What if Skyrim is awful?

[Azure-Supernova]

No doubt there'll be bugs (I take great enjoyment in witnessing them) and problems, but I have a feeling I'll enjoy it anyway. Especially if there's a nice big book shop I can just have my character sit in and read lots and lots of lore!

Impossible. The mod community will fix any problems that it has. If you own it for console, well, that sucks for you.

Remember. This statement means believing that the best way to beat Bethesda's paid and highly trained design team is to use a ragtag community of unpaid amateurs.

And I'm completely okay with that... it's like buying an old rickety mansion and having all of my friends come over and fix it up for me!

 

[Sigmar ov The Hammer]

I will be the happiest man alive!

I've said this before here but i'll say it again. I hope and pray that Skyrim will fail. The collective heartbreak of so many rabid fanboys and fangirls will make me so happy.

Then you must be a very, very sad person.

I know it's just a game, but I can see people being upset about Skyrim being a bad game. The previous TES games may have been a source of escapism (remember this is a site that angles towards those who enjoy games, and those who seek escapism from everyday news and life) to many, and for you to take joy from their disappointment and sorrow (whether you're serious or not), makes you seem like a very joyless, sad, individual.

 

[The Virgo]

I have a hard time imagining it will. Morrorwing, Oblivion and Fallout 3 were fantastic (I haven't played The Elder Scrolls 1and 2) and as long as they keep it on the Oblivion level of excellence, I'll be happy. Yes, some people did not like Oblivion and yes, it had its annoyances (like 10 voice actors), but all-in-all I thought it was a great game.

But if it was bad ... hmmm ... well, first, I would be highly disappointed at Bethesda. Then, I would probably gift it to someone on Steam. The way I see it, I don't like it, but somebody else might.

But I doubt the game will be terrible, so I doubt that's gonna be happening.

 

[RuralGamer]

Considering how dire everything that has come out since about March has been, I'll not notice. Oh and its Bethesda, they haven't messed up the series yet...

 

[SidingWithTheEnemy]

I won't notice as I am so convinced it will be good that when I play it, my mind will block out all the bad bits.

That is the most realistic, believable self-assessment thing I read here so far.
It will be good as long as the modders will do their job right!

 

[laggyteabag]

Then i will loose all respect for Bethesda and i will have punch a small child

 

[Sewer Rat]

If it's awful... Well, to me, it just means I'll find mods to fix whatever is wrong with the game. One of the main reasons I love bethesda games so much is because of the ease to which they can be modded and the sheer size and dedication of the modding community. So if it's terrible, odds are someone in that huge community will release something to fix it up absolutely free. If you are a console gamer though... Yeah, you are fucked.

 

[Macrobstar]

I'd not be surprised, have you played their other recent games? I can't figure out what went wrong, Morrowind was so good.

The last game they made was Fallout 3, but they published a ton of shitty games. Big difference, you don't say EA developed Mass Effect, do you?

no but I do say they made oblivion and fallout 3, which were shitty games.

Nope. Your wrong they where awesome and skyrim will be to

 

[DracoSuave]

Usually because the games are good enough in their own right. It's not like game reviewers are all just insane, some of them have standards, and a significant number of them give Bethesda games high scores despite the bug problems for reasons along the lines of, say, "we thought it was good".

Look at Fallout 3, tremendously positive reception, numerous jokes about bug problems. Doesn't mean the positive reception is null and void.

I'm not taking any credit away from their accomplishments. However, the point is not that the games are not enjoyable. Far from it.

The point is that The Game of The Year should be THE MOST PERFECT GAME OF THAT YEAR.

We're not looking at a list of 'Acceptably good games' or 'this was enjoyable and you'll have tun too despite its flaws'.

We're talking about the games that deserve perfect tens. These are the games that are the paragons on how a game should be.

I'll be blunt. Bugs are going to happen, but if your game has a single, solitary, 'game breaking' bug, then your game cannot be called perfect. It should NOT even be rated nine out of ten. And if your game is not worth nine out of ten, it is not a game of the year.

'Oh but they put out a patch...' No. Stop. That's a symptom of the 'PCification' of the console game market, where a game can be released with crippling bugs, and they'll just fix it later. Horrible enough on PC which has mutliple hardware configurations, and might not always be running equipment that's 'standard'... but it's OBSCENE on a console where the hardware config is constant among all units.

For a game to be Game of the Year, it -must be perfect on release- and if those who accept less are willing to hand the title out to companies' games, unproven, when said companies have yet to produce something even relatively bug-resistant... then said individuals have no fucking clue.

None. Zero. Bethesda cannot be talking about 'game of the year' until they produce a bona fide Game of the Year.

PS: Every Elder Scrolls game has been an ambitious and buggy mess. You're talking to someone who spent quite a bit of time on Daggerfall.

 

[kortin]

You mean like every other Bethesda game before the mod community makes it playable?

o.o

You obviously haven't been playing them correctly if you truly believe they are bad without the mods.

