First of all. I know Skyrim isn't online. Secondly, I know Skyrim reminds me of alot of games, basically as far as customizing your character and doing quests aside from the main quest line. In some way, Skyrim and mainly Oblivion reminds me of Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2; also World of Warcraft. You're a random guy/girl of a random race of people who doesn't know he has the power to save the world and has no idea that he's about to make a huge difference in the world.

Each hero has a unique ability of some sort in most fantasy games. They have this thing about them that makes them unbeatable. Whether having powers they never knew they had, or being given a power.

You start out doing what any other player would do. Volumes of quests and grinding levels to get better. You may not do the main questline until you are absolutely sure, you have everything you're expecting. You might want to hold off until you're a certain level.

Now since we're not online, we can't arm up and party team the entire quest line or join guilds with our buddies. Well thats fine. However we can join factions and either choose to be good, neutral, or evil. I chose to be black at heart.

However, what makes Skyrim very close to an online RPG is that there are always quests; random radiant quests and factions or guilds that give you these. You are given the opportunity before and after slaying Alduin, of being good , neutral or evil. I don't think the good and evil spectrum has much to do with Alduin. Even evil characters kill each other because one bad guy may want to rule the world...maybe not politically but through guilds and influence over other people; and not destroy it like the other evil character would love to do. Its kind of like a territory dispute.

Also Alduin is mainly like any other villain in an online RPG. In Guild Wars, you set out to kill a God, or an undead Lich lord, or an evil Envoy like Shiro Tagachi.

Dagoth Ur was much like Shiro Tagachi. Both were Immortal and had what we call the Afflicted as well as the Undead Lich Lord bring back the undead.

Mehrunes Dagon was much like Abbadon who wanted to enslave Tamriel. Same for Alduin.

Now I may be comparing Skyrim to the Guild Wars franchise, but the stories seem to be similar.

I see the Guild Wars franchise has some in common with TES and not just Skyrim. Guild Wars 2 seems widely based on Skyrim to some degree that it takes hundreds of years after the first one. So perhaps Guilds Wars is copying of The Elder Scrolls.

Now there May not weekly updates and monthly subscription server fees. Just like any online game, the game always has main characters that are NPC's no matter who you play as or name yourself. You're always going to be a hero no matter how many rotten choices you make. In Guild Wars, you were a hero. No if's or but's about it. But you could be a horrible person to your guild mates. People could only judge you on how you were a person, and not what your character has achieved in the game. But the list goes on.

Have you played Baldur's Gate? Might and Magic? Many solo rpg's fit your description.

Sorry if this comes off as rude, but what is the point you are trying to get at? Again, not trying to be rude, just trying to understand your point

Methinks the point is that both the Elder Scrolls and the online games you mentioned have a common ancestor. This is the model that roleplaying games have generally followed for many years.

Champions of Norath and Champions: Return to Arms are some that remind me of Morrowind and Oblivion to this day.

The closest RPG we could probably compare Skyrim to is Obsidian's New Vegas. New Vegas was done on Bethesda's RPG engine, just with a few more RPG mechanics.

Skyrim, unlike most other RPGs, focuses more on the world and the ability to pick up every flower. It's not known for having awesome C&C, good RPG mechanics or deep NPC interactions.

New Vegas, unlike Skyrim, focuses more on the narrative and characters. You can piss off a faction and they will shun you. Same with settlements. People react to all of your actions, for better and for worse. However, the world in New Vegas is rather lacking and you don't get the same wonder of exploration like in Skyrim.

I think the OP is asking about comparing Skyrim to an online rpg, which NV is not.

If that is the case, then one could say that TES takes inspiration from Tolkien, Gary Gygax & Dave Arneson and so on, though they got their inspiration from old mythologies

As for Skyrim's similarities to online games, I hated the radiant quest system. Such a thing does not belong in an offline single player rpg.

Agreed, they are extremely tiresome.

Your description sounds like any standard RPG to me. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning felt like a single player MMO. I don't get this vibe from Skyrim. I don't know how it compares to GW though because I never played it.

New Vegas? Fallout 3 would be closer, I think. Skyrim has none of FNV's faction complexity and character depth.

Skyrim's gameplay, storyline and gameworld interactions is miles away form New Vegas. Obsidian is by far, better at creating and writing a gamewrld that reacts to the PC than Bethesda.

With the exception of a handful of quests, nothing about Skyrim changes towards the PC. Dialog remains linear, all the same quests are available and they all have the same ending.

That's propably because it was supposed to be MMO originally. At some point during development it was changed to a singleplayer game.