I'm in a similar situation level 48 now, have done the thieves guild quest line, working on the civil war now and yeah lot's of places not yet discovered... Part because I do use fast travel a lot and I have started to use it less, but also because I get sidetracked too easy. A cave to explore, a side quest to do etc etc.

Content in this game is plentiful, exploring also is quite rewarding. Have had several places I entered where I was given a quest inside it and that was by pure exploring, found locations that made me wonder what happened there etc. There is things to see treasures to find if people actually go out and look for it, some are clues you can pick up from npc's, others are more or less found by random.

I'm sorry, are you honestly saying that the only thing that defined your character in previous Elder Scrolls games was your race?

What is so dramatically different here from Oblivion? In oblivion you had stats that separated them and made some races better for certain classes. But when leveling you could easy balance out the stat advantage and race wouldn't matter that much other then racial powers. NPC's reacted different to races, but that also happens here. I have played a Nord and a Dunmer and some NPC's just like in Oblivion does react different towards me when I speak to them the first time. Of course after I have beaten some sense into them they kind of accept me.

What does define your character in an Elder Scrolls game? But yes it would be nice if racial choice had a bigger role in defining your character in terms of how the world and characters react to your character, for me it really kills the setting when the normally racist nord treats your Dark Elf character with the same respect he would show to a nord, and yes this was a problem in past Elder Scrolls games as well, take that quest in Morrowind where 3 racist dunmer have cornered a free Argonian in a pub in Vivec, it really kills the setting when I can talk them down as a Khajiit just like any other character.

No, race is not the only definition. Nor is "class."

Nor is it strictly limited to Skyrim, but Skyrim makes it more prominent, at least to me.

I feel, in Skyrim, my race is watered down, that it's not even part of who my character is in regards to the rest of the world. As a player, the person who has to be immersed, I feel nothing for my Dark Elf when I walk into Windhelm. I don't feel anger, I don't even get annoyed at the guy who keeps telling me he likes to walk around and tell off Grey Skins.

Yes this was a problem with Oblivion too. You basicly do the same thing at lvl 50 as you did in on the early lvl's. The game actually gets pretty repetetive.

Yep, only lasting impact of race is Khajiit neghteye, and with the bright dungeons, nighteye is not much more than windowdressing. And in Skyrim you can switch birthsigns at the drop of a hat. In Oblivion and Morrowind, your birthsign choice could have huge consequences on your game, depending on your choice. Granted, if you just picked Warrior, then it probably would not have that much impact on your game in the long run, but the Apprentice and Atronach birthsigns could literally define your character. Now you can just switch back and forth with a short journey across the countryside. Wait, did I say "journey"? I meant fast travel.

I sort of agree with you. Caves and dungeons get boring after a while - I'd love some more guild quests or, better yet, an expansion!

Yep, definitely agree. It's just so easy, with so little consequence, in Skyrim to go like "y'know... I've been a Warrior for about 10 levels now, I think I'd rather be a Mage." It's as simple as a switch of the guardian stone to pump up your other stats rather than having a fairly difficult, and more worthwhile, journey to change your Orc into a Mage in prior games.

As long as you all are debating preferences there is no wrong or right. If you don't like the game, you don't like it. There's nothing anyone can say to change that.
If you like the game, then you like it. There's nothing anyone can say to change that either.

Difficult how?? All you had to do was grind...and there was no limitations on how far you could progress, unlike Skyrim where if you spent 20 perks in warrior skills already, there was no way to become as specialized and proficient in magic as a character who focused on magic from the beginning.

Bethesda have said from the start that yes if you get all the skills to 100 the max level is in the 70-80's (I cant remember exactly)...........but..............

They also said that level 50 will be around the level they expect individual playthroughs to reach (Which is pretty much exactly where you are)

Make a new build, I know how about a caster and then you can do the whole College story.

100+ hours for a ￡40 games (or in your case 1 build) is an exceptional investment when most other games only give you 1/3 of that for the same price.

Most TES gamers create multiple builds and playthrough some quests again from a different angle, giving us 200-300-400+ hours for ￡40.

How is that a waste of money?

Grinding was the "difficulty."

I want to make an Orc Mage, and I expect to be challenged in doing so, but I don't believe that I should ever be equal to a High Elf Mage, even at maxed levels.

