When I'm troubled, and the world not only does not make sense but insists upon leaving tire tracks on my backside, Oblivion is the place to run. It's not a damaging drug, though it can fuilfill the classic definition of, 'leave taking behavior', but unlike a drug or poor adaptive technique, the game leaves the bearer better than when he arrived. In psychotherapy circles, that's gold., that's Job One of an decent professional, and Oblivion does this for a one time payment of 50 bucks. Try that with your Manhattan Jungian psychotherapist!

I owe too much to Bethesda and J Soule not to acknowledge this amazing creation. Soule said he composed the music after a car wreck when he believed death was certain. He said he was celebrating life in the music. It shows. And how in heck an industry, a capitalistic boggey man like Bethesda would respond in kind is a tale almost enough by itself to make one ponder the existence of God. Such sweet co-mingling of art and music, form and game play, profit and product satisfaction. Oblivion is built the way you sometimes hear hand forged tools should be, or trucks used to be; it's worth the money and lasts and lasts. There are dark themes in Oblivion- but you are never far from the Light. There are evil things in Oblivion, and you can do much evil, make no mistake, but there is also redemption- you can purge your sins and begin anew. This is a game, but it also emulates life. It was criticised at the time for being too cute, too fuzzy, but the game is geniunely warm and that is not a fault. It is a virtue in a world often afraid to take a stance.

Playing Oblivion is comfortable, like being with an old friend you know you can say anything in front of. I play Oblivion for fun, for there is always change, always variety, but I also play it for peace. Oblivion brings peace.

Maybe it's just me. Playing Oblivion is the same feeling you get after a great hike in the wilderness, or a good time with the family at home. It's that good. Anyone find this game calming, peaceful, lovely, inspiring and funny? Healthfull, that is what it is- and to think they made it out of love but also to make Money! Well done indeed, and thank you.

Yeah, I know. I can't help it; it's just the best game ever made. They don't even realize it yet- but history might. The people who later will study gaming and where it began will find the proper place for the Elder Scrolls and especially for Oblivion. It's overlooked now, passed over, in the shadow of Morrowind or knocked over by the hot wind of Skyrim. Oblivion is the one they hit out of the park, and historians of the genre will one day say so too.

grog

Good post.

Play Morrowind.

Good post indeed (protip: Shaddow, try more than 4-word responses. They're handy).

Old Grog, Oblivion doesn't quite reach the level of therapy (for me anyway) that you have described, but you said several things that I totally agree with:


This in particular. The insistence of ambiguous morality that we see in Skyrim and a ton of literature these days is just... so... tired. Yes, we get it - sometimes there is no black & white. Yes, we get it - sometimes bad people have good motivations. Yes, we get it - there's often a little bad in - ohfortheloveofoGodjustletmehavefun!!! I like me some grit & realism in my fantasy, but sometimes I want to play a *good* guy, you know? In a world that isn't a smear of grey ambiguity.

I also agree that there is something very soothing about the music, the landscape, even the "social atmosphere" created by the silly NPCs.

When we reinstalled Oblivion recently & started it up after play Skyrim non-stop for about 3 months, hearing that music was so refreshing.

I agree, Oblivion is very relaxing. Quite a few people who participate in the oblivion section of the forums will agree as well. It is a work of art.

Yup, you can definitely count me in.

I definitely agree. When I first discovered TES IV: Oblivion it was, in fact, theraqeutic for me! Without going into too much detail, TES helps me stay clean, if ya know what I mean. I've been to outpatient counseling (voluntarily), which I found counter-productive because most of the people in those meetings are not there because they want to be. I've also had an actual shrink on and off these last few years. Although she's about 20 years older than me and has never played a videogame in her life, Janet agreed that if gaming can help me, then I should put my all into it.

Having the option to really sink my psyche into some good gaming is an alternative to some of the self-destructive substances which clamor for my attention. Tomb Raider, as awesome as it is, makes me too anxious and frustrated. Sims games are fun for awhile, but as an advlt, I eventually get bored of them. Oblivion and Skyrim both have what I like to call a balance of Yin and Yang energies...action versus passive immersiveness, in other words. TES are really the only games I can think of that offer such a balance.

I love Oblivion too. It was always my go to game from 2007 till Skyrim was released. I think when I go back to Oblivion after many months (or years) of Skyrim, Oblivion will have had some time to lose its familiarity and be fresh again.

I am so in agreement. I do love Skyrim, and appreciate the followers and albeit limited marriage functions they added for my lonely characters in vanilla Oblivion. However I miss the "spreadsheety" attributes, deeper quild/quests and customization provided by spellmaking in Oblivion. However, these are just game mechanics. For me personally, your quote above symbolizes what makes Oblivion a unique gaming experience. And... it is implemented in such an awesome manner. Players who are "Oblivious" can simply run and gun without having the mechanic imposed upon them. Those who role play with any degree of morals simply cannot ignore it. For all of the game mechanics that are debated, this, along with (disposition, fame, infamy and morality) is the biggest loss in Skyrim, and helps to make Oblivion a very unique and special gaming experience. Although I am playing Skyrim almost exclusively at this point, Oblivion remains my favorite game, primarily because of your quote above.

Despite the medieval fantasy, monsters, and "cartoony" characters, Oblivion is the best gaming example of art imitating life in my opinion.

If I was to give an emotive response for this game, it would be warm and cuddly. And it's the only game that I would do this for.... so I'm right there with you.

And that is what some people cannot understand about why i would prefer Oblivion over Morrowind.

Yes Morrowind has more factions, a more gritty world, more weapons, more armour, more lore, more spells etc. but the gentleness Oblivion gives, and that soothing music, those green peaceful forests and all, is just for me... A higher sense.

