...is if they improve the storytelling. And create characters that the player actually gives a crap about. I don't know about you, but I didn't care about anyone in Oblivion and never bothered to finish the main quest because well... the pacing was somewhat poor and I sometimes didn't know what I was doing. I honestly had more fun with the guild quests than I did with the main quests.

Naturally, since Skyrim (like any other TES game), will never force the player to relinquish control of his or her character and force them to watch cutscenes. But, I think that Bethesda should perhaps make the world a little more dynamic, allow the player's actions to resonate through the world, and deliver better story-telling that way.

Thoughts?

The two TES games that came out before it were GoTY for the years they were released. Skyrim is improving on both of them. Really, there's no other major contenders this year other than Deus Ex HR.

Oh, and they are improving the way storytelling is done. No more zoomed-in, time-freezing talk sessions; conversations are all fully dynamic. There's also Radiant Story.

A good story would be a big + but skyrim could have the most corny MQ ever and would still be my GOTY just because of the huge open world hundreds of hours of gameplay

agreed! :celebration:

They've said there will be better NPC AI, so hopefully all is good. :happy:

On a related note, has everyone here voted for the golden joystick awards? I know Skyrim is in the "one to watch" category - will be interesting to see how it fares.

Skyrim will be GoTY. There are dozens and dozens of GoTY awards given out each year. Skyrim would have to not come out to not receive a GoTY.

I don't know, but to me, storytelling and narrative presentation in a single-player game is particularly important. I do want to care about the world. But if Skyrim devolves into another Oblivion with better gameplay mechanics and graphics, then I will conclude that Bethesda still can't get a good story straight.

And I hope this marriage feature is more than a glorified companion feature ripped from New Vegas.

dude beth games ussually get goty awards despite there supposedly dab stories just because of there open world and mass amount of content. :thumbsup:

Oh, that's too bad. I actually really liked Jauffre and Martin, and felt connected to them. And Baurus too (assuming he survives).

Can't wait to see how it all plays out though in Skyrim.

You do know Oblivion and Fallout 3 were GotY right?

TES lore is pretty deep, Bethesda has the opportunity to make deep storytelling. We'll see what we'll get in Skyrim as far as storytelling goes.

Funny, I found the storytelling and the lore to be the saving grace of Oblivion. Reading the books, hearing the rumors and tidbits of stories, was what kept me going through repetitive dungeons and gates.

Skyrim getting GOTY is as inevitable as me hitting the "Add Reply" button momentarily. Sure, things could be better in some regards than Oblivion (they probably already are), but even without the criterion you've mentioned met, Skyrim would still be an amazing game from all we've seen and would still probably be the best game of 2011 (if not the *best in gaming history).

*best is subjective, I know

The what rewards? Who gives them out?

Actually MW, OB and FO3 were all GOTY so if Skyrim has a similar level it will still win some of those

On a more serious note I obviously wish Beth can improve the story ^_^

I loved the lore, too. It gave the world that extra dimension that many other games do not strive for. But lore is not the same as narrative.

It's the GamesMaster Golden Joystick award (www.goldenjoystick.com). There are categories for separate genres, then an overall GOTY award, plus the One To Watch category.

It's true that TES needs lot more improving and polishing, but it's defenently worth the GOTY title.

The only way for Skyrim to be GOTY is to be released.

That's not only about the story telling, it's also about a specific player's disposition to immerse in that story. I did role play in Oblivion and I do care about a few npc's, such as Lachance, Gray fox, Amusei, Dar-Ma, Kud-Ei, it's not like they have to be involved in the main quest to be memorable.

It is a foregone conclusion that Skyrim will be GOTY. Which to me is a let down in some ways, as I'd like to see Darksouls have a valid shot at it.
Both are classified as RPG's though.

Maybe...but that's not the word used in the first post. Storytelling was. /snarky

I don't see how lore and narrative can be separated in a TES game. Neither would work without the other.

I'm really surprised the game industry hasn't gone the way of the movie industry yet, in that certain projects would be held back in order to not compete with each other. When it was announced Skyrim was coming out, I would have pushed all my RPG's back to spring 2012. There really is no way to compete for attention with a title this big.

Bethesda should learn a little of obsidian on the storytelling part, it was really nicely done in the dlc's.