I've got to the end of the books that are currently available. It slows down somewhat as you get into it, but boy oh boy are you in for a treat

I love both. I watch every new episode the second it comes on... then again right before the next episode. I'm also 1/3 of the way through the 5th book.

There is a GoTs game, and I didn't buy it because of the reviews. Which were bad, and included the words, "It doesn't have X like Skyrim does" or "unlike Skryim...".

The expected time to finish everything is 40-60 hours I believe, not 100% sure, could have been 80 hours. That's a drop in the bucket compared to Skyrim. So I didn't buy it because its clearly just a Skyrim wish it was. You also play two different people switching between them... not my kind of RPG. Also a closed world game. The company that made it also doesn't really specialize in first/third person RPGs.

I read a post that said Bethesda had the option, but did TES instead. Of COURSE they did. TES is what they do. Bethesda not doing TES so they could do GoT would be like when Jordan decided to play baseball instead of basketball. Do something you are legendary at and make millions or throw spaghetti at the wall and hope it sticks? Both games were also being developed around the same time, kind of hard to do both. If they ever do decide to do an open world GoTs game I really really pray they commission Bethesda to at least create the world for them.

Few notes. Stark died because in the book he dies. In the book he is really important, but not the main character like they portrayed him in the TV series. A lot more important people for the series will come and go(die) through the next 4+ seasons. So don't be surprised when it happens. I also wish there was a way to play Tyrion Lannister(speech 100), or even Jamie Lannister(one hand skill 100).

I wrote a dissertation on the relationship between games and films. I wrote that Bethesda games would work very well as a series, maybe better than a feature film. Game of thrones pretty much proves my point. Take a bunch of small quests, take faction quests, make it all episode by episode. Would be epic.

You are joking right? Skyrim is as close you'll get to a Novel series about Game of Thrones. Skyrim has bascially ripped every idea it has from that series.

And then some will say GoT is influenced by Lord of the rings, and that was influenced by Celtic mythology, which is influenced by real events told through generation by word of mouth. The Elvish language is based heavily on Welsh, should I take offense as a Welshman or should I be proud of the homage Lotr pays to my language? Point being, Skyrim does what any artist in any medium does, takes influence and creates something new with a feel or homage toward its influence. Its not a bad thing at all.

And why not? Every metal band that exists owes much to judas priest, black sabbath and venom. How much, influentially is owed to The Beatles? There's bands who owe their entire sound to 'Helter Skelter'...

Exactly, metal, rap, classical, pop, rock....Films of all genres, look at Tarantino, he basically recreates other films scene by scene into a new movie and isnt shy about it. Kill bill heavily influenced by Takeshi Kitano, even casted an actress in the same uniform as a film Kitano starred in (Battle royale). Could even say the same for science. Someone publishes a theory and it isnt then just set in stone and cant be copied, others will use that work toward another theory or some refute it with critism, as this forum tends to do with Skyrim

Where would we be if penicillin wasnt developed into other anti biotics?

Beth merely took inspiration from modern culture, sometimes not even literature like GoT but sci fi even, used it to inspire the game, and even paid homage in some easter eggs.

Spoiler alert. Don't read unless you've read all 5 books.

It's very simple.
Let me explain it to you.

Have you ever seen a James Bond movie ?
When James Bond jumps out of flying airplane, what do you think ? "Oh, he's gonna die !" ? Or did you think "another plane will come and catch him", "he has a hidden parachute", "he will land on water", "fairies will come and save him" ? For sure there is one thing you will not expect: you will not expect James Bond to die. Even fairies catching him is more likely than James Bond dieing. It's that predictable. If you watch other movies (and books), they always follow that path, the main character will not die, no matter what. It's predictable. It's boring.

Gurm (G.R.R. Martin, the guy who wrote the books) doesn't want to you think like that. He doesn't want you to feel secure about your favorite characters. If they are in danger, they really *are* in danger. Do you like Jon Snow ? Are you sure he won't die in the North ? Do you like Arya ? Are you sure she won't die soon ? Or die in the next season ? Nothing can be taken for granted, nobody is safe. Everybody can die.

It's a very simple mechanism.
But very effective.
And oh so refreshing.

Valar Morghulis.

Please make sure that everything, and I mean *everything* related to GoT plot and characters goes inside spoiler tags. I hate to run into info I won't get from the series for another year in an off-the-cuff comment in a completely unrelated forum. That's just not fair. Don't even hint and who lives and who dies except in spoiler tags.

Seconded. Be very very careful, please..

And Gryz, you've just proven how poor my self control is haha... arrrgh! I'm only halfway through book 2!