What's your best guess? I'm thinking with the current bit of backlash against the dumbification of the gaming industry (Witcher 2 dev speaking on it, with sales showing you don't need to be dumb to succede / Epic's Cliff (of all people) speaking out on it / an influx of old school style games entering development... etc), Bethesda might pull back from their own heavily dumbified version of TES that was Skyrim, and maybe the next installment in the series will be RPG focused and not simple Action-Adventure. Maybe, and definitely hopefully, they will bring the complexities back to the series, which were heavily watered down in Oblivion, and completely stripped out in Skyrim.

I don't think it's possible to go back to rpg maybe a mix of action-rpg, keep the combat system (no dice roll combat) but more dialogue options and more ways to complete quests.

I think oblivion was a pretty good blend on rpg and action,im hoping they go backk to that.

Yep, maybe more branching dialogue but overall,I agree in Oblivion there was both questmarker and direction somewhat.

Skyrim's more of an Action-RPG. It has a focus on combat, but also has RPG elements in the form of character specializations (perks), skills, factions, choices, an open world and smaller things such as player homes and clothing/armor varieties.

I'm wondering this too, every Elder Scrolls game has become less of an rpg and more of an open world action game. Thou the term "rpg" is very vague I think most ES players would understand. I would like a game with alot of choices in terms of building a character and also keep the action part. I dislike dice roll gameplay of course this is just an opinion.

TES isn't 'dumbing down.' They're removing excess, cumbersone game mechanics that serve no purpose other than giving extra gaming hours to the hardcoe fans, and may have been a bit...overzealous.

dice rolling and number crunching are dull and not very interesting or immersive experiences. However, things like dialogue options and cpeech skills/perks would be very interesting.I personally just like to see any RPG elements shown as tactile interactions in a game.

For instance, for better 1 handed combat I would like to see the player animation become more fluid and more swift.

Stealth, there should be more and more options (like wall climbing perk, raqell, grapple hook, alternative entries etc.)

Not as much as previoustes though, taking attribute takes rp option for example I once RP a thief that never pay gold to guards and never arrested, whenever he got caught he outrun the guards and lost them in the wilderness before going to a doyen to pay fines for half price and stolen item intact.

I don't think Skyrim is for dumb people and I don't find anything about it to be simple. There are a lot of systems in place that people have to learn to be able to play to its full potential because it has so many layers and ways to play. So I disagree with the premise of the question completely.

Perhaps, but new options were added with perks. That character could now evade capture - perhaps using the stealth perk that caused th guard to temporarily lose sight of the character - and return to the city later, using the speeh perk to persuade a guard of the opposite gender to let them off the hook. Or they could take advantage of the Thieve's Guild bonus of bribing the guard to ignore their crimes.

I want it to be like Oblivion once more..

I love it when people bring up number crunching when the computer does all the damned math. XD

Do YOU have to calculate stats yourself and make sure all your skills parameters are updated at every improvement? No! The computer does that. The only issue with the system they used to have in ES games was that damned level-up stat point multiplier system that users had to wrestle with, for which there were always mods that replaced it with a more sane 'stats go up as skills go up' scheme. I mean, anyone remember NGCD? No? That's how they should have implemented stats and skills instead of just ripping the stats out in favour of only skills.

Perks, skills, AND attributes would have made for a very neat mix, if those damned level-up multipliers were replaced with either just stats go up with skill ups plus a few non-multiplied points you could spread at level up to further guide the direction of your character.

Edit: Oh, and have half the stats do something useful. The only reason why half of the stats were useless in Morrowind and Oblivion is because Bethesda chose not to have them do meaningful things. They could have easily had stats play a more important part in gameplay if they so chose... they simply didn't.

Edit 2: Hell, I can come up with a good list of useful functions for stats right now!

