Just like you have employed people for sound, the score of which is great. Just like you have employed people to design artwork, and despite graphic problems, the artwork is beautiful. Please for the love of all that is good in this world employ some proper story writers.

Not one of the quests, including the main quest, were particularly interesting. The characters on the whole were shallow, the story line was shallow and predictable, and worse still, many of the side quests (the much acclaimed content) was fluff. These didnt continue a story or add to any of the other stories in any way.

I liked the idea of wandering into a cave to see bodies and other things, this certainly adds to the feeling of something has happened here, and some random quests were generated in this manner - some of these were great. But you could have done so much more with the stories, especially where decision lines are made, and developing the characters.

Probably one of the worst things about the stories/ quests was the speed at which one becomes the head of the guild, or is accepted into the inner group. It takes a two quests from the companions and you are instantly accepted into the "inner group". Either these people are far too trusting with outsiders, or the story is shallow - i bet the latter.

Come on,i know you can make some advlt depth stories - after all the main people who purchase and play are in their 30s. Creating better stories is only a positive, it will not make anything more difficult to implement, or code, it is about just spending a bit more time on the development.

For guild questlines Bethesda should went back to how they did them in Morrowind. Also they should have added skill requirements for certain positions.

In a game so open its sometimes hard for amazing stories or in depth characters. For the most part all the open world games that provide this kind of play, tend to have a weaker narrative and shallower characters then games like COD or Gears Of War.

I did not know such a thing was possible.

Lol.. probably not the best examples. Maby a game like Deus Ex, Mafia II, and Final Fantasy would have been better.

Amen, brother.

In Morrowind, for all of the brilliant writing it has, there were a whole load of FEDEX quests too. To even start on the really insteresting storylines, you've got to went through all of them. And do not even let me start with the quests you get from roadside wanderers (ok, the naked nords were funny).

An overly immersive and colossal storyline would gravely reduce the personal feeling that is imperative in the player's character in such an open-ended game as this. Forcing the main character to follow certain directions can make it feel like you're not actually free to develop your character the way you want to. Plus, a lot of the players of Skyrim don't even care about the main story, at least not on a personal level. Or I would imagine that is the case.

Assuming most people have "finished the game"

Spoiler Dude!

I can somewhat agree with you on the main quest and especially so on the guild quests, but I think you're overstating the story/character weaknesses. I'd rather not acquire a "leadership title" if it means nothing about my accomplishments or my character. If the developers want us to see their affiliation quests so bad, make any non-qualified player a mercenary or valued associate. I'm sure the Mage's College could use for a bodyguard once in a while. Sure, the story might not revolve entirely around the player, but even a bodyguard can be the catalyst for impressive change. e.g. Disregarding his/her duties and helping an ambitious rival take over the guild by assassinating his/her ward.

While i think the writing is better than Oblivion, i agree.
The quests and stories generally only serve as a backdrop to my own story, or rather my own experience exploring the world, and it's fine like that. Not good, but functional.
But i really do wish they'd taken some time to atleast make some likable or memorable characters, my biggest beef is probably the companions.
So maby of them have absolutely no lines, story or personality at all, they're really no better than the modded companions from Oblivion and that's just wasted potetial right there.
Would have loved some deeper personalites to atleast the ones you meet while questing, they'd have their own stories and maby would come to you for help at some point.
Some benefits to the friendship, say you make nice with a thief and there'd be a chance they'd bust you out of prison, how cool would that be?
I digress but, yeah, writing is pants for the most part.

I thinks its a little too late for them to change the story lines

So you could grind a skill until you could unlock a portion of the game? That doesn't sound very fun.

That was a part of what made it great. Why would any organisation trust a random lowly nobody with the most important possible tasks to completely revitalise the guild? I liked it, anyhoo.

Working hard for a reward isn't fun?

Instant gratification is the least fun of all.

I concur.

Don't really know what this have to do with writing...

While predictable, I do like the thieves guild story line. Nocturnal seems like a cool gal to hang out with after death

Hiring profesional writers would be all good and well for a linear RPG like Suikoden or Final Fantasy... For an open world game written quests are difficult to implement - if you spend time and resources to make saga of epic proportions (let's say mages guild quest line) and the player decides to play barbar Conan... All the effort and time invested is wasted in his case.

Grinding a skill doesn't sound fun, no.

Doing a difficult quest (or multiple) would be fun.

I don't know how you played Morrowind, but I sure as hell never grinded.

You get your levels by actually playing the game and going through dungeons and what-not.

It's also helpful to ward off the kind of idiots Bethesda seems to want to bring to the series from waltzing into a high end quest (One day... One day we'll loose all wretched scaling...)

Please just Employ Obsidion Full time.

They should hire Obsidian to do it, lol. New Vegas was open and had great writing. Not as open as Bethesda games, yes, but it was still an open-world game. It's possible to have great writing make sense and work in an open-world game. Much as I love Skyirm (and Morrowind and Oblivion too, haven't played the first two), the dialogue and writing is pretty weak. If they got it up to a more professional level, the game would be even more amazing.

Edit: Wow, ninja'd by tnu, haha

You know, you can become the leader of the guilds so fast because that's not in the focus anymore like before, it's not the "end of the path" where there's nothing to do after...

And remove one of the staple features of the series?

I thought people hate that :teehee:

Gears actually has a great universe and story. Can't say the same for Cod.

You don't have to grind, but it'd take awhile to get to a level depending on how many levels away the skill requirement is.

I'm just saying I'd rather have to do a series of difficult quests to acquire a new position in a guild, or progress in a storyline. Which is my opinion.