Optimism! What's the thing you draw the most enjoyment from in a Bethesda game? If it's not listed, don't vote, just post it below!

The depth of the story not just in the game itself but even in the little short stories found in books scattered throughout the game.

Ahh! Why must you torture me by only allowing the selection of one!? :ahhh:

Since I was forced to choose I went with the lore. No lore from any other series whether it be, books, movies, or games have never interested me as much as the world Bethesda has created here with Elder Scrolls. Don't even get me started on the fact readable books exist in the games! :read:

Not to mention the leveling system! I mean really, why don't most rpg's use it? It makes sense that I should improve my blade skill by using a sword. Not by casting healing spells. <_<

The only thing I've never liked is the animations. But according to recent interviews with Todd it seems they have fixed that with their "secret project that is hopefully and better be TES V"

The lore. Elder Scrolls games are (for the most part) delightfully ambiguous with tons and tons of backstory. It took me years to fully understand Morrowind's plot (I still don't think I fully understand it, actually. It's that detailed).

I'll asume the detail and scope of the world means open-ended freedom and exploration ability.

All the new places, surprises, little stories, hidden treasures, that you might find around the corner.

The sense of progression (hopefully!!), sense of achievement on reaching a hard spot, sense of triumph on solving a problem, and so on...

All in all, what that makes a truly open ended rpg, an open ended rpg, and Bethesda excels in this era.

I love the lore and detail. Sadly I could only pick one, I picked lore. I love that TES is fleshed out starting with Arean and more added to each incaration of the game. I also love the game is open world, doesn't end if you don't like it and at least in the begining of the game, the game feels different if I play a thief in one game, or a mage or warrior in another game. In Fallout the character seems the same but in TES there is a difference at least in the begining of the game. Towards the end, they all become the same, no matter what race or class you select.

Personally, what it comes down to is the level of immersion. Everything from the first-person perspective to the open-ended design of the quest structure to the little discoverable vignettes that are scattered throughout the world - all of it comes together to make it an experience that I can really believe in. If I can't trust that, on some level, this world I'm interacting in could be real - if I have even the smallest voice in my head reminding me of the flaws, inconsistencies, and other problems - it's impossible for me to get attached. The world either needs to be virtually bug-free, or it needs to be so well-designed and immersive that I don't care about the bugs. For me, Bethesda is one of the very few developers capable of accomplishing the latter.

I like the fact that (at least in Morrowind and Oblivion, haven't got around to playing the earlier games yet!) you're not railroaded into following the main quest. Once you're out in the world you can do whatever you like. I finally got around to completing Morrowind's MQ sometime last year, despite buying the game when it was first released!

That and the modding community, obviously.

The detail and lore, not able to choose both..

Detail and scope for me, closely followed by lore. I love being able to go off for a wander (usually with a few books in tow) and completely forget I'm supposed to be saving the world I don't think there are many games that are so interesting and involving outside of the main questline.

I like that you learn skills by doing them, that's a really great part of the leveling system... but the rest of that system is crap. :\

voted storyline, but the actual preference is "the ability to do whatever appeals to my fancy without having to pay homage to cliche archetypes".

Mods. Modders. Modding. The fact that the games can be modded. Oh, and mods.

Yes this was a nice touch as well.


Aye, I did not remember it.

One of the most important facts was the modability of the whole system, from the bottom to the last detail. You did not like a feature, you change it. Yes, this is definitely one of the most appealing part of these games.

It's hard to single out a part of an Elder Scrolls game and say "This is why I like it" because the game is greater than the sum of it's individual parts. Isolate the basics of the game, and individually, they don't stand up very well, especially the AI and Combat.

But when put together in the seamless package, you easily forget that any "7.5" Unreal3 Shooter has much better overall combat and AI, and sort of zen out, I can only point to one thing that could accomplish this, and that's the exploration used as an actual mechanic of the game, rather than a distraction. Exploration goes much deeper than just hoofing it from place to place, you can explore social relationships between the factions (An extremely strong point in New Vegas and Morrowind, much, much weaker in Oblivion and almost non-existent in Fallout3), you can explore different class builds for yourself, explore different solutions to problems, the list goes on and on to almost no end. And the longer that list is, the greater the overall product will be. This is the reason the removal of certain skills and such, from Morrowind to Oblivion really irked me, because that detracted (Greatly) from what makes The Elder Scrolls great, we weren't just losing crossbows, spears, medium armor and levitation. We were losing the option to explore the different solutions and paths those may or may not have created.

While I don't want to do a disservice to the extreme talent of the modding community, the fact that the original product is so strong of a foundation to build upon, is the only reason why modding for The Elder Scrolls could ever have reached such a phenomenal level of quality.

The open ended nature of the games is what keeps me interested, even after years of frequent play. Most of my characters have avoided the MQ, although I've done it more than once. The freedom to go about your own business (if you so choose), and for you to be able to "guide the character" instead of merely "follow the plotline" is what sets it far above the routine, linear, scripted "competition". That's just not possible without "quantity", but the quality of all that quantity in the TES games has also been very good, at least in the last two installments in the series. Obviously, DF had far more quantity than any of the others, but things were obviously "procedurally generated" and either blatantly repetitive or too random, and the quality was a lot more marginal in some places than others.

The skill/attribute system where you learn by doing is another strong point, but the implementation of "multipliers" for levelling up is a definite weakness.

The underlying lore and background stories help a lot, but don't "make" the game, in my opinion. It works, and I wouldn't fix what isn't broken.

Collecting items is a "passtime" for when you're running low on other things of interest in the game. It a nice touch to have, but I wouldn't base my opinion of the game on it. I didn't like the idea behind the "obvious" collectibles (bobbleheads, etc.) in FO3, and didn't even bother with them. Collecting pillows (or building with them) in MW was more amusing, because it was an unintended aspect (or at least one not taken seriously).

Learning by doing is great. I'm sick of games where you learn lockpicking and spallcasting by killing rats with sticks.

But my vore goes for detail and scope. Playing Lotro atm, it reminds me of Daggerfall: game world is almost realistic in scope, and there's always something to do. Hate the exp system and items, of which 99% are magical for some reason -.-

I love the levelling system. It makes more sense to learn by doing than just to get all these skill increases when you level up. I also love the vast scope of the world and its detail. I will never go back to a game that is not open-ended, so that is pretty important too. So it modding ability.

I love how the combat system has no votes

Anyway, I chose detail and scope - I get totally immersed in those worlds, and they are amazing.

But storyline deserves a special mention - no spoilers here, but Tribunal's was awesome. I really didn't expect the ending until it came.

Obviously, lore. The lore is the key to make a great RPG, and Bethesda established a very unique one in TES series as opposed to games like Dragon Age and Dungeon and Dragons which are very generic and similar to other games.

Yes, I love the open world.

Other games just don't have all that wastrel stuff to fill your time. I like collecting stuff and dropping it on the floor in my house. I like wandering around and watching foresters fight it out. All this and more, is yours so long as you don't actually care much about the story!

Daggerfall's character creation.

I had a hard time voting, but ultimately I went with scope and detail. Its the vastness of the world combined with all the little details that make TES look and feel like a real world. Next to that, I would choose lore as it helps add to the credibility of a living, breathing world.

I have to say the detail and scope of the world, but being lore-inclusive as part of "detail."