The worst thing?

Probably Multiplayer. I wouldn't mind a multiplayer spinoff, but keep the main series untouched please.

Cliffracers.

All these things about fable are a bit weird, most things were actually made better, it just happens that these weren't the things anyone cared about, those were all simplified. As for the way shops were handled in fable 3 that was a fantastic idea handled very badly, buying things outside of a menu is more immersing but they didn't have enough for sale for shops to be worthwhile.

As for TES it's far too big a series with two loyal a fan base to get away with anything like simplifying. From the sounds of everything so far they're doing what streamlining actually means, removing useless stuff and putting in what works.

The single worst thing they can do to Skyrim, is to cancel it.

This.

I would think under a general blanket the worst thing they could do is focus on Graphics. By that I mean they focus on that issue a fair bit too much and likewise make sacrifices elsewhere to the game, for example, usually with previous games (RIP Silent Hunter V) publishers *Cough, UBISOFT Cough* can tend to neglect the other aspects of what makes the game for its fans - deepness and wide verging aspects of gameplay. The graphics certainly impressed me and was certainly focused well in the marketing trailer of game play of Skyrim, although admittedly the deeper aspects of the games play content would have been difficult to show otherwise. However I must say It's good to see Bethesda are really making efforts to gain a balance between deep graphics and immersion of game play into the game, something previous publishers and games have failed to some extent in doing. Most certainly I am impressed of their own will to go deeply into market research, and speaking/reading their fans comments about the game to try and make it successful to them, rather than simply a of: churn it out for maximum cost at minimum input. However, with technology of today is it really possible to make the balance between intensive graphics and deep diversity in game?

-----off topic------
yeah they have. go look at the fallout 3 board.

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another bad thing to do: meaningless side quests. I love side quests and random quests. even the so-called non-quest quests. but don't include one that is just there for the sake of taking up memory space. "Hey, can you find my dog?" find dog 2 streets over, just standing there, nothing wrong "yay you found my dog, no reward, just thanks!"

I think we can all agree that Skyrim will NOT be too simple, even with only 18 Skills it will allow the players to create a more ranged variety of characters than in both Morrowind and Oblivion combined. In addition we have cooking, woodcutting, mining, alchemy and smithing. In addition we have a huge game world filled we unique dingeons, epic graphics epic combat and dragons! Anything that is not epic aout Skyrim? Anything at all? Other than the (possible?) lack of Spears and Crossbows, which didn't affect Oblivions rise to the top in any way. Skyrim FTW!

I amend my original post with- Only listen to mindless, positive enthusiasm. Criticism is something anyone on a major creative endeavor should listen to. With an eye towards weeding out the pointless, and trying to make sense of the contradicting. But not listening to the fans is what kept level scaling in the first game, despite many, many fans pointing out that it had already been done and blasted as quite bad in other games as recently as a few months before Oblivion's release.

Oversimplification is my one main fear about Skyrim.

As a huge fan of the Fable franchise and one of Fable 3's most dedicated haters I feel qualified to say that Fable's development has been strangled completely by Lionhead's devotion to gimmicks. Their development efforts were skewed horribly so that actual important things like character development (a lot of amazing voice talent wasted on shallow characters in this game), player character customisation, art style (Fable 2 was beautifully stylised - Fable 3 threw this away despite very good level design), combat and side quests suffered for stupid little mechanics like the Sanctuary (3D pause screen that slowed the whole process down horribly), main character who can speak (totally neutered any connection we might have had to our Hero), warped levelling system and marrying NPCs with nothing to distinguish them from anyone else in the game.

Although Peter Molyneux has driven Fable into the ground in his desire to make the game accessible to people who don't play games (HURR DURR), the real problem has come from too much emphasis being placed on these pointless gimmicks in the apparent belief that one of them will be a huge success and revolutionise the game industry.

