I see a lot of threads and posts from people who seem to be concerned about how Skyrim is going to be. Is it going to be like this game, or this game, I hope its like this, and so on and so forth. I started playing with Morrowind, having no idea what I was diving into, literally. It was a fluke purchase of a game I had never even seen, and it ended up being a life changing experience. I was blown away by the detail, the lore, the freedom. It was everything and more I could ever expect from a video game and Ive been a die hard fan since.

When Oblivion came out I was certainly excited, but I didnt follow much of the production and again didnt know much about it and hadnt seen much until I played it. Obviously I had my opinions about the previous game, so I was more than happy to delve into a new world. There were a enormous number of adjustments and additions that made this game better than Morrowind, and I would say that 90 percent of them were for the better. Were some things taken out that I missed? Of course. But with all the other improvements that were made that meant nothing to me. Even though I still say that personally I liked Morrowind better, Oblivion would be an easy 2nd place. Were there flaws? Absolutely. When you are literally creating life, creating a living breathing world out of nothing....there are bound to be some flaws here and there. But in the grand scheme of what is going on in the game it is meaningless.

Now that Skyrim has come around, I have paid much more attention following the screenshots and videos and articles. Like the rest of the TRUE Elder Scrolls fans, I honestly dont know how I will survive until November. I am also worried though, because I can be extremely critical of things like video games. But from what Ive seen from the ES team in the past, and what we've seen so far from Skyrim, I put complete faith in them to create yet another, EPIC, original, amazing game. Just from the improvements weve seen from Arena and Daggerfall to Morrowind's mechanics and engine and gameplay to Oblivion's, and then from Obvlivion's to Fallout's, its hard to imagine this game not completely breaking the mold with the new stuff they have created. Simply put, all the haters and half assed fans, prepare to be amazed. Thats my prediction. And also prepare for a 12 month hibernation following November 2011. Sorry job, its ES.

Ive seen a particular recent post where people commented on the 'viking' feel of the game, and so on. Im not sure what ES games you have played before, if any, but you can be whatever character you want. And rest assured, regardless of the terrain, the population of Skyrim will not simply be 'viking' This game is so much bigger than a label like 'viking'...lol. I dont know, maybe Ive been playing a different game all these years. While even I admit I sometimes have my worries, I try to keep in mind this is not a 'New Vegas' style sequel to its predecessor. This is something completely brand spanking new, that is taking the knowledge it has gained over MANY years since its last release. Ive come to terms with the fact that no matter what game, or how much I love it, there are going to be aspects and times where I say "They should have done this" or something similar. It is absolutely invevitable. But minor flaws will never distract me from the an overall masterpiece. And although I try not to get excited, I have a feeling that Skyrim is going to be yet again a wonderful game with seemingly limitless playability. I for one cannot wait..


Sorry for the wall of text, but I had to get it out.
Long live the Elder Scrolls

I totally agree with you OP.

I had heard of Morrwind, but only got into the Elder Scrolls with Oblivion. It was the first game I had for my Xbox 360. I played it to death then (and I still am to this day, 4/5 years later).

I am loving what I have seen so far. I only managed to watch the Official Trailer for the first time last night, and was blown away.

Ultimately, games series do change and evolve over time. Some things may be taken out that you loved....but at the same time, you may learn to love the new additons to the series, too.

[Although to be honest, I do love the 'viking' feeling f the game so far. I was going to play through as a Dark Elf, but am seriously thinking about playing as a Nord for m first playthrough - epic beards FTW!]

I feel you OP. I actually do have a major advancement I'd like to mention.

I sincerely hope this time around the devs don't leave in glitches that allow players to abuse the game in ways that are akin to simply cheating (or modding on PC). I play on the Xbox 360, and I have nothing against modding for the PC version. I think that's a great option for the players who want to create for themselves and even share that with others. However, on consoles we are left with DLC and title updates where the devs patch issues and glitches. This is where I noticed a huge problem that I consider gamebreaking to some extent.

My example: Despite the numerous updates for Oblivion, the devs never fixed the scroll duplication glitch, nor the floating paintbrush glitch, and perhaps a few others that are less memorable. I personally found this to be a gift and a curse. I loved using these often to get infinite money and jump to places I shouldn't have been able to reach every now and then. The only reason I justify these "cheating" methods today is that I knew it was simply saving me time. I could acquire all the money I needed through hours of looting, and I could reach almost anywhere with my amazing jumping abiltiy and just going through more rooms if I so pleased. The problem that bothers me about those is that I shouldn't have been given the option of doing those as if it was part of the proper gameplay. Bethesda knew they existed, and yet they were never removed. (I believe there is extensive reasoning behind this, which I won't go into now)

This creates a problem that I see many players abuse in TES games because you are allowed to cheat the system, and I just don't think those types of glitches should ever be in a future TES game. When I play Skyrim, I want to be forced to play it the way it was meant to be played within the rules of the actual game world, andI shouldn't be able to break that by winning the "scroll lottery" or suddenly learning how to "TES superjump". And if I ever do want to play it with glitches or mods, I'll get the PC version and do just that. But there is no reason anything like that should happen in a console game.

