It's great. Like it or not what they have done with TES 5, can you imagine a world without a TES 6 in it?

tes has always been really popular, i mean really popular, winning several goty and best rpgs with every installment, and i think they all earn it,

It makes my black soul shrivel and die

Nicely put.

True. I think it's fair to say though that previous recognition comes from within the industry more than the gaming public. I still cannot get one of my friends to play Oblivion or Morrowind, despite me eulogising about them for years.

It's embarrassing and flat-out wrong that for such a successful title, they still can't cough up the money for proper Q & A and, well, the PS3 version...

I don't really care about the success itself, but it arrived to that success in a manner I revile... in a broken, cheat-people-out-of-money technical state and by shedding most RPG elements. The second I subjectively hate, but the first (technical malfunctions) is just objectively wrong.

The game's success is well-deserved, but I don't think it could have been achieved without diluting....sorry, "streamlining" aspects for the console crowd. I would have preferred it a little more pure in the PC sense, but they gotta make a buck on this.

I think it'll make the next game deeper. They'll realize they over simplified it this time and pull back to the manageable compromise that was Oblivion.

I saw in a review a guy wrote "nobody makes games like Bethseda" and I think that statement is completely true. The sheer scale of their games, combined with a visual richness (especially considering the 6 year old hardware limitations) is incredibly impressive.

Its a game where you can quest, but also simply lose yourself in the game world. I'm not an old school RPGer, I don't "imagine" things for my character or my situation beyond what I feel while playing, but even I lose myself to the world.

I had a quest to head north east of Whiterun, I headed that way but got completely sidetracked by random stuff, and new locations. I then changed my mind and thought Id go to Solitude, after a bit more wandering I changed my mind again and sought out Winterhold. I went a long way around, getting lost in the Ice caps, in ship wrecks, feeling utterly isolated among the bleak landscape, surrounded by dangerous animals who all seemed to want to eat me.

I eventually reached Whiterun and realised it had been about 5 hours real time since I left Whiterun, hadn't completed a single quest, and looking at the map hadn't really found that many locations.

And staring at the gates of the College of Winterhold I changed my mind one last time and headed south, back to Whiterun.

I cant think of another game to give me this much satisfaction, while not actually accomplishing ANYTHING at all within the game.

Unfortunately my sum total of the game is 40 hours. The texture bug was enough to make me wait for 1.2, as I really wanted to experience everything as the developers intended. Then 1.2 broke resistences, so I waited for 1.3, which broke fortifying elements - although this didn't bother me so much as the broken quests Id read about, and my friends had reported over LIVE.

So I'm still waiting, patiently, for the January patch which will hopefully fix the deadly quest bugs I don't want to encounter. Managed to 100% 3 other games in the meantime lol.

As for popularity, I see it as a double edged sword, I don't want to see a Codification of this franchise any more than what's already happened. There needs to remain a hardcoe element, as well as being easy to pick up and play, to please all the fans, old and new. The more popular the game becomes, the more money is made off this franchise, the harder, I believe, it is to get the balance right in this respect. Some say Skyrim has already gone over the line, personally I think its on the edge, right where it needs to be*.

*With the disclaimer that they need to sort out the quest / compass marker issue (have it as an option, and provide meaningful journal entries and quest dialogue for when they are switched off).

It's good because a single player game and especially an rpg showed that it can be that successful.
Very good actually, we might even see some competition or other companies emerging and making an rpg or two instead of a million f2p mmos.

Now about BGS... they MUST keep the standard of their games high. Usually after this kind of success, products get commercialized and their quality is bound to worsen for the game's original audience. But on the other hand why would they care about the original audience if they have a new, bigger one?

I feel that if you're going to be a grammar Nazi you can at least spell definitely correctly . . .

On topic, I agree. Skyrim has its faults, but I still enjoy it immensely. I'm going to be getting my $60 out of it for a long time to come.

