So I recently watched a very funny and interesting video pointing out all (or at least most) of the gripes that PC gamers or more hard core gamers have with the path skyrim is apparently taking. Among them were the fact that Levitation is out because it "Breaks the game" as if oblivion had no game breaking aspects in it, the fact that we are forced to have a quest marker on our compass, having an auto aim, and the fact that fast travel is in are all issues that the person who made the video had. They were worried that skyrim would basically be another oblivion, with scaled loot, and finally that the UI was clunky and hard to use. In oblivion the UI wasn't very innovative, you couldn't search for items by typing in the first letter of the item name, or instead of click and dragging being able to type in the number of the item you want, and many other things that were just backwards. Finally, they say Radient Story is just overhyped much like Radiant AI

So who is worried about skyrim being made dumber for casual players who don't want to spend as much time thinking and want to just breeze through the game? Does anybody think that skyrim is showing significant signs of being dumbed down? Why or why not?

dumbing down = more audience = more money = yes there is dumbing down in almost game to an extent especially when compared to previous sequels two or three back.

Also not due to consoles only. It can happen to any platform even if it was exclusive, with that said yes Skyrim will be made for the "casuals" you can see clearly that its has more eye candy then previous games attracting the COD like crowds with big explosions, HUD in general especially its pretty level up banner, and its "perk" tree vs just skills.

Will it ruin skyrim no it won't there is still plenty of the RP aspect in the game like being able to do anything you see NPC's doing (mostly) emotes are in and it still is an open world. The people who buy that wants to finish the game as fast as they can (A.K.A Main Quest) can go right ahead and move on missing over 90% of the games content those who want to try to see the entire world can if they choose to.

I think this whole "dumbing down" thing is being severely overdone. A lot of the mechanics that used to be used were becuase of technology not being able to implement things in realtime. Now it can. I've played Daggerfall, Morrowind, and Oblivion. Each one gets easier to play becuase of better interfaces (note: not perfect), smoother handling. TES was always an action RPG, now it's just implementing a bit more of the action side. From what I've seen and heard of Skyrim the "complex" stuff will still be there. Politics, puzzles, etc.

Haters are always going to hate. Are there things that I'm a bit aprehensive about in Skyrim? Sure, but I'm not going to let it ruin a good game. Every other TES game has been flawed in huge ways, but I've still played hundreds of hours in each. Skyrim will have it's own intricacies and charms, and it's own downfalls too. I think people love this series almost too much. They want it to be so perfect they forget that it NEVER will be. The developers are human, and the user base wide. Their will always be some people who don'tlike what's done, and others who do. It's got nothing to do with the itelligence level of the end user though, just personal preferences.

I don't get the comparison. Having levitation as a spell ruins the ability to give the player challenges. Unless everything else the GM (equation to D&D here, forgive) puts in the game has wings, which is pretty stupid for creatures that don't have them - you win against 95% of the game with just one spell. That does, in fact, "break the game".

Having a quest marker (which is only accurate if you select the quest you're doing, so select another and get on with complaining about something else), auto aim - is this... something on Fallout or something? I was an archer in Oblivion and I'll be damned if there was any aim assisting. Fast travel being in - again - those that like it, it affects. As they use it. Those that don't...

don't ever have to use it. I really don't get how difficult that concept is to some.

Problem with quest markers is that there unless you know where to go there is no Alternative other then follow the marker especially on some quests where not going at a certain location doesn't trigger the rest of the quest so you can continue it.. part of not being able to switch off a quest is annoying as well I might add.

Does 300+ hours of content sound like dumbing down to you? Sure, they changed the leveling system and armor has been merged to prevent clipping and to have more NPCs on screen. That doesn't sound like dumbing down to me. Plus there are tons of threads like this one, use the search feature.

QFT. Levitation breaks the game in terms of layout of the world. Having a quest marker hardly prevents you from playing the game.

You guys don't seem to understand why they have done some of these changes, your just jumping the gun and automatically blame casuals.

Things like the armor where combined so they could create more detailed sets that they couldn't do before because the shirts covered the pants too much or sometimes the pants stuck through the shirts. You should be thankful for that change because where going to see some pretty wicked armor in the future that has more details going down the back or sides.

