Yes, I absolutely want to continue after the main quest. It just wouldn't feel right if I couldn't in a Elder Scrolls game. I don't think we will have to worry though. Todd himself said doing that in Fallout 3 was a mistake and something they would not repeat. Though, I respected that choice in Fallout 3 I was still glad they changed it in DLC.

This garbage of "ending" the game is just that. Garbage. Bethesda learned quickly that gamer's don't want the game to end after the main quest with Fallout 3 and fixed it via DLC. Hopefully they will continue the trend with Elder Scrolls and allow the player to continue after the main quest is complete.

Of course, OP.

They'll let us play after the MQ. That's one of the staples of the Elder Scrolls series, up next with starting the game in a prison with an obscure background. After you beat the MQ, you're free to explore Skyrim at your leisure or start a new character and redo the MQ again.

Duh, better continue after, if it doesn't... they have impaled TES.

If they don't let you continue it'd be like not starting out as a felon in prison, that'd be tragic if we didn't start out as a criminal.

I would hope so. What would be the point of saving the world if you can't play there afterwards.

I can't believe two people actually voted No. :shocking:

To Bethesda: Please don't make a DLC that allows you to continue after the main quest. Allowing to continue after the main quest should be in the game in the first place.

N'wahs! Fetchers!

No really, if this AI thing works, it should be indefinitely enjoyable. And it gives you the freedom to only start worrying about side and guild quests after you've sent Alduin back home to dragon land. As it should be.
Keep the FO out of my TES! :biggrin:

Fallout? Try 99% of games end. I do not really care if it ends after the MQ or not. I never finished the MQ in Oblivion, but that was because of the [censored] leveling and class systems made me bored.

There will be riots at Bethesda Game Studios if your character cannot continue after the main quest.

I don't think Bethesda will do the same mistake again. At least I hope not bliviongate:

Definitely a yes. Hopefully so even without a DLC, of course. I think that being able to play after the main quest has made TES games as great as they are today, because of there being no stress on you to completet everything before doing the main quest.

Yes, I want that option. i might do the main quest first and then explore the region as the hero of skyrim

If you mean FO3, they only did it because it's FO. Typical of TES is that you can continue playing after finishing the main story, while a lot of other games do not give the same possibilities and simply end. So no worries there, Tdroid! :thumbsup: :tops:

My first elder scrolls game was Morrowind.

I didnt even know there was a main quest until maybe my tenth character.
I was head of a house and a few guilds and thought: what else is there to do? Oh yes that package.
Then I had to find the package, turns out I sold it to Arille.

So, yes! There shouldnt be much of an obligation to do the main quest straight away, you should be able to postpone it indefinetely and just explore and you should be able to continue playing after its done.

It is part of what makes elder scrolls so great

Letting the player continue after the main quest means the game will have a lame ending, like all TES endings.

To all his own, but still how is it lame to continue on after the fact?

I personally liked playing after the endgame. You could do a little more exploring around with your character, find a few more things that you may have over looked before...stuff like that.

Yes! The best thing about the Elder Scrolls series is freedom. One of the many things contributing to that freedom is being able to continue after finishing the main quest.

I really didn't see what was lame about defeating Dagoth Ur, stopping the ash storms and single handedly destroying the Tribunal? Really, I would have been seriously pissed if I had to always endure those freaking ash storms. I was glad to be able to play after I put a stop to them.

I also don't see what was lame about Martin becoming the avatar of akatosh and battling Mehrunes Dagon before your very eyes?

Of course it's all personal opinion and thus is different to every individual. :shrug:

Edit* typo...

I like the sound of the randomly generated quests that were mentioned in the magazine feature.

If they're anything like the freeform Pirates and Mount & Blade quests then we'd be in for infinate playing time.

Of course the main story has to come to an end, but it's nice to live out a kind of epilogue of your story with all the trophies and scars you've collected along the way.

The real story of my characters begins AFTER the main quest is finished. THAT is TES to me.

It may be controversial, but no. I love the finality lent to a story's climix by the death of my character. Not having to worry about working the player's survival into the ending also gives the developers more freedom in making variations on the game's ending. With this system your character could fail to defeat - or even side with - Alduin and it would make sense that you can't continue afterwards.

You also have to think of how epic the ending would be. When I am extremely drawn into a game's story I usually end up finishing it in the early hours of the morning because I haven't wanted to put the controller down. I feel that this level of awesome deserves a conclusion. There is a huge difference between "I faced Alduin at the Throat of the World when hope was lost and the apocalypse was nigh, and I threw down my life to save existence" and "I killed Alduin and survived lol now I'm going to go and do some mining". The former feels fitting; the latter falls terribly, terribly flat. Sure, the actual killing of Alduin might be amazingly climactic, but the epilogue of the game which shows you surviving and doing a bit of farming or a side quest just deflates that 'this is an epic finale' feeling and - for me - makes the ending of the game hollow.

There is also the itty bitty issue of what to even do after the MQ. Side quests, dungeon crawling, crafting, role playing... Side quests aside, everything in the game apart from the MQ holds attention for about two hours max. It is not fun to be a farmer for a bit who also sometimes loots dungeons. And if it is and people really want to do this with their characters I must ask: why can't you do it before you finish the MQ? If you're so certain that doing random crap with no overarching goal is a fit substitute for the MQ after you complete it, then why do the MQ at all? I could understand if people wanted to try out the various factions in the game after the MQ, but again I feel that the finality and epic quality given to the MQ by the ultimate sacrifice of the PC justifies forcing such people to just save before they finish the game and use that file to play around in Skyrim's sandbox.

Make no mistake: I love sandbox elements and I'm ecstatic to learn that there will be more in Skyrim. I just don't think that the quality of the MQ finale should suffer so that people can role play a smith after hunting dragons and defeating the ****ing god of time and invincibility.

Edit: perhaps a system like in DA:O, in which there was an optional variable to allow PC survival at the end of the MQ, would be best.

Depends, although the endings from Fallout are drasticly different to TES so i will be fine with that.

Oblivion did this exactly right - it finished the main quest and let us continue playing IF we chose to do so. I loved this, became addicted to it.

Then in Fallout 3 we saw them take the "definitive ending" path only to undo it with a DLC so we could again explore the world, faith was shaken but restored.

Finally we had New Vegas; another definitive ending! BLAH!

Lets hope they stick with the Oblivion method - I can find no reason whatsoever why players who Want to keep growing their characters should be denied the ability to do so, it goes contrary to Fun in my view. For those that don't care, no big deal - but for those of us that Do care, let us PLAY!

That said, I have faith in one comment made by Todd Howard in a recent podcast - that they now Hate level caps and wanted to let the player keep leveling if they want to - it was a definite disdain for level caps. By that logic, if I stretch it like taffy, then I can GECKulate that they wouldn't block us form playing after the end of the game as that too would be put an artificial limit on gameplay.

Okay my taffy is all stretched out now, and none of it tastes like Dragon flesh, so I really have no idea. All I can say is, "By the Gods let us PLAY after the story is over!!".

Miax

That nearly gave me a heart attack. :cryvaultboy: