I can't recall a single game other than Mount & Blade that has such awesome loading screens.
Looking at weapons and objects can get old after a while, but the occasional dual-wielding, bloodsplattered orc or thalmor mage just makes me want to start over as a new race every time I see them.
If their purpose is to prolong the game-experience by causing people to start over again, they serve their purpose!
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That said, I am yet to find a whole lot of people in-game who can actually live up to that awesome presentation.
Let's go over my notes about the races through out the games:
Altmer:
From morrowind through Skyrimg, the Altmer race have almost entirely consisted of stereotypical snob-like, arrogant commoners. People who think they are better than everyone else, but in truth they ARE everyone else. Just another shopkeeper or non-important wizard or some such.
I am yet to find an altmer in the games that actually gave off a cool impression, of being a naturally born arcane master.
Add to that, that they are usually all voice acted by the same person, which includes the player if you chose to be that race.
It's just not impressive, and for that reason, I think, I have always resented altmer. They just don't seem like elves! They just come off as snobby misunderstood and highly eccentric commoners who probably knows a spell.
Of course, up until skyrim, they at least had a tendency to look beautiful, but alas, the cold hard north must not be good for their golden tan.
That picture of the thalmor altmer holding a summoned blade in one hand and preparing a spell with the other gives off that impression I've been looking for. A pretty face, standing straight and tall, looking ready and prepared without fear. Superiority. If more altmer in the game gave off this impression, I might consider playing them in the future.
Come to think of it, I can remember a single altmer I liked. That hunter from choral (oblivion). Can't recall his name though. He didn't have much to do with altmer culture though.
Argonians:
I actually really liked the argonians in oblivion. well, apart from all of them striking me as clueless fortune seekers or people who are too full of them selves to sense their own demise. Argonians are just one of the weird races in tamriel that actually makes sense. They strike me as underwater humans. Of course they would have scales. Having to use their hands to swim with, of course they would have maws, and of course they would have tails.
In morrowind, they just looked to ridiculous for me to take them seriously. Hunched over freaks who were unable to wear a full set of armor... Yes, I know, it's cold, but thats how I thought the bestial races in morrowind came off. Always in bad positions and never able to fend for themselves.
In skyrim, the argonians still seem cool enough but still suffer under the same stereo types from oblivion. And for christs sake, would it hurt to have more than one voice actor?
Why are argonians never swimming, I keep wondering. There was just this ONE guy from oblivion who took to swimming every day, and apart from him, I've never seen an argonian swim, unless I pushed him into the water.
While Argonians generally give me a good and throught through impression, they just don't strike me as very cool, so I've never wanted to play one.
This is more of a personal preference than because of the way they appear.
Bosmer:
These short guys have always stuck me as annoying. Perhaps because they were intended to through out the first two games.
When I think dunmer, I think of a tribal elf dressed in forsworn-like armor with a bow at the ready and a wolf or hawk watching his back as he sneaks through the underbush, closing in on his unsuspecting prey. He may be short, but you won't ever get to tease him with that, because you will never see him coming.
While it seems bethesda wanted to send this signal with the bosmer, all bosmer I've ever encountered struck me as confused and naive people who were just trying to get by. None of them had anything to do with animals, and even fewer had anything to do with woods. Then came the bosmer from riverwood. Finally a guy who seems like a real bosmer.. Oh wait? No.. Just another naive and confused person who can't deal with his own problems.
In the next release, I'd like to see some bosmer who are a bit more like the dahlish elves from dragon age. That might convince me to play a bosmer.
Breton:
While seeming like completely ordinary humans, the bretons have magical affinities. Cool, I thought.
The bretons actually seem thought through. When compared to altmer in magical affinity, they come in second, and most of the breton wizards in the game are semi-accomplished. However, in oblivion, bretons just died for me. All of them had the exact same voice and they all looked old and friendly per default. It was just weird. Further more, I understand bretons are somewhat based on french culture, but I simply can't seem to figure out how they are supposed to fit into the bigger picture.
For me to want to play a breton, I think I would need the game I played them in, to take place in a highrock.
Dunmer:
I always kinda liked dunmer. A mix between tribal people and people living on the edge of imperial law due to their rebellious nature.
Thats how I see them, anyhow. Historically, I can't help but to compare them to jews. Dunmer always looked considerably cool in the games, and didn't seem to lean too much one one class-choice to become subject to stereotypes. All in all, a successful, well functioning and thought through race. I often play dunmer.
