Elder Scrolls The appeal of Skyrim

[Yosharian]

Skyrim's writing is just... functional.

Thieves Guild.

• Dampened Spirits: Put Maven Black-Briar's competition out of business.

• Scoundrel's Folly: Squeeze a reluctant informer for information.

Where we learn someone is messing with the guild. Mercer Frey is a Nightingale.

• Hard Answers: Help translate Gallus's journal.
• The Pursuit: Break into Mercer Frey's house and search for clues.
• Trinity Restored: Become one of the Nightingales, Nocturnal's guardians.

Where we learn who is messing with the guild, what the Nightingales are, and we become a Nightingale ourselves. Mercer Frey is a Nightingale.

• Blindsighted: Stop Mercer Frey.

Where we track down, and kill Mercer Frey during a heist. Mercer Frey is a Nightingale.

• Darkness Returns: Walk the Pilgrim's Path and return the Skeleton Key to its rightful place.

Where we go to the Twilight Sepulcher, where all Nightingales go after death. Mercer Frey, now dead is not there. (even after the connection with the Ebonmere is restored, in case you conjure that dumb argument.)

So is Mercer Frey a Nightingale or not?






That's just 1 argument amongst thousands that this game is pure and utter mediocrity aimed at the 100 IQ mark. You one of them.

Skyrim's writing is just... functional. It is not complete garbage.

Ok.

Haha, wow. I never thought about that. Good point.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

So is Mercer Frey a Nightingale or not?

The nightingale spirits are there to protect the twilight sepulcher. He betrayed everyone so Nocturnal probably wouldn't want him around.

 

[Luckmann]

No suitable option, poll is retarded.

 

[Hellion]

When creating their games in the post-Morrowind era, Bethesda pretty much tells its writers/designers to "go fill the world with whatever cool/awesome/crazy stuff you want lol". Eventually there will be at least 1-2 competent writers/designers, and that's why even in Oblivion/Skyrim you have a few bits and pieces here and there that are passable, even good at times (like Thieves Guild/Dark Brotherhood storylines) but the rest is irredeemable and degenerate trash as far as its writing quality is concerned.

With that out of the way, I voted for "bad RPG". Being a fan of the series since the days of Daggerfall, witnessing the abysmal decline in quest design, branching storylines, reactivity/choices-consequences and the general quality in writing/quests/NPC dialogues in post-Morrowind Bethesda, makes me pretty much unable to enjoy Skyrim for the fantasy LARP that it is. I understand why the mainstream crowd and some other players love it, but it isn't for me.

Besides, who needs another fantasy open-world game when we have Mount & Blade and its mods.

 

[Micormic]

I didn't like Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion or Fallout 3 so I never played it. Never will either.


Very rarely do I give companies more then 2 shots but I got oblivion in the bargain bin and fallout 3 as a gift.

 

[Zer0wing]

This is an "RPG" Elder Scrolls fans deserve and had it coming ever since Morrowind went over their heads.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

TLDR: Remember when we were kids. Sometimes we played with toy soldiers, action figures we controlled. That was Baldur's gate. Some other times, we dressed like cowboys, we got our toy revolvers, and played cowboys vs indians, pretending we were aiming and shooting at imaginary indians, or our friends, dressed as indians. THAT, was Skyrim...

 

[Jazz_]

The appeal of Skyrim is to install mods that improve the flora, fauna, rock formations, sea foam, water reflections, foliage physics, etc so that you can forget the game is a turd and start taking screenshots of beautiful vistas.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

If you turn the spiders into bears you're a pussy.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I didn't like Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion or Fallout 3 so I never played it. Never will either.


Very rarely do I give companies more then 2 shots but I got oblivion in the bargain bin and fallout 3 as a gift.

morrowind is probably one of the more overrated 'classics'
it has an interesting world and... that's about where the good part ends.

 

[Micormic]

I didn't like Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion or Fallout 3 so I never played it. Never will either.


Very rarely do I give companies more then 2 shots but I got oblivion in the bargain bin and fallout 3 as a gift.

morrowind is probably one of the more overrated 'classics'
it has an interesting world and... that's about where the good part ends.

Didn't like the combat system, the dictionary npc's or the interface. Didn't like how static and lifeless the world was either.


Never got more then like 4-5 hours into Morrowind.

 

[msxyz]

The appeal of Skyrim was to install a female body mod, running around the map naked, staring at the 3d model of the player from different angles or in different situations and watching an animated digital ass as you roam the countryside
Unless Bethesda will allow AO18+ mods in their crappy paywall service that undoubtely they will force down in everyone's throat, I predict ES6 will be forgotten pretty soon

 

[HarveyBirdman]

Skyrim one of the best RPGs ever made. Anybody who disagrees is a contrarian nostalgiafag better suited to dicking in their parents' basement for 500 hours trying to figure out what a stat in Grimoire does. But it's not without numerous and massive flaws.