Nice post, you old grogster! Like mpls big daddy, I'm right there with ya.

'Play MoreOblivion' is what I'm sure one of the above posters probably meant to say. . . .

Hey I'm an advlt and I love sim games, doing challenges is a nice way to spend the time, Build a city challenge is my favorite. Also creating who hoods and single handling create every single sim with their own backstory
Anyway, I can escape real life more Skyrim do to the fact that I can literally spend several in game days doing nothing but "house work", like really I'm not kidding, I could spend several hours just chopping wood, or in the rice mill(even if it does nothing but hey you can interact with it!) Then when the sun starts going down, head to the pub, chat a bit then head home to my husband, Those were the days after my grandma's funeral and it was a really nice escape.
Don't get me wrong, Oblivion is a real nice place to escape, it has this huge charm factor that Skyrim does not have, starting with the music!

I too am an advlt and I like the Sims. The Sims are just as much a roleplaying game as an Elder Scrolls game, as far as I'm concerned. Roleplaying games do not have to be violent, they do not have to be about swords and magic and dragons. A roleplaying game can be about ordinary people living ordinary lives. One could even argue that the Sims games have more roleplaying depth than a Bioware or Elder Scrolls game. There are more character stats and skills to keep track of, more choices to be made, and the actions our characters take have an effect not only on themselves and NPCs around them but often on the world itself. That sounds like a roleplaying game to me, and a damn good one too.

*Sagenods*
Especially for us that LOVE to create stories and play them out! And letting them in free will can create a mess hahaha, and add to the story!

So very much this. I think it's time we returned to neo-warm-fantasy, all this grit and darkness weighs on the spirit.

Excellent post, but you might want to consider that you have a "problem"

I actually got bored of Sims 2 and 3 not because of a lack of killing or violence, but because they're made for teenage girls and after awhile the lack of depth (that's the best term I can come up with to describe what I mean) starts to bug me. The DLC's they've come up with so far, for instance, are all furniture sets and clothing options...stuff that wows my daughter but leaves me rolling my eyes. what would get me back into the game is more houses to buy, deeper personality traits, and some deeper interactions between the Sims themselves.

Sims 2, for instance, really had some awesomeness going with relationships. As an advlt, I would really get caught up when 2 sims started to fall in love. The way the camera would start to zoom in and rotate, the way the mood lighting would change...little stuff like this made me go "wow". The problem with Sims 2 (on console, of course) we can't follow our sims ANYWHERE. They're always stuck in that damn house, and when they leave to go to work, we can't follow them thru town to see what happens.

Sims 3, now we can follow them around more, and there are more overall activities to accomplish throughout the town. Problem is, they dumbed down some of the cool relationship stuff found in Sims 2. Yes, dumbed down! That's right, that's what I said!

Another thing: Sims 2 also featued 3rd person & 4th person gaming...in effect, I could manually walk my character around, as well as tell them where to go (as in the first Sims). Sims 3 dumbed this back to just 4th person...ya know...where you tell the sim "go here" by clicking on a spot and they go there. No more 3rd-person.

I love sims, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't hold my attention as much as I'd like to. Every now and then, however, I need to fire it up. Because it is a unique sort of videogame experience.

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Beautifal, well written post OP.

And I quite agree, I've always felt that Oblivion was the game that marked the end of the old way of game making, and the beggining of the new. After Oblivion, big open world games with epic draw distance came cropping up ten a penny all trying to cash in on that formula and the open world craze. But over the time the flaky immitations crumbled and the flagship title endured. Indeed, Oblivion was and still is a very special game.

You have no idea how much I agree with you. As some of the members here know, I came to Oblivion right after Doom 3, a game I played through but never enjoyed. As far as horrorgames go, it′s terrible, but the atmosphere worked on me and all the scare-jumps too. There were no companions and no side-track from what you were supposed to do. Just dark corners, blood, corpses and foul monsters. And the only thing to do besides some interaction with computers was shoot, shoot and shoot. Which Doom is all about, I know

You can imagine the incredible sense of calm and relaxation when I fired up Oblivion. For the first time since Deus Ex I could actually sneak past enemies, I didn′t have to kill everything like in Doom 3. And there was so much more than just endless combat! I could tinker with magic and alchemy! I could choose what my character should wear and where to go! I could explore and not just follow a pre-determined route from start to finish. Finished btw, is something I have a hard time picturing I will ever be with this game.

And just like stated in the OP, if work has been unusually boring/hard and I desperately need something to put my mind at ease with, Oblivion is always there. All I need to do to feel better is wander around The Great Forest or wherever my character happens to be and talk to maybe Sinderion or J′skar, all while listening to music for the soul. Even if I′m forced to fight, that too is no big deal compared to Doom 3. I can actually enjoy that in Oblivion.

They way I see it, Doom 3 was the Fire Damage 100pts for 300 secs on Self while Oblivion was the Instant Heal Legendary Wounds. Sounds ridiculous maybe but I have no better way of explaining what I feel.

Thank you Bethesda, and thank you Mr. Soule. Together you′ve made the sweetest Sweetroll possible.

I think, well it might sound silly, but the ability to "create" your own world in a way plays a big part in the instant heal Legendary Wounds , And that's what the TES games let us do, create our own worlds that let us escape!

Ha ha I think you've taken up my passion for using colored words.

Guilty as charged!

You know Oblivion is healing when you break out the coloured words on the forum...

Put the Oblivion music in a playlist *besides the battle*, hit play, and I swear you will relax and possibly fall asleep happy

I think many psychologists recommend playing Oblivion, just for the music