[Life long Observer]

I am the 7%. The only reason I think that number is so low is because of the Stones quest. Was easy enough to miss one in a place you couldn't go back to. There is also the repeating jobs you have to do to unlock the hold fences. That might have contributed as well. Not to mention the bugged eye of the Falmer quest.

[Mel E]

200 hrs played and have only just seen the Greybeards. Have completed the Theives guild tho, and spend most of my time doing what theives do best........................nicking stuff

[Bedford White]

I have not Unlocked all the achievements. some of the hardest ones i have yet to unlock such as getting 100,000 gold. getting a 1000+ bounty in all nine holds. and reading 50 skill books.

[Michael Korkia]

Doesn't turning off the "community" thing also stop achievements?

I don't believe so. I've always played offline with community shut off and that hasn't stopped me from getting achievements. The very first time I logged in to Steam for something I lost my Acievements = 0 status. It's a shame really, I have no need for them, and I'm old enough now that I've got nothing left to prove to anyone anymore.

[louise hamilton]

I wonder how seriously Bethesda takes the achievement statistics from the game.

I mean, suppose that Bethesda decides that no one plays a thief because a year from now only 10% of players have that achievement and so TES-6 does not even have a Thieves' Guild or the related quests.

There is obviously a lot of pressure in the gaming industry to reign in the high development cost of games. Not spending development time on roles and quests that devs think people do not participate in would definitely save money.

For the record, I did the Companion guild quests (until they broke) and from what I hear, the Mage, Thief, and Assassin guild quests are worse, so I have no plans to go out of my way to attempt them.

Should I be doing them with some throw away character just to help keep the statistics up so that when they start stripping down TES 6 maybe they won't remove stuff like guilds and guild quests?

[x a million...]

Frankly, I thought Skyrim's MQ for the most part was pretty damned disappointing and symptomatic of the other main questlines in the game - too short and too rushed. I played through exactly once, and it'd take something like a "Reclaiming Sancre Tor" mod or the like to make me want to trudge through that again. At least it wasn't as boring in places as the Oblivion main quest could be (Aid for Bruma, I'm looking at you).

Oh, for something like OOO for Skyrim...

[Minako]

alot of people play with steam off line i'm one of does people and in all my alts i have onlly finished the main quest once and i don't intend to finish it again till all content is out ie. DLC's or expantions or what not, not to mention the endeless mods people explore in a PC rig so does stats are flawed at best

[Danger Mouse]

Three months in and I still haven't completed the Main Quest. I'm still playing on a regular basis.

For the record, I did the Companion guild quests (until they broke) and from what I hear, the Mage, Thief, and Assassin guild quests are worse, so I have no plans to go out of my way to attempt them.

The Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood storylines are better, the College of Winterhold is worse, but nets you a nice mask. The Thieves Guild is awesome, but would be so much better without the darn bugs at the end, so be careful with that one.

[chloe hampson]

There is obviously a lot of pressure in the gaming industry to reign in the high development cost of games. Not spending development time on roles and quests that devs think people do not participate in would definitely save money.

I don't think they would interpret it that way. I enjoyed the Thieves Guild in Morrowind and Oblivion and played it right through to the end, but didn't find the Skyrim one appealing so didn't do it.
Instead of cutting out an entire guild they would probably just look at the nature of the quests to work out what about people found to be a turn-off and make those types of things (like the thuggery) optional side quests in future games.

[Dona BlackHeart]

I never beat the game. It was far too shallow and became boring rather quickly. I kept playing thinking I was on the cusp of something big, but I eventually realized that everything was an inch deep.

[electro_fantics]

With regards to PC players:

• Only 28% have completed the main quest.

• Only 41% have maxed a skill to 100.

• Only 14% have reached level 50.

• Only 22% have gotten married.

• Only 7% have completed the Thieves Guild questline.

These statistics (and many more) are observed from the global gameplay stats for Skyrim on Steam. They are fascinating.

