Why is Skyrim popular?

DaBozz

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MaxwellEdison said:
Jailbird408 said:
A sub-standard if not retarded script, bugs and glitches in every corner of the game, a completely broken and lazy PS3 port and gameplay mechanics that have been outclassed by so many games before it add up to a game that doesn't deserve the memetic status it holds.
1. The story line is relatively good.
2. I've yet to encounter any bugs.
3. A lazy port? Seems pretty good for a lazy port.
4. Again, the mechanics seem pretty good. Though I'm not sure how one improves upon sword swinging.

Besides the glitches (which I've never encountered), I don't see what you don't find appealing about that.
Trust me if you're playing on PS3 you'll find the game unplayable soon unless Bethesda hurry up with that Ps3 patch. You have to play a fair while before it starts becoming bug central though.
I'm actually tempted to say it has more bugs and glitches than Fallout New Vegas.

OT: Skyrim -does- get to much hype I agree with the OP on this. the arrow to the knee joke isn't funny, a large amount of people that played it never played Morrowind or Oblivion but are suddenly like "OMGZ I LEIKS TEH ELDERZ SROLLS LOLLOLOL" the glitches are broken, but all that said its still a good game and I still wracked up 130hours play on it, but its not and never will be my game of the year 2011.
 

lacktheknack

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SirBryghtside said:
lacktheknack said:
I'm personally furious that people ignored Uplink during its Humble Bundle day in the sun, or Myst Online throughout its tumultuous life (It's still alive! Go play it if you like puzzle adventure games!). I've figured out why, though.

People like Skyrim because it offers a bunch of stuff that other games (including Skyward Sword) don't. Plus, it's big and had a lot of hype build-up.
I know we're supposed to be talking about the fifth one here, but... what happened to your Daggerfall LP, man? That was awesome!
It's in developmental hell. ;_;

IT SHALL ESCAPE, MAN. IT SHALL ESCAPE. AND IT WILL BE COMPLETED. And then I'll do a Mirror's Edge LP and then maybe try Skyrim if I'm insane.
 

M920CAIN

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Jailbird408 said:
Zhukov said:
Umm... wait a second...

"Skyward Sword is so awesome!"
"Why do people like Skyrim?"

What exactly do these two things have to do with one another? Because I can't help but get the impression that you're sulky about the fact that people (or at least the people here) are talking about Skyrim instead of Zelda.
You're correct. I am upset that people are talking about Skyrim over Zelda. Having played Skyward Sword, though, I believe that Skyrim would have to be PERFECT to better it to such a degree that it drowns it out. Considering the points I made in the original post, though, it is not perfect, and can't deserve more than SLIGHTLY more PR than Skyward Sword.
Get off my lawn! I hate Zelda as much as you hate Skyrim. There! someone said it. *moves to next troll thread*
If you want a real answer: different people, different tastes.
tl;dr: pointless thread is pointless.
 

D0WNT0WN

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Risingblade said:
D0WNT0WN said:
I hate Skyrim and Skyward Sword.

Skyrim is a buggy, casualised mess of a game that does its best to pull me out of my immersion when I just seem to get into it. The combat is so boring, Magic is hold R1 to win and the Melee weapons make me feel motion sick when the camera lazily sways to the side when you attack. The only positive thing I can say about it is the enviroments look nice sometimes, especially that tundra region to the north on the way to Winterhold.
R1 to win? you sir know nothing of magic in skyrim!
I disagree, my first character was a Mage and my main offense was Destruction magic. My entire experience fighting was me walking backwards while holding R1 (L1 aswell when I got the perk) and chugging magic potions if my magic bar was low and my enemies were still standing.
 

