One of the things I am concerned about is if the game will b longer or shorter or the same length as oblivion... Oblivion's length was shorter compares 2 Morrowind, so I hope the devs don't make skyrim shorter than oblivion... Anybody feel the same way?

As long as I get a 100+ hours of total gameplay I don't care. I'm not in it for the MQ anyway.

The main quest is far from all there is to an Elder Scrolls game's gameplay. Just saying... :shrug:

The only thing that made Morrowind's main quest longer was the tedious asking of the houses to be named Hortator and the Ashlanders to be named Nerevarine.

Skyrim will likely be slightly longer. Hopefully with more replayability since much of Oblivion's was going into gates and what not. There will be more quests for sure but I am not sure of how many hours the main quest will be. The reason there was a smaller amount of things to do in Oblivion than Morrowind was all because of disk space. Did you know that they originally had an Arena in EVERY city? They had to cut them all because of disk space.

It was said the main quest will be around 18 hours.
I don't have a source since it was a long time ago when that was said. And I forgot.

I really don't remember that.

Because it never happened.

This I am sure. I don't see Beth releasing something like this in the first wave of info.

It did. I have better things to do than lying to people for no reason at all. :rolleyes:

Your not lying. You just think something happened that didn't.

I'd continue this discussion but as you know, I lack proof. If I find it by any chance I'll be sure to send it to you. :thumbsup:

im not sayin that its the only aspect of the game, i just want it to be long and epic like Morrowind ( with its own flavor naturally)


see this will be a step backwards if the MQ is just 18 hours long

The MQ will be longer than Oblivions. They said a 20 hour main quest (which equates to about 40 hours the way I play TES), then "hundreds" of hours of side quests. I'll be playing for a few thousand hours anyways, so the length of the MQ doesn't matter too much to me.

The longer, the better

He's not lying, I heard 20 hours, but that was probably a rounded number.

EDIT: Here's a source: http://www.gamersmint.com/tes-skyrim-blowout-game-length-gameplay-and-more-detailed dutch unlimited magazine. If you want more proof I've got more links lined up.

Well, that kind of svcks

But then again it also says
"There is no level cap. You will nevertheless not be able to choose all perks with one character.” I'm sure it was confirmed in a 'better' there is a level cap

Nope, there is no level cap set into the system. There is an effective level cap once you max every skill, but no actual cap in the system, so that is correct. Todd said the effective level cap will probably be around 75, but they haven't calculated it. I know my Skyrim information, seriously, I know everything that has been released.

It was released atleast 3 times that the MQ will be 20 hours long.

I feel ashamed in all of you.

I just hope you have to be at a relatively high level (~30+) to complete the main quest. Bethesda seems to think this only works in linear RPGs, but it's actually better for open world RPGs because instead of traditional "grinding," you have hundreds of side quests and areas to explore as you get strong enough to continue in the main quest. It should be nearly impossible for a level 5 character to beat the final quest.

Well there is no tedious things they was logical since we play as Nerevarine so there must be political chooses, also Morrowind have two ways to end MQ not so elaborated but work well as well there is many logical requirements in MQ advancement even alternative solution has requirements.
Problem of Oblivion was in
-Flawed Level Scaling
-No requirements
Thats create open beginnings but also create absurd things like doing MQ at low levels by confronting mighty Stunned Scamps and incompetent persons thats become guild leaders almost without of any skills to lead such guild, as well MQ is also have small deal with fraction quests, thats all make MQ of Oblivion feel lesser in compare with Morrowind, where player receive feel of be more important as political figure, in Morrowind we play main role in Oblivion we side-kick of Martin not all like be sidekicks, many flaws in other features make our character lose individuality even more, now when we lose attributes classes and birthsigns interesting how individuality of our character can be achieved, I hope on better non linear dialogues and quest with consequences, ability to choses traits at beginning to model background, better level scaling and requirements for quest and guilds to feel thats there is real politic in living word.

I get the impression that there will be a lot more hours of gameplay from faction quests / side-quests in Skyrim than in Oblivion.

Ideally i'd like the main quest to be 50 hours long, but i'll happily take 20 hours if there's a lot of side-quests.

I wonder if that 20 hours number includes using fast travel or not, and if so.. which fast travel (OB-version or carriages)?
Things like that matter a lot for how long things take.

It was from the magazine "Power Unlimited" (the Dutch magazine). The main quest was confirmed to be approximately 20 hours long.

If anyone still has that magazine they can check the exact wording.




Edit: I guess someone else found a source first, nvm

My guess is that the 20 hour mark is with fast-travel, probably the Oblivion-style. But think about what makes up those 20 hours. It's enough room for probably about 15 quests. That's an hour and 20 minutes per quest. That's how long some recent horror movies are. It's a full ten minutes longer than Land Before Time, which is a great movie that gave a fully-developed story.

So take that movie-length quest and make 15 of them. Another way of looking at it: how many plot points could there be? One tutorial quest, most likely, one quest for going to High Hrothgar, one for the final confrontation. So say about 12 more separate plot points besides those. That's a lot of room for the devs to make the journey the character makes. Morrowind had 19 quests, but 3 of them were talking to the house leaders and 4 were talking to various camps. Oblivion effectively had 17, effectively 16 since the last one consisted solely of picking up your reward. If the devs give us 15 or so (slightly short) movie-length quests that don't feel like they waste time and probably doesn't include time spent if you travel on foot, I'll be completely satisfied. Especially considering that there's that same content at least 6 times over left to be explored.

What I would like to see, which Oblivion and Morrowind both had, are optional portions of the main quest, which doubtful are included in the 20 hour estimate. In Morrowind you could take the time to kill all the Ash Vampires if you felt like it. In Oblivion you could do the same by sending troops from every major city to Bruma, and by staying in Kvatch to raid the castle. I've got no doubt that these optional portions will return in Skyrim, and, being optional, are probably not considered in that estimate.

The Lord of the Rings' extended trilogy is 11 hours long, and includes a lot of downtime. Look at how complete and full of a story that trilogy gave. Would anyone say it feels rushed? Now think of what the devs, who have proven time and again to be very competent developers, can do with twice that amount of time.

Game is 5.5 months from release. That "20 hour" MQ can change. Some people will beat it quicker and some will take a lot longer depending on different things.