Why do people like Elder Scrolls games?

[NiPah]

After the first little intro mission it plops you out into this huge expansive world and pretty much tells you "ok go in this general direction to some place over here". You don't have to go to that certain place, you can go towards this huge interesting mountain, or maybe you see a river that looks interesting, it's pretty much a hiking sim tacked onto a huge RPG.

Really dude you have to know by now that posts like this only make you out to be an asshole, they may get a lot of hits from people defending the games they enjoy but afterwards everyone just remembers you as the idiot who made another one of those "why do people like things I dislike" posts. Next time don't follow the status quo, discuss the merits of game continuity, their impact on game immersion, and how Skyrim can integrate new ideas.

You gotta know you made a stupid post when half the responding posts are people pissed off at you.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Because of the MASSIVE OPEN world, an aspect that is becoming rarer these days. Some of you points are valid (especially the I'm the leader of everything) but that at very least for the moment will be insumunatable due to the limitations of the current PC/console generation and the shear amount of coding required.

 

[Doom-Slayer]

-snip-

ITT: OP looking for attention by not liking a popular game.

Seriously? Why did you even make this thread? People like them for the exploration, being able to do whatever you want and modding the hell out of it to once again, do whatever you want.

Maybe we dont care about story or about connecting questlines or about how our sex or race affects quests, that doesn't matter to us like it does to you. This is not rocket science, its called an opinion, and people have different opinions to you for a million reason, and making a thread asking about it will not make it clear to you or help you understand it.

 

[Bolwing]

Because they provide a rich, huge open world to explore at the players leisure, with some nice character customization. They also give a whole lot of gameplay for their price in comparison with other titles.

This. If you NEED the story to be up to par, you won't be able to enjoy the things people like about the elder scrolls OP.

But I agree with you. Obsidian for example blows Bethesda's quest design out of the water. And even the balance and gameplay most of the time.

But the reason I like Oblivion and Skyrim is that for me personally, Bethesda's concept artists are the best in the industry, bar none. Perfect aesthethic design for me. (Though they rival the Half Life 2 + Episodes concept artists) And adding the large number of quests onto that, and the many ways to customize characters, I do find something fun in them even if the stories and dialogue annoy me.

Totally agree. On a side note: I'm afraid that Bethesda's head concept artist is, unfortunately, dead. He died shortly after Skyrim was released.

 

[Mr Cwtchy]

Wonder how long it will take for Anthraxus to turn up in this thread..

For me, having only played Skyrim, I love the complete freedom the game offers. See that mountain in the distance? You can climb it. Those ruins? Explore them. That big ass Dragon on the hill? Slay it.

Or if those don't appeal to you, you can turn around and go in a different direction.

Also the atmosphere and art design.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

After hating Oblivion

There's your problem. Go play Morrowind.

Their crap!

"They're"

Also, opinions.

 

[Polite Sage]

Wonder how long it will take for Anthraxus to turn up in this thread..

For me, having only played Skyrim, I love the complete freedom the game offers. See that mountain in the distance? You can climb it. Those ruins? Explore them. That big ass Dragon on the hill? Slay it.

Or if those don't appeal to you, you can turn around and go in a different direction.

Also the atmosphere and art design.

That mountain? There's only a few of those and are usually only climbed with the vertically moving horses bug that's yet to be fixed.

Those ruins? Draugr slaying simulator #67745. And they're all linear as our cocks.
Skyrim's dungeons are literally either draugr, bandit, spider, animal, falmer or dwarven themed. Way less enemy variation compared to earlier TES games and the "harder enemies" (reskins) just have more DPS and take about a million hits before going down.

How about the guild or main quest dungeons? They're better, right? Right?
Nope. See that "Labyrinthian"? One of the most linear dungeons in the game.

And Dragons? Dragon Nro. 56777690988 with no variations from the previous ones? What Bethesda? Give player time slow, freeze, curses, detect life, summon storms, disarm, summon dragons and all kinds of other shit from shouts? What do they give their every single dragon, the foes that supposedly are the ones that INVENTED the language? The dragons that have been faking death for thousands of years without losing or forgetting a speck of their hatred for humanity? Fire or ice flames. And exactly the same move sets.

What about our final boss, Alduin then? Easier than your random encounter ancient dragon.

Bethesda has moved to a point where they have stopped giving a shit and except their fans to fix / finish their games for them? Oh, and what if you're on console? Too bad ************.

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

Its a sandbox game. You can't expect everything to be interconnected like that. Plus, its not story oriented, its action and exploration oriented.

 

[surg3n]

People tend to like games that offer a lot of 'surface' freedom, I mean like being able to explore, or be a douchebag, or mainly just play the game however they want. Most games don't offer a lot of freedom and a lot of story at the same time, but Bethesda games do that best.

I like my sandbox games, like Skyrim, Dead Island, Minecraft, DayZ, GTA4 etc etc. Skyrim is a great sandbox, and the main storyline does suffer a little - it actually feels more like several overlapping side quests to me. But that's ok, maybe that's just the way that makes the most sense during development. Maybe the Elder Scrolls incarnation will have even less storyline, and be made almost entirely out of side quests, or maybe we should start calling them quests. A game world as big as Skyrim is too big for any single plot, and managing the logistics of having storyline decisions. Well ideally Elder Scrolls will stop doing that. Bethesda, Stop giving the player decisions to make when you know 95% of players will choose the same option. I'd still like Skyrim if there was no storyline, no political subtext - just an adventurer doing quests and becoming an even more kick-ass adventurer. That is all we really need from Elder Scrolls. IMO it's the side quests where Bethesda really shine, the inventiveness, humour, attention to detail etc spent on a quest that might take 3 minutes to complete, is what makes Skyrim the game that it is.

 

[Galletea]

I probably dislike most of the stuff you play, but I don't make pointless inflammatory threads about it.
I play Skyrim and I played Fallout 3 for hours and hours, and some more hours because I enjoy it. I like the exploration, and I like the various dungeons, caves and pits, and I like the little things you find in certain caves that makes them unique. I enjoy the crafting aspect and I like to kill dragons and deathclaws and whatever.
I'd much rather go and try to climb a mountain for a couple of hours than shoot some minorities in a grey complex, just because some guy is telling me to do so.

 

[Polite Sage]

its action and exploration oriented.

Too bad both are shit. Dungeons are reskins, quests are shitty fetch jobs which almost ALWAYS involve getting from one corner of the world to another. If you use fast travel, fine. Otherwise it's padding with endless roads and Draugr Slaying simulators with a dragon encounter every other minute. Only thing they made right was the overworld, which at least LOOKS good.

And action? Let me sum up the different builds.

Melee - You spam your heaviest attack. There is no penalty / reward, between a slow, but powerful or a fast but weak attack. Your best bet is to spam power attack until you run out of stamina and wait for it to recharge. What about movement? Back pedal kite TO THE MAX.

Bow - You shoot at stuff and kite. Occasional sneak shot, but sneaking in Bethesda's games has always been broken either way.

Mage - This has a bit more variation since there are multiple schools, but they're still dumbed down versions of earlier TES games.
Destruction = you shoot bolts. And then you shoot bigger bolts. Runes would be nice if used in tandem with sneaking, otherwise they're used like bolts because the AI is too stupid to disarm or dodge them.
Alteration = You have more armor and that's it. Comes with some "cool" but useless utility spells too.
Illusion = One of the two game breaking spell builds. You can pretty much walk through dungeons without dirtying your hands.
Conjuration = First starts out a nice familiar boost but quickly turns into OP weapons and summons that do all your shit for you.
Restoration = You heal stuff and get some background perma buffs.

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

its action and exploration oriented.

Too bad both are shit. Dungeons are reskins, quests are shitty fetch jobs which almost ALWAYS involve getting from one corner of the world to another. If you use fast travel, fine. Otherwise it's padding with endless roads and Draugr Slaying simulators with a dragon encounter every other minute. Only thing they made right was the overworld, which at least LOOKS good.

And action? Let me sum up the different builds.

Melee - You spam your heaviest attack. There is no penalty / reward, between a slow, but powerful or a fast but weak attack. Your best bet is to spam power attack until you run out of stamina and wait for it to recharge. What about movement? Back pedal kite TO THE MAX.

Bow - You shoot at stuff and kite. Occasional sneak shot, but sneaking in Bethesda's games has always been broken either way.

Mage - This has a bit more variation since there are multiple schools, but they're still dumbed down versions of earlier TES games.
Destruction = you shoot bolts. And then you shoot bigger bolts. Runes would be nice if used in tandem with sneaking, otherwise they're used like bolts because the AI is too stupid to disarm or dodge them.
Alteration = You have more armor and that's it. Comes with some "cool" but useless utility spells too.
Illusion = One of the two game breaking spell builds. You can pretty much walk through dungeons without dirtying your hands.
Conjuration = First starts out a nice familiar boost but quickly turns into OP weapons and summons that do all your shit for you.
Restoration = You heal stuff and get some background perma buffs.

And is it different to any other RPG? Or any other game for that matter? No, its really not. Platformer: Jump or die. Shooters: Shoot till no more enemies are shooting back. RTS: Click stuff. MOBA: same as RTS.

 

[Polite Sage]

The answer to all of those questions is "Because they're good.".

Why do people like Twilight? Why do people like Justin Bieber? The answer is not "Because it's good". Popular doesn't equal quality, just that people are easily drawn in by the bling bling.

And is it different to any other RPG? Or any other game for that matter? No, its really not. Platformer: Jump or die. Shooters: Shoot till no more enemies are shooting back. RTS: Click stuff. MOBA: same as RTS.

It is. There actually are well executed games. Dark Souls is an RPG with a good combat system and exploration. Deus Ex is a good RPG. Not Skyrim's scale of exploration, but instead not every area is a reskin. El Shaddai is a platformer / hack'n'slash with actually well executed gameplay mechanics. Little Big Planet has some fun new ideas for platforming. Half Life and Human Revolution are good shooters with pacing and differs from nowaadays Military Shooter 34 Regenerating Health Quickscope Prestige.

Skyrim ditched it's RPG elements in favor of a "perk system" that you won't even notice, since most of those are background modifiers like +20% mana rege, +15% one handed dmg etc. Okay, fine. Maybe it could have compensated with a better combat system. But it's still shit. No improvement from earlier TES games. Hitting an enemy or a wall feels same as hitting air, but with a "slit" or "clonck" sound instead of a "whoosh". Skyrim's combat has no weight whatsoever. And neither does it's "you can climb it slogan" exploration or "radiant AI infinite quests" which are actually repeatable fetch/kill jobs.

Instead of crunching bad gameplay elements and polishing the good ones, Bethesda opted to go for the widest audience.
Skyrim is a very shallow game with good first impressions.

 

[O maestre]

wow conrad wentzel you come off as both opinionated and narrow minded all in the space of a few lines.

like the choir of others have already stated its all about tastes. the elder scrolls offer a world that is completely free of linearity, where sandbox is king. not only is the game world open but so is the narrative, which relies a lot more on your imagination.

the downside is that there is very little cohesion, like you mentioned if you take all the quests as a whole there is very little red thread keeping it all together.

i tend to view TES games much like sagas and stories ancient medieval heroes, in the context of ,what if all those heroes were in fact the same person, a lone traveller that is more of an archetype than an actual person.

it is a very different experience just to wander about the land and have the narrative completely in your hands, both back story and motivation. gameplay wise that means that 95% of the time its just fooling around or wandering which is where the "fun aspect" is present for me. granted i would like a TES game where the world is more reactive, but i wouldn't want anything resembling cohesion or linearity.

TES games are not perfect and have a lot of shortcomings, both mechanically and storywise, but they are definitely unique, i cannot think of any other game series that allows you to make your own adventure.

but i have digressed far from the main point which is that this type of game is not for you fine, that does not mean its crap. the reasons i stated above are in fact what TES games do best and very reason i spend hours on them, i haven't even finished the main quest or had more than two characters, because that is not my motivating factor in the game.

i have no idea if you read my entire post or not, but regardless of preference i would advise you to be more tactful in the future, not because you may cause offence, but merely so that peoples opinion of you isn't that of a self-centered teenager, i do not know if you are one or not, but that is how your post made me perceive you.

 

[Mr Cwtchy]

snip

You started addressing my points then went off on a pointless rant. Chill pills might be called for.

The mountains was just an example, any kind of landscape works for me. I've lost count of the times I've been heading to a place and gotten distracted by ruins, or a cave, or even just a suspicious looking enemy camp.

With regards to linear dungeons, to be frank I don't give a shit. The thrill from exploring underground areas never gets old for me.

Overall, Skyrim is not a perfect game. But the combat works, the backstory is decent and it's main strength, the huge open world where you can go anywhere is extremely well done. Obligatory IMO.

 

[Reaper195]

I like the games because they give me a vast open world environment, with many different species and cultures and religions to explore. There are also many, many quests. I've only played the games on console, and the only mods I've seen on PC that actually seem worth it are graphical upgrades.

But then again, I love games that are A: Open world and B: game universe's which are not one thing like the real world. I play video games for fun, entertainment and escapism.

 

[Revolutionary]

TLDR:
basically We like them because they appeal to our particular tastes, and if you think they are objectively bad then that's a fundamental difference that we cannot resolve and should move on.

 

[Polite Sage]

And before you bash me as a hater, let me tell you an example of a good free roam RPG. One that's recent too and sorta from your beloved Bethesda. Fallout: New Vegas.

A good free roaming game with actually good RPG mechanics, okay combat and most of all, they delivered what was promised. A world that reacts to your actions. Complete too many quests in the Trip? "Too bad buddy, you're too famous to buy my illegal stuff, I might get caught.", says the gun dealer. Join the Legion? "Okay, fuck you Courier. You damn terrorist." says the NCR.

Join a faction that your followers don't like? They tell you to piss off or become outright hostile. Tell Veronica that you slaughtered the Brotherhood, her only family? She goes for blood. I could come up with many more examples. What did Bethesda do with the Fallout series?
"Over two hundred endings."

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Well, Open world, sandboxy; fantasy RPGs like TES are just my kind of game.
You get to be who you want to be, doing what you want to do.
Plus they've got amazing mod support, so wih a bit of knowhow, you can truely do whatever you want.

 

[Xaio30]

So why do people like these games? Their crap!

The Elder Scrolls games are much like the GTA series; Sandbox with story sprinkled on top. And in the same way GTA lets me play around cities as a psychopath with weapons (fun!) Elder Scrolls gives me the best available world in which to fantasy-roleplay to my heart's desire.

That is why I love those games.