Sure it is. That's why I play this game. Each one of my characters are unique, in that they have their own personalities and their own goals. It's not in any of their interest to follow a guild line from the developers. That's just tunnel vision.

They are giving you a blank piece of paper and providing a suggested templates to trace. That is by no means set to force the player in that avenue. To even suggest that the game has an absolute lineage of trials that one is to forego is absurd. The intent of the devs is to provide story options for some players and allow others to make their own story.


"To compare is not to prove" - old proverb

I guess I never looked at Skyrim as a soccer game.

Just like any other feature in the game. Devs are inspired by folklore, novels, movies and by suggestions being made by the players themselves.

I already have a devorice function it requires my wife being stabed by a sword in the cheast,as for the child that seems nice but would they just sit in your house after ypu get him/her or would they actualy do something.

Given what the existing children in the game are like when they are out "doing" things, I'd say just sitting in your house would be the lesser of two evils.

Better yet let them come with you on quest useing destruction magic(this is a joke).

Hello again. Oh well, we disagree on just about everything, I'm afraid, apparently even on the virtues of similes and anologies. Skyrim is nothing like a blank sheet of paper. There are rules, limitations, a rather short set of gameplay mechanics and countless things you simply cannot do. But you are certainly entitled to play the game the way you see fit, as people who have bought Pro-Evolution Soccer 2012 are free to stroll around without ever attempting to score. By all means, keep lobbying for more marriage options and child adoption. I will keep on stating In-game marriage and all that follows makes little to no sense, just like not attempting to score makes none in a soccer game. We agree to disagree.

Didn't read through the whole thread, but I'll give my two cents.

I get Senor Cinco's argument that people want to do different things in the game. An RPG is certainly a fairly broad game concept, and always has been. Still, the game is inherently tilted towards role-playing adventurous types of characters. Not everybody need be the Dovahkin; you can certainly play a witch-hunter or mercenary or evil, power-hungry necromancer or paladin or thief or what have you. But given that the developers - understandably - spend most of their time fleshing out the more adventurous aspects of the game world, it's gonna be a bit hard to really role-play the more domestic aspects of the game. Sure, people have homes and spend some time arranging them to their heart's desire, and they tend to marry whatever chick (face it, most Skyrimmers are dudes, and they tend to marry the women in the game, regardless of whether their character is male or female) happens to strike them as hot.

But the marriage system is a little flat, and I don't think that there's any way to make it anything but flat, given the nature of a computer game. After all, what would make you care much about a computer-generated pseudo-woman? Perhaps an extended story-line might make you figure that they're a good fit with your character, but at a fundamental level, marriage and love are deep, involving relationships, and difficult enough for people to role-play effectively even when it's two actors acting opposite a flesh-and-blood counterpart. Acting such a part opposite a pile of ones and zeroes - it just doesn't work. Not for me, and I think not for a lot of other people. It's one thing to role-play the broader strokes of a character - good and evil, greed versus generosity, lust for power versus satisfaction with humble surroundings, and so forth.

But love and familial relationships just don't work on that level. I never did and likely never will have a character marry, because the wife would largely just be there as "furniture" for the character's surroundings, in much the same way as a house is in the game. Just as the houses you buy never really are homes, despite your ability to decorate them yourself, I think similarly that some woman your character marries never will be any sort of spouse. This is because while it's one thing to simulate slaying dragons or picking a mark's pocket or exploring a dungeon, how do you really simulate "home" or "wife"?

Just my two cents' worth.

EDIT: Everything I said about marriage goes double for childbirth and adoption. It would be even more off-putting to me, I think, since obviously children are indestructible in Skyrim, and I think perhaps that's a good thing. So they wouldn't even do anything so simple as make you money or be a follower or even have the potential to grow up and be such. They'd be perpetual wandering, commenting "furniture" for your game. At least the half-nekkid six-slaves your evil mage keeps around his Horrid Tower of Necromantic Doom are eye-candy; at least your noble Nord warrior's wife brings in a little $$$ every now and then; at least the dog can roam with you as a follower. But the kids? They'd be neither useful nor generally a pleasure.

No, not everything. Well, almost everything. Ok, maybe most things like...hmmm. I guess you're right.

JFTR - I am not a marriage and adoption lobbyist. As a matter of fact I loathe that word. I could care less about coddling one of those snobby brats, or taking on a spouse. I am however, very pro player choice. I will support any option in any game. No matter how I feel about the implementations of the feature itself.

I don't play soccer because I choose not to.
I don't force my characters into a cookie-cutter-corridor questline because I choose not to.
I play my game and not Beth's game because I choose to.

Granted, playing on the PC gives me the ability to do that even more. Which is the sole purpose of them releasing the CK. The base game of Skyrim is great but for those that have the ability and the means...it's just a huge modders resource. That is a pretty blank sheet of paper in it's own right. That is a certain intent of the Devs.

