» Thu Aug 29, 2013 6:17 pm No I don't mean more nudity/gore/swearing for an M rating or whatever, but developed with higher standards for dialogue and voicing believability, meaningful choices in both dialogue and how to complete quests, more complex and challenging combat and character building, less black and white morality, and a more diverse game world including some dark corners.
It's obvious to me Morrowind was the closest to the above of the last three games, while Skyrim is arguably the farthest. I'm sure that considering demographics is a thing for the devs and publisher since the series has blown up so much and reaching a large audience is important to them for $$$. And don't get me wrong, I'm not arguing that companies aiming for $$ > quality content = evil or whatever. There's also nothing wrong with an adventure RPG made for kids/teens(and also not all kids/teens want simplistic games), but it's depressing to see the potential of the TES lore and setting to be wasted on that - to me anyway.
However, gamers are getting older and there's the potential to lose some fans if it continues to be made for younger audiences. After Skyrim being probably my most disappointing game purchase to date for me the next TES may be a wait-for-a-sale game, but I doubt that's the case for enough gamers/TES fans to change the direction of the next TES. The hope though is that more gamers demand a more advlt experience from the series, thus making the optimal demographic to target change. Clearly Skyrim was a huge success in spite of how shallow it seems to me.
Sorry for the slightly dramatic/condescending title, but anything to get more discussion in here 'cause I'm bored.
To make my case for the series aiming at younger demographics/new gamers if anyone wants to argue that -
#1. Less and less player input and thought is required to complete quests or achieve tasks. You can now just follow an arrow to a quest objective without paying any attention whatsoever to NPC's descriptions if they even bother to give you anything substantial as it's clearly assumed the player will just use the compass. Puzzles and traps are also more simplistic with the solutions being pretty much spelled out for you.
#2. "Have everything, do everything" approach to factions and character building and practically everything else. Characters at high levels become identity-less master of all trades, and they made it possible to literally max everything with legendary edition. You can also join almost every faction without significant penalties or limitations. A far cry from Morrowind's flawed but still reasonably deep faction reputation system and NPC disposition. Your choices are so often made inconsequential, and this further ruins any sense of clear identity and motivations for your character. You're everyone's leader/hero/mercenary/borderline demi-god. The world is so centered around your character it ends up feeling incredibly fake.
#3. Combat is a hilarious mess and can be made completely trivial, especially on normal difficulty. Anyone who's played their share of games with melee combat should've noticed that TES's is a joke. The character building, again, is a problem since it's also incredibly imbalanced and, again, so biased toward the player. Most notably the player making the best possible items while NPC crafters are incredibly limited, and even legendary unique items failing to compete. Granted, not all of the combat's problems are specifically a kind of "dumbing down" as much as just a weakness of the series in general.
#4. Your impact on the world is trivial and your choices so limited it feels like they've slapped child-proof lids on everything. Can't kill important NPCs, can't fail quests, quests can usually only be completed one way and without allowing any clever short cuts or alternative solutions. Often, if you're like me, you're left wondering why can't I do it this way instead? Why am I forced into a soldier role for most quests when perhaps infiltrating another faction might be more suited to my character build? Why can't I, perhaps, betray one faction for another instead of being locked into one decision I made before learning the full story for each by being involved in their lower ranks?
#5. Nerevarine vs. Dragonborn: You're not allowed not to be special anymore. Shouts and the MQ of Skyrim are a much larger part of the game and you're rushed into the MQ earlier instead of being left to your own devices like you were in Morrowind when Caius pretty much just says "go explore the world and prepare yourself" - giving you a great excuse to leave the MQ behind if you like without already feeling compelled to save the world as a level 1. Dragons don't even show up without you learning you're a dragonborn. You're given more important quests, and more power, earlier. Even in non-MQ content almost every NPC assumes you're incredibly competent and trustworthy without the need to prove yourself or become more skilled as you had to with Morrowind's factions. My favorite example of this though is being sent to bleak falls, to "delve into a dangerous dungeon" at level 1 - no appreciation for the fact that you're some random dude just sent to deliver a message. The excuse that you survived helgen and thus are a competent warrior is pretty thin.