I have so much more I could say about this, but it's entirely too much for one post. Suffice it to say, the advancement need for Skyrim needs to be no game-changing and/or game-breaking glitches and/or exploits.

A true fan that believes others are half baked for expressing doubts, or not believing as you do.
You do realise where the term fan comes from, as it's an abbreviation.

I'm a true RPG fanatic, as such I will cast into the flames any game, if it's found wanting in any way I'll belittle them.
Whether I love the game or not, Oblivion was found wanting.
Skyrim we don't know yet, it could be a flop that does nothing for the genre.
Or it could be a gigantic success, one that blows all my doubts away in a storm of rightousness.
As yet we don't know, so I'm a wait and see fanatic.

Regarding the picked up Morrowind will nilly and loved it, got Oblivion and liked it, and now am following Skyrim closely like any true Elder Scrolls fan sentiment... I can totally relate.

It was actually my father who got me into The Elder Scrolls. He still to this day plays Morrowind on his xbox and I always ask him don't you get sick of it, haven't you done everything already? He goes well yeah mostly everything a couple times over but I'll never get sick of it. Although I didn't play it as much as him I enjoyed it just as much.

I wasn't that big of a gamer back then and to be honest I had no intentions of buying an xbox 360even. Until I saw a commercial for Oblivion and my life was never the same. I sold my xbox (kept Morrowind though of course) and bought a Xbox360 and a copy of Oblivion on the same day. It was the sole reason for the purchase after all. I too liked or prefer Morrowind a little more then Oblivion but both are very good games and there are parts of Oblivion that I really thought they made improvements on just like I expect them to do with Skyrim. The Graphics for one stand out. I hope the new combat of Skyrim will be the standout improvement.

I never really got into the lore of things though, never read many in-game books or cared to go into the backstory of anything. I just enjoyed playing the games and being free to do what I wanted in the open world of Morrowind and Cyrodiil.

Now though I find I've taken a bigger interest into video games in general. I actually follow them pre release, watch videos, read articles, go on the forums all that stuff. I never followed a Elder Scrolls game this closely either until now with Skyrim. I wanted to learn about the province of Skyrim and all the lore. I want to read every news or tidbit released about the actual game and it's features and I'm always checking for any new screenshots or videos.



Regarding the Viking look or feel of the game. I say "whats the problem?" I can't think of many, or any, Viking-esque games. Certainly not any done well. I might be a little biased being a big time Viking themed fan, basically anything with the look or history of Vikings peeks my interests. That being said I understand where peoples concerns are. The thing is Skyrim is not Cyrodiil, or Morrowind, or any other of the nine provinces that make up Tamriel. It's Skyrim and I would want it to be portrayed closely to the lore as written. The looks and the history. The Snowy Mountainous Tundra landscape and the Nedic/Nordic or proto-human rich history. I think a lot of people are forgetting that each province has it's own story to tell and each game so far has taken place in a different province. (Atleast the last two anyways)

I think once people come to realize there will be other NPC then just Nords and you can choose to be any race you want to be they'll start to calm down. But this is the land of the Nords and it has a rich history to it they'll come to love Skyrim as much, or in my case more so, then they loved Morrowind or Cyrodiil (Oblivion).

It's not the doubts that he scorns but the reason for doubting if I'm understanding him right. Why should the history of Skyrim be anyones doubts or complaints? That's like me looking at a game say Gears of War and complaining about the locusts and how I'de hate to see another game that has to do with the alien invasion theme. Obviously that's a key thing for Gears of War and it's not totally like other games who have done it before, it's different and they make it their own. Just like The Elder Scrolls and Skyrim have taken these Viking-esque people and land and made it their own. They've even given the dragons their own twist to being Elder Scrolls. The Nords are not entirely like Vikings but they take and use some things from them.

As far as the RPG Genre. I'm not really hoping Skyrim pushes it any further or advances the genre to new heights. I don't think it need to to be honest.

It just needs to do what it does best. I don't think the game doing nothing for the genre makes it a flop. As long as they do what we've come to know in TES games, which loosely involves crafting a beautiful world that's open to explore and for lack of better words live in, Then I'll be happy and consider it a success. It doesn't need to be innovative. Well not to the extent where you claim it to have improved a whole genre that is. Just make the necessary improvements from previous games and add in some new features that they feel fits the game and it will be a huge success.

