In my opinion, every great story has your full undivided attention throughout the whole process. From the begging to the end, you should be emotionally attached to each character in some form. From a character leaving a sour taste in your mouth or making you cry as they die, you should feel something for them. This is one thing I believe that Oblivion didn't have and Skyrim should have.

For example: In oblivion You start out in a prison cell, then you go save kavtch and from there you become a great hero. Did you ever feel bad the emperor died? Did you ever feel bad for the dead people in Kavch? did you ever really feel emotionally attached as if it really happened? This is a problem that happens alot in games and movies, but this is how Oblivion could of gone.

With alot of planning and improving this could be a good start.

Which one sounds better, even if your not that emotionally tied to the story. A good example is Halo: Reach. When Jorge died, I nearly wanted to cry. Why? I don't know, but the music and the voice acting and all the other elements tied together and created and emotion inside of me. Thats what Skyrim Should do and emotionally tie you to every character. So when you leave a town you might hate this person becuase of this and love this person because of this. Other then that every character is just a name with a face.

How's This for my first Post? :celebration:

That sounds a lot like Assassin's Creed II.

I cried when the Emperor died. My exact quote when the Emperor got stabbed, "Captain behind you! Picard no!"

,but I agree. We need better emotional ties. Make me care if these people get roasted by these dragons.

Uriel...

Nothing that ties you in to a fxed role like that young kid stuff.

I want a blank slate. I hope the quests and characters you meet will actually mean something. It was just......do my quest, THANK YOU!..... now get out of my face. No more questions or personal info or anything.

1. Every NPC? Not possible, sorry. Everyone finds and forms relationships in differing ways, and what is memorable for one player is just another pedestrian to others. I did have attachments to many characters in Oblivion and Morrowind. Hell, when Caius Cosades was called back to the Emperor, I seriously had this "lonely feeling". Many more I could mention, but I won't.

2. I don't want to start as a child. I absolutely abhorred that feature in FO3 and Fable. Complete waste of my time.

3. Welcome to the forums and have a http://www.uesp.net/wiki/General:Fishy_Stick

I was just using the kid thing as an example, but you know what I mean. Just something that makes you feel sorry for them or hate their guts type of thing

Bioware does this extremely well. Every now and then you can talk to your fellow companions and get to know them better, understand their joys and troubles, stuff that gets you more attached to them. Without getting cheesy, it′s something that can be done with good dialogue and storytelling, good voice acting and music.

You can roleplay that scenario anyway. No one specifies exactly why you went to prison, where you came from, etc. Maybe the Kvatch guards did kill your parents. Maybe you use the confusion of the battle to pick off those responsible. That's the fun of roleplay, at least for me.

I really struggle when games try to force me to care though. In FO3, I didn't really care when the father died, because I probably had less connection to him as a player than, say, Moira or Lucas from Megaton. As much as Oblivion's ending was criticised, I think it did a little better in this regard. I actually felt a bit of a loss when Martin sacrificed himself, as I'd actually worked along side him for more than like, half an hour of gameplay. I suspect we may get a similar situation with Esben in Skyrim though, as mentor figures never seem to live long in fiction.

Oblivion did okay when they developed characters, but it's for the individual person, just like where people call home in the elder scrolls. For me, it was thirsk, and I hope they bring that kind of big ol' mead hall back.

Come on, let there be more emotions than just character death...Optimus Prime's death in Transformers 2 anyone?

Blank slate. I need to feel that I create the backstory for my character, whether I see that backstory play out in the game or not. That's what I've always loved about the way TES games begin. You know you're imprisoned for some reason, but the rest is up to you. You may or may not have comitted the crime. You can decide what the crime was, if you did. You can just completely ignore the main quest if you want to.

TES demands something rare for videogames these days: use of your imagination.

Bioware does a great job with their characters. I still remember feeling very, VERY depressed when Bastila was taken by Malak in KOTOR. I seriously thought about turning to the Dark Side just for her at the end of the game, that's how much I cared. Some characters like that would be nice. I think most of that connection simply comes from the main characters in Bioware games actually being fleshed out and given distinct personalities, rather than Bethesda's "Oh, hello stranger. I'm so-and-so. Want to hear my life story? Bye!' approach to NPCs.