So a youtuber I watch, Gopher. Did a video that I named this thread after. He's actually planning a whole series about this topic I think, but this 1st one is something worth talking about I think.

Why do people love elder scrolls. What about it makes you come back game after game. Some have been playing since daggerfell and before while others came in at morrowind or oblivion or skyrim. Some might of started playing in fallout 3 or 4 and ended up checking out elder scrolls because of it.

Now I did go and skim the forum rules on posting links and it said as long as there is no nudity and it is related to the topic I can post a link. So I'm linking Gopher's vid here as it sparked this idea. If that is not ok I figure mods will edit it out quickly and hopefully let me know so I know not to do it again and not ban me out of the forums.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvRJ0mMlqbc

I'm not looking for this thread to be a wish list of new features for the next game but just pointing out the things you truely love about the series itself. Now it might be it is a game mechanic or it is a story element, simply the open world, or the mod features. I don't expect people to stick to it because it's the internet but I hope people will try at least a little.

Thank you and try to remember it's all opinion. Have a good day.

I disagree with Gopher about the game engine. But I agree with Gopher that Bethesda should attempt to assess what the majority of players loved about Daggerfall, Morrowind and Oblivion and take that into account when they design TES VI. His point that "what worked" for most people is just as important as "innovation" is a good one, I think.

But putting together a consensus about "what worked" is easier said than done. Good luck with that, Bethesda. Elder Scrolls fans cannot agree on anything.

Aaaaaand I neglected to put in what I liked. Though I wasn't really sure it took a little thought.

When I think oh boy a new game is coming. Some of the things that flash is just past happiness and vague feelings of joy and fun from past games. Now that isn't really helpful another big thing is actually a game mechanic. The console, I had loads of fun in morrowind doing various things, whether it was my own version of fast travel using coc or changing weather for my whimsy and amusemant. Also I'd get stuck in places, and I don't mean I fell in a hole because I wasn't watching I mean I was some how just STUCK in the ground, so I'd use tcl to get un stuck. The ease of the console which has been improving in each game since. On my first playthrough on skyrim I decided to check out the console and was happy to see the changes and spawned myself an ebony waraxe. I used that axe for hours and hours and ended up building up rp around the thing. It is one of my fondest memories of skyrim. Thank you for that.

Another thing I like is modding, whether it was my own little custom items, or just new areas and content for free no less. McM and skyUI in skyrim was great. Alternate start is awesome too. Hunterborn. Anyways I'll shut up about mods.

The books, I look forward to the books in every elder scrolls. Sometimes I gather a bunch and then sit down in a chair by a fireplace in a player house generally and just read some of the books. I love the writing and the stories can actually pull me in. I even go back and reread books that I've read a bunch of times before in a previous game. Not looking for changes or something just because it brings back memories and I enjoy it. I spent loads of time in oblivion at the imperial waterfront shack just reading books. Even though I had other much nicer houses. Then I'd read some in the skingrad house.

Well there are some things I really like about elder scrolls. Some happy moments if you will.

I like the history of the setting. The chance to delve into forgotten ruins and forbidden depths.

The fact that the game conforms to my play style, as opposed to the other way around.

Skills. Attributes. Birth signs (Skyrim's emphasis on Perk tree "constellations" made sense in the narrative aspect of the game itself, but I'd love to see the old system return)

In Oblivion, despite the repetitiveness of it, I enjoyed the Radiant AI conversations NPCs would have. It made the world feel a lot more alive then Skyrim where it was the same canned conversation repeated to infinity.

Morrowind I liked the hand placed loot and the fact every dungeon/tomb/cave had a sensible layout to it. The world felt lived in.

Daggerfall, I liked the fact you could fail the main quest (but not end the game).

I miss Spellcrafting and being able to pay an enchanter to enchant my gear as opposed to myself having to do it.

I enjoy the feeling of being a character in a fantasy world (and an emphasis on fantasy, rather than "gritty realism"), rather than being the player in a game (or worse, a watcher of events), which is how I feel in most other story-driven games and RPGs. The sense of a living, dynamic world is also a major thing I enjoy, which few RPGs also manage. And that within those parameters, it still offers freedom to allow your character to be what they want to be, from a paragon of justice, to someone just trying to make due, to a criminal, to someone who's a figurative or literal monster. And the freedom to focus on what your character wants to focus on, be it the main quest, guilds, side quests, exploring...

There are no other games like it, I get a giant sandbox to do what I want, to tell the story what I want to tell. I have yet to play a game that gives me this amount of freedom. Sure there are other RPGs that might do certain stuff better, but you're stuck playing the story that the developer wants to tell. The ease of modding is also amazing as I can tailor the world to my own.