Either way. If Skyrim leaves me with a 'wanted more' taste in my mouth, like many have said Oblivion did, at the end of the day I'm still a fan of The Elder Scrolls and I'll still enjoy the game for what it does well. I don't really have any doubts about this game though, I already know I'm going to love it.

Well...not to be a jerk, but I'm not sure why everyone else in this thred is just telling their story about liking TES and generic statements about Skyrim....I kinda figured when it's title mentions dicussing the advancements we'd like to see and the concerns we have as a community, that would be the topic specifically. Also, to Cipher, I don't think you need to justify yourself or react to what Madocmayhem was saying. We are all critics of the TES games, and we all obviously like/love them enough to be on this forum, so I suggest we accept that there are flaws and seek to point out improvements for them.

I mean, Todd Howard actually does read the forums for TES games, so we certainly have a chance of directing some real concerns to the devs. Plus with almost 9 months left, there's a chance they'll actually listen

They fixed the arrow duplication glitch, smart players found a new way to do it. Quite possible it can be done more ways.
The paintbrush bug is just fun, yes it can be abused, but it would require very good planning.
As games become more and more advanced we will get more and more obscure features and exploits, however Oblivion was extremely balanced compared to Morrowind who had multiple broken features and multiple exploits. Sometimes they balanced each other. Mages was underpowered to the unplayable, with fortify intelligence potions they become goods.

Sometimes it’s hard to say if it’s a bug or a planned effect:
Weakness to magic on will increase the next weakness to magic spell, making spell stacking possible. It obvious to everybody who has experienced with the spell maker, however in oblivion weakness only magnified the next spell, in Morrowind a spell with weakness to magic 100+ fire damage 50 did double damage. add weakness to fire and it’s 6x base damage.

As this is a single player game balancing will not be a high priority

Yes, well I quite understand your point about it being a singleplayer game, and only affecting the Player. However, when there are only a few glitches that ruin the game, out of thousands of bugs that can be addressed, why do those remain? My theory is that Bethesda just felt they should leave them for fun, so to speak. So that a player who wanted a cheap "out" could simply glitch their way there. The problem I have with that is that it ruins evryone's personal experience with the game when the challenge, work, and time needed for success is taken out of the equation. In Skyrim, we'll be woodcutting, cooking, and forging, and possibly building to greater things from there. So I simply pose this point: Should there really be a totally unrealistic glitch to duplicate a piece of steel or wood so you have infinite supplies and completely disregard that entire game mechanic???

I say these problems have to go, anyone who says otherwise I completely understand. But I respond to them by suggesting they look into the PC and modding it themselves. I'd rather not pay for a broken game experience, even if I technically have the option of not using it. I know as well as everyone else that when there's an easier and more efficient, (yet unrealistic) way to gain power in any singleplayer game, most all players will give in to that temptation when it's only affecting them anyway.

The object of this thread was to discuss the advancements of ES, namely in the newest game Skyrim. The title is a bit misleading, sorry about that, but read close and you'll see we are doing exactly that. Discussing ES advancements.

I wasnt trying to say anyone isnt a 'fan' of ES by saying the 'real' and 'true' fans. But at the same time, if you cannot see the absolutely amazing advancements that have changed this game for the better, from Arena to Morrowind, and Morrowind to Oblivion...then I guess Im easier to please than I thought. Oblivion came out in 2006. RPG fan or not, I dont see how anyone can argue that this game changed the market. Morrowind did the same thing. There were, and to this day are no games like this. There of other good RPG's of course, but nothing even comes close to competing with either of those games in my mind. ES embodies the complete essense of an RPG in my opinion. Whether there are flaws, or things you dont like, or so on they are still my FAVORITE games of all time.

There are a million things about Oblivion, especially when still playing it literally today, that I would change for the better. But there are a million things I would change about every game. That is the whole point, is putting out great ideas and then building on that foundation, which I for one think they have done wonderfully. I dont want that foundation to change, but I want them to keep building it and improving on the previous design, which if you check the history of the ES games they MOST DEFENITELY HAVE done. This team doesnt rush to throw out ES games, even know everyone knows how well they will do sales wise regardless of gameplay. These people purposely take their time in between games, and it shows everytime a new one is released. Each new piece is more intricate and amazing than the last.

I think the problem is people fell so deeply in love with Morrowind (naturally) that it broke their little hearts to have to move on. Obvlivion was a blast, and whether you preferred one over the other, in my eyes they are the two best games ever made. It doesnt matter which comes first, because they are both one in the same to me. And I am fully expecting Skryim to be the next in this chain.


