Why do people like Elder Scrolls games?

[IamLEAM1983]

Because we find them fun. Why does anyone like any games?

Again, this. If you don't understand why we find Product X interesting, OP, then leave it at that. It's a matter of taste and personal opinion.

Some friends of mine consider themselves hardcore gamers, but if the title doesn't include the word FIFA, they haven't played it. That doesn't mean I have the right or ability to judge them. They like soccer games and can't figure out why I like RPGs and the occasional shooter? Fine, then.

I like Skyrim because the character that's being fleshed out is of a very particular nature. That character I'm speaking of isn't the Dragonborn, it isn't any specific NPC in Skyrim, either. The character I'm referring to is Skyrim itself.

Individually, the game's elements are subpar. Most NPCs abide by stereotypes and vary between jerks and saints without any consideration for how personalities are formed in the real world. The Civil War storyline is poorly handled, and Alduin doesn't seem to have a definitive reason for doing what he does. "HAI GUISE, I'M IN UR PHYSICAL PLANE, KILLING UR DOODS!" might as well be the World Eater's calling card. He doesn't have any reason to do what he does, and simply is there to be a reasonably evil-looking final boss to throw down against. The companions don't have any rhyme or reason for choosing to follow you, other than you having completed an oftentimes underwhelming favour for them.

I mean, what the Hell, Kharjo? I got you your locket back, and now you're willing to follow me to the ends of the Earth?! I won't complain, but how does that work? Do you have some kind of death wish or something? I don't go to safe places, y'know...

At least, this is the train of thought that went through my mind when I realized I could hire him.

Skyrim as a living space is also just as flawed as Cyrodiil was. We're in 2012, and Bethesda still hasn't figured out that the occasional sight of an outhouse or of a chamber pot would add a much-needed form of credibility to the experience. What, am I supposed to think that the people of Nirn have chronic constipation from birth or use Magicka to push back kidney failure or exploding bladders?

Honestly, these are the only gripes I have with the series. As much as I'd like three hundred-page epics in the books, I know I couldn't ask so much of the project's writers. If it really bothers me, then the fans figured out how to mod entire novellas and short novels into the game.

The crux of it is that people play Bethsoft games for the immersion factor; for the "Wow!" moment when you reach the biggest, most lavish room in a barrow or cavern. These moments are what makes Skyrim come to life - standing on a cliff face looking at the creeping dawn and the way the sky shifts, or just heading due north to get lost in the sheer, freaking blizzards carpeting the Sea of Ghosts between Solitude and Dawnstar, and then wondering what the fuck is attacking you because you can't see past your nose.

Or, well, you can just ask the compulsive modders. They'll tell you body mods and skimpy armour sets make the game, to the point where they'll spend more time posing around in Whiterun than actually playing. Again - it's a matter of opinion. I don't need my player character to have double D-cups and little steel seashells on her nipples as her only armour, but some people enjoy this kind of stuff.

 

[carpathic]

Remember that article here,http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/features/9391-The-Men-Who-Stare-At-Mountains ? This is why people like Skyrim as well as any other Elder Scrolls game. It's the ultimate sandbox game that encourages you to explore and not just complete this quest or that quest. The journey is often more important than the destination, which is why this game eats time so very easily. In a time when most triple A games' single player story may last 6-10 hours, we feel robbed if $20 Skyrim DLC falls anywhere close to that.

damn..ninja'd

This is it for me, they approximate life, except instead of being not particularly excellent at anything, I get to be the hero...

It is the ultimate in escapism and makes the game truly fantastic. I can explore, or not, I can kill Alduin, or not...

 

[Terminate421]

People like it because they can? We are not all copies of you, just so you know.

Its fun to fight dragons, despite everyone's criticism that it's "repetitive"

 

[SajuukKhar]

*edit*

removed because I didn't like my post.

 

[Samantha Burt]

snip

Nobody is forcing you to play them are they?

YES! I waited for you to start grasping at straws. I DO love this!

"Don't like it don't play it"
"You can't criticize unless you play through the whole game"
"You obviously didn't hate it if you played through the entire game"

Something along those lines, right? And Bethesda's former fans should just stay silent as their series slides to shit? Oh wait,

Spoiler

"It's Bethesda's game, they can do whatever they want with it.

Right?

I'm not quite sure what you're hoping to achieve. We get it: you don't like Skyrim. That's fine, everyone has different tastes. But you seem to be making a marked point of listing all the issues you have with it, even unprovoked. Is it simply that you enjoy engaging in argument? I am legitimately confused.

OT: I just enjoy that I can mess about and do my own thing for 20 hours without so much as seeing anything story-related. It's really as close as I can get to a proper D&D game (at least IMO).

 

[Muspelheim]

You don't like Skyrim. I really do like Skyrim. We both love oxygen. Certain bacteria hate oxygen (well, if they were complex enough to form opinions, at least). Everything is relative.

I can say that, to me, Skyrim is just fantastic and a wonderful experience. You can say that, to you, it was just crap. These are opinions. We've got different ones. That's how they work.

Neither of us is necessary wrong or stupid because what we feel for Skyrim. It's just opinions on a particular video game.

 

[TehCookie]

Skyrim is one of those games where it's not about the ending, it's about the journey.

Then again it's what you want out of it. If you want some huge story of how your character rises to glory and is know through the land for their deeds good and bad, you're not gonna get that. If you have a different mindset like your character is in the shadows controlling everything but no one knows it, it makes more sense.

Or you can get drunk and yell at all the NPCs for not respecting you and your accomplishments and kill everyone that annoys you. That's my favorite way to play it.

 

[bioject]

Because your definition of "crap" is kind of crap.

You seem to be under the impression that people DON'T like modding the crap out of their game, having a meandering experience, having a weak storyline with little consequence, or doing sidequests. This impression is bad, and you should feel bad for having it.

You'd think that people could look at a video game landscape where "Call of Duty", "Starcraft", "Psychonauts", "Myst" and ".flow" all exist, and figure out that people like different things, but they keep a mentality that simply screams "Stop liking what I don't like!"

I have discovered that if a game needs a boatload of mods to be fun, then it has issues.

 

[Silvianoshei]

Skyrim is a MEDIOCRE sandbox. There was nowhere near enough variation in the setpeices, dungeons, or enemies. The "Ooh, what's this!?" feeling that I got from earlier TES games was replaced by "This looks really familiar."

I freaking love open world sandboxes like Just Cause and FarCry, but Skyrim was just...underwhelming. I tried to explore every nook and cranny and just found things to be very samey.

So, mister OP, forget what everyone says in this flamed-out thread. You asked for their opinions because you wanted to know what others saw in Skyrim and presented your arguments as to why you didn't enjoy it in a very well-constructed manner.

Most people replied flinging fanboy poo. Grow up, people. Respond to his question and his arguments, there's no need for ad hominem attacks.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Skyrim is a MEDIOCRE sandbox...

...in your opinion. I could retort that FarCry 2 was samey, seeing as you spent the game shooting at dark-skinned fellows you could barely see in the middle of fairly dark and high underbrush. It was flamethrower or bust, for me, as I couldn't aim for shit if the NPCs weren't out in the clear.

I could also retort that Just Cause 2 didn't keep my interest because I kept feeling the structure was riffing off of what was happening in Haiti at the time, and because the universe's sheer insistence at setting up a non-specific South Pacific micro-nation that takes after Indonesia as much as it does some of the French colonies didn't feel too successful. I could say the voice acting sucked and that Rico Rodriguez is, generally speaking, an unlikeable douchebag.

I could say all that. I could also say you've been flinging fanboy poo. That wouldn't be too classy of me now, would it?

It's one of these instances where I wonder why this was even brought up as a discussion topic, OP. What were you expecting? Some of us to go "Oh my God, you're right, I've been playing an utter piece of cow dung for the past year!" I can recognize faults in a lot of things I like. Read my post over. I did exactly that. Even so, I like Skyrim. No amount of criticism will change that.

We like something, you don't like it. Let's just leave it at that and avoid assuming things. You can do better, Silvianoshei.

 

[Bocaj2000]

After hating Oblivion because every quest story was boring and uninteresting and the game required 100+ mods to be fun, I decided to give Skyrim a try. I will give it credit for being the most playable out of the box Bethesdia game I have ever seen. This time it only needed 10 essential mods and most of them just tweaked a few minor things. In addition the game actually had interesting quests for once. I probably did about 50% of them before I completed the main quest only to discover that there was no ending or even a celebration of my accomplishment. In fact the main quest felt like a side quest. Shoot the entire game felt like a game of side quests with no central story line tying anything together.

