After arriving in Riverwood, when they tell me to hurry up and get to a certani place to help with dragons, I don't. Lookng forward to the mod that allows you to start the MQ at your leasure.

Not to tell that everyone from Witherun to Ivarstead tells you that the Greybeards never let anyone enter their temple and that the trip can be dangerous and many people stop before the top.




I agree with that. But even then you will eventually need to come back, he didn't said "Become the Archmagiste of the Telvanni, walk half ot the world, help naked Nords and then come back" he tells you to get some experience under your belt and then come back. It's, fortunately, less rushed, but not "unrushed".

About "Oblivion vs. Skyrim" I think that Skyrim is a little better, but just a little.

I didn't have a sense of urgency when I needed to get the Elder Scroll. There isn't much going on in the MQ up to that point. You really don't have much clue as to what is really going on. You're also not given any sort of direction on where to go to find the scroll, making it a rather large portion of the MQ where you're just randomly wandering around looking for something specific, unless you turn quest tracking on which magically points you in the right direction.

As far as "he sits there on the road for you" argument goes. Try this, leave him in the dust, go to Riverwood, you can explain your story before he arrives, and if you are so inclined you can wait and guess what, he will show up. Conversely, ditch him, go to either the Stormcloaks or the Legions and when you go after the crown, guess who shows up to fight by your side...... Neither of them just sit on the road waiting for you. That argument is false, please stop using it.

Which game are you talking about? What you're describing sounds like the TESIV thieves guild final quest.

I see it more as a gentle introduction to fight your first dragon. After the fight at the Western Watchtower (and to be honest, the game holds your hand, as you could just stand back and watch the guards kill him) you're just told if you want to know more about the Dragonborn then go see the Greybeards, and now begone! That's the point when I started doing my exploring.

I wish there was a way to activate the dragons without becoming dragonborn, but that is only because I want to make a dragon hunter that doesn't absorb dragon souls.

Really though, this game is a lot better about it than Oblivion.

Baurus: Hurry! Take the amulet of kings to Jauffre before it's lost and the entire world as we know it comes to an end!

Player: Yeeeah... I'm gonna go kill people for money now.

I did not feel this was an issue. I split with Ralof at the begining and came back after finishing almost every other questline. The Stormcloak/Imperial quests fit in nicely with the Dragonborns own questline.

This ^^

Yeah, for a first time player it's tough not to accidentally stumble into the main quest line, unless your watching for it closely. They really need to give players a bit more breathing room at the start where the main quest is concerned. It would have been just fine if they had him say "I can help guide you to the nearby town where my friend will help you out, or go your own way friend.", and then (if you chose to) once you get there you'd receive some basic items to help you survive the first parts of the game, and a "Good luck on your journeys".

Morrowind of course did this best, and of course gaming companies often fix things that aren't broken just to do it differently. I really enjoyed the opening sequence it had a very Morrowind feel to it with the "Oh, your awake" and the guy with the paper and pen saying "who are you?". As far as the first portion of the game, I feel they looked at it from the POV of it's no mystery your the star of the show (unlike Morrowind where it was a mystery and you needed to discover this - very nice too) so let's make the main plot as obvious and easy to get to as possible! A bit too easy though lol.

All in all, still a great idea for a game, and the idea lives up to its name -- even if I need to wait until January to play my game. Not sure how that would work out playing through -- getting a glitch, then reloading your game and POW it works fine now? So many issues. Bottom line is the games still not stable and unplayable for most, and a series of patches just further pounds the idea into the pavment that the game came out way to early lol.

I am talking about Skyrim's main quest. You haven't gone very far in it if you don't know what I'm talking about.

There are clearly a bunch of fools people in this thread who absolutely do not get RP.

It is basically impossible to play anything other than the "Hero of Prophecy" in this game.

I am playing a selfish murderous scumbag character right now. I am constantly finding those shouts all over the place reminding me that my murderous scumbag is a #$*@ing HERO OF PROPHECY!

The way the opening is set up, it is clear that there is an imminent threat to all people in skyrim from the very beginning. You have to pretend the intro never even happened to have anything even resembling freedom of choice for your character.

