I actually hope you don't start out in one of the big cities. I'd feel as if the thrill of reaching them and exploring them for the first time would be lost for one of the cities because you'd be dumped into it from the start.

I think we start in Falkreath based on the information that was given.

That is probably the best way to start the game, but to me it didn't make sense storywise. You are told that it is really urgent to delvier the amulet and then you get sendt to kvatch to kill the demons even though the game has just started.

I'm actually hoping that you're being escorted to your execution by armed guards, with an audience. Than a Dragon could swoop in and create Chaos. Than you would be aided by the 'Former Blades' member they talked about. But either way, I know it's gonna be a great start

Actually, I havn't read/seen the interview revieling the little bits of details surrounding the beginning of the game. Which one was it?

I already put some clips together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N1SeaIH0Hw&feature=player_detailpage#t=268s

I predict that right as you are about to be executed you see a familiar parrot fly in and perch on a banner, then your jolly gang of pirate buddies slice your hanging rope with a throwing star and you jump off some random ledge into the water to swim to the safety of your friendly ship and you laugh at your captors while swinging around the sail on your ship chugging a big ole bottle of rum <_<

edit: on topic im excited to see how the opening will be it sounds awesome, and i enjoyed in morowind how after seyda neen you could chooes to either take the silt strider or walk to balmora, and if you choose to walk you experience a lot along the way and it can take you quite a while to get there. The first time i played through i got completely zoned into exploring after my first few encounters JUST before reaching balmora that i ended up completely oblivious to the main quest and didnt wind up touching it for days and days. I enjoyed that sort of choice at the beginning(Quick silt strider, or walking and encountering much on the way)

thanks! :foodndrink:

I liked Obilivion's opening. As soon as I left the sewer I noticed the Imperial City, headed in and had a blast exploring.

But if you do that then you are basically saying "I can't really be bothered saving the empire right now. I want to go exploring" or "A quest given to me by the emeperor. Talk of a destiny. Nah, I'll save that for later."

I only ask that we are given some free time to explore without the destiny/save the world guilt trip. Let us save that for later.

I personally preferred Morrowind's approach for all the reasons the OP described: looking through some of the items at the tradehouse and becoming acquainted with some of the more...characteristic NPCs such as Fargoth was a great way to lose yourself in the new world. The game kicked you off the docks and basically said, "you're on your own now, good luck." To me, that left a much stronger impression than in Oblivion where you were just kind of dropped at the doorstep of the Imperial City with a quest marker pointed at Weynon Priory.

I think it actually starts in Whiterun. If you look at http://i55.tinypic.com/29e3oqq.jpg, you can see that locations are marked by grey boxes. I've edited it to show where I think Riverwood is (in red) and where the game begins (in green) http://i51.tinypic.com/2w6zymw.jpg. If it's hard to spot, look near the Throat of the World.

Where I marked the green could also be Bleak Falls Barrow. If so, I'd have to say the game begins http://i55.tinypic.com/300901d.jpg (in blue). In that case, you'd be right.

I'm hoping we'll have a bit of a fusion. Maybe a really detailed opening, like Oblivion, but then make it to where we have 'breaks" in the MQ action (optional). Sort of like in Morrowind, the Blade Commander tells us to join a few guilds, and get more experienced, but we never actually had to, we could just talk to him again and he would then progress the story. Maybe just some points in the story that gives us a chance to catch our breaths without feeling like we are completely procrastinating?

This!

You were given the freedom to explore, but also a lot of guidance from the NPCs.

That is excatly what i would liked to see. In Oblivion you are guided into fighthing a lot of demons early on, and when you later join the fighters and mages guild the quests seems hopelessly trivial in comparison.

I can understand from that perspective then. To me, its sort of like reading a novel. I dont want to stop reading until I finish the chapter I'm on, but once I do, I feel like I can go to bed without feeling lost when I pick the book back up. So hopfully the MQ (and some of the other long questlines for that matter) will have some noticable chapters in thier story we can leave off on and pick back up.

You're suppose to feel lost. Lost and small. That's the whole point. Fallout 3 did a better job of easing you into the main quest too, so I don't really feel like this is a problem. I'm just saying I want that feeling of being lost, alone, and small in Skyrim. I want my amazing view of the world, because its simply that. Amazing.

The light hits your eyes, its hard to see. The music builds up. And then the wasteland hits you in the face. You feel like you can see for miles, and yet you somehow know that there is still so much you can't see. Its so big, and you feel so small. Part of you wants to turn back, but you know that you can't. You have to walk forward into this huge world. You feel something, it brings out emotions in you that we can't get now adays with roads going everywhere. Its that sence of being an explorer.