And I guess this was my core problem with Skyrim and why I will never waste another minute on a future Elder Scrolls game. None of the quests connected or really affected the world. If I become Archmage nobody cared. I was the leader of the Brotherhood, Thieves Guild, Mages Guild, and a member of the Stormcloaks and nobody cared. I thought Stormcloaks hated magic so why would they let an Archmage join them? Why are High Elves racist against you if you're also a high elf?
So in summary the core problem I have here is that none of the quests you do really matter, your race or sex doesn't matter either which ultimately makes the game kind of boring.

It would be a lot more fun if depending on which quests you did and what sex/race you where, they would either change or become unavailable which would increase replayability and fun. It feels good when your actions matter in open world games. Something that is seriously lacking from all Elder Scroll games.

So why do people like these games? Their crap!

The Elder Scrolls games are NOT about winning. They are about exploration and getting immersed in the world. The focus isn't on you; it's on the world that you play in and experiencing it first hand. You ask for your decisions to have more of an impact, but that's not what the game is about. Play something else, mature a bit, then come back to this series.

 

[Bocaj2000]

double post

 

[hermes]

People like Elder Scrolls games because of the unequaled freedom, roleplaying opportunities, modding opportunities, and realized world they offer. To my knowledge there is nothing else like it and I double-dog dare anyone to prove me wrong.

EDIT: Don't say Fallout.

STALKER.

I think people like them because they offer something no other game in the consoles comes even close. Its the ultimate sandbox game, where you can go anywhere and be anything that you like... The downside of that is that after some hours, you end up being the king of everything.

I do agree with the first comment that it should take your progress more into account when traversing the game. It is kind of disappointing that you can be emperor of the continent, sorcerer supreme, savior of the world and king of the vampires, yet guards will treat you like crap because they think you are about to steal something...

 

[Kyber]

I played 100+ hours of vanilla oblivion and 170+ hours of vanilla skyrim. Loved every minute, our opinions differ in so many ways, I love the freedom, the story, the world and the EVERYTHING.

 

[lacktheknack]

Because your definition of "crap" is kind of crap.

You seem to be under the impression that people DON'T like modding the crap out of their game, having a meandering experience, having a weak storyline with little consequence, or doing sidequests. This impression is bad, and you should feel bad for having it.

You'd think that people could look at a video game landscape where "Call of Duty", "Starcraft", "Psychonauts", "Myst" and ".flow" all exist, and figure out that people like different things, but they keep a mentality that simply screams "Stop liking what I don't like!"

I have discovered that if a game needs a boatload of mods to be fun, then it has issues.

I find Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim are fun without any mods.

Boom, I have utterly obliterated your statement.

 

[Shinclone]

Don't you reckon that pretty much every gamer who likes TES/Fallout wants Obsidian and Bethesda to team up for the next game. Bethesda's awesome art design, atmosphere and alright bug fixing. And Obsidian's awesome story, gameplay and balancing.

If only. I'd pre-order that game in a nano-second. I found Fallout 3 a bit meh. New Vegas however was just shy of awesome. Loved it. As you said, if they could get it right, and with these two companies that'd be a big if, it'd be a license to print money.

 

[nexus]

I've played Skyrim since release day on-and-off... on-and-off.. on, and then off again. I recently patched up with Dawnguard, then proceeded to update all my mods (about 75+ of them) and dove back in. I've played over 250+ hours of Skyrim in total, and I've yet to complete the Main Quest. That should speak for itself about how much I enjoy these games.

It's basically all about the journey, and all about using your imagination. I turned off fast-travel, use a "Hunger, Thirst, Sleep" mod, and a comprehensive weather mod.

I also use a little gem called "Frostfall" which is a hypothermia survival mod. Basically, you can craft "fire kits", tents and a cooking pot. Even when geared up properly to survive the cold, you will have to stop at some point in your journey between outposts to start a fire, or die. If you jump in cold water by accident, you have to find a fire immediately or you freeze to death. It's also regional, so you won't get too cold in Falkreath hold (the south) for instance, unless it rains and you stay wet for too long.

So basically, for me, every quest is a journey, and every journey is an adventure. I use weight tweaks that make it more realistic.. so I can stock up very little in between journeys, forcing me to set up said camps, and hunt for food. Camping out to wait out the hardcore storms because the weather mod makes visibility almost zero for the bad storms, etc.

Yea, so it's fun.