Oblivion: What Will Be Missing?

[Saint_Proverbius]

SP, your analysis of Bethesda is pretty much as wrong as it could possibly be, but since Bethesda is a privately held company that even more than in the past has a tendency to keep its cards close to the vest, I'll forgive you your misconceptions

Privately held is only an ace up your sleeve when you don't start acting like a public company.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Bryce77 is right. At some point, if this trend continues, TES is dead and with it, Bethesda. TES is Bethesda's biggest brand right now. Without it, where are they?

Where's Waldo?

What I say is why don't you all just don't buy the game, and let the series and the company die. That'll show them... Let Bethesda go down as an example to the industry of what happens when you abandon your true fanbase and pander to the lowest common denominator.

The industry won't learn until it has some examples... so let Bethesda be the first.

You've missed that stuff about Interplay, Troika and Atari haven't you?

As long as people play Oblivion for what it is

The problem is, what is it? A pretty horseback riding game? How is that keeping in line with Daggerfall? I've never personally played Daggerfall but people around here are talking about a game with more choice and more real options, yet each successive game Bethesda release (Morrowind and the speculation around Oblivion) points to a game that has less and less.

There's a reason Half-Life did so well the first time around and it wasn't the pretty graphics. FPS + story = something more than everything else which was available on the market at the time. A few years later, Doom 3 tries to copy it and fails miserably, thinking gimmicks like "dark corners" are what makes a game interesting. NOTE: I AM referring to sales here. Think people will willingly buy a Doom 4 as they did Doom 3? Think people happily bought Bloodlines because it was a Troika game? Reputation counts. When your reputation is "good looks, no substance" or "buggy piece of crap that tries hard but ulimately fails" it has a diminishing affect.

Good posts by the way Balor and Bryce.

If you played "Eternum" series of NWN modules for instance (and that's one example of many), and compared that to "work of professionals" like Morrowind, you'd shut your mouth up nice and tight.
I guess you didn't? It's worth a try, really.
Those made me to buy NWN, while I absolutely loath ADnD. Quite like P:T. Must mean something, right?

Yeah, it means there are a lot of people out there doing the developers work for them and not getting paid for it while the developers are sitting pretty. It'll be some time but I feel that may eventually back-fire one day as people start to expect more and more for free. They'll turn towards open-source projects that give them the substance they want and the add-ons they enjoy rather than the "professionally" (if you really can call some game developers that) developed software they have to pay for. Like I said, it won't happen soon but it will happen. Just as more and more companies are now looking at open source operating systems and free programmes like Open Office. It sure beats a multi-million dollar software bill every time a new version comes out, so why not expect the same thing from games?

 

[hiciacit]

... (or TES for that matter)...

...

I hope I've made that clear.

Not really. If you mean that the 'real TES' (apperently Daggerfall) will not survive this iteration, then yeah, I know what you mean. I merely wanted to argue against what was previously said (i.e. "...then TES is dead and Bethesda with it"), my point being that Bethesda is going to make more money with Oblivion than they did with Morrwind or any other game they made before that. They're going to be more alive than ever after releasing this game, wether it'll be an RPG or a dumbed down action title.

 

[Pr()ZaC]

There's no place for us anymore

 

[MINIGUNWIELDER]

There's no place for us anymore

there will be a place for us young solamniac

 

[One Wolf]

What I say is why don't you all just don't buy the game, and let the series and the company die. That'll show them... Let Bethesda go down as an example to the industry of what happens when you abandon your true fanbase and pander to the lowest common denominator.

all i have to say is that after actually PAYING FOR dungeon lords (something i will only admit on an anonymous forum) i will be damn fuckin sure to watch out for oblivion with a skeptic's eye.

i hope DC and HP burn in hell for what they did to that game, and i pray that bethesda doesn't succumb (more like "suck cum") to the same temptations as the aforementioned companies did.

 

[Mech]

LOL. Did someone pour liquid paranoia in the water today or something?