Kudos to Bethesda. They really do deserve their recognition and success. In a world populated by MMOs, I am so glad there is a company that focuses its creative efforts towards single-player open world RPG games. I started with Morrowind (on the Xbox!) and have enjoyed every ES game for it's unique vision and gameplay and I look forward to playing many more in the future.

Hence my comment about heading down the path WoW took MMORPGs. Success for the developers and writers and others directly involved with the making of the game will never be a bad thing. It's the success for the executives and the shareholders and people who only see green and want more of that which gives me pause.

Bethesda has proved they know the formula for a award winning game, a financially successful game. It's possible they might even do better when they realize they can, no one will stop them, they will turn a profit, might even change the world.

Consoles didn't do Skyrim in. There's more to it. Bethesda might have to make a lot more money before they get couragious.

I've gotta say, some things are really nice changes, while I miss other things.

The Perksystem is a welcome change for me, although I would've liked some more attributes besides the 3 we have now (Speed). The new crafting system is great, but I miss a wider variety of weapons (where are my spears, katanas, dai-katanas?), not necessarily armors, since there is a good amount of them ingame. I like the environmental changes with butterflies, bees etc. but I don't like the direction of NPCs (fewer and some don't even have anything to say) and towns.

Mixed.

On one hand, bigger funds and success could allow them to do greater things with the game, and future titles...possibly allowing better QA, writing, polish, etc.

On the other, there is also the possibility that they will stagnate, and fail to address any of the faults with the game and their development processes/choices, due to the complaints coming from only the minority of their fanbase, along with modders largely being able to "fix their game for them", free of charge, and the apathy displayed in much of the playerbase, asking others to overlook or sidestep issues instead of demanding they be fixed.

Bittersweet. While I'm happy for Bethesda and glad a TES game did so well, I'm worried about the future of the franchise.

Skyrim is a great RPG lite, action/adventure game, but I know I wont be buying Bethesda games for a deep RPG experience anymore.

At least Bethseda fully supports modding, which flies in the face for modern gaming models. Its a dying art, and one we should all appreciate Beths for "allowing" in their games.

Well, truth is, Skyrim is not an RPG. What bethesda did was have an operation on Morrowind and threw all the guts out leaving us something that looked very nice, but cerebrally is a shadow of its former self.

Yes, Skyrim is a success, but a success in the way Transformers is a success and Shakespeare is not at the box office.


Is Transformers better than Shakepeare because it made a billion bucks in today`s movies?

YES as a popcorn movie, NO in depth and story telling.


Is Skyrim a success because it makes more money than Morrowind?

YES, financially. NO, interms of a quality ROLE PLAYING game.

Making a box office hit does not mean it`s necessarily good.


But today it`s all about making so much money you choke on it in your food. Sad.
Many of you only see on the surface though so won`t get it.

Honestly I am thrilled for the devs. They deserve it and then some. Even if I don't agree with a lot of the design choices for Skyrim just for Morrowinds sake I thank them and say they deserve all the attention and money they are getting. The way things are going I will probably stop playing TES games because they are no longer representing what I like in a TES game. But I wish them well and hope the next one is more to my liking. Most people love it. I quasi-like it. But the time I spent on Oblivion and Morrowind easily makes up for anything I do not like in Skyrim and likely future titles.

Thank you Bethesda for the great games over the years. Skyrim is YOUR masterpiece, but it is not mine.

Au revoir Bethesda Game Studios, you are one of the best.

I gave up on pop culture in 1992.
I really did.
Ace of Base was number one.
I threw my hands in the air and went: 'I give up. I do not care anymore'.

And I have not looked back.
What I can glean about things that are 'popular' is that its usually not good. Its usually plastic and generic and everyman.

If one wants to really roleplay, one has to play pen and paper or LARP and get away from the PC/Console. This is the one and only statement that was and that will ever be true!

Teaching them how to not be bitter; good for you.

Yea and it's quite simple why this happens. When something is exposed to a greater audience it adapts to the needs of the many and consequently diverts from things which pleased its original audience.

Oh the Irony!

lol