After playing through all but the mages quest lines I think I've seen enough. nothing you do in this game has ANY impact at all on the game world.

So has ANYONE encountered one decision that actually changes anything int he game?

I've never seen an RPG this shallow.

Perhaps this should be in the spoilers section?

Spoilers inbound:

Following the Civil War questline, you will, at a certain moment, attack Whiterun. If you're succesful, several buildings will be destroyed, and the Whiterun guards will be replaced by Stormcloaks (I played from a Stormcloak POV). It also adds some new dialogue with certain characters.

Yes but it is so minimal it may as well not be there. There is a change of guards and some new dialogue. And I mean some. Not a whole lot.

Taking over Whiterun but that was just daft all I did was have to unlock my house again, lucky I brought the key with me

Only impact I've come across

Yeah I played and attacked Whiterun but the only actual decisions was joining stormcloaks and from there, i assume if you join the empire pretty much the same thing happens.

It just almost seems like Bethesda TRIED to make sure nothing you did had any impact on the world. Every decisions either had no impact at all or would happen anyway regardless of whihc path you took which is what happened in the Whiterun battle.

There are some very simple consequences (like a daughter calling you if you kill the Dad), but nothing that is actually far reaching for what happens; nothing that makes you think `I shouldn`t have done that`.

For instance, ven if you betray the Jarl at Whiterun, there`s no serious comeback at all, it`s just words.

I love how threads like these always get moved to the spoiler section if just one person in the thread mentions a slight spoiler, Mods come on this is about the general game and the absolute lack of impact.

I guess Skyrim being a completely vapid, shallow experience is now somehow considered a spoiler.

The civil war (as mentioned) does some damage to Whiterun and at the end, regardless of who you choose, some Jarls are changed.

But that is really about it. The DB quest does have you kill some key people, but that doesn't really have an impact as you play the game.

Sadly the one quest you would hope does something, the Main Quest, does nothing at all. At least in OB the gates closed forever. With Skyrim you might as well not do the MQ. In fact, most my characters don't even bother with it anymore as there is no point to it other than to grab another mask and a few shouts.

I shot an arrow and it had an impact. I struck with my sword and it had an impact. I cast a fireball and it had an impact. I fell of a tower and it had an impact.

What kind of impact are we looking for?

[ ] The impact of your mother's hand slapping you over your head.
[ ] The nuclear explosion type of impact.
[ ] A magical spell that will rip open the earth and have millions of rainbow-farting ponies erupt from it.

It is quite obvious what the OP is referring to. Since you fail to grasp the topic or willingly choose not to, why don't you slap yourself in the face for starters.

Nope! That is all... LOL Skyrim is an amazing game, alas, there are no consequences to your actions...

I haven't seen much significant impact. I thought- when the game was still pre-release, that someone said if you do "work" for a town- like sawmill and junk, that the economy of that area would improve. Anyone remember this or am I just cloudy on something?

Whiterun changes, a bit, and you do move sanctuaries in the DB. Mercer dies. I guess those are some things.

They didn't have time to implement it. Maybe in a future DLC or something.

edit- phone accident post.

You kill Astrid and the DB goes away. That's kinda' significant.

First, what exactly is meant when you ask if the world of Skyrim changes? Are you talking about physical things, like the destruction of a couple of minor things in Whiterun?

Or is it about more intangible things? For instance, when I think of my character's actions changing Skyrim, I don't really care about if a building's destroyed; I'm thinking more along the lines of certain storylines changing or having to do a lot of extra things to make up for an especially bad decision or mistake. This would include having NPCs behaving toward you depending on what you've done. IOW, a more cerebral type of change.

Either way, Syrim does indeed fail miserably in that regard.

For instance... Get caught killing the bride at her wedding? No big, just pay a fine and you're still a Jarl of Solitude and everyone treats you the same. Yeah, it's a fantasy game and you know you have to suspend a good amount of disbelief when you pick up the controller, but come on. You should either be permanently banned or have to jump through a lot of hoops to regain favor. I would even go so far as to say that you could be permanently banned from Solitude and have hired thugs coming to get you on occasion for such a crime. As long as you know that going in, it would be cool. There are a lot of examples I could name but that one has always stuck out to me.

I love this game but there are some glaring problems that hopefully will be addressed in the next TES game. Unfortunately though, that's years away. I'm pretty sure the current issues can't be cleared up unless they released an entire second and heavily revised version; which I would definately pay for (Beth, if you're listening).

You have the choice to bring back Eldergleam sap which will make the fullsize Gildergreen bloom again, or you can bring back the sapling which will make the smaller Gildergreen be in that are for the rest of the game.


Mind you, this is actually bugged, and if you bring the sapling back it will grow again, but the dead larger one doesn't get deleted (without consoling it out). So this could be an example of a lasting impact, albeit a small one... were it to function as intended. :/

I understand what Swanlee is saying. Since I am not a longtime RPG player in this series, I kept expecting some defining turning point to take place. By the time I reached a level 49 Nord I started thinking I might have missed some important quest that would bring an end to the story is a climatic way. However, in a way I am plesaed to see that no defining moment ends the story. I get to play a little more and fininsh all mt misc., quests (-:

Some daedric quests have minor impacts.(gain either an Artifact, or follower)

Nothing too lasting though.

Sheesh Buckom, don't go messin' around with my Dark Brothers and Sisters!!!!!!!!!! LOL

I think the OP is more looking for "real' consequences. Or maybe I am. For example, if I join the Dark Brotherhood, all the other factions are ok with it. Or, I'm part of the Thieves Guild and even so I shake down the merchants in Riften, they still trade with me. They might grumble a bit, but really, there is no real disposition check in Skyrim. Nothing you do really affects the way you are treated.

Considering you're blackmailing the merchants, they no better than to mess with you. Especially after Loud and Clear.

As for the DB questline and people being okay with it, I've always did everything I could to make sure nobody could actually know I was in the DB. I wore the outfit on jobs, but traveling to or from them I either A) Dressed in civilian garb, Traveled through the wild and only at night so as to avoid coming across anyone, or C) Used free Illusion spells to spam Invisible.

Discussions about what happens in the game is a Spoiler. You have to discuss what happens in the game to have a discussion about the impact of those actions on the game.

Not a lot of impacts, true, but then the main plot line assumes you (dragonborn) win. If you really want consequences, play a DID character and assume if you die, Alduin wins and the world IS actually destroyed. That would be an impact. . But, you are right, for a game that allows reloading without penalty, there are few if any real world altering changes you can make.

The fact that you have made friends all over Skyrim does not count for you? People allow you to take some of their items if they see you as their friend and they talk good about you. You will have killed hundreds if not thousands on your journey and saved countless lifes. This, too, does not count as impact?

Only a fool calls TES games shallow.