Since Daggerfall, more and more game mechanics have been implemented with each game, some for the better.... and some for the worse. Some are just an abomination and do nothing but lower the quality of this once great series. I hereby give you the 6 plagues of TES....


1) Immortal NPC's. Nothing says fake, plastic, consequenceless and 2d world than a shopkeeper who cant be killed for the minor fetch quest he has. Bethesda would argue that dragons could decimate a small town... however... isnt that the whole point? A Dragon plague should be a threat to the world. Firstly, we have a choice whether to start the MQ, and secondly, wouldnt it make much more sense for Beth to program minor shopkeepers to run for cover, rather than attack a dragon with their rusty iron knife? And if you're the kind of player who likes mindless mass murder, go play GTA.

2) Killcams. Now I got no problem with killcams, I think theyre a great addition to the series, the problem is having no option to disable them. For those of us who like immersion and RP'ing this is a BIG problem. Why should my scholarly mage, who revells not in combat (but has to defend himself) be forced over and over again to do WWE chokeslams on a wolf? Imagine Gandalf tombstone piledriving the Balrog. This is the vibe killcams have given me since 11/11/11.

3) The slow and gradual transition from a 1st person game, to a 3rd person one. This goes back to immersion and giving the player choice. Bethesda may not know it but many of us 1st person devotees are unable to enjoy immersing ourselves with a lycanthrope character because of the forced 3rd person perspective. This pretty much cuts off a whole branch of gameplay for us, not to mention horseriding and *cough* 3rd person killcams.

4) The removal of skills. What was so bad about hand to hand that it got dropped from the series? Hand to hand builds were a popular and viable build. Why remove spellcrafting, ok not technically a skill but a big part of being a mage. Removing athletics means my level 60 warrior is no faster than my level 1 mage.

5) No faction related penalties. In Morrowind, if I so much as pickpocketed a thief, I would be ostricized from joining the thieves guild from that point ever onward. So 20 levels later you need to learn from a master trainer who happens to be in the thief guild? Bad luck bro... shoulda thought about your actions earlier. Beth probably feel this removal of penalties improves the game, but only to the attention defecit mindset that demands an endless stream of action/reward with little thought for the world or their actions at large. In relation to Skyrim.... I should not be able to walk around WIndhelm dressed as a legion captain, its that simple.

6) Unskippable intros. Now I got no problem with a good cinematic intro that sets the story, but this becomes a problem for subsequent characters who wish not to become dragonborn or play the MQ, but simply wishes to enter the world. Why offer a respec option in Oblivion/F3, and remove it in Skyrim? You were correct in thinking we would get bored watching Uriel Septims death over and over and so gave us this option. Its no different for the Helgen Dragon attack. Please bring back a respec before entering the world proper in future titles.

I beleive its the finer points, the small tweaks which give us a greater sense of freedom/customisation which matter more than extra features or DLC's.

I agree with most of these. For killcams there should of been an option to either outright enable/disable them and to have them display only in the perspective the player is using at the time (or an option for them to always be 1st person or 3rd).

While I'm a 3rd person view player myself, I strongly think everything should have both view styles as an option with no forced changes made by the game. Let the player decide. *Nods*

TES Games have much bigger problems than these.

For example... they still have generic hack/slash combat.... That stopped being fun about 5 years ago. They really need to get with the times.

6 is so true.

I disagree, I thought combat in Skyrim was outstanding. You have to learn to use the block bash to full effect (counter). However, quicker attack speeds would have helped as weapon skill increased.

I pretty much disagree with everything but 4 and 5. At least that thses have made TES no longer great. While some might have altermatives that are better I idsagree with most of these things being big problems. I accept your roleplaying killers might be different than mine but immersion and roleplaying are not a 1st person exclusive. if people want toggles I'd be happy to give them toggles but ruining the series ( once great please) nope.

Many folks seem to ignore any positive changes while latching on to the negatives, it seems to me. I don't how there could be perceived there was not a huge improvement in combat. Could it be better , Sure! But its still a huge improvement IMO.

How can killcams have affected you since 11/11/11 unless you couldn't figure out how to turn them off in Fallout?

Though they should be optional.

Essential NPC's are necessary, but not to the extent in which Skyrim has them.

It's only a 3rd person game if you use certain powers, you're not forced to use them. Though they should have done a better job in the camera operation to allow 1st person because iirc, the reason they didn't was that it would have looked really bad in first person?

They obviously narrowed down the skills to attract even more people and to make balancing out between the big3 a bit easier. Hopefully the next game with a much larger audience that is now wiser to it, they'll actually ADD to the skills.

The factions in general and everything about them really are underwhelming in this game in almost every aspect except the stories themselves, which are range from mediocre to really good.

Make 10 savefiles for the races. Randomly choose who you follow. Problem solved. The intro is not that bad, it takes literally 5 minutes...big whoop. At least it's not an roleplaying issue, right?





Lastly, if you really don't like where the series is heading, you could always just stop playing.

Am I the only one who enjoys the killcams?

The Magic system is a bigger plague to me. Just keeps getting worse.

Well it's a huge improvement over Oblivion, but it still feels outdated to me. It takes 2 minutes to become a pro at Skyrim combat, because there's barely anything to learn.
Other games have progressed beyond this style of combat. TES is stuck in a rut.

No, I enjoy the killcams, but everything else I agree with the OP.

