Any_ILL

Since it's a new project, funded by us (and no, 1 to 3 million is not a lot) I consider 50 to 80 to be sufficient. As long as it's quality content with in depth story and mechanic and not artificial duration it's ok for me.

Of course it's tremendously important. It makes the world feels real and interesting. It also allows us to discover new details, pieces of informations in new playthroughs. And it's kind of mandatory if you really want the players to feel connected enough to your world to come back without hesitation once the next game is released. I kind of agree with The Sharmat, I mean it's probably true for the general population of gamers but those who would back such a project... Seeing the result of this poll it seems we massively care ^^

Except that there is no connection between "xp for passive member" and an absence of rich tactical battles (per example). No xp for passive member is just an artificial limitation to make you replay the game or chose your companions before you even have enough information/experience to do so correctly. It's not "simplified" because it wasn't even depth to begin with. A tactical and hard to master combat system is depth however so I really want that to happen!!! As for the "house vs stronghold" issue mentionned in the first post, wtf? The only important thing is what fits better in the universe and the story, which is more immersive. It could be a burrow or a mushroom, I don't even care, house is only a word anyway that could include all these things. I do agree however that the TES way to do it is definitely not the right one in this case!

Except this too has been done to death. I mean you would have to change them so much that there would be no point in naming them "elves" except to reassure people who fears novelty.

Ouch... Fantasy is a far wider genre. Actually, a game based on greek mythology would be a fantasy one too. Like a lot of people here, I'd really like if they were creating a truly original setup with other archetyps than these two for the races. With their views on magic I think we can hope they'll do that.