OK, so I guess I have a bit of an issue with some players of these various games (I'm totally into the TES games, as well as the Fallout games and Mass Effect), and I often hear from some players about the game being "too easy" or whatever, but yet beyond the initial intro to any of these games, once I get a "feel" for the game and a general understanding of it's dynamics, I start to play in a way which has a heavy emphasis on NOT GETTING KILLED.

This doesn't mean that I'm not willing to dive head-first into a weirdo dungeon or clear out a fort full of bandits or necromantics.....but some caution is advised. Lots of potions, a backup companion might be handy, and so on. This whole idea of "rushing thru the game" and saying it was "boring", or "too easy", and yet how many times did you get killed? "Beating the game", but I got killed about 90 times is not really my idea of "mastering anything". This isn't a game of a thousand "Halo checkpoints", and it's very much about "surviving" these ordeals, which is what gives me a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

I'm not really playing "DID" mode (not yet) but I do record the number of times my player dies in the game. I'm very strict about this; for me personally, getting killed too often just doesn't seem right. Like I should go back and start the game over and take a more thoughtful approach.

Anyone else have this approach or philosophy? Please don't tell us that the game is "too easy" and so on when you're playing on a lesser difficulty level and yet you've bought it fifty times in the first twenty hours of play.

By the way, my comments are not aimed at players who perhaps are unfamiliar with these types of games and are having a good time regardless of kills....that's cool and understandable, enjoy.....but I'm talking more to players who consider themselves "pros".

I hope that I've explained this properly. Comments?

Unfortunately your character can very easily pass a tipping point where there is nothing challenging in the game and it no longer matters what you do you'll survive anyways while killing everything around you with little more than a thought.

I started on Master and I'd have to say really only the first 10-15 levels had any sort of challenge, since then it's pretty much been me just off having fun exploring then turning around and realizing I just wiped out half the falmer population while I was distracted. I don't even think it's possible for me to die anymore unless I purposefully try to kill myself.

I'd never restart and lose hours and hours of progress just because I died. Dying gives me a chance to assess what went wrong and try a different approach, not start the whole bloody game over. I messed up a few parts, not all of it!

I agree, I've died 4 times on my level 66 Nord stealth archer. I take far more prestige from not dying than killing, just as I do in FPS games and in everything else. I'm a master of attrition.

I died TONS throughout my character's development, the game is very chalenging particulary early on, having a strong buildup and experience with TES game helps tons, but I'm a TES veteran and still die TONS when making new characters.
as you level, and if you level well, you feel progressively more powerfull, you start having problems handling 1 or 2 simple mobs, and mid game you start to own groups of 4-8 of them while having problems with liutenants, end game you own groups of liutenants and only have problems with large numbers/confined situations and ofc bosses.

if you exploit (level early 2or all 3 crafting skills), the game is always easy no matter the difficulty, just make a trader, level and perk alchemy smithing and enchanting and you are a god =< the game needs caps... guess bethesda didnt learn from past game exploits.



to be a master you need to play on master

My point of view exactly. I tend to save before I enter dangerous locations, but not because I'm the type of person who just blindly runs about slashing at anything that moves with the hope that I'll run out of enemies before I run out of health. It's because if I DO happen to die, I can learn from the experience and figure out a new strategy that I can apply to later battles as well. For instance, if I dive right into a roomful of mages and get blasted from all sides, I learn the hard way that I should probably change my approach when it comes to magic users. Maybe try sending in my companion with a melee weapon and range the mages from the sidelines while they're otherwise occupied. That sort of thing.

Speaking of dying I have a question

Throughout the portion of the game Ive played so far there are bunch of what i would call mini dungeons

The Jarl of Whiterun sends you into one
The Wizards of the Mage College send you into one
The Legion sends you into one albeit with a few other soldiers and Rikke

in the ones where I go alone I always come up to a skeleton that seems to be more powerful than me OR a group of 3 and I die....So I try again....instead of a !H sword I use a 2H axe or warhammer briefly and they go down.
In the mage one my spells didnt seem powerful enough to take down this one skeleton near some stairs to an upper level so I strapped on some Legion armour and a 2H weapon and smacked it to death (with no 2H or light armour skills what so ever)

Now I make sure I always have a 2H weapon and some military armour with me whatever class I am.

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My becoming good at beating a game through repetition is not something I personally consider an achievement. However it's the death by surprise roadside encounters though eg. sleeping sabre cats that really make me want to restart my character. I consider them to be no longer a hero but died at such and such a place. That feeling persists through the whole game.

I feel the same, if my character gets killed eight times in the same cave/ruin/crazy party it just feels....wrong.

But, sometimes, no matter how prepared you are, unless you're just a super bad ass, its impossible to survive.

Double sabre-cat ambush, anybody?

I just love how it says in one of the loading screens that they attack travelers who stray to far from roads, when I most often encounter them on roads.