Well, I was thinking about Skyrim, NWN, Baldurs, etc and how these rpg type games NEVER do what happens with normal Human Beings....

WE always invent better and better equipment that can do more.

Heck, look at the Medieval times a lot of people think it was just swords and spears and crossbows, etc but the gun was invented around the 11th century, it just didn`t catch on until later, but it did. How about grenades and explosives- they were being used in China pretty early on.

Point is, once we think of it, we usually start trying to invent it. Once invented, we tend not to stop making it better.

It also occurs to me that the Dwemer or Dwarves had such innovations. They even had what we could call robots and automated constructs, but then they suddenly vanished.

All of them- Gone.

Seems to me, that the gods of Tamriel, Skyrim, don`t want mortals building weapons that can shoot and explode.

Magic.

Why pursue gunpowder when you have the Destruction school of magic?

Nirn is not Earth. Do not apply Earth history/technology/logic/morals to Nirn.

Pretty much covers 90% of this issue.

There are RPG games that move beyond swords and bows. I just think that the TES series is one of those that likes to focus on a certain time period technologically. Nothing too complicated really. Although I did chuckle the first time I realized just how long the lore gets stuck in the middle ages.

Grenades and guns are for one series, swords, magic, and bows for another.

That is a very good point.
You have to wonder in what sense invention can really exist in a place where gods are manifestly real and like to meddle.
Some of them, like Herma-Mora can be said to know everything already. Is any invention on Tamriel truly one, or is it a gift from a god?
Certainly the Dunmer people attribute a lot of their advances, such as their knowledge of architecture and lawmaking, to Boethiah.

On the other hand, Tamriel is quite advanced, only in a magical sense not a technological one.
Even the works of the Dwemer are technomancy more than technology.
Imperial Mananauts and Altmer Sunbirds have been to the Moons and Aetherius, the Septim Empire constructed an artificial pocket dimension to house their battlemage college (the Battlespire). We cant build and maintain a pocket dimension.

So yes, it is likely that advances are granted and supressed by divine beings.
But there are also examples of highly advanced magics performing feats that rival and surpass what we on Earth are capable of with our technology.

I also suspect its mostly because of magic. Its basically the fantasy version of science, and in skyrim they hate it. So they kind of hate research and technology and stuff. Nords are dirty simple people that break and smash well.

Well, just take a brief look around these forums, and try to imagine the terror, hate, fear and general panic that would ensue if guns were brought into TES

I dislike the inconsistencies in technology. Things like fishing rods with reels seem way out of place.

Magic.

I'd prefer it of our world had magic instead of tech

Magic and the divine basically render all technological advancements unnecessary.

The gods are actually against technical innovation. See the demise of crossbows, the levitation act. Etc.

Reading the books about the dwemers in the game I read that the only god they worshipped was logic and reason. That's why they were so technologically advanced but it made the gods (specially the daedras) quite angry and I bet this is one of the reasons why they vanished.

I think OP is right, the gods (again, specially the daedras) don't want the races of Tamriel to be too smart because this way they are easier to control. Think about some countries in our world that are governed by dictators. They have very little internet access, their media (radios, TVs, etc) are controlled and highly censored. They restrict the population access to information because people who think too much are harder too control.

but there was a cannon in redguard though

Ah, yes. magic. Nope, not so simple.

If we had magic, say in real life, I know that people would still try to invent technologies. Maybe some would invent technological stuff because they were crap at magic. "I can`t use magic to fire a fire bolt; and arrows are crap - let`s see if I can make something that shoots even more powerfully than an arrow!"

Perhaps some who hated magic and wanted nothing to do with it would turn to technology instead.

I could even see a world where mages would combine Magic with Technology to make super weapons. perhaps a gun that shoots bullets of magical fire or ice or weakness` to magic or whatever, with magzines that need only a soul gem and last 10 times longer than a normal gun magazine.

I could even see the technology moving onto aircraft using soul gems to cleanly and more efficienly power aircraft, using magical intelligent sidewinders and amraams that could be specifically ordered to attack any target and were smart enough to stop and hunt a target carefully. Explosives with a combination of paralysis, Ice and weaken stamina, etc...

Really, if we had magic in real life I`m 99% certain we`d still have technology today it would just be imbued by magic instead. Although it would proabably slow down the advance of tech.

Heck we might even have magical nuclear weapons that could destroy everything....

Oh wait. Maybe that`s why the gods don`t allow technology.

There are many instances of technology and knowledge either never taking hold, or coming out at the wrong time.

As an example; in a place where it easy enough to get divine healing or mix herbs into a potion, you won't find doctors. No doctors, no medical advancment ike we know it. Why invest in cannon when you can hire several mages to acomplish the same goals far safer and easier. That's if the chemictry for gun powder is even present on Nirn. It's not like there are some alchemists trying random mixtures looking for a potion for imortality that would lead them to gun powder like what happened in the real world. They'd be mixing herbs and magic, not sulphur and charcoal and stuff.

The dwemer are the ones who took things in that 180 degree direction that lead them to steam power, mechanical locomotion, and their advanced sciences. Now that they're gone though, you'd have other cultures treat the dwemer ways as taboo. They'll look what happened to those that did those things, and pass.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MedievalStasis

Magic indeed is NOT a reason for a lack of progress. In TES it doesn't remotely replace technology. If it did you'd see soldiers with magical sidearms, easy access to magical communicatins, etc. Magic is more like a very advanced and useful skill. It isn't easy and so isn't common. That sort of thing doesn't replace devices ANYONE could use (though it could potentially enable such things).

Anyhow I don't think the creators want tech..so there isn't.

That`s exactly how I see it.

This is indeed at big part of that.

It could also be that the game does not try to develop technologi more than they need. The games have, after all, a magical, mediviel setting.

Taking a note from series like The Wheel of Time and even The Dresden Files you could potentially add technology in limited amounts and still keep it balanced by having it be countered by Magic usage. Cities could be added where one or the other is restricted and using that specific one would be against the law. To claim that because Magic exists technology (specifically gunpowder) is not needed only denotes a rather strict way of thinking, not a balanced concept.

There are plenty of ways to balance technology via cost, limited resources, etc. while still keeping up the demand for Magic. Besides, it would be interesting to have single load firearms (slow reload, requires gunpowder packs and metal balls) or bombs (would work similar to runes) for the warrior/thief class. I honestly see no reason why the concept of technology would not work in an environment that already contains Magic as it could even provide a potential money sink where the player needs to invest in research to even unlock specific technologies. It would be win-win if you ask me.

EDIT: It would also fit into the Alchemy & Smithing skills nicely too, you know the non-Magic crafting trees.

Because it takes a day to learn to point a gun and pull the trigger, and it takes a year to learn to cast Firebolt.