Not if you RP that it doesn't.

Hatred? i said dislike not hatred, there is a huge difference there between those two emotions, and its not many features that i dislike, just this one feature, as for the fast food anology i do not understand it, Bethesda don't make overpriced, poor quality products that are bad for the health, they make good quality games.



There's bound to be special magical effects from dragon shouts that you won't be able to use from just spells, like the slowmotion or firebreath dragon shouts for example, or others we don't yet know, but i suspect you probably guessed this already so i can only understand your comment as sarcasm.



Every last one of my characters i ever made in fantasy games would be (wrongly in my opinion) considered ugly by the society we live in, i always play orcs, trolls and dwarves not elves or humans, the fatter, the balder, the more scars and the uglier the better, it gives them character, i don't roleplay other than to just play the game either, so whoever you had in mind for this comment it does not apply to me.

I just wanted to start a character that doesn't have a preset background and obvious future path, that is all. /shrug

Can anyone tell me why my opinion on wanting a blank-slate character is not a good idea without resorting to personal insults, insinuating i am full of hatred for the elder scrolls or that i am weak of mind? lol

So, let me get this straight. I am not trying to insult you, Fraggle.

- You care about roleplay, correct?
- Because of this, you do not wish all your characters to have thu'um (dragonshouts), because not all of your characters are Dragonborn. Only the one who does the MQ is.
- But you don't want to miss out on the abilities the shouts give you.
- Yet you care about roleplay, which means you care about lore (you cannot separate them).

Thu'um is very important the Nords and Skyrim. If you make them boring by adding spells that do the exact same thing, you diminish the importance that Thu'um has in both lore and gameplay. Which damages Skyrim's lore and thus role playing ability.

Also, I'm pretty sure you don't have to be a Dragonborn to use the shouts. It just takes a lot of practice to learn to without being one. Try doing that, while ignoring main quest quests you may have to do to get them (pretend you didn't do it). But that might cause dragons to fly around, depending on whether you have to set off the dragon's spawning ability... and you might not want that.

Hopefully, everyone won't call your Dovahkiin right away. So, your non-Dragonborn character just lacks the dragonshouts, and thus can't use the abilities. Incorporate that into your RP.

Meh, appreciate what Bethesda is putting effort and time into.

I care about roleplay in that i don't want someone elses story to impact my experience i guess, i really like lore, books i can pick up and read, npc's that go about their business, but as far as my own character goes i'd like to see it make its own story as i play, not really knowing if i'l end up as head of the mages guild or somewhere else.

But you make a good point, i think a lot of people who took issue with my opinion simply haven't pointed out that i can't have my cake and eat it, that i have been asking for too much, but why can't someone just say that instead of all the drama?

Sure i can accept i have been asking for to much, or at least my opinion has, but then i never expected Bethesda to listen to me at all and i still don't, i know story is the only way to go and that they will do that regardless of what the "mighty" Fraggle says, why some of the other posters here couldn't realise that i don't know, i keep telling everyone, it just an opinion!!!... on!!...on!... *echoes across the Skyrim mountain tops*

edit* and thank you for the kind response.

All Fraggle does is contradict himself. He couldn't even understand my simple comparison about people like him whining about a game, yet is still going to buy it when it's released. I'm not saying that people don't have the right to complain or question something. All I'm saying is that if there is or if there are some things about a game that bothers people like you that much (especially since the Morrowind and Oblivion games), why is it that you're still going to buy it? Hence my McDonalds example, which has nothing to do with overpriced merchandise.

lets see your anology,

"That's almost like someone complaining about being overweight, but continues to do no exercising and continues to eat at McDonalds"

A fast-food company and Bethesda offer completely different products with different effects on the consumer, the fact that i criticise just one feature of a game i like is not comparable to me having my health hurt by fast food while still eating it, when i said i didn't understand it, it was a polite way of me saying it makes little to no sense, although why i should be polite to you after you misrepresented me by saying i had hatred for many of the features in the the elder scrolls when i said nothing of the kind, i don't know, and now you insinuate i am stupid for not understanding a "simple" anology,

So lets see.

"That's almost like someone complaining about being overweight",

ok this must correlate to me complaining about the one feature i don't like, except that complaining is not harmful to my health like being obese is, and the products are totally different, one is consumable food that is repeatedly purchased, the other is a one-off purchase of entertainment.


then we have,

but continues to do no exercising

hmm, this i have more trouble with, refuses to exercise can only mean i refuse to take action, so what action can i take about the only feature in Skyrim i don't like? well i could whine on a forum, aha! so i am indeed taking action! or rather i was, because now i don't care, again, this does not correlate well at all between the two premises you are trying to join.

Lastly we have,

"and continues to eat at McDonalds"

Ok, so to eat i must buy repeatedly, but to play a game i pay once and thats it, also Skyrim is not even out, so i cannot continue to eat/use it, neither am i repeatedly frequenting an establishment or physically consuming anything, again no decent correlation there at all.

