The hoping was an example. But many people would end up playing to get bonuses, as opposed to just ... playing. Like switching from Blade to Axe just because you maxed out Blade and want more STR bonuses as level-up., etc. EDIT: Note due to OB's leveling system the bonus hunt was all but required also.

I did not repair my items at the end of the day. I repaired my items after every single fight. The weapon and armor damage from combat was way to fast in OB, making it more of a required choir than a role-playing experience. Don't get me wrong, if it could have been done right I would gladly accept it, but I don't think they were ever doing to get it right. But I have been playing TES games since Arena, so I always accepted it, but in OB I just really didn't like it as it became too much of the overall playing requirement as opposed to just a role-playing thing to do on the side.

I actually have no problem with the old 'Rest Until Healed' option that was in Morrowind. However, using this method there were times it would take me weeks (in game) to finish one dungeon. The only REAL difference between what was happening in MW and Skyrim is more game time was passing. I do believe the health regen is too fast in Skyrim and that it should never happen while there are enemies nearby, but I've never noticed it actually saving my life during a melee battle due to it's speed.

Skyrim is an action adventure game, not a roleplaying game. It is that simple.

I find that Bethesda solves most problems by removing the problem. If there are two ways to accomplish something and only one is needed and the other is causing problems, the problematic one is removed. It is like they lose sight of why something was added to the game and, rather than making it work or expanding it, they remove it.

Yes, you can roleplay while playing Skyrim, even when simplified and streamlined, but you are roleplaying despite the game, not because of the game. The game provides less support and guidance along the path, which does allow maximum roleplaying flexibility, but also dumps more of the burden on the player.

One thing that the leveling and attributes did in the past was to remind me how I had been using my character since the last level. I am a beilever that skills increase by training, not simply because I wish it to be. If I do not pick up a sword between levels, I don't want to focus on sword related perks. In the past, the game would remind me what I had been doing. Now, I have no such support. I do not get any indication at the time I have to pick perks which skills I used more than others. Yes, I can roleplay this, but the game provides no assistance.

All Skyrim characters start as 20-year-old babies with no previous history. They were all mundane farmers. Attributes, Classes, and Birthsigns provide a lore-based way to differentiate my character's past. The workaround, on the PC, is the console setav or modav, but they had lore based ways to establish evidence of a prior life. Where I go after that is, and always has been, my choice. Again, I can roleplay this, but the game does not assist.

Some of their streamlining is inconsistent and complicated. In their desire to streamline the UI, they removed indicators that would tell me how my character is doing, and the indicators they have are inconsistent and designed for the bling factor. The Magicka bar decreases from right to left, the Stamina bar decreases from left to right, and the most critical Health bar decreases from the outside in. Bling. Meanwhile, the shout cooldown is presented as a recolor of the compass. I didn't even notice it the first time I used it. It is all the way on the other side of the screen from where I am looking for status. On the omission side, my character can be sick with a disease and is oblivious to it until someone passing by says "you look sick". When was the last time you got the flu and didn't notice the ache, cough, and fever until someone said you were sick. For roleplaying, I don't want a cluttered screen (like WOW) but I really need to know what is going on in a consistent and easily consumed manner. These can be gauges, like Magicka, Stamina, Health, and Shout cooldown, or as "idiot lights" that let me know that I have a negative spell or disease that is affecting my character and I need to pay attention to something. Again, I can roleplay with things the way they are, but the game could assist better.

I whine a lot about quest choices. I mostly whine that they do not offer a lot of roleplaying options. Often I have a choice between Tab to just exit a dialog and dutifully following the quest that was written for some other character. Sometimes this is acceptable, other times it really isn't. However, I have been surprised in Skyrim when an alternative branch comes up that suits my character. The problem is that I am surprised when it happens because it happens too infrequently.

So, yeah, I can roleplay distinct characters in Skyrim, and do, but it would be easier if the game provided better assistance to roleplayers.

I can also just play an action-adventure tank who just follows the quest markers and wades in with heavy armor and two-handed sword (and reload as needed when I die). Skyrim provides excellent support for that. That was my first character. No roleplaying required.

you made me feel unintelligent with your phancy words...

Hmmm Skyrim is a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role-playing_game... (there's the definition in case you didn't know...)