 

[Macrobstar]

Eh. Bethesda fans will forgive the game despite the bugs. They will make excuses for the game, say it is not meant to be perfect at launch, that it is the age we live in and it is your own damn fault for not allowing Bethesda to fix things.

Bonus points will come when the irony does not sink in if the same Bethesda fan boys ripped New Vegas for being buggy as hell.

The rest of us with a brain will laugh so hard that we will die from lack of air.

They are the only company attempting such huge games, how the fuck can you expect it to be bug free?

 

[Zeraki]

I'm honestly not that interested in Skyrim. Oblivion bored me to death, and unless they've really tried to make the game more interesting than "Ooooh, pretty scenery", no amount of non scripted dragon fights could hold my interest.

If I'm going to play a game that's 100+ hours long, I need an interesting story to go with it. All I got in Oblivion was a bunch of walking and boredom. I guess Bethesda games just aren't my thing.

 

[Macrobstar]

I hate mods, people make out like the only way to play TES is with mods, its still awesome vanilla, I love vanilla its so much better than chocolate and strawberry

 

[DracoSuave]

They are the only company attempting such huge games, how the fuck can you expect it to be bug free?

Bugs involving emergent behavior from hundreds of AI-scripted mods is expected in a large game.

The size of the game, however, has nothing to do with 'Save Games got erased whoops!' or 'Trophy support cause the frame rate to reduce to 1/sec' or 'how to level is fundamentally broken.'

Some bugs are systematic and should have been solved before the world-building phase, and have little to do with size.

 

[Macrobstar]

They are the only company attempting such huge games, how the fuck can you expect it to be bug free?

Bugs involving emergent behavior from hundreds of AI-scripted mods is expected in a large game.

The size of the game, however, has nothing to do with 'Save Games got erased whoops!' or 'Trophy support cause the frame rate to reduce to 1/sec' or 'how to level is fundamentally broken.'

Some bugs are systematic and should have been solved before the world-building phase, and have little to do with size.

Oblivion didn't have trophy support so I assume all of those examples are just speculating to prove a point

 

[Mikeyfell]

Seriously, what if? What if it sucks? What if it's all been hype? WHAT WILL WE DO?

Sucks is such a subjective feeling, to me it's not living up to the expectations, that has a lot to do with the hype the thing in question received.

The nice thing about Skyrim is that it's hype has been very subdued. They told us a crap load of "bad" stuff about the game up front.

They told us not to expect all that much more than Oblivion.

They told us it can be beaten in two hours.

They told us they couldn't possibly fix all the bugs.

There was a lot of good stuff too but it was mostly mechanical stuff they were talking about.

So Bethesda has done a pretty good job at keeping our expectations in check.

The one thing that could make Skyrim "Suck" for me is if the NPC's are as repetitive and lifeless and schizophrenic and so on as they were in Oblivion. That would make the new marriage thing as token and pointless as it was in Fable.

And if that happens I'll be disappointing but it won't ruin the game for me. I still loved Oblivion and I rarely ever talked to any towns folk except for shop keepers.

 

[honestdiscussioner]

Right. What happens if the sun is actually cold. That's about as valid a question.

 

[Chelsea O'shea]

Not gonna buy it anyways; so this doesn't affect me.

But yeah, get Saints Row 3 or Halo Anniversary instead. Those will definitely not suck.

accept they will.

 

[Bvenged]

IF and only if Skyrim is buggy to the point where it is unplayable, I would just pack it up & put it on my shelf for a week, then try it again with the hopes that they patched it (like I did with FO:NV, a game made by Obsidian; no developer input by Bethesda - haters gonna' hate).

If the game sucks... scrap that line of thought right there.

If the game is littered with prickly bugs that band together to ruin my entertainment in the game, I would just have to scream at them to go away upon each occurrence with them; like so:
Then man up & continue playing (In Oblivion I just modded them away).

Else, I will be thoroughly enjoying the game on console (this time) as my PC is too outdated -
I haven't upgraded since WoW: TBC, TESIV & Medieval 2: Total War.

I played Fallout 3, Morrowind & Oblivion. All of which were utterly fantastic. So I have my unfounded faith in the game.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

I hate mods, people make out like the only way to play TES is with mods, its still awesome vanilla, I love vanilla its so much better than chocolate and strawberry

I agree with this guy to an extent. I loved vanilla oblivion... but after 300+ hours I wanted to spice things up. THATS what mods are for in my honest opinion. Morrowind looks and feels like garbage today and nostalgia ain't saving it... so mods are almost a necessity for me at this stage.

On topic:

Skyrim CAN'T suck for me because it has everything I want:

Customisable character (aesthetics/stats): check

Wide open space for exploration: check

Quests to occupy my time in said space: check

That's all I want in an Elder Scrolls game. That is also taking into account bugs and glitches that are common in open world games. I expect them and will embrace them, they'll be fixed eventually anyway, whether by the devs or mods later on.

Unless the game is literally unplayable and not whiney little baby unplayable (waaah, game crashed and now I have to redo the last 2 minutes waaah).