Haven't played this game since November / December of 2011. Got it for 360 and stopped playing it because of all of the bugs, texture problems, FPS issues, and overall Xbox 360 failure. Just got Skyrim yesterday for the PC now that I've got a gaming computer, and I've got a question!

Can events occur in areas without the player being there? By this I mean, while I'm over in Whiterun, can a dragon attack, for example, Riften? Also, can events ocur in areas unexplored by the player?

Nope.

How disappointing =/.

I am pretty sure that is not true because in two of my save files Eorlund Grey-Mane got killed by a dragon while I was not there.

Yeah, the game revolves wholly around the player. Which is why Roggvir gets executed at 3am

I think you exaggerated on why you stopped playing. And no, from what I experienced, and unlike someone from Bethesda said in an interview before Skyrim released, no event can happen if you're not there present, take

And why the Markarth market is open and bustling at 2 am.

If you weren't there how do you know he was killed by a dragon? Its an absolute FACT of the engine nothing exists outside the cell thats loaded.
So you'd like NPC's to die, quests to be failed and parts of the game removed without you doing anything. The point of a video game is to play it not to watch events unfold without your imput.

I assumed he was because I think I read somewhere that he could be killed by a dragon. Not to mention the people in Whiterun were talking about his death.

you say this now, but go to rifton, have it attacked and do nothing. trust me, a ghosttown is boring as hell.

Alot of people can killed by a dragon Eorlund Grey-Mane just happens to be high risk should a dragon attack whiterun. When he died you were in Whiterun.

It does, if you use your http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4sUPvDZfog

Consider this: Events occurring without the player present takes processor power. Valuable processing power. Consoles and anything but a high-end PC would be ruled out. That'd be bad for business.

To those people who have dragon attacks in the cities.. are you playing on PC and is this a mod?

No I wasn't because I was looking for him when I showed up in Whiterun, and that is when I heard the woman blacksmith talking about how he WAS the best blacksmith.

If you asked me why I quit before I got my gaming PC, my answer would've simply been " Because I wanted to have the full/better experience on the PC." Now that I've seen the difference, seen the steady 60 FPS where as I know for a fact I got a frequent 20 or lower FPS in a lot of areas on Skyrim on the 360 (not to mention the fact the graphics settings are probably equivalent to the low/normal settings of the PC), seen the fact that I have yet to crash once and have crashed literally 4-6 times a day on the 360 version, and seen the overall better accuracy with a mouse and pluses of console commands / mods, my answer is that the 360 version is poop. If there's ANY one thing that the 360 version has on the PC version, it's that it has the ability to play the DLC a whole month before the PC.

Was it the first time you ever visited Whiterun? No it wasn't On some previous visit to Whiterun he died and you didn't notice. Maybe it was a fight with an NPC, (which can happen as some NPC's are scripted to steal items) Maybe you got into a fight with someguards and because his relationship status was friendly he joined in and was killed by them. Maybe the dragon attacked just as you were leaving so you missed it.
The point is when he died you were in Whiterun

I used to think nothing happened i didnt see, but then, POOF, was doing a mission to kill an escaped convict and when i was walking passed whiterun, the mission was suddenly completed, and the bandit was located by windhelm.

I guarantee you I wasn't in Whiterun when he died.

I guarantee you he doesn't exist unless your in Whiterun and thus can't be killed while your away. How do you know he wasn't killed during some previous visit to Whiterun?

Because there is never any kind of fighting going on for one, and the time before I found out he was dead, I sold stuff to him

I think things start happening when you are within a certain distance, but not throughout the whole of Skyrim. Objects and AI can render pretty far from the player, though, so sometimes you can find the evidence of far off fights and such, such as a group of dead chickens killed by a bear or something (where the player had no part in the poultry genocide).

How do you know? he's far enough away in the cell for a fight to happen without you seeing it. I've had dragons land kill someone right in front of me before they roared or any batltle music even begain. He could have been killed just as you were leaving town. Its also possible a graphical glitch caused him to fall through the skyforge to his death.

Ah but the walled towns are loaded in seperate cells from the wilderness, its what makes unwalled towns are especially vunerable to dragons. If a dragon attacks a walled town leaving the town gates can unload the dragon from existance.

I wasn't aware that NPCs acknowledged other NPCs deaths.

All khajiit caravams would be ruined.

ya, Khargo has a bunch of my stuff, so i check in on him luckily, this doesnt happen