Hello,

I am making a study about saving and loading in my favorite game, Skyrim. I would like your help. So I've made some questions. If you would like to help, please elaborate as much as you want.

Questions:

1. Do you get your kicks from playing and progressing in quests or from running off and finding interesting things? Why?

2. What do you feel when your PC (player character) dies?

3. In what way does your mental state and approach to the game change upon loading?

4. Do you force your way through when you are outmatched (loading multiple times in the process)?

5. How does loading due to your own failure compare with having to load because of a bug?

6. How does your reaction to PC death in Skyrim compare to your reaction in a multiplayer FPS where your avatar dies all the time?

7. Please read my description below and comment.

Mod to decrease the need to save and load:

I would like to make a mod that gives the player freedom to choose to continue the game when the PC dies. Upon death, the PC will be subjected to “divine intervention”, which will bring it back along with some explanation. Loading and saving would still be possible. An auto-save mod could be included.

Divine intervention could be anything from waking up in the feeding chamber of the monster (Luke Skywalker style) to being brought back by a powerful necromancer. It could open up minor quests (quests that the player would not jump into the fire to get).
Obvious technical difficulties aside...

7. What do you think of such a mod?

If you already have such a mod, I would still like to hear what you think of it, and I'd like to know the name of it.

Thanks!

I play DiD so my answers will perhaps not be the most relevant.

1. Do you get your kicks from playing and progressing in quests or from running off and finding interesting things? Why?

If I have to decide between these two options, then it's "running and finding interesting things". But in truth, I enjoy just playing my character, seeing his / her reactions, behavior, thinking about the past and the future...these things don't necessarily include doing quests or running around.

1. What do you feel when your PC (player character) dies?

Depends. If my character lasted only a short time, I don't care so much as if it lasted a long time. In this case I usually feel sadness, sometimes anger and usually I think what could have I done better. Both sadness and anger pass away very quickly, though.

1. In what way does your mental state and approach to the game change upon loading (note: this includes situations in which you load because you failed a quest)?

I never load my game unless I encounter a bug so if my characters fail a quest, so be it.

1. Do you force your way through when you are outmatched (loading multiple times in the process)?

The same answer as above.

1. How does loading due to your own failure compare with having to load because of a bug?

The same answer as above, although loading of any kind (bug, freezing) annyos me.

1. How does your reaction to PC death in Skyrim compare to your reaction in a multiplayer FPS where your avatar dies all the time?

I don't play multiplayer games.

Questions:

Do you get your kicks from playing and progressing in quests or from running off and finding interesting things? Why?
I have no idea. I just play.

What do you feel when your PC (player character) dies?
I call myself stupid.

In what way does your mental state and approach to the game change upon loading (note: this includes situations in which you load because you failed a quest)?
As far as I know, there is no way to fail a quest in this game. My mental state changes mainly if I'm tired or ill.

Do you force your way through when you are outmatched (loading multiple times in the process)?
I used to reload when my character dies but for now I'm playing DID. If the question if about reloading again and again because things don't go as I would want them to go, no.

How does loading due to your own failure compare with having to load because of a bug?
Same thing.

How does your reaction to PC death in Skyrim compare to your reaction in a multiplayer FPS where your avatar dies all the time?
I don't play MMO, these games look too stupid and pointless to me.

What do you think of a mod that would decrease the need to save and load:
Nothing. Just do it; some people will be happy to use it.

Do you get your kicks from playing and progressing in quests or from running off and finding interesting things? Why?
--> I run around doing things. Sometimes I complete quests when I feel like actually doing something, but I'm mostly interested in exploration. Why? Because that's the whole point of this series, to go out and explore a province of Tamriel. The quests are just bonus options.

What do you feel when your PC (player character) dies?
--> Shocked and angered, but I usually have a save from a few minutes earlier so all is not lost. I keep the save near the entrances so I can either go at it again with vengeance, or leave and fight another day.

In what way does your mental state and approach to the game change upon loading (note: this includes situations in which you load because you failed a quest)?
--> I'm somewhat sadden when I fail a quest, but I usually don't load and load until things go my way. I just let them happen. Take Vorstag, for example, the companion you can recruit from Markarth. He just died fighting a dragon. I could've reloaded so he'd be alive again, but I felt it would cheapen the epicness of his death, so I continued.

Do you force your way through when you are outmatched (loading multiple times in the process)?
--> Sometimes yes, sometimes no. There are times when I had to retreat because the bad guys I'm fighting are just far too strong for me. Needless to say, the joy is immense when I return levels later, and it's THEM who's getting the ass-whoopin'.

How does loading due to your own failure compare with having to load because of a bug?
--> I mutter angrily to myself and feel like an idiot.

How does your reaction to PC death in Skyrim compare to your reaction in a multiplayer FPS where your avatar dies all the time?
--> I feel a lot more sympathetic for my Skyrim character, because I can actually SEE her. My FPS avatar is just a pair of hands/arms. I don't relate to a pair of hands/arms.

Both, because doing part of the main quest brings forth the dragons, and who doesn't like hunting dragons?

"Crap. Not again. I really should pay more attention to my surroundings."

What? Failed a quest? In Skyrim? Impossible. Now, if you're talking about load screens in general, I'm not fond of them, especially since my game has a high risk of freezing during this time.

Play Smarter. Not Harder.™

It's the only way I play games.

I don't like loading screens, even those cleverly disguised in ways such as riding in elevators. However, I prefer these than a screen-go-black-show-tips approach that Skyrim takes.

Meh. Dying doesn't bother me. All games are based on memory pattern recognition anyway, so "death" is just part of the experience.


These questions need to consider that enemy AI in games is still lacking severely. The reason games throw gangs of enemies at players is because coding for AI is non-existent. It's the bullet sponge approach to making games. Most people tend to die because they underestimated the strength-in-numbers policy and didn't get to their health fast enough.

What is DiD?

Dead Is Dead, when your character dies, you bury him and go back to the beginning.

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1471401-the-skyrim-dead-is-dead-thread-xiii/