Skyrim is worse than Oblivion in every way

[ohWOW]

Wait, a Guardian Mudcrab? Jesus.

 

[Wyrmlord III]

God DAMN, guys, you have to believe me when I say Dawnguard is excellent.

The dark indoor areas feature is actually very well used. There are certain newly placed caves in which there are absolutely zero light sources. You can't even tell whether you are walking into a rock or onto an open passage. You need to use a Magelight spell in order to see every five steps in front of you and behind you, in order to keep in mind where you are moving. The complete darkness is used to fool the player very effectively - I was casting Magelight all over what seemed to be a dead end, until I ended up falling into a stream of water that forced me across dozens of different indoor waterfalls. Mistake was lighting the areas above me rather than looking at the ground.

When you are floating away in unknown directions in complete darkness within the network of underwater streams, you have very little time and extreme urgency to find the first solid walking ground on which you can drag yourself away from the streams. Losing your footing, falling into a stream of water, and having to find your way back is one of the most daunting concerns on your mind in these caves.

But not as daunting as what you find in them. The things that are walking around in this complete darkness are what you keep you on your toes. Several times, I have seen two shining eyes in the middle of the dark passageways, before I realized a black cave saber tooth cat had been stealthily hunting me down and waiting for the kill. You can't see them because they are completely camouflaged. Those things do 50 points of damage per claw attack, and just creep up quietly and sneakily in the dark. Remember how Ultima Underworld had these panthers in dark caverns that jumped you out of nowhere? This looks like a direct homage to it.

Finally, there is some use to playing a Khajit or Argonian, so that you can see in these dark caves without attracting attention, and so that you can swim the waters in order to avoid being ambushed by two or three cave saber cats.

 

[Gord]

Just found very interesting mod which changes the quest descriptions in your journal so you should be able to find the quest locations using only the hints not the compass. Haven't tested it myself - author of the mod gives an example:

I've recently begun a new character in Skyrim with SkyRe and this mod and hope I'll be able to play without questmarkers as much as possible (I think most radiant quests aren't part of the mod). Definitely incline for gameplay if it works as good as advertised.
So far I'm not very far in, though, and all quests have been the standard early-game stuff, which I anyway knew where to look for from my first character. Still, as far as I can see, it should be possible to follow descriptions rather than markers now.

I'm also using Civil Unrest mod, which adds zones that simulate the ongoing civil war (previously mostly absent from the game) by staging battles with lots of NPCs of different factions at different places. A bit demanding of the pc, but nice touch - however you can adjust the spawns a bit for weaker or stronger pcs.
Unfortunately a few strange bugs (flying animals, yay!) break immersion a bit from time to time.

Remember how Ultima Underworld had these panthers in dark caverns that jumped you out of nowhere? This looks like a direct homage to it.

No, somehwo I don't remember those. Are you sure it's Ultima Underworld you are talking about?

 

[Commissar Draco]

It looked like they spent thousands of fucking dollars making the NPCs look pretty in close-ups

 

[Commissar Draco]

What about consoltards who were not able to find Caius Cosades? Think about teh children wallets logrus

 

[Bahamut]

According to an obscure part of the IMperial library site there's actually a dragon in Daggerfall.

This is no secret really, there was supposed to be a dragon but they axed it along with many other features

 

[Gord]

 

[Bahamut]

Props to ruskies who dont make only porn and anime mods

 

[Wyrmlord III]

Hey abnaxus, and anyone who can help.

Have you ever tried the Trespass Glitch? You've probably heard of it. I have been working to see if I can exploit the infamous Trespass Glitch just for the heck of it, but I have been unable to do so. It seems to have been removed by the time of Dawnguard's release. Most online references to the Trespass Glitch go back to November to December, so I am wondering if it is still possible to use the Trespass Glitch.

You've got Dawnguard, so I was wondering if you had a save of any uber-leveled character so that you can try it out and see if it works.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

'tcl', duh.

 

[Wyrmlord III]

There is no cheat that allows you to have a Volkihar Master Vampire follower, now, is there? I was hoping to convert my Level 42 Master Vampires into Volkihar Master Vampires, just to see the extraordinary spectacle of them two alone wiping out two Forsworn camps or maybe an Ancient Dragon.

 

[Bahamut]

Forsworn camps or maybe an Ancient Dragon.

Well while we are at dragons (or mutated cliffracers)

There are new high level dragon types in the levelscaling lists and they got an ability to drain you

Also they are fugly

Honestly i liked how original dragons looked, they ahd p. good models (besides alduin)

 

[ohWOW]

Is dragons' dicks mod out yet?

 

[G.O.D]

Forsworn camps or maybe an Ancient Dragon.

