Interview Oblivion interview, rated R

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: Bethesda Softworks; Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

There is another <a href=http://www.elderscrolls.com/home/home.htm>Oblivion</a> <a href=http://www.oblivionsource.com/?page=content&op=view&id=3>interview</a> at one of the fan sites, featuring absolutely idiotic questions.
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<blockquote>1. How long will it take to walk from one end of the game world, to the other?
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2. Cyrodiil is not an island -- what have you done to make sure the player doesn't leave the province?
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3. What have you done to make the game world more realistic?
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4. Will the furniture in the game be moveable, so the player can furnish his own house?</blockquote>
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If you happen to be stupid and want to know the answers to these questions, <a href=http://www.oblivionsource.com/?page=content&op=view&id=3>follow the link</a>. Btw, that's the entire interview, there are no other questions.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.rpgdot.com">RPG Dot</A>

 

[Andyman Messiah]

4. Will the furniture in the game be moveable, so the player can furnish his own house?

 

[Mendoza]

I don't know if the writer was a native english speaker, but reading some of that made my eyes hurt.

You can be combat fighter, a wizard, a merchandiser, everything is possible!

Ignoring all the other flaws with that sentence, wtf is a merchandiser?

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

Also there is again a possibility to join factions, like the fighters or mages guild or even more.

Maybe there'll be a merchandiser's guild too. :D

 

[Vault Dweller]

Great signature, Otaku

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Sheesh. I thought #4 was going to be a great question until I read the second half of the question. Moving objects around is a decent thing, but moving things around to furnish a house is pretty pathetic. Moving chairs, tables and other things to block doors would be nice, or perhaps to make a fire, or even to climb to a high window for escaping.. But to furnish a fucking home? There's just so much wrong with that, it's not even funny. It's pathetic.

First off, what's the point of having a home? Is there any benefit to it? What's the point of having furniture? Is it really that much fun to sit in a damned chair in a game?

Secondly, and probably the fundamental part of it, assuming furniture can be made fun and useful in a game, do you really want to have to drag it from one location to another location just to furnish a damned house?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Actually I think that ability to move furniture is a great skill for a merchandiser

 

[Mendoza]

But how long will it take a merchandiser to drag his furniture to the edge of the map, and what will happen when he gets there?

 

[fnordcircle]

I don't think #1 and #3 are bad.

The size of a gameworld in a free-roaming game is important to me and the time it takes to transverse the entire map is one way to quantify the size.

#2 seems silly, granted, and #4 would only be important to people like my most recent ex-wife who spent hours and hours decorating her house in Morrowind, but #3 seems like a good question.

 

[Vault Dweller]

I don't think #1 and #3 are bad.

#1. Anyone who played TES games, and this is a FAN site interview, btw, should khow that these games are huge. It's like asking if you'd be able to shoot at things in an ID game. The guy was probably hoping for some retarded statistics like it would 12 hours, and like Pete said, someone equally stupid will try to verify that claim or beat the time.

#3. One of those really pointless questions that result in obvious and pointless answers.
"It's the graphics" No shit! I thought it would be like something totally else! Turned out it was the graphics! I don't really know what I expected to hear, but I'm so happy it's the graphics!

 

[Fresh]

How about putting together a list of 10 questions for Bethesda from the folks at RPG Codex?

:!: :idea: :!:

I wanna see what kinda questions non-retarded peeps ask.

 

[jiujitsu]

Question 4 was kind of interesting, but then it got really.. gay.

 

[Hajo]

Sheesh. I thought #4 was going to be a great question until I read the second half of the question. Moving objects around is a decent thing, but moving things around to furnish a house is pretty pathetic. Moving chairs, tables and other things to block doors would be nice, or perhaps to make a fire, or even to climb to a high window for escaping.. But to furnish a fucking home? There's just so much wrong with that, it's not even funny. It's pathetic.

Don't be so quick to judge. I've got a problem report for one of my projects that beds and some of the chests are too big to carry. One of the testers actually tried to furnish his PCs home with stuff that he found in the game. Don't ask me for his motivations, but it seems at least some players are intersted in such things.

First off, what's the point of having a home? Is there any benefit to it? What's the point of having furniture? Is it really that much fun to sit in a damned chair in a game?

