Skyrim is Soulless

Post » Thu Dec 15, 2011 1:27 pm

I think this is it... perhaps.

I've felt that there's something missing when playing the game. It was there when I played Morrowind, I remember, but not in Skyrim (so far). Things, especially NPCs, had a much greater meaning to me in Morrowind. Despite the text dialouge, you got attached to them more.

I got so sad in Morrowind when...
Spoiler
Caius left


Skyrim sometimes feels meaningless. But I won't judge quite yet, I have not completed the game.
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Emma Copeland
 
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Post » Thu Dec 15, 2011 1:00 am

why do i ever come on game forums? it's all the same.

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Bones47
 
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Post » Thu Dec 15, 2011 12:58 pm

And that's why this kinda game is not for you my friend.

Go back to MW3 or Call of Duty.


I advise you to keep such comments for yourself, don't act holier than thou or I will report and request a moderator to step in. thank you.
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Darrell Fawcett
 
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Post » Thu Dec 15, 2011 7:20 am

Spoiler
You can heal the Gildergreen in Whiterun, and people will keep thanking you for it.
You can help the Forsworn insurrection in Markath, and they'll stop being hostile to you.
You can clear forts for the Empire or Stormcloaks, and they'll become garrisoned with soldiers.
The Jarls who supported the losing side are replaced by loyal influential people of their city when you end the civil war.


There's a bunch of quests and things you can do that have repercussions in the game, but coding ripples for every single NPC and action is impossible.


It doesn't have to be for every single npc. They should have cut out the stupid guard lines and I really want to gut every guard who says something stupid to my character but they all say stupid things to my character. I much preferred the "hail citizen" from Oblivion and there were guards all over the roads in Oblivion but people have to understand that Skyrim is like Alaska. You're not going to see a ton of NPCs all over the place.
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mishionary
 
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Post » Thu Dec 15, 2011 12:58 pm

Who are you to say it's not for me? Way to be selective in reading my post.

Find something you can attack but leave everything out.

Way to invalidate your argument. Am I doing this right?

Go back to pokemon. This game's clearly not for you since you like doing kid things like imagining events in a video game rather than wanting the events to unfold before your eyes. Heck, why play video games at all when you can just IMAGINE things! Save $60!

Way to go.

( Take your blindfolds off )



If you need your hand held throughout the whole game to have fun then you're best served playing a heavily scripted FPS. That's what I'm sayng.
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Batricia Alele
 
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Post » Thu Dec 15, 2011 5:12 am

I think this is it... perhaps.

I've felt that there's something missing when playing the game. It was there when I played Morrowind, I remember, but not in Skyrim. Things, especially NPCs, had a much greater meaning to me in Morrowind. Despite the text dialouge, you got attached to them more.

I got so sad in Morrowind when...
Spoiler
Caius left


Skyrim sometimes feels meaningless. But I won't judge quite yet, I have not completed the game.

See? I disagree there. To me Caius was a static guy who only gave you a couple of quests and had some kind of a background that wasn't really that much developed. No NPCs were much different from Skyrim except maybe for the Tribunal and Dagoth Ur, and they were only so in a "lore" kind of way, for they never really did anything special before your eyes. Arngeir, Ulfric or Esbern are at the very least as interesting as those characters (Aside from the awesome "shadow of the past" regarding Vivec and wether he did or didn't [censored] Nerevar), and so was Martin in Oblivion.
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Marie Maillos
 
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Post » Thu Dec 15, 2011 3:12 pm

Most of the complains can be applied to any TES game... If you didn't like those, what would have made you think this game was for you?



the lies they told trying to sell the game..
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Miragel Ginza
 
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Post » Thu Dec 15, 2011 6:35 am

If you need your hand held throughout the whole game to have fun then you're best served playing a heavily scripted FPS. That's what I'm sayng.

