Ok here goes...

I am a passionate gamer, especially when it comes to RPG games which I have played ever since the breakthrough of tabletop roleplaying games. I also work, and I have a family and other commitments, I don′t have endless of time to spend on making a game the ultimate experience of immersion.

In response to how a lot of people I read express themselves in regards to HOW the game should be played I would like to state the following:

-I FAST TRAVEL, all the time, everywhere...I don′t believe that my experience and enjoyment of the game is lost because I don′t spend 20 minutes hiking from Riften to Whiterun every time the thieves guild wants me to pickpocket someone. If I could fast travel in real life between my home and workplace I sure as hell would, so why would I not in a game? Maybe I will miss some fantastic conversation between a farmer and his wife by not taking the time to wander from place to place...I don′t care, I am having fun playing the game without discovering everything, and at the pace I progress I won′t be done with the game before something equally interesting and enjoying is released that I can enjoy. So it′s not like I am going to sit and have nothing to do when I am finished.

-No, I don′t read the books in Skyrim, neither did I read the books in Oblivion or Morrowind, because I am PLAYING a game. If I wanted to read I would pick up something by Stephanie Meyer and read it...

-I don′t look at the in-game time and think to myself "Oh, it′s almost 5 p.m. I must go and make myself a grilled leek sandwich now...". At the most I notice that the sky has shifted from bright to dark to bright again and figure it must have been night at some point.

-I am not bothered by the fact that most citizens repeat the same generic conversations over and over again, I appreciate that the developers put the time and effort to add some voiceacting in the background when I visit an inn and don′t worry much more about it.

-When I enter my home in Skyrim I go to the first container available and I dump EVERYTHING that I am not going to use right now or sell in the FIRST available container. It doesn′t bother me the least that my wardrobe is full of mushrooms, it makes it easier for me when I am looking for my mushrooms that I know that they are in the first container to the left when I come into my house.

-I don′t think that Morrowind is the greatest thing since sliced bread...in fact I didn′t enjoy it much at all. I don′t need to be told over and over again that EVERYTHING that is different than Morrowind makes the game worse...guess what, there is a game that is exactly like Morrowind, it′s called MORROWIND!

-If it′s in the game it′s a mechanic, NOT an exploit. Personally I don′t have the patience to stand at an Arcane Enchanter table and click and press R to get my enchanting skill to 100 so I can make nuclear bows, but if someone feels that′s what they want to do, then it′s a legitimate way to solve the game.

-I use the quest arrow, again in real life, if I was trying to find a location in town I would prefer to use a GPS than not using one. Though in Skyrim it′s not really needed most of the time since most dungeons only have one path anyway, what I wouldn′t have given for a quest arrow in Daggerfall though.

-I don′t eat, sleep, socialize, brush my teeth or get cleaned in game. If I wanted to play a game about everyday chores, I would play the Sims. If it has no effect in the game that I desire, I don′t do it. If brushing my teeth would give me a +15% frost resistance I would brush them all the time. It′s not like I am reading an adventure book or watching an actionmovie and think to myself, this would be so much more realistic and better if it portrayed Gandalf eating pancakes and trimming his toenails, why would I expect these things from a game in order for it to be entertaining?

We are the 99% of gamers...we like playing our games casually!
(Putting on my +75 Fire Resistance boots in preparation for the flames)

Entirely up to you. If, however you do fancy a bit of not recognised by game role playing/make believe/tell your own story/Barbie dress up, my humble opinion is no one else comes close to the framework for that which Beth's (not forgetting Obsidian and New Vegas of course) games, or worlds, provide.

you'll need more than +75......

personally everyone should play any game they pick up/buy the way they want to, not the way someone else 'thinks' it should be played. period.

see? i just said in one sentence what you said in a wall of text.

Good for you, man. There's a reason they call these things video games.

You are reading the Skill books, right?

You are missing a lot of the game's history and lore by not reading the books. Plus, your missing out on some quests. However, you do not have to read them in game.

http://www.imperial-library.info/

Everything else is just your style of play and if it is fun for you, then that's the way you should play it. No one else can tell you otherwise. Well, except for ignoring the books.

Well said.

That's the way I play too, from a married father of 4, with a day job and a social life.

Play it your way. Some people instead of playing through the story of GTA grab the cheats and destroy everything, always. Some people try to make it as realistic as possible. I play Skyrim to escape to a different world, where I can slay dragons and use magic. I work a lot and when I do get an hour or two to play, I dig as deep as I can into it. I read "The Book of the Dragonborn" last night which was the first time I had literally sat down and read something in this game and I liked it. I enjoy the lore and want to know more about it.

