Yeah, I read that article.....

...They lied....
....or failed....
.....or both.....

I find the writing in all the BGS games to be about the same. There are always high and low points and interesting and dull characters. Some of the writing in Morrowind is fairly interesting, but a lot of it is also very dull and most of the NPC dialogue is recycled over and over, like the drive-by dialogue in Skyrim. I find the writing in Fallout 3 better than Morrowind's, and New Vegas has good characterization and more polished writing (and more dialogue) but I couldn't really connect with it (just me). About the only game I can think of that had a really good strong narrative is the first Max Payne. Much better writing that DA:O, for example.

skyrim is a great game, but why would they write in depth stories when nothing you do in the game matters? to anyone. at all. ever.

Pressure or not, Skyrim was released way before it was ready. I'd of gladly waited until 12/12/12 for a polished game with spellmaking and not a multitude of bugs. Skyrim was released in Alpha condition.

the writing is fine, the radiant quest system makes the game even more dynamic...bethesda's strong points are the gameworld itself, cool areas to battle it out and explore, whether its dungeons or forts or buildings or whatever...they know how to fill a gameworld with "stuff"....things that make the game unique and interesting..everyone doesn't "get" a bethesda game...they are combat/exploration and just overall gameworld driven, not story driven, they are utlizing their strengths very well when making games, i understand some people want a deeper story, and thats ok...but if they are expecting a bethesda game to focus on "story", its not gonna happen cause thats not what they do best, but they do lots of more important things extremely well.

I blame the moronic 11.11.11 deadline for the crappy quests and pretty much 70% of what is wrong with Skyrim. How many people do you honestly think were sold on that?

This exactly

The writing being bad, there's plenty of reasons but the main reason in one word, Emil. There are times where he hits gold and others where it's dog crap, he's certainly no Avellone.

I agree that Skyrim was rushed but it still turned out great and I think the writing will be better in the Future DLC's.

I have to agree. I really do not understand the reason behind the 11/11/11 deadline. And lets not forget the dumb, baby name contest. I think if Bethesda would have taken more time in the writing and more time mashing out the numerous bugs, this game probably would have been better then previous ETS games, but sadly it is not.

I think Bethesda has become too complacent and believe they can shell out a half ass game and people will still buy it-after all ETS is rather popular.

BTW French Ninja love your avatar

There may have been some stand-out dialog at places in Morrowind, but the fact that Skyrim NPCs come out and say whatever original things they have to say is infinitely more enjoyable to interact with than Morrowind's massive topic lists that were 99% boilerplate.

Things like this really make me wish Obsidian had done the writing. I mean, I can understand if they only fleshed out the main quest characters due to its importance, but we don't even really get to have that. Esbern and Delphine are incredibly polarizing, Paarthurnax is okay, Odahviing is rather basic, and Alduin and the three heroes were largely forgettable.

That was silly thanks!

I think it was probably a case of them just not believing it was necessary to make deeper questlines, or include better dialog ect. I don't think Beth pay attention to fan feedback, they base their decisions on market anolysis. So if the anolysis says MMOs are whats selling then make the game more like an MMO and focus on a lot of simple fetch quests that you see in MMOs (although I admit I've only played one MMO but I'm making the assumption that it's typical in terms of quests), like bring me ten fire salts, or five ice wraith teeth, or whatever.

Also the fact that dialog has to be recorded for each and every quest is undoubtedly a factor.

If they were really serious about creating deep, satisfying questlines with interesting characters then they would simply hire professional writers to come up with them and it would be reflected in their games, but it simply isn't.

Radient Story is designed to cut corners. That's why it is in the game and that's exactly what it does. I personally would have been all too happy if they'd postponed release to make the guild questlines longer and more satisfying but they wouldn't because to them they're fine as they are.

Seems like a very plausible theory, no idea if you're right or not but whatever the reason I can't help but wish they hadn't been stuck with the 11/11/11 release.

You said it all here. All the rest is conversation.

I played Oblivion right before Skyrim release and I think Skyrim had much better writing. If you havent played OB in some time try playing it again before you judge.

Nope. Nothing beats swtor for bad writing. nothing.

Mediocre is being too polite when describing their writing skills. It's wayyyy past time that they hire some decent writers for future games, because the way their writing has been going (downhill)...well, they just ain't getting it done anymore.

Brain.... losing knowledge.... GrBBBllllleeeee.....zzzzzzz......


*dead*

Skyrim is great for free roaming but I never felt any involvement with any of the stories. No immersion whatsoever. It all stays bland. Has no depth, or whatever different way so many people describe the same thing.

It's hard to say why this is. There are formulas's for what makes a good story and I'm sure many of the quest lines should work but they just don't.

I'm guessing one aspect is that none of your choices have consequences. Or perhaps because there are no lasting characters. No followers or companions you get attached to.

The world itself is beautiful but the stories and quests dont manage to go beyond "do a task, get your reward".

So let me get this straight, they started developing this new Radiant Storytelling or whatever for Fallout 3 but then realized that it wasn't gonna work on it's own and that they had to go back to handwriting the quests.
How does this affect the writing of Skyrim exactly?
If anything it affected Fallout 3's writing, not Skyrim's.

You have got to be kidding me...

Sorry doll, I don't agree with this. Oblivion was thick with lore and questing, Skyrim is not.

I view Skyrim like MMO questing, simply and easy. IF I wanted MMO questing, I would reinstall one right now.

No. They wrote a system for Fallout 3. They decided they liked the idea and when they started developing for Skyrim, they developed the concept further into Radiant Story. They tried to make most of the quests in Skyrim use Radiant Story, but realized it didn't work. So they hacked most of it out and redid most/a lot of Skyrim's quests to be a little more hand written.

Got it.

Yeah I figured as much as the OP did when that Article (?) rolled around, however I still think its the poor writing...which is telling because the Books are awesome. why is the game suffering from this when some of the books are really interesting.