I think that Yvese knows what's best for him/her, and not some random forum member who's just being a really devoted fan defending his/her favourite game for the sake of defending it in a matter that almost everyone who is objective can see and understand clearly. You're just making yourself look stupid.
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Bryanna Vacchiano
 
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Post » Thu Dec 15, 2011 9:02 am

Do YOU realize that out of all the millions of things they have to worry about- that maybe, just maybe they didnt have time to spend days upon days of programming every possible NPC reaction just so a few overly critical people without imaginations can say "meh, this game still svcks, well at least she reacted to me"

If every NPC could read you a story of your adventures, people like you would STILL complain that they missed a few details. Whats the point? If a game like this is "soulless" to you, then no amount of wasted man hours programming more reactions would change your opinion.


Well, is it too much trouble to ask for Legionnaires to recognize you as a Legate, and to stop telling you to [censored] off everytime you get within spitting distance of their prisoner escort? Or, is it too much trouble for people to recognize that I already AM the Arch Mage of the College of Winterhold, and that I don't need their input on whether I should go there to join?
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A Dardzz
 
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Post » Thu Dec 15, 2011 7:15 am

:whistling: Oh yes, those NPCs with finite dialog are SO bothersome. Puh-leaze. You want infinite interaction, you need every other character to be controlled by a human being. Period. Seriously. What are people looking for here? Do they not realize that unless each and every NPC is its own complex AI then all dialog MUST be scripted? Do they think that every single blade of grass should be an "interactable" item? Do they pause to wonder how they would EVER afford the computing power to duplicate a continent the size of Europe, or even just, say, Germany with its 60-80 or so million people? FO:NV "hit" this guy's sweet spot. Okay, fair enough. For me, the FA series has been OH SO tedious that I have not even been able to pick up NV. Does it svck? No. Is it "soul-less"? No. Just not for me. This is why I like Gamespot. It's a bit less editorial and a bit more informative than other sites. "Critics" opnions are about as worthless as used toilet paper, in general, unless you find one who has your EXACT taste in games.
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Taylah Haines
 
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Post » Thu Dec 15, 2011 8:45 am

I think that Yvese knows what's best for him/her, and not some random forum member who's just being a really devoted fan defending his/her favourite game for the sake of defending it in a matter that almost everyone who is objective can see and understand clearly. You're just making yourself look stupid.



I'm not the one who came in guns blazing calling other "die-hard fan-boys". Better if you read the whole conversations before giving your opinion. (not that I care tho)
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David Chambers
 
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Post » Thu Dec 15, 2011 7:10 am

Well, is it too much trouble to ask for Legionnaires to recognize you as a Legate, and to stop telling you to [censored] off everytime you get within spitting distance of their prisoner escort? Or, is it too much trouble for people to recognize that I already AM the Arch Mage of the College of Winterhold, and that I don't need their input on whether I should go there to join?

See? This is the only TRUE complain I have, for It is something that already was implemented in previous games and is a core element of the TES series. I must say, though, that this seems to be a bug, making the NPCs get new greetings but not forgiving the ones they should: they call you "the new member" and "Harbringer" when you're Harbringer.
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Margarita Diaz
 
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Post » Thu Dec 15, 2011 1:15 am

skyrim is huge and at some points you can have good and at some points you an have bad impressions. it felt soulless at a few points to me too, and broken and boring. at other points it felt huge, amazing, epic, groundbreaking, brilliant. you cant just pick one of these points and make a judgement about the whole game based off it. but most people probably dont invest enough time to make a fair judgement, especially game reviewrs who have way too much other games to play to "finish" skyrim (what should take about 250 hrs).
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KIng James
 
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Post » Thu Dec 15, 2011 9:40 am

I tend to agree with the overall theme of the article: Skyrim is soulless. I've been saying this for a while, too. The first few hours of the game are a lot of fun, but then when you start thinking about it, you'll realize that it is a beautiful but very shallow game.

I've completed the main quest. The ending was very anticlimactic, had very little effect on the world and raised more questions than it answered.

I've completed the DB questline. The ending was beyond preposterous and left the world unaffected, even though it should have had shattering consequences.

I've completed the College of Winterhold questline. There were no interesting characters met along the way, but there were many of wasted opportunities, just like with the above two questlines. It was a brief experience and the outcome was again anticlimactic and left no imprint on the game world.

