I am actually very cynical about the level of creativity in the world today, yes. Maybe it's just me. At least who felt like making a topic about it; there may be some just as cynical that don't talk about it.

While I think that's a good observation, the fact that it's a game mechanic for character creation and isn't what we were hit with in the trailers or the early gameplay footage the most, I don't think it being intentional should matter. It's just the starting position of races to choose from; what's of more significance are the nine other races and intricate options to choose from by engaging yourself and pressing some buttons.

I always use default Male Shep, mostly out of failure to generate any other character I'd want to look at for hours and hours and hours with that game's tools.

That said, even though I can see why you're a little bugged that all fanwork is THAT Dovahkin, look at the good side. It gets the game out more. Oblivion and Morrowind, with just a 'race the author played' character in whatever armor struck their fancy, you could find a comic about it and not know the game, it could have been any other RPG on the market to someone who doesn't know the games.

With the stubble-chinned Nord and his iron helmet, we have a visual shorthand. Someone sees fanwork from Skyrim, spots him, immediately knows it's Skyrim, giving the game exposure.

And I think the subconcious 'you play this guy' might be counteracted a little when you first actually hit chargen. I know a guy who picked up Skyrim purely because of those trailers, and his very first character was a Khajit. He's not even a big RPG player, let alone TES.

I understand, but let me give you another example; something I would personally like to see in future TES games, in some way, shape, or form:
Let's say the next Elder Scrolls is set in the Summerset Isles, and Marketing decides to feature an Altmer woman as the "poster girl" for that game. (Here's hoping they make her as strong a character as the female Jedi in some of the Old Republic trailers.)
Would you post a similar post as you've done here, due to the fact that Marketing failed to feature all the races in the game, or even the other gender, when the featured character fits very well with the setting of the game?

I hope you don't take this as an attack, I'm merely saying that you shouldn't get so worked over the fact that Skyrim features a white male, when in the lore, the land of Skyrim is populated by white people in general.

Hey, I hear you.

I just think they could've used some other 'face' of the experience AND kept their marketing appeal to non-fans. Like how the dremora and daedric gates were to Oblivion.

For Skyrim, it could have been:
- Alduin (which we do see, but not as up front as that guy)
- a Draugr
- A weapon impaled in the snow, with blood frozen solid on it
- All of the different levels types of dragon, including Odhaviing and Parthurnax
- The statue of Talos
- The unique gear and themes of the opposing forces of the civil war

Or hell, even a sillhoette of the cart you're wheeled to your execution on.

Not at all. I don't take it as an attack nor does this all really bug me THAT much. I'm kind of scraping the bottom of my barrel of things to talk about in the forums, here < :3

If they chose that option, I'd still wish they picked something else. To me, it's too easy to miss the point of a game (or any media) because of the marketing. Good movies being missed out on because the trailer didn't capture what was actually great about it, or bad movies only showing the 'actiony' scenes to draw people in.

In a game where I can paint my own picture, I'd rather the 'main imagery' it's sold with be my choice of paints rather than 'ooh look at this super cool one you can make' and nothing else. Because when I play the game and see others' reaction to it as well, I'll get to see more 'here's what neat stuff we did with it' and less 'here's that cool painting being funny because they represent the game lol.'

I don't know. It's still a pretty generic image. I mean, even though the trailer guy is a Nord, he isn't that iconic of a Nord to be so confining. If they were really out to push that, they'd go full gusto and present some image of a bearded blonde warrior. Not stubbled and brown haired. The trailer Nord isn't even a blonde, either in the live action trailer or the in game one. He's like one of the weird darker haired Nords, like Farkas and Lydia. What I mean is, they're distancing themselves from specific imagery even with small touches like this. And like I said, he's also wearing a helmet to boot.

They needed to show a character fighting dragons, and to show that the character has a powerful magic in the form of a shout. Kinda hard to do that when you don't have a character to show.

