There are two, actually. Gstaff, and the Nick B guy with all the sticky posts.

Some great questions in there, and I'd love to see BGS employees respond to some or all of the ones you listed.

That said, the questions I quoted above, IMO, should be redone or removed.

BGS following the mod scene: BGS long ago cited a couple of mods that influenced Skyrim, so IMO this question has already been answered, though it would be interesting if devs want to list particular mods they like (if it's new info).

Many people hated the Oblivion UI, and DarnUI was one of the more popular mods. I think (no proof) that people hate the Skyrim UI even more, but this question isn't likely to result in an informative answer. (BGS got big complaints, had an example of how to make users happy, ignored that, and got even more complaints with the next game = not likely to get a satisfactory answer.)

The horse gear question is an easy answer if you're familiar with the mod scene. There aren't technical limitations, it was just an oversight, or a matter of prioritization.

I rephrased some questions. Now I'll PM the administrator. From now on, it's out of my control. Let's hope the staff at Bethesda and their PR managers will like the initiative.

Stuff like why horses aren't allowed to carry your stuff have already been answered, you better don't pest them with the same stuff again.

...thank you.

Some interesting questions in here. I'll be honest, right now isn't probably the time to be talking about Skyrim "post mortem". We're still actively making updates to the game and we have plenty of new content we'll be sharing this year.

We're not ready to share what's planned, but we think you'll be pretty excited when you hear what's in store.

Hearing you're still actively making updates to the game, while not overly exciting, is good.
Means there's still hope...

Thank you for dropping by and reading.

I'm happy that you find some of the questions interesting. For sure, they're different from those the "professional" game editors usually formulate. I hope you'll be able to answer them sometime in a near future. Meanwhile, I'm dieing to know what you guys have in store for us!

I think that's an understatement to the Bethesda PR. I would bet my life Pete Hines will downright refuse to acknowledge this thread even exists.

Of course you post this after GStaff already commented on the thread.

Of course you didn't even read my post.

So we can assume that means the questions won't be answered?

Not really surprised if that is the case.

Whatever they would have to say here would have to be taken with a grain of salt anyway. The only answer that means anything is what the changes coming through those "updates" and "new content" are.

In Bethesda posting here they acknowledged the existence of the questions and the issues within, showing they're listening to some degree. The questions are, "What do they think they are hearing?, and "What do they plan to do about it?".

Might I be so bold as to suggest that part of the interest in a "post-mortem" is to gain insight into how Skyrim's development and release has worked out so far for the developers? That is certainly one of my primary interests, and it would be my personal preference to get a much more "in the moment" feel for how the initial reactions have affected the development team.

I fully accept the idea that Skyrim isn't really put to bed until after all new content (DLC and patched-in) is released, and therefore, an interview done now is not a true posat-mortem. I simply think that now is quite a good time to ask and answer about the initial reactions. You know us forumites, Gstaff. We could ask a new set of questions every month until TES VI is released. We can handle grilling your devs before and after the new content is done arriving.

You make it sound like we are dragging Bethesda before Congress for questioning.

I think Skyrim is fundamentally different from previous games in that what was released on 11/11/11 in terms of content/features and balance not being as set in stone as it was in previous games.




I think persistent advocating [aka: constant complaining] can be a good thing because Bethesda seems to be approaching Skyrim as a much more modular game.




Very short story: I once asked my friend's kid if he'd stop crying if I gave him a dollar. He said yes. I told him "Well you can't be that upset then".

Complaining is never a good think because, regardless of the merits of your plea, you'll lose credibility in eyes of the others.

Being vocal about a bug/glitch, raising awareness about a problem in the community, on the other side may bring some results.

As for Bethesda, while I don't think they're one of those developers that follow a "launch and leave" culture for their products, they've certainly became more aware of the problems. Maybe it's the huge popularity of Skyrim that ha surpassed every other game they made, maybe they have finally the found resources or the proper direction that the community has always been asking...

Expressing a dissenting opinion is always going to be seen as complaining by some. "Being vocal" once is pointless, you might as well not bother because people will quickly move on. A matter that you drop will be dropped by other just as quickly, it's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease. I don't just say the game balance and the loss of Spellmaking svcks, I say why... and so do others for that matter.



Bethesda had somewhat of a "launch and leave" rep for letting modders fix bugs for PC and leaving bugs on the consoles [vampirism cure glitch for example], they seem to be doing more this time around. I think that has improved a lot.

First off, the complaints let Bethesda know that not everyone is happy with the game and that there are problems.

Secondly, you can't speak for the community and I can tell you that there are plenty of people who do not think this game is headed in the proper direction, and all you have to do is read the very valid complaints to see that.

This is a split community and a split forum on whether the game is headed in the right direction or not.

As always, this split is more pronounced on the forums, but even here, the majority of forum-goers always seem to be happier with the game than not (as evidenced by most polls on the subject).

And that's impressive, because gaming forums always have a higher percentage of people complaining about the product than the actual playerbase will. Which indicates that, not only is the game well-received by the public, it's well-received by the group of people most likely to throw a fit if it wasn't up to their standards.

Alot of forum members left after they screwed up Oblivion. Even more left after they screwed up Skyrim. More and more forum members seem to be gamers who do not even like RPG's or have never played an RPG until Skyrim.

The problem is that Bethesda is catering to the "Casual" player instead of making an RPG and "Educating" people on what an RPG is. If people were more "Educated" on what an RPG is than you would bring in RPG players not "Casual" players.

The bottom line is that TES is being catered towards "Casual" and not RPG. Ask anyone who has played TES since Daggerfall and the MAJORITY of people would agree, not everyone but a Majority.

As a casual player (I call myself "casual" because I have way too much stuff going on to be gaming a lot), I support marketing games to as many people as possible. I've been playing games since you had to enter DOS prompts to play them off CD, and I don't see a problem with studios wanting to get as wide an audience as possible playing their games.

If you just make an intensely "hardcoe" RPG experience that's designed to "educate" players, it'll inevitably turn off everyone except the most dedicated players. While some may enjoy that, it ultimately kills sales and results in games that let people raise their pinky in the air whenever they refer to them. I'm a fan of gameplay. I'm not a fan of pretension, or people who claim to have a monopoly on understanding what a "true RPG" is. I'm especially not a fan of people who have a condescending attitude towards "casual" gamers, who make up a majority of the gaming population.

I was talking about the attitude of some (a minority) of the people.

I know there are problems in this game. I would be blind not to see them. There IS a difference, though, between complaining in a constructive manner and just letting off the steam and venting anger like some people seems to do.

Just so you know, I'm also a "Casual" gamer. Everyone is a "Casual" gamer from time to time. However, there are times when we want a more complex game.

There are plenty of "Casual" games. An RPG isn't one of them and should never be one of them.

I don't have a condesending attitude towards no one, I just take offense when Bethesda thinks they need to screw up the TES Franchise by catering to "Casual" players instead of making an RPG and "Educating" people on how fun it is to play.

Yeah, it's not like the most open world RPG, D&D, has a magic ring limit not based on number of players. You are being very obtuse.