Skyrim's Pros, listed in order of significance:
- TES lore is the most interesting metaphysical thoughtplay in the history of gaming. And in fiction generally, only Tolkein defeats TES in the masterful depth and breadth of meaning buried under literally everything in the game. Unless you're a complete brainlet, the lore elevates the entire experience exponentially.

- The best handcrafted open world in history, period. Roads clearly lead you where you need to go, while also presenting nigh infinite temptations to explore the wildnerness. Succumbing to that temptation is worthwhile, as hidden environmental storytelling never fails to deliver an experience worth having. Locations and enemies are spaced out perfectly to make exploration feel at once comfy, awe inspiring, surprising, and tense.

- Jeremy Soule knocked it out of the park, once again. And this time around, Bethesda interspersed the music with long pauses of silence, allowing the player to immerse himself in the sounds of Skyrim's natural environments and populated areas. Auditory atmosphere is perfect.

- Visual aesthetics -- top tier.

- The DLC is excellent, adding extra layers of roleplaying, awesome NPCs, great quests, great combat abilities, and the best dungeons in the entire game. Dragonborn is best, Dawnguard is only slightly lesser, and Hearthfire is a worthwhile addition.

- The main quest is a solid addition to the series. It's an epic tale. Epic tales are good things when they're done well. This epic tale is done well. 15 years ago, nobody would have complained about it -- the ASOIAF "everybody needs to be secretly an evil sexual deviant who only cares about earthly delights" mentality that everybody has recently adopted will have its day on the chopping block too, so be ready for the shift when it happens.

- The Daedric quests are good. Each quest is unique, matching the unique personalities of each Prince.

- Factions you can join: Greybeards, Blades, Empire, Stormcloaks, DB, Thieve's Guild, College of Winterhold, Companions, Bard's College, Thane of 9 different holds, Dawnguard, Volkihar Vampire Clan, and House Telvanni. Thats 22 factions, 14 when you call being a thane essentially one faction, all of which are completely distinct from one another, and a few of which lock you out from joining other factions. Additionally, some other groups could be considered factions you can join -- Reiklings, Thirsk, and Frostmoon Pack.

- Dragon shouts are sick. Being the Dragonborn is sick. The lore (obviously) makes them even sicker. You're a curmudgeon if you don't like them.

- Combat is fun, and provides lots of options for roleplaying.

Skyrim's Cons, listed in order of significance:

- Lots of factions. Lots of very, very, very shallow factions. Day 1 -> join faction. Day 2 -> you're the chosen one! Day 3 -> you lead the faction. Skill requisites? Not needed, apparently. Gay. That alone makes the factions shallow... but wait! There's more! Each faction was on the rails (except for DB regarding two choices). You are the legendary dragonborn chosen one, or whatever... and yet you're nothing but an errand boy. Thieves guild forces you to be Nocturnal's bitch; I want to side with Mercer. Companions forces you to side with the companions; why can't I hunt down the werewolves instead? College of winterhold is just a mess of explaining absolutely nothing while you run around like a chicken with your head cut off. And I could go on. The factions, though distinct and based on a good foundation, were executed so poorly I can't believe they were ever greenlit.

- Cut content. Why bother even having a civl war faction if you're going to make it suck so badly, especially compared to the designs you had in place? Why would you cut the arena? The Daedric quests were supposed to be absolutely stupendous as opposed to just good; why cut the best parts? Where is my dynamic economy, Todd, you faggot? Cut lore out the wazoo (see below). Cut miscellaneous and faction quests. Just... come on, Bethesda. Hire some devs who want to make the game good, NOT devs who spend their Game Jam making giant mudcrabs or werebears. Jesus fucking Christ.

- Combat is fun... until it isn't. It breaks at the midgame, because the whole leveling and damage calculation systems are so damned stupid that it gave me a stroke in 2011. Actually, I'm having another stroke right now just thinking about it.

- So many opportunities for skills that were lost. So very many... Speaking of which, where the hell are my spears? You even had a dev that made and animated them just for fun.

- Virtually no options to roleplay outside of combat. Absolutely ridiculous.

- NPCs worse than Oblivion and Morrowind, better than Daggerfall.

- Most quests are kill or fetch quests. Boring.

- Dungeons are linear trash.

-"Puzzles" are insulting.