EternalFacepalm

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Play it instead of basing your opinion on what you've heard about it. People like both games, stop sulking over Skyrim getting more attention.
Besides, Skyward Sword is a linear (at least, I'd call it linear) game with little exploration. Skyrim is a giant, non-linear game that focuses primarily on exploration. There's a lot more to talk about in Skyrim than there is in Skyward Sword.
 

jibjab963

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If you wish to know why it is so popular then go out and rent it for a week or so. I can't say anything about Skyward Sword because I haven't played it. (I really want to though.) But I have spent way to many hours playing Skyrim. Just from doing quest to exploring its wonders this game never stops amazing me. Just when I think I made my character into an in-game god it throws in a creature I have never seen before and it just destroys me. I love going through dungeons and seeing what treasures I can find. And for the bugs and glitches I think they helped make the game great. I mean, in what other game can you see a horse moonwalk or a dragon fly backwards? This is just my sole opinion and other players of the game may disagree with the few reasons that I mentioned, but I know that even though we are all gamers we all have personal preferences still. Especially when it comes to the great hobby of gaming.
 

Luke Cartner

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Because its fun, provides a feeling of freedom and escape, is an evolved gaming experience and has dragons.

Considering the OP hasn't played any elder scrolls games, maybe he should play just one before comparing any of the series to a zelda game (kinda insulting given the difference in gaming experiences between the two)
 

Rune342

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When Skyrim came out, I only had money so I actually waited. I wanted Skyward Sword first. Skyward Sword was a good game, but I just felt like it was missing something. Yes it had a good story, great graphics for the Wii, and fun gameplay, but after the 4 days it took to beat it, I didn't touch it again.
Soon after, I got Skyrim, and I'm still currently playing it. Sure it's a bit glitchy, but it's fun. A lot of fun. I can do what I want and play how I want. If I don't feel like doing the main story, I can go help some thieves, or become a bard.
More people are paying attention to Skyrim because it's what they like more. And some of us even have played Skyward Sword.
 

Risingblade

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D0WNT0WN said:
Risingblade said:
D0WNT0WN said:
I hate Skyrim and Skyward Sword.

Skyrim is a buggy, casualised mess of a game that does its best to pull me out of my immersion when I just seem to get into it. The combat is so boring, Magic is hold R1 to win and the Melee weapons make me feel motion sick when the camera lazily sways to the side when you attack. The only positive thing I can say about it is the enviroments look nice sometimes, especially that tundra region to the north on the way to Winterhold.
R1 to win? you sir know nothing of magic in skyrim!
I disagree, my first character was a Mage and my main offense was Destruction magic. My entire experience fighting was me walking backwards while holding R1 (L1 aswell when I got the perk) and chugging magic potions if my magic bar was low and my enemies were still standing.
ps3 version?

anyway considering how awful destruction magic levels it wouldn't have stayed easy that long :/
 

The Funslinger

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Matthew94 said:
Jailbird408 said:
I AM a fanboy. If you're trying to use that term as an insult it's not working.
I'm not slandering your opinion, but I'm not adopting it either.
And I get the feeling that partaking in this argument isn't getting me any closer to finding out the answer, so I'm bowing out.
You know a fanboy is an insult.

It's someone who loves a thing regardless of faults and fiercely defends it no matter what and generally insults others who have differing opinions.

You shouldn't wear that tag with pride.

Just look at N4G for a fanboy cesspool.
Indeed. And the same argument could be made of Skyrim fans of a purportedly buggy game. Now, I've owned Skyrim since release, and I'm going to point out a little thing called exaggeration. It's not the messy explosion some make it out to be. At least not the Xbox 360 version. In any case, it's the only game that operates on its scale in this way, and to this quality. It's a little rough around the edges, but it's worth it.

The back tracking in Skyrim doesn't feel forced in, and when backtracking does appear, it's because the cities are huge hubs of activity. If you visit a dungeon on a quest then you'll only be visiting it once (the randomly generated bounty hunting quests being the exception).

By all means, correct me if I'm wrong but the main complaint I've heard about Skyward Sword, though, is that the game makes you backtrack a lot. This isn't so acceptable in a game that's a dungeon crawler with a small somewhat free roam area working as an overlay as it is in a game that allows total freedom to the point where even the main questline is totally optional.