And the attributes where simplified because they didn't do much in the previous games, like endurance, all it did was increase health so why not just increase the health directly, thats just smart thinking right there.

You guys need to think things through before complaining about things like this, these changes are only going to make the game better, for hardcoes and casuals alike.

Ummmm, no. Just no. Those two features will most likely be worth all the hype. Those people shouldn't claim it's overhyped until they play the game. I will bet ANYTHING that they are wrong. I have trouble taking people like that seriously if they aren't looking forward to those two exciting features. Those things ARE a huge deal.

I don't know, I hope it is but I really think they did overhype Radiant AI along with oblivion as a whole, but I think that questing may be boring and dull with this Radiant story stuff... You have a point, we can't judge til we play it since we get next to NO information around here other than leaks...but just based off of oblivion I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't as revolutionary as they say it will be.

Dumbing down? Maybe.
There is only one thing that indicates this.
Attributes- going from 8 to 3 attributes is stupid.
8 Attributes is too complex?
It is like saying that having to cut nails on 10 fingers is too hard so you'll chop 6 fingers off, leaving only thumbs and index fingers.

Skyrim is not any more dumbed down than Oblivion was. Skyrim actually has alot of cool stuff like Morrowind has that boring Oblivion did not. Bethesda just got rid of the usless crap that was in Oblivion and improved things. How many times do we have to go over this?

No I don't, levitation was kind of gamebreaking, I can imagine some ways to make it less gamebreaking, but saying there was still gamebreaking aspects in Oblivion doesn't really change that, it's just trying to distract from that fact. Some quest shouldn't have quest markers but if your target is marked on the map, it might as well be marked on the compass because the only difference is that you don't have to constantly break the flow of the game by bringing up a menu to halt the game and look on the map. This isn't a challenge it's just annoying and time consuming. We don't have auto aim, I'm thinking you are thinking about the magnetism thing, but that is only to avoid hurting allies, if you were really there, then you obviously would never hit your allies, so it's a problem that basically only exists because of the medium, secondly nobody should care much about this in an Rpg. The UI in Skyrim seems to be very innovative and easy to navigate, at least the previewers have proclaimed as much, so I wouldn't worry about that. They say radient story is overhyped but they don't really have any evidence to say that, and even todd himself has specifically said that they are trying not to oversell it, and that it's just a small part of the game, which slightly affects the AI and quests you get.

Threads like this one are dumbing these forums down. Nothing wrong with going with the times man.

Otherwise you end up with a game that 3000 people regard as a PC-cult hit. And half of those pirate it. And you can close down your business.

Did you meant Minecraft?

the quest markers on the compass kind of make sense. like a quest giver marks the destination on your map, and so you know the direction to go to get there..but you don't know what you'll encounter on your way.
so i don't see what's dumb about that o.o

and about over-hyping, people just expect way too much from a video game sometimes...

I don't think it's dumbed down, they've made choices to remove stuff they thought unneccessary & add way more cool stuff. They aren't remaking anything. Besides, what they've done won't attract masses more people to it. They haven't turned it into some crappy shooter.

Theres two Groups, People who couldn't care less about dumbed down, And the people who get mad at Stuff like Fast Travel, Compass and other dumb stuff that you don't have to use,
Me? Im with the people who don't care.

What is up with these forums and using "dumbing down" to describe everything they dont like? Do people know what it means? Most people who use this in their post end up looking like the people they are trying to insult.

They use to make themselves seem smarter in comparison. They also use the word "casuals" to belittle the needs and wants of other gamers.

people are peculiar like that.

and by peculiar i mean bat[censored] crazy

The game is being dumbed down, that's news to me. :biggrin:

I'm a hardcoe gamer. I welcome most of the changes made in Skyrim and have already accepted nearly all of the rest.

I agree, I am a hardcoe gamer also and I am looking forward to Skyrim.

I prefer the term, "streamlining". The leveling/skills/attributes system in Oblivion was faulty. They've merely found a way to make it work better. Look me in the eye and tell me the new system doesn't work better on paper. Perhaps it will function differently in practice, but it seems solid to me.

They've stated on several occasions that making it more accessible to casual gamers was never a design feature. I believe them. It IS Bethesda after all.