It was disappointing to see it unstickied today, but I guess something about it seemed suspicious. :shrug:

A couple of things.

First, the thread is being maintained by moderators, and was (for a short time) stickied by a modernator. Moderators have no more knowledge of what Bethesda is doing than we do.

Second, the TESting your knowledge trivia questions are being supplied by the Imperial Library, which is ultimately a site operated by fans, and so have no more knowledge of what Bethesda is doing than we do.

So, there's no reason to suppose either the existence of this thread, or the TESting your knowledge trivia, has anything to do with TES V.

Man, when I read 'Official TESV Topic', I was baffled for a moment. Then reality hit.

In response to your first point: You are correct in that moderators are not privileged to insider information. However, they do have a bit of a lead in that they have to know when something is coming up so they can prepare and know appropriate procedures. Also, they are under the authority of the administrators (who do have insider information) and the moderators take their cues from them. From all we knew, the admins could have instructed the mods to sticky this thread after a certain date.

In response to your second point: Although the Imperial Library is supplying the trivia questions, it surely couldn't have been the IL who forced Bethesda into doing the TESting Your Knowledge, which means that Bethesda is the one behind it. It isn't a requirement of the Imperial Library to know what Bethesda is doing for them to supply trivia questions.

Finally, the existence of this thread does not guarantee anything - I'll give you that. However, due to the presence of administrators and developers here (and that they haven't killed it) leaves me to believe we may have merit for suspicion.

Well the reason for an official thread in the first place is because people were speculating so much they just cleaned it up into one place so the devs could laugh at our ignorance more easily

My own speculation remains either late spring Game Informer with video at E3 or an outright E3 announcement.

I think the trademark renewal issues do constitute good evidence that something is happening, and the book certainly suggests they aren't giving up on TES just yet.

It's possible that the moderators have been informed by the Admins, and it's possible that someone from Bethesda contacted the good folks at TIL to come up with trivia questions, all the while having in mind revealing something when the trivia questions ran out. Those are both possible, but I don't see any hard evidence for them. It's just as likely that the moderators have maintained this thread so they don't have to deal with multiple threads on the same topic, and that someone from TIL suggested the trivia contest to someone at Bethesda, or someone at Bethesda contacted TIL about trivia, simply because he/she thought it was be cool, or needed a way to unload extra books, or whatever. My point is that there are lots of potential explanations for TESting your knowledge and the fact the mods have maintained this thread, and no hard evidence that they mean a reveal is on the horizon.

Having said that, again, the trademark renewal issues are suggestive.

A healthy dose of skepticism is a good thing around here so I respect and agree to your points. I definitely don't give TESting Your Knowledge the same amount of weight as the trademark issue. On it's own, apart from other more significant data (check my sig), it admittedly isn't convincing. However, when considering these other things, it does add fuel to the fire.

The thread is even lower on my priority list. You are likely correct in that this thread is more of a housekeeping issue, but the presence of Bethesdians (administrators and developers) is intriguing.

I'm still holding my breath for a E3 unveiling. Of coarse, it may happen sooner but, that's what I think.
And yeah, the gameinformer update is just a update to their site. =/ Nothing to do with their magazine.

Kinda lookin for announce in the early April. And large coverage on E3 2010.

And have you seen it? The Last TESting arrived with Black Marsh question. I think TESting was some kind of scale of fan attention for Bethesda. They've got enough on the number 11.

Got my fingers crossed on TES V: Skyrim. (love this nordy stuff)

That information actually makes me think that the second book's announcement is near. Black March is where the first book's story began. Then again, it could all be coincidence...

I cannot shed any light on this issue expect to say we were contacted and asked if we would be interested in coming up with some trivia questions for a giveaway competition for The Infernal City novel.

if all they have to do to 'generate buzz' is sticky a topic in the forums they'll save thousands on advertising and teasers
...unless we don't keep biting at it....quick! everybody stop talking about it, so they're forced to put out a press-release!

Cool...thank you for clearing that up. If I may ask, did they offer any guidance in the type of questions or was it pretty much up to you come up with them?

Wow, think that Oblivion was released 4 years ago, time passes quickly and not even a single clue has come out.

When it came to writing the questions, we were given free reign. All Gstaff asked was that they were a mix of easy and difficult questions.

I have a feeling you know something we don't. Stain, find him. And I mean: FIND HIM! :gun: :gun:

Why does the title of this thread keeping changing?! I'm having a harder time finding this than evidence of TES V.

I sent him a PM and he pretty much told me the same thing. He said that Gstaff asked them to do about 12-13 questions ranging from easy to hard. As for any significance to there being 11 questions, he knew of no connection.

We're getting no where... I guess speculation is becoming pointless. We might just have to wait it out.

Yeah, at this point that seems to be the most appropriate course of action. Until something new arises, there's little more to discuss.

There's isn't more to discuss now then there was 4 years ago. We have learned nothing about TES V. We don't even know if it exists.

It was pretty much the same way in the interum between Morrowind and Oblivion. This is the standard operating procedure for Bethesda.

In hindsight, yes. But there were a couple possible glimmers that haven't panned out yet. The thread getting stickied prompted some discussion that has since become moot, and the last TESting Your Knowledge question has been cause for speculation. I still consider the possibility of the questions leading to something.

The purpose here is to leave no stone unturned. So yeah, there will be many times when the stones yield nothing valuable.

Well, the TESting your knowledge is probably either leading to nothing, TES V, or the next book. Hopefully not the first one

Agreed! :laugh: