Thanks, I appreciate that!

Yes, I worked on "Corruption and Conscience." and the cliffracer NPC. It's very difficult in an open world game to provide alternate avenues like that all of the time (I think we did this well in Fallout 3).

Hmmm, as for a demographic, I'd say I just write what I feel and we make it fit. I never heard the world "demographic" come up in a meeting. I think we all know what kind of a setting and what type of a game we're making, and it's not really a restriction or a problem.

Thanks. It is by far my worst subject (last quarter, it was a 70 and most of my other grades were in the 90s with a couple in the 80s), but I feel like I am starting to get the hang of it, so I will have my act together for the regeants (which I hear will be laughably easy).

Do you guys all have deplorable grammar? Not you specifically, but I noticed some large grammatical discrepancies.

This cuts to the core of it. We make the games we want to play. It just so happens that a lot of other folks seem to want to play that sort of game too. Or, at least enough other folks that we can keep making them.

If I may but in for a moment...

All narrative media (books, movies, games, etc.) do two things - tell a story and build a world.

Most games focus on the first aspect: each character is someone unique and serves a purpose, each location is there because it needs to be. The story takes precedent, and the whole point is to make the player emotionally attached to the characters and invested in the story. If done properly, the player cares about what happens to the characters, but not necessarily to anything other than the characters. Bioshock comes to mind - I really cared as I was playing, but the end was the end. I was not at all interested in the sequel because the story I cared about was done.

Other games, like TES, prioritize on the world building. There are tons of characters who are not involved in the main objective, locations are there because they are part of the world, and the player does not have to follow the story. This does cost some players emotional evolvement because its just not as concentrated as a linear game. On the other hand, it makes players care about the world.

Take Vivec, for instance. He had a couple expository paragraphs in Morrowind proper - and yet outside of our interaction with the game he is one of the most developed, and in my mind brilliant, characters. Similarly, there are tons of people who want a game that takes place in Summurset Isle, not because of the story that could be told but because of how cool the location is. Its two different kinds of immersion: one that focuses on the player's experience during gameplay and the other on the player's relationship to the essence of the game.

On the other hand, prioritizing the world does not mean that the characters have to suffer. Take one look at deviant art to see the insane devotion people have to Martin or Lucien Lachance.

tl;dr - they are different things, though not exclusive.


[edit] I just noticed killmoms has my pic in his signature. Awesome!

What is the secret behind Todd Howard's inability to age? :hubbahubba:

(he looks the same way he did twenty years ago)

Daedric prince. B)

Which one of them?

Or is he the Master of the Daedric Princes? :woot:

How many times a day do you brush your teeth?

Ha! You did that? Awesome. Do you like seeing your http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBbm8sV6IKk&feature=related, or do you take offense to it?

Glarthir: Just as I thought!

Thanks for the answers! I happy to say that I find that developers/artist with this philosophy "We make the games we want to play" ( sig worthy ), make better products because of it. The same way a painter creates a painting with no particular audience in mind, and then the audience just show up naturally. :biggrin:

This font is something called Verdana, and I slightly increased the size for extra boldness. What do you think?

Did any of you find my Gore puns to be funny?

Do you plan on keeping the mural from the Skyrim trailer? I want to design my house around it.

I mean, it looks like a gigantic wood carving. Surely it isn't stone.

Verdana is a typographical war crime.

Helvetica forever. And no, Arial is not an acceptable substitute.

1.
Have you played Ultima?
If yes, which one?

2.
What is your all-time favourite videogame theme?

3.
Favourite video game genres?

killmoms, did you edit/make/approved the Skyrim teaser?

*I can't believe that he prefer's Lady Nerevar's style to mine*

Do you guys (being game developers) follow the ESRB game rating system when buying games for your children?

So, my favorite two gaming genres are adventure games and RPGs. Clearly, I'm fond of TES. I'm just wondering, would you enjoy another stab at an Elder Scrolls adventure game like Redguard? Or any genre besides RPG, for that matter. And secondly (or is that thirdly?), do you think, should an adventure game (or other non-RPG) be done with TES, would it better be suited for a studio like BGS whose bread and butter is RPGs but are clearly passionate about the world, or a different studio that might be more specialized at the other genre?

!?!

This means war! :toughninja:

As BSW's video producer, I worked on it, yes.

Lady Nerevar: All I'm saying is you won't see a http://www.helveticafilm.com/ called "Verdana" anytime soon.

What do you prefer ? A Apple or a Orange ?

*Killmoms is clearly the only one who does not realize how grotesque and bombastic Helvetica is*

What would you say are your top three (or five, I'm not difficult) games you have ever played, outside of Fallout/TES?

I agree, and you expressed that point really well.

About this, do you (you developers, I mean) think that Skyrim will allow the players to better develop their characters, in terms of roleplaying? And, if that is the case, how will you achieve that?