Strength - Affects melee damage + improves carry capacity + small increase in health reserve.
Intelligence - Affects ease of casting (magicka cost) + small increase in magicka reserve.
Willpower - Affects magic resistance and power of magic + increase in magicka reserve.
Agility - Affects defense, ranged damage, and ranged / melee accuracy.
Speed - Affects movement and attack speed, defense slightly when moving.
Endurance - Affects defense, improves carry capacity, + big increase in health.
Personality - Affects barter prices, NPC reactions, ability to intimidate enemies.
Luck - Small affect on anything, skews games of chance in your favour.

All - Opens up conversation options, along with skill values.
There! All important and useful.

Truth be told I really can't wait to see what Bethesda can do with the next gen of consols, though if I can help it I would like to get a gaming pc at some point. That said, I really don't fine Skyrim dumbified. I miss some features, some more than others, but at this point in time with dlc still on the way and with the improvements they did add I can't bring myself to say I wasn't satisfied.

Oh we all know the next TES will be a third person over-the-shoulder camera fantasy shoot 'em up not unlike Gears of War... :B

I think it will be like skyrim. The only good thing ive heard about TES:VI is that you can go to all of the countries in tamriel: cyrodiil, skyrim, morrowind, etc.

You're thinking of The Elder Scrolls Online, the upcoming TES MMO. It's not a part of the 'main' TES serie - it's being developed by a different studio, and is not TES VI.

TES VI: Look What We Removed This Time!

What has been done has made the game more succesful than ever, so why stop there? On the positive side, they soon run out of things to remove

I don't really think its dumbed down. I HATE the major/minor skills thing in oblivion. I hated that if i wanted more health(endurance), i had to train in those 3 specific skills. It was annoying.

However, i wouldnt mind the return of attributes, provided they're more useful, like how Gorun Nova said. Though im fine with the current levelling system, the idea of perks do allow for more branching (i could be a conjurer that does necromancy, or only summon atronachs). And there wouldnt be a funny "blunt" or "blade" skill; if im able to swing a sword well, then i should be able to swing a waraxe relatively well, no?

Not to mention the health/magicka/stamina thing does allow for some wacko characters. I'd hope that they retain the current system, but add in stats as well.

Hmm, what you said gave me a blasphemous idea. Imagine TES as a FPS game.

My best guess is that they should lock or delete all threads about what genre the game is or isn't.

Also I can't take anyone who thinks Skyrim was "dumbed down" from Oblivion seriously.

/thread. Or it should have been.

Yawn, another thread where the OP thinks removing unneeded complexity to a game is dumbing it down.

Oh boo hoo, no more artifical complexity! Skyrim svcks, oh woe is me, oh poor me. Morrowind [censored] are not welcome here. Daggerfall, either.

Let me pose you a question: Do you think that repeatedly trying to hit someone with your sword, only to do nothing, and having to stand there constantly hitting M1 is "depth and complexity"?

Yeah, I guess those people don't know what defines RPG and what doesn't. There was number crunching in Morrowind? There was number crunching in Gothic? I don't remember any of that...


There was repeatedly trying and failing to hit people with a weapon in Gothic? In The Witcher? In Risen? I don't remember any of that. Why are you bringing non-RPG-defining elements into this discussion? You should actually play some RPGs.

I think that by the time TES: VI comes out, the new generation of consoles will have come out as well and the ability to put more into the game will be their. I would like to see just as much action, with even better combat. I would also like to see more dialogue and I think that will be possible ( I think that kind of thing probably IS possible for alot of pc players now) with the next-gen consoles.

I really don't think the game was dumbed down, I think alot of what was "in your face" is now behind the scenes. There are things from Oblivion I miss.... the "lvl'ing up menue is not one of them.
I mean I know somethings were cut and perhaps they had reasons. Alot of the things ppl liked are gone right now, they may or may not be back. I DO think that the next game will end up being alot more complex than Skyrim is.... and ppl will complain about it because they just don't see how complex it is, cause they aren't dealing with that complexity... the computer is. JMO