I don't really think that anyone felt "compelled" to play as a Nord just because the game was marketed with such a character. I think that even the so-called "casual" gamers saw the options and probably said "wow, look at this cat guy, he's really cool!" or "hey, this Orc looks positively badass!"

Even so, Skyrim is the first Elder Scrolls game to seem to be all about 'that guy and maybe some other people' instead of 'be whoever you want to be.'

Edit: On the majority of the internet, at least. Most of us in the forums know that you still can be whoever you want.

You're totally free be what you want to be.. Other than being confined by the dovahkiin idea. I'm not sure why the trailers would bother you to that point, where you feel suffocated or something. Or you're concerned about what other people do. Just play and have fun with what you want. Granted, I have some trouble fitting some characters in more than others, but it's not that limiting either. Mostly my breton. I don't know what the hell he's in Skyrim for. It's not like it was a haven for him to learn magic.

Doesn't matter to me at all
If people got the impression that the Dragonborn should be a Nord then they can play Nords
Those of us who disagree don't have to
Its hardly a new phenomenon. Lots of people felt the Nevarine in MW should be a Dunmer

Honestly, if they really wanted to have people play nords, they would do what, sadly, more and more RPG companies are doing. They would force you to play the Nord male with maybe an option of hair color, stuble beard or Goatee and maybe skin tint to the level you can make him look like a white man in black face. Two Worlds 2 marketed on things other than the main character but then forced you to be this utter loser who'd make stupid quips. Alpha Protocal didn't focus on the main character in marketing but then forced you to play a specific spy with shallow changes to him and a choice system that simply ended up: do I want to be a stick up the ass dipstick or do I want to be the "I can charm any lady to bed" dipstick, though it did have consequences for your choice of [censored], that's something. The Witcher series at least has a reason for it, the books are about him so the games wouldn't be true to the books if otherwise.

yep and the last was imperial and dunmer before, its a narritive, id like to see a narritive thats open to ten races equaly thats marketed as such and actully has a setting and engaging story line, what your asking for is very hard to achieve, and realisticly they need to market the game to EVERYONE. example: 'did you see that trailer with the dark skinned elf swing the sword at that dragon, i think it was called skyrim, its some snowy fantasy game looks cool' "yeah i think i saw a pic onlibe of skyrim but it had a lizard man fighting with the name dragon born" 'what is the lizard a dragon?' "no hes the main character" 'no that was an dark skinned elf, lizards dont like snow' "but he was called dragon born and is a dragon man, makes sense, maybe your trailer showed somthing else" 'maybe, the dark skinned elf had red eyes maybe hes a bad guy and the good guy can command dragons?!' "im confused"

it may all be obvious to fans. but alot of ppl havent played tes and still have the right to, as a commpany beths definatly wanting to show everyone how great there product is and create those water cooler momemts where in an instant an idea can be transfered person to person in coherent fasion, a face from the game is a nessesity in my opinion.

The difference is that Morrowind portrayed itself as a world with diversity while Skyrim had a guy standing up front killing a dragon and burning his image into the minds of the internet.

When I think of Morrowind, the first thing that comes to mind is the ashlands, for example. If Morrowind were new today, we may see the majority of memes and parodies feature ashlands as the setting, but all our personal favorite things (such as our characters) aren't downplayed and could be just as acceptable for seeing any of the choosable races portrayed there. It wouldn't have to be a dark elf all the time, basically.

This is skyrim, home of the nords, so obviously it caters to them and their armor style...hence why mages and magic take a hit in this game, it was designed for the barbarian nord who hates and fears magic

I'm not trying to be rude, but I think you're too concerned with other people. How does it affect you specifically?

I'm not too keen on overly specific caucasian hero types being shoved in my face all of the time either (I happen to be umm half "Nordic" though. But also half Asian). That's something I occassionally wonder about in lots of media. But Skyrim is the least of my concerns on that. I know when I'm being forced into something. I don't think I am here.

