Is the feeling that when you switch off the game, the world in which the game takes place carries on without you.

For me it's the mark of the "Living, breathing, world" you hear people talking about in gaming circles. The gameworld is so 'alive' that things are still happening even when you are not playing the game. It is advanced game design and difficult to achieve, but I think a title in this series needs it so the world can become the star of the show.

In Skyrim (my first ES game, so I don't know how the other titles felt) you don't get this feeling. It feels like when you stop playing the game the whole world is frozen in time - waiting for you to come back. I even get this feeling while playing the game and travelling from one cell to another, those NPCs are just waiting for me to show up so they can carry on what they're doing.

It also feels that NPCs only reason for existence is to serve me - like the movie
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070909/plotsummary - lifeless robots manufactured for my entertainment. A massive title in the Elder Scrolls series needs to do much better than that.

So, how can the next TES do this?

You hit the nail on the head. A TES title has not had that quality since Morrowind, and that one was borderline. In my own opinion, the thing that's missing is detail. With more detail, you get more options. Options make the world come alive, because you know that not everyone accomplished [this] the same way you did. Take thieving for instance. In Daggerfall, you could pick the lock on a door or chest if you had the skill. Or open it with magic, if you had that talent. Or bash it open with a sword if you had neither of those. The point is, there were numerous ways to go about accomplishing the goal of breaking-and-entering. And there were different consequences for the various choices.

The many times I played Daggerfall, with a wide variety of characters, I don't think I ever had a gaming experience within that game (or without it, to be honest) that came anywhere close to another time I had played.

I think the problem with many games these days is that they try to balance everything. The mage is just as powerful as the thief is just as powerful as the warrior, etc. That's not realistic. It's making the gaming experience cookie-cutter and lifeless. Some of my most enjoyable moments where when I was so close to dying in a fight and getting that lucky hit that saved my life. Three points of health and trying to find a safe place to rest, I had no idea of the real world outside my monitor. I was so immersed, if I had suddenly died at that moment, I think I would be playing Daggerfall for eternity. A real example of what I'm talking about is: The first character I rolled when I recently installed the old Daggerfall was spawned with a longsword which I couldn't use with any skill having taken expertise with short bades as a major skill and no skill for long blades. This is the first time I've ever had the game give me a blade I couldn't use. Still, I played through Privateer's Keep for three hours. That cave usually took me about a half hour way back when I was playing Daggerfall regularly, but that one little fact of having a weapon I wasn't skilled with made fights with things as lame as rats suddenly become life-threatening! I actually died by the bat at the top of the first staircase before the imp's room... and I was hooked on the game again.

If you can get around the fist-sized pixels, I would suggest downloading Daggerfall and DOSbox and playing through that game a bit. I think you'll find the same as I have - that graphics are the least important thing in a game.

Give me realism and a challenge!

I agree that Skyrims NPC's only seem to serve a purpose for the player and nothing more, I don't agree even though it was said borderline that Morrowind had the quality If I read correctly of 1. a living breathing world and 2. said world continuing on without you. Morrowind DID however have a better structured world and crossing interludes of the world being something more than the next 15 feet ahead of the character.

because thats all Morrowind was, 15 ft ahead and the grey yonder. and despite that the descriptions, the detail these factors gave you a feeling of more, that the world does not revolve around you even though it really does.

Um...from the op i gather you'd like something seen in the X3 series, were you can leave the game on and things will go on without you yeah? if so its a sixy idea, but as far as Skyrim and under are concerned even if the games ran in the background without your interference.....that smith isn't making anything its just an anim, that farm hand isn't tilling fields and generating crops...its just an anim, those guards swinging at targets...aren't getting stronger.


I feel when such aspects start to MATTER....then the next stage of pressing exit to desktop and going away for an hour or two and coming back to find your exploits have bear fruit would be achievable.