Well in Skyrim with only 8 points into Enchant, you can get free casting in two schools, which lets any character be a pretty good mage no matter how many points they put into magicka or magic skills.

EDIT: In Oblivion, unless you picked a race and a birthsign that boosted magicka, you are never going to be as good a mage as a Bretton or Altmer with Mage, Apprentice or Atronach birthsign. In Skyrim you can switch birthsigns at will and the Altmer 50 magicka bonus/regen power is dwarfed by free casting.

It needs more interesting/non repetive contents

I agree with the TC - lack of content. After 159 hours everything is pretty much done.

Also, resolutions to non-mq quests feel like they were not handled with care or expertise, crassly done. Here are some examples spoilers:

CK will eventually supply a fair amount of new player made content, but for that to happen certain bugs need to be ironed out, specifically this one:
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1348275-gamebreaking-bug-for-worldspaces-bigger-than-4-quads-in-width/


The bug can be viewed here in its full glory....:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qndePb5jEO4&feature=youtu.be
(Utterly depressing to watch)

Please support the efforts to get Bethesda to resolve this issue.

The game does lack content. Killing a huge amount of monsters to get to level 50 does not constitute content.

I did EVERY major quest line within 50hrs. Travel time does not constitute content within a quest.

The quests are short and shallow. Simple fact. 8-10 quests in each quest line. Most of which struggle to manage an hour once you discount travel time. I mean, how did finding the Eye of Magnus turn into what it did?

How does becoming a warewolf become such an after throught.
How does the Civil war boil down to 5 or so battles, that my character WON BY HIMSELF!?

How does the main quest consist of essentially finding a way to an obscure location to kill a dragon. Just the same as you killed countless other dragons before...

I agree. A vast world, inhabited by a variety of NPCs, creatures, and fantastical monsters is just lacking content. And if you don't count all the time you spend adventuring around the landscape, exploring the hundreds of out-of-city locations, fighting in the wilderness, traveling to quest goals, and talking to any of the hundreds of NPCs, then yeah, you've got nothing.

Are we actually calling Skyrim's dungeons repetitive?

You've clearly never played Oblivion. If Skyrim's dungeons aren't interesting enough for you then you're playing the wrong game.

Content isn't exactly the problem here. The quality, depth, and length of occupied time presented by the content is the real problem. Having tons of fetch and kill x quests, doesn't do much, and veers dangerously into bland MMO quest territory.

How do random encounters constitute meaningful content? We really are in the age of COD here aren't we?

I have played Oblivion, Its woeful - that doesn't excuse Skyrim.

Skyrims dungeons are much better architecturally and cosmetically. But they still suffer the same pointless fate as Oblivions. There is nothing worthwhile in them.
If you read some of the books in game all of the ruins are listed in archival documents as living breathing settlements in past times, now there is NOTHING linking back to then. They all appear as crypts.

What, pray tell, do you consider "meaningful"? Because I can't think of a single game that would satisfy you.

As for the dungeons: are you high? There are plenty of dungeons with some amazingly unique encounters, and there are many that don't look like crypts at all.

The issue that people seem to have is the so-called "fetch/kill" mode of questing, which, sorry to break it to you, is going to be exactly what every quest boils down to if you strip away the surrounding circumstances. And that goes for any game, not just Skyrim.

What you've described is the curse of an open world sandbox game. It's been the same for every single Elder Scrolls. Daggerfall consisted of entirely randomly generated dungeons with no backstory whatsoever. Morrowind's were hand crafted but weren't exactly interesting, and some were pathetically small. Oblivion's were identical in every way with some back story to a few of them. Skyrim's are cosmetically really nice, have traps, quests (marked and umarked), backstory in the form of corpses, journals, books and whatever. It's impossible to have 100+ dungeons and have them all filled out to an unrealistic standard. Bethesda have done a really good job with dungeons this time round.

They did better with the dungeon side of things - no question. There is other arguments within that one how ever. (See the other similar thread)

But the question here, is of content.
Content is not the number of dungeons, or the traps and denizens within. Content is the lore, story and life in the game. Of which, sadly there isn't much.
Anyone can set a bunch of spawn points for monsters, not so many can write and present a fluid, engaging story and give life to a make believe world.