They were way more concerned about making the 11.11.11 deadline than finishing the game. Thats why.

What? Because things like that have a far higher time/gain ratio.

If you spend 10 hours to alter the visuals, then you experience those visuals constantly while playing.

If you spend 10 hours to add 1 hour of gameplay, then all that work goes into something you experience for 1 hour. They're prioritizing.

Are you saying that a bunch of over-glorified pixels are a much better addition than a perk tree that could possibly increase the longlevity of the game?

No, I'm saying fixing the crappy graphics of going underwater (Which was really terrible before) is better than adding something else. Wouldn'y you rather they fix and improv on what's there, instead of adding new content?

If it was horrible then yes, but honestly; the game was a beast in terms of graphics before they added all of those enhancers. I just don't get what's the point of improving an aspect in a video game that's already well done. Graphics were already incredible.

Except that the gameplay is the game, and the graphics are just the window-dressing.

Personally, I wasn't very inspired by the vast majority of the "game jam" stuff. But, hey, that's just me.


Anyway - why isn't it all in, right now? Because the game jam stuff was thrown together by individuals or small teams in a week. Yeah, they may have "worked" for that video, but that doesn't mean that they weren't crashing left and right the rest of the time, causing other parts of the game to explode, not implemented rationally, etc. To actually bring them up to the level of "real features" could take anywhere from a little work to a vast amount. Or be not feasable at all.

So, no. They can't just snap their fingers and have stuff appear. That's software development for you.

When I said why it isn't in there, I didn't mean why they don't make things in an instant. Sure, I'll wait, but half of this stuff is not even confirmed.

Because, as mentioned in the post you quoted, half of this stuff may not even feasibly work in the game, thus will be stuff that will never be implemented.

Plus, there is confirmed DLC (Dawnguard), so why don't we wait to see if some of this stuff makes it in there?

You're not listening... We're talking about the water. They improved the water transitions. Have you ever gone underwater before in Skyrim? It was a complete mess. Now it's super awesome. So they were improving something that was a poorly done left over from previous games.

You're arguing about stuff you don't even seem to know anything about... >.>

But for how long will you experience that 1 hour of gameplay? For one hour. How long will you experience the graphics? Up to an infinite amount of time, so long as the circumstances for displaying them are met. (Being underwater for that, etc) Of course there must be a balance. You can have epic graphics but horrible gameplay makes the game no fun. But they saw a spot that they could quickly improve, that gave them in a really good time(put in)/gain ratio. So they did it...

That's my best guess( finger crossed ), they are going to add some if not most of what you see in the game jam vid. into the DLC. Come on lycanthropy tree

I think you're a bit confused. You don't experience graphics, it's just eye-candy for your eyes. The gameplay is what's important. I mean, the creators of PACMAN didn't spend their whole time trying to make him look good now did they?

Are you really using a game from the 80's that couldn't have looked any better as an example for graphics?

You most certainly do experience graphics. I'm not exactly saying that they are more important than gameplay or anything like that. I'm simply saying they saw making an improvement to water graphics a very effecient use of their time, so they did that.

I'd rather a vampire tree myself, as I've never been a fan of werewolves.

Not that I will complain if there is a lycanthropy tree, and given the GameJam video, I would say it's a good bet.

In fact, in my honest opinion, I really believe that the GameJam video was essentially a preview of many game enhancements that we will see in Dawnguard.

Vampires are overrated.

Anyways, I'd say they're more general improvements we MIGHT see. There is no guarantee for any of them and we already have 3 (or 4) of the improvements listed. We already have the Kinect support as seen in the video, improved underwater visuals and killcams for both arrows and magic.

I want the assassin vision and pitch black dungeons!

I want seasonal change!!

i want a bean feast!

As I said in another topic:

If lycanthropy becomes a new skill, I want more lycanthropes. The lore already has different types, like Werebear, Wereboar and Wereshark, so why not add some of these into the game?

A vampire skill-tree would be nice too.

More time doesn't necessarily mean more quality. I'm looking at you, Duke Nukem Forever.

Did not help Duke Nukem.

If you told me pre-11.11.11 that I would have to wait for Skyrim for 10 years... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_Lg3lf87So

Diablo 3 is another recent example of a game that was in development for a very long period of time and still had a rocky release with bugs and server issues.


Yes, there are plenty of additions I would like to see put into skyrim, but I know that the game I got on 11/11/11 was well worth the price I paid for it.

Aaaargh not more "why isn't the gamejam stuff in Skyrim" questions.

The presentation at gamejam was basically saying: this is what we could do given an open canvas, but there are lots of toher things that go into making the game.

Watch the whole presentation by Todd, as well as the extra features. Yes, some of the stuff could go in. But it's not like Beth sat there saying "well, there's all this cool stuff we could put in... nah, sod it, let's not bother" and rub their hands with wicked glee.

This just sums gamers up as a collective whole. The developers had a bit of fun for ONE WEEK messing around with the game, and Bethesda decided to show us what they did and were kind enough to release some of it for FREE.

Yet some people still whine and complain. Seriously, if you're complaining about this no wonder the forum is in meltdown whenever Bethesda releases something major.