Does Bethesda alter game off forum input?

Only if plenty of people agree, including Bethesda.
Now if it's not a brilliant idea, then no, they wouldn't.

It takes a lot for them to alter Skyrim just from a topic on the forums.

Usually, their alterations can be found in the Community Discussion Forum.

Like if 20.000 people want rainbow unicorns they won't put it in. That's rediculous.
But if 10.000 want to have a quest where you can join the Forsworn and many people ar every vocal about this, they just might add that.
But that is DLC content, nothing like that will be patched.

I doubt they even check these forums for the most part. If you were in the business of inventing things to sale, particularly creative things, would you go to a place where at least 50% of the threads were about complaints, and of those, a good 80% were total nonsense bullcrap? I sure wouldn't.

800,000,000 people wanted spears in Skyrim, but they didn't include them.

2 people wanted to be able to ride a horse and now they can.

I actually do think they monitor the forums and other feedback, but in the end they have their own opinions on design, and aren't going to try to make something they don't believe in to stop people complaining. Trying to stop forum complaining is like King Canute trying to order the tide back.

Simple answer is NO!!! I doubt they ever take our advice and if they do they botch it like marriage and clone children. Sorry BGS but I have been on these forums since Morrowind and the only thing I have seen them do is take player mod ideas and put some of them in the games sometimes and even then again, they screw it up somehow. If they had listened to us they wouldn't have dropped 90% of the skills and the spellcrafting. I hate to say that the TES series has become a shallow watered down former game of itself anymore. I like Skyrim, but I am waiting to get the PC version and mod it out. So it is actually more playable IMHO.

So could it be that... we are all wasting our time??? Tell me it isn't so! :{O~

Kidding, of course. We all get something out of these forums. Mostly rage being released. And pride for beating people's points. And fun for being genuinly enjoying the thoughts bouncing around. And the trolls, oh the trolls!

I love you all :3

lol I see your point.

97.8% of statistics are made up.

Well, I doubt it. PEople wanted prpper combat system since Morrowind, and proper choice/consequences since about that time too.

Guess what? We've got Skyrim: Oblivion combat with a few extras, and REMOVAL of choices

Oh, but they're not inventing things. They make a product. If you want to make a product better, you find out what people don't like about your current product. So from that perspective, the forums an ideal place for them to visit.

Of course, it is moot because we know they do visit the forums. Their names appear in gold down at the bottm. You can usually see one of them here early in the morning. So the real question is if they pay attention.

No.

However, they will implement things in DLC and new releases. The obvious thing that comes to mind is the hardcoe/survival mode in FNV...that was drawn from a series of strong discussions on the forums of Fallout 3.

Yup yup

They check these forums. I see them, you may not as most devs log on invisibly.

As for Forum comments changing the game. Forum feedback does factor into future games. Mods do to. Essentials of Morrowind/Oblivion is one reason why we can cook food and farm and other activities like that. That is just one example. There are a few others.

Some of the ideas tossed around in the forums were implemented, and some were not. So it is quite hard to tell either way.

Ideas implemented -
1. Actual necromancy.
2. Elemental effects have their own secondary effects.
3. Finishers.
4. Werewolf.
5. Better race models.

And not -
1. Scaling spell damage.
2. Better vampires.
3. Basic needs.
4. Poo.