Since last thread hit over 200

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1524926-tes-vi-location-and-setting-speculation-24/

Since everyone seems pretty opposed to a game set in two provinces (for reasons I totally understand), what about a game based not in a whole province, but instead in a region? As far as I know (which is not very far) Daggerfall was set in areas of High Rock, Hammerfell and by extension Orsinium. What about breaking up the "one whole province" formula and making the setting, for example, the disputed lands around Leyawiin. The game could take us to eastern Elsweyr, southern Cyrodil and western Argonia. Cultural variation and political factions could be a heavy focus of the story. Maybe the player gets to decide to fight for one of three factions fighting over the lands or something, ultimately altering the map of Tamriel (or maintaining the status quo of course if you choose).

I'd love a more political game like this. Sure, it creates problems with canon, but Skyrim already gave us a choice of the future of Skyrim. There are ways around it.

I can see region-based games working out well, it's an interesting idea. As for two whole provinces I think people will think the provinces would be sized down and less impressive because remember, Bethesda has to make the games compatible for consoles and consoles can only handle so much.

A fact I'm reminded of all too often as a console gamer

but yeah, seems those are the main arguments against a double province game. Like I said it makes total sense, especially as most people on here (myself included) want to see the deep lore and culture of the games done the justice it deserves.

Yes, I've brought that up already. My suggestion was the City Isle in Cyrodiil in an absolutely huge version and with an Imperial City that deserves that name.

"Ways around it" are always awkward. It's very simple really. Bethesda defines the lore. Not the player and not the forums, but only Bethesda with in game stuff. I'm all for politically far reaching decision possibilities for the player, which would necessarily include a canonical version from Bethesda for later games.

Provinces is not just one terrain, Oblivion went from Subtropical to cold.

Nothern Vallenwood in ESO is on the edge from forrests and Bosmers over to savanna and Khajiit

The leveling zones in ESO is perhaps 1/4 of an province and tend to be more uniform.

I'd be more interested in the cultural variation than the different landscapes though. This could also tackle the problem of setting a game in a beast province-they say that won't sell (I'm really not sure about that argument anyway), assuming that's true, setting part of a game in beast province(s) would give some loyal fans something they've been asking for for an age, it could capitalise on the alien feel of, say, Argonia, by contrasting it with culture in southern Cyrodil. At the same time, the entire game doesn't have to take place there, avoiding the supposed risk of alienating more casual players.

I think after the success of Skyrim, people will buy the game in droves no matter where it is set at.

It still doesn't address the main issue with multi-province games: you need to do architecture, equipment, clothing, landscape, foliage, and other game assets for each of those distinct cultures and regions, as well as build up each of the portrayed cultures through dialog and other means. The more variety you introduce, the less time that can be spend on detailing any one of them. Of course, I'd like to see more variety, but the financial and manpower limitations can't simply be hand-waved away. We either get a wider range with less depth, or a deeper game with a narrower focus. I'll take the extra depth just about any day, but that's a personal opinion. One main culture (whether it's spread into the edges of 2-3 provinces as in Daggerfall, or confined to a small part of one province as in Morrowind) is sufficient to keep the developers busy for the 4-6 years it takes to create theses games.

As suggested earlier, I too would have loved to see a Cyrodiil game limited to Rumare, the Imperial City Island, instead of trying to portray the entire massive province in a nutshell and then scaling everything down to fit (2 small buildings makes a village). The potential in terms of the internal bickering and politicking at the very heart of the vast Empire, various merchant and guild rivalries, clashes and feuds between individuals and families, and competing religious groups, was enormous and completely wasted. What we got was a shallow overview that essentially ignored 90% of what made it so fascinating to begin with, and a much narrower (but still poorly explained and poorly executed) focus on a "demon invasion".

EDIT: What the hell have I done to my markup?