You know, I'd actually be really interested to know why the vast majority of the 196 voters think up to 3 provinces would be great, and all 9 provinces would be great, but any number from 4-8 is ridiculous.

Yes, but wouldn't that be based on an Arena with the design from computings' time equivalent of stone knives and bear skins?
Let's be just a touch realistic and a little less sarcastic. Sarcasm is like cinnamon, a little to entertain, too much just makes things bitter.

What I find a bit odd is why the assumption that large would immediately "svck"? As of right now, the general message that seems to be sent is as contradictory as Dr. Doolittle's "Pushme-Pullyou" two headed llama. One the one hand, you have continually generated threads where everyone is invited to throw caution to the wind and imagine, wish, and dream of what they want. Then, when people do just that, there is an equal amount harshing said dreams mellow by stating because of the company's humble beginnings in its designing infancy, it will immediately not be worth the enterprise? All of this without the slightest entertaining of the thought that until test shots, possible engine revisions, or true data compilation are showcased, degrading the concepts at the moment of conception (thought) are somewhat premature.

If I were in Bethesda's developing camp reading this, I would be struck with this same dichotomy I am reading here and elsewhere on this facet of the forum. People demanding that the franchise continue and wishing and wanting facets from the enterprise they created in the past, yet when the thoughts are pooled, there is a large denomination already stating that the company would svck at it. If I were a developer, reading such things, do you think for one minute that I would be even look forward to continuing the franchise in any given timeframe when just the mere guesswork involved in it brings out automatic assumptions that they will fail? It would beg one to wonder why anyone would continue to canvas the forum and boards of a gaming company that so many feel that they are so "hit or miss" with their product.

I thought the focus of this thread was a fanciful inquiry as to what we would all want in the game, moreso than such a dramatic hammering of any ideas that just tick off memories of things they did when the medium was much younger. For me, and me alone, I think I will save that kind of judgement about their future offerings until we get to the point of test shots, Poser renderings, or even concept sketches, than to damn any and all ideas however nonsensical to what was done before.

I don't think we'll hurt the dev's feelings, bro.

People have seen what happened when Bethesda spread too thin, it's called Oblivion. I've never played Arena, and I wouldn't judge the next game by that, but I don't want more than one province because it just isn't feasible with the kind of content you'd need to come up with to make such a game with current generation graphics (and I am a professional software developer). I mean yeah I could dream up TES in space with moon dragons soaring among the stars but I would find it more engaging to think of what could actually happen.

I and everyone else voted for Skyrim probably because it's almost certainly where the next game will be, and we should all get used to it.

This isn't about speculation. It's about the majority opinion.


Also, any more than one province would be a bad idea for Bethesda.

Assuming it's possible to create a good game with all 9 provinces, if it is created, they'll have nowhere else to go. Doing one province at a time allows Bethesda to give us something new every time. They can loop around in what they've done to give a new, exciting, fresh take on a province. (The previous game in that province would be around 20 years old, if not more) But, if they create the whole of Tamriel, they'll have no new, exciting, fresh takes on the next game. There's only so many times a province can dramatically change. Unless, of course, you, for some reason, want TES to stop at 5?

We are talking about the same Summerset, aren't we? :huh:

Imo, the Altmer are the same as the Dunmer in terms of culture, corruption and superiority complexes, but moreso. I've always wanted to see the towers made of (insect wings?), and I want to be barred from a city, if I haven't proven my worth with some huge quest, because I'm the wrong race.

I was talking about Somerset, a county in England, quite different from Summerset, the home of the High Elves.
Eh, don't worry, it's just one of my fail attempts at humour :unsure2:

On a serious note though, despite Bethesda Studios being great at design and what not, I can't help thinking that a game set in the Summerset Isles will end up looking like this: http://www.ivstatic.com/files/et/imagecache/636/files/blog_articles/dora-crystal-kingdom-860.JPG

Maybe not the best choice of words, though you can be spread too thin vertically as well as horizontally. I don't think Oblivion was originally meant to be 16 square miles, it got retracted into that space when the cost of achieving that level of detail became too great.

Honestly, I would love to see the Big Serious game companies just pull the hell back a little on the graphics. Games these days just seem more and more slapdash, and it's obviously for the sake of coming up with some new technical gimmick. I've basically made this post once before, but in this context, sure, I'll dare to dream of every province in Tamriel being fully fleshed out. Do it in some kind of 2d/3d thing like mobile games are using these days, and take the mountain of leftover money to make 500 quests, and brain-melting storylines that will make you choke on your fishy stick. Get a lot of seriously awesome 2d artists like the guys that made the Disciples games, or even the guys who did the concepts for Morrowind and give them a couple of years to make the entire continent come alive with handcrafted detail for every city. I would adore that game. I don't think they could ever get it all right with the way they're going now, since people (developers especially) just seem to take entirely for granted that building some state of the art engine takes an enormous effort. But if you just rebalance the equation a little, great things could happen.

This isn't about speculation. It's about the majority opinion.


Also, any more than one province would be a bad idea for Bethesda.

Assuming it's possible to create a good game with all 9 provinces, if it is created, they'll have nowhere else to go. Doing one province at a time allows Bethesda to give us something new every time. They can loop around in what they've done to give a new, exciting, fresh take on a province. (The previous game in that province would be around 20 years old, if not more) But, if they create the whole of Tamriel, they'll have no new, exciting, fresh takes on the next game. There's only so many times a province can dramatically change. Unless, of course, you, for some reason, want TES to stop at 5?

Now you really are giving the devs too little credit. Just looking at their lore that's already there, there's Akavir, Alinor, the entirety of the Sload an Maormer's home continents that have never been touched, they could make Ehlnofey or Yokuda come back if they want. They have all the limitless possibilities of Oblivion too, come to think of it. If they do make one with all of Tamriel, that would take place at a particular time. They could make another some time in the future when the landscape has changed drastically. Bethesda certainly has finite money, but I have no doubts at all that they have enough ideas to keep making good TES games.

they won't be able to give us something new and exciting, when they've already given us it.

There will always be something new to do.

It's not up to you to decide what the boundaries of TES are, it's their creation and they can do what they want with it.

No there won't. There are 9 provinces. If a game contains 9 provinces, the next game will hold nothing new. Whatever was in the first game, needs to be pretty much copied in the next. Either that, or the world has to drastically change every game. Which is, needless to say, ridiculous.

They could always go to different continents. :shrug:

But I like my part of/one province per game. ^_^

They could also make a game set in Oblivion. I like SI and wouldn't mind seeing some other fleshed-out Daedric realms. Moonshadow's next on my list. If they ever did run out of places in Mundus(highly unlikely), why not make a game in Oblivion, right? Seriously, though, I hope they make some more expansions set in Oblivion. I read a rumor about Bethesda saying they will no longer make expansions, though. Is that true?

They could also make a game set in Oblivion.

Please no. I had more than enough of daedric realms in Oblivion. bliviongate:

Regarding other continents, please keep in mind that this would also mean new races. I don't really want to see that. I think the 10 current races is perfect. Perhaps Akavir is an option but not before we have visited all of Tamriel... twice... and Arena dosn't count.

We've only really seen the Deadlands and the Shivering Isles, and they were quite different from each other.

Here's the link: http://www.joystiq.com/2009/04/11/bethesda-on-dlc-keep-it-small-digestible/