I know everyone believes that quest markers are there to hold your hand, and allow for the casual crowd, or kids to succeed in the game... which is strange seeing how kids are freakishly good at games compared to my abilities at that age.

However this is my take. Quest markers give you direction. I know many people get overwhelmed when they start an open world game, and I've experienced this myself. I almost always get burnt out because the lack of direction means I spend hours rummaging through the forest picking plants, or finding new quests and towns.

Can the quest markers be too revealing? At times yes, but at the same time not everyone likes to run around with directions given to you buy a flipping drunk person... Morrowind.

I don't mind quest-markers, but I am very glad they are optional in Skyrim.

I played Morrowind and I remember searching a whole town just to find one person's house and when I checked to see if they were there... they weren't. Then I'd run around trying to find them out on the streets, in the local cornerclub, everywhere until I found them. I loved the quest marker in Oblivion because it shows where you need to be or interact with so you don't spend so much time searching for an npc or object lying around.

The hunt for more hyperlinks and tedious persuasion is one thing I do NOT miss about Morrowind.

I personally wouldn't mind a mod that would put map markers in a "general" area if you have never discovered the location. So you can look at the map then get to the general area and then have to look around to "discover" the location. Once you do the map marker corrects itself to the GPS coordinates.

It's a good trade off IMO from no markers to laser accurate markers because face it, if a NPC tells you about where something is located or you read about it in a book in game there is enough info to mark the area where it can be found.

Tell me if yo uget lost in real life and ask for directions, do yo uget overwhelmed by said directions? (If they're given clearly that is.)

for instance, If I said find X landmark near the south of Y city, from there go east and find Z cave, in it you'll find what your looking for. Is that so overwhelming? Esecially if your journal is decent enough to provide this info in your quest entry. the MArker system also leads to stupid stiuation in Dialogue and stuff where random person just find my beer! and suddenly you know exactly where they dropped it. With then giving you no clues. It pretty muc hmake any quest where your tasked with finding somethign extremely lame and boring.

So yo uwant to pla yan RPG but not talk to people or listen to dialogue? XD

Here's the thing though, Quest Markers FORCE direction. Sometimes I just want to wander and explore, but It's hard to do that when everything is already explored for me.

I recently put Morrowind again and played it for a couple hours. I completed a quest and then was told "report now to so and so". The only thing is....it's probably been a year since the last time I played and I completely forgot where the person was, and my journal didn't help because all the entries are bunched together. So I like having optional quest markers for that reason. Also, sometimes you have to find an NPC and they're walking around town.

Yes I like quest markers on the map, It means I can plan my own route to a location, I like that. it's the compass I don't like or rather the undiscovered location markers on the compass that I don't like it spoils the thrill of discovery.

Certainly don't miss the text directions from Morrowind that wasn't challenging or fun it was a chore.

What? they don't stop exploration in the slightest they may show you were a location is but they don't force you to go there or prevent you from exploring else where.

I agree with this.

No, Morrowind was not "too hard" for me to figure out.

And maybe that's the point - everything was so clear and to the point in Morrowind, with yellow squares on your map telling you where your destination was anyways, that I really don't see a difference.

The only thing that -sometimes- gets me, is the POI's, which tell me "hey, there's a dungeon somewhere near you" which can feel weird, but I don't think it's a dumbing down, and like you said, it gives a sense of direction. I can run in a random direction, with no real purpose, find a POI pop up on my compass, and all of a sudden that's my new objective, to seek out that location (which it's as simple as "running towards a marker", because the landscape forces you to find a capable path to your objective).

I really don't mind it at all, I don't see it as "hand holding" or "dumbing down", and I really hate those terms to describe features of these games. They are incredibly insulting.

In my everyday life I have access to GPS in my car and on my phone. Asking people for directions is something I do as a last resort. As for the markers it keeps the dialogue nice and condensed. Why pay your writers, and voice actors more money just so you can give people directions to every single location in the game. If I'm not mistaken Skyrim has more locations than Morrowind.




If Skyrim was a linear game then yes it's forced. However it's not forced as you're not forced to go to said place, you can if you like. If you don't want the quest marker you can turn it off.

This.

I was excited as all get out when I found Azura's Shrine.

Sure, the POI popped up on my compass, but 1.) it didn't show me the path to the Shrine 2.) it didn't take me from Whiterun to Azura's Shrine 3.) it didn't tell me it was Azura's Shrine until I actually discovered it for myself.

Quest markers do not have to be bad, if they are added after the game is done, so to speak.
So that its possible to play without them.

