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You can never have too much freedom...

In rpgs... i`d love it if you can explore the entire world, surface, dungeons, caverns, people and all.

I meant it like a choice, not just ignoring the other sides. A questline for those who are against both would be nice.

QFT

There's more than enough freedom, however the freedom we have is not exactly in the areas where it matters most.

I've played all my TES and Fallout games to the max and that means doing every quest, every guild, every faction, etc. I try to get my money's worth with one character. We are free to do that and I see nothing wrong with it. Of course there are limits. Morrowind ensured I had to roll a new character for each of the Great Houses. Oblivion was free-er but you couldn't join the Mystic Dawn or that other bunch outside of Cheydinhal. (I haven't finished Ob yet so I am a little unsure of that.) Skyrim is similar where you side with either Imperial or Stormcloak. I see that I have to be part of one or the other to max out my Skyrim experience. FNV had Mr House, NCR and Legion to choose sides with. I don't have the freedom to join the Falmer, the Thalmor, or the Forsworn either.

In Skyrim you are not free to do whatever takes your fancy. And locations may be locked if you haven't started the related quest. That's exactly how it should be. It's BS to say there is too much freedom. Where Skyrim messes up is the consequences related to one questline conflicting with another. Beths has done a tremendous job with limiting such quest glitches but being so big, Skyrim sure is going to have issues and maybe NOT joining all the factions and doing all the quests is the answer. But that's not how I do my role-plays. I have the freedom in this open world to choose how I play and that's what Bethesda intends. You do not understand role-playing if you consider Skyrim too free. Role-playing exists in your head and how you feel about this type of entertainment. You are not forced to do anything that you don't want to.

Its not the freedom that is the problem. Its the lack of substantive consequences. That is the issue. Bethesda always wants their games so some people can do absolutely everything there is to accomplish on a single character. There are virtually NO consequences for your players actions in the game. I used to have to play their games somewhat cautiously. If I irritated this person, they might not help me later. If I killed this person.... they might not be around later for a quest I might need.

I could cite a hundred different examples, but they would all be spoilers. Suffice it to say, the world is supposed to react to your actions. If the game is going to allow you to rise to epic levels of importance and influence in the world.... then people should take notice.

For me the game starts becoming boring at around level 30-40, also with my second character. 250+ hours into the game, I have yet to complete a faction questline. My biggest problem is that I level up too fast, or the benefits in the bar stats are too great. Splitting the bars for health and stamina, with just a few into magic - by the time I reach high level in sneak I no longer care about the perks it gives (like pressure plates). All scaling seem to revolve around the foes, not the rest of the gameplay. And yes, this is on master already, although this time I don't release the dragons.

Note that I am paying for skill increases that doesn't seem to skill up naturally (as an archer relying on alteration for magic protection, alteration and light armor doesn't seem to progress at all).

Yeah the problem is I just dont see how that questline could work, unless they throw a third side into the mix the only option would be for a questline would be to somehow force a truce between the 2 factions which just wouldnt work due to the political mess with the Thalmor.

I get what you are saying as it is a bit of a shame that the civil war storyline goes unresolved for those of us who dont support either side but I guess that is the price of being neutral.