Pah!

Bethesda is merely catering to a new generation of gamers, in particular the console demographic. Us old timers and loyal fans from Arena through Morrowind, and Oblivion, make up a small percentage as opposed to the new kids on the block whose parents account for most of the sales. When my friend(who started with Daggerfall just like me) went to GameStop at midnight to pick up his PC version, he said there were over 100 people there, most of them teenagers with their parents. And 99% of them were for xbox or PS3. Only one other person in line other than him was a PC player.


The dark elves had raspy voices in Vvardenfell because of all the ash that spewed from red mountain. It's not said officially but it is to be presumed. Which also makes sense as to why native dark elves can pinpoint a non-native dark elf, because of his or her voice is not raspy.




The Void is a representation of zero. In terms of lore, I don't think one could exist in it, since not only would it have zero matter but also zero space. Anu-aligned.


EDIT: My PC collector's edition is still unopened in the box in my living room. I'm planning to go buy just the DVD by itself and save the Collector's edition for resale in the future. Although I'm thinking it won't be as valuable as Morrowind collector's edition (which is going for almost $500 used on amazon right now)

Maybe. But the game has been out for 23 days already, so 100 hours is just a bit more than 4 hours/day.

This is something I don't get. Why does less numbers automaticly mean simplified or dumbed down? Skyrim is streamlined comparred to earlier games sure, and the main reason for that is to reach a wider marked, but that doesn't mean it is less complex than Morrowind or Oblivion(but less complex than Daggerfall, which even though I find unplayable due to the control scheme I think is close to the ideal amount of complexity, at least when it comes to character development). Lets see at the facts:

Morrowind style attributes and classes(used in both MW and OB):
This simple(yes, simple) system where you get an amount of bonus points depending on how many times you level a skill is a very good idea on the paper, but since you only level by your major skills the game leads you towards maxing all of your stats regardless of archetype, while it isn't only making it possible, but easy. The fact that all skills are governed by their skill-level(with the exception of melee and archery which take about 20% from attributes, and speech and barter) also makes it pointless to try to specialize since a warrior/mage character isn't any weaker in any of the warrior fields than a pure warrior. A master thief/mage/warrior is equally good in any of the aspects are any of the pure classes, which removed a lot of the complexity with character development since it doesn't really matter in the end. OB is identical, but have mastery perks at cerain skill levels.

Daggerfal style:
At character creation you deicde how you want your attributes, skills and traits to be. You can have a very low attribute to get more points in another etc, and th skills are divided into three types of class skills and a non-class section. The Major skills will start fairly high(40-50), the minor moderate(25-40) and the last class skills low(20-25) with the non-class skills at "useless"(5-20) more or less, which by itself is very similar to the MW style. However you also have traits you can mix around with when you create your class, which can include, but isn't limited to: weapon specialization, resistance(all types), weaknesses, phobias(weaker against enemy X), hatred(stronger against enemy Y), health regeneration, magica multiplier, potential damage from things such as holy places and much more which all is optional combined with a slider that was automaticly adjusted by your traits which prevented you to get all of the good stuff and none of the bad, and the more "powerful"(closer to being too powerful to be allowed your traits) the slower skills increased. Combine this with the fact that you got a few points per level(4-6 randomly generated) which you could spend as you pleased in the attributes reardless of skill increase and you get the most complex character system on any ES game. Why? Because your character will be unique beause of your limited traits and attribute points.

Skyrim style:
No classes or attributes, but the character is defined as you go. The problem here is that most people read the first part and think "dumbed down" automaticly. I beg to differ: The skill value alone is only a formal factor, while the real power of the skill is located in the perks. Example: A heavily armored mage in Skyrim without any perks will get a very limited AR even with Daedric armor and move slowly which is likely to get him/her killed even if their heavy armor skill is at 100, but a character with the perks will have a very high benefit from using armor at the price of putting many of their limited amount of perk possible to gain. The same goes for any skills(maybe except destruction since it is poorly balanced).
The Health/Magica/Stamina choice upon leveling up also favor specialized characters over "Jack-of-all-Trades" characters forcing you to prioritize which are more important for your character. Combine these and you egt a character development that is more complex than MW and OB, even with less numbers to look at. Why? Because all decisions are pemanent and you cannot make a "Master-of-all-Trades". Two level 50 warriors in Skyrim are likely to have more differences than two level 50 warriors in MW.

Ideal Style:
As I see it the best solution for character development would be to cross Daggerfall, Skyrim and OB, having some major dections at the start of the game similar to the traits like in DF and having the limited attribute increase(AKA make it impossible to max them all out, and give them more meaning like a mastery perk at a certain attribute number(similar to OBs mastery perks)) and have perktrees in the skills so two characters who use Two-handed play differently.

Conclution: Skyrim is the second most complex Elder Scrolls game, it has just hidden its numbers. So yes, Skyrim is indeed an ES game.

Edit: More equiment slots =/= complexity, more equiment slots = quantity.

I think that I have no issue with them not making a completely new engine, as They're using the 360. When the next system comes out and they make TES VI, I'm fairly sure they'll have a new engine and all new sorts of things, but until then they have to deal with hardware constraints.

I can't believe the OP figured it out. Rockstar actually produced this game in conjunction with the producers of Kirby Returns to Dreamland. I'm one of the programmers and we were hoping you wouldn't figure it out. We paid Bethesda 10 million to host our game as "Skyrim" and let us use these forums.

The real next Elder Scrolls game is still 5 years away....

Of course, now we have to remove you.... so a contract with the Slightly Grey Sisterhood has been taken out on you.

J