There's absolutely nothing wrong with the idea, if you want the game to be more linear than oblivion. By doing this you are blocking a great deal of what made TES, well TES! Role-playing and background creation, basically you are saying that your identity at the beginning of the game is defined, your goal is defined, you already made up your mind on what your character is like. In case you didn't catch my drift, this is not good. It just isn't TES, most people want TES to be (in terms of story progression and beginning mind you) to be like Daggerfall, the beginning was amazing, the manual on it's own was jaw-dropping. Not to sound pessimistic or anything, but what you're suggesting this whole progression idea, it just isn't TES

Nah, I'd rather have TES V, TES VI and TES VII, thank you.

Actually the closest comparison would be with Ultima VII (Black Gate, Underworld II, Serpent Isle)...

Done in the right context, the idea isn't completely terrible. TES, however, is not the right context. Nor is any established franchise.

For a small studio with a limited budget? It could be a workable solution to slowly building up a proper development budget for something epic: just make each game import the data files of any previous versions, and allow the newer versions to supplant the older ones (so models, textures, etc can be retouched as the engine improves, since an all-at-once world will never fly for a shoe-string budget studio). HERE, it could work, provided they offer a decent value each time, and slowly tie the different games together tighter.

Aside from that? Why? Just... Why? If Bethesda needs three games to tell a story... they should probably consider SI-sized expansions instead of TESV: Chapter II. Because fans like SI-sized expansions, it seems.

So I've read throught this thread and I'm still not clear. Was that a "yes"?

I would say yes if it were along the lines of Ultima VII (three different games, one common story).

Isn't this what the TES games are anyway?

There is one game world, and each release is a section of that world at different times in the history.

They could have released the whole continent that was playable through all the years that we have so far.

But this would.....

1. take ages to develop
2. fill your PC hard-drive with its size
3. have 1 game that will take years to complete and only ?40 per player.

So in a way they are splitting the game up into managable sizes both for developers and players and getting ?40 a time for each release.

And to be fair, its working. as I have been a TES player since Arena, and on these boards since Morrowind, and I hope to be here until TES XV although I may be to old for the Virtual Reality gameplay of the later games in the series

Bad option - splitting as mentioned...clearly...really bad idea.

Good idea - any expansion packs building on top of the world, be it filling out areas nextdoor (aka, in oblivion, instead of shivering isles, having hammerfell open up)..and then having the expansion have a new quest that only is triggered once the main quest is fulfilled...such as once the main quest ends...hammerfell starts drumming for war because of the leaderless empire to its east sort of thing (pure example, no need to remark why that particular plot...just the concept of how expansions should be handled in TES5)

The way I see it too. Expansions adding new areas.

Why waste a whole province on an expansion, which 1) forces the new provinces to be confined by the old tech of the last game's engine, 2) means that a whole province will get significantly watered down, as an expansion-release cycle is at most 1/4 that of the actual game, and 3) shortens the potential length of the Elder Scrolls series as a whole by cutting back on the number of provinces the player hasn't seen?

I agree with all of these and I have tried to tell people of the first two before. Also, an Elder Scrolls game should NEVER be in separate parts.

well when half the game has been made allready, the engine, the combat, the graphics etc have allready been made, So you could add in lots of new content in 6 months, provided you have a large team working on it.

Still doesn't combat #s 1 and 3.

I never understood masochists I have enough of a cliffhanger, when I need to turn off the computer and go to sleep for at least few hours before going to work. They were not designed as a way to improve the fun but to keep the viewers(or gamers in this case) hooked up on a series. The only good thing from such a resolution would be the fact that devs would have lots of time to spend on each part. Besides TES already IS devided into parts, that's why there is a number after these letters in each game's title...

Just remember the elder scrolls are already in 4 parts, each revoling around Uriel Septium (morrowind & daggerfall less so, but he still starts them off)

you could say they have just finished the storyline told over 4 parts. Howver it does not seem 4 parts, as each game has huge differences, thier own stories etc etc... I still feel they had the common story of Uriel's legacy to tamriel.

If they do this, great, a little linkage between games, but not much as to make a new player confused as to what is happening. Nor a main storyline that carries between each game, however a behind the scenes one would be cool again. Cliffhanger ending would most likely kill the series, and be annoying as the Cliffracers from morrowind.

Having the game do that would... well..... svck.

They's have to make characters exportable, the game would (when complete) cost a three times more, it would have to just end after the final battle, as the one disk is unlikely to have all of the content necessary to play the game for 3,000+ hours (as I have), then, if you were to split up miscellaneous quests the character would have to not only be backwards compatible, but also forwards compatible and......

It's just a nightmare.

It's gonna keep me up for several days.

Cliffhanger -> Cliffracer, nice :goodjob:

No, just no, this is not Mass Effect.

Simply no, I dont want to pay 3 times for one story, I'd rather just get the full game in one go.
It'll also let me go at my own pace, Instead of finishing one and having to wait untill the other gets released.

Chev,

Look what your "trolling" got you, if indeed you were jesting (which I doubt having read your previous posts).

I'm glad Squaresoft didn't make you pay for each disk individually when they released Final Fantasy 7 for the PSOne

Well they can't make the landmass of each game any smaller can they? It would seem that the next logical step is to do it in three parts...

Sigh, as sarcastic as I'm being I can't help but think it's a moot point anyway. I mean Oblivion is already so small that you can actually walk across the entire country at a normal pace in very little time. Not to mention there being less then 10 towns in Cyrodiil. Might as well just make the game a quick action adventure game like Redguard.

But finally all sarcasm aside, we can only hope for the games to become bigger and the world to become more comparable to our own. Realistic populations, better voice-work, more factions, a date system that actually matters, lifestyle options (opening shops, purchasing homes, getting jobs), more flexible interaction with NPCs, ect... In short, "Make this a true RPG that truly creates a second world".

Making a TES game in segmented form would officially shut the door on everything the TES series was meant to be.

Yes this is Elder Scrolls chapters are already layed why split up TESV for... :facepalm:

YES!! THIS IS SPAR...ELDER SCROLLS!! :flamethrower:

Alright