I feel as if Skyrim, while a great game, is extremely overrated by the popular gaming media and the general gaming community.

Some would Argue Skyrim is amazing, but is it really amazing, or is there just no competition to point out it's flaws?

Yes.
I thought this was known?

Skyrim is a pretty good game. I haven't found a game I like better since I started playing it last year. So for a Skyrim fan like me, Skyrim wins game of the year for 2011 and 2012.

Skyrim is totally awesome. You have a huge variety of things to do plus the combat system is very interesting.You speak about flaws.Name some of them.Cause i play this game some months now and i still havent found any serious ones.Imagine that i ve reached level 50 with my character now and i still love to play the game. In Morrowind and Oblivion you reached level 30 and you got bored(because Morrowind was very easy and oblivion very tough).In Skyrim you reach level 50 and you face many kind of enemies(some easy some difficult)

Or in many ways underated.

skyrim is way over-rated, it is a good game (maybe the best of 2011) but no where near as good as most people claim, skyrim has it's flaws no matter what anyone says.

It is great. It is amazing. Is it the best game of all time? No. Is it in top 100 games of all time? Yes. Compared to some other titles that are considered overrated cough*CoD*cough which get 10/10 all times. Skyrim is underrated.

Don't think they are game-spoiling flaws... whatever they are though, maybe it's a bit down to preferences.

Skyrim is AWESOME! However, I agree that people revere it more than it deserves.

It's both underrated and overrated, depending on how you look and who you ask. In the end it's a good game, and seems to be one of the better ones of its generation in my opinion.

It's got bad and in some cases terrible writing, quests, characters, balance . . .
But it's a great game compared to most other that have come around at the time it was, and ever since.

No. It was over-hyped, though, no question about it. That was probably due to the amazing marketing behind it

This

It would depend on the individual. If I was someone who had never played elder scrolls before I would probably think it was the best game ever, but I have so I don't have the same feelings about it. It's a great game and yes it's not perfect but a great game nonetheless. If it had better quests I would like it a lot more.

SKYRIM has yet to bore me. Am constantly finding new things to do and discover. Whether its dungeon exploring or checking out the vast outside world full of dangers and lively humourous encounters with npcs. Then theres the unequaled beauty of SKYRIM like something out of a 1970s pulp magazine or Ralph Bakshi anime in the style of HEAVY METAL Magazine, Lord Of The Rings, STARLOG Magazine while capturing over the top modern art styles such as Simon BIsley and old timers like Frank Frazetta. The music is magical and really has to be experianced to feel its magical mystical epic majesty.

SKYRIM pretty much is the best rpg for me since DAGGERFALL and FALLOUT 3. Every level of design hits all the spots of mastery. Then when you add mods you can shape the world to your own personal fantasy like a pen and paper dungeon master designing his/her gameworld.

Truly SKYRIM is creative expression at its best.

Tell me some flaws of Skyrim.I dont see many.I consider for example the existence of pickpocketing wrong since i hardly use that skill.But i dont see many flaws in the game no matter how hard i try to find them

Overhyped, and a "tad" overrated, but there aren't any other games out currently that comes close to the overall scope of the game. there's not much of a comparison or challenge, or anything to keep "Skyrim on its toes" so of course it naturally wins without competition.

let me elaborate, when the devs/reviewers/people in general talk about skyrim, what do you hear about the most? the world, going where you want "doing anything" no limits on what where you want to go and what you want to do. ok great awesome I agree, but you never hear the -details- about where you can go and what you can do, you have alot of options of where to go...just not many options on what you can do once you get there.

the fanfare is loud about the world and moving among it, but nary a peep about what's possible / mechanics to take advantage of once you've "arrived"

and my question to the OP is, is there something you want to get off your chest? lol you've been doing alot of Skyrim questioning threads. I thought that age died back in march

there's many bugs and drawbacks but overall this is the best game out...no other game offers the freedom to be who you want, play how you want(warrior, mage, mix, etc.), go where you want whenever you want, all in a beautiful land that feels alive at times.

no other game has had me playing over 100 hours and still want to play over 100 more..except maybe oblivion.

you're entitled to your opinion but I would say that with a few tweaks this game would be a masterpiece

Yes, Skyrim is overrated. Skyrim is a pretty good game but it don't hold up too well when comparing it to other TES games and other open world RPGs Bethesda has made.

And yes, Skyrim does have (many) flaws!

Yes. No. It depends.

Video game criticism is not yet developed enough to judge games without bias, based solely on their merit as a work of art - or on their influence on gaming in general, because let's face it, most games don't deserve to be called art.

Arguably, Skyrim doesn't bring anything new to the table, so it's not revolutionary. It's a very good game, but not a breakthrough and definitely not the best game of all time, as some are so keen on saying. However, it provides hundreds of hours of entertanment, which is more that can be said about 99% of other games. What's more, it's moddable and this will keep it alive for years to come. On the other hand, it's riddled with bugs - more so than is acceptable even for an open-world game of this size. It has weak writing, bad pacing of several questlines and balance issues. Overally it improves on its predecessors, but it also took a step backward in certain vital areas (magic and UI come to mind).

Is it overrated? Decide for yourself. If you loved it, then it's rated just right for you, isn't it?

As I see it, Skyrim is not perfect, but it's one of the better games that came out recently. Despite all its flaws, I sinked 300 hundred hours into it and will probably spend another 200 once I get all the DLC.

One could argue that TES series is a genre in itself, but even then Skyrim has competition in form of its older brothers Oblivion, Morrowind and Daggerfall. Haven't we spent endless hours comparing Skyrim to previous TES games?
Then there's Fallout 3 and New Vegas, Bethesda's own open-world games that Skyrim inevitably ends up being compared to (yes, I know Obsidian made FONV, but it's still labeled as a Bethesda game).

I wouldn't worry about lack of criticism, at least here on BGSF - and this is where most fans dwell.