No. Arena wasn't exactly the epitamy of the lore, I don't think anyone can deny. Even Morrowind was unoriginal there.

Daggerfall was set in High Rock, which is in fact VERY cliché. Not that there's a problem with that, but when they turn what could have been a great province into another copy/paste temperate forest, it gets rather irritating. I seriously would have been content if Oblivion was set in High Rock.

As everybody before me has said, there are a lot of fantasy creatures in Skyrim. I actually was annoyed by Morrowind's lacked any real creatures to make it the least bit relateable. The world without mammals was cool at first, but it definitely got old.

I love normal creatures and all the creatures aren't from Earth. Also, I don't think we've seen everything yet so I'll have to wait and see when I play the game. If they reveal *everything* to us, I'm going to be disappointed on 11.11.11 and I just don't think they'd do that. If this happens and you have too much Earth in your Nirn, we can talk about it in December.

:tes:

True that, I can't see much difference between Cyrodiil in Oblivion and the way High Rock is described.

Well, because Skyrim (same as Oblivion and Daggerfall) takes place in land of men, so it is only obvious that it resemble real world
TES3 was first game that took place in land dominated by mer (dunmer, to be more precise), so it looked different
Summerset Isle, Valenwood, Elsweyr, Black Marsh and Morrowind are those provinces that should be totally different from Earth
(Personally I really hope TES6 will take place in Elsweyr or Black Marsh)
While Cyrodiil, High Rock, Hammerfell and Skyrim should look like Earth

P.S. To be honest combining two provinces in one game, each of them different, is best choice. Few possible combinations for next games: Morrowind+Skyrim, Hammerfell+Summerset Isle, Black Marsh+Morrowind (explosive combination ), Elsweyr+Black Marsh, Valenwood+Elsweyr, Summerset Isle+Valenwood. Such approach could make game world more diverse.
P.P.S. I still expect to see in one of the further games all Nirn (or at least remake of Tamriel)

The problem isn't that the province resembles parts of Earth, the problem is that we're getting another Middle Earth rip off. You are right that the man provinces tend to resemble Earth, but they all have extremely emphasized stereotypes. Lots of Viking influence in the Nords, lots of Pirate/Arabian Influence in the Redguards, lots of Roman/(Amazon?) influence in the Imperials. None of them, other than High Rock, are really all that cliché (and as I said, that's not a bad thing - just keep the cliché where it's supposed to be).


Meh, one province per game is really fine by me. I could actually imagine them either looping through the provinces or concentrating on an MMO throughout all of Tamriel once they've gone through them all. Or even some RTS's.

Have you watched this lately?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI5-GZkKBDQ&feature=related

Its supposed to be a mythical Earth in my opinion so I like how they represented Skyrim. A rugged northern area with mythical creatures dwelling in its terrain.

heh... 1:15...

Haha and I was thinking more about 2:02.

Meh. I'd like to see a few more mythical, magical creatures. It is, after all, a fantasy world. But, as has been said, it is a human province so maybe it makes sense it would be a little more familiar than Morrowind. Although we still haven't seen everything, so maybe as we head farther north we'd get more magical stuff.

Alsio, I want to see more Ice Wraiths. They mentioned them once and we haven't seen them since. That's something magical and uniquely Skyrim, I'd say.

But I do agree with the overall intent of the OP. This is a world that is distinctly not Earth. Just glance at the lore forum for more than thirty seconds and that's pretty evident. While, to help ease the willing suspension of disbelief on us, they do need to have some things we can recognize as a starting point, the fact that the world is wholly created and not bound to earthly rules or history means that the sky is the limit for imagination.

PLEASE don't go overboard on the whole viking clichés. We get it, they're Nords. That's no excuse for not giving them their own unique culture and adding lots of weird fantasy elements to the world of Skyrim. I don't want this game to be TES V: Midgard.

Mages Guild: just head out to the east a ways and find this tower, its over there.. somehere.

Character: No probs boss, I got this covered.

- 30mins later, WTF theres NOTHING OUT HERE BUT DUST! whats that sound.. AMGBIRDS AHHHHHHHHHH!

don't forget the Dragons......

Well I'm the exact opposite, I've played so many fantasy games that everytime I see a giant spider or rat I sigh in bordom, not every fantasy should have rats and spiders as the lowest rank cannon fodder animals, like WW2 games if you see them enough you no longer find them fun, just boring and stale. If they really want rabbits, wolves, deer, and other earth based animals at least make unique enough to not look right if dropped into the next Cabela's game.

For the last time, morrowind is not what TES is about. It was one game that they desided to try something entirely different and returned to what they had always been right after it.

I have a strong feeling they will find a way to balance Morrowind's "weirdness" with the rest of the series familiar fantasy tones. I mean, I look at the videos of daggerfall and the tavern music couldn't be any more cliche lol. I dunno why, I just have a sneaking suspicion.

Morrowind is the odd one out of all TES games. If you dont like it, too bad. Honestly, theres virtually no fantasy world whose critters are not anologous to the real world. And Vvardenfel is not a fantasy world, but part of one.

Something Scandinavia-like... With fjords n stuff

They can be based on real world animals, I'd just wished they'd tweak them a bit, that's all. To each his own I guess.

As many said already...Morrowind was the surreal part of Tamriel.
For Skyrim I wouldn't wish it would be that over the top but more grittier and darker. Gothiclike...
Let it stand out...

And cliffracers would freeze in skyrim easily.
What about wool-cliffracers? :tongue:

Yeah filled with generic earth creatures, dragons, trolls, mammoths aren't extinct, giant spiders, the undead.

Just your typical generic earth stuff.

I like very single creature so far in Skyrim.

Wolves and bears and rats and spiders make me yawn, too. I can watch nature documentaries for those, or play games set in the real world. I want to see imagination and creativity in a fantasy setting. I 'get' that Morrrowind is unusually... unusual... for a TES setting, but just because generic and boring is supported by TES lore doesn't make it any less generic and boring. So I hope they've looked for ways to make Skyrim as strange and other-wordly as they can, without chucking the lore out of the window.

True, if we said "TES should be generic fantasy because 3 out of 4 games so far have been fairly generic" we'd never get more diverse fantasy. If we didn't do this, maybe there would end up being more unfamiliar worlds than familiar ones, and then would people be saying the opposite? They should try to follow the lore and make each game as interesting as possible, and that doesn't mean they have to stick to trends of previous games.