- TES lore is the best. Skyrim's lore is the weakest since Morrowind. Kirkbride wrote a ton of absolutely top tier content that never got implemented, because the devs are a bit simple in their preferences. Remnants of it remain, keeping the lore better than most everything else if you dig deeply enough, so that's why the lore remains in the pro's section... but its lessened state also makes it a con. This tells you everything you need to know:

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

The appeal of Skyrim is just roaming around a huge open-world and seeing the sights. Hit a dungeon here, take a quest there, talk to some people, hunt some animals. It's just a wilderness simulator with a decent enough story. It's not something I'm going to continually play over the years unless it's heavily modded now, but in 2011 it was a very fun game and enjoyable to just get lost in the world and absorbed in it for hours and hours. I had the same experience with Morrowind and Oblivion, too, Morrowind still being my favorite.

 

[aweigh]

I actually agree with that fluent. The appeal of a game like Skyrim is purely superficial, and that's not necessarily something bad. It's literally a very pretty hiking simulator in a nordic fantasy world, and when taken at face value: sure, that sounds fun.

As a game, though, it is utter excrement, almost offensively banal. Insultingly stupid. Craven in the spirit of its design, disingenious and apathetic as an experience.

It's fun to hike and look at the sights but dreadfully, offensively bad to play.

Obligatory caveat: Obviously I've never played Skyrim as I despise Bethesda and pride myself on never having played a single second of FO3, FO4 or of Skyrim, and I wanted to make that clear in case anyone dared to think I came to this conclusion from having soiled my soul and self by actually playing the horrid little thing.

Fuck you for even thinking I'd fucking play this piece of shit. That said everything I wrote above is 100% correct.

 

[HarveyBirdman]

As a game, though, it is utter excrement, almost offensively banal. Insultingly stupid. Craven in the spirit of its design, disingenious and apathetic as an experience.

t. brainlet

 

[aweigh]

These fucking 2019'ers wilding out on us.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

This nigga clowning on Grimoire when you can't even ride a turtle in Skyrim.

 

[HarveyBirdman]

These fucking Puerto Ricans talking about CRPGs when they don't even have Windows XP yet.

 

[Incendax]

If you turn the spiders into bears you're a pussy.

If you ever get banned, I expect to see Generic-Giant-Bear sneaking around. :D

 

[The Old Kiwi]

I was asked recently what i was that i really liked about Skyrim. Apparently many people misunderstand Skyrim here on this forum. I really think it is unfair that many people don't consider it an RPG, or consider it garbage. So i decided to start a new thread stating what i believe is the real appeal of Skyrim and the "Bethesda formula" in general, and begin a discussion about it.
...

Since Bethesda chose to force everyone who bought that program to have to accept Steam, I chose to ignore the game entirely, as if it didn't / doesn't exist. I'm doing to same with EA's Origin crap.

 

[racofer]

Skyrim is like an ocean, with the depth of a puddle.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Skyrim is like an ocean, with the depth of a puddle.

Pretty much.

And the appeal of the game is obviously LARPing. We of the Codex don't care about anything except the quality of the content, where as the dump masses are attracted to the idea of the game and couldn't care less whether there is any actual substance there or not.

The proof of this was demonstrated by the arguments a lot of NPC Bethesda fans were giving for why Fallout 3 was better than New Vegas. I remember one of them arguing for instances that New Vegas was mostly empty with "nothing to do". What he meant of course is that there was nothing for him to LARP in, since the game was a lot less sandboxy than Fallout 3 was, more focused on telling an actual story than offer an empty but large LARPing experience. Fallout 3 for instance had lots of large desert areas with, from our perspective, cut and paste pointless content but which is what LARPers crave, whereas the quest driven nature of New Vegas was unintelligible to them.

 

[HarveyBirdman]

the dump masses are attracted to the idea of the game and couldn't care less whether there is any actual substance there or not.

No, the dump masses don't even know what the "idea of the game" means. It's irrelevant to them. They like Skyrim for the same reason Todd likes Skyrim -- you run through a dungeon killing baddies, level up and get better equippment, and then do it all over again. No thought is put into it.

As to substance, if you don't see the depth of TES lore as a franchise, including the new stuff introduced in Skyrim, then I don't know what to tell you. Maybe go play a telltale game?

 

[Lyric Suite]

Well, i think it is pretty telling that the masses are starting to turn against Bethesda the closer their games get to mere shooters. Like Fallout 4, and now Fallout 76, both of which didn't offer the type of experience Bethesda fans crave as much as their others games did, that experience being LARPing, as i said.

As to substance, if you don't see the depth of TES lore as a franchise, including the new stuff introduced in Skyrim, then I don't know what to tell you. Maybe go play a telltale game?

Who gives a fuck about lore? We are talking about the content of the game itself, no the made up fiction surrounding it. Last TES game i actually played was Morrowind, and i didn't get far acquiring any knowledge of the "lore" because the writing was just so goddamn terrible.

I also never finished the game but i played enough to get a sense of why so many people liked it.