And what are you going to get with Elsweyr and Valenwood? Desert throughout the southern half of Elswyr (very flat and boring), and two endless forests, one made of bamboo and sugar canes and the other a typical dense forest. Skryim has more than that.

Its all about how they do it. I would be happy with either option, but I prefer Valenwood/Elswyr, and here's why.

Sure, Skyrim has variety, but it will end up having more of your traditional fantasy vibe, much like Oblivion did. If that's what you want, I wont object. However, I believe Valenwood and Elswyr have a much higher potential for the atmosphere to be as good, or better than Morrowind. Valenwood has moving trees, and the jungles of Elswyr could have extremely interesting and lush vegetation. Imagine the variety of plant and animal life they could implement. Imagine alchemy in the jungle. The desert could be done extremely well atmospherically as well, and think about how cool desert dungeons would be. As far as cities go in Skyrim, we're likely to see more castles surrounded by villages, and Bruma-esque architecture. In Valenwood, there would be cities in trees. Do you miss the tangled organic cities of the Telvanni? In Elswyr, desert cities would be awesome, oasis-type places that are huge hubs of trading and melting pots of diverse characters.

I just think that V/E have more potential to bring you to a world that you've never been to before, as Morrowind did. So much of the fantasy genre is filled with Nord-like culture and scenery. I'm sure Beth would do it amazingly, but I would prefer something a little further from Oblivion.

The flaw in your argument is that you assume everywhere else is quite alien. On the contrary, Morrowind is described as being the most alien of all the countries in Tamriel. And what's not to say that Beth will just make Valenwood pretty much just like Gladriel's place or that one forest with the ents? And I can also argue that Valenwood will also give you a tranditional fantasy vibe with wood elves, so don't put down Skyrim as having a potential weakness of becoming a traditional fantasy-viking-land when Valenwood could easily end up being traditional fantasy-wood elves-land.

Plus, the politics going in Skyrim is quite complex. The country as a whole is not unified and pretty much operates as city states. Valenwood and Elsywer have the issue of too many wanderers, tribes, and so on, which translates into small cities. While I will admit the book put some nice politics for V/E , I feel that Skyrim has more to offer.

Plus, the politics going in Skyrim is quite complex. The country as a whole is not unified and pretty much operates as city states. Valenwood and Elsywer have the issue of too many wanderers, tribes, and so on, which translates into small cities. While I will admit the book put some nice politics for V/E , I feel that Skyrim has more to offer.

The flaw in your argument is that you assume everywhere else is quite alien. On the contrary, Morrowind is described as being the most alien of all the countries in Tamriel. And what's not to say that Beth will just make Valenwood pretty much just like Gladriel's place or that one forest with the ents? And I can also argue that Valenwood will also give you a tranditional fantasy vibe with wood elves, so don't put down Skyrim as having a potential weakness of becoming a traditional fantasy-viking-land when Valenwood could easily end up being traditional fantasy-wood elves-land.

Plus, the politics going in Skyrim is quite complex. The country as a whole is not unified and pretty much operates as city states. Valenwood and Elsywer have the issue of too many wanderers, tribes, and so on, which translates into small cities. While I will admit the book put some nice politics for V/E , I feel that Skyrim has more to offer.

Sadly, the player base seems to fall into two radically opposed groups: one that WANTS yet another generic LoTR-style happy forest to "run around and kill stuff" in, and the other that wants to "live' a unique experience in an alien environment. Granted, there are a few "crossovers" who want other combinations, but it appears that the majority of the posters sit squarely at opposite ends.

Sadly, the player base seems to fall into two radically opposed groups: one that WANTS yet another generic LoTR-style happy forest to "run around and kill stuff" in, and the other that wants to "live' a unique experience in an alien environment. Granted, there are a few "crossovers" who want other combinations, but it appears that the majority of the posters sit squarely at opposite ends.

Sadly, the player base seems to fall into two radically opposed groups: one that WANTS yet another generic LoTR-style happy forest to "run around and kill stuff" in, and the other that wants to "live' a unique experience in an alien environment. Granted, there are a few "crossovers" who want other combinations, but it appears that the majority of the posters sit squarely at opposite ends.

