Nevertheless, people keep saying that the next game should have the writing like New Vegas, even though Bethesda did not do the writing for that game, Obsidian did.

I'd basically look at it like this.
Oblivion's writing is adequate. Good enough, very good at some points, bland at others. Overall, it's par for the course.
Fallout 3 has writing 3x better, specifically with the character depth. Don't get me wrong, FO3 can blunder hard (Broken Steel), but overall, the increased dialog options, character depth and detail and the still-par writing make FO3 3x better overall.
New Vegas has writing 10x better than FO3 and 30x that of Oblivion. It's simply exceptional, with philosophical questions and ideals that can sometimes keep you occupied even after you've shut the game off. Admittedly the writing isn't for everyone, as many gamers don't play games to have their morals questioned or to get involved with difficult, depressing questions or philosophical debates. Nevertheless, the writing deserves utmost respect for thoroughly pleasing those that do enjoy that kind of thing.
Skyrim? Skyrim has writing only a quarter as good as Oblivion's. Hence I complain constantly.

Oblivion is a 5 or 6, FO3 is an 8, New Vegas is a 10, Skyrim is a 2.



But it's what people want. Just because Bethesda's never pulled off a game of such quality (story-wise) doesn't mean we shouldn't encourage them to try. Should we expect their releases to be that good and get our expectations high? No. But should we encourage them to improve and use New Vegas as an example of the quality they should be aiming for? Absolutely.

With the amount of lore and the amazing world Bethesda has created, I do find it a shame that the stories seem lackluster. Agree with Longknife that while Oblivion was average on story, it was still superior to Skyrim. Also agree that both Fallout 3 and NV are much better. Especially NV.

Skyrim is like going to a beautiful restaurant that cost millions to build, but then you get handed a Mcdonalds menu.

Leave http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2451/3923844610_5ec7a4349a_z.jpg out of this!

Wow, that is nice. Definitely nicer than the ten to twenty thousand Mcdonalds located near me.

Beta in the traditional sense no longer exists. They are glorified stress tests. Developers don't care about your feedback, bug reports, problem etc. The real beta begins when the game/dlc/expansion is released. This is the new norm for the industry when it's run by greedy corporations. Force paying customers to test your product. So thank you Xbox users, maybe we'll have a smooth release on Pc/Ps3 sometime within the next 10 years since Microsoft seems to have the exclusive for how ever long they want.

The writing should make you debate your morals, and all that because that means it is good writing. And what I was saying is people should stop saying Bethesda needs to have writing like they did in New Vegas because they did not write New Vegas. But I do agree the writing needs to be improved, and they should make it more like New Vegas.

I would change 'norm for THE industry' to 'norm for ANY industry'.

Also, and no disrespect intended, I find the fact that your screen-name is one letter away from being the same name as a HUGE supermarket chain to be supremely jarring with the anti-corporation sentiments. So out of sheer interest, where did you get your screen-name from?

The problem is TES is ostensibly an RPG, but Bethesda made Skyrim as an open world action game. It's a lot of fun to play and has some great artistic design, but the story is just an excuse for you to be doing whatever it is you're doing. You don't need to listen to dialogue, you don't need to pay attention to it, whatever you do the outcome will be the same anyway (aside from kill this guy/don't kill this guy). Once you've heard a piece of dialogue once, you may as well click through it if you play again because if anything it's going to be so dire it ruins immersion anyway and you're better off imagining something that makes sense. There's nothing like listening to Caeasar explain his worldview in NV.

Somebody has to think of quests, somebody has to write dialogue, somebody is being paid to churn out this drivel - it totally baffles me why it doesn't seem to occur to Bethesda they could make games that have the action/awesome powers appeal and have some decent writing at the same time. Somebody has to do it, so it may as well be somebody who knows what they're doing. They seem to think every player just wants more superpowers.