Totally agree. I wish it were better, but it is the best we have got at the moment. You can roleplay Skyrim, but only to a limited extent and it often requires that you imagine things in the game that are not really there.

That's what I struggle with. I roleplay with my Orc to the extent that I try and sleep at night, hunt for my own leather and mine my own ore. I also kill anything in sight because I'm a barbarian war lord, but I want to take over skyrim myself. I can't do that, I can either join two silly factions or save the world from dragons.

They need a ton more factions and a lot more ways to do things...

I do agree that the world having more consequences would add to the overall immersion of the game as a whole but as is I can create an entire family dating back generations because of my Altmer who ie Nerever reborn. He has had children from all races over the corset of his life as commitment is not his strong suit regarding relationships. I can create multiple back stories dating back two hundred some odd years now with the time gal from Oblivion to Skyrim. It help me be who I want to be I am restricted by my players wants and aspirations, that is the value of roleplaying for me and it makes it fun to play with over twenty characters. Also a part of the joy for ne is creating and building a character in a different way, I am also attached to all of my characters.

I think Bethesda asked itself the same question; "why do I roleplay? I play the game to play it" OP

And the answer was Skyrim.

When you play in a sandbox, you play with the sand, in the box. Let your imagination do the rest. With Skyrim you play by the constraints of the world that is created. There are always constraints. It's saying "this is the box, it's only this big, and this is all the sand there is. Having fun figuring out what to do with it is up to us.

The Elder Scrolls games, and Fallout 3 and New Vegas are the largest, deepest sandboxes for single-players.

MMO's are much larger, with more to do, because there are many more kids in the sandbox to play with. But sometimes I just want to play with myself. Heh. So to speak.

Cause it's fun?

Seriously, what a dumb question.

Agreed. There were way more factions in Morrowind and joining one faction had consequences. One of my favorite quests in Oblivion involved retrieving a certain stolen mages staff because you could barter to get it back or just break in and steal it back, so it felt like you had a real choice.

My ideal game would be a game world where there were no "quests" per se but only interactions and where interactions had lasting consequences that could lead to other interactions. In such a world, you could take over Skyrim if you could figure out how to do it, and there may be many ways to do it, some of which may never have been thought of by the programmers. That type of world would require AI way beyond what we have now and may be a long way off yet. But games have advanced an amazing degree since I started playing Atari Adventure in 1979, so I remain hopeful that someday we will see such a game.

That is reality. Just go outside

Jesus, that sounds ridiculously amazing! Realistically though, we're a few years away from that. That does seem great though, a completely unique and natural experience.

I can't kill people with an axe in real life. You make the news for that...

I tried that but none of my spells work.

ROFL....that is a BIT extreme....

But you CAN do that. You may not like the consequences, though.

I am a newb when it comes to The Elder Scrolls. I had seen Oblivion being played and I thought it looked like a fun game but I never bought and played it. But, when I saw Skyrim I was blown away and had to buy it and play it... And now I'm utterly addicted. I've been reading blogs and forums and finding all this rich Elder Scrolls mythos.. It's fantastic and I'm loving every minute of it.

As for the question "why do people role play" here is my response.. Role playing (and I'm really not an expert on PRing) allows the player to gain a much more specific kind of leveling up. I am on my first play through of the game, I'm a level 32 and I focus primarily on my pickpocketing, lockpicking, blacksmithing, one-handed, and heavy armor skills. For a thief I really don't focus on sneak as much as I probably should, because I really like having the protection of heavy armor. But at this point in the game I can steal just about anything from NPCs with everyone watching me (and still get away with it).

Anyways, if a person plays the game without focus then you can't really go as heavily into any area as you can when you role play (at least, I don't think you can. Maybe you can, it just takes longer..) But, for my example, I have my pickpocket skill at 100 and I am currently working on my smithing skills. As a thieving blacksmith I can play the game for hours and hours without doing any quests. And that's really my favorite part of Skyrim. I can really do my own thing. I do the quests too though, I especially try to pay attention to the side quests on my first play-through of any game. And as a thief I pay a lot of attention to going everywhere I can and stealing just about everything that is worth carrying back to my home(s).

Well, LONG story short, I think the reason for role playing (if you need one) is so that you can focus your character in a certain way. And it's just really fun. I can't imagine not being able to understand why it's fun. When I picked my race and facial hair and all that stuff I was imagining my characters back story (how he got this facepaint, what his attitude towards people would be, all that stuff). I guess people that like to play a role just have fun with imagination and, for my part, I like to focus my leveling up.

It's not a dumb question, I think the OP is genuinely wondering what this roleplay business is all about and is alienated by the concept, I feel his pain and i scratch my head when i read about someone roleplaying a city guard & doing his routine for 200 hours or living as a mountain man, I certainly don't mock the roleplaying and it is intriguing, I am starting to question whether i lack the imagination or just roleplay in my own way on my own terms, However the OP does not deserve some of the wrath he has recieved from people who do roleplay as if he is not worthy of playing Skyrim, Each to his own.

It's like anything really, Being curious about something that is alien to you then asking about it seems to be a good way to get to understand it, Skyrim is all things to all men whether you think it's a sandbox or a place that is filled with stuff to do.

I get his point about "playing the game" & not roleplaying it, Room for both points of view.

I used to dislike the idea of roleplaying, and I still do in a way because of how it's perceived, and how it comes off. I'm not roleplaying because I wish I was a knight or that I wish I could cast magic. I don't.

The Elder Scrolls series (imho) is not really much of a video game if you don't atleast somewhat play to a character. The games are easy. The storylines by themselves, are never really that earth-shattering. They they don't need to be.

The reason why the series is such an innovative and fun game is that you do what you want, you really choose your own video game to play. You have to limit yourself in some way to make the game actually interesting and fun (again, imho). I mean honestly, you don't need Alchemy. You can play through the game relatively easily without it. However, what kind of a mage doesn't know how to make a potion?

You also never see the real depth of the game. I've never played a character past level 25. I have never done the main quest. But it's a great game, because I can say "Okay, I traveled to X town to go work on a quest. It's about 4pm, so I'm not going to head out now, it's getting late. I'll take my helmet off. I'll put on some clothes (those useless items they put in the game for no reason). I'll cruise around and talk to the locals, drink some mead, rent a room, and tackle it in the morning." And that walking around in say, Riften, reveals so much more to the game that I never would have known if I blew by it, just trying to beat the game/questline.

I mean, I don't play as a guard or a housemaid or anything, but I can sort of see the fun in that. (what I don't get is the game isn't tailored for it, so you're really having to break character a lot)



In the end, it's what you make of it, so really you decide what's enjoyable. For me, Bethesda made an immersive game, and one that is literally meant to be played as a specific character. They don't decide it for you.

Agreed watching others RP is a great learning and Aha experience. I absolutely love YangShengji's Let's play.

http://www.youtube.com/user/YangShengji

He is the RP KING, imho.