You should feel something in a game. If you just step out of a jail to some back ally, you will not get that same feeling. It shouldn't just be a business as usual beginning, time to get some quests and save some people and make some gold. It should be a moment where you stop, set the controler/mouse down and just look at what is infront of you. Where you get a sence of really being in some strange and amazing place. You shouldn't know what to do first. You should be feeling so much well up inside you, that explorer in everyone coming to the forfront, and you should get excited, because all the things you can see before you are places where you can go explore.

That's why I dislike Morrowinds beginning. Is so lackluster, so boring. It takes no time at all, and leaves nothing to remember about it. You litterally get off a boat, go into a town, and that's it. New Vegas also suffers from this. You're first look at the world is some windblown town with a mountain on the other side blocking your view. It doesn't leave you in awe, you have to go up to the graveyard for that amazing view.

That first tutorial in Oblivion and Fallout 3 were long, sure. Did they need to be that long? Probably not. But they were entertaining the first time through, and gave new players a taste of what's going on. Besides, I'm still finding interesting things going on in Fallout 3's intro. There's so many different ways to go about that beginning that its still entertaining. You can sneakily follow the Overseer on your birthday, and he'll badtalk you right before leaving the area. You can take the gun from that girl, or let her keep it, and that leads to multiple things that happen. And that bully's mom, you can choose to save her or leave her to the radroaches. That one couple that gets shot down by the guards too. And the goat has so many strange answers that its still funny to take that test and see what job they give you, and stay there and listen to what jobs everyone else gets.

Those tutorials serve another perpose though. They're long for a reason. You get caught up in them. For those thirty minutes, you forget that its an open world game and go along with the liniar tasks...because of all the other games we've played, that reaction is only natural. You do as you're told, and follow along till you're finally booted out into the world. And then you remember, you can do anything. And then those feelings I was talking about well up in the player. That sence of adventure you can't find in some back ally.

Yes, this explanation is just as long as the openings, but I wouldn't have it any other way. If they just kicked you into some ally quick like, you wouldn't get that sence of amazement and adventure. Even if they kicked you out and hit you with an amazing view right away, it wouldn't be the same. That long build up is important to the feel, and that's why they should stay with the longer ones.

Todd Howard said you were captured crossing the border. Whiterun is nowhere near the border.

Actually the start to me is how they ask me what my race is - because I will then spend the next 3 hours designing my character - by the time I get out of that I am normally too numb to care how the opening works

It doesn't have to be. The player character was taken to prison and is awaiting execution as I know it.

While I can understand your points honeybee, I couldn't possibly disagree more. Oblivion's tutorial is one of the few things I can think of that the game did better than Morrowind, that DIDN'T have anything to do with advanced technology. As it's been said, Morrowind dropped you off in a dumpy town with little to do besides gather alchemy ingredients, steal from Fargoth, and raid a tomb for a ring much cooler than his. I can't tell you how many times I had to restart the game as a new character because the skills/birthsign/name/etc that I chose just weren't working for me. And since the best way to experience the game (hell, most games really) for the first time is to go in blinder than Stevie Wonder, Morrowind's rather flawed system of introducing the player to what they're in for just doesn't cut it. Most people should be able to do well with their first character BECAUSE OF the tutorial, not in spite of it. Oblivion's tutorial is that tutorial, it's so vastly superior to Morrowind's that isn't even funny.

Skyrim's opening sounds more like Oblivion's, and I couldn't be happier about that. Of course I freely acknowledge that with the years of TES experience under my belt that I could handle just about anything Bethesda throws at me. Including fighting dragons about an hour into the Main Quest. Bring it on you flying fiery fetchers! :flamethrower:



Oh crap, I didn't even think about this part! Duh! I'm so used to having to scour Planet Elder Scrolls for modded heads in order to get something even remotely close to what I want my character to look like.

In that case, I don't give a rat's tail either. I'm going to be too busy admiring the expertly sculpted physique of my character as she runs around wearing a little bit less than she should be in such cold weather. Ooh, that gives me an idea for a simple yet very sweet mod...

There's an NPC in Riverwood that gives you a quest to Bleak Falls Barrow. They wouldn't make it to where you run into Bleak Falls Barrow before you meet the NPC. You'd have to enter Riverwood from the south side. That's why I say you begin in the prison located in Falkreath.

Ok.. good point. Did you see the second half of my post?


Riverwood is red if you missed that part too.

What if you do go to Bleak Falls first though?

yeh he is awaiting execution, but he was captured on the border