In contrast to my usual stance about "options", I agree that there's certainly no harm in the addition of more marriage and even adoption aspects to Skyrim, because it isn't a part of the "game" part of the game. Meaning, marriage and adoption are role-playing options with little practical effect on the game, so declining to use them isn't a "handicap" the way that some things are. So I have no objection at all to their addition - just that I think they might well be dropped in the next installment, if I'm right that they're inherently shallow in a way that makes them very poor as role-playing aspects to the game.

Y'all are crazy. Divorce and kids? You'll be broke in a month.

lol

I can just see the guards now.

"You're behind in your alimony and child support payments. We have to confiscate your home and equipment. We can leave you with the clothes on your back, and that's it. Don't be late with next month's payments or you'll be in front of the Jarl on deadbeat dad charges."

That's just too funny. I could easily see several side quests spawn from that. You go to get the yard apes for the weekend and get in a brawl with the new Boyfriend (or girlfriend) who then becomes a potential follower.

Personally, I think most of the kids in Skyrim are annoying, but I just am not one for kids.

I was hoping there would be more romance to the marriage aspect. But I will go play Dragon Age if I want the romance feature.

Or come home one day from a quest, and find out that your Housecarl Lydia consoled your wife about you being gone all the time, your wife consoled Lydia about getting left behind while you quest, the consoling gets a little steamy one night while you're out dragon slaying and the kids are out of the house, and the next thing you know, you're booted out of the house, you've lost half your goods and income, and Lydia's sleeping with your wife every night in YOUR BED while you're making do sleeping in a flea-infested bed in an inn somewhere.

I admit it could be a funny little sort of game if the spouses all had different personalities and required some work to keep happy. One wife can be a bit frigid, and you need to pay attention to her fairly often and maybe bring her back a nice dress or necklace, or else you won't be getting any happy happy married-people fun time, and so no "lover's comfot" bonus or whatever; another wife is a bit of a wild one and if you don't give her a damn good rogering fairly often she starts getting cranky and making snarky comments; another wife has a tendency to be shrewish and only becomes tolerable if you stand up to her verbally and again, wear her out nightly in the ol' marriage bed.

These things might be a bit difficult to script, but they seem possible to me.

Hello Gram. Good to see you.


That bit made me shudder. Is that really the direction you want the game to move in? Husbands pleasing wives? My. While possibly amusing, turning TES into a travesty is not my cup of tea. If I want humour I watch me some Craig Ferguson.

lol

Well, no, I don't know that I particularly think it would be a good fit for a fantasy RPG, but it might at least have some humor to it and be something that would attract the player's attention. Might even work for role-playing purposes for some. "Lessee, how long have I been out adventuring? HOLY CRAP TEN DAYS GOOD LORD THE WIFE IS GONNA KILL ME. I'm gonna be sleeping on the floor for a month. So much for lover's comfort bonuses. I wanted to sell this necklace for the septims, but I better keep it and give it to wifey as a present. Maybe that will thaw her out."

Never overlook the potential of teh funny.

I want more children variation and to adopt them !

I'd be a good mother , Lol !

Hi again.


I mean I'm all in for some raunchy fun. The thing is fiction which attempts to be everything at the same time usually turns into very little. Humour used like a spice, by all means, a dash here and there. Not the focus of the game material, no siree.

Oh, agreed. And I'm not even talking about anything that would be really R-rated, just some PG-13 fun. And as you say, a little spice to the game, not a concentration.

I agree , however I want my child to grow and become a strong warrior..

Possible. That might be a rather advanced thing to add, though, at least in this game. I don't even know if you could do that with the CK.

My guess is that in a year or so there will be a mod for such things , the serious ones aren't here yet..

There are some pretty advanced mods.

Also, it might be a bit odd. How long do you have to play with the kid as a kid, before he or she grows up to a young advlt? If we're talking about your natural child and not an adopted one, how would they work the whole pregnancy thing? How long would that last?

I agree with Z that these more complicated sorts of things might not work all that well in a fantasy RPG, just because the rather complex mechanics that would be necessary would mean they would almost have to be a major part of the game, or else you'd be putting major effort into a minor part of the game.

I think that the spouse personalities could probably be tinkered with without a massive investment of time and effort, though, and could lend some spice as a minor part of the game.

Well I want it to go naturally ( 9 months in game and such )
You will feel achievement after LIVING these 9 months..

Well at least for me.
I don't say " MAKE THIS DLC " I just wish there will be a mod for that

Nine months is a fairly long time in-game, and eighteen years (or fifteen or whatever) is a REALLY long time in-game.

I'd be glad to do such a thing actually
I'll work in the mill , travel the country , hunt , the possibilities are endless !