One thing I really enjoyed from the two Fallout series created by Bethesda is the miscellaneous items in the game. Those include the food boxes, electronic modules, nuka cola bottles... and the computers. I never missed any computers that crossed my path, and I can't tell how fun it was to peak at people's emails and notes... All those clutters added together gave me a very vivid view of how people lived their lives in the Fallout world. In comparison, I think the elderscrolls series can use some improvement on the "culture" reflected by clutters. Well I know in Oblivion there are plates, candle sticks, bones, cups and such that you can take and sell for money, but they seems a little... uninteresting. Maybe it's due to the fact that the elderscrolls world is not as connected to our lives, as opposed to Fallout which depicts the world of 1950's, but I'm sure there are smart ways the devs can use to present more through the clutters in the game.

One example I can think of is, first of all, the devs design a certain custom for the people in Skyrim - such as that there's a certain very popular brand of clothing everybody liked and want to own. And then place them all over skyrim homes. Yes, it's similar to the wine brands in Oblivion. It was a smart idea but didn't get pushed very far. By doing this kind of things, you create a culture for the people, so they don't look like generic "medieval northern europeans".

Another thing is about books. I have to say that the books in Oblivion are kind of boring. They look like books you find from the top floor of college libraries that have been re-binded, written by some 500 year old scholars. These books are all over people's homes no matter what kind of people. I mean don't they read novels, magazines, comic books, or even keep diaries? Even the black courier newspaper doesn't have much content - I would put some funny and stupid short news on it just like real newspapers that people would read. Also it would be great if there are interesting short stories to read, in form of novel books. You can definitely tell a great deal about people's lives through those stories.

One little fun thing we can add is for the player to write and publish stories in game, since we have so many fantasy writers here in the fan base. Basically you first write down something in game, find a NPC who's willing to publish your story, maybe pay him, follow some tasks to persuade booksellers to put your work on the shelf, and receive cuts. And then you'll see your books around people's houses!

The general idea is that Bethesda has gone so far with the oblivion engine, which is superb in gameplay and graphics and such, now it's time for Bethesda to challenge the Fallout series with their vivid cultural representation.

This was present in Morrowind more so with the alcohol, Armours, foods, weapons etc. As for the in game books being boring that's purely a matter of opinion. They, along with the lore presented in quests are my favorite aspect of any Elder Scrolls game. And quite a few NPC's have journals in both Morrowind and Oblivion. They're just related to quests most of the time. I also personally prefer the "culture" aspect of Elder Scrolls over Fallout.

And for engines, Skyrim is not being made with gamebryo it's being made with a brand new engine Bethesa game studios has developed in house.

I'd like to get back some of the things Morrowind had. Like candles and lanterns that you could hold like a torch... and the skooma pipe. New clutter is always nice though, personal belongings and notes would also be cool, and add a lot to the game... but doing that will require a lot more work than in Fallout 3, because TES games usually have a lot more NPCs than Fallout.


I don't think many people in Skyrim care about fashion. Seems unlikely, maybe the upper class, if there is one.


I don't know how the book-industry is in Skyrim, if people write the books or if they have invented bookprinting. I don't know how easy it will be to publish comics with the technology that TES has, if they have a way to print a copy of the comic, or they have to draw a new one from scratch.
I do agree on you with short stories and novels though, and maybe some more magazines and newspapers.


Meh..


I think the culture is shown quite okay, at least I think was in Morrowind, much because of the NPCs, the politics and the general feeling of the game. Oblivion had it's share as well, but it lacked politics, and it could have had more lore and cultural influences around.
I do agree that Bethesda could improve the cultural representation in Skyrim compared to Oblivion.

One thing that I was annoyed with was people having 4 or 5 copies of the same book in ther bookshelves. I can see the libraries and guilds having multiple copies (maybe 2 or 3) of a book in thir collection, but seeing so many diplicates of the same book all the time was annoying and unrealistic. I'd really like to see more varied bookshelves as well as more varied literature in Skyrim, I'm talking like ressurect all of those volumes from previous games. Looking at bookshelves in TES should be like looking at my bookshelf at home: it's going to take you a good 5 minutes of searching just because there's so many books.

Other than that, I LOVE clutter. I loved tossing things onto shelves and tables in my homes in Oblivion to make the look 'lived-in' I'd love to see lots of variation and interesting things with the clutter in Skyrim.