If I were going to claim that was a ripoff, I would have cited Meduseld from LOTR as a better example. Despite that, all of the art and architecture is based on Viking culture anyway, so no, it's not a 'rip-off.'

Lord of the Rings, D&D, TES, Magic the Gathering, WoW, and and the rest are all feeding from the same trough, European folklore.

Speaking of unoriginality, every time a game, movie, or book gets released, someone always complains that it's unoriginal.

I can't agree more, and they are both just ripoffs of Morrowind, which was a ripoff...

They could still have given their own twist on her. That's the least you should do when using a cliche.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf was a poem written between the 8th and the 11th century and described events that started in the year 530 somewhere in Scandinavia. Does that make the movie a rip off? Ghehe. Does that make Skyrim a rip off of the movie? Know your classics, ladies and gentlemen.

I think you are a Ripoff.

Imagine that. Even WoW ripped off Beowulf by naming a Northern Island 'Hrothgar's Landing'.

http://www.wowwiki.com/Hrothgar

And then to add insult to injury the Danish even ripped off this movie by naming a King Hrothgar. Thousands of years before the movie was even made. Now that's just plain nasty.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hro%C3%B0gar

Hrothgar = Famous real historical figure hailing from Denmark (Lots of snow, Northern region, Kin to the Norwegians) = Free for all.

The Nords are obviously based on Vikings, and Beowulf is an old Viking poem actually Anglo-Saxon, but set in Viking Scandinavia), so it's pretty inevitable there are similarities.

I know right? It's terrible, sabre cats are a rip off of cougars and dragons are a rip off of cliff racers. If you had a valid point to make then I would actually care but you really don't.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saber-toothed_cat...

Vikings are ripping of Amon Amarth too!

Gerard Butler plays Beowulf!? Cool! I don't think I've seen this version yet! I love the Beowulf tale and the fact that it's the first known, ancient Nord tale! Hats off to Beth for modeling the game after this great tale!

I said that because cougars were in oblivion and in Skyrim they were replaced with sabre toothed cats.

Wait a minute! Now that I think of it NHL12 is a ripoff of hockey! *off to the EA boards to complain about it*

I want to give you a high-five because you know who Laurie Anderson is. I used to listen to it! Granted, I wasn't sober while doing so, but still...

Coo coo it's cold outside. Coo coo it's cold outside.
Ooo coo coo. Don't forget your mittens.

Fool of a took.

What?

Anyways, I am quite aware as to what B&G is based on. I'm just trying to show that this specific movie really does seem to share a large percentage of its elements with Skyrim, given how many other elements Nordic culture has to offer.

In other words, if you were to read a large textbook about ancient vikings & such, you'd find what B&G has, but also much much more. Skyrim is not equivalent to such a text. The in-game culture is pretty simplistic compared to real ones, and I personally find it quite curious that out of all Bethesda could pick from to represent Nordic life, much of what they chose matches much of this movie VERY closely...

Or maybe it's a tribute?

Or maybe that's how the Nordic culture actually looked?

Have you seen the making of? They give a list of inspirations in it, hell there's a link to that snippet of it on their website somewhere. I for one have seen the movie (Beowulf) several times, and cannot for the life of me see where you get any similarities other than NORSE.

So you are saying that a culture based off of Norse Mythology actually is similar to Norse Mythology? Wow. Who would have thunk it?

Kids these days don't know the difference between "inspired by" and "stolen."

They watch too much Nancy Grace.

Skyrim is a ripoff of Oblivion.

I mean, seriously, could they be any less original? They use all the same races as that Oblivion game, even calling their lizard people Argonians and calling their cat people Khajiit. I can't believe how much they just ripped that off.

They rip Oblivion off so hard that they even talk about an "Oblivion" crisis that happened 200 years ago. They can't even come up with their own lore. Many of the books you can find and read in the game are the same exact books that can be found in Oblivion. They just blatantly ripped it off.

What's even worse, is that they had to try to copy the title too. They called their game "The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim", when that Oblivion game already used "The Elder Scrolls" in it's title!!!

I mean, how blatant can you get???!

*I don't know, I figured this was just as valid a complaint as the OP*