Imperials:
Imperials are easy to place down. The most civilized of the humans. Well educated, well spoken, generally rising to high positions when abroad. They depict romans quite well, an they've always managed to look decent through out the games. The imperials strike me as the most standard of the human races in he game, coming closet to the D&D equivalent of "human" as a race. This is because, in all the games so far, all the countries have been imperial provinces, and as such, playing an imperial just seems like a safe bet.
I play imperials often.
Khajiit:
My least favourite race of them all. Mostly because they make no sense at all. I see no reason why a race would evolve into cat people.
Had I designed them, they would have been feral and primitive hunters in their secluded and dangerous jungles, leaping from tree to tree and pouncing on their prey from above, definitely tribal, and they definately would not be wearing clothes or armor (you can't really do that if you have fur all over your body). Maybe loinclothes for decency... In TES, the khajiits are like gypsies. All of them sound like the same guy, and they speak in an annoying way. They are all fortune seekers and many of them are extremely arrogant, and misguided. Most of them have misplaced trust in their own abilities. I mean, seriously, what IS to like about them? I can only imagine this race being popular with so called "furries", or people especially taken with cats or cat-people. For some reason, these fur-covered people wear clothes and armor all the same. They walk on two legs in exactly the same manner as humans, which obviously removes any advantage a cat has, in speed and agility, as these khajiits are more subject to human anatomy than a cats. Truly, they are just fur covered humans with good eye-sight, claws, tails and cat faces. Further more, the claw business. They have hands, not paws, so that means they can't have retractable claws like a cats. That in turn means they can't make fists or perform many simple tasks with their hands, making them inferior craftsmen. This race is a failure if you ask me, and they bother me insanely.
I would never play a khajiit and I wish they would be removed from the tes universe.
Nords:
I'm a scandinavian myself, so you'd think the nords would give a good impression and make a first choice. They never have.
Assuming the dumb-primitive barbarian stereotype way too often in previous releases, they just never held interest for me. Skyrim managed to capture them in a much more appealing way, and they actually now remind me of old viking sagas.
I haven't even tried the other races yet, in skyrim, because I like the nords so much now, but in the previous games, things were different.
In morrowind, the nords, lorewise, struck me as relentless barbarians with an unmatched fighting prowess. Statwise, they just came in second to other races. In oblivon, all nords looked like beard-less pale hulking idiots who spoke like unintelligent drunks. I seriously hated nords in that game, and asked myself several times why bruma was even important. It just seemed like that place they sent everyone they didn't want in the other cities.
Fortunately, that seems to have been fixed with the release of skyrim.
Orcs:
I was never a fan of orcs outside of the villain roles, but I apparently both TES and Warcraft disagrees with me on that front. Fair enough, I always liked Orcs anyways. I see orcs as incredibly tough and hardy, not stupid, but slightly primitive, very bestial and instinctive creatures, earning wisdom and intelligence with age, provided they manage to survive their dangerous lives long enough to even get gray hairs.
This seem to be the way bethesda intended to introduce us to them as well, but instead, we get a lot of really stupid muscle people.
Have you guys SEEN that loading screen model of the dual wielding, blood splattered [censored]less bersker of an orc? I mean, where are those? Only orcs I've encountered are either rude or arrogant failures who were good at nothing. Of course there was the gray prince from oblivion. He was kind of cool, but I remember him as the only cool orc in then entire history of the elder scrolls.
Want me to play as an orc? Let's have more of those loading screen guys. Feared warriors who rain hell upon their enemies, roaring with fury as they lose themselves to battle, not minding their own wounds, but just furiously turning enemies into corpses. Let's get rid of these stupid stereotypes and get more of those serious orcs, who are committed to their ways and their traditions. Like that one orc I encountered just outside of windhelm, called "old orc" who had apparently just killed two saber tigers on his own. That guy was cooler than all of the orcs in all of skyrim put together! He didn't sound like an overconfident, unintelligent brute.
Redguards:
Of all the cool races in tamriel, THESE guys get to be the best warriors of the game? We have the nords and orcs who generally seem to be all about combat, but no.. The redguards are apparently just that much better warriors from natures side. It baffles me. Especially when you hear about redguard culture. It just doesn't compare to orcs and nords, but still, they remain "the best warriors in tamriel". It's silly and makes very little sense. They should be naturally good merchants instead, or have poison resistance or heat resistance instead.
The redguards strike me as another completely failed race.
So, after reading my long whining rant, please, share your opinions and help me like the races of tamriel better.
Help me find a reason to play as the other races. Help me see why bethesda chose to make the races this way.
Also, no offence meant to those of you who are fans of the races I may have just bashed. It's just my personal opinion here