them, I was just saying that when I want to start a character, I think "Which race do I want to be?" I can fit my mind into any alliance, so it doesn't bother me that the races are locked to certain sides.

I think it would matter if you wanted to play a specific race and play with your friends and they all wanted to be part of an alliance that your race couldn't be in so you would be forced to play a character you didn't want to just to be able to play with your friends. I see that as more of an issue than choosing the race. I hate starting a character then later finding out I can't play with my sis because her husband chose a different one and they are stuck there. Been there, it sucks having to log in to play with guild log into another character to play with sister, not being able to be on same team. Ugh it is just a hassle.

None of my friends want to play this, I'll be going solo.

Don't get me wrong, I can see how this could be a negative of varying degrees for some people, I found it rather odd myself when I first learned about it, but it's something that's not really going to bother me personally.

Unless you meet someone later and find out they play and want to play together. Then you are going to be pissed because of this feature. " oh hey, you play ESO too? Awesome! I love that game.. Damn sorry I would have to start all over just to be able to hang with you in game. That sucks.." HAHA!

No, depending on the character limits they have. If it's a 2-3 slot limit thing with the option to buy more, then yes, it could get a tad constricting, but still I'll manage.
While I don't have any IRL friends to play with, I'm pretty decent at running into other nice folk online who want to have some fun. And I don't really mind starting over.

There are other issues with starting over. It does no good for you to start over if they are so far ahead of you, you cannot even do the same activities together. Say you create a new character, "well, in a month we can play together..." "Yay! that will be great! .. In a month." LOL

Well if the slot restriction isn't too bad I'm going to have one of every race anyway so chances are I'd have something that's of an appropriate level.

Next you'll tell me that I'll still be boned since it may not be the right class a group is looking for?
Everything I've heard about the game has said skill building and group dynamics have been designed to get away from super specialized roles and an increase in build diversity.
Anything else?

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

The players organize the teams regardless. You will have guilds all trying to get into the battle together. That is how people play mmos. People are going to make characters for all realms regardless and switch sides anyhow. Making it harder, just means " they wait for the next game" and log out when the game starts, leaving the game even more unbalanced. People just evac the game when it starts. Allowing for this to be resolved easier means they are more likely to have the game balanced before it starts.

Yea I have had a different experience, but when you have 600 people in a guild it is hard to have everyone agree on anything. Then you are just going with the majority vote, regardless of what character you really want to play. You also find out after the fact, that friends, or people you meet play and then in order to play together one of you has to make a new character in order to do so.

I'm not entirely sure you understand what the RvR content is like. It is more like what's offered in Planetside 2 then the PvP in most other MMO's. Very large scale combat, without really a win condition. Imagine if people had to organize themselves in Planetside 2. It would be a fucking madhouse.

Choosing races also has the benefit of being able to easily tell which side everyone is on, whereas in Eve Online, you have to be very vigilant about making sure you aren't shooting an ally.

In addition, there are a lot of people who play MMOs without a big group, and who just pick random groups or solo the content. If guilds were required to organize the combat, these people would be left in the dust.

Don't get me wrong, there are many advantages to not having per-determined alliances. But doing that would create a very different game then the one that Bethesda is trying to make. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Guilds will organize the combat regardless of the conditions set in the game. The soloers play alongside them. If they allow guilds to choose a side easily at the time of combat, they ARE going to go to the weaker side because they have a better chance of getting in all members assisting in balancing it out faster. Due to the popularity of this series, you are going to have massive guilds playing this, so this is pretty much guaranteed to be an issue.

You can have RvRvR without having race locked realms, it would solve many of the problems associated. You just have them choose a side to enter just prior to battle. When one side starts winning too much, the masses will flock to it, so guilds will go into the other side since it will be less populated evening things out.

They obviously have to cap the teams, but this would help make sure not one side always wins, evening things out. Otherwise you have people evacuating realms because "that one is better".

Team colors are easier than race to determine which side someone is on, and that really isn't a reason to put that in the game.

Having race locked realms pretty much guarantees imbalance. Everyone flocks to the " good realm" because they hate losing all the time.

I am not sure how that would make it a different game than what they had envisioned. I thought they were making an elder scrolls game, not a DAoC. LOL

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

Meh, I'm more concerned with playing races than alliances.

Why are races a concern? Races already existed in the series, it wouldn't make any sense to remove them for the mmo. The storyline wouldn't make any sense. " suddenly all the races disappeared with the dragons.." That would ruin the game. LOL

Of course they didn't remove them, I was just saying that when I want to start a character, I think "Which race do I want to be?" I can fit my mind into any alliance, so it doesn't bother me that the races are locked to certain sides.

I think it would matter if you wanted to play a specific race and play with your friends and they all wanted to be part of an alliance that your race couldn't be in so you would be forced to play a character you didn't want to just to be able to play with your friends. I see that as more of an issue than choosing the race. I hate starting a character then later finding out I can't play with my sis because her husband chose a different one and they are stuck there. Been there, it sucks having to log in to play with guild log into another character to play with sister, not being able to be on same team. Ugh it is just a hassle.

None of my friends want to play this, I'll be going solo.

Don't get me wrong, I can see how this could be a negative of varying degrees for some people, I found it rather odd myself when I first learned about it, but it's something that's not really going to bother me personally.

Unless you meet someone later and find out they play and want to play together. Then you are going to be pissed because of this feature. " oh hey, you play ESO too? Awesome! I love that game.. Damn sorry I would have to start all over just to be able to hang with you in game. That sucks.." HAHA!

No, depending on the character limits they have. If it's a 2-3 slot limit thing with the option to buy more, then yes, it could get a tad constricting, but still I'll manage.
While I don't have any IRL friends to play with, I'm pretty decent at running into other nice folk online who want to have some fun. And I don't really mind starting over.

There are other issues with starting over. It does no good for you to start over if they are so far ahead of you, you cannot even do the same activities together. Say you create a new character, "well, in a month we can play together..." "Yay! that will be great! .. In a month." LOL

Well if the slot restriction isn't too bad I'm going to have one of every race anyway so chances are I'd have something that's of an appropriate level.

Next you'll tell me that I'll still be boned since it may not be the right class a group is looking for?
Everything I've heard about the game has said skill building and group dynamics have been designed to get away from super specialized roles and an increase in build diversity.
Anything else?

I am sure if you played the other games in the series, you know, yes race does matter, but only if you are heavily into competitive PvP. If you are planning on playing casual pvp, your build doesn't matter as much though. I think it will all depend on how much of a mage bonus high elves get, ect. They may nerf their overpowered mage a bit, if not in the beginning maybe after launch.

Of course if you are planning on making one of every alliance, you solve that issue. Just not everyone does that, or even wants to have to. If they just made it so you could play any with your favorite character, it would make it better though. I see no reason why you shouldn't be able to play for whatever side with your favorite character. You could in Skyrim.