Most astounding is that nearly three quarters of players haven't even finished the main quest. That figure is amazing, and we could spend hours theorising why that figure is so high. These are some obvious considerations, such as:

• Of the 72% of players who haven't even finished the main quest, a sizeable portion would be of consumers who have never played the series before and simply purchased due to Skyrim's powerful marketing, disliked it, and put it aside before completion.
  
• There would also be a sizeable portion of veteran players who became alienated post-purchase, due to Skyrim's radical simplification.
  
• And of course, there is naturally a portion of players who play slowly and haven't gotten around to beating it yet.

There is no way to ever know the extent of why, these are just theories. But I wonder if Bethesda find these figures worrying. (Or whether they don't give a flying hoot because they already have the $$$..... Hmmmmm).

It could be because o the 2 gig ram limitation that was only fixed through moddin for the first month. The fix meant that steam didnt record any of my stats. And if i remember correctly it was one of the top mods on the nexus.

[liz barnes]

Instead of cutting out an entire guild they would probably just look at the nature of the quests to work out what about people found to be a turn-off and make those types of things (like the thuggery) optional side quests in future games.

I should hope not. I found the Thieves Guild to have the best storyline in the game and I appreciated that the thieves were actually, y'know, thieves, rather than Indiana Jones or Robin Hood looking for the next big heist and doling everything out for the sake of social justice. The problem with the guild is that there are an awful number of irksome bugs, especially in the latter half of the questline, some of which can make the storyline impossible to complete.

[Genocidal Cry]

I have to say, when i got out of the tutorial the last thing i cared about was the MQ. I think this was because there was nothing relating to my character personally and i knew that dragons would spawn once i activated it, so i ignored it.

Besides, i basically knew what was going to happen before i played it.... People send you on fetch quests while they stay put, then the final confrontation. Pretty standard.

[Wayland Neace]

PC Gamer, so is my husband. We purchased the game awhile back (November) but had to wait until January to play since we were getting a new PC.

Some considerations: Neither one of us are "power players" there is nothing wrong with that style, we just tend to play slower with an RPG bent.
Hubby enjoys the character creation avenue, and has started various characters. He tends to play them until around level 25 and start a new one.
My first character completed the MQ, he didn't complete it until yesterday using a specific type of character he thought would be motivated to complete it.
He's completed the TG, companions, and we've both done Winterhold. However, I've started DB, Companions and not finished them for various reasons (didn't feel right with certain character, just got in the mood for a 'nicer' character' - I blame Namira - etc.)

Another interesting note, because we want to keep our internet usage on our game computer to a minimum, we often play in "offline" mode, only going online to download patches, etc. And even then only after we've watched for fallout for patching bugs.

We both love the game. I have no idea if this is typical or weird. But that's how we like screwing with the stats.

EDIT: Oh, and neither one of us is terribly interested in the whole in-game marriage thing. Probably because we're actually married and it seems a little silly.

EDIT AGAIN: I've only just gotten a character within spitting distance of level 40. I love it, but I'm kind of itching to create a new character. I don't know why, but that is so much fun for us.

[Laura Mclean]

Those possible (and may I say rather unsubtly negative) explainations for the steam statistics really don't figure the game is a sandbox.

Many people may not even have an interest in the MQ, I wasn't myself. It isn't a matter of being disenfranchised or dissappointed, I never did Oblivions MQ to the end either. Sandbox games are like that. My wife has a level 48 that hasn't done anything besides wander in caves and dungeons - not one quest.

The statistic would have more influence if the MQ was the goal of the game. It doesn't necessarily have any here.
As a stat major- You need more information before speculation here- unless you want to get fired.

[Matt Bigelow]

EDIT: Oh, and neither one of us is terribly interested in the whole in-game marriage thing. Probably because we're actually married and it seems a little silly.

Agree! It is definitely not an important statistic, and probably identifies a demographic more than saying anything about the games success. For my married self getting hitched in game was never even considered - cuz silly.

[OJY]

With regards to PC players:

• Only 28% have completed the main quest.

• Only 41% have maxed a skill to 100.

