I'm procrastinating right now, so I figure I'd pose an interesting conundrum for the lot of you:

The press won't shut up about Todd's playthrough of the Skyrim demo. I understand that every magazine needs its chance to get a cut of the action, but for us depraved information-hungry forum folk every one of these articles is just within arm's reach on the internet. So, hoping to glean some unique snippets of information, you've probably all read at least a few of those hands-on Skyrim preview stories. Recap:


As interesting as it sounds, I almost can sympathize with half the stuff in Oblivion's E3 demo not making it to the final game - at least it left us pleasantly surprised when we finally did play it. I don't know if I'm really keen on going through with this sequence of the game anytime soon though, since we all know it by heart at this point.

So what do you all think? Is it your first priority to run through the golden claw quest to finally experience the previewers' excitement for yourself, or are you going to avoid that place at all costs?

Guh, I'm not going to touch that quest with a ten-foot sword. I'll probably go out of my way to avoid it.

I`m just going to play around with magic and see what happens when I combine water and fire.

Its probably going to get some work done before the release. I doubt it will be in the game in that form.

Why, what's wrong with it? They even showed it to Game Informer 6 months ago.

Like other games, I do the MQ 1st before I start getting down to business

Why not? Some quests mentioned in pre-release information for Oblivion made it into the final game (I recall hearing about the quest where you went into the painting, for example.) On the other hand, we saw some events in the E3 demo that didn't happen in the game, or didn't play out as they did in the demo, so we really can't say for Skyrim, maybe Bethesda created that quest purely for demonstration, maybe they didn't. If it's in the game, though, I don't think I'll go out of my way to do it as quickly as possible or to avoid it, I'll do it when I get it, or at least when I get around to it, but not sooner or later.

Demos are mostly intended to highlight all of the game's features (or as much as you can) within a limited period of time. Quite often, you will not see the demos in their full form because they decided not to use every one of the game's features in a single part of it, have decided that they don't want to spoil any real quests, because some details change before the game's release that make the quest no longer work as they showed it, or whatever other reason they could possibly have. Just take a look at Oblivion for instance. They had a lot of things showing off the physics, the AI, the combat, the characters, and none of the things they showed off made it into the game as they were demoed. Renoit of Renoit's Books in Chorrol was a fully developed character in the demo, but in the game she's just another generic vendor with no pet, no archery AI, and no knowledge of magic at all. Likewise, the teaser with Kvatch was changed around as well, though you actually can see its original implementation in one of Oblivion's default worldspaces.

What the OP listed is actually a rather reasonable scenario for the E3 demo, and it fits well with what info we've been given so far from the media that has described it. It leaves a lot of room to show off just about every new feature they want people to see in Skyrim. The dialog system, combat, questing, fast travel perhaps, the environment, the dungeons, the puzzles, the menu system and the 3D item view, and most importantly, the dragons and dragon shouts. Unlike Oblivion, it doesn't seem like they'll show us any part of the game's introduction. They may want to keep the details surrounding that somewhat of a surprise.

@Proditus They've been showing the same quest for 6 months. It's also the only quest they've shown.

Yes, I'm just saying that the quest they've been showing is unlikely to make it into the game's release. At least not in its current form.

I think it'll be there for sure. Maybe a tweak here and there. I'd be interested in seeing what, if anything, was changed from when GI saw it 6 months ago to what the press saw last month in Park City, Utah.

I highly doubt this quest will be in the game (in it's current state anyways). It's just a demo mock up, something to give a taste of whats to come in Skyrim, not what's already in Skyrim (quest wise).

What's funny is that we KNOW what will happen during the quest. The guy will betray us, so I'll be ready to kill him as soon as I let him down.

The painting quest was in Oblivion.

It depends if I find it or not. I won't make it my objective to do it but I will eventually do it

What do you mean? Was that in the E3 demo?

They will probably modify the quest so that the guy doesn't betray you.

I don't think that was part of the E3 demo. The E3 demo consisted of:

The intro to the game and meeting the emperor
A walk through the woods
Delving into an Ayleid ruin
Stealthing through the starter dungeon
Interacting with NPCs in Chorrol
A combat sequence in Kvatch

None of those happened in the final game as they did in the demo.

They talked about that quest long before release.

Reading about the quest and actually playing the game are two separate things

Not only that but the character type I plan on playing is different than the one that was played in the demo. So playing the quest is going to be quite different for me so it shouldn't be too bad.

I kill him anyways for his past betrayals. Never forgive. Never forget!

I'm convinced this quest will undergo some serious changes. I doubt we'll even see it near the beginning of the game.

The player: Uh-oh, I know that guy will betray me as soon as I let him down. Better kill him right now!
The guy: Good thing you let me down, as I'm really Esbern, in disgui- *The player kills Esbern in disguise*
The player: Oh, good thing I saved.... fifteen hours ago.

Still, I'm not going to be doing this quest. I'll save it for the very end.

Hmm... Wasn't aware of that, but it still wasn't in the demo (the one at E3 anyways). So maybe we won't even see the golden claw quest, we'll just hear about it?

Proditus pretty much posted what I was getting at. I think it would be lame to watch them play through a whole quest in its entirety and then have that exact quest in the game.

But we haven't seen it. The press has. Not the public.