I notice a lot of people seem to mostly be focussed on the quality of the story and quests in these games, but for me these are kind of just there and really not the point. In fact I'd love if they played a far less prominent role in the game. I think comparing the DLC's for skyrim highlights it for me. The storylines of dawnguard and dragonborn I could seriously do without, I'm really not enjoying them at all, just clicking through the dialogue as fast as possible and getting them done because I just don't find the stories interesting. All I really like about them is that there's new stuff, and maybe some new areas (although I kind of hate solstheim). To be honest I don't want to be told a story, I want to tell a story, and dawnguard and dragonborn give me some new stuff to use in my stories. Hearthfire gives me more significant stuff and so for what I want from the game I consider hearthfire to provide more.

Obviously you need quests and stuff to do, but I feel like dawnguard and dragonborn really take the steering wheel too overpoweringly and suddenly I'm just being dragged along through some slide show about vampires or some dude who rides a dragon and thinks he's a badass. I prefer choosing to be at home with my family cooking up some horker stew when some dirty bandit jerks break in and suddenly I have to fight to defend all I have worked for, etc etc.

Anyone with me on this? Do you think the series should go in a less story-telly direction and more sand-boxy?

I do.

Everyone gets something different from the vanilla game and the DLCs, so each to their own. Personally, I agree with some of what you said, I think there was a bit much 'hand holding' in Dawnguard. I didn't like having a forced follower. I only know about the Dawnguard side, as I've never played the vamp side. I do really like the side quests though, also the items and new locations added to the game. I really like Solstheim, and though I though the main quest was rather short, it kept me well entertained and will continue to do so. Also had a lot of good stuff added.

Hearthfire I probably valued more than the other DLCs for what it added to my role play and to the vanilla game in general. It's great! Beth could have done a lot more with it and I would have been happy to pay more also, but I think I got way more from it than what I paid for. Anything that helps my immersion is tops for me, and Hearthfire does that very well. I know it's not to everyone's taste, but when I was on xbox with no mods, it did wonderful things for my game. I recently got a good pc, but Hearthfire will continue to be a wonderful addition to my character's lives in Skyrim.

It all boils down to each players opinion. I have no regrets buying any of the DLCs. (good thing too, bought them all twice now! LOL)

Yes, less leading and more sandbox!!

it wasn't good in my opinion because it only offered more player houses (as if we had enough already) and adds a family to the game which is okay but it can get boring at times


I had hope this ADD-ON because it isn't a DLC offered us players to open up our own business, or buy out other businesses and changing their stock or changing their store names, or how about hunting with your kids and wife or husband whichever gender your character might be

which sadly didn't happen and so in the end Hearthfire Add-On was based on Sims 3 and that's it or at least the basic structures of Sims 3

I love the homes and building them myself from scratch as well as arrow crafting.

I have all of the DLC for 360.

I must say I enjoy all three DLC for different reasons but as Andra said it's the immersion for me which is what most of my mods are. It should say something that the only DLC I currently have for PC is Hearthfire. The others will come later but it HAD to be my first addition.

'Nuff said.

I like Hearthfire but I don't like that all 3 look the same with exceptions of an a bee hive for Lakeview a fishery for windward and grinder for heljarcen I'd much preferred different looks an materials to build them with an the possibility of having the armoury extension at the back an turn the entryway into the trophy room an two green houses on either side or maybe 3 green houses or any other combinations because at the end of the day they all look alike which I don't like.

While I like the Hearthfire DLC very much, if asked to chose only one... I could not select it over the others.

It adds a lot of things, but I feel the homes should have been unique from each other and that the wings should have been interchangeable with any side. I realize what a challenge they were to create, development wise, as I looked at them in the CK and they are literally a mess. Nonetheless, it would not have wavered my choice from either of the other two DLCs.

Honestly, the fact that you want to think of TES as a plot less series where headcanon should prevail just goes to show how people misunderstand roleplay.

You can come up with a background for your character and decide what his/her morality should be, but the story and its events are a prominent element in this franchise.

Proof of this, is that they have promoted each TES game with the Main Quest's plot in all trailers.

