We need to let Bethesda know how we feel about this subject.

Where's the "I don't care but it doesn't have any real bearing on what I choose to do with my character's history or future" option?

You vote that option by NOT voting. Or expressing it in a reply

Since you dont care...dont vote

It's called "not voting."

They already explained the reason:
Because they want us to think of the reason we are in jail (innocent or guilty) and it sets the tone for the story. Doing like a Zelda start (out on a farm or in a village house) would be quite cliche and boring imo.

We already know the reason, but do we like it?

I suspect that they already know:

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1184724-jail-again-or-not/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1183815-anyone-find-the-starting-in-a-prison-plot-again-lame-2/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1182857-anyone-else-find-the-starting-in-prison-plot-again-lame/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1158173-seems-were-starting-off-in-jail-again/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1148469-so-why-are-we-in-prison-this-time/
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1148710-so-let-me-guess-pc-starts-in-prison-again/

Could just be me though... :shrug:

I like starting in prison, but if they changed it up it wouldn't bother me at all.

I love the prison beginnings. To me it feels like tradition and is by far one of the best starts to allow roleplaying.

Staring in Prison and is tradition since Morrowind (I think) and picking where you start wouldn't let you experience to the fullest.. it wouldn't set the story right. The story has to be right from the beginning.

In my family, we are very strict about tradition, Bethesda should be 2

I actually wish you could just from several different starting points. It would be difficult I know but well worth it IMO.

i for one find it RESTRICTIVE and feel Bethesda (or Bethpizda, as my fellow Enlightened and i prefer to call them) is going too far! first they take away my attributes and now they throw me in jail? my immersion is ruined! i mean are they PURPOSELY trying to make me not buy their game? well guess what IT'S WORKING.

i guess...role-playing games really are dead...

for real though i've never been one for the whole MAKE UP A HISTORY AND ROLE-PLAY! thing. prison's as good a place as any to start a game like this. it's symbolic - prison is a restriction of freedom and personal rights, and these games are all about player freedom, so what better way to invoke that?

also i think there's a metaphysical explanation for the whole Prisoner figure but i'm not someone to ask about the abstract.

I think Bethesda knows what they are doing on this one and I will definitely like it. They could start my guy in a puddle of mud and I'd still like the game.

Sorry, but starting in a prison game after game is just crappy.

We're not really starting in a prison, we are getting executed.

Character creation still might happen in a prison cell though...

What?

indifferent



btw its too late to change it..

Since Arena, actually. Daggerfall had just a cave, Morrowind - slave ship and Oblivion - prison cell.

Well thats even better for the game.. Imo. I love it.

(I don't have Any TES game before Morrowind but im thinkin about dl'ing them to my comp if their good, which they should be hah)

Starting in prison works for some of my characters well, others not as well. I find I need to think much harder on the backstory of my Lawful Good Breton Monk than my Chaotic Good Nord Barbarian, because there are just less reasons to be thrown in prison other than corrupt officials if a character is less forward in their personality and doesn't do anything that could be rationally thought of as illegal.

"It's tradition" seems like a cop out to me, they just couldn't figure out how to fit in the story the ability to start where you want, you may never encounter the MQ, but some like it that way. I'm sure an alternate start and delayed main quest mod will come out eventually, that allows for a different path to the MQ.

Screen refresh rate and FOV make me dizzy and unable to play older games. This effect is not that rare though, so keep it in mind.

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Prison gives us a starting point that can lead us anywhere we want. Anyone can end up in prison for virtually any reason. Doing something else would end up limiting RP much more.

It's cool that it's tradition and everything but they could achive the "you make up your own backstory" thing in other ways surely. You could wake up in a chapel or something the priest says you were brought in from the middle of nowhere unconcious, What were you doing? Who are you? Why were you there? Do you remember anything? you can still make up the answer for these questions and make your own backstory. I think Bethsda would write better scenarios than the example I gave but you get my point (I hope)

And for the record I have no problem staring as a prisoner and I wouldn't mind if Elder Scrolls VI started in the same way, the point I have made is for the sake of argument.

You would still have the important feature that is to make your own story up without being fed it by hand, but it would be done in a different setting

The reason we like starting as a prisoner (in prison) is because it's been a tradition since Arena. The reason I personally wouldn't want to choose where I start is because when Bethesda knows where the player starts, they can craft the world around that to create a more fulfilling starting experience (like for example, the first time you step out of the vault in FO3). Not to mention, it makes sense for enemies and creatures to get stronger the further you go from where you start (so that the further you explore, the more challenging it gets, without any excessive use of leveled creatures), but if you could choose where you start, Bethesda wouldn't be able to do that.

the game starts in a prison camp. you're dragged past prisoners being beaten and men working out and training. you catch your reflection in a puddle in the dirt.

they begin their race-specific insults while they lead you towards your doom. the whole thing plays out like the first cutscene-mission from CoD4.

then dragons.