Etc.

And these are the main storylines. The sidequests are just as bad in this regard (although they are overall better written and more interesting). The game doesn't react to your actions appropriately. Almost everything is a linear three-act play without the third act.

Skyrim is an open world sandbox adventure game. There is no meat to it - the gameworld is extremely sterile. Nothing has any consequence. Interesting characters are hard to come by. There's far too little dialogue. There are far too few options.

A shame, really...
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Margarita Diaz
 
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Post » Thu Dec 15, 2011 12:37 am

I do agree on some aspects, you kill alduin you get

Spoiler
Some lame shout to call people from sovngarde


and no one cares after that. I mean I just KILLED the WORLD EATER! Seriously no one even cares? They don't even seem to know that he exists. You beat the Companions and they still treat you like a new person. You become leader of the thieves guild and people are still like "I don't care if your best friends with the guild master, get in my way and I will crush you". They spent a lot of time on making the world realistic, but they forgot to make the people in that world realistic.
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adame
 
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Post » Thu Dec 15, 2011 9:46 am

i think the problem on this forum is alot of complainers and the general public have a laymans understanding of what goes into making a game ( movies, animation, tech in general) and what is and whats nit possible or practical.

"hurr, just program lines in it"....really?? ok. Im sure the Devs will get right on it next game. keep your fingers crossed.


They will never get it right for 100% of the people though. Thats just a reality, someone somewhere will complain no matter what they do heheheh

I think it depends on what system they base it on as to how much they can put in it. If it is done for the 360 again, we will see limitations once again. I almost kinda hope they make the next one just for the PC lol

At least then they have a chance at getting everyone's wishlist items in place ;)
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Liv Staff
 
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Post » Wed Dec 14, 2011 11:56 pm

To the person that commented about the death of the emperor and the MQ ending with no one reacting appropriately (parades, confetti etc) I agree. Skyrim misses out on that. However if the game forced you to be celebrated it gets into tricky issues with the fact that you are always anonymous in other games. They could start to have a canon version of the game, but that kind of goes down a road I feel they dont want. still a parade would be nice, a nice meadhall full of treasure and serving wenches. running your own newly established hold (new helgen anyone?) would be great. but honestly, i think they tried with this game to make it extensible with radiant story etc and we may see such things in future games. Remember they are only a 100 people or so, u buy their games and guess what they can make bigger games! However to i would still maintain that just because the game doesnt give you that zelda feeling of closure and grandeur doesnt make it a soulless game. Cause thats a real big claim.
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Tamika Jett
 
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Post » Thu Dec 15, 2011 7:51 am

I think he missed the point. It isn't up to the game to have a soul, it's the player. It reflects your own personality back at you.

There could have easily been no NPC there at all. In fact, most forts and dungeons I've been in have been entirely hostile. Placing that NPC there gave the player a chance to challenge their own ideas of what they were doing. Obviously it was important enough to write a lengthy article about. I think that speaks volumes about its power. Sure, there was no follow-up quest. But there was also no need. That was her home, and no amount of possession changes or carnage would change that. Not every conflict needs a resolution. Not every NPC needs to be "fixed" and ushered off to a nearby village where they can remind you of how awesome you are.

Skyrim is more of an anthology of smaller stories than one over-arcing quest. In fact, I'm not even sure the main quest is even the longest or most rewarding. The "soul" of the game lies in the details. It's in the tiny things you see that almost no one else will see. Those breathe life into the world.

For example, I was out and about, and I found the ruins of a house. I rummaged through the smouldering remains. I found the typical stuff, a barrel full of tomatoes, 6 gold in a burial urn, a book. Then in the far corner was a ritual circle with the burned body of a mage nearby. That's it. No quests. No NPCs to talk to. But a simple, interesting story told with two tiny details. A mage got careless and burned his house down.

