I found the super long drawn out opening to Oblivion fun and dramatic the first time I played it, but as I started doing more play throughs I found it incredibly annoying, boring, and almost pointless. First off it's only makes sense to do it if your planning on playing the main quest, and for that you really need to see it once. Now I understand they want to setup the story, and start the main quest for you so you always have that option open, but does it really have to be so long? The part where you make that detour into that cave and fight goblins is especially pointless. The part I hate the most though is the fact that it has fighting in it, and therefore you can die, which may make you do whole parts of it again and repick certain stats. You'd think Bethesda would fix the bad parts about long openings that set up the story, but then they went and made an even longer and infinitely more boring opening to Fallout 3. Don't get me wrong, I actually don't care if the openings has some drama and sets up the story, but it shouldn't be long and capable of killing you. I prefer Morrowind's beginning much better, but I do have to admit it could be more exciting.

What are thoughts on the openings of Morrowind, Oblivion, and Fallout 3? And how do you think they should do the opening of Skyrim to avoid the problems they had.

I like long openings.

Or an option for both, long or if you've done it before you can skip the opening.

Oh wow, i totally misread that....

Yeah, I prefer the shorter openings like Morrowind, or at least an option to jump ahead into the game.

they should allow it to be skipped

For T.E.S. I like long epic cinematic openings! You can always press "Esc"

I preferred Morrowind's simple "here you are, thats your name, good luck" approach. A lack of a tutorial or real goal was one of the many great things about Morrowind.

However,

I created a save file right before exiting the sewer in Oblivion, where you still had the option to change all character features again (and with the light of a torch.) I named the file "tutorial" and loaded it when I wanted a new character, ect.

I voted Morrowind's short and simple, but will find a way to work with whatever is actually put in Skyrim.

They aren't talking about the cinematic. They mean opening training missions.

I'd rather not have a short one. Didn't really like NV or Morrowind's opening, kinda lack luster for me. Oblivion's opening was worth it the first time, because of the sweet view you get once you leave the cave, but it was kinda long. Fallout 3's was long...a little shorter than Oblivions though, and had the epic view once you left the vault.

That's what I'd like. A medium length opening, one that doesn't set up your character's life for you like how Fallout 3 did, and an amazing view once you finally see daylight. Fallout 3 did it right in my book...just put a TES spin on it so your past life isn't built for you.

Sorry, are you talking about the long cinimatic in the beginning of the game or the tutorial part of the game from character creation to exiting the sewers? :confused:

if your talking about the cinimatic, you can just skip it by pressing the "start" button.
if your talking about the tutorial part, you can just save before exiting the sewers and just reload that save for every subsequent character.

This isn't really relevant to the question at hand, but I just wanted to point out something because I've been seeing a lot of polls worded similar to yours. When you ask the question, if you want to get the best and most accurate responses, I wouldn't use words to inject your own feeling into the poll options such as "incredibly long" or "convenient" because then people are more inclined to shift towards the center due to your wording and the effect it had on their answer.

Not really that important as this is not a scientific poll and I'm not knocking you or your opinion. I'm just noticing that a lot of polls are obviously being skewed one way or another based on how the options are worded and how opinions by the poll asker are causing those who answer to also be subconsciously swayed. Blasted statistics class!

Carry on >.>

I did the exact same thing, called the file "New Character".

That's the spirit!

:banghead: You are totally right and I am sorry. Then, like in Oblivion I used to have a "save file" right at the end of the sewers. It is a good approach like others have suggested and it makes more sense now that you no longer choose Class.

I talking about the time form your done customizing your charters face to the time you leave the sewers.

Your right I'll change the options to a neutral tone.

To say the truth I find the Morrowind opening too long after the first time. My option would be an skipable opening.

It should pull a Fallout: New Vegas and be quicker than Morrowind, but offer up some tutorial missions. Morrowind's opening was longer, and didn't really teach you anything in context (just dropped you into the world).

See, guys? You don't have to simplify the game if you take the time to EXPLAIN IT BETTER (and in a skippable way).

Todd Howard

I voted for the second option although I wouldn't mind a long opening with an option to skip the unimportant parts to make it shorter. (like skipping the tutorial in Oblivion, where you fight rats and goblins, or skipping the GOAT in fallout)

EDIT:


/thread

I liked the way Morrowind did it-- the beginning dungeon in Oblivion was overly long. I voted for a mix of the two, as I remember the first time I played Morrowind I was a bit confused.

The save file was nice, though, since you could just skip both Oblivion, FO3, and New Vegas' tutorial quests.

That response was actually to the question "Will there be classes in Skyrim?" but it does seem to hint that there're going to make the opening shorter now that you mention it.

I think it depends. I hated the long slow opening of Oblivion. There was some combat, but it was really just cut down, contained gameplay. I liked Fallout 3's a little better, it was shorter and more relevant, but still dry.

The only way I would be ok with a huge opening is if the first 30 mins of the game during the tutorial are some kind of massive battle, where your fighting things 90% of the time. They need a good hook, very little dialog, lots of action. I suppose if done right, an option to skip would be nice too.

I just hope the Main Quest isn't so oppressive. I mean when the fate of the world is hanging in the balance and you are the chosen one, Dragon Born, wtf would you be trying to rise up the ranks of the Theives Guild. I hope it triggers the MQ after you complete a mission or two down that path.

Me too. First I thought...

this.

But it's like...

this.
The long training mission is just awful. They should have made short instructions for moving and interacting with objects and the rest should be handled like they did with the persuasion minigame - info popped up the first time you spoke to a person(the minigame svcked anyway but thats another topic). Every time you start a new game you got to do this [censored] thing again They should have made a short one or should have implemented the option to skip it.

To...

this.
Yeah you could handle it that way but bethesda should have made the game so you don't need a trick. Okay it's not really a trick or hard to figure and I used it but just after I went through it some times and was always bored to death. And also for hard roleplaygamer isn't it a bit immersion breaking to change your race and gender in the game.

I voted for short ones like morrowind.