 

[One Wolf]

in the water? nah, i've switched over to injections.

 

[bryce777]

... (or TES for that matter)...

...

I hope I've made that clear.

Not really. If you mean that the 'real TES' (apperently Daggerfall) will not survive this iteration, then yeah, I know what you mean. I merely wanted to argue against what was previously said (i.e. "...then TES is dead and Bethesda with it"), my point being that Bethesda is going to make more money with Oblivion than they did with Morrwind or any other game they made before that. They're going to be more alive than ever after releasing this game, wether it'll be an RPG or a dumbed down action title.

Well, they have put a ton of money into this game. No doubt it will sell, but it might not sell to the expectations of their returns. Also, if the game is not that great and disenfranchises the people who originally liked the series in the first place even more than morrowind, then that group simply is not going to go for the next offering, period.

The game looks like it will be mediocre towards consolers and to rpgers both. So, where is their market? That formula is destined for failure.

After that they will no doubt go after the console market exclusively since it is TEH FUTURE. But they won't realize that their branding only has any weight with the very people they have been fucking over in the first place. Consolers by and large will have no fucking idea who the hell they are, and they will be just another mediocre console company that will go tits up.

Maybe they will make a better game than I believe, but the things we have read don't really show that.

 

[Athame]

LOL. Did someone pour liquid paranoia in the water today or something?

in the water? nah, i've switched over to injections.

Paranoia. Love that stuff!

"Total paranoia is total awareness."

Paraphrased: If you're always paranoid, nothing will ever catch you unawares.

 

[rushthatspeaks]

Question

Do you folks think a person who has never played any of the other Elder Scrolls games, but loves this type of adventure RPG game, will like Oblivion more than say a die-hard fan of The ES series?

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Re: Question

Do you folks think a person who has never played any of the other Elder Scrolls games, but loves this type of adventure RPG game, will like Oblivion more than say a die-hard fan of The ES series?

Yes. Die-Hard fans around here seem to hark back to the days of Daggerfall. I don't consider myself a TES fan in anyway what-so-ever but I bought Morrowind because it was a pretty exploration game. I enjoyed it for that but have never played it again. A little annoyed at some of the things they're doing in Oblivion like the "all knowing compass" but it's prettier. I'll certainly be buying it when they release the Game of the Year edition (IE: When it's patched and there's enough fan made content around for me to at least look at if the actual game sucks too much).

Besides, I'd then be able to go back to my real pass time of bagging Bethesda about Fallout 3.

 

[HardCode]

Once the ADHD demographic gets bored with Oblivion two weeks after release, and take their money to their local Texas Hold 'Em tournament, I hope there is something left to put the R back into RPG for the series.

I cannot understand for the life of me how LESS RPG-ness could be propogated from Morrowing to Oblivion. I entered TES series with Morrowind, and I loved how there are so many skills, so many things to do, the freedom. I would have hoped that Oblivion offered MORE skills, MORE complexity, MORE RPG-ness. I would love to have more involved quests, better AI, and better graphics, but with at least the same about of RPG elements (i.e. skills, weapons, spells) as Morrowind. And even better to have more.

So far, from what is known and what was leaked (i.e. the video), Oblivion looks TOTALLY like a console-based conception. And the console is NOT the platform for RPGs. It is a platform for, "Turn on the XBox, kill some stuff for an hour, turn on MTV." God, I get more depressed about Oblivion the more I see and hear about it. The gamer in me is genuinely depressed.

 

[bryce777]

Re: Question

Do you folks think a person who has never played any of the other Elder Scrolls games, but loves this type of adventure RPG game, will like Oblivion more than say a die-hard fan of The ES series?

I don't think there is a demographic that will *love* this type of game really. I am not really enough of a fan of daggerfall and the first one to really consider myself a purist; it's simply the fact they have gotten progressively shittier since then, and all indicators point to a continuation in this trend...except wih cool graphics.