In fact, there is very little choice for evil characters like mine. I did a quest for an item that is perfect for assassins, only to find a bloody shout in one of the quest areas. There are even more shouts that absolutely betray any possible RP other than the hero of prophecy.

This is not to mention that you would need to spoiler the heck out of your game to have any hope of avoiding the main quest even past the intro.

You don't have to listen. You can ignore it. I've been hearing all about High Hrothgar, but that doesn't mean I'm going to waltz on up there right now.

Anyway, the point is to be.a dragonborn and kill dragons. That's the idea. Now, in Oblivion, I did Kvatch and ignored all but one of the other gates. I did some of the main quest when I felt like it, and yes, it was glaring at me from the quest screen, but I mostly made potions and ignored it.

That guy in Riverwood tells you where to go, but you don't have to go. You don't have to do the Golden Claw right off or even unlock dragons.

It's not forcing you. At all. The first thing I did when I got out of the cave under Helgen, I went southwest across the mountains toward Falkreath and blazed my own trail.

If you can't have some form of self-control over yourself while playing to not be able to ignore doing the main quest, thats your own issue.

Hm... yes, it does feel a little pushy with all those people being frantic about the dragons. So I did the main questline first and waved everyone else away - sorry, gotta world to save, be back later. When I had finally killed the Big Bad, I looked around, cracked my fingers and was like, well, now I've got all the time in the world to do exactly as I please...

What's the problem with doing the main quest first? This isn't a BioWare game - it doesn't end when the Big Bad dies!

lol. No it doesn't. You might feel pushed, but I certainly don't. I'm curious how you feel about all the other quests you receive in the game. I get quests shoved at me by NPCs all the time. Do you feel equally offended by those quests? My quest log is much less littered by the MQ quest I'm pretty much ignoring than by all the others I do only whenever I feel like it.

Just because you can understand a word doesn't mean you are a hero of prophecy. I'm sure there a few people who can understand a writing. Only certain people can actually use those powers.

I didn't really play any of the other games, so Skyrim is my first Elder Scrolls game. I didn't really think they pushed anything on me. I followed the guy to the town because I figured "there should be quests there for me to do" and I went along and spoke to people. A quest there takes you to Bleak Falls Barrow, which is where the Jarl's mage sends you too (but you don't need the mage's quest to get his quest item). I've done the main quest line up to the point where he told me to go talk to the Greybeards, and I still have yet to do that quest (I'm over 100 hours in). You don't HAVE to do anything, but you can do anything. I've gone around, done side quests, miscellaneous quests and talked to people in the cities. I decided I'd rather do the guild quests and do as many possible quests as I can before doing anything Dark Brotherhood, Imperial/Stormcloak, or main quest line related until I felt I have accomplished as much as I could otherwise. Nothing really pushes you anywhere, it's only guidance. It provides you with the main quest, and if you choose to follow it through completely, you can. If you think it's pushing you, it's not the game, it's your personality

Plus if you don't start the main quest, you'll never see dragons besides Alduin at the start.

so you cant RP being a murderous scumbag who is also the "HERO OF PROPHECY!", does being HOP grant personality traits now? maybe you just svck at RPing if you cant handle 3-7mins of intro geared around escaping a burning town.

From cart wide in to being completely free is taken up with one event, escaping a burning town with a guy who is also concerned with escaping a burning town. I wasnt aware this was a challenging RP start.

Yeah, having to do 1 quest of the main story is such a hassle......

I honestly think some of these complaints are by spoiled children b.c thats what it sounds like.

Which first main mission are you talking about? On one character I haven't done the main quest at all and I'm halfway through the Stormcloaks questline.

I don't see why simply talking to Balgruuf the Greater is a problem, plus it does send aid to Riverwood.

I'm pretty sure you can start the Stormcloak/Empire quests without the main quest.

My game never felt like this. I was lucky that it was twilight when I left the dungeon. I had a lovely but brief view of the mountains that I stood and gawked at.
The guy with me walked forward in the dark and disappeared. I didn't find him until later the next day.

It made it feel natural and unforced. Much better than Oblivion. Everyone there wouldn't stop talking about Kvatch. "Yes, yes, okay I will go and help."