I've been into role playing games for as long as I can remember. In most popular MMO games there are certain rules that apply to a world that helps to regulate the environment so that it doesn't become overwhelming or redundant. If you've seen me posting on here in the past you would know that I am a huge fan of the Elderscrolls series; but, I found the most recent installment to be a huge let down and that isn't so much related to the bugs on the PC.

An example of something that I've always had a problem with since Morrowind was spawns on roads and pathways. Typically in an RPG setting you will have conflicts that happen on a road you are traveling on; but, it isn't that often, it's just enough to make traveling from point A to B a little interesting. The problem I have seen growing from one ES game to the next is the consistency of these spawns. It's reached a point that it becomes safer just to run across the open tundra or through the woods and avoid the road completely. If you know what I am talking about, you're probably chuckling right now because it's true. There are some points in the game that the spawns are so regular that you end up running into 3 separate groups at once, that is if you were like me and attempted to push through the first wave of bandits, only to discover 3 wolves right around the corner, you start to fight them, just as the bandits catch up, then suddenly out of the woods comes two bears. Seriously?

I will say that the problem has actually instigated some comical setups though. I was doing the quest to fight the first dragon outside of Whiterun with the guards. Well as soon as we all walked outside of the gate a group of hired thugs attempted to "teach me a lesson". Well, they were outnumbered 8 to 3. Need less to say they died extremely fast and I didn't have to lift a finger.

I have noticed that sometimes when I fire up the game it is like one battle after the other with multiple enemies. Then sometimes I load up the game and I am looking for someone to tangle with and can't find them so I get a quest to have something to dull my sword on.

Random encounters are just that, OP: Random.

In a traditional RPG, like D&D, you could be running into as much stuff along a road as you do in Skyrim, provided the players keep rolling poorly (or well, if you WANT to encounter something). In even traditional JRPGs, random encounters along any path occurred, in many games, as much as once every 5 steps taken outside of a city.

MMO's are different, in that, they are not scaled. They have zones of safety(kinda) with the road usually being the safest (after towns). I really like that system, though I dont ever play MMO's...

Wouldn't the road be the most dangerous place in reality though? If you are a bandit, soldier, highwayman or whatever then your going to watch the road. Don't know about wild animals, I guess they would either stay away from the road because they know they get an arrow up the bum, or watch the road because they hungry

Indeed - Highwayman says it all.