Well while we are at dragons (or mutated cliffracers)

There are new high level dragon types in the levelscaling lists and they got an ability to drain you

Also they are fugly

Honestly i liked how original dragons looked, they ahd p. good models (besides alduin)

Dragons? In Skyrim? That's debatable according to some people



Just sayin'

 

[Bahamut]

Dragons? In Skyrim? That's debatable according to some people



Just sayin'

Well thers no strict rule whats a wyrm or whats a dragon, besides akatosh was depicted as kind of "wyrmy" so it would be bit off if his "kids" where different

 

[Manjuice Nutella]

Dragons being technically wyverns are the least of this game's problems.

Also, I like how

Originality

 

[Turjan]

Also, I like how

Originality

Really, that complaint is a bit silly. There's Chinese dragons and standard fantasy dragons, and the latter have been looking pretty much the same for ages. The Warcraft dragon is not really an original concept, either, and I would have chosen other examples as comparison.

The really tired thing is the "dragon" as game monster itself. The Elder Scrolls were more original when they didn't use them. But most people seem to prefer the familiar. The suits know their customers.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Yes Prefered them as myth, allegory of Time and as replacement fro Eagle on Imperial Banners too. Read that for many World of Morrowind was too alien so Beth retconed Cirodil from Greece mixed with Wietnam into another pseudo High medieval England. Damn consoltarted Proles.

 

[ohWOW]

Not even medieval england, less. It pisses me off to see Jackson's LoTR all over the place, but with people made from plasticine.

 

[Manjuice Nutella]

Dragons being technically wyverns are the least of this game's problems.

Also, I like how

Originality

Really, that complaint is a bit silly. There's Chinese dragons and standard fantasy dragons, and the latter have been looking pretty much the same for ages. The Warcraft dragon is not really an original concept, either, and I would have chosen other examples as comparison.

The really tired thing is the "dragon" as game monster itself. The Elder Scrolls were more original when they didn't use them. But most people seem to prefer the familiar. The suits know their customers.

That; and the fact that even for a standard dragon, it's identical in almost every aspect. Even Warcraft dragons like drakes or Nether dragons differ a bit; they just copied the exact "awesomeness" and "epicness" of protagonist to attract complete retards.

Which makes this retarded dragon cliche even worse.

Not that it was particularly needed anyway - the cover has only the Empire symbol and the title on it, it could've had anything else and it wouldn't matter, because the marketing did the rest - proles shitted bricks when they saw that generic human in generic pseudo-Viking iron helmet that's completely meh even for the popculture standards. But due to influence of marketing and shit like crowd psychology, everyone "loved it" and it was MAJESTIC; and everyone who gives it less than 9/10 is an outlaw.

P.S. I recall some random dude once who taken offense that Skyrim dragon is a derp cliche, and made excuses such as "It's not a game just about dragons, it's about absorbing their power through souls"

 

[Manjuice Nutella]

Some fucking immersive shit in Hearthfire

 

[Bahamut]

Some fucking immersive shit in Hearthfire

fun fact, skyrim kids are clones, beth did not bother to create morphs or additional assets

 

[ohWOW]

All kids still have the same face, it's fucking creepy.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Grab Inquisitor and leave this Beth Shit for Watchwitz inmates.

 

[Manjuice Nutella]

Summer School with Oblivion

It’s not surprising when you hear that someone spent most of their summer vacation playing Oblivion. Especially not on this blog. But what about playing Oblivion and receiving college credit? That’s exactly what happened this summer at theThe University of Wisconsin – Whitewater.

