I like to walk around in my protective motorcycle clothes and tinted visor helmet

Too small seems to be the problem for most landmarks in Skyrim.

the night to remember quest and bounties make me love the taverns, the only thing i was hoping that taverns would have when beth mention bar brawls was that there would be drunks slinging insults every once in awhile, but its not really a big deal. however i have had a few random race people in the taverns bringing up the whats a milk drinker like you doing here, which makes up for the lack of drunkin brawls. all in all i like the taverns, the ones in all the major cities reflect the atmosphere of the city they're in (ex. markarth)

You mean "priveleges".

Sure, you absolutely can post your opinions. That's 100% OK. But don't be surrpised or angry when people post their opinions on what you think too, and don't get out of joint because their opinions aren't what you may like. This "opinion" thing goes both ways. It doesn't mean "I can post what I think and nobody better disagree or say I'm off base". Sharing your opinion means you've identified what you think to everyone here. Just as you're not required to like what I post and you may comment on it, I'm not required to think you'e right either, and I may comment on it. Two way street

Now, the Taverns are not "all the same". They have the same layout. Some have a cellar some don;t. Look for the stairs behind the bar. Now granted, that's not a huge variety but it also doesn't mean they are all "the same". As for bard songs...bards are not supposed to be Top 40 Radio in this game. It's background ambience, it's ear candy. Just like people that didn't understand the conversations on Oblivion were not supposed to be the TES version of a radio drama from 1935, I think you're misunderstanding the premise of the bard songs. It's a detail. You can interact with it a little. Sure I'd like more songs. I just don't see the need for the level of disappointment you're assigning

LMAO wtf did you expect? really, I wanna know what you expected from the Taverns. prosttutes? Elton John singing the Dragonborn song? Tavern bosses??

but there really is some kind of broken human being on these forums. maybe just one with different names. I mean I had a bar fight, and the first thing that I thought was "oh cool oblivion didn't have that." and not "wtf...that should have been better...its not good enough for me...that means its dumb." You should turn your mind to more positive things, you will be happier. Instead of being like a magnet for negative attention complaining about largely irrelevent aspects of a game on its forums. Maybe you just don't know how to get positive attention. Anyone like this feel free to pm me for some friendship

Well, when we're onto it, I would not mind prostitution. Not that it really matters, but from an immersion and realism perspective. After all, prostitution is counted as one of the older professions.
And about Elton John, no thanks. Bring me Halford, dikeinson or maybe even Hetfield instead.

On topic:
Well, as the one I quoted, I got to say to you OP, what did you expect really? I got to admit, I did expect more. Those bar-brawls sounded like great fun, as I thought it would be Pirates of the Carribean style (could not find a video) with everyone joining in.
And the bards were a bit disappointing, true. I really wanted to play a lute.
But the fights were cool and the Bards are a great addition, I just wanted it a bit more fleshed out.

But as I said earlier, you blow it all up out of proportions.

Truth be told, I think I would have a hard time hearing Run to the hills or The day that never comes in a Skyrim tavern too

Was thinking of their voices over Eltons, but you got a point.
Halford on Ragnar the Red, anyone?

What, no Dethklok???

Never heard of, so I Googled it. Looks like a fun little band.

I think this highlights one key complaint of RPers (note that I absolutely love this game and don't see this as a flaw, only something that could make the game better), that cities and towns are too small. For cities, I think it's more of an issue of population than geographic size (Windhelm, Whiterun, Markarth, Solitude and Riften all seem fairly large, geographically speaking. But the streets aren't really bustling with activity). I think this could be fixed just by adding more characters to the day-time streets and getting more of the town in the taverns after shops close (many of the characters added could also just be generic "merchant" or "sellsword" or "traveler" characters).

With some of the smaller towns, I think the issue is a bit... more complicated. Some towns consist of two or three buildings (a house, store/jarl's house, and a tavern)... which is kind of a let-down. I think it's possible for Bethesda to either increase the population of these towns marginally, or modify the towns with new buildings, etc. to make this more realistic.

I realize that Bethesda's engine may be more complicated than, say, WoW, when it comes to these sorts of patches, but it'd be a welcome addition.