Quest markers as in Skyrim, where they are an integral part and a replacement for dialogue, is detrimental to gameplay, because it reduces the game to an excersize of follow-the-arrow.

My nephew (14) is more of the fps gamer type. CoD:MW2 being top of his list. He was talked into playing Skyrim by friends at school. Even with the quest markers, he was lost. He wouldn't be able to handle Morrowind.

Myself, I like games that make you think but at the same time, don't leave you lost. If journal info was done adequately enough, markers shouldn't be necessary. The journal should tell you the general location or perhaps even an exact location simply by telling you instead of showing. It is then up to you to do the rest. The game should help you in a more realistic fashion. Take Morrowind for example...you're told to go see a person in Vivec. Well, Vivec is a decent size. The journal should have more detailed instructions. Even then, you should be able to ask people about the person you are looking for to see if they know them and where they might be found.

So to make it short...Actual markers shouldn't exist. Journal entries should be informative enough to get you there, and if it only gets you to the area, asking (if possible) or a small amount of searching should be all you need.

But you can't turn off the quest marker without turning off your health/magicka/stamina right? If I'm wrong please dear god tell me.

And of course I'm not forced to go to said place, but I already know it's there hundreds of feet before I visually discover it, so the wonder and majesty of exploring is virtually gone for me.





This.

Yes, optional quest markers, which aren't absolutely essential by dint of actual directions, are indeed a good thing.

I generally play with quest markers turned off, but I think having them as an option that can be turned off and on is good. Yes, sometimes in Morrowind it became tedious to find a person, and in Skyrim, I will sometimes turn questmarkers on for a moment to locate someone and save some hassle.

My complaint about questmarkers in Skyrim is that the game world does not give you enough information to do most quests without turning them on at some point. An example would be where an NPC says go find X but does not tell you where to look. You turn on your quest marker, which shows you the exact location of the cave/ruin, etc. It would have been a much better game if the NPC had said something like go find X, "which was last seen in a cave north of Dawnstar" as an example. That way you could have the option of playing with quest markers off and still have some chance of finding the right cave.

oh I get it, the folks in Tamerial all have personal GPS's then eh? Plus you can progra mthese GPS to locate object lost for years! Like dead bodies, and lost items!

Actually, you can turn quest markers off by going into the quest menu (start key on the PS3) and toggling them off for each quest in your quest log. You do not have to turn off your HUD.

You can turn off "floating" quest markers (the ones that float in the air over people's heads) in the Options menu but if you have the quest marker turned off in the quest menu, you won't get a "floating" quest marker anyway.

You can even turn off the crosshair if you want. I almost always play with quest markers and crosshairs turned off.

If you are playing on a console, the only thing you cannot turn off without also turning off the HUD is your compass, but if you are on a PC you can even turn off the compass without turning off the HUD.

If you want to continue to parallel Skyrim and Real life then how about this. Morrowind was the 1870 when you had no GPS, and very limited means of traveling. Most of your traveling was done on foot, or horse. You had very rough maps and asked people for directions. Oblivion was the 1950s where you had a better map, more options for traveling and more accurate directions. Skyrim is 2012 where you have GPS and cars. Some people don't like GPS or cars, so they just walk or ride their imaginary horses around.

Anyways I'm not comparing, or even looking at Skyrim through the context of real life. I'm not connecting any tangible qualities we have with Skyrim. I'm just saying that [censored] evolves, unless you're in star wars where your holograms never get any better.

I don't use it, I prefer to explore, but I will quickly put it on to see where I need to head when I first set out on a quest. If it's to an undiscovered location. I'll also put it on if I need to find someone specific and they are not at home/work/tavern.

The quest log is not great, hardly any information, sometimes you need to have a look at where your destination is, but it's better to try not to use it.

It's like fast travel, it's your choice, no one forces you to use it. Avoid as much as possible and be thankful it's there if you need it.

I remember banging my head against the wall because I couldn’t find a cave in Morrowind for an hour because I was given god awful directions by the quest giver. I didn’t have internet at the time , so quest markers are a god send. What bothers me is that now we don’t get any directions at all, they just assume that you should follow the quest marker which is kinda lame. I would love to have directions AND an option to turn the quest markers on when I am getting disparate.

I really like quest markers. I would also like it if they would just lead to a general location with very precise directions. Kind of a mix between MW and OB.

Ninja'd. I should really read through the comments.

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?&app=forums&module=extras§ion=legends# http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?&app=forums&module=extras§ion=legends# http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?&app=forums&module=extras§ion=legends#

I am always on the receiving end of evil ninjas so I figure I got to enjoy the occasions