I could make Skyrim better if I wanted too but Skyrim's pretty much perfect and I can't really 100% judge it until all the DLC comes out. Only changes I would make is a Respec at end of tutorial, more customization of stats at the beginning, less voiced characters more texted based, and a Fallout 3 type Attribute System that doesn't change much over the game and doesn't interfere with skills like Oblivion did. Other then that the game is pretty much perfect with minor flaws that don't hurt it overall.

GLaDOS.

Many do. Do you think is a revelation?

My job is often difficult as well, but if I botch it, or screw up, and someone complains, then guess what? They're right.

Are they naked?

it's not my job to make better games. this is like telling a heart surgeon " could you be a better lawyer?" give me the same company employees ect and yes i could probably make a better game.

What part of resources do you not understand?

All of it, obviously.

Yes, except they are all given a crowbar.

In real life, I am a surveyor. Can you do a better job surveying than I can? Likely not. Therefore, any issues or concerns you may have about a product you purchase from me are irrelevant, as you can't do better.

Most of this is total BS from people who've never worked in a commecially successful software house.

Yes! Hire me now or never!

I do believe the modding community can make a better game. All you have to do is look at the quality mods for Oblivion, that made the game actually playable as an RPG, to see that the modding community very easily could do it.

All they would need is the Executable and they could reverse engineer and fix all the flaws in Skyrim.

Ah, so if you don't like the story in a film you've just seen, then you have no cause to cricitize it since you wouldn't be able to write a good screenplay?

Do I really need to be a certifed plastic surgeon in order to take the position that Michael Jackson had some bad work done while he was still alive?

Not having experience/skill in a given profession does not preclude us from recognizing shoddy workmanship when we see it.

For some people...not 10 million. For me, yes, modders could improve it. I have no doubt all the devs at Bethesda could also make a better game for me than was released.

Agreed.

I think you missed the sarcasm in the post you replied to...

I do believe they could make a better game for 10 million people. All you need is proper promotion and advertising and they could make a game just as quality as Bethesda or any other gaming studio.

Bethesda has even hired at least one of the modders for Oblivion, the one who made the OOO mod for Oblivion.... a mod I might add that is a MUST for the game to be playable as an RPG.

Are you also in magic land where deadlines, money, resources, time and pressure from publishers doesn't exist?

i could make a better game suited for myself, but it is hard to come up with a game that is as complex as this that will please everyone. however i do think that bethesda did the best they could but that doesn't mean that they made the right choices on some aspects of the game, I do firmly think that they could have done a better job, if money wasn't a factor.

Thanks. I'll lay off the scotch....

I hope the people who think they can make a better game will go make one. I might even play it. I know I can't make one but I'm not unhappy with the games Bethesda is making. I'm just waiting until the people who have outgrown TES give up on the game and leave the forums....because if all they do is stay and gripe, that becomes trolling. Just making negative posts is no way to spend the minutes of your life. I've had enough of this tonight again. It's not fun but the game is, so toodles.

Constructive criticism is a great thing. I'm sure everyone here has been the subject of constructive criticism at some point. Constructive criticism isn't about simply saying "this suuucks!!!1!!" or saying "you shouldn't have bothered, I could do better". Most people who offer criticism do so because they are a fan of the series and fully expect a next game which they will also purchase at some point, and hope that their opinions will get heard. This isn't a new thing - if it wasn't for critiques we'd still be getting horse armour, and IIRC one of the devs for either Skyrim or New Vegas said that they saw some great mods and realised they could have done better in certain aspects and incorporated something similar into that game. In fact, didn't one modder end up working for Obsidian, or am I thinking of someone else?

The title was meant to be a rhetorical question. And I wasn't saying that if you aren't a game dev you don't have the right to criticize a game. But people don't know the choices that went into developing the game and if they played out for better or worse.

To answer OP's question, I'd need to know how she or he would define "better." Until that's sorted out, the whole thread is meaningless IMHO.

Skyrims been subject to alot of blind praise, terms like "perfect" and "best game ever" are tossed around casually. Most of the reviews and awards being given to it tend to be heavily one sided, evidence that goes as deep as number of copies sold is used which has too many variables to be used as evidence. Yes theres alot of "hard" critisms here but if anything its more weighted on the other side. As far as arguements for VI will now get a bigger budget due to sales now meaning a better game... A) Skyrim had both a longer development time (ie. the story was more or less set around 5 years ago) and a far greater budget then oblivion but is lacking in many of it's qualities, maybe oblivion was a worse game but you can't seriously argue that the guild quest lines are better in anyway here, both character reaction, depth of journey and length have all suffered. If no one said boo about certain features let alone gave "hard critism", feedback and ideas for improvement then why would they use more money to change something that is percieved as perfect?

I am neither a hardcoe (skill, difficulty or number of games played a year) gamer, nor do I see myself as a casual (in the sense it's tossed about today). Yet I have many complaints regarding the basic gameplay features of this game.

No, I am not a games developer, shocking I know that me, one person is not an entire studio, as large as I am I don't think they'd all fit inside of me, seriously though I may not be a games developer but I do have something called common sense, ie. if a programmer had some they'd have used the same feature to check the players inventory for the dragon stone for all the items you can pick up in this FREE ROAM game. As a designer to I know that it's hard to get prespective on something so close to you, feedback can be a very positive thing too, not that they could listen to everyone but they could listen to the great number that have bothered to come here to say that guild quest lines are shabby (and that is unlikely to be everyone that agrees, shocking I know many just wouldn't bother to raise the point) in doing so they'll likely offend no one. Also of all the repeatable quests marriage should have been one if your partner died, but then again with so many other areas lacking I'd rather see other features work on instead of the 10 min shallow addition to the game. But what the hell, give me $50 million and I'll happily go out and hire people to spend the next six years to make a open world RPG, although I'm not responsible if I take most of the money myself doing little and just spout off stuff that doesn't exist in the game (PM syndrome), I will say to you now that the sales won't be as high as skyrims even if it was quantifiable better in everyway, the mere fact bethesda has existed for decades has contributed to that at least in some small part.

On a final note, let me leave you with this, Zynga last year sales made around $1 Billion, does that make it the best game developer in existance, the rightful future of gaming even? I guess in some sense it is with hundreds of hours being poured into the games which must be a testiment to the quality of its design and depth it has.

The title was rhetorical, if it wasn't, it would've been more efficient to include a poll. The point if for people/trolls/haters/critics to remember that making a game, and even more a good one, is hard. If Skyrim is so buggy, lacking, disappointing, what are so many people doing on this forum and why are they still on it? I can assure you it's not to only to give 'constructive criticism.'