Skyrim is like a single player MMO : V - Skyrim

» Sat Dec 03, 2011 6:17 am

there's definitely room for improvement as far as story telling goes
and it's not on par with some of bioware's best titles
but I feel that considering the scale and style of TES this is kind of an unfair comparision
most of bioware's titles gave you more options in any given storyline but the over arching storyline is a lor more linear
not like you can go to an end game environment to do some qeusts there like you can in this game
the qeusts and storylines simply can't be as intertwined or deep because of this

simply put, too many variables

» Sat Dec 03, 2011 3:05 am

The interactions with companion/followers and there backstory should have been better, there is no reason at all this couldn't have been done better.

» Sat Dec 03, 2011 2:29 pm

I love the game. You can have your opinion and I will have mine.

» Sat Dec 03, 2011 4:24 pm

Star Wars: The Old Republic will be differing with you on 12/20/2011.

According to Bioware its actually designed to be played cooperatively but I shall challenge that when I get my beta code which I'm apparently due soon.

» Sat Dec 03, 2011 11:55 am

Start reading all of the books and you'll find massive amounts of story/writing/lore.

Reading the books is one of the best things to do ingame imo. Sure some of them aren't very interesting, but there are also some great stories. A Dance in the Fire/ The 2090 series were both excellent stories, along with just plain entertaining stories you can also learn alot of the history of the races/gods.

» Sat Dec 03, 2011 9:27 am

Start reading all of the books and you'll find massive amounts of story/writing/lore.

Reading the books is one of the best things to do ingame imo. Sure some of them aren't very interesting, but there are also some great stories. A Dance in the Fire/ The 2090 series were both excellent stories, along with just plain entertaining stories you can also learn alot of the history of the races/gods.

Exactly. I waste so much time reading the books in the game. And some of them really just svck you in.

» Sat Dec 03, 2011 4:22 am

Wow, a single player RPG is like a massively multiplayer online RPG except with no online and singleplayer instead of multiplayer? Who'd've thunk?

» Sat Dec 03, 2011 4:09 pm

I feel the problem with more heavily written games like bioware makes is that your companions and often you too get pigeonholed into a singular role.
With this game I can give myself and my travelling companions any personality I like.
I find that the way Bethesda chose to keep many personalities more or less a blank slate really enhances my roleplaying.

» Sat Dec 03, 2011 6:24 pm

I chuckled at the title.

The game is exactly like an MMO, except an an MMO that has no people and is offline is exactly what Skyrim is - Single player...

» Sat Dec 03, 2011 1:05 pm

100% Disagree. This game is incredible. I can't get enough of it. And I can't wait for DLC. Beth needs to keep these games coming with incredible story telling and great gameplay

» Sat Dec 03, 2011 6:02 am

The interactions with companion/followers and there backstory should have been better, there is no reason at all this couldn't have been done better.

Agreed. I know this games has a lot of companions, but considering how big this game is, I don't think it would have been a problem to give them their backstory and a lot of dialog. Sadly, it seems Bethesda never cares about character development.

» Sat Dec 03, 2011 10:15 am

The world IS the story. Look at the attention that's gone into each town, read the books lying around, listen to the conversations between NPCs (they've come a long way since endless mudcrab discussions!), discover a little hunter's shack with a corpse who died from disease all alone in the wilderness.

I enjoy some Bioware stuff, but this looser and more subtle storytelling works better for me.

With attention to each town, do you mean the same buildings reused in every little town?

» Sat Dec 03, 2011 10:42 am

I totally disagree with your statement I've gotten lost more than a few times with the story....sounds like you're either trolling or haven't played but 2 seconds of this epic experience we call skyrim

Or maybe you havent played an RPG with an epic story. Play Planescape Torment or Mass Efffect I and you will see that the Skyrim story is piss poor compared to those.

» Sat Dec 03, 2011 6:48 pm

There hasn't been an MMO made as of yet with the depth of a Bethesda RPG. I don't see it happening, even with the upcoming Bioware one. The genre limits what you can do to support the population.

» Sat Dec 03, 2011 4:02 pm

Go play a linear story-driven RPG if that's what you want. :confused: There's plenty of them out there.

TES is for fans of open-world RPGs.

