I think the problem lies more in the moment. It is cool that they have these backstories but none come with unique accents for coming from Hammerfell.
What i Find stupid is yet again they completely disregard your epicness. Okay here is an excellent example. I'm the Thane of Whiterun, I've killed Alduin, I'm the head of the Dark Brotherhood, Arch mage, rising member of the Champions, and part time thief. So then the civil war happens (because I Decided to tackle that later.) I got the peace treaty for him during the main game and what does he tell me to do when I offering him the Ax, Take it back to Olfric... Completely messed up. I'm his Thane, we captured a dragon together, I have enough power in my hands to destroy the entire city single handedly and he basically ignores the fact that I am the one bringing him the axe and then asks you if you are happy after the fact. It doesn't get much more stupid than that!

Then you have during the theives guilde quest the patron (rich, powerful, keeps the guilde afloat, I can't remember her name) threaten to sick the dark brotherhood on me if I ask another stupid question when I'm the listener!

Speech is really underused in Skyrim.

It's difficult to craft a really great storyline in an open-world game that offers so much player freedom and control over who the main character is.

Think about it.

- If you have a set character as opposed to a blank slate, you can write their whole personality. It's also a lot, lot easier to involve them more in the storyline, and forge meaningful relationships with other characters.

- If you have a linear gameworld as opposed to an open one, you can control what the player sees a lot more and can effectively build the scenery around the main storyline, thus enhancing it.


That said, I do agree about the lack of interesting or memorable characters. Cicero (whether you love him or hate him) was one of the few characters in the game that didn't strike me as being very generic. But the Dark Brotherhood questline is so short that they really don't make the most of him.

You are all kvetchers. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kvetch Just play the game.

I honestly was never expecting any tight, well crafted storylines. Fallout 3 wasn't all that compelling. Iwas talking to someone on the Deus Ex forums about this before the Skyrim came out, and even though it's not strong in the story department, you still put hundreds of hours into Bethesda open world games.

What I wasn't expecting though was how worthwhile it is to start new characters and create their own story arc. I went into the game expecting to do all the side quests as one character, but Skyrim gives you the tools to make wildly different characters with different personalities. I even find myself giving them backstories and only doing quests that they would do.

I'm on my fourth playthru and I've put nearly 600 hours into the game, and I'm nowhere near half done. Whether the stories of the factions and guilds are good or not, the most important one is the player character's.

Too me the game is ok, and a lot of things just seem odd or half assed (other than the environment). I am desperately awaiting Kingdoms of Amalur right now.

Bethesda has never been good at writing, and it shows.

Bethesda focused more on exploration than stroy telling imo.

Which is kind of what I want, but Bethesda really nailed it with FO3; amazing exploration, great story, fun and deep quests. It's their best game yet.

I just wish they could do the same wiht TES, but I don't mind their current direction.

I'm all for awesome and beautiful vistas and epic dungeon crawls.

Yeah, I have to agree. There were many very intresting possibilities that were all ignored. Many things that it seemed like were being set up, and then there was just nothing to follow up.

None of the followers had any real depth. Remember how every single follower in New Vegas had a personal quest that was long and explained all of their backstory, their experiences, and their feelings. With outcomes that effected that follower for the rest of the game. And they were actually funny (sometimes). Nothing like that in Skyrim. They just have a few 4 or 5 lines, and you know nothing about them. And it seems that Joan Allen (Delphine) and Max Von Sydow (Esbern) were not well used, thought they had more depth than all of the other big NPCs. Remember how in New Vegas you could either control the city yourself, or back Mr. House, or the NCR or Caesar's Legion. The stories had more depth.


The Blades. Could have resurrected the Cyrodillian Empire through the blades. Defeated Alduin, allied with Parthanax and dragons, and brought the Empire back to being the power in Tamriel.

The Altmeri Dominion. Just goes no where. I want to destroy them. Infiltrate them (more). Bring them down. OR make them the new Empire, subduing both Skyrim, and Cyrodill.

The Forsworn. Just goes nowhere. Could have destroyed them and/or reconciliated them with mainstream Nordic culture, help them take over Skyrim. Could have explored why there always seems to be Forsworn around Hagravens.

And Empire vs. Stormcloak was just so weak in plot...

they pulled 180 degrees after oblivion. the got a lot of criticism for the world design of oblivion so now in Skyrim we have this wonderful world but the rest got putted on the backburner. I think that the majority including me want a wonderful world and deep and good quest and NPCs

Paarthurnax was the only memorable character I can think of. Fallout 3 was Bethesda's best attempt at writing. It helps that there were so few NPC's.... Skyrim's dialogue is spread too thin. There simply isn't enough to make many people interesting.

This. I don't know why Bethesda even bothered making those questlines. It felt like they spent ten minutes throwing the entire thing together.

Totally agree with you GOTY is nothing more than a popularity contest a flawed method to find a great game.CDProjekt made what i feel is a RPG better than Skyrim with half the budget.It had a solid storyline side quest that felt connected to the game and impacting decisions also some of the best side characters i have seen in a while to .King Henselt and Vernon Roche were some of the best i have seen in a while.

Agreed, Also loved Triss.

Yeah Triss was great always up for a bit on hanky panky smoking hot to lol.

morrowind, Nuff said

Agreed also Branching quests and stories. Easily solves those problems sheo.

This.

IMO Delvin was pretty cool, not just because he looks and sounds like Jason Statham, but also because the guy's an all-round badass.

Sad, but true (for me atleast).

Elder Scrolls never had complex character with whom you could have a connection but there was always a bit more to the characters than there are now. Except for a few characters, most NPCs in the guilds and mage guilds are bland. I still remember people that I used to work for in House Hlaalu and Telvanni (Morrowind), as well as my contacts in the Dark Brotherhood (Oblivion).

I think this is partly due to the amount of quests that they offer. There is just so little to do in each guild that you dont really get to know them before it is all over. I'm hoping for less misc and side quests and more guild quests in the next TES.

Hopefully Bethesda can make it up by doing good DLCs with great quests rather than opening the world even more and making more fetching, killing quests.

I'll only say that while in Oblivion I was sad to do it and was posponing the DB's purge quest, in Skyrim I was "meh" when I only liked the mage. Maybe it was really previsible and that spoiled the moment. But I was more saddened when Caius Cossades left Morrowind.

Pretty much...

^ This also... Alduin was incredibly dissapointing and made me not want to bother with the main quest at all...


.__. I miss Morrowinds depth and mystery... Especially the Tribunal quest line...

Yes, I made a topic about it earlier.

Awesome game chronicling the adventures of the greatest character of them all:

Azrael - The Nord with the Sword.

Or in your case... whoever you're playing as.

There are great characters throughout the Elder Scrolls games.

If you can't find any in "Skyrim" you're not speaking to people.

Azrael
The Nord with the Sword