[Megathread] Skyrim Discussion

[Deleted]

By the way, does anyone else mishear some of the things said in Skyrim? I played a long time without subs and I always thought that the smith in Whiterun at the Skyforge says "goths be praised" when you trade with him.. and guards sometimes say "fear for the boy? I'm a swordman, I said" (it's supposed to be "favor the bow? I'm a swordman myself") and there are others too:P

[Neeshka]

"Fun" is just a buzzword when you can't actually think of any real reasons why a game is good, don't use it.

I'm yet to see any well thought out response to the criticisms of this game; every rebuttal seems to be 1) don't play it or 2) stop whining or just flat out denial that any problems even exist. And then there's the classic "it's just your opinion"; last time I checked forums were about discussing opinions.

Comparing skyrim to other games; even WoW is indeed very relevant since this is primarily a WoW board; and minute by minute gameplay in any game should be something you can compare to any other game. Skyrim also plays out like a grindy single player mmo as well.

I would say that yes, if it took you longer than 20-30 hours to get to level 51 you most definitely get your money's worth considering today's game competition.

I don't understand why game length is given so much importance.
In bethesda games it's not even game length, but being able to mess around forever in it.
This really doesn't automatically make a game good; and padding out content with tons of filler and prioritizing quantity over quality is something that bethesda always seems to do.

[Poppincaps]

"Fun" is just a buzzword when you can't actually think of any real reasons why a game is good, don't use it.

I'm yet to see any well thought out response to the criticisms of this game; every rebuttal seems to be 1) don't play it or 2) stop whining or just flat out denial that any problems even exist. And then there's the classic "it's just your opinion"; last time I checked forums were about discussing opinions.

Comparing skyrim to other games; even WoW is indeed very relevant since this is primarily a WoW board; and minute by minute gameplay in any game should be something you can compare to any other game. Skyrim also plays out like a grindy single player mmo as well.


I don't understand why game length is given so much importance.
In bethesda games it's not even game length, but being able to mess around forever in it.
This really doesn't automatically make a game good; and padding out content with tons of filler and prioritizing quantity over quality is something that bethesda always seems to do.

Because having fun is so wrong? Take Mario as an example. The story is nonexistant, the gameplay isn't anything amazing, but for some reason I love playing those games. Wanna know why? Because they are FUN... I don't really have any other reason for why I like it nor do I need one. The point of playing video games is to be entertained or to have fun. So, if someone says that Skyrim is fun, I believe it's accomplished it's goal.

As for the response to the criticism... it IS just your opinion. You seem to want people to make you like the game and it's not going to happen. What we say isn't going to change your opinions of the game. Besides I already wrote several responses like when you said you thought the combat was boring, I'm not gonna write all that again. The game has gotten 96 on Metacritic, which if you aren't familiar with takes the reviews of other sites and averages them, so Skyrim seems to be doing pretty damn well. The people who don't like it such as you are in the majority. Anyways if you have these issues with the game I suggest you go to the Bethesda forums and post there listing things you believe could be improved. Posting here trying to make us prove our opinions to you isn't going to make the game any better for you.

[Neeshka]

but mario has amazing gameplay. there is a perfect balance that involves moderate challenge without being frustrating. the game mechanics have sufficient constraints to not trivialize everything.

skyrim isn't good or well known for good gameplay it's popular for the exploration and RP possiblities. And by RP it doesn't mean stuff like narrative, character development, dialogue or lore.

Also the massive amount of time you can potentially spend in a sandbox rpg like this is viewed as a huge plus.

Bethesda creates beautiful worlds to explore; but not great games.

Fun is never wrong of course; but it's a very subjective analysis of a game. Also; metacritic reviews and critics in general seem to ignore every major problem in beth games. Reviews posted later on seem to take them into account though; strange.

If bethesda fixed all the bugs in a patch or DLC and cleaned up the UI of course I would appreciate the game a lot more. Probably when better mods are out too.

The objective of criticizing a game isn't to change people's opinions lol. Posting on bethesda forums is pointless since they just lock threads.

I am very familiar with metacritic; but take a look at these scores:
Madden NFL 09 --- 85
Dragon Age 2 --- 82
Guitar Hero 5 --- 86
Amnesia Dark Descent --- 85
Shift 2 unleashed --- 84
Bejewelled --- 82
Nintendogs: Chihuahua and Friends --- 83
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003 --- 92
Worldwide Soccer Manager 2005 ---89

[Creatinebrah]

Seems like you're really going out of your way to heavily criticize one game...and that in itself is pretty sad. If you don't like it, move on. You already made your point that you don't like it, yet you still linger around in this thread trying to convince (?) others that the game is not as good as it should be.

Bethesda, in my book, took me by surprise. http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...y-so-much-hype . Coming from mainly a shooter background, I never expected to be hooked by this game. There are bound to be bugs/errors in every single game. I will paypal you $1000 right now if you find me a game without any bugs or errors.

skyrim isn't good or well known for good gameplay
mind=blown

People these days, as casual players, act as if they're playing the game for money. Gaming is meant to be entertaining, unless you're going pro, then there's more in it. If you're playing a fucking single player game, and you're complaining about balance and letting that to ruin your fun...you really need to rethink why you're playing the game in the first place.

[Redmage]

I used to post in skyrim threads, but then i took an arrow to the knee.

[Very Tired]

If anyone remembers agrmonster and his insanely funny Fallout 3 videos, it looks like hes started uploading for Skyrim!

[PACOX]

If anyone remembers agrmonster and his insanely funny Fallout 3 videos, it looks like hes started uploading for Skyrim!

I had tears coming from my eyes, bravo.

I am having a love/hate relationship with Ancient Dragons right now. The other dragons were way too easy for me. I would just run up to them and just start going at it, not strategy, no fear of dying. I was happy to finally fight dragons who could put up a fight. Damn ancients...damn damn ancients. When an ancient lands, its a minimum 5 min fight and thats when I have terrain advantage and good companion out. I've had one land in the middle of a bandit camp I was silently taking out. It landed, aggro'd everything to me and then chilled in the air until I finished off the whole camp, then it tried to gank me. For the first time in 2 weeks I am actually watching the skies and planning my travel routes accordingly just in case on of those things want to come at me.

[Erza]

Yes it is piss poor design, this isnt minecraft where you need to create challenge for yourself, a lot of things in the game are done with balance in mind, and some of those things worked out, the things that other poster posted didnt work out. How he couldve known whats gonna be overpowered and what isnt? He was just trying to play effectively and just went the obvious path, he couldnt have known what would be the result. I know its a bad comparison, and it is singleplayer game, but you wouldnt really get any noticable advantage by having max crafting skill in wow, and as wow players its not a surprise we would have similar mindset in another rpg.

Exactly.. a WoW mindset, you start up skyrim and immediately grind professions? Lol. Learn how to play a single player RPG is all I gotta say..

[Deleted]

skyrim isn't good or well known for good gameplay it's popular for the exploration and RP possiblities. And by RP it doesn't mean stuff like narrative, character development, dialogue or lore.

in your opinion.
Strangely enough, I DO play an RPG for its RP possibilities, and for MY RP, I don't feel spending hours making daggers and enchanting them, purely to be able to make the best armour and weapons possible, as early as possible, is a valid choice - I'd LIKE to be able to make and repair more than I can, but I simply have too much else to do, so I just potter along, gradually increasing THOSE skills as and when I get a chance to, or have some stuff I picked up doing something else that I can practice on... I'm in my mid 30s, with fairly mediocre skills even in those that I use a lot, because I changed my mind about what armour/weapons to use - but hey - that's life, real or virtual, and I'm not enraged by the fact I'm not perfect (again - real or virtual :-) )
YOU want to do it differently and complain about it? - fine, it's your game, do what you want. You don't think Skyrim is a good game? great, your opinion is as valid as anyone else's, just don't expect everyone to share it... Skyrim isn't perfect, has bugs and faults, but I've sacrificed well over 100 hours of my REAL life to it so far, and I imagine there's more to come - I dare say I may burn out sooner or later - but I know if I go back to it I'll probably be re-enthused by the additions/tweaks and changes of all the modders out there - and THAT is one reason why we love games like these - you can play the game as you want to - and still have the community support to minimise the niggles that would otherwise become annoying...
You don't share the enthusiasm? Fine - but stop demanding that everyone else is somehow deficient for not being persuaded by your arguments.

[Deleted]

If anyone remembers agrmonster and his insanely funny Fallout 3 videos, it looks like hes started uploading for Skyrim!

I don't get what's funny about these? The second one is just random stuff, he spawned some mobs and dragons to attack and it's supposed to be hilarious. I mean even the Skyrim werechair videos have much more creativity than that. I mean it's just the normal opening scene, only he got it bugged by using console commands and not even in a funny way. Whats next? Spawn 10 bandits in a town and watch them kill the merchants or something -.-

---------- Post added 2011-12-08 at 10:18 AM ----------

in your opinion.
Strangely enough, I DO play an RPG for its RP possibilities, and for MY RP, I don't feel spending hours making daggers and enchanting them, purely to be able to make the best armour and weapons possible, as early as possible, is a valid choice - I'd LIKE to be able to make and repair more than I can, but I simply have too much else to do, so I just potter along, gradually increasing THOSE skills as and when I get a chance to, or have some stuff I picked up doing something else that I can practice on... I'm in my mid 30s, with fairly mediocre skills even in those that I use a lot, because I changed my mind about what armour/weapons to use - but hey - that's life, real or virtual, and I'm not enraged by the fact I'm not perfect (again - real or virtual :-) )
YOU want to do it differently and complain about it? - fine, it's your game, do what you want. You don't think Skyrim is a good game? great, your opinion is as valid as anyone else's, just don't expect everyone to share it... Skyrim isn't perfect, has bugs and faults, but I've sacrificed well over 100 hours of my REAL life to it so far, and I imagine there's more to come - I dare say I may burn out sooner or later - but I know if I go back to it I'll probably be re-enthused by the additions/tweaks and changes of all the modders out there - and THAT is one reason why we love games like these - you can play the game as you want to - and still have the community support to minimise the niggles that would otherwise become annoying...
You don't share the enthusiasm? Fine - but stop demanding that everyone else is somehow deficient for not being persuaded by your arguments.

First off, I want to say I absolutely love Skyrim but I still don't agree with you. The smithing thing would be what I'd consider a flaw in the game. It's like in real life, you can't just get unlimited money like that. It should be possible and not possible, if you know what I mean. Basically, yes, you could be able to spam daggers but it should either

-smithing items should take time and you should go hungry.. so you can do it but you'd have to spend a lot on the food too to balance things out
-no option to wait or waiting has negative impacts so 1-2 hours wouldn't do anything but if you wait 2 days for stores to restock, it's not very realistic and you should die or lose skills or something:P
-daggers should just reward less skill than more material costly items and spamming merchants with similar items should just lower their price. I mean would you, buy 200 iron daggers, enchanted with stamina drain, if you were a merchant? Didn't think so..

[Deleted]

Tbh when you made a dagger or 5 it should just stop giving you any Blacksmith points at all. "Oh hai, I just made a million daggers so I guess I'm good enough to make the best shit this world has ever seeeeeeeeeeen." Right.

Thank god I don't give a crap about BS or Enchanting on my Nord.

[Orodoth]

If you havent done the Dark Brotherhood questline, I HIGHLY suggest doing it! That was the most fun I've ever had in an Elder Scrolls game. The amount of immersion you have in this DB chain is far superior to its predecessors!.... if.... you don't mind going to a very, VERY dark place, and I'm not talking about the lighting.

Start with at least a 20 in marksman, a 30 in 1h, and a 25+ in sneak, and you'll roll right into the throat slicings no problem.

[Deleted]

I don't get what's funny about these? The second one is just random stuff, he spawned some mobs and dragons to attack and it's supposed to be hilarious. I mean even the Skyrim werechair videos have much more creativity than that. I mean it's just the normal opening scene, only he got it bugged by using console commands and not even in a funny way. Whats next? Spawn 10 bandits in a town and watch them kill the merchants or something -.-

---------- Post added 2011-12-08 at 10:18 AM ----------



First off, I want to say I absolutely love Skyrim but I still don't agree with you. The smithing thing would be what I'd consider a flaw in the game. It's like in real life, you can't just get unlimited money like that. It should be possible and not possible, if you know what I mean. Basically, yes, you could be able to spam daggers but it should either

