I'm late to the Skyrim forum so I don't know the current wisdom, but why are Skyrim's storylines so banol? And is there any indication that a DLC will improve upon it? I did the 120+ hours and became the uninspiring leader of everything as usual. So what's next? I pause for a reply.

Whatever else you want i guess. I already stopped playing. :/

Because they don't care about cliches as long as the voice actor sounds good*

*See the making of Oblivion video.

I think it's mostly because they're too short. Pity Beth didn't give themselves more production time(that, or figure out sooner that radiant story wasn't good as the primary component of the storylines)

Yes, the guilds largely svck, especially the Thieves' Guild.

Radiants are useless in terms of extending the guild's lifetime because all they do is bring in cash, not story.

the whole appeal of TES as a series is that it is exactly what you make it. Mods can extend the game to infinity, but if you're like me (a dedicated console gamer) its strictly up to you to make the game last longer. I already have a different character for most of the playstyles, current toon is roleplaying a Thalmor agent who infilitrated the college of winterhold unknown to any even ancano. He's a pure mage wearing only robes which can at times be challenging but definetly makes it exciting too. Funny fact, under stats my favorite weapon is a pickaxe....not because i've killed anything with it but because i use it on iron veins to transmute to gold (AKA never used a weapon other than magic) anyways, the game really has limitless possibilities even on vanilla version, you just have to keep it interesting for you.

Really? Limitless possibilities?

The problem with Skyrim is, mods can fix simplified gameplay, but they can't fix the subpar writing, dialogue, and quests.

Daggerfall's guilds were all Radiant! But somehow even those were more interesting than Skyrim's. Hmmph. Kind of sad that a game that's 15 years old has a more refined Radiant quest system than Skyrim

you can mod in unlimtted amount of quests....with whatever writing your heart desires

Mods shouldnt be fixing anything =/ Mods should just add. Beth should never have released this game. Once upon a time we got games that didnt NEED patches.

the reason guild quests svck, iv heard, is because beth attempted to make them all just radient quests then gave up and remade them all at the last second

Why you would make them all Radiant in the first place is beyond me.

another note, yes, it has limitless possibilities if you have an active imagination and play the game to match. For example, my mage does not fast travel except for carriage rides.....but he does have a "recall" spell to warp to the college of winterhold (AKA i pretend it's a recall spell and fast travel) it's all just how you play it and how you get yourself into the game

Yeah, never with Bethesda though.
I've got Daggerfall patched up to 2.13 and I'm still finding all kinds of issues.

I shouldn't have to "pretend" to replace game mechanics that are no longer there, i.e. Mark and Recall.

I used to pretend that I could chat up shopkeeps to try and make them like me better in Oblivion while I hammered out the dings in my armor... oh wait, no, no I didn't have to pretend to do that at all.

I'm not saying that I don't wish they didn't still have that spell, or some other features from past games, the point was merely that you really can add anything to the game even just by using your own imagination.

TES games aren't supposed to be great story-driven RPGs. That's not the goal of the series. If you rush through the game completing the main questlines as quickly as possible, then you're doing it wrong and will most likely have a mediocre experience.

When you give the player so much freedom in terms of where they can go, what they can do, and who their character is, this inevitably makes it a lot harder to craft a strong storyline around the player.

That said, I do feel as though Skyrim could've been better in a couple of areas; especially:

- More imaginative quests (there's two many basic fetch/kill quests - most of which involve delving into a dungeon)
- Longer questlines (some of the factions in particular had potential, but progression felt so rushed that it ruined the experience for me)

But... you can't, like in the spoiler I stated. Unless of course you just flat out ignore said organization.

never tried to take them out. are they unkillable or some such?

Yep, because they are essential to quests.

Why is that ok? :/

I'll revise my statement then. possibilities are not "limitless" but you can roleplay a NEARLY unlimited amount of scenarios

Because the games behind the bugs are worth suffering them. Usually.

And it is common knowledge that Bethesda = bugs, and then some. (it also equals poor writing and animation ).

It's not okay, but what are you gonna do, you know?