Trawling through yet another TES game and strings of interviews with the developers, my theory that Bethesda is not the most effective at in-game narratives is confirmed once again. It seems to me that I go through Bethesda's games being underwhelmed by the characters and people in it. There's nothing wrong with the stories in theory, but when put into an in-game narrative they always seem to come out...Lacking. There never seems to be any impact, any wow moments that make you stop and stare. I know that people could argue that the dragons accomplish that end, but after a couple of hours you realize that they're EVERYWHERE and as such lose any sort of awe they might have otherwise inspired. This isn't just limited to Skyrim, however. It's prevalent in all Bethesda's games. I'll skip Arena and most of Oblivion because quite frankly they were mediocre in the first place. But lets go back to Morrowind. We finally scratch our way through the game to find Vivec. To those of you who actually know anything about TES, this is the guy. But to those who don't, he's just a guy who floats and gives the PC a glove. You see the problem?

Bethesda's greatest boon is also it's greatest curse. The lore is absolutely fantastic, rivaling anything Forgotten Realms has ever thrown out, and yet to experience it you have to view the in-game books which is not in itself a bad thing, it's just that none of the lore particularly reflects on the game itself. Upon meeting Vehk, the smiling liar himself, you'd have no idea that this is the guy that's stopped moons by uttering one word, who has sent Daedric princes flying back into Oblivion with a flick of the wrist, the man who killed his own children and built cities on top of their bones. He's just a two-coloured guy who doesn't much care for clothing. Another obvious one is Mannimarco in Oblivion, which hardly needs mentioning because we all know how horrible that is (at least there's a lore explanation pointing to why he's so lacking). Another is Pelinal Whitestrake in Knights of the Nine.

Bethesda has done impact correctly, however. Let's take Almalexia or Hircine for example. You have to go through a hell of a mess to actually meet the people, especially in the case of Hircine. I mean in Skyrim, Alduin is one of the first things you see, and to someone who knows little to nothing about who Alduin IS, to them he's just another dragon and by three hours into the game they would have already killed ten dragons by that time.

It really irritates me when I see things like Bethesda saying that they're concentrating on a main story with no diverging plotlines to create a greater story, and then the story isn't driven home that well in the end anyway. Like I said earlier, the stories themselves are great, from Arena all the way through to Skyrim. But I can't help but feel that a few had actual impact. Redguard and Daggerfall being the main 2. In Morrowind you defeat Dagoth Ur, but the result from our perspective isn't that extaordinary. Brief monologue from Azura, no more ghostfence and so on. Bloodmoon had a nice ending if only because it left you satisfied. Lone mortal enters the Hunt, slaughters werewolves and an aspect of Hircine and walks out like he just came out of the saloon for a quick drink. Tribunal, too. At least without even reading the Sermons you could understand that Almalexia was a woman gone mad.

There are situations where I find the lack of knowledge given to the player quite charming, though. When heading through the ghostfence and Wulf gives you the lucky coin in Morrowind, the player just keeps walking on oblivious to the fact he just met one of the most powerful entities in the Mundus and beyond. Same thing happens in Skyrim with the Old Hroldan when asked to retrieve Hjalti's sword. Unless you'd read the Arcturian heresy or so on, you'd have no idea that you'd be holding the sword of Talos Stormcrown himself.

I have no idea if it's intentional or not on Bethesda's part to keep the two fanbases seperate: The ones who love TES for the lore and the ones who love TES simply because they get to hit people in the face with an axe. Obviously the latter don't want to be bothered with trying to figure out the Five Songs of King Wulfharth or a Love Letter from the Fifth Era when they're trying to punch things. But to me it seems impossible to really satisfy one while satisfying the other in terms of in-game narrative storytelling. I guess all I can do is hope for more books like the Mythic Dawn Commentaries.

This is a great post. I agree. The lore of the world rarely shows up in game as well as in books. I think Skyrim at least did a decent job of trying to aquaint players with the lore, though, compared to Oblivion, there are quite a lot of people who talk about it.

Your post articulates a few points I've been mulling over for a while.

Skyrim's lackluster narratives and extremely shallow characters were really disappointing even by ES standards. At least with Vivec you had the option of talking to the godking to learn a thing or two. Moreover his importance and influence were at least prevalent throughout the game; it would take an especially dense player not to pick up on this (what with there being a city being named after him, his Sermons being found all throughout the land, etc.). Similarly, you had all these Dwemer ruins, which might confuse you early on, but then through a couple of narratives you get to learn more about them, and you get to meet Yagrum!

So at least in Morrowind some depth was available in exchange for just a little awareness and curiosity. But this seems to be missing from Skyrim. Alduin, the Greybeards, Esbern - who are these characters? Why are they so one-dimensional? And then there's the whole Sovngarde fiasco...

:sadvaultboy: