Skyrim Plot

So... you're some dragon-blooded guy. You hang out with one of the Blades. You become a hero. Renewed empire get?

I'm sure I won't care about the story like last game.

Hah, I suppose that will be a true thing. I think, though, that I'm going to make it a point to actually play the main plot instead of just reading all the spoilers. I want a new computer before this comes out.

I probably should too play the plot for once. In Morrowind, I couldn't even find it. Oblivion I just fucked around and when I tried to finally do it, I got pretty bored.

Yeah. From what I understand, you either have to do it at level 1 or level 50 in Oblivion. I intend to disappear for months after Skyrim comes out.

WoodyTheWoodstar wrote:

Yeah. From what I understand, you either have to do it at level 1 or level 50 in Oblivion. I intend to disappear for months after Skyrim comes out.

Or just mod the game until it's good. Oblivion had some major downfalls: 1) The levelling system. At level 25, all bandits had full glass/daedric. You can compare this to Morrowind, where you needed to buy an expansion just to get the full daedric set. This also means if you level up in anything besides killing, you'll be outclassed in every single fight. Luckily, there are several great mods that combat this problem. 2) Everything looks the same. Every cave, dungeon, and building within a town is copypasta. The developers claim to have learned from this mistake, however, and have more than 2 guys working on interior scenery. 3) Everything looks like the English countryside. In Morrowind, giant floating jellyfish were raised as farm animals, the major source of food was ant eggs, wizards lived in arcanely engineered mushroom towers, and the major means of transportation was:
The setting was unique, interesting, and definitely not your typical stock fantasy world. The Shivering Isles expansion for Oblivion captured this element again, but in my opinion the Shivering Isles was hands down better than the entire vanilla game. More about that in a moment.

So, basically, the Elder Scrolls lore is getting worse and worse.

Daggerfall was rich with political intrigue, extremely complex social structures, and drastically world-affecting consequences. I can't really get too in depth because I haven't played very far into the game, but from the spoilers I've read, the lore is pure anti-gravity golden silk. If I had the inclination to play retro games, I wouldn't be able to pry myself away long enough to post in this forum.

Morrowind. Morrowind. Morrowiiiinnnndddd...

That's a good visual representation of The Elder Scrolls III's plot. It's basically a sandbox with a million different quests and characters all intermingling waiting for you to care about them. There's very little guidance involved in who you talk to or what you do (no floating green arrows here). At the very beginning of the game you're told to deliver an encrypted dossier to a heroin addict. That's all. ...go!
This does a few things. 1) It makes the game the best game I've ever played. 2) It opens the game up to countless different playstyles. The means and pace of which you play the game are entirely up to you. There are a bunch of different routes to the same actions/discoveries/plots, and there are some things you'll only be able to do if a specific number of variables are met. 3) It gives the game a certain amount of impenetrability. If you get any of those references in the above picture, you probably get all of them. People either love or hate Morrowind. It caters to a very specific audience- lorefags who don't mind reading 18 pages of dense text in order to complete a quest and are alright with getting lost all the fucking time on a giant map without fast travel.

Oblivion is so linear it approaches an action-adventure game. Everything has arrows, there's only one way to complete quest chains, and the main quest is typical "kill the demons". It's like an arc of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Fucking Hellgates.

What I'm really curious about is whether or not Skyrim will take a step back toward's Morrowind's malleability. Probably not. Anyway, I'll get into actual lore implications later.

I mentioned in my previous post that one of the most fantastic things about Morrowind is the bizarre aesthetic prevalent throughout this veritable bouquet of a setting. Here's one of the first sights you see upon starting a new game:

There are easily recognizable quasi-medieval things, but there's also a giant walking cockroach chilling on the edge of town. This combination of familiar fantasy imagery and inventive weirdness sets the tone for a game rooted in traditional RPG elements, but with it's own distinctive flavour. This helps the player adjust to later sights, such as:


In Oblivion, you're initially greeted with:

There's some grass. And trees. A deer or two. And a castle. It looks sort of like a defoliated my backyard. (I have a full scale model of White Gold Tower.) This sets the tone for a traditional fantasy setting with absolutely nothing unique or unusual about it. Sure, it's pretty. But it's boring.

Luckily, in The Shivering Isles, the developers dug out the concept art for Morrowind and created something a bit beyond page 35 of the Player's Handbook.




Now, Skyrim looks similar to Oblivions boring aesthetic, but with some cool Age of Conan dark fantasy shit going on. Also dragons.

We'll just have to wait and see how far the flavour flows.

Personally, I'm hoping for a straight-up God of War clone. Fuck yeah 2-button combos.