Oblivion is an allegory. The box cover is the Mysterium Xarxes. A book? that promised paradise. The game promised a great game. You stand by the book and read it. You play the game constantly. Until you get to othe promised heaven. Until you realize what the game is. It is a torturous realm where the followers are manipulated to be missionaries and recruit more people. It is a repetitive game where you get so absorbed that you recommend it to everyone. Welcome to Oblivion.

So you admit the game is addictive and pulled you in and yet you hate it for that?

Isn't that kind of what a good relationship does?

Yes, and no.
I was addicted, but I wasn't enjoying it.
It was too monotonous, yet I couldn't stop.
Wasn't having fun, but it left a good impression and invaded my mind.
I won't ever touch it again, I'd like to say I hate it...
But I want TES 5.

I think there is a medication for that.

I don't think of the Elder Scrolls games as allegories, particularly. I think of them as interactive Rorschach tests. What we say about the Elder Scrolls games tells others as much about ourselves as it does about the games themselves.

@ OP actually i think oblivions pretty sweet, sure you arent thinking of WoW? LOL

So you're saying it's not a great game? Well that's like, just your opinion man.

Sorry mate, if you're flamebaiting, it ain't gonna work, we're too cool to care. B)

Agreed

100% agree with that, i wouldn't go so far as to say i hate Oblivion as i most certainly don't but the love i have had for many years is rapidly dying. I'm far more interested in reading fanfiction at the moment and currently immensely enjoying Buffy's Journal. (perhaps that speaks volumes about the kind of oblivion player i would like to be but can't as i lack the patience 'and perhaps the imagination' to be that kind of player.)

I do still play Oblivion on an almost daily basis but if i am totally honest i no longer enjoy it, I just can't stop playing it.

What I really don't get is how you can become addicted to something you don't really like. I personally really really really wouldn't want to spend my free time with a game I dislike (or on the forums of a game I dislike ), but maybe that's just me.

You can come to dislike a thing after you've become addicted to it. That probably happens to most real addicts, eventually. You become habituated to the initial amount of it that you needed for the pleasure, and it takes more and more of it, to reach the same level of satisfaction. Eventually the craving can no longer be satisfied, but it still must be fed. This is addiction.

I suspect that any game that takes a long time to play through, like any RPG, has a potential for addiction. I used to play an MMORPG, and after a while it just turned into a grind ("Bring me ten weasel skulls, and I shall reward you with the Mask of Doom.") That's not play. It's work. I don't need a job when I'm playing a game.

When I start to feel like a game isn't fun, I go do something else. Sometimes I eventually go back and find it fun again (as with the Elder Scrolls games) and sometimes I don't.

Life is repetitive. I still enjoy it. I enjoy Oblivion.

I do see the game's main quest as allegorical of real life. As for the game being an allegory of itself, that implies an intent on the part of the original developers which will probably have to remain speculation. I also agree with Pseron Wyrd that your game play can tell you things about yourself if you are the type to practice introspection. As for monotony, there comes a point in the game where you either start to color outside the lines or suffer eternal boredom.

My main roleplaying device is to play only one character at a time and to play dead-is-dead. If they die in the game, I will never load their save game again. For me, their mortality changes virtually every aspect of the game and it has even given me some insights into myself.

I was totally addicted at first and played from rising to going to bed for about the first two weeks. Nowadays I rarely visit Cyrodiil but when I do, it's like coming home. Angel sweeps us both off to somewhere to satisfy some new curiosity or spend an evening around the campfire watching the stars and trying to spot the constellations.

I loved it for a while, hated it, but could not stop.
I eventually picked up New Vegas and was re mediated, but I am pre-ordering TESV day one of it's announcement.

whats to HATE about this game? i mean if you're a total noob at it then i understand but this game is amazing am i right?

Awesome. Thanks for that.

Bump.

To be fair all rpg's and computer games in general have that monotonous Skinner feel where you perform an action correctly and recieve a reward for it.
Luckily Oblivion is one game you can make up your own rewards for, or if on pc mod it to how you wish it to be.

It's called willpower.

My uh... Khajiit... Uhm... Really loves to.... Uhh kil- ER I mean HELP PEOPLE! I HELP I HELP! :whistling:

I actually find this a very weird, but first, reason to not like Oblivion. It seems that you were expecting more than the game offers. Surly playing the story up until the point you enter paradice would be about: If you get destracted by one part of the game and are dissapointed it is not all about that, then is that really the games fault?

In this "allegory," you return from Paradise and set things right. Right?

I think "allegory" is a bit strong of a word. If someone likes a game, said someone will recommend it to people hoping to inspire them to get as much enjoyment out of it as them. It's got it's issues but Oblivion is about as good a game as there is out there. I've played a lot of games and believe me, after a while they ALL get repetitive. I can understand how you can stop enjoying the game. I myself get more enjoyment out of these forums than the games themselves nowadays. In the end, I think your just reading too much into it.

im taking a wild guess that you play WoW and you most likely meant to say that wow is a "repetitive game where you get so absorbed that you recommend it to everyone."

So... you disliked the game so much you loved it and played it a lot and recommended it?

I love games, and gaming. I play a lot of them. "Play" is the operative word for me. Many games give me pleasure... some for a few hours, some for a few hundred hours. I don't look for deeper meaning, nor do I get ticked off when I realize I have logged a lot of hours in a game - I just smile and feel like I got my money's worth. :shrug:

I see nothing wrong with something being good enough to recommend to others.