Previously in thread 2

I wonder why none of the devs ever post here. I also wonder whether they actually read this forum with haste or whilst sipping tea.

To summarize my previous posts and opinion: Yes it is, better than most games, worse than other Beth games.

I consider myself a TES fan, not an RPG fan. I'm a fan of the world that Betheada gives us, and freedom that they give us.

RPG's on the other hand? I'm utterly useless at them. And I wouldn't really consider Skyrim an RPG.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is better than Dragon Age 2. But is worse than The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and The Witcher and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (and this year hopefully The Wither 3: Wild Hunt) are better than The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. So I agree with you in the last part of your comment.

That's is fine, I disagree with the Witcher though. Hated that game to pieces. Skyrim was a lot more enjoyable to me. Morrowind and Oblivion were a lot better than Skyrim though. Fallout 3 was better than Oblivion and Skyrim though.

What I meant that The Witcher and The Witcher 2: Assasins of Kings being better than The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is that I was referring to the quests having branching paths with consequences.

Ah, well then yes I will give you that. To be fair though not a lot of games have very branching quest lines, but I do see your point.

ditto

ditto too. Although I'm fairly good at RPGs I like to think. And where you see freedom I see the removal of choice. But mostly I agree with you.

I agree with the "definition" of role playing game as spelled out on wikipedia:

"A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as role-playing game or RPG, as well as computer RPG or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a protagonist (or several adventuring party members) immersed in a fictional world". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role-playing_video_game#Hybrid_genres

Going by that definition, then for me, Skyrim is a competent RPG imo. No way would I consider it "Lackluster". But I suppose it boils down to what one regards as "Lackluster", like a lot of threads on here, its subjective in interpretation to the point of immensely personal.

I don't know about that. Dragon Age 2 has attributes and classes after all.

...In case obvious joke wasn't obvious, the above is an obvious joke. Obviously.

That actually made me lol!

lol. Isn't that like, the definition of almost every video game made?

That definition is way too general and inadequate. You control a protagonist in a fictional world when playing Mario and Sonic.

Look at it this way:

Action game: Control a character or object and perform actions (jumping, shooting, fighting, etc)

Adventure game: Control a character through an interactive story, exploring and solving puzzles, interacting with NPCs using branching dialogue

Action-adventure game: Combination of action and adventure elements

RPG: Control a character or party of characters with numeric values (attributes, skills, etc) used to simulate progression and allow for unique interactions with the gameworld

RPGs may contain varying degrees of elements from the action genre and the adventure genre, but playing as a character in a fictional world is, by itself, not a defining aspect of the genre. The defining aspect that sets it apart from other genres is character development.

So in order to judge Skyrim as a game, you would take into consideration the whole package (action elements such as combat, adventure elements such as storyline, exploration, dialogue and puzzle solving, RPG elements such as character creation and developent; and of course the design and quality of the open world itself). In order to judge Skyrim purely as an RPG however, you should look only at the way in which stats simulate character development and allow for meaningful interactions with the gameworld (e.g. what can a really strong character do that a weak character cannot?)

With that in mind I would consider Skyrim to be a poor RPG because character development seems so basic with minimal impact on gameworld interaction. I would also consider Skyrim a bad action game, an average adventure game, and a disappointing open world game... but those are different discussions.