Is anybody tired of retcon in things like TES, and other lore based things? It's getting stupid when they start changing things after all this time. Take, for example, the Malachite - Glass situation. Malachite glass could be Skyrim's only alternative to glass, since they don't have the red mountain, but seriously? We have to fill in gaps for ourselves on trivial things now? I'm kinda tired of thinking, oh, well this could be a reason. When it comes to larger things, I don't mind, because that's obvious they wanted you to think about this, but for things like this, just bang the explanation in a smithing book or something, don't leave us hanging and make us think that it's becoming messed up. I think the intense lore is the main attraction for these kind of games for people, and when you simplify everything (completely irrelevant, but don't even get me started on apparel customisation. 1 ring only? WTH?) it just annoys the fan base and reduces the amount of people who are new players to the game, unless they are half wits who spend their whole life doing jack all (you know, the stupid people in society). Who wants a fan base full of idiots? I know this is probably a bit of an over reaction, but is anybody else with me? I want Bethesda to receive a wake up call. It's getting on my nerves.

I prefer it when they don't bang in explanations in smithing books.
Those things are notoriously idiotic.
Elven armor is made from elven, wasn't it?

I was referring to the cloudy patches of lore, that aren't so obvious, like a little side note in the book.

I agree with many things,but the simple fact is that Oblivion which was even more dumbed down then this, sold more copies then Morrowind became incredibly popular and is one of the reasons Skyrim is doing as well as it is right now... It's a shame but I don't think most people care about Alduin, or how Daedric armor is made, or where glass armor or ebony armor comes from. They probably don't care about the Thalmor motives beyond "conquer the world"... None of that matters to most players. What matters to most players, at least those that I know, is an great open game world with a lot of background to it, that's there to see but not necessarily relevant where you can kill dragons and learn magic, shoot bows and hit things with a sword. That's probably the most relevant part to most players...

The thing that annoys me most, is that Arena was a hugely unsuccessful game, or at least for the first couple of years, but Bethesda continued, making the games that they love to make. Not for anybody else, but for them selves with the hope that other people will like them. Now it seems that they're doing less of that and accustoming their methods for others. Why on earth would they simplify which clothes you can wear, when it was great in Morrowind anyway. I would pay all my money to meet Todd Howard and explain all this to him. What infuriates me even more is that there's not much that you can do about it.

It's only because we love these games so much that we're concerned ;(

Hear, hear.
I do believe Skyrim is, overall, a step in the right direction however. They're at least putting forth proper effort with regards to lore and world-building, which are what I feel to be most important. The aspects of gameplay that they've botched and simplified are really just fluff when it comes down to it; it's not what will make or break the game in the long run.

The reason for this is that torso armors were pretty messed up in Oblivion, if you looked at some of the problems with top and bottom armors, especially if you had any sort of mod that messes with a mesh, which could create strange artifacts where a person's upper torso overlapped with their bottom half and conflicted.

It's also just the simple fact that one big mesh is easier to render than two interchangeable meshes.

As for rings, I don't think that's "dumbing down", I think they felt it was some sort of balance issue, what with enchantments already having absolutely no freakin' balance, but that there were better ways of handling the decision... like, say, giving the enchantments some semblance of balance instead of letting you do things like -100% magic costs.

I actually like retcons. Every ret con really just leaves you with two worlds: the world presented before the retcon, and the one after the retcon. Retcons can never take away what was already there. Instead, they just give you more choices.


Yup, and I think that's a good thing. A story needs to hammer out certain details, but for the little things, its usually best to leave it up to the audience. What you or I fill the gaps with is usually better than anything the writers could come up with, because you and I are going to come up with something to satisfy ourselves, and what satisfies me won't always satisfy you. There's also the frontier problem: every explanation just raises more questions.


That's absolutely wrong.


Who specifically wants that sort of fan-base? Nobody.
Why cares whether or not their fans are idiots? Nobody.

What really bothers me is that there are too few materiel materials, and not enough craftable items. Why can't I make a club from a tree branch and a rock? Why can't I go to a painter's studio and add emblems and [censored] to my armor?
WHY IS THERE NO FLETCHING WHEN WE HAVE CHOPPED WOOD, FEATHERS, AND STEEL INGOTS?

Hell, even silver. There's no silver hammers, axes, or arrows anymore, despite silver ore and ingots being all over the damn place. Did everyone just forget how to make silver weapons? You can find silver swords on a specific group of people, but can you craft them yourself with all the silver ingots you run into? Nope. Can't even upgrade the silver swords you do find, and the stats are pretty crappy (the ancient, rusted Nord swords you find in any Draugr tomb are better).

It was pretty obvious that Bethesda only included silver weapons because of werewolves, and werewolves without silver weapons is just wrong on a cosmic level. I just wish they made it an actual viable weapon choice like they've been in previous games (I'd gladly give up the "Ancient Nord ..." crap for proper silver crap).

Kind of agree.
I think its lazy to "leave it to your imagination". Its like watching a movie that makes no sense, and then having someone tel you "you're supposed to give it your own meaning". What!?

If you're going to write a story, give it a start, middle and end. Don't just write a vague description of what you're shooting at and call it "conflicting".

To me, every TES game is another chapter to the same story. So it gets a little sloppy when key facts from the previous chapter are changed or just plain ignored in the next. I've found myself wondering whether or not I'll continue purchasing the games in future if the writing characteristics continue.
There is so many key things to the story that are just left unattended and used as nothing more then padding. As a whole, the world makes very little sense. It might be immense, but its packed full of useless facts allot of the time.

I love the games, but I'm slowly becoming disenchanted with them.