A lot of us are just discovering stuff about Skyrim, it just came out. So yes we will be comparing it with previous games, strengths, weaknesses etc.

I believe this game would be impossible to play without a compass.
Morrowind made up for the lack of a high tech GPS system by implementing a system that requires you to actually "read".

The game was designed for and around consoles. Do you think console players are actually going to take time and read/ listen to the dialogue? Nope, its "tap A, tap A, tap A" to fast forward.

While i am on the topic of dialogue, i am going to rant about how "improved" the dialogues/voice acting are over oblivion's. They are not improved at all. All of the jarl's sound the same. I have not yet even heard the epic dunmar voice that was shown in the private e3 demo.

Back on topic,

If you bought this game expecting anything more than a space station orbiting above skyrim giving you the exact coordinates capable of finding a piece of rock in a god forsaken underground burial site then shame on you. It is not bethesda's fault that you believe their PR hype.

Now we have google earth, and a star trek transporting system to take us anywhere in Skyrim, the wonders of technology.

hahaha
Best post on this thread, lmao.

Again, you may turn compass markers off.
AND, Bethesda said that we can turn them off. AND WE CAN. There's no fake hype or whatever there, it's in the game exactly how they said it would be.

The "quest compass" argument against Oblivion and Skyrim is one of the worst arguments I have ever heard in my life.

This really comes down to ease of play, I mean back in the old days of RPG's like in the Bards Tale & Wasteland ERA (for those of you old enough) not only did you have to figuire how to do stuff on your own and where to go, but you didn't really have the internet communities like we have today yet so there really wasn't anyone to ask either. This was back when you played games like Pool Of Radiance gold box and you went and got the actual D&D module to make heads or tales of where and what you needed to do. The thing about this is that while I loved those games, this actually didn't make the game more fun. Sure it was "harder" but not in a "its a fun challenge" kind of way, it was more like "this is stupid hard".

The biggest improvement I think for RPG's came in the Fallout and Baulders Gate eras where you got a general idea of where to go and what to do, but you didn't exactly have a beam of light that walk you to the NPC or location you needed to go. This however was still during 2d mode which may not seem like it makes a difference but when things went 3d, this type of system stopped working. It was much easier to get lost and confused in a 3d enviroment and games like Might and Magic IV for example where confusing as [censored] because they used the old system of direction, but in a 1st person perspective. The result was that a game that would take 40 hours to play through the story turned into 40 hours to play the story and 100 hours aimlessly walking around trying to figuire out what the [censored] you where supposed to do. The result was a huge "guides"and "Wiki" movement where essential once someone figuired out what to do they would post it online and people who got lost would just go there and find out exactly what they would do.

I think the progression to give players more direction in role-playing games so that they can get to the meat and potatoes of the game is a good one. I think the problem with Skyrim isn't so much that it gives you direction but that it doesn't offer the variety of choices in how you approach that story so when you get direction it all feels very linear and instructional rather than giving you a sense of participation and control over your story. I seem to say this all the time, but in Skyrim you have ZERO options when it comes to how the story unfolds. Your only meaningful choices are "take the quest" or "don't take the quest". Beyond that everything is laid out in front of you and their is only one way to do it, period. This is where I think Skyrim really falls short of even qualifying as a role-playing game, it really plays more as kind of an adventure game or interactive novel. Which I think is fun to but despite all its effort to offer lots of replayability this game has a very short shelf life. I think its good for one or two play throughs but after that it will be permenantly shelved.

Got a great example right now, from the Khajiit companion.
He gave me the quest to find a item for him, but he NEVER said where, just talked about some bandits attacking his caravan...and that's it!
In the journal, it says where I should go, but how the [censored] does it knows if the [censored] NPC never said a word about it? How the [censored] I would know if I had Quest Markers turned off? lol.

So this is what it took for you to be turned off from the game. Fascinating. I'll stop playing too because I can't climb over every mountain! Nevermind that even though I'm TOLD where to go exactly, actually trying to get there is the real adventure.

Bye!