No, you're very polite.

I think it's because I have a lot of negative thoughts before the positive ones happen. It's the common 'bitterness to how things are now' and I think I just wanted the best for the new Elder Scrolls game.

Seeing Skyrim and Mr. Nordguy become one of the mainstream things instead of the 'not afraid to be different but still amazing and you should check it out' I was used to probably just got to me. You never saw imature 'do it for the views on YouTube' people getting millions of views for Morrowind or Oblivion with very little creative effort. It was our own thing, and it was a better overall 'in on the joke' and even better 'in on why everyone's missing out on this' experience.

It's really a minor issue, and I still played the game. I just need some kind of reason to get behind Bethesda's back instead of it being so easy to criticize them all the time. It's hard to do that with their communication with their customers being so few and far between.

It's like 'Yup, there's my favorite game developers. Ignoring us.' and 'Yup, there's my favorite game series. Known best for it's silly nord cartoons and arrow to the knee jokes.' It's just dissapointing, is all.

And I know. Cry some more, 0zzy :{P~

Why is it disappointing that your favorite game is popular now? Isn't it better because now there's more people to talk to about it and play with? More YouTube videos to watch, more people laughing at the inside jokes, etc. It's way worse to see something you love be ignored and die, like a band that never gets signed or plays a tour near your home.

Anyway, OT:

Aside from what everyone's said already, the fact is that Skyrim was definitely made to be a Nord warrior adventure. All the dialogue was written assuming you're a nord dragon born, then tweaked so it works with all races. For instance, there's no way a non-Nord would be able to join the stormcloaks, esp a Dunmer or Argonian. Most village guards would refuse to let a Khajiit into town, and the townsfolk would refuse to do business. Most of the game mechanics revolve around smithing and warriors; mages are kind of tacked on. There are grindstones and ore mines everywhere, but spell crafting was removed. Etc etc.

Personally I like playing all different types, and I'm so glad Beth allows us to role play (ie, my Breton pure mage is based out of Winterhold) and ignore the MQ.

The stormcloak commander has unique dialogue depending upon what race you are. When I asked him if I could join as an Argonian, he said me, "Tell me; why would a lizard want to fight alongside the nords?" when I responded, "I'd bleed to get a chance to kill some imperials." He just said, "That's good enough for me." I swore allegiance to Ulfric and I was never assumed to be a nord from then on.

How much advertising was there for MW?
Not much compared to Skyrim
Also perhaps I don't have quite such a low opinion of peoples intelligence as you seem to
If they hadn't realised beforehand that they had a choice as to what their character can be then the character creation screen should give them a clue

I can make a redguard criminal or war veteran who has no love for the empire or thalmor and sees a case for the stormcloak's cause. I could even justify a little of his competence with high experience in wars against them. I could roleplay him as a sort of "outside consultant", who eventually has everyone warm up to him, because his skills speak for themselves. He may be from a far region, but maybe he's genuinely curious about their ways too. Haven't you ever seen the 13th warrior?

Sometimes it's hard, but marketing doesn't that much power over my mind. Just brainstorm a bit. That's what makes the games fun.

Seeing as Skyrim is a huge commercial success, in which their marketing played no small part, I can only applaud a job well done for their marketing department.

The ironic thing is that Nord males are the worst designed race in the game, imo. They look terrible and/or it takes more effort to make them look cool. The average person is going to gravitate to what looks cool.

Either that, or some people have a thing for some other race from their experience with other games. One of my friends has never played a TES game. He instantly made a high elf. He always played the equivalent in DnD and Warhammer pen n paper games. And not only that, he's been playing for weeks, and he's barely doing any quests. He just wanders and kills people. He isn't the dragonborn. He's just having a laugh, the way he wants.

1. Stop caring about what the rest of the Internet does

2. What's the matter, can't stand the sight of a strong white Nord man?