I'm sure many others have noticed, but with every single new TES title, there seems to be a huge reduction in content. What I mean by this is typically there is less armor options, less weapon options, less factions, less space to travel in (while Oblivion was bigger than Morrowind, most of Oblivion was a forest), less content in general. While I will say game play (combat, graphics, and various other innovations) has improved substantially and even led the way for a lot of games, I feel this may be the only positive feature coming from new TES titles. Now I firmly believe Skyrim is going to be the next great game and probably GOTY in 2011, but does anyone else have some concern for this continuing pattern in TES? Please voice your concerns if you have them.

I have faith the learned from Oblivion. But I am a tad concerned.

People have been talking about pre-orders and first-day purchases like they're a given, but all I can say is that industry trends are what guarantee I will do neither of those things, and make me wait and anolyze post-release pretty heavily before I decide whether to get it at all.

I'm sure they would have learned from past mistakes. I'm pretty laid back about it to be honest.

I'll wait and see before I pass judgment.

And I won't be too worried about content as long as Beth release a decent CS anyway.

Voted other but it's more of a yes and no. I don't believe there's been less content but more of a re-allocation of where that content is placed. For instance Oblivion had a lot more dungeons and major cities than Morrowind and they were generally larger. But as far as weapons, skills and creature types go it does seem to have gotten smaller. My prediction with Skyrim is we'll see a return of some of the content we got from Morrowind but not all of it.

I have to admit that I am quite worried that they will continue the trend of, well, laziness in game development. But I also hope that Bethesda has read the criticism that their games have received from players (specifically Oblivion and Fallout 3) and improve their style. As much as I love The Elder Scrolls, I'm probably going to have to maintain my more recent strategy of wait-and-see before I purchase the game.

I'd prefer that they didn't leave it up to modders to make a good game... Then they run the risk of getting burnt out by just trying to fix it before they get to making all of the great content that they're capable of.

Hopefully with all the complaints in the suggestion threads and the "bring back being able to wear a robe over armor" comments will make Bethesda put in more armor and clothing options.

If they didn't read that then I think they're in for some major complaints when the game comes out :laugh:

Oblivion was a huge letdown but if Fallout 3 is any indication, they learned from some of their mistakes.


I'm not holding my breath that it will be like Morrowind though, as much as I would like it to be.

I'm not concerned. I'm not concerned about a game I don't know nothing about. I already know that Bethesda know's what they are doing and they do listen to their fan base as well as being accepted by the vast majority of new players to the series. They know the pros and cons of Oblivion and they know the pros and cons of past games. They know what they did good and what they didn't do good. I would say before anybody holds doubt over this game, wait until you see some real game footage, interviews and some screens on the side.

at this point, where we're left to pure speculation, I am quite concerned that the game will be a further reduction of content.

True.

But at least with a decent CS there's the possibility of fixing many things Beth omitted. (Though not all, hardcoded stuff won't be fixable that easy.)

Hah true , but then again not true

I am personally concerned about it, I've seen many games that looked awesome, but offered little in gameplay (like FF13 who looked the best so far, but it was the shortest and most linear FF so far, or Oblivion that was so utterly dumbed down comparing to Morrowind or Daggerfall).
However, many people were pissing about it, and we can see how many people are posting "bring this and that" on here so I'm pretty sure Bethesda noticed.


I won't exactly go mad out of joy, but I am keeping my hopes up.

They have to reduce in order to fit onto the consoles. I hope the PC version doesn't suffer the same fate.

This is very true. Once the February Game Informer issue is released, I'm sure we will know a lot more about the game and where it's heading. But I'm merely looking at the trend that has occurred from Arena all the way to Oblivion. Skyrim could be different, but who knows.

I do not agree with this statement. Morrowind was on the original Xbox and by far was greatly larger in terms of lore, factions, armor, etc.

This is merely my own take on Oblivion, but I believe it had less content because BGS only had the hardware at the last 6 months of development. For three years they were developing concepts for a generation that didn't exist yet, and I believe that may have led to some of the present issues Oblivion has. Or maybe as someone suggested above, BGS is focusing their efforts into other areas they feel are of greater importance.

These are my feelings exactly. I just hope the lessons they learned from the feedback from Oblivion are applied correctly, that is, they they go in the right direction.

Reduction in Content? Where do you get this?

If anything they add more and more content each game! FNV had over 65,000 lines of dialogue, ~175 quests and plenty of content to go around. Oblivion had a TON of content in it, certainly more than Morrowind.

I think this concern is misplaced.

I think they have learned from Oblivion and that they won't slack with Skyrim in terms of content.

Voice overs and side quests aren't solely content and aren't really what I'm referring to. Go back and play Arena/Daggerfall/Morrowind/Oblivion and you will see a reduction in content in each game (size/lore/skills/factions/armor/weapons/etc). As stated before, there have been improvements in others areas, but I just feel that what makes TES so special could be neglected.

Does the protagonist always need to be asixual? I wouldn't mind a couple of love interest for a romance subplot.


I may be love's [censored] but least I'm man enough to admit it hahaha

I really dont understand or see a lack in necessary content, just a changed environment, one that was generally less wild outside the citys then Morrowind ( if you take into consideration the ash storms), and for me that was welcoming, since in Morrowind I was so tired of the screech of cliff racers and wild kagouti attacks and ash creatures and storms, if you refer by lack of content, to the general lack of some types of weapons, and magical artifacts, (rings and such) then yes I guess they did cut back on that content, but in my opinion, magical rings and such should be more rare then they were in that game, as you couldnt kick over a rock without uncovering one there, and some things were left out by necessity because they had improved the graphics so much while still using the same game engine, and some things were added to make up for the loss, like the addition of Horses and big burning gateways to hell, and some skill moves in the animation that were not available before, I wont say things were better but just different, I def dont see a trend in anything except the whining about the lack of this or that and that will never change lol, and since they using new game engine, I think they gonna be trying to impress us with what it can do and hold.

Unfortunately, what sells is shiny pixels so development focuses on them first. character outfits are nice and all but they do not do much for actual combat and interaction with NPCs.

Oblivion had a lot of content... but the Fallout had like 20 side quests...

This statement is not true, no one has yet pushed the limits of either the xbox 360 or the playstation 3, so plz know what your talking about before making a statement of fact, because some people are dumb enough to think you, a complete stranger, knows what they are speaking off, when in fact, you do not.