It still seems kinda weird that no one noticed that you've broken out of prison. It's like you were born yesterday and then teleported into a prison cell.

It's for tradition.
Also, you decide your background. Just because you're in prison doesn't mean you did something wrong. False conviction. That's the beauty. You decide.

It's called willing suspension of disbelief. It's a factor in many movies/games/TV shows/novels.

It is tradition, it is expected and anything else would jar like plumpudding in a fuel tank.
There is no criminal background, this is up to you.
Just like in real life there exists such a thing as a false accusation.

What if he or she was wrongly accused? What if it was a corrupt guard?... Murder in self defense that could not be proven? There are still possibilities.

As has been said, it's an Elder Scrolls tradition, and I'd say it has some role-playing and narrative advantage, for one thing the prison beginning justifies your character being in a certain place at a certain time while still leaving things up to your imagination, because it doesn't tell you why you're in prison, you just know your there, and are free to decide why. It can also justify you starting the game without any sort of experience or equipment. If you started the game as a farmer, then that automatically forces a background on you, if you start the game as a mercenary, it's the same and the game also would be expected to give you at least basic starting equipent. Now, I guess the game could also achieve a similar effect by having you held prisoner by bandits, thus getting a similar feel to the prison start without the story assuming you're accused of some crime, that's one option Bethesda could consider if they want to find alternatives to being in prison, but for now, being a convicted criminal (Rightly convicted or otherwise is up to you.) seems to be something that's here to stay.



I could think of a number of backstories that could explain your character being in prison without you being a criminal, at the very least, you don't have to actually be guilty of anything, maybe your character was wrongly accussed or framed, that way, you can explain being in prison while still having a background that doesn't involve commiting any crimes.

I really liked TESII for that. Looking back, it was the only one that didn't make you a criminal when you started out. I hope they change that in TESVI and not have the character be in prision or something kind of crime related situation.

So you're either a criminal or wrongly accused (thus technically still making you a criminal, but that's beside the point). I'd still prefer something more neutral at the start instead of every single back story I might have all having to end the exact same way "and then I went to jail.....".

Well I see it as being a generic way to introduce you to the game. So for the sake of immersion and role playing. You can be anyone you want and make your own back story. However after this long they could have come up with multiple ways to start. Which was a concern of everyones with Fallout 3, basically starting as a linear character. Alot of the modders made multiple start points for FO3 because of this point. Todd and Pete should have taken notice but I guess not.

Well with multiple start points it turns into DA:Origins. I don't mind having a set background like fallout 3 growing up in a vault I just hate the vagueness of the backstory when you're locked up in a prison cell.

It is tradition, it is also an opened ended writers tool to insert a character into a story line and it is also Fate, or divine intervention. Every hero from elder scrolls has been a mortal being who has interacted with gods throughout thier adventure across Tameriel wether they battle gods or deadra or make bargins with them, in the end they were just the hand of fate or the games of gods. Every game you were placed is a specific spot with a destiny to full fill, no matter how opposed to it you where and wanted to just do all the side quests you eventually ended up doing the main quest and fullfilling the destiny. In morrowind you were the champion of a single aedra who set your character on a path to fix something that was wrong. Arena, Daggerfall, Oblivion all the same things. Every games story has been about the balance of godly powers, the dragonward, the god lorkhan's heart the dragonblood that protects the realm. and in skyrim again from the sounds of it, it seems to be about the ward again. Such divine outcomes and you can't fathom the idea that your character couldn't end up in jail then suddenly released for mysterious reasons or escaped with seemingly effortless attempt is anything but the will of a god who put you into a specific place and time, with a tiny push to set you on your path? I seriously doubt the average inhabitant of Tamerial speaks to gods on a daily basis like the player character.

In TES people are not born, they are excreted from the penal system.

It also slightly gives an out.. so they don't have to explain why, in your past however many years of life, you never learned a thing and now that you've been in prison you've somehow forgotten all these skills and now have to learn them all over again.
I mean really. Your character is obviously in their late teens to mid 40's.. How is it possible to explain a character has lived this long without learning a darn thing.

What I hate though is that they give you almost no information at all. They just go your in jail cuz... just cuz. It would be nice to have some more to go off of.

that's the point. It allows you to decide why. It allows you to role play. Hence the genre: role playing game.

You are supposed to make that up.

That's the whole point.

It wouldn't be TES if you didn't start out as criminal scum. I'm not that bothered by the starting of each game, I'd rather start as prisoner than just some random guy wandering around.

You are a courier who is arrested for trying to smuggle a platinum chip into TES....

"I like to think I was put in jail for having six with the kings wife and daighter, at the same time, while doing a rock guitar solo, on the desecrated corpse of god" - Yahtzee

Yeah, well, put me in the camp who's tired of it. A couple of times was cute, but I think it's worn out its welcome.

How about dropping you on shore after a ship wreck. Why were you on the ship? Where did you come from? Where were you going? That's all up to you.

How about captured by outlaws and forced to escape?

How about just dropped in the middle of a town? Why is that not good? You could be a wandering merchant. You could be a former soldier selling his services. You could be a thief on the trail of a rare gem.

If we were paid and had a little time, we could come up with dozens of others.

This idea that every game has to start as a prisoner and that it's somehow the only possible way to go is flat out silly. There are plenty of other options.

Tradition is, to me, pretty silly too, especially if we have Elder Scrolls X and we're still starting out in prison. Let's vary the start just like we vary the locations. Not that tough, guys.

Is it a dealbreaker for me? Not by a long shot. But it's starting to look silly to some of us.

Nail'd it. Nailer.

then everyone would have to have some military aspect in their backgroud
wouldnt work if someone wanted to play as a wandering solo mage or thief
starting in jail lets you choose everything about the character
if they were evil, or wrongly accused
mage, thief, barbarian, etc. before they were imprisioned
how long they were imprisoned
starting as a soldier or being tied to any other group is too restrictive especially in a tes game

It's a tradition and it allows you to create your own backstory for your characters.

Cuz people stold they gamez? Nah, because its a theme. It's good stuff. My character was sentenced to death for killing an entire argonian family

I've always assumed that my character was mistakenly arrested during some sort of civil unrest. Being in prison doesn't mean that you've necessarily been convicted of anything, much less that you have a "criminal background."