Interview Retarded Oblivion fan interview

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: Bethesda Softworks; Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

<a href=http://www.rpgplanet.com/morrowind/index.asp>Morrowind Summit</a> had an opportunity to ask <b>Todd Howard</b> <a href=http://www.rpgplanet.com/morrowind/oblivion/communityinterview.asp>20 questions</a>. The questions are retarded, so let's focus on that:
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<blockquote>The population in Cyrodiil, the assumed main setting for Oblivion, is said to be ‘thousands upon thousands'. With such a small NPC bank, how do you plan on emulating this massive crowd?
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Could you give the fans any information regarding the behavior of water--eg. flowing and making puddles--and if it will be able to be above or below "0" level?
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Will Oblivion return to the location based music concept apparent in earlier installments of the TES series, with dedicated music for dungeons and different aspects like timing and weather?
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Are there plans on utilizing the entire viewable map area this time, including the water areas as places of interest and underwater quests?
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Those of us who are explorers wish to know how you are planning on implementing a border for the map [province]. Will this be similar to Morrowind's infinite ocean?</blockquote>
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The correct answer to these and other question is "Who gives a fuck?"
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.rpgdot.com">RPG Dot</A>

 

[eightman2k]

Do these questions represent the what was actually asked or just the ones Bethesda answered?? If it's the latter I would imagine Bethesda chose meaningless questions so they would not have to talk about aspects of the game that the didn't want to. If it's the former then there's really nothing else to say but WGAF

 

[Vault Dweller]

No, Bethesda answered all 20 questions although some answers are of the can't talk about it yet variety. Other questions are less retarded but pointless, like:

"Will Oblivion retain Morrowind's linear quest concept for the main quest, or will it be possible to approach this from many different angles, changing the final outcome in the process?"

It's like asking "will it be possible to play the game in isometric mode?"

 

[MrSmileyFaceDude]

A bunch of folks on the Elder Scrolls forums spent several days and threads compiling suggestions for questions from the forum members. They then narrowed these down to 20 questions, wordsmithed them for a bit, and persuaded Pete to have Todd answer them.

If you go to the Oblivion General forum, you'll find all the relevant threads.

The questions are ones that hard-core Elder Scrolls fans thought were a) important to them and b) had a reasonably good chance of actually being answered.

 

[FrankHorrigan]

The interview is a total information free zone, waste of time.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Speaking of that first question, I remember a few people in the old #blackisle on Gamesnet(which is now GameSurge) talking about how great it would be to have some large, Forgotten Realms city in a CRPG that had a population of eight million people. I never quite understood why anyone would think having a city like that in a CRPG would be cool. What's the point of having thousands of useless NPCs roaming around that serve no purpose at all except to drop frame rates and tie up vast amounts of memory?

Vivec in Morrowind had a lot of people, but it was mostly empty space. In fact, it was fairly annoying just because it took so damned long to do a quest involving that place. There were several quests which involved finding someone in one of those ziggurats, which was pretty damned annoying. If Vivec had thousands of NPCs, it would have just made the situation that much worse.

 

[Vault Dweller]

The questions are ones that hard-core Elder Scrolls fans thought were a) important to them and b) had a reasonably good chance of actually being answered.

Too funny. Hardcore fans.... "what the water will be like? Are there puddles in the game".

I'm not sure what this question is asking...

For once, I don't blame you, Todd

 

[FrankHorrigan]

Speaking of that first question, I remember a few people in the old #blackisle on Gamesnet(which is now GameSurge) talking about how great it would be to have some large, Forgotten Realms city in a CRPG that had a population of eight million people. I never quite understood why anyone would think having a city like that in a CRPG would be cool. What's the point of having thousands of useless NPCs roaming around that serve no purpose at all except to drop frame rates and tie up vast amounts of memory?

Vivec in Morrowind had a lot of people, but it was mostly empty space. In fact, it was fairly annoying just because it took so damned long to do a quest involving that place. There were several quests which involved finding someone in one of those ziggurats, which was pretty damned annoying. If Vivec had thousands of NPCs, it would have just made the situation that much worse.

Generaly i would agree with you, but vivec never felt like a capital city of a province, it was still just too small, and they way they had the city boxed into indoor blocks was a cop out. Their could be alot to be said for the simple immersion factor of having a city with a teeming population, sure 99% of them would be just fluff, but even still. AS a sidenote, Bethesda are the masters of spin. If you look at archived pre release interviews for morrowind and compare them to the interviews thus far for oblivion, its amazling blatant how they spin an arguement 1 way for morrowind and then spin the same argument the opposite way for oblivion. To quote the great Bill Hicks, marketing is akin to sucking satans cock and anyone involved in it should seriously consider suicide.

 

[MrSmileyFaceDude]

The questions are ones that hard-core Elder Scrolls fans thought were a) important to them and b) had a reasonably good chance of actually being answered.

Too funny. Hardcore fans.... "what the water will be like? Are there puddles in the game".

Well, the point being, the questions are ones that were asked by Elder Scrolls fans -- Morrowind Summit only posted the interview, but didn't write the questions. It's a fan interview.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Being a gentleman, I didn't imply that it was the Summit interview (in fact the title says "fan"), and I didn't even say anything negative about Todd (yeah, I'm surprised myself ).

