Skyrim is out now, it's selling, it has fans, it is game of the year.

There is no other studio I love like Bethesda. I am a critic of Skyrim, I am disapointed in what is missing, but that does not mean others are not happy. It's cliched, but a family does not always agree.

The field of video games is new- despite a few decades since the Atari 5200. And the games get better. But there is so much unrealised potential, some waiting for software evolution and some waiting for inspiration. If any game maker can do this great thing, this Sgt Peppers of gaming, it is Bethesda. I want Bethesda to know it can make successful games in its sleep.
They are huge, they are a smash hit, they are in a unique position of having both commerical success and a loyal following. I haven't seen anything like the anticipation for Skyrim since the world once waited for the next new Beatles album. The venue is smaller, but the feeling is the same.

That is why I would ask Bethesda to give us the opus, the Sgt Peppers moment that changes gaming, and the world we live in, forever. That moment is overdue- or at least due.

Do something strong. Do something critics say can't be done, or shouldn't be done. It may not be Elderscrolls, or the next Skyrim, it may be a unrelated genre.

We trust you. It used to be a great work brought people up to understand it, it if had merit, they would put in the work. If you would raise the bar, people would climb to meet you there. You show class and character when you commission Soule to the soundtrack when so many others go with reconstituted rocknroll. I like rocknroll; but that's not the point. The point is choosing Soule became part of the experience people learned to expect from you. They would not be talked down to- or sung down to.

Motion pictures started as a laugh, as a novelty. It became an art form. There is no other art on earth like these games you make- they combine client participation with art, literature, and music. They are the next big thing- right now. And there is no one like you, Bethesda. I want you to break out, I'd like to live long enough to see a Sgt Peppers once more ringing across the world, a new art, a new venue, the same old genius and renewal of mankind. Bethesda should be on the cover of Time magazine. I think you are going to realize there is nothing stopping you.

I don't know. It's a cool game, but... the whole year has been full of cool games.

Agreed, this has been a good year for games. Last year was terrible.

I've heard this question asked before, over on the Escapist for one (on Extra Credits I think), when will we see the Citizen Kane of gaming? Skyrim's huge success is a step in the right direction, but it still seems limited to the gaming community (just a broader audience than expected.) DXHR (Eidos) is another contender, in that they managed to offer a compelling, rich game that could even be played without killing anyone (well, almost, stupid bossfights...) The fact that almost all games to date need to center around mortal combat to be entertaining is in my opinion the major thing preventing them from being accepted on the same level as film. I also wouldn't rule out Bioware, even in the disappointment that was Dragon Age 2, they've shown excellent dialog and storytelling - I think the quality of the writing is going to be the aspect that eventually tips the scales.

To be honest I was expecting do a barrel roll joke.

Also last year had ME so it wasn't terrible

What games came out in the last 6 days?

I would say that so far, 2012, this year, is pretty dry for game releases.........


I now return you to your regularly scheduled thread.

When it comes to criticizing Skyrim (for me personally), I can't help but think that the gap between Oblivion and Skyrim has a lot to do with why I kind of get a bias towards the things I liked in Oblivion over Skyrim.

Oblivion came out about six years ago, and for a Bethesda-length game, if you really love the game, you're going to get the absolute most out of it until the next game comes out. You'll just play it and play it and play it until it's impossible not to think 'okay THAT's different from Oblivion and THAT's not quite the same...'

Maybe I just rushed with Skyrim due to being nervous of all the bug rumors, like if I didn't hurry the game would freeze, corrupt, and delete itself. There are no more quests to do, and I kind of burned myself out with the years and years of randomly traversing Cyrodill in-between then and now. Hopefully time away from it for a bit and DLC will draw me back in and look at Skyrim a little less critically.

Heh. New years never quite sink in right away.

They're sticking with a style that's worked for them and working to refine it, I don't think they're the company you should expect to do something revolutionary in gaming. Nothing about their release history of late suggests they're going to venturing very far outside of their comfort zone. I'll be happy if they figure out how to make a decent combat system.

I think you are speaking of something that will do for the games industry what D. W. Griffith's film, The Birth of a Nation did for the motion picture industry in 1915. Whilst the content and themes of that film remain highly questionable to this very day, its technique, style and Griffith's ambitious foresight changed how the world viewed the fledgling medium of filmmaking forever.

I think that one of the main restricting forces for video games has to be the pace and physical restrictions of its technological evolution. This is somewhat in contrast to the technology of film, which by 1915 was firmly in place and remained virtually static for almost twenty years before various technological advances allowed filmmakers to show the world new and exciting techniques.

In some ways, we have already had some early ground breaking games. I'm thinking of obvious examples like Deus Ex or even Half-Life, which have both unquestionably raised the status of the medium.

