I hope they don't make the "Main quest" as short as Oblivion's.
If this has already been posted, i don't care, but when i first got Oblivion, the mainquest took me only 2 days to beat. I know that after you beat the main quest, the game isn't near to over, but i just like being occupied to one thing for a while. Also, i know this has been posted alot, but quick traveling made the main quest even shorter.

I know we are expecting A LOT from Bethesda, but there was this exact amount of hype when Oblivion was released. Oblivion was an amazing game an still my favorite RPG, but as this has been said many many times, it had many flaws. I'm not demanding anything, i just hope the main quest isn't insanely short, unlike Oblivions.

I understand where you're coming from, but did you ever try to become the guild leader for all of the guilds?
That's a large objective, and if you mentally generalize it into one big quest, that might satisfy your need for a bigger "main" quest.
Also, increasing the difficulty will surely prolong your game-play, which might be favorable to you.

Personally, I love how things have been.
The "main" quest is nearly subjective and you aren't forced down into anything, you play the game the way you want to play it.
I've always really admired the Elder Scrolls due to that.

But, hopefully they will make the main quest longer.

You shouldn't be able to be the guild master of every guild.

If you want to you should be able to.

Didn't they say it take around 20 hours to complete the MQ? Oblivions was quite short if you skipped all the gates that could be skipped and even if you didn't skip them, it would become repetitive as [censored].

Really now? I always found that to be the one point were Oblivion failed. When I first played it the main quest was pressed as far too urgent to free roam or even do the occasional side quest.

With any of my characters I either start the MQ straight away or ignore it completely (deliver the amulet to Jauffre then not find Martin). If you start Oblivion's MQ properly, the matter's urgency and random gates break the immersion and are a nuissance if you want to explore Cyrodil. In turn if you complete the entire MQ and are Tamriel's hero, it just doesn't make sense having to protect rats for the Fighter's Guild.


Or if you do, you get sued by the EU for monopolization and conflicts of interest.

I agree. At least in Skyrim you can't be good in everything anymore as you can't get all the perks for one character. This possibly lowers your chances to join and do well in every guild.

I hope they don't...
...rush the game so it is full of bugs and lack certain features.

i liked the idea of being the learder of all the guilds and organizations, plus yeh i do hope the mq is long as in morrowind length

The MQ in morrowind is even shorter lol. With cheats (speed and no collision) it can actually be done in 15 minutes.

I hope they don't.... lie.

MQ should be optional and no , you shouldn't be able to be head of all guilds this is the essence of ROLE playing make choices of what your character will be and what he will be not .
If role playing is optional then we are talking about an action rpg and in this case i prefer to buy diablo 3 .

Yes you should be able to be the head of all the guilds at once. It should by no means be an easy task, but it should be possible. Hiding the fact you are a listener in the db from your fellow theives, your fellow theives knowing nothing about you killing people in your spare time, a theif who likes to use magic to help him haul goods and hide, and the same theif wishing to make some money any way possible, even if its legit, its all possible with rp. The factions shouldn't act like the guards and be all knowing of what you are doing every single moment of every single day.

Who's to say my role can't be one whom wishes to unite the guilds momentarily in order to hold off Oblivion itself?

I thought the Main Quest in Oblivion was pretty cool. It felt appropriately epic. But yeah, it could have been a bit longer. Skyrim's main quest is looking pretty amazing, and I hope it takes more than a few days to beat.

Morrowind can be completed in mere seconds if you use cheats...
Ever heard of SetStage?
The same with Oblivion, and fallout 3, and new Vegas, oh, and every other game in the world!

But my point is, you don't base the length of a game on how long it takes to complete the main quest by cheating, you base it on how long it takes to actually do the main quest.
Bethesda have said 20 hours, and I hope that's right. (I'll probably make it longer though, as I always step outside of the MQ sometimes, to explore, help a damsel in distress, or whatever^^)

And Zendrex, I would definitely say the hype is bigger now than it was before the release of Oblivion. Of course, that is because Bethesda has gathered a much bigger fanbase because of Oblivion.
And also the fact that Skyrim looks waaay cooler!

What about choices and consequences? Being able to "shape" your own story by choosing different paths/guilds? If you can join all the guilds, then the story becomes linear. Personally, I prefer having different endings, based on your alliances/enemies.

I just hope it wont be as god darn boring as the OB storyline was.. I got sick of oblivion gates after my second one :S

That's what they said, I'm not sure how that compares to the length of Oblivion's main quest, however, it's just a number which on its own doesn't tell me much as depending on how one plays the game, it's quite likely that the main quest won't take the same amount of time we were told it would.