I got 120 hrs in skyrim, and the entire time was hoping for something that broke away from the formula's that devolved the game into fast travel fetch quests. In fact the only time I was doing a quest and did not have any hand holding was the blood onthe ice quest when I actually had to follow a real blood trail to a house. It actually confused me that the GPS pointer was still pointing to the casket. I knew this was a TES game so the dang gps pointer always tells me where to go. That single instance was the sum total of non linear, non hand holding that the game provided me.

The illusion wears off and you can easily see the structure of all the factions quests and side quests and then you realize the main quest and civil war quest has ZERO impact on the world and you don't even get a reward for them anyway.

In short skyrim is a horribly shallow task based game that is easily predictable. Writing could have saved it but in the end it was the dagger that killed it.

Nuke the GPS and actually put more effort in writing and giving proper directions on the quests. That will solve alot of problems

Yes, if you take every single quest in the game (heck, let's say any game), it can be boiled down to quests that ask you to kill something, talk to someone or fetch something. But since those vague terms pretty much cover every possible action that someone can perform, that's not surprising.

I'd like to know what you considered different about quests in, say, Morrowind, where you had to spend about a week hiking around just to join the Temple.

Also, you know what's really fun about the GPS pointer? You can turn it off instead of complaining about it.

Edit: And have you tried... I don't know... not fast-traveling? You don't have to fast travel for quests, and when you don't, you usually end up finding a bunch of cool stuff while working your way towards the next destination.

I know what an RPG is.

I say that Skyrim is an action adventure because it sets a new low as an RPG. The fact that it meets some dictionary definition does not mean that it does it well.

You can roleplay (real roleplaying, ala D&D) with nothing more than a single six sided die and anyone observing would be able to match it up to Wikipedia and call it roleplaying. That does not make six-sided dice an RPG.

I say that Skyrim allows for roleplaying, a very low bar, but the strength of Skyrim is as an action adventure.

wait.... your saying that those boar hunting quests in WoW are not deep complex story telling quests to save all of azeroth?

I believe that the point was a little more along the lines of: Skyrim is an RPG because it focuses on the player getting to play out a fantastical role in a fantastical setting. And, to turn your example back on you, Dungeons and Dragons is not "real" roleplaying; it's just one form of roleplaying. So just like having a six-sided die doesn't make a game an RPG, not having dice rolls at all doesn't make the game not-an-RPG.

Fixed

edit- you don't need the percentile d10 that is optional.

skyrim is a very simple game where you level up what you use in-game and pick some perks. that's it.
it is a roleplaying sim.

so, yes, i can roleplay 6 different characters. just like you can in fallout3/nv, morrowind and oblivion. that's not a selling point.

it's simplicity and shallowness are bewildering. i need to put more thought into the roleplay i make up in my mind than any choice in-game.
it has regressed in many ways for no need. it hasn't advanced anything. unless, you think leveling up what you use is innovative. and, it's not.

many of the gameplay elements are useless and mundane.
many functioning gameplay options/customization features are absent or broken.

i am forced to roleplay in this became because the content and gameplay elements of the game are lacking/broken.

the game is fun, for now. but, it had everything available to become best game of all time.

And, in the views of pretty much all the critics, it is.

I really enjoy seeing the critiques of "Yeah, it's fun, but I've only gotten a few hundred hours of fun out of it."

(Skyrim is alright its not that fun) i just spent 10 times the amount of hours in the first week of playing skyrim then the first 3 month of MW3
^ Sarcasm

That's because they didn't play long enough to get past the "Ooh! Shiny!" phase

Skyrim must be very shiny...

Because reviewers never play games after they have to review them. They just review games for a living because it's good money. And the Game of the Year awards are decided based on which game has the most enthralling first 20 minutes of gameplay.

And since the "Ooh! Shiny!" phase of Skyrim has lasted well over 250 hours for me, I really don't see your point.

Several 100 hours in I am still going "Ooh! Shiny!"

It is. It blinded me from it's faults for 60 hours


Then i envy you.

I would like to get the name of any other game that you've had to even play for 60 hours to find its faults.

I noticed it faults when i first started playing i never seen many glitch's or bugs only once it affected a quest which i fixed with console commands. IT is a huge improvement over oblivion "i only wish it had as much forests as oblivion had"

I knew about most of its' faults even before I started, it was TES after all, I knew what I was getting and what I shouldn't expect...

Obviously there are none, but i've never claimed that Beth's games aren't excellent value for money. I do have complained that Skyrim is shallow, and has poor balance, and poor story but i knew all that before it was even released. It is a Bethesda Games Studios game after all