Another thing that interested me. There's a quest where you help a girl deal with two suitors. She left one for the other. You can choose to help either, etc. The detail that I loved, when I took a peak at his inventory, the new lover had the old lover's house key in his pocket. What a great, easily overlooked detail. It changed my whole perspective on the story. Had the new guy somehow sabotaged the relationship? Was there something more between the suitors? I never found any more evidence or related information, but it was fun finding that out.
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Crystal Clarke
 
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Post » Thu Dec 15, 2011 3:39 pm

Someone hasn't played dark brotherhood it seems.
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Natasha Biss
 
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Post » Thu Dec 15, 2011 7:14 am

People don't know you killed Alduin because information doesn't travel at the speed of light in a world where there are no TVs, internet or printed press. How is an average citizen in Markath who never saw me supposed to know I'm the dragonborn? Most of them just heard rumors about dragons appearences here and there. The only people who knows Alduin returned and the world is about to end are the people who were with you in that conference in High Hrothgar. Noone else.
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Ella Loapaga
 
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Post » Thu Dec 15, 2011 1:13 am

I think it's all about the player. You get as much out of it as you put in. In the early days of video gaming, we really had to use our imaginations to immerse ourselves in the game world. More so with RPGs. Nowadays, because games have become so sophisticated, too many of us expect the game to imagine for us. Games have become capable of so much that we don't expect to have to use our imaginations anymore. I think when the day comes that games have reached that level of infinite possibility, we'll look back on Skyrim with fond nostalgia on what "the good ol' days" gave us. How sad is that?
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Charity Hughes
 
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Post » Thu Dec 15, 2011 12:41 am

WHy should i care what some random people says online?
why should i care? why should i even care what people in general say about skyrim?
I love skyrim,as a morrowind lover i feel like coming home... When reading stuff like this,i get sad.sad how the community is :(
I thaught you were elder scrolls fans like me,Elder scroll games sound like games that are not for you
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Gill Mackin
 
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Post » Thu Dec 15, 2011 2:52 pm

To the person that commented about the death of the emperor and the MQ ending with no one reacting appropriately (parades, confetti etc) I agree. Skyrim misses out on that. However if the game forced you to be celebrated it gets into tricky issues with the fact that you are always anonymous in other games. They could start to have a canon version of the game, but that kind of goes down a road I feel they dont want. still a parade would be nice, a nice meadhall full of treasure and serving wenches. running your own newly established hold (new helgen anyone?) would be great. but honestly, i think they tried with this game to make it extensible with radiant story etc and we may see such things in future games. Remember they are only a 100 people or so, u buy their games and guess what they can make bigger games! However to i would still maintain that just because the game doesnt give you that zelda feeling of closure and grandeur doesnt make it a soulless game. Cause thats a real big claim.


Well, not quite. In Morrowind, some of the greetings in the box dialogue went along the lines of: "A-a-are you, the N-n-nerevarine?" And in Oblivion, you were celebrated as the Champion of Cyrodil. So, with respect to your first statement, it's a thinly veiled anonymity, but not full.

Edit: And what hell? Bring on the mother [censored] New Helgen. Name it Baby Dragonborn Vista, a place where people can party with the passive dragons, down loads of mead, and hit on the model status Bar Maids.
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Hayley O'Gara
 
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Post » Thu Dec 15, 2011 2:20 pm

Well, not quite. In Morrowind, some of the greetings in the box dialogue went along the lines of: "A-a-are you, the N-n-nerevarine?" And in Oblivion, you were celebrated as the Champion of Cyrodil. So, with respect to your first statement, it's a thinly veiled anonymity, but not full.


In Morrowind, the greetings and people's disposetion were determined by a variety of factors: the other party's faction, race, current storyline progression etc. It was quite varied.
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Lalla Vu
 
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Post » Thu Dec 15, 2011 11:17 am

In Morrowind, the greetings and people's disposetion were determined by a variety of factors: the other party's faction, race, current storyline progression etc. It was quite varied.


Yeah...I know. Completing the MQ typically resulted in some recognition. In Skyrim, I think the only recognition I got was from the very early stages of the MQ when the Jarl said, "So it's true, the Dragonborn has returned! Now [censored] off, I got a city to run." Oh Ok bye.
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KU Fint
 
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