I'll admit, I wasn't a fan of #1 either. However, I am sort of a fan of this "Protected" status. If perfected, it could be a welcome addition instead of just making them immortal to death from anything.

For the rest of the points: I don't really agree.

While some of these issues I can relate, there are much bigger issues in the franchise which are considered true plagues.

Broken Quests - Ever get to the top of the Throat of the World, to fight Alduin, only to discover the SoB isn't dropping health? Broken quest. The game was completely ruined as a re-load did not correct the problem. 1.9 finally addressed it, but that didn't help me way back at then.

Freezing Games - Put "Bethesda" and "Gamebryo" on the same package, and it's a guarantee. I'd rather have broken quests than to be in one hell of a fight and the mother [censored] game locks up.

Dumbing down for the sake of a new generation - I'm actually afraid TES 6 is going to be so watered down, all we'll have to do is slide our finger across a controller and everything's done for us. I get adding multiple complexities makes for a troubled game, but that's the burden one holds when designing a game to emulate an RPG. If I wanted a dumbed-down game, I'd play a Zelda game.

Listening to the whiners, then cater to them - When Dragonborn indicated a person can remove the level locked, I was pissed. I mean, who the [censored] cares about levels. The whole concept is stupid, and yet, people with severe cases of OCD couldn't stand the "81" being the cap. So the designers caved, and gave them a "reset" option while the rest of us wanted the other bugs/issues fixed.

Of course, none of this really matters, because I know myself to know once Fallout 4 and TES 6 are announced for release, I'll have them on pre-order.

Just like the rest of you.

Yep. At the end of the day, there just aren't enough bad things to outweigh the awesome that are these games. At least for me.

Well the way i see it, the killcams are part of the combat in skyrim. as long as you're gonna fight enemies then you're gonna see them, so you're stuck with it. and i don't think bethesda will ever add an option to remove them in feature TES games. like i said it's part of the combat now.

I really don't blame some people for hating the immortal NPC's rule, but at least i get why they did it. maybe making them protected rather than essential might be a good solution, and maybe it wouldn't. but you are right about being pissed.

But none of the issues you listed it ever mattered to me really. games change over time, thats not a bad thing. you can't expect every game to be a clone of Morrowind. i'd rather have them focus and bring us better stories and quests in their next game rather than the stuff you just listed.

1) I agree and agree strongly with essential NPCs being programmed to flee. It's a simple fix.

2) They never bothered me, but I do agree with the notion that we should be able to turn them off in the Settings menu.

3) Single player TES will never be a 3rd person game. Why the forced switch at certain times? I don't know. I don't play as a vampire or werewolf and I don't make a habit of riding horses so this never had an impact on me personally.

4) I debated this with several people already and I'm not getting into it again with another person. If you like and miss certain "Skills", you'll probably always feel that way. I personally don't miss them nor do I miss Spellcrafting which I never used.

5) This I agree with to a degree, but being "forever barred" for one mistake? That's excessive and would have a negative impact on game playability. I like the Oblivion system of paying a fine or doing a quest to regain the trust of someone within the faction you want to join and think that approach is most sensible.

6) This I agree with completely. As a first time player, that cinematic intro is necessary. But when I'm on my 4th character I don't want to go through it over and over and over again. As for the "respec", that's neither here nor there for me. I don't miss not having the option.

There is another element to this. Take the vampire lord - if a character lets Harkon make them one, they have to sit through the same controls tutorial no matter how many times they do the same thing. An incredibly easy and simple idea would be to have a dialogue option so the player chooses or declines sitting through it. Bethesda are really bad at this kind of basic design stuff.

Please don't say they need to change to that crap Dragon Age 2, super holy flying ninja super saiyan combat. That was so painful to actually see, let alone play.

As far as the OP, some of those are just inconvenience (openings) others I would agree weakening the RPG elements of the game. I liked faction restrictions and ranks. They just make sense. Now I have to pretend they are there. And I love having more skills. How the heck am I ever going to be able to talk to a Nymph if I see one in Skyrim without my Nymph skill? Seriously!

Got it in one.

Beth are great at the big and beautifal... but svck at the small tweaks and customisation options... the things which really matter.

Its all good giving us new features... but when you force it on us... it leaves a very bitter taste.

For me it's:

1) Less racial dichotomy
2) The combat has barely evolved from Morrowind, you still hammer the button like a crazy person in most encounters
3) Lore-breaking
4) The fear that the next game's enviroment will also just be generic european countryside
5) The next game will probably be about something similarly as "awesome" as dragons, or maybe just dragons again
6) Why are all the faces still ugly?

The main argument against immortal NPC's is that they can be killed by the AI going haywire. This can be averted by making them only killable by the player.

No. I like them a lot.

Try playing "Die by the Sword". To block you have to learn to use the shield also ~but in this case, it's not just timing, it's positioning also; and you can block with your weapons... And you have joint by joint dismemberment, and on-body gore where you hit them... and full 360° sword arm control put the blade where you want it, and the game scores damage by how hard you hit!

Die by the sword shipped in 1998. (It also shipped with an animation editor that let players animate their own combat moves for attack and defense ~and map them to hot-keys.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef2HVYW4Ez4

In the 15 years since is there any game out there that does any of this? There should have been by now IMO. Even Fallout 3 doesn't have per joint limb severing.
And when DbtS shipped there was no such thing as a motion controller ~you should see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D8Jfr-sIpM.

Killcams are great. Better if they had a toggle though.