The home was meant to be a place to safely store equipment for later use. But it seems it became an anchorpoint for the player. And he wanted to have it comfortable and looking nice, not only a storage shed.

The game is role playing. I guess the imagination of a warm, comfortable and nice home was the main driver.

 

[DarkSign]

Home-building and furnishing may sound carebearish, but ultimately if the point of a game is entertainment and it doesnt detract from the storytelling/challenge of the gameplay, why not allow it.

Different people play games for different reasons, why not let them escape their crappy house for a virtual one?

 

[Volourn]

"Different people play games for different reasons, why not let them escape their crappy house for a virtual one?"

No. When it comes to games, the Codex doesn't believe in freedom unless it's their freedom to whine about others. :D

 

[Hajo]

Different people play games for different reasons, why not let them escape their crappy house for a virtual one?

I think a game designer should give the player as much freedom as possible. But in story-heavy games this often conflicts with the story.

 

[Sol Invictus]

I'd like to be able to move objects around in the game. Anything that lends interactivity is a good thing, regardless of its application. Granted, it'd be pretty cool if you could barricade a door with a table, and watch as the enemy AI tries to bash his way through an inch at a time rather than standing behind the door like a stupid idiot or running in a circle.

Furnishing a house would just be a much more Queer Eye application of environment interactivity.

Take the bad with the good, folks.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

A bit of trivia:

Did you know that if you run from one end of the world map in Daggerfall to the other end, it would take two weeks realtime?

 

[Avin]

Did you know that if you run from one end of the world map in Daggerfall to the other end, it would take two weeks realtime?

...man, the first time i played it i didn't knew that a thing named map travelling would exist... i spent hours travelling in the beginning...

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Don't be so quick to judge. I've got a problem report for one of my projects that beds and some of the chests are too big to carry. One of the testers actually tried to furnish his PCs home with stuff that he found in the game. Don't ask me for his motivations, but it seems at least some players are intersted in such things.

That's when you tell him he's too damned gay to test your stuff. :D

The home was meant to be a place to safely store equipment for later use. But it seems it became an anchorpoint for the player. And he wanted to have it comfortable and looking nice, not only a storage shed.

So he can do what with it exactly? I don't get it. What's the point of having a furnished house if there's nothing to do with the furniture in the house once you get it there?

Even if you do come up with useful and interesting stuff for the furniture in a house to do, surely you can come up with a better mechanic for getting that stuff in to the house than having to drag a sofa up from a dungeon, then a half a mile through the desert, through town, and finally in to your house.

 

[Elwro]

What's the point of having a furnished house if there's nothing to do with the furniture in the house once you get it there?

You don't do anything with it. You take screenshots of it and boast about it on internet fora.

 

[Stark]

1. How long will it take to walk from one end of the game world, to the other?

2. Cyrodiil is not an island -- what have you done to make sure the player doesn't leave the province?

4. Will the furniture in the game be moveable, so the player can furnish his own house?

The question remains, of all the intelligent/meaningful ones they can ask, they decide to ask these???

I do feel the need for a house though. I need a place to store my goodies. I couldn't care less about furnishing it, though a good looking house wouldn't hurt.

3. What have you done to make the game world more realistic?

this is not so dumb. the BethSoft guys could have commented about their Radient AI thingy (NPC reacting more realistically), though the fan should have worded the question differently.

 

[jiujitsu]

What's the point of having a furnished house if there's nothing to do with the furniture in the house once you get it there?

You don't do anything with it. You take screenshots of it and boast about it on internet fora.

Yea, kind of like what people do with The Sims and The Sims 2. I bet you didn't know that Saint, did you? Nope don't think so. Wouldn't make sense that you would.

 

[freelance]

The ability to furnish your house is pretty much de rigueur in MMOs today. While it might seem a bit odd to do it in an exclusively single player game, why not?
It is just like car games, part of the concept there nowadays is to add as much customization as possible to make it possible for the players to realize his vision of “The Greased Lighting”. While I’m not very fond of racing games I found myself customizing my ride quite a lot when I tried Need for Speed Underground. If I was given a choice, I’d probably furnish a house in Oblivion.

Now, if the furniture actually had mass and responded to gravity/friction it could result in some interesting game play mechanics. I already have this vivid mental image of a monkey trying to reach bananas…

 

[crufty]

I can see the furniture moving. In Morrowind, it was possible to run out of places to store your junk.