I do believe we are getting there. Ever closer to that big moment that you seek. It may be just round the corner with a developer who has a big enough idea and a lot of bravery - or it may be several years away, when technology becomes sufficiently advanced enough to make the world sit up and take a deep breath and not release it until many years in the future when people can look back and say:

"That was it. That was the one that turned video gaming from a fun pastime into the highly revered art form that it is today".

A great original post.


Stannie

I think a big problem is that a lot of game developers make games to make money while the things like sgt peppers and Citizen Kane where made to make art.

This isn't true. The companies that own developers are out to make money, but some of the developers themselves genuinely do take pride in their work and care about quality.
This is why when certain companies buy developers you see dramatic changes in the quality of games they make afterwards because the company infringes on the creative control of the devs to make a quick profit off names with an already good reputation - like EA and Activision are sort of infamous for. Those kind of restrictions luckily don't seem to have been placed on the TES developers. They spent a pretty long time on Skyrim compared to most titles from EA or Activision that cost the same amount of money.

The partial truth is that the technology and resources involved in making games(at least the kind of games that are relatively up to date technically) is far greater and more expensive than what it takes to make a film(varies, granted, some films involve some crazy stuff) or album or book, so there aren't as many independent game makers that can pull anything amazing off like can happen with some other media. Companies kind of have to be involved, so that may make it more common for games to be more about money than quality. But if you look at film, we've got Hollywood, if you look at books you've got all kinds of political frauds cashing out on their popularity after getting their face on Fox News or whatever. There's greed involved in all types of media.

They already had that moment, it was Daggerfall/Morrowind. Now we're passing Abbey Road, into obscurity with symphonies ruining The Long and Winding Road.

It's been proven that you can do both in every medium.


That said, as long as Poorly written piles of meaningless, mindless [censored] keep setting the trend with sales (NOT Aimed at Skyrim, but it doesn't exactly raised any cultural bars.), gaming has a long way to go before it's a respected artform and not viewed as a "Toy".


That, and there needs to be an Academy Awrds like event and a rooting out of corruption in the gaming journalistic community.

I kind of think Morrowind was Bethesda's Sgt. Peppers. Now, they've turned into the Monkees.

Idk, for me anyway ME2 was a huge letdown after how awesome ME was. They changed the game too much, and all the changes were for the worse.

Not sure if I would agree with the term "refine".... In fact, I am quite sure I wouldn't. Sure, the graphics get better, but, gameplay suffers.

Imp of the Perverse- on centering games around mortal combat; Yes, but that's the crux of the blessing and problem- the client has to direct the action. sims? Proved some people will build things like nests for themselves and there's no death involved, but that wasn't a mega hit, or was it? There is room. Sacred had a lot of non violent quests- ordinary task- go fetch the meat.

If you direct too much- put a strong script out and just let the buyer go through the motions, well, he's not gaming. He's the dunce you put in place of your hero. A very fine post said that technology wasn't there yet- film arrrived with all primary parts ready to go. (the lack of color not a significant impedence) So the game is still growing.

the main thing is always going to be that interaction between the client and the scripting. Instead of placing money on that, too many are concerned with how it looks. T Howard has a widely quoted bit about this but that may be out of context and unfair. I don't care much what it looks like if I'm engaged.


After listening to you guys I think we may have series of Pepper moments. But god, someone take the first step. Someone take a chance. There are a lot of human beings who will be there with you.
I'm ready for that corny line, 'build it and they will come'.

Xbox gets blamed a lot for what happened to Elder Scrolls, but I think the problem is more than that. Xbox allows game makers safety, doesn't it? It's for the console- it has to be accessable. That can't last because a generation grew up not on books but on games and they want more then what they're getting now.

the posts in this thread have been some of the best I've read since dropping by Bethesda land.

Reported for trolling!

I'm a critic of Skyrim too, i got disappointed in many aspects but i feel the same way the OP feels about the company. Good thing BGS exists and keeps the standards high and also showed that a single player rpg game can be really successful, which might even make the whole gaming industry better for the rpg fans in the long run.

In terms of the "Citizen Kane" of gaming, I don't think we've had anything remotely close, but then again games are so ridiculously complicated in nature and so broad of a category that I don't think we'll ever get one singular game that changes everything. Red Dead Redemption could be seen as the Citizen Kane of sandbox games, but then there's completely different genres like FPS, Adventure, Simulation, Strategy to take into account. No one game can revolutionize everything the way Citizen Kane did for film.

The symphonies ruined TLAWR before Abbey Road was even recorded. Also Abbey Road WAS The Beatles opus imo, Sgt Peppers is incredibly overrated. Nice cover art though.

I think the problem is comparing a video game to an artistic (some consider masterpiece) album. Video games are not quite in the place to be any type of revolutionary.

Why not?

they are in a very good place to become revolutionary-in everyone's homes.

Never said they didn't have the potential. They just aren't ready. The industry...the players.

I don't know- not ready until suddenly something happens which changes everything. I never thought the Berlin Wall would come down. It stunned me. We aren't static.