• Only 14% have reached level 50.

• Only 22% have gotten married.

• Only 7% have completed the Thieves Guild questline.

-snip-

1: We have heard how bad the ending is, so we decided to save ourselves the trouble.
2: This game is so easy, there is no reason to worry about the level of your skills.
3: Basically the same as number two, plus exploring is way better then anything else in this game.
4: Sims is better.
5: That quest-line was broken for how long? I wouldn't be surprised if it's still broken.

(The above is my opinion, deal with it.)

It could be because o the 2 gig ram limitation that was only fixed through moddin for the first month. The fix meant that steam didnt record any of my stats. And if i remember correctly it was one of the top mods on the nexus.

What does the ability to use more than 2gb of ram have to do with recording stats?

[Chris Ellis]

If you play the game in offline mode, and many people do, your achievements do not update consistently when you go back online. In many cases your most recent achievement will not upload, but if you have several achievements at once, all but the most recent one may update. For a long time I had the achievements for winning battles in the civil war including the finale, but no achievement for "Taking Sides" which unlocks when you join one of the two sides. For a long time I had no achievement for Joining the mages guild, but, I had completed the Eye of Magnus questline and the MainQuest. You can see when an achievement unlocks while you are playing the game, but after you go back online it will still be locked. Take those global achievement stats with a huge grain of salt, because the reporting system is bugged.

[Tessa Mullins]

3: Basically the same as number two, plus exploring is way better then anything else in this game.

Exploring somehow doesn't make you level? Odd, I only ended up doing most of the MQ (and Civil War, when they intersected) at around level 50+. Mostly from exploring (and sidequests).

What does the ability to use more than 2gb of ram have to do with recording stats?

I imagine what he's saying is that the "Skyrim LAA memory fix" hack/mod disabled recording of achievements.

[Samantha Wood]

With regards to PC players:

• Only 28% have completed the main quest.

• Only 41% have maxed a skill to 100.

• Only 14% have reached level 50.

• Only 22% have gotten married.

• Only 7% have completed the Thieves Guild questline.

...

I have been playing since release. Pretty much every day, Skyrim is my primary game at the moment.

And since November of last year

• I have not completed the main quest (Never actually even went up the mountain)
  
• I've had two characters so far, neither has gotten a skill to 100
  
• Neither of my two characters have gotten to level 50 yet
  
• Neither character has gotten married
  
• Neither character has started the Thieves Guild questline

[Lindsay Dunn]

I've put over 300 hours into Oblivion and over 100 into Skyrim and the only questlines I've finished are the Dark Brotherhood in Oblivion and the TG and Civil War (Stormcloaks) in Skyrim. Choosing a character type and playing how they would live is so much more appealing to me than finishing the quest lines.

[renee Duhamel]

I generally don't worry or even think about the main quest or for that matter any quests until I have spent about a hundred hours just exploring. Love walking about exploring the country side, picking flowers, ducking in and out of random caves and doing the occasional side quest here and there prior to starting the main quest or factions.

From being around here I'd say I'm not alone in my approach.

[Agnieszka Bak]

According to Steam's achievements page, 8% of players haven't even finished the first quest.

There are probably a lot of players, like myself, who bought the PC version while it was on sale and haven't gotten around to playing it yet.

[Big Homie]

Exploring somehow doesn't make you level? Odd, I only ended up doing most of the MQ (and Civil War, when they intersected) at around level 50+. Mostly from exploring (and sidequests).




I imagine what he's saying is that the "Skyrim LAA memory fix" hack/mod disabled recording of achievements.

I used a 4gb patch and still got achievements, so I assume Steam was still tracking me.

[Steeeph]

Beat the main quest, and many of the guilds. 127 hours of play time. That was only one playthrough, I didn't even 100% see all the dungeons and guilds. Skyrim is just so freaking huge. I eventually moved on because other backlog games were calling, not to mention I got irritated with how borked up magic is. So I'm waiting on the official patch we were promised for that. Shogun 2 drew me away as well, made me feel like a Daimy.