Below is an interview conducted this past month with Cindy Lee Anderton & Elizabeth King, colleagues in UWW’s College of Education and Professional Studies. This summer they used Oblivion for their course “Cultural Studies/Gaming” using Oblivion.
Learn more below…
When did you come up with the idea for this class?
Cindy: This idea started hatching itself when Beth and I discovered we were both women in our 40’s and loved role playing games. I had started playing Oblivion in July of 2011 and as I kept playing it I started to realize how often I would link what was occurring in the game to our society today in terms of cultural differences, inequalities, and social justice issues. I realized that my own play reflected aspects of my identity development, my belief system, and values and attitudes that I had. I also realized the game itself presented experiential opportunities for understanding discrimination, oppression, power, privilege, etc.
I started having these conversations with Beth about all these exciting aspects of the game and I was talking about how it would be really neat to be able to use this game as a learning tool in a cultural studies course. We at first talked about possibly doing a research study on the game and whether or not it would have an influence on increased self-awareness of one’s own biases, prejudices, belief system, attitudes, identity development and empathy for people who are different from themselves.
As we continued talking we realized what we really wanted to do was design a class around the game. That is have a cultural studies class where the experiential component and literally one of the texts was the game itself. We put together a curriculum proposal and it was accepted and then we put together a research proposal and went through the Internal Review Board and the study on the class was then accepted.
Beth: I’ve been studying video games and learning for the better part of the past six years. My interest in gaming started during my doctoral studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where I was involved with the Games, Learning, and Society organization. During my studies, I managed two enrichment programs for teenagers, one using The Sims2 as an environment for helping girls develop IT skills, and the other centering on World of Warcraft as a space for incubating the literacy skills of at-risk teenage boys. These experiences provided me with first hand evidence of the power game-based engagement to pro mote deep learning. When I started at UW-Whitewater I was looking for an opportunity to introduce similar game-enhanced curriculum with adult learners. The collaboration with Cindy provided an exciting pilot!
Can you explain the objective of the class?
Although the class was open to undergraduate students and graduate students from any college or department we ended up with four graduate students in my department – counselor education. Always the main objectives were: 1.) to see if playing the game would increase a person’s empathy and understanding of someone different from themselves and 2.) to see if it would help students increase their own self-awareness of their attitudes, biases, beliefs, and prejudices by reflecting on the choices they made in the game and their reactions to events in the game.
What made you choose Oblivion over other titles?
Cindy: The selection of the game came from my playing of Oblivion and knowing from my own game play that it would be a good fit. We had some discussion about using Skyrim, but because we knew that many of our students might not be gamers we opted for Oblivion because we assumed our average students might have a computer with specs that would allow them to play Oblivion. We also knew this was an experimental class so we wanted to keep student cost down. I knew the game of Oblivion inside and out and also knew I would not be able to get to know Skyrim as well as I would need to in order to have it be the game used for the class.
Neither of us still has not yet played Skyrim; however, in consulting with other gamers I was informed that Oblivion was the better choice because the racial slurs or discrimination in Oblivion was more subtle than in Skyrim, and we wanted to have students make their own connections rather than having those connections be so obvious.
Beth: Like Cindy, playing Oblivion myself made me highly aware of the potential areas for coursework. We were having conversations about developing the course while Skyrim was newly launched. It was a difficult decision not to go with the new title, but as Cindy explained, there were good reasons to stay with Oblivion. In addition, a colleague was conducting a similar study with his students at Rochester Institute of Technology using Skyrim, so we divided our efforts and will be collaborating during the analysis phase.
Were most students in the class gamers? Fans of Oblivion?
Out of all of the four students only one classified themselves as a gamer and this person had not played any video games for a few years. Two students gaming experiences had consisted of solitaire or Bejeweled and the fourth really didn’t like video games. None of them knew anything about Oblivion and they were all nervous about learning how to play a video game. They were all worried that they might not be good at it and couldn’t figure it out.
How varied were the findings based on the player race selected by the students? Any particularly interesting trends?
Early analysis shows that players selected races in the games of Oblivion that bore similarity to the race, ethnicity, or cultural heritage of themselves in real life. Early analysis suggests that students made character selections of race, sign, and class that were similar to themselves IRL. Although there was a bit of strategizing in the selection of sign and class, overall there were many classes, signs, races that were immediately excluded because they were too weird or they were uncomfortable with a skill the sign, race, class had such as: stealing, sneaking, lock picking.
Upon self-reflection students noted that they made many choices that were consistent with their belief system IRL. Two interesting trends – students felt they could empathize with individuals who come to a country and don’t know the culture or lanauge because they felt they didn’t know what to do when they started playing the game. They would interact with characters and make choices that IRL would be fine, but found that in the game it wasn’t okay and they talked about relating this experience to the concept of “culture shock.” Another interesting trend was that students became really open to talking about their own biases and how their biases influenced the choices they made.
Do you think you’ll do this again? If so, would you consider other games? Skyrim? Fallout 3? Games from other companies?
Cindy: I would definitely like to do this again. I do not know in what form. I would like the game to either be part of a regular semester course (16 weeks), rather than the summer format it was taught in which was four weeks. I felt like we just started getting into really good stuff when the class came to an end. I will consider Skyrim, but I want to play it first and see if Skyrim could do much the same thing and/or better or if it is not as good of a fit. Currently we are not considering other games from other companies. We want to do the research analysis first and see what we come up with and then we will make determinations about whether we will make a more concerted effort to look at other games.
Beth: I too am excited about considering the possibilities for using Oblivion in a revised version of this course as well as potential integration into one of my undergraduate classes on diversity. Another course I’m currently developing will focus directly on video games for learning. It’ll be a survey course that will provide students the opportunity to observe and play a wide spectrum of games across genres. Fallout3 and Skyrim will be included to some degree. In addition, I likely will be running an outreach program for youth next summer that will essentially provide an incubator for teachers to explore using commercially available off the shelf games for classroom and afterschool application. Oblivion will certainly be a central feature of that program.
I do have to add though, we’re really looking forward to the upcoming MMO release! It’s going to be fantastic! The increased flexibility that’s going to offer us over single player RPG for working with our students at a distance, and of course, parallel play… the possibilities there are endless! Please keep us informed of your progress… we’ll gladly volunteer for beta!

http://www.bethblog.com/2012/09/04/summer-school-with-oblivion/

I’ve been working on a syllabus to slowly introduce video games into the classroom. I did think about using Oblivion because of the modding tools, but this article showed me that the game is deeper than just making things. I applaud you and your work for thinking outside the box.

Fact: those are the people who teach us