Prisoner is incredibly easy to use from a Roleplaying perspective. The opposite approach is to go the Fallout 3 direction which is very limiting on Roleplaying and is just a bad idea overall.

I love starting as a prisoner, I hope they never change it.

Yes it is. pretty fun. controls are kinda whack though. i can't figure out how to enter buildings.

I am on the my game (with 100+ hours played), but on my next game, I might try a mod like the following to avoid the prisoner intro: Alternate Start - Live Another Life : http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=9557

It's the same author as the similar mod in Oblivion, which I loved very much.

Although I agree that it seems to be tradition I don't know how well it works for the "clean slate" idea. I mean, if you were playing a goody goody character or whatever it makes it more difficult to fill in a backstory of how you are a prisoner if you do no wrong. Not that it is too difficult, but it does limit RP backstories a bit. Skyrim handles it ok, I guess, as unlike MW and OB you are actually caught crossing the boarder by an "over zealous" Legion scooping up anyone they perceive as siding against the Empire. So you could just be someone at the wrong place, wrong time. MW and OB you were just a prisoner.

What if you were just entering Helgen as whoever and, because of the civil war, had to register with the Guards before being allowed to enter as they have just caught Ulfric and want to try and keep Stormcloak supporters out of Helgen while they carry out the execution. You then go thru the character creation, the dragon attacks, you escape Helgen as it is now.

But I have no problems as it is now, just wish the tutorial was shorter or we could save (with option to remake our character race/looks) just before leaving the cave at the end of the tutorial.

Or ya know. you could just say your character wasn't at the execution and came to Skyrim later.

And really, from an RP perspective, it's not too hard to "ignore" the prisoner beginning. Even if you play a goody-goody, holier-than-thou character, after you do the tutorial, just find yourself a change of clothes and go about your merry way. You don't spend a whole lot of time as a prisoner, and it never really comes up again, for the most part.
A lot of times, I like to set myself up for RPing. Like, I won't jump right into roleplay right from the beginning; I'll go power through certain quests or questlines to get a basic background for my character, then I'll roleplay once I feel I've established enough "history" for my character.

I just said that lol.

It's both a tradition of the series and a neat idea in and of itself. You're a prisoner, bottom-of-the-barrel kind of person who is called by destiny to acquire power, fame, and fortune and to serve as a hero who will be remembered for every age to come. Pretty awesome idea in a macho sort of way!

Well it gets a bit old if you do it a few times in a row

in skyrim is was wrong place wrong time... so imo i call that unique
i think next one you should be like an abandoned child living in a foster home.

It is tradition now. And it won't be changing any time soon.

Though if you compare the begining of just Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim, they are quite different, despite starting as a prisoner and all. Some people like to overlook that fact, and over-simplify everything for some odd reason...

Lots of great heroes were also recidivists. Like Charles Bronson. No... wait...

It's a political statement against for-profit prison systems.
Basically the statement is that most of the people in prison in the real world are not bad people or a threat to society, and are only there to make certain individuals wealthy. It is a precarious balance, put as many people in prison as possible while convincing the majority that they belong there....

"A hero" rises up out of that BS to save the world despite the blatant wrong doings of those who know what they are doing, and the blind ignorance that makes everyone else complicit by sheer stupidity.

MK suggested that there was some mythic significance to the Prisoner.

Makes me think of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prisoner.

I like the prisoner tradition and wouldn't see it changed, I'd rather they prove more creativity in storytelling and dialogue writing.

It's not a matter of creativity. It's a sort of trademark of TES games. BTW, it's not limited to the last three games...

I'm not seeing the connection. Most real-world for-profit prisons are run by governments and the prisons in the series are run by the government.

THIS
Why did they NOT include this? The cave exit is perfect for it! But we have to go through the entire thing every time, and i hate it.

Yeh. That is a prison.

Yeah, I've always seen it as a tradition.


(Or.... the Rules Of Drama for the TES universe state, "The Path of the Hero begins in prison." )

Didn't know games had different intros on multiple playthroughs.

I prefer NO intro and so, I mod.

Mod. Or, just sing really loud over the dialogue and run for your life after you learn how to use a weapon.

How do you figure? I've never seen 'hold' used to refer to a prison
Regardless, the player's no prisoner and DF remains the odd one out. Either that, or MW is the odd one out for not featuring a starting dungeon

'Hold' is sometimes used for Prison. I know because in RuneScape, there was a quest where you are put in a Prison Cell in a place that was known as a Hold. Can't remember the Hold's name, sadly. MW is the odd one for not featuring a starting dungeon, that is true.

Not played the previous games so this time it hasn't bothered me in the slightest. The being a prisoner fits with the story line; introduced to some of the characters, saved by a dragon blah blah blah. Although it is a bit long winded for restarting new characters, the first time around it is interesting. Better than working on a farm, floating down a river in a basket, or being raised by wolves in the forest, but just my opinion. Maybe I'd feel differently if I had played the previous games.