So I'm going to take a wild spin and say this is another Morrowind thread. Because they're are a few quests that never took me to the exact location.

I'm sorry that your life is so hard. Would you like some ice-cream? I'd mark the location on your map, but you'd just pretend to not want it after that.

Look, every time I come to these forums exited about the release of a new title -or just basking in the awesome of a current one- all I see is complaining. There is no fan-base I've ever seen that is this finicky about every little [censored] detail. I've been lost in Skyrim's beautiful, incomparably living world for 28 hours now. I've veered off the path into woods and up snowy trails to encounter wonders and horrors the likes of which I've never seen in any other game.

I tried in vain to stop the broad-daylight assassination of a market-stall clerk. I crept through the eerie mists of a Falmer lair, genuinely tense for what I'd meet, having never seen one. I used ancient words of power to thrust a troll against a wall so that I could sprint out of its cave, hoping on the edge of my seat that it wouldn't catch up to me. I escaped prison. I defended my home-city from a rebel attack.

I brought a dragon barreling to the ground to skid hard across the open plains, came up toe-to-toe with it, bashed its snout with my shield and breathed fire right back in its [censored] face.

Every little step i've taken into this masterpiece so far has been deep, well-thought, and unrelentingly epic. The amount of work that had to have gone into it is staggering, and to see someone get butthurt over not having to ask around to find a book is more than a little irritating. Get over yourself and open your eyes to the blindingly excellent, ever-shifting, ever-breathing moving-picture that Bethesda has crafted here.

Way to fan the flames of idiocy, bro. "Console players". Because everyone without a good PC is a moron, am I right?

I mean, common sense dictates that unless you're an ignorant tween begging for games from your parents, you'll build a gaming PC and flame-bait people on the internet who dare enjoy a good title on the aging children's toys they call consoles.

Giving directions in a book or by using geographical features to locate objectives, was another thing that Morrowwind did better. I know that most just want to fast travel from dungeon to dungeon LOLSmashing Draugr Overlord #73 so they can get their Ebony Longsword w/slightly better fire enchantment ad infinitum. Some of us want a bit more complexity that though. As with everything else /me drums fingers and waits for CK.

I love how you know that, yet you still open a thread with a title like this and take the time to write a wall of text in response.

Why not just stick to threads that look like they will contain praise or a less opinionated discussion?

Well said.

I got rid of the compass entirely via the .ini file. Still leaves the map, but I don't have to look at that very closely if I don't want to, + not have quests "active" etc.

I don't see the issue, really. As others have said...don't use it then. Just because it's there, doesn't mean you have to use it. It's called self-discipline.

That is the problem, most of the people prefer or can't see the flaws Skyrim has, so when someone comes to the forum saying bad things about the game it is just a "complaining [censored]".
Skyrim is not perfect, it is by far the most unconnected TES to the series...Skyrim is a good game, but not a good RPG either a good TES.

In my experience, a good few quest givers don't provide any directions. How do you finish those quests with no compass?

Very randomly.

Edit: I got rid of the compass mostly for screeshot reasons, not because it annoyed me per se. I was tired of using the console 'tm' that makes the entire UI disappear (inventory, quest menu, everything), not just the compass.

This is why the game could do with more fleshed out dialogue and directions on scrolls and in books etc. There should then be an option to turn off the compass for people who actually want to discover their objective.

Well i have played 110 hours so far..and i still can't get enough.

Best single player game i've played. Ever.

That is unfortunatly how the game works. There's no real exploration in quests because it is hand fed to you, although following a quest marker does make it easier?

In my game I have turned off the compass and all quest markers, makes it more fun imo

I agree, the quest markers are annoying.
And this from someone who enjoyed it in Oblivion (Possibly because it was god aweful trying to navigate the ash lands with dodgy directions).

But given the way the map works in Skyrim. The markers are almost 100% useless.

What a waste of time this is!

Best game ever made and y'all moan that not everything is how you want it.

While you fight over something that will never be changed, wasting valuable time in your lives, us grateful people will be enjoying the best game ever created!

svckers!!!!