The thing you need to understand is, there's a tradeoff. In providing all the freedom we have in TES games (like the open-world, full control over who our character is, etc) it becomes a lot harder to craft a good main storyline. Think about it. It's much easier to write an epic storyline if you can control what the player sees constantly. It's also a lot easier to craft a great storyline around a set character you know everything about - not to mention have more meaningful NPC interaction.

This. Imagine if you tried to write a "Choose Your Own Adventure" where, instead of giving you two or three options at every "choice point," you gave them 10, 20, 1000 options. It's very difficult to write a story at that point, which is why they go ahead and make invulnerable, "essential" characters... it'd be too hard to come up with what happens after you assassinate everyone they marked as important for the story.

» Sat Dec 03, 2011 1:43 pm

walk around, adventure, pick up quests (agree to do it, or disagree, no grey area). Its fun, but gets boring real quick. Bethesdas formula of, 'creating large open world games where the player can do whatever he wants and adventure' just doesn't cut it anymore, its 2011, nearly 2012.

I dont think its enough to just create an environment, throw the player in and say 'have fun', that worked a couple of years ago with daggerfall, morrowind and even oblivion but i would have thought bethesda would have evolved a little bit by now and added more depth into their game.

what im talking about is story telling and writting, its just piss poor in skyrim, almost non-exist... atm i really dont seem to give a [censored] about nearly 99% of the NPCs in the game, they're all 2-dimensional and mindless. Bethesda should look at bioware and pick up on their ability to tell storys and maturely develop characters (lets be honost, the 'wife' system is a joke).

I mean, fine, keep the side quests as they are. but at least put more effort in creating an epic main quest with good voice acting, believable characters that develop through the game and have different personalities and even mature relationships because atm the dialoge in this game is just so shallow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bMLrA_0O5I

» Sat Dec 03, 2011 1:26 pm

I am extremely emotionally invested in this game, I have no idea what game you're playing dude.

One of my followers alone comments on everything in Dwemer ruins. "Wow, I'd like to take it apart to see how it works!" and a million other things.

» Sat Dec 03, 2011 3:36 am

I think the OP's desire is probably something that cannot be programmed into a game. Thing is, since your own character doesn't talk much with the locals other than to buy things and ask about quests, I think what you get already (them saying little things in passing to you) is about all that is possible. You do get additional quests from some of the same people throughout the game, so this is how your relationship 'matures' with them.

» Sat Dec 03, 2011 2:10 pm

Go play a linear story-driven RPG if that's what you want. :confused: There's plenty of them out there.

TES is for fans of open-world RPGs.

The thing you need to understand is, there's a tradeoff. In providing all the freedom we have in TES games (like the open-world, full control over who our character is, etc) it becomes a lot harder to craft a good main storyline. Think about it. It's much easier to write an epic storyline if you can control what the player sees constantly. It's also a lot easier to craft a great storyline around a set character you know everything about - not to mention have more meaningful NPC interaction.

Why does there have to be a trade off? Why cant Lydia have a background and personality? Just pick say, 4 or 5 of the followers and make up stories and dialog with them, it would make the game about 50x better imo. But hey, not all games can be as good as BG2 now can they!

» Sat Dec 03, 2011 2:05 pm

"Skyrim = Single Player MMO" is a forced comparison.

Yeah Bioware focused on Dialogue... but mostly too much, that it sounds like a cheap movie's dialogue.
And their stories are just so so... And getting worse lately.

» Sat Dec 03, 2011 5:37 am

Do more quests, please. Then complain about bad story and character development.

More than in any other Elder Scrolls game, the characters feel well-developed, the quests feel inventive and fresh, and the whole world seems to be alive. I have no idea what game you're playing, or what constitutes strong story development for you.

» Sat Dec 03, 2011 9:37 am

Why does there have to be a trade off? Why cant Lydia have a background and personality? Just pick say, 4 or 5 of the followers and make up stories and dialog with them, it would make the game about 50x better imo. But hey, not all games can be as good as BG2 now can they!

I agree that companions should have a bit more background and personality, but I guess the developers can't do everything... and there are always going to be tradeoffs.

In my opinion, you can't really compare something like BG2 to Skyrim. Sure, they're both fantasy RPGs... but they're completely different. Each has it's own pros and cons. It's very easy for fans of one to pick on the flaws of the other.