Honestly, I don't get why Skyrim and Skyward Sword keep clashing anyway. Maybe because they're both fantasy games? Maybe because they're both from time tested franchises? Maybe because they both have "sky" in their name. Doesn't matter. But thing is, beyond this, they're not that similar as games. So the war between the two just baffles me. All in all though, Skyrim is definitely the game that had the most effort put in, by volumes.
 

|Sith|Eldarion

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The reason so many people are drooling/dissing Skyrim, is that it's a fantastic game regardless of your opinion, but there are problems inherent in the Elder Scrolls series that many newcomers won't be willing to accept. The unbalanced combat is one(I'm looking at you, Dremora Lord). The glitches are another. The unfocused world is a big one, because many people like clear objectives and motivations. But the combat is masterfully executed, because there is no other game where I can stealth kill two enemies with a bow, shout others off a cliff, summon two spectral swords and duke it out with the rest of the enemies, only to have the fight interrupted by a dragon, let alone make it fun. The animations are far improved, and the entire world map(16x16 miles)is rendered beautifully, with nary a hitch. And one feature that many people have prayed to god for in the past is here:saving at any time. There are no mandatory save points, no repeated areas, because you can save at any time, and try again from any point as often as you like. The boss battles are excellent, no dungeon repeats itself in anything but art style, and, if there's anything in this masterpiece you don't like, you can mod the PC version to your hearts content.

Skyward Sword, on the other hand, is a game which is good only because it's a Zelda game, and does puzzle dungeons better than any other game series ever. It has its own merits, to be sure, but I played the game through to the end, and I could think of a full ten things that would've made the game markedly better.
1.Having it not rely on motion controls, because they are unintuitive, unresponsive, and make for crummy boss fights.
2.Getting rid of dowsing.
3.Making shields not break, unless the wooden one is lit on fire.
4.Having Z targeting automatically raise your shield against attacks, instead using the nunchuck waggle for shield bashing, a game mechanic that was a welcome addition.
5.Giving Fi a personality, because a mystical spirit should not be an odds calculator.
6.Making bomb throwing down to a button press.
7.Not giving Link the nose of a pig and lips.
8.Not making the boss key insertion a frustrating chore.
9.Not making me try to like a character halfway through the game whom I hate and want to stab with his pointy hair.
10.Bringing back the memorable boss fights, the ones that were massive and epic. Tentalus fails to wow me in the same way as Morpheel, or that giant bird thing from Wind Waker. And do you know why? It's uninteresting. You're not working around floating bits of the boat to get to his eye before he smashes you. It's just shoot him in the eye until he moves, then move slightly higher and do it some more.
Music was nice though.
 

Vampire cat

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A beautiful and easy-to-access game with a welcoming and enjoyable story and background, great quests and a thousand things to do. A highly anticipated follow-up to a widely loved series.

It's popular because it's good (the more common reason why things are popular).
 

Rijo

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Its very easy to see why Skyrim has a strong buzz too it. Most of us have been trapped behind the iron-sights for so long in a grey/brown/whatever dull color that comes next is. That Skyrim was really a refreshing game, like a long island ice tea refreshing after working a tar roof in Florida. Was a great change of pace to behead someone with a Ax or turn them into a meat pop-sickle. Not saying i didn't have fun in MW3/BF3/GW3 but sometimes if all else fails, chop its head off with a Ax will fix it. (That and i don't have to worry about RPG rockets taking out my horse (BF3)

P.S I use to play World of Warcraft till i took a gnome to the knee. :p
 

The Funslinger

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MaxwellEdison said:
Jailbird408 said:
A sub-standard if not retarded script, bugs and glitches in every corner of the game, a completely broken and lazy PS3 port and gameplay mechanics that have been outclassed by so many games before it add up to a game that doesn't deserve the memetic status it holds.
1. The story line is relatively good.
2. I've yet to encounter any bugs.
3. PS3 HAS NO GAMES. Play it on Xbox or the computer - This might be a problem, but I don't know. I don't know anyone with a PS3.
4. Again, the mechanics seem pretty good. Though I'm not sure how one improves upon sword swinging.