So the point of this thread is to try and calm people down. My point was to show people to have faith in the ES team, because they know what they are doing. So far they havent let me down. I of all people am the first to say I get worried and have sharp criticism for games, but that didnt stop me from falling in love with Oblivion, nor Morrowind, 2 games that no one can deny had their share of flaws. But if Ive learned anything its that its ok to be worried, in fact sometimes better for critics like myself. This way going in to the experience I know that there will be dissapointments, that I cannot ever stop. I know there will be things I want different, or things I would have done, My Way. For me though, I know deep down this game will exceed my expectations and wildest dreams in most other aspects. Not to mention that going into a game with an open mind is much better than going in it already made up. If I go into Skyrim thinking that EVERYTHING is going to be perfect, Im going to be let down without a doubt. Nothing is perfect, but ES games are as close as you can get.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hfYJsQAhl0

Oblivion was very traditionally fantasy RPG in terms of looks, Morrowind was downright Alien in some areas and I enjoyed both. So as far as the Norse looking landscape and cities in Skyrim once most people play it I doubt it will matter that much to the most as long as the game is good.

At first for the the fact that in all reality the consoles have held games in terms of graphics back quite a bit bothered some knowing that Skyrim was not going to be that next step in graphics. Even though Skyrim's graphics look FAR better than Oblivion the gap between Oblivion and Morrowind in the graphic department is still quite a bit more.

Now I think it is actually a good thing because they are more limited graphic wise( even though Skyrim looks amazing) they can concentrate on game play. They don't have to worry about doing better than on Oblivion while also making this massive leap in graphics. So a lot of the quests, main storyline, small details, npcs, dialogue and everything else can be more closely tweaked without having to worry about some massive new leap in graphics that would otherwise take up more time and resources. So even though Skyrim looks great( better than any other RPG I see on the horizon) and will push the Consoles to their limit a greater bulk of time can be spent on game play which is what matters most in an RPG

tbh -, i think that was a bit harsh and in the context, was even less relevant - than what it was in response to.

@ OP - welcome to the forums ...

Even though I dont see the relevance, very funny video. Love that movie. And thank you for the welcome!

There are a lot of small, mechanics changes that I am for one looking forward to.

This is really small, but a great example of what Im talking about. In Oblivion, whenever a chest is emptied it there is no on screen notification. This was changed in Fallout, and searched containers displayed (Empty) or something of the sort when selected. Like I said, small, but convenient changes like this will be very appreciated.

I also would like to see the barter system greatly improved. I think just about everyone can agree it was near useless, and had quite a few flaws. First, there were items worth far more than the maximum amount of gold carried by any merchant. And strangely, in Oblivion merchants never lost any money when buying items from you. I understand the reasoning behind limiting the amount of money made by bartering but I still think there is alot of room for improvement.

The new engine that supports dynamic weather is going to be amazing, I think. The new lighting and shadow affects, and the way wind will effect water current and tree branches seems incredible. The new terrain will be different, but overall I expect to see a variety of landscapes and areas, including areas separate from the main world (Like Oblivion gates, and think Oblivions 'Through a Nightmare, Darkly quest). And we have already seen some incredible forrest areas in the trailer. Im assuming with the rocky mountainess terrain we will see interesting ares built into this, with great views and amazing landscaping.


Your thoughts??

I bought Morrowind Before I got an Xbox, and Oblivion Before I got a 360.

Well, also, welcome sir. My 2005 account is gone but I'm back for Skyrim. I would like to also note that while I approve of your accolades on the TES games, I'm also more than happy to be a good critic of any flaws in design of the games, as it does have an impact on future ones.

As far as specifics go, I would like to add to what you've brought up as well, by saying that as far as chests and their inventory, fixing that issue is long overdue, along with the silly glitches encountered in the trade menus. I am certainly hoping for(and am quite sure of) a huge overhaul in the inventory, trade, and speech menus and interactions. I can already see by what the devs have shown in the GameInformer article about the new Apple-inspired menu system that this is almost a sure bet as far as the game goes overrall. I would also greatly enjoy seeing a variety of terrain, and dynamic weather as well as perhaps actually changing seasons. Now, I'm not sure, but I believe somewhere in the forest south of Bruma in OB it was a fall forest with multicolored leaves, and in the Great Forest it was always green. This type of inconsistency should be solved simply by adding a season system to go along with the day-month-year calendar which has already been in place, for Skyrim.

I point those out mostly because the only real issues I remember from Oblivion particularly include an unwieldy UI, as well as extensive problems with largely abused glitches that shouldn't exist(see my first post).
Aside from those I am not worried about Bethesda's capability to fully blow us away with a pristine game in Skyrim. I just want to voice concern where I've seen repeated and/or unchanged issues in prior games. Those are my thoughts.