I know that Todd's remark about "superfluous skills" might have made a lot of you worried that TES will slide into the casual abyss, but I am a long suffering Fable fan, and I can tell you that you haven't got anything to complain about yet :cryvaultboy:

The worst thing... ruin all of my hopes and dreams for the series and make it an MMO... *shudder*

:slap:
Don't say that! Don't!

hmm well when they put shops with 2 items to sell they ruin shops, when they put 5 side quests they ruin side quests, when they put 3 skills and call it RPGing they ruin customization, when they put 3 types of monsters they ruin monsters...etc

for me, either make a FULL effort on shops for example by adding hundreds or thousands of meaningful items or just GET RID OF THEM.

I don't like the half assed crap in games, 5 spells is not a magic system its a joke either make over 30 or just don't add magic ...etc etc etc

bah u get my point

SR seems to be a "full" game so far, 85 spells, better stealth, better combat, less annoying stats (I love RPG but I hate useless numbers) ...etc so I'm happy

I agree totally, instead of concentrating on character development, like you mentioned, story and lore, they went in the opposite direction and just concentrated on all these so called flashy features. They also left out all of the lore from fable 1 which made it great. Fable 2 IMO came closest to this.

I know that would never happen with The Elder Scrolls but that would be my worst nightmare :ahhh:

I agree with you my good man. The worst thing that I can think of is if they continued in the direction they were going with Oblivion, basically catering to the casual console gamer and ignoring everyone else.

If at level twenty I see a bandit wearing ebony or glass armour or something I think I'll just break down and cry.

I am a console gamer but I agree, the whole catering for the casual gamer to increase sales is ruining the industry. Hopefully after their recent successes they can rely on their reputation to sell games rather than the ease of access content.

I think the worst thing they could do is to not make a significant jump from Oblivion to this. If it is the same then I will be sorely disappointed, hopefully they have taken aboard some of the criticisms fans have of Oblivion.

Cutscenes and QTE combat.

I did not bother to read all 6 pages yet...I just have to get this off my chest to some folks that may care....the worst thing that can happen to Skyrim is that the devs dont debug the game before they put it out there for consumers who pay $60+ for a game that, some might say, is unplayable because you encounter bugs around every corner that make you restart your system. Sorry that was a little stream of conscience..but whatev. Simply put, I demand a quality product and I will be heart broken if Skyrim is bugged all to wherever mannimarco resides after he is slain. I, like the rest of us here, have such great hopes for Skyrim. It has been too long since we have been able to climb those ladders of success in our favorite guilds- too long since we have been able to enchant rings that weight 200 lbs- too long since we have been able to read about lusy argonian wenches!!!!! I say unto you good people, our day of reckoning is at hand...and that day is on 11.11.11! (sorry i just had 16 oz of red bull)

PS- I was not talking about Oblivion when I was talking about a game that shall remain "nameless"...yes Oblivion had a few bugs, but, in the words of my former college roomie, it roxord his boxors.

Can you explain how it catered only to casual console gamers? Seems that idea gets tossed around alot with the word "simplifying" without a hint of evidence backing it up. (not saying there isn't evidence but you could try and justify your position)

I liked Oblivions simplicity more.Maybe I'm just dumb. :shrug:

I dont even know what they need to do to force me not to buy Skyrim...nothing i guess. :ahhh:

I disagree with this being a valid argument.
Have you played ME1? And seen how ridiculous it was when "buying a new gun" only changed the color of your weapon and a few numbers? ME2 took what I believe is a much better approach, the "less is more approach". Sure, you only got 15 weapons (with 7 more in the DLC), but each weapon was truly unique in every way, from the feel to the effect it had on the field of battle and your choice of tactics.
I'd go on about there actually being shops, the customization and side missions, but this isn't a forum about ME.

Well technically, the leveling in oblivion wasn't so much to make the game playable by casual gamers, it was about having you not being bored to tears because at level 30 you can kill everything by just looking at it...

Anyways, back on topic.
I think the worst they could do is actually give too much and not back it up. I prefer a simpler, more fleshed-out system to a more complicated, yet only surface-scratching system
Also, they COULD make it Morrowind 2, and that would quite frankly svck. Because I admit it, the WORLD in Morrowind captivated me. But the gameplay REALLY bored me.

I don't want to sound like a curmudgeon here or anything, but that statement is so unbelievably ridiculous that it's... not even wrong.