If you want a game where your personal story is all that matters, or even the most important thing, you should look else where.

I couldn't disagree with that more. I heavily roleplay all of my characters, and only 25% of them have had anything to do with the MQ. Following the MQ has absolutely nothing to do with the overall implementation of roleplaying in this game.

I prefer Dragonborn. HF was great in its own way.

I feel like I need more of an influence on the game, I feel too much like a piece than a player. It would be nice if there was more meat in the civil war than attack this fort attack that fort storm this city. Like the enemies do nothing but sit there, they never attack your forts or do anything really. I know this trails off of the main topic but I agree that the other two DLC packs were utter garbage as it is just more being a piece than a player. You never get any positions of power just more crap for accidentally stealing cups and garbage. Oh you saved us like 3 times? Well no sir that cup you accidentally stole cost me 2 gold pieces so I shall take your life.

Never purchased it. If it actually added the ability to build a fort/temple/barrow, then I might have considered it. For now, I'm quite cozy living in Bleak Falls/ Miraak's Temple/Kolbjorn Barrow. With my own undead and Daedric minions guarding them of course.

It's just barely less pointless than Horse Armor IMO.

Well to be honest skyrim most closely resembles what I want from a game, being able to create and develop a character how I want them to be and then have the freedom to do what I want them to do and have places for them to go and enemies to beat up and have farmers run up needing help here and etc etc etc.

If Elder Scrolls wanted to focus more on this sort of stuff and expand it, while sacrificing their own linear stories, I for one would applaud them. But yeah maybe a totally new game needs to fill this niche, I don't think I'm the only person who wants it. This thread is just to ask how attached people are to the actual story. I see people complain about it like it's important but at the same time what most people seem to fondly reminisce about are the sandboxy moments which they create themselves, facilitated by the wonderful world the game provides but not dictated by story writers.

The fact hearthfire was cheap as chips while dawnguard and dragonborn were more makes it seem like the hard part for the devs is coming up with these stories and it's a lot of work, I say they should save themselves the trouble because they're not really the strength of the game, in fact I don't enjoy them at all. I love the game, I mean really really love it, but this part they seem to put the most work into takes up about 1% of my admiration. A linear tale is what every lame game has, I choose elder scrolls (and fallout- and to a lesser extent I used to play GTA but not since san andreas) because you at least have the option to not be entirely controlled by the linear story.

I'd love if a game came out that focussed 100% on this side of things and forgot about the story altogether beyond stuff happening here and there. To be honest I simply do not play other games, I own a heap which I never play, I just play skyrim whenever I play anything and it's been that way now since the game came out, won't change until fallout 4. I have no time for the traditional linear video game that's more like a movie, I feel like I'm just way past that. There are these great games straying from it a bit but still clinging onto it like it's vital and I wonder when they'll realise it isn't. Maybe it won't be elder scrolls, but I do hope it's bethesda and I hope it's at least basically like elder scrolls/fallout.

Absolutely agree in value for money terms.

If you avoid looking at it from the purely questline angle, Ok so i find materials and build 3 houses.

It adds a great deal of depth to the game which is missing and shows what could have been achieved by Beth had they not been pressured by the hack and slash mob.

If this approach had been adopted from the start the game would have been even more popular for console players as it is to some extent offering a mod.

Homesteading gets a Hells Yeah from me. Being stuck with you-know-who tagging along for 2/3 of a questline does not. But I liked the lore that DG put forward.

Can't say anything about Dragonborn. Never even visited Solstheim yet.

Hearthfire was fun, but it doesnt really compare to the other two. I really enjoyed the Dawnguard questline, the armors it added, and I really enjoyed the quests, armor, and new map that came with Dragonborn.

I do have fun visiting my house between quests and dungeons, saying hi to my kids, etc. But basically all it is is a mod. There are plenty of nice houses to live in the vanilla game, not to mention tons of player houses that can be modded in. So basically the only new thing from Hearthfire was being a parent, which is cool, but is nowhere near as important to me as all the stuff the other DLCs offered.