While i understand the basic gist of what the anology is trying to say, you have to realise that often even the best anologies can be interpreted in different ways, i don't think yours was a particularly good one in my opinion, so it made understanding it even harder.

Not my character's story. In "open world" RPGs, my general opinion of all the stories the designers put into them is that they can take them all and shove them where the sun doesn't shine. Give me an interesting world, engaging and memorable characters populating it, and a set of complex and detailed game mechanics - and I'll write my own story, the way I like it.

They must have been thinking something along the lines of the Nerevarine. Morrowind's opening even refers to the player character as a he, as well. :shrug:

That kind of game would make me ill. :yuck:

* Until consumer game software includes high-end expert systems and chat AI, a game such as this will always disappoint. Currently, nothing compares to a human writer (or writing team). In games, its like the difference between running a Halflife server and exploring the halls, and running the same server with the halls populated by human opponents.

RPGs where all you do is roam ~are not really RPGs. An RPG requires interaction with other entities in the game. Modern RPGs base those around the scenarios written for the game. To ignore them entirely in favor of aimless roaming and wandering seems a wasteful digital LARP to me. Characters and events in the game cannot reflect the player's own imagined intents.

I am whoever I say I am, most of my RPs will not be Dragonborn.

What RPGs are we talking about? I could swear tabletop DnD (the original RPG, so to speak) did not have any of the interaction of which you speak, so by which definition of RPG are we going by?

Funny you're saying that as one of the most popular problem with modern day RPGs (Witcher, Dragon Age, Mass Effect), is that your player character is given a name and some manner of background.

So I have no idea where did you got those facts, it's just that if your looking for your "true role playing" in TES, you're looking at the wrong place...

You'll have to explain that in more detail, or by example. That's not my recollection of it.


** I'm saying... that as one [popular RPG]... is that my PC is given a name & background? **
You'll have to explain that in more detail, or by example.

I can agree with that. :goodjob:

I play female characters too, but thats just the song, I doubt it will effect the game in any way.

I like being the dragon borne, if you dont do the MQ its as if you arnt one anyways right? If you're never told you'd never think twice "I wonder if I could be the chosen one?" No, you'd never think that.

Writing (interactive story, characters), board games, no correlation?

E-e-excuse me Dovahkiin...

Not really, no... ~You don't mean http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY_YRatOInA^tm do you?

Yes, exactly! I'll RP i'm not Dovahkiin when I don't want to be.

HeroQuest was my [censored]! I actually painted all those figures.

I really hope not everyone and their mother recognizes me as dovakiin, like, how the heck do they know? I'd make it a point to avoid spreading the word, I dont want that unwanted attention sheesh!

Hero of kvatch my rear side. Champion of the arena my other rear side. Savior of blah blah I can go on.

I don't really care, I mean It makes sense that I wouldn't get to choose my bloodline. Sure I guess some people could see that as restricting their character creation, but you always have to fit that into the parameters the game provides anyway otherwise it's just a personal fantasy, and if you want that then save your self the money and go daydream under a tree somewhere you'll probably find it far more satisfying. The great thing about these games anyway is that while you might be the chosen hero you still get to exert a bit of free will and just ignore your "destiny", I mean my parents could say I was destined to be a taxidermist and I could just say go to hell and become a banker I don't have to pretend that wasn't what people expected of me. Also in Morrowind I thought it was weird right away that the freaken emperor himself shipped me off to Morrowind, I immedietly knew I was someone important. Of course I also knew that because I was the protaganist of a video game.

(Note my parents weren't taxidermists and I would blow my brains out if I was a banker(actually I'd just quit my job.) that was just a weird example.)

In those games you're already given a name, a voice, a background and some choices are sometimes out of our control.
For example, in Mass Effect you play as Commander Shepard, captain of an Alliance warship. In Witcher you play as Geralt of Rivia, a well known Witcher with a long history behind him.
In both games you still have enough choices to make your characters more custom, but for some people this was already limiting...

I liked it too; partly because http://www.lesedwards.com/index.php is one of my favorite artists.
http://www.lesedwards.com/showpic.php?id=&pid=24
http://www.lesedwards.com/showpic.php?id=&pid=25

Isn't that a bit like playing a Highlander video game and pretending your PC is not immortal?


Okay, but what about it exactly? Those aspects are pluses in my book; and [IMO] in no way limit role playing ~even though they do limit the role.

Pointer Numero Uno: I'm not sad that I'm told I'm the Dovahkiin. I intepret it to be, "Hey, you are this hero in case you feel like doing the MQ. If you don't want to do the MQ, you're not the Dovahkiin." Sure I may have to endure Esbern dragging me to safety while saying things like "You were destined to do xyz!" but once he shuts up and lets me go, I'm on my own. See ya, buddy!

Pointer Numero Dos: Just because they're showing us a stereotypical male Nord in traditional garb doesn't mean that's what we'll look like. My character is a female Nord who wears simple clothing and fights with the bow and arrow. She only uses it to hunt and sell things back to shops for coins.

I don't find it limiting that we know the plot, the villain, and the hero. That's kinda important when you're selling the game.