Yes I know they coulda been better. Add mini games (drinking contests,five-finger fillet), eating and drinking animations for role players, watching others have bar fights, ect... But you know what? I only go in them if a quest leads me to one. And I'm all outta quests worth a flop that I feel like doing... Maybe DLC will add mini games if we ask nicely for it?

Finger Fillet?
Really? You can't fight witout fingers.
And drinking games?
Why not just add visual effects and give alcohol real effectes instead?

I have little liking of mini-games, although gambling would be cool. Either dice or card games.

I live in taverns, wandering hero. Not enough time to own a house, so I always rent rooms, always eat breakfast sometimes lunch and dinner in them, and sleep in them every night. Taverns always seem empty to me.

Would be nice if there were more mini games in taverns, much like in Witcher 2.

All I want is a few random encounters thrown in, like maybe bar fights can randomly break out just because of the Nord culture. And drinking games to happen, not just for the player character

Who bumped this 'Another Skyrim Bashing' thread up? Hmmmmm? Absolutely pathetic.... People need to find something more constructive to do with their online time....

Taverns are so much better than previous TES titles that it is ridiculous, not enough designs? Are you insane? Ever thaught that they are like they are because it is Nord Design? Music, and its BS that most arn't populated you need to visit more if you think that. Enough picking, now I am off to play Skyrim again, 260 hours into MC and still haven't completed the MQ.

A rather large issue i have found is the failure of proper NPC placing during sleep/rest/wait times. In a tavern when i sleep at 11pm and the tavern is "full" when my character wakes at 5am all the NPC's that were there before are still sitting, and all immediately get up and all hustle and storm to exit the tavern. Its incredibly immersion breaking and obvious that time plays little to no effect on NPC placement or behaviour. It is possible that it is just a limitation of the current system. I cannot remember if this was an issue in oblivion. Morrowind obviously didnt have that issue and Daggerfall's NPCs did not move as 3D models but as sprites.

The advantage to the Daggerfall.Arena system is that NPCs could spawn/despawn at will so when time passes during sleep, they could disappear to "move". Ob and Sky have to have the models move, and there is more work to be done. Another immersive thing that DF/A did was when your character buys a room and apon sleeping (isnt that a big reason you go to a tavern?) you wake up in a random room in the inn. It seems so small, but it is so big for the believeability of being in character to wake in a room with the door closed. In Sky, you simply stay in the same place when you hit rest. Lame imho.

All of these small things fall under the new umbrella of the streamlined game philosophy that exists now. The current generation of gamers could not care less about "interesting or unique" taverns. They simply may use them for a quest or to, or to sleep, but nothing more. It is excess space that is being cut.

Just remember that we are in a new world and a new era of gaming before one gets upset.

Red dead redemption had great taverns!

A wild piano man, drunks out near the saloon entrance falling on the ground, prosttutes, gang members, card playing, more than 2 people, the ability to get drunk!

Damn I miss the wild west. Just imagine a western rpg!

Yeah, RDR had a fantastic radient -ai type system that made the world despite how small it was, (being on a frontier) very active, alive and random. Besides the hokers hanging around, and the constant games in progress, shoot outs were not uncommon as i would walk into a tavern. Some times you would think that you are being shot at, join in the shoot out, and end up getting taken out by the lawmen.

RDR is an incredible game that rivals skyrim on how to have an accessible, open, fast pace atmosphere that is streamlined while at the same time having those NPC like touches that really bring the world to life.

All the things people complain of in skyrim has been done, ALL on a console, with a game that sold VERY well, that catered to both casuals and hardcoe players in RDR.

Bethesda has no excuse outside of just being lazy, imho.

This. That date happened to a bunch of features. Very obvious signs of "that's it, no more" throughout the game. No real complaints though and that has to happen at some point. I certainly got my money's worth.

It makes sense they look similar. They are in the same country (same architecture) and so they are all built the same way.

Yes, the tavern in Markarth looks exactly like the one in Whiterun, which looks exactly like the one in Windhelm, which looks- oh hang on a second, none of those look even remotely similar, except for having a bar and an innkeeper behind it.

I'd like drinking in bars to be more similair to how it was in GTA 4.

Go in the tavern, knock back a few mugs of mead, then when you emerge, you should have blurred vision, unresponsive controls, you could even slur your dragon shouts...may even make buying a horse more interesting.