Don't Expect Friendly Dragons in Skyrim, Says Bethesda
You can add "heartwarming buddy movie" to the list of things that Skyrim most definitely is not.
If you had hopes of taming a dragon in Skyrim [http://www.amazon.com/Elder-Scrolls-V-Skyrim-Xbox-360/dp/B004HYK956/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319026162&sr=8-1] and being best friends forever, then you're in for a world of disappointment. Bethesda's Peter Hines says that Skyrim's dragons are more Smaug than they are Puff, with little else on their mind other than hurting people.
"This is not How to Train Your Dragon, " he said. "This is how to kill a whole bunch of very mean things that have come to kill and hurt people ... Might there be exceptions and nuances to that? Possibly. I wouldn't want to say anything beyond that. But this is not a game where, like, 'no, dragons are our friends and we just have to learn to get along!'"
He also talked about Skyrim's Radiant Story system, which adds random encounters to the world. He described a scenario where the player is attacked and killed by bandits on the way to a dungeon. The next time the player walked that road, it might not be bandits; instead, it might be a wizard or a hunter. He said that Radiant Story would allow people to have a unique experience with the game, without it every being obvious what was scripted and what wasn't.
"It's subtle, we don't ever want you to know or notice when you're experiencing something that's got Radiant Story," he explained. "But when you're around the watercooler the next day and everybody's talking about what they did, even if you did the same quest you'll be like 'hey wait a minute, I went to a different dungeon, which one did you go to? Mine had waterfalls.'"
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim comes out for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on November 11th.
Source: GameSpot [http://au.gamespot.com/xbox360/rpg/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/video/6340827/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-interview-with-pete-hines]
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You can add "heartwarming buddy movie" to the list of things that Skyrim most definitely is not.
If you had hopes of taming a dragon in Skyrim [http://www.amazon.com/Elder-Scrolls-V-Skyrim-Xbox-360/dp/B004HYK956/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319026162&sr=8-1] and being best friends forever, then you're in for a world of disappointment. Bethesda's Peter Hines says that Skyrim's dragons are more Smaug than they are Puff, with little else on their mind other than hurting people.
"This is not How to Train Your Dragon, " he said. "This is how to kill a whole bunch of very mean things that have come to kill and hurt people ... Might there be exceptions and nuances to that? Possibly. I wouldn't want to say anything beyond that. But this is not a game where, like, 'no, dragons are our friends and we just have to learn to get along!'"
He also talked about Skyrim's Radiant Story system, which adds random encounters to the world. He described a scenario where the player is attacked and killed by bandits on the way to a dungeon. The next time the player walked that road, it might not be bandits; instead, it might be a wizard or a hunter. He said that Radiant Story would allow people to have a unique experience with the game, without it every being obvious what was scripted and what wasn't.
"It's subtle, we don't ever want you to know or notice when you're experiencing something that's got Radiant Story," he explained. "But when you're around the watercooler the next day and everybody's talking about what they did, even if you did the same quest you'll be like 'hey wait a minute, I went to a different dungeon, which one did you go to? Mine had waterfalls.'"
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim comes out for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on November 11th.
Source: GameSpot [http://au.gamespot.com/xbox360/rpg/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/video/6340827/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-interview-with-pete-hines]
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Someone out there will, obviously. I think Bethesda's on the right track by choosing to focus on the core aspect of the game (i.e. killing shit) and letting the more common dragon fantasies slip aside for the time being.
