Whenever a new instalment of anything is released, it's always attacked and called a disgrace to what came before it. Skyrim has had this problem for years with fans claiming that it doesn't hold up to the previous games and is more of an action adventure game. I've seen a lot of people defending it lately, including myself starting last year, recognising it's merits and seeing that it does many things better than previous games, as well as worse. I think fans are starting to see it as a classic and we're definitely ready to start calling the next one a huge let down.

When a new game is released, the haters are always the loudest.

But they usually don't stick around for that long, and instead the fans remain to talk about what they love of the game.


That's just how media in general works.


What I mean is, besides new gamers finding the TES series, Skyrim probably has the same ratio of fans (and haters) as it always has, but the haters have moved on.

I can't speak for anyone else, but for me, I became more accepting of Skyrim once I switched from console to PC and started modding it and discovered Requiem.


I'm still not terribly pleased with many aspects of the vanilla game but with a selection of mods based around Requiem, I find Skyrim to finally be the game I've always wanted it to be.

I don't think we've fully reached that point yet. But when TES VI comes out, Skyrim's reputation will experience a dramatic "rehabilitation" (in the Soviet sense of the word), just as Morrowind's reputation was rehabilitated after Oblivion was released and Oblivion's reputation was rehabilitated after Skyrim was released.

Actually, to add to my above post, I think I was missing the point a bit.


I think mods have helped the fans appreciate the game more (of course) but I also don't feel that Skyrim got a huge amount of hate that it portrayed the entire community as being dissatisfied.

Most people were not happy about some RPG elements being replaced with Action/Adventure, but it's still an easy to game to enjoy as a Bethesda game itself.


That's the way I see it, because I've always enjoyed Skyrim's merits and how it did many things better than previous games. It didn't take me 5 years to realize that.


As for a "classic" well there can only be one.... Morrowind.

Not entirely. By the time TES VI came out, everyone will go on and on about how Skyrim was superior yada yada and we'll rinse and repeat for TES VI if/when TES VII comes around.

Worth noting, I've never seen anyone outright say its a terrible game...or, any Bethesda game for that matter. There are many, many criticisms to lay at its feet, but its still bizzarly one of the few franchises that you can still pump insane number of hours into and actually enjoy that. Even Fallout 4, which seemingly regarded as kind of "eh" is still a good game.

Even Oblivion, which I think is by far the weakest installment in the series, was still enjoyable. Its the only game I never went back to, and have no intention of doing a playthrough of it again, but I still think it was fun in its own way.