-smithing items should take time and you should go hungry.. so you can do it but you'd have to spend a lot on the food too to balance things out
-no option to wait or waiting has negative impacts so 1-2 hours wouldn't do anything but if you wait 2 days for stores to restock, it's not very realistic and you should die or lose skills or something:P
-daggers should just reward less skill than more material costly items and spamming merchants with similar items should just lower their price. I mean would you, buy 200 iron daggers, enchanted with stamina drain, if you were a merchant? Didn't think so..

well I dare say there'll be mods when the CK is released to address "realism" - after all, you should have to eat, go to the toilet, repair weapons/armour, darn your socks, raise a family etc etc :-)

and I know - the presence of mods addressing perceived weaknesses or omissions in the original game doesn't mean they AREN'T omissions and weaknesses, but, to return to smithing in particular - yes, you CAN spam daggers, but it IS an RPG - you don't HAVE to, or even NEED to - I mean, I'd love to get my smithing up, but as I said before, there's too much else to do, why WOULD I stand around like someone in a sweatshop, mass-producing something? It would be tedious in real life, and it's tedious in a role-playing game, and I don't choose to do it - it IS a weakness of the game engine, agreed, but being ABLE to do something doesn't mean you HAVE to do it - there IS such a thing as willpower... even then, I've seen in this thread, people saying they used console commands to raise skills etc, and then complaining about not being challenged.... *rolls eyes*

[Zarmful]

Conjuring - spam Soul Trap on a dead body.
Sneaking - autorun to inn wall
etc.

Pretty much all the skills can be maxed in like 15 minutes max because of
the not so well designed mechanics.

The game is amazing tho.

I really wanna try the game with kinect controls with voice controlled
shouts too :P

Destruction? Please give me a hint

[Veluren]

Destruction? Please give me a hint

Burn things.

Burn everything.

[Silver-Fox]

Just finished the main quest after completing the companions, the College of Winterhold and my favorite thus far: the Thieves Guild. Each I challenged myself by conforming the respective play style. As a theif I was the sneaking type. The companions I cut down everything in my path with a skyforge steel great sword. As a student of winterhold I donned by robes and shot lighting from my hands. In the rebellion against the empire I resorted to hit and run tactics as any rebel in his rugged terrain homeland should. And as a dragonslayer I got my hands on the weapon and armor of the blades and made a name for myself as the Dragonborn. Oh and of course I play a nord.

But I am determined to keep playing to find every shout, if not all the ones I want. I am very happy with the game, and find it's very hard to pull away. And while part of me wants to continue the blades storyline I can't come to meet their demands on a moral level.

I am thinking of checking out the Dark Brotherhood on the same character but they just outright creeped me out in Oblivion but I've heard interesting things about their Skyrim counterpart.

My favorite side quests however have been the Daedric quests regarding their princes and artifacts. Talking dogs, hangovers, boxes bigger on the inside and the cheese... to die for.

The thieves guild storyline was my favorite thus far, it felt more connected than Oblivion's "go steal stuff" and the such. The characters were much more interesting I felt. Betrayal, revelation, romance and jewel heists. Fun times.

The college was too short I felt. Not much emphasis on using magic either. I passed class and became the archmage with a magicka score of 120-ish. If not for the Wabbajack I might not have made it past the attack on Winterhold.

Best part is, there is still so much more to do.

[georgevonfranken]

IIt's like in real life, you can't just get unlimited money like that

I have stayed out of this pointless argument but this just made me laugh, i forgot im playing skyrim because its just like real life. Screw work im going to go kill a dragon in the mall

[Deleted]

The college was too short I felt. Not much emphasis on using magic either. I passed class and became the archmage with a magicka score of 120-ish.

I agree, there was like.. 5 quests in total; but they were all long dungeon crawls. It started out so promising with the 'First Lesson' quest, where Tolfdir taught that ward spell. I thought: "Great!" "We'll be learning spells this way every so often, cool". But then I was sorely disappointed after that. Just a bunch of dungeon crawls culminating in a fairly simple encounter.

[Migey]

I definately agree. To be fair, Labyrinthian was definately one of the better dungeons i've done, but i still think the questline was done fairly badly. The whole college was.