Nords sure are inspired by real life wikings, but their lore is richer than that

anything other than skyrim. Unless they change it so it's not all snow.

FOR THE LAST TIME! SKYRIM IS NOT ALL SNOW! Inland, it's just like Norway (which is also not only snow). Only the maintain regions, which occupy the edges of Skyrim, are full of snow, especially on the southern border. And don't you dare invoke Solstheim! The only place that is full of snow is Altmora, which is completely inhabitable. Even the nords left that place.

FOR THE LAST TIME! SKYRIM IS NOT ALL SNOW! Inland, it's just like Norway (which is also not only snow). Only the maintain regions, which occupy the edges of Skyrim, are full of snow, especially on the southern border. And don't you dare invoke Solstheim! The only place that is full of snow is Altmora, which is completely inhabitable. Even the nords left that place.

People have a hard time realizing that north =/= cold. For the game to be realistic, Skyrim would have to be full of snow at winter, or at least almost full of snow. But yeah, I'd like to ignore those change of season and keep summer/spring Skyrim all year long o/

Do you have better references? Maps of Norway don't do it for me because Skyrim isn't Norway. And while I can't say for sure that Skyrim is all snow, the Pocket Guide to the Empire doesn't really set my mind at ease:

Leaving their snowy valleys and mountains, the Nords attacked the Dwemer of neighboring Resdayn, the Altmer and Bretons of High Rock and lent aid to the rising slave rebellion in Cyrodiil, which was to end the Ayleid rule of the south.

So it's not just the mountains that are full of snow. Now, I don't doubt that Bethesda would retcon skyrim if they made it since I doubt even they want to see all snow everywhere (IIRC, Cyrodiil was supposed to be full of jungles). Even so, I've had more than enough of northern temperate/cold climates (especially sinve I've lived in them all my life) and would still like to see something more exotic which would still leave skyrim at the bottom of my list. Maybe even leave Tamriel and have a game set somewhere on Akavir. Might even placate all the people demanding new races.

The land of Skyrim is the most rugged on the continent, containing four of the five highest peaks in Tamriel (see Places of Note: Throat of the World). Only in the west do the mountains abate to the canyons and mesas of the Reach, by far the most cosmopolitan of the Holds of Skyrim, Nords of the pure blood holding only the barest majority according to the recent Imperial Census. The rest of Skyrim is a vertical world: the high ridges of the northwest-to-southeast slanting mountain ranges, cleft by deep, narrow valleys where most of the population resides. Along the sides of the river valleys, sturdy Nord farmers raise a wide variety of crops; wheat flourishes in the relatively temperate river bottoms, while only the snowberry bushes can survive in the high orchards near the treeline. The original Nord settlements were generally established on rocky crags overlooking a river valley; many of these villages still survive in the more isolated Holds, especially along the Morrowind frontier. In most of Skyrim, however, this defensive posture was deemed unnecessary by the mid-first era, and most cities and towns today lie on the valley floors, in some cases still overlooked by the picturesque ruins of the earlier settlement.

Nords are masters of wood and timber construction; many structures survive in use today that were built by the first settlers over 3,000 years ago. A fine example of Nord military engineering can be seen at Old Fort, one of the royal bastions constructed by the First Empire to guard its southern frontier. Towering walls of huge, irregular porphyry blocks fit together without seam or mortar, as if constructed by mythical Elhnofey rather than men.

Look at PGE 1 for better description:

Now, if you want to know RL comparisons, Canada and the Scandinavian countries fit, more or less, into this description. Yes, the mountainous areas are quite bad in terms of weather, but there are plenty of parts that aren't just snow.

Also, Skyrim would be a great place to reimplement climbing

Judging by this map the parts that have some green in them seem to be pretty small.

http://www.imperial-library.info/maps/maps_skyrim.shtml

Skyrim. I don't think its a good idea with more than 1 Province in each game. Actually i suspect it might be a good idea to go back to just using a region in a province instead, like in Morrowind. Atleast if the gameworld is not bigger than 16 Square miles. That is just not enough for a Province if you ask me.

Anyway, i think it might be too early to use Skyrim if the game is released in this generation of consoles. Elsweyr or Valenwood might be a better choise, but only 1 of them. Let's save Skyrim a little longer.