This too.

What do I love about playing the The Elder Scrolls video games?


I love that you can create fully customizable female Player Characters (PC's) and fully customizable male Player Characters (PC's).

I love that you can explore alien magical video game world like The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind which was my first the The Elder Scrolls video game that I purchased in 2002.

I love that in Bethesda Game Studios developed video games you can pick up almost every single item in front of your Player Characters (PC's) face, her face or his face.

I love how The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind has the separate armor pieces and am very happy that Bethesda Game Studios added the layered armor system in Fallout 4. Most of the RPG video games that I play do not have a seprate armor system like that. Most of the RPG video games that I play only have the armor pieces like in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, a helmet, a cuirass with no left pauldrons and no right pauldrons to equip, gauntlets with no left gauntlets and right gauntlets to equip, greaves, and boots. With also no left gloves and no right gloves to equip.

I love how there are so many different types of weapons in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.

That is why I love playing The Elder Scrolls video games and any Bethesda Game Studios developed video games (Except Fallout 4 which I still did not to this day today still not purchase.).

Like Pseron Wyrd, I find the ability to create my own character and their unique story to be far more rewarding than following a pre-set path and playing the game "their way". I have absolutely zero interest in "Achievements" or other digital rewards telling me how good I am at following their directions. Granted, many of my characters WILL do one or more of the various faction questlines, if their own motivations drive them to do it, and a rare few have actually completed the main quests in two of the games, for various reasons. The factions, quests, and various side stories are all integral parts of the "worlds" that Bethesda created, and that "world" is generally what I am buying, not the "story" that they happen to include with it.

They could make a game without a Main Quest, and I'd probably be quite happy with it, but a game with a main quest that you aren't forced to do is the "best of both worlds".

Essential for me are the character creation, the freedom to take any factions quests I want in any order, the playable beast races and the Bethesda style worldbuilding.

Bonus are the rich lore, the variation of gameplay and weapons, the clutter and the simulation of AI life.

I think the things I like best have been mentioned.

• The rich background with a developed mythology and history - best of any fantasy videogame I've played.


• Ability to customise and develop characters as I wish. Sadly I found the blank slate of Skyrim characters took away from this. In MW and Oblivion to a lesser extent I was able to tailor my character to fit their backstory. Now theres no difference between an Orc veteran of the Legions and an Orc shamen's apprentice.


• Ability to customise the game to my own tastes using mods. Theres no such thing as a perfect game for everyone.


• Doing as much or as little of the MQ and faction quests as I think fits a particular character.

As others have mentioned, I really enjoy "freedom." Freedom to see a distant sight up close and personal. The freedom to be who I want. The freedom to totally ignore the main quest and all the side quests, or follow them all.

I also enjoy chatting with NPCs. I feel they are our link to the world, our interface so to speak. The games have varied vastly between Morrowind and Skyrim with Morrowind's "encyclopedic dialogues", to Oblivion's "chatty mini-game", to Skyrim's rather narrow options. I liked Gopher's mention of FO: NV "skill usage in dialogues" point.

I've never looked to TES as a "combat simulator." That's not why I play the games. I enjoy that the games used to have ways to resolve many "issues" without fighting

More than anything, it is the amount of freedom you have. Freedom permeates everything you do in the game.

-You can choose to be a murderous, psychopathic [censored]; you can be the gallant hero who would never do anything wrong; you can be a vigilante (how I describe my characters); or whatever other type of character you want.

-There are so many places to go visit and explore in an enormous, expansive world.

-You can interact with countless objects, talk to all sorts of NPCs, and enter any building.

-You can choose to delve into the deeper lore like metaphysics or history, or completely ignore it and pay attention just to what is happening around you. There is so much lore we don't know and places we haven't seen that you also get a lot of freedom in drumming up headcanons and theories. And there is a lot of room for interpretation of the lore that we do know.

-You have 10 different races to play as (in the main series except for Arena and Daggerfall, which have 8) and you can be male or female.

-You aren't railroaded into a specific path, even if it is a type of character that you would normally like to play as.

The TES universe is also just so fascinating, and I've never been svcked into a single video game or video game series like I have with TES. There is so much lore to dive right into, and yet so much more that has been unexplored. There are so many locales to see. There is so much to imagine. I personally love each game despite their flaws and--while each one does things I would prefer it didn't--I appreciate Bethesda trying to keep the series fresh by changing different aspects with each installment, yet not to the point where it isn't enjoyable for me or that it doesn't feel like the same series to me.