Your right though and no one should say there's a certain way to play.

There is no right or wrong way to play a TES game.

I used to be a casual gamer like you......

Well said

Except that part you dropped in their about Stephanie Meyer. But since the rest of your post is pure win, I'm just going to assume that you were joking about reading Meyer's... um... books garbage.

QFT.

I wish the Quest Marker only pointed you to the Geographic location of someone, not pinpoint. Daggerfall's fun - It tells you what dungeon something's in, but it's up to you to find it - If you're a casual gamer, it may take a few days to finish the quest - but you have at least half a month anyway

But I agree that its' useful for findign things that move around, and identifying which dungeon I need to go to.

To each his own. I'm glad that Bethesda designed it so that casual gamers and hardcoe gamers can enjoy Skyrim. It's a win-win situation.

Amen, brother! I can appreciate the hardcoe playstyle, but I don't have the time. I love the game played either way.

Options are good. They allow each of us to tailor the experience to our own likings. Some of us just want some more options.

hardcoe mode in New Vegas was awesome, it was compeltely optional and players never even had to try it out. But for me it was the way to play. Bullets have weight, I know, I have bullets in RL and they are heavy.

I kind of play very similar to you, I have only the weekends to play and If I didnt fast travel I would literally never get any of the vast amounts of pending quests done. Though I do find that some days I dont feel like doing quests and will spend a day just roaming and seeing what I find. Another day I will work on a main quest, or a civil war quest. I tend to fast travel when I have a load of smaller misc quests to do.

You do realize the majority of the people on the forums are not casual gamers so I don't understand what you're going for here other than to incite a flamewar. What was your point anyway?

I stopped reading at this point, once I realized what the author wrote. It's quite telling...

Uldred

I want to beat the hardcoe crowd to the punch, your exactly whats wrong with this community, and this is why Skyrim and the future TES games will be terrible

It's all about you. Ain't it?

(This isn't a flame).........Cuz that's the way Beth designed the game,
As the Lord Bafford has stated (still living in a cleaned out mansion i assume?)

You stated what you stated and got it off your chest, op. And that's fine. Your final point is?

I answered it in the beginning of this post....

This game isn't ALL about casual gaming, though. TES has always been about freedom in a world with very few limits,
which in my opinion, tempts that we all play it "not casually".

I do disagree with this: "We are the 99% of gamers...we like playing our games casually!" (sorry i didn't wrap it)
{Meaning WE (all of humankind)= like playing games casually}

I do believe, however, that some people, 100% percent of the time, play games casually.

I for one, never play casually. (Or, more to the point, in my eyes, play the game casually) I set a big block of time when I begin to play any game, at any given time. I don't play for ten minutes and exit.

I play for at least 2 hours, then exit, take a break, and come back, and play 3-4 times a day. And i do have three sons, work like a madman, and am happily married, with plenty of time for everything and everyone.

Also: everyone's idea of casual has a very large "range". It's the "hard core" people that will flame this I am sure, for they are the real deal....
the cream of the crop.... the top of the mountain, and MUST play until their eyes begin to "haze over".

Oh.......I also get less than 6 hours of sleep a night

haha.

Peace.

Great post, OP. You make a lot of sense.

Can I use that quote please?

This sounds like a bad idea OP. It's not worth it.

You're not casual, you just have no imagination.

Good for you. I'm glad you enjoy the game.

One thing puzzles me about your post though. Why did you start playing TES? These are, or were, sandbox rpgs and as such are generally inferior to many other games in terms of combat and storyline. There are so many games that provide great experiences without the need to invest so much time, why would you seek out a game based on role playing and exploration when you seem to be annoyed by those aspects of the game?

Actually, I will disagree... well, maybe disagree is too strong a word. How about "clarify"?

There is a right way to play, but I can't tell you what it is. I can tell you what the right way for ME to play is, but the things I enjoy and the things you enjoy may very well be different.

Here's a simple little test: Is it fun? Then you're doing it right. If it's not fun, then you might want to consider another way of doing it.

For example:
"I decided to stop fast traveling because all those people on the forum said it would increase me enjoyment of the game." Well, is it increasing your enjoyment? If so, then by all means, keep at it! If not, then maybe you should consider that the people who said that enjoy different things than you do.

If you're doing something "hard core" because you like doing it that way, wonderful! If on the other hand, you're doing it that way because you think that's somehow "expected" of you by the "veteran" RPGers, then I say you should consider what's most fun for YOU.