So the point being, there are some really stupid fans out there :wink: Poor idiots, they've tried so hard to come up with smart thought-provoking questions, but failed miserably. Oh well, that's what happens when developers dumb games down

 

[Brillo]

Poor idiots, they've tried so hard to come up with smart thought-provoking questions, but failed miserably.

Actually they tried to come up with questions they thought had a chance of actually being answered. Bethesda isn't really talking about some of the bigger issues folks keep asking about...

Also, let me point out that some of those rather stupid sounding questions were's so much from fans/players as from modders who have slightly different concerns than many players, and certinly than most of the folks in this forum.

 

[jiujitsu]

Being a gentleman..

Hah. You are an asshole. Why don't you actually REPORT the news like you are supposed to and not treat this like your own personal web log. Keep your crap off of the front page.

You are an unprofessional, whining, ninnybaby.

Yea, you are bad at news, but I still wub joo.

 

[Kamaz]

What is so "STUPID" about those questions? Just that someone wants to ask more specific question means he is reatard, idiot and so on? Such bitching just looks very lame from side, you know.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

Well, a couple of the questions asked in that interview were similar enough to ones I had that I did not bring them back up in the other thread on this issue here. And, yes, some of those questions were obviously from modders wanting to know how things would work for their purposes. I wouldn't call them stupid questions, just most are not anything I really wanted to know about.

I asked the questions I wanted immediate answers for. Now if MrSmileyFacedDude would just answer them. *ahem* *nudge nudge*

 

[Vault Dweller]

Being a gentleman..

Hah. You are an asshole.

Who says I can't be both an asshole and a gentleman?

Why don't you actually REPORT the news like you are supposed to and not treat this like your own personal web log. Keep your crap off of the front page.

Sorry, we don't accept retarded suggestions at the moment. We'll let you know when this service becomes available.

If you prefer sites that report news "as supposed to", try RPG Dot.

You are an unprofessional, whining, ninnybaby.

Talk to the boss

What is so "STUPID" about those questions?

We finally have a proof that LARPing affects reading comprehension skills.

Just that someone wants to ask more specific question means he is reatard, idiot and so on?

Questions about puddles of water aren't specific, they are retarded.

Such bitching just looks very lame from side, you know.

More lame than LARPing? I'm just trying to establish a frame of reference here.

 

[eightman2k]

Poor idiots, they've tried so hard to come up with smart thought-provoking questions, but failed miserably.

Actually they tried to come up with questions they thought had a chance of actually being answered. Bethesda isn't really talking about some of the bigger issues folks keep asking about...

Also, let me point out that some of those rather stupid sounding questions were's so much from fans/players as from modders who have slightly different concerns than many players, and certinly than most of the folks in this forum.

Taken from a modders POV...I can see how some of these questions make sense. That being said...the greatness of your mod should not depend on whether or not you can make puddles.

 

[Eclecticist]

It is refreshing to see a Bethesda employee so blatantly insult their own fanbase .

 

[Avin]

i woke up from an afternoon nice sleep and hit the codex looking for some new info on a bloodline patch... and then... this... the water behavior on es4... what the fuck??? i could consider myself kinda core fan of daggerfall (i'd prefer buggerfall) but not in dumbhell i'd ask about it.

in fact i'm more interested if you can levitate charts and horses along with you again. funniest thing ever in any crpg was made for bethesda

 

[MrSmileyFaceDude]

It is refreshing to see a Bethesda employee so blatantly insult their own fanbase .

Huh?

 

[Vault Dweller]

It is refreshing to see a Bethesda employee so blatantly insult their own fanbase .

Huh?

Hey, no backpedalling now, please

The questions are ones that hard-core Elder Scrolls fans thought were a) important to them ...

 

[Jung]

Who says I can't be both an asshole and a gentleman?

Wasn't that a movie?

 

[Kamaz]

VD, I suggest you leave all the arguments containing word "LARP" to the thread where LARPs are discussed, because otherwise great offtopic will start here and it is not I intend. Therefor, I ignore any LARP based argument for this time, plus, bringing this up just shows that you dont have any good and weighty arguments to support your cause.

Well, I am just avoiding calling anyone stupid because it changes nothing, is just unpolite and irrelevant. Though, must admit, some of the question are really..err..strange. Anyways, there must be some reason they asked. If you are so ignorant and dont know it, its your problem, but its foolish to shout it out:"STUPID! STUPID! MORONS! THEY DONT KNOW ANYTHING! LOSERS!"

 

[Visceris]

Hey, Vault Dweller, if you don't give a fuck about the questions why the hell post them as news on the RPG Codex site? Why give news space on something you couldn't give a rat's ass about? That is just plain stupid.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Who says I can't be both an asshole and a gentleman?

Wasn't that a movie?

I think there was an officer instead of an asshole, although, come to think about it, there is no difference between the two

 

[Visceris]

The interview is a total information free zone, waste of time.

Exactly, yet VD think it was time worthy to put the shit on the front of the RPG Codex. Instead of bitching about some other sites lame ass questions on the news his time would have been better served by coming up with his own 20 questions for Bethesda. But it is always easier to bitch and moan about others.