Although honestly, the length of Oblivion's main quest didn't bother me, I don't know exactly how long it took for me as I've never tried to keep track. But regardless, I think it helped a lot that I don't generally play through the main quest non-stop from start to finish. Usually, I pursue it together with side quests, guild quests, and casual exploration, I'll often do one quest here, and then another one there, and then get to the main quest, I might make an exception if the main quest is just so gripping that I simply can't bear to just set it aside and do something else and want to just keep pursuing it until it's done, but so far, I've yet to see a main quest like this in the Elder Scrolls. And because of this, even if the main quest would have seemed short if I had played it without stopping, it generally won't seem that way when I'm actually playing it.

In the case of Skyrim, I'd be more concerned about whether there's enough content outside of the main quest to feel like it's enough for the game than the length of the main quest itself.

Again, who's to say my role can't be one whom wishes to unite the guilds momentarily in order to hold off Oblivion itself?

Sure, if you get arrested for stealing and you're found out to be with the theives guild somehow, the db should bar you or ask you to kill a fellow theif. But not being able to join all the guilds because they magically know what you do is like the guards magically knowing you killed a fellow guard in the boondocks.

I like to think about the MQ in TES like the "Single-player" experience in Multi-player games. Once you're done with it, you cans till do a lot more than you would think!

07:00 - *Yawn* "What a beautiful day, but it′s time to get up and head to the shrine to heal the sick and to teach the new volunteer workers some healing spell too so they can help out too.
10:00 - "There, all wrapped up for now, let′s head to the guard station for the morning routine" 10:15 - "The Dark Brotherhood has struck again! Damn them! Damn them to oblivion, I will hunt them down!"
13:00 - "Oh, duties in the mages guild, time to go" 13:20 - "They′ve been teaching magic outside of a mages guild facility in the temple, to unqualified personel! I shall go and shut down their opperation!"
16:00 - "City Hall business for me now I suppose." 16:30 - "Someone has been stealing from the local lords ? This can not stand! I will send a man on the case and have those dirty thieves put into jail!"
19:00 - "Dinner time is approaching, praise be Sithis, I will poison my targets meal quietly and stealthily, may he enjoy his last meal" *evil chuckle*
22:00 - "Poor beggars, someone needs to make things right! I will steal from the fat lord Brambleberr and spend his fortune on the less fortunate!"
01:00 "Aaahhh it′s late already, before I go to sleep I think I′m gonna find out how to secretly teach restoration magic, how to find and bring down the dark brotherhood, how to shut down the temples opperation of unsanctioned training, how to catch those dirty thieves, how to bring down my next target and I suppose I can also pick a new lord to steal from tomorrow"

No way. Not if there are opposing factions. The Dark Brotherhood just simply wouldn't accept the Guildmaster of the Morag Tong to join.

I see what you mean, but all the combinations of guilds, knowing or not knowing of what you do, and uniting different guilds makes the story and quests almost impossible to write. Of course, guards shouldn't be "psychic", but representing a guild is not a small thing. There are way too many combinations for this to actually work.

Oh look, a challenge...fun. Ahem.


Morning: I successfully infiltrated the fighters guild. They have no idea I'm only here to gain information and then give it back to my brother's of Sithis. Time for me to learn all I can about their higher ups.

Late Morning: I must say, the magic I have learned after joining the mages guild is quite valuable. Some of that strong illusion magic has saved my life allready. I'm glad I joined.

Noon: I have to remember that tonights the night I pull the hiest of the senturey. I have to remember not to kill anyone, as it might give myself away to those foolish thieves. They say only a few more jobs and I could meat the Gray Fox! Sithis guide me, soon the Fox's blood shall be free for you to see.

Late Afternoon: All right, Im ready to move out. I have some info on the fighter's guild, I just learned a handy new spell, and I have everything I need to steal the Sword of Chorral.


I could go more in depth with you if you want me to. I actually have cooked up a lot of other ideas, but I feel keeping it breef will get my point across better.

Well you can nearly always go around things like that, but you do get the general idea of things right ? You′re not really loyal to anyone, and the game lets you. I want to be punished, if I′m not loyal I want my factions to find out and punish me, I want to be the next Lucien Lachance if I go agains the dark brotherhood while on guard duty, I want to be executed publicly by the guards if I′m found out to be loyal to the dark brotherhood, I want to be expelled from the mages guild and given a fine if I teach magic outside of it, I want to be scorned by the temple if I close down their opperation and hated as a bad person for keeping the sick people sick, I want all my posessions stolen if I′m found out to be on the hunt to shut down the thieves guild and I want to be put into jail if I′m found out to be in the thieves guild. And I should not be a perfect person that can prevent all of that.

I wanted to be a glass of milk but I can't.