I think the issue with your opinion is that you've only heard about the game from people who have exaggerated its flaws.
The reason people like Skyrim is because it's a huge, open, beautiful, and generally in-depth world. The story is pretty great, imo, if only for the fact that the world-changing events are actually decided by player actions. It's a great example of where games should be going: More choice, more depth in the game world, more ideas and philosophies built into the story. This is also what I liked so much about Deus Ex HR, and it seems the gaming community, as a whole, agrees with me here.
Besides the glitches (which I've never encountered), I don't see what you don't find appealing about that.
Wait, wait WAIT!

The PS3 is a games console? The ad campaigns had me believe it was a Bluray player with a karaoke and dance simulator tacked on. (In case my above post didn't warn you, I'm joking. Calm down. The adverts are just like that.

Rijo said:
Its very easy to see why Skyrim has a strong buzz too it. Most of us have been trapped behind the iron-sights for so long in a grey/brown/whatever dull color that comes next is. That Skyrim was really a refreshing game, like a long island ice tea refreshing after working a tar roof in Florida. Was a great change of pace to behead someone with a Ax or turn them into a meat pop-sickle. Not saying i didn't have fun in MW3/BF3/GW3 but sometimes if all else fails, chop its head off with a Ax will fix it. (That and i don't have to worry about RPG rockets taking out my horse (BF3)
Don't forget using the Wabbajack to turn a huge ravening monster into a sweetroll. Which I then eat. (Except that one time when someone stole it. The guards just laughed at me!)
 

TheScientificIssole

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I am not going to express my anger at this shit.
This is almost trolling.
EDIT:
Jailbird408 said:
And with that, I finally take my leave. Thank you for the inspirations, thanks for caring, and thanks for not yelling at me for thinking that people who do not know me would seriously care about some random dude's eyes. I will always remember the good times I had here, and hopefully during my absence I'll forget some of the stupider things I've done.

Goodbye Escapist Forums.
I don't understand.
 

teebeeohh

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skyrim runs on the three relevant stationary gaming platforms (and my laptop, YEAAAAAAAAAAH)
skyward sword is on the fucking wii, which by now gathers dust with the Wii-sports disc crusted inside the drive in most homes. If Jesus in game form would descend on the psp people would keep playing skyrim because nobody has a psp.
also, didn't we just have this thread?
 

dekcahw

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Freedom is the main reason. So much freedom compared to 99.99999% of the games out there.

Also, try turning the difficulty up off scrub mode if the game is too easy. Yes, it is still a cakewalk if you abuse bs/enchanting, so don't? It amazes me when people complain about difficulty but they won't play the hardest difficulty because they know they will get rocked then their ego will take a hit.
 

OManoghue

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We like it for the same reasons people like any game. Same reason you and millions of others like Zelda, because it's fun. And people talk about it all the time because there's so much to do. In Zelda, you are link, just like all the other Zelda games, you need to save a girl, just like all the other ones, and there's a limited amount of characters. Skyrim reached meme status because of the amount of content.
 

V8 Ninja

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Ignoring that this thread seems to be a prejudice attack against Skyrim for the sake of Skyward Sword, the aspect of the Elder Scrolls series that attracts people is the freedom the game gives to the player. You can do a near infinite amount of things in Skyrim, whether it by throwing pots at children to slaying dragons atop mountains. It's the freedom that makes everybody praise Skyrim to a never-ending amount, not-so-much whether or not the game is good or if the experience is completely bug-free. Also, the game still has its fishhooks in almost everybody who's played it, so if you're looking for criticism you'll have to wait another few months.