budcat

Then get a tattoo of it if it is so innocuous. Paint it on your car or your house. Wear it on a shirt and educate everyone about shakti. Don't play stupid and call me ignorant. Sorry, that's my last post, I wanted to make my position clear, not argue with people. Seriously, have a nice life, all of you. Be good, be wise.

I know what it is a symbol for: current, living, campaigning, existing neo-Nazis. People who didn't grow up in a town infested with neo-Nazis maybe aren't aware of the real dangers inherent in flashing this symbol around. It's not wise.

What's Hindu about it in this context? What does it matter the ancient meaning when it still means something else now? By all means dress up like a Nazi and call yourself Hindu, I'm not associating with you. I'm not ignorant to the meaning. I have principles and intelligence. Use yours. Think this through. Nords + swastikas = Hinduism. And I'm stupid. Have a good one guys.

I'm closing my account because of Nexus mods casual acceptance of Nazi iconography in Skyrim, a game which already dances precariously on the periphery of modern white supremacists' own iconography to begin with, and the censorship of anti-fascist criticism reasonably weighed at the uploader(s) responsible for bringing swastikas to the Nords. Be aware that this content is apparently allowed, tolerated, and protected, on the Nexus. Not for me. Sorry to any fans who liked my mods. I'm out.

I hear you thomriis. Skyrim added some nice features but there is a genuine, tangible repetitive quality to the game. I'd even include the dungeons. I felt Skyrim's were less inspired. For all the complaints about Oblivion's graphical monotony, not enough recognition goes towards the astonishing variety and freshness they were able to inject into many of the dungeons. Skyrim's tended to lack any puzzle element and the traps were obvious and underutilized. Skyrim has some cool quest ideas, but they don't seem as cohesive to themselves, lacking a real sense of the motivation behind a lot of what is done. There is nothing that approaches the complexity of say the contentious relationship between Hieronymous Lex and the Thieves' Guild or the phenomenal story line of Lucien Lachance. By the time I was actually able to put my dagger in Lex's back it was up there with some of the most satisfying accomplishments in all of my personal gaming history. No character captured me like that in Skyrim. Even the voice acting seems less inspired in Skyrim. There was more enthusiasm in Hirtel's babbling at the beginning of Oblivion than can be found in any character in all of Skyrim. Even as you face execution in the beginning of the game, a scene which should have some serious tension, it just comes across dull. What happened? There was also a great sense of awareness of your character among the people of Oblivion. They had a constantly adapting disposition towards your character and often referenced things you did that they liked or disliked. Skyrim screwed the pooch when they gimped it, limiting it to quest specific NPCs, and otherwise implimenting it in a hamfisted fashion. Way, way too much what you might call fan service in Skyrim. Mega powerful werewolf and vampire powers with virtually no downside. Dragons. QED. My fingers are real crossed for TES6. I hope it's daring. Maybe a Black Marsh plus Occupied Morrowind. The interesting thing is they set the stage for a sort of global conflict in Skyrim. Everyone can sense the weakness shown by the humans, splintering apart just as an extremely unified elven threat builds on their borders and turns all of their allies. So if they continue with the one province formula it will only be a snapshot of the global crisis, which seems out of character for Bethesda, where usually your character is the most important person in the universe and the last hope for the entire world. Something I find really annoying and not necessary to make an enjoyable game. It's a bit of an RPG trope that can be safely retired.

Eh, maybe you're right. I only played through the second one once or twice. Like I said, I was a little disappointed in them overall. Not quite at Hyacathusarullistad's level but pretty close. I do distinctly remember just having more fun and feeling less irritated during DA2 though.

I think I felt more in control in DA2 and they fixed a lot of minor, but annoying, UI and inventory management issues that marred DAO. The story was definitely tighter in the original. Some of the ideas were pretty brilliant and it is probably the best party-based RPG to come out in a long time. I liked being able to fine-tune their AI in great detail, to the point where I only felt the need to play my main character and could really focus on the action. That was well done, and even better in the sequel. I'm always the contrarian it seems, unintentionally I swear. It's not hipsterism, but honestly DA2 and Oblivion worked for me more than DAO and Skyrim. So clearly I have no idea what I'm talking about.

What's the big crime in being passionate? Even worse, people are dull these days if a couple of posts chewing the fat about Skyrim counts as excessive passion. I think if Bethesda is looking to appeal to the most people, they'll use ESO to see which region or race resonates with the most players and set the game there. If Bethesda are asking themselves the same question (where to set the next game), ESO is the best market research software for TES fans any company could ever hope to develop. I'd be willing to bet they have a close eye on which race ends up being chosen by the most people. I'm almost more intrigued by which time period they choose to set the next one in. As someone mentioned earlier, the time between Morrowind and Oblivion, including expansions, was just four years. Skyrim came 200 years after Oblivion. Will the next game be immediately following the events, skip forward, or go back far in time?

I feel pretty cheated by DA:O as well. I can't put my finger on it but I've only played through it twice and the second time was just because I had deleted my character and wanted to take my choices into DA2. Honestly, for some reason, I enjoyed DA2 more than DAO. In my opinion they don't come close to challenging TES. I think there were some cool ideas in DAO, the combat was kinda slick, and the characters were very interesting, if a little transparent at times. It'd be nice if they could write one female character who wasn't a literal witch or prostitute. You'd think they outsource their female character development to seventeenth century Jesuits.

You may be absolutely satisfied with the game, along with 10,000,000 other people for all I care, it doesn't change my opinion, and that's that unless the series has more to it, I'm buying the next one on sale, too. "AAA" title or not. Looking around at the thread, I'm not the only person feeling that way, and most of the gripes I read have a foundation in fact. That's my point. This is opinion of the minor population. We ALL know it is not perfect, and that is okay. However, saying you do not get enough bang for the buck is not right -- and that is not an opinion. We all want to improve the game, of course. But why do it by insulting what is made? ... Skyrim is a good game from the get-go. You can not deny it. It is worth the money from that moment. You want to improve it? Sure! You do not like the direction the serie is going? Too bad! It does not change it. The game is better than the average game. They allow us to mod it. If you were here from the release, you'd know the kit was NOT released early. Heck, the first month people were afraid they wouldn't release it. So yeah, you do not give Bethesda the praise they deserve, no matter opinion. You might prefer hardcore RPG -- okay. But that does not change the fact. People poures their life into the game, and it turned out great. Praise it for what it is, not for what it could be. We got the tools to change it to what we want, a power given to use. If I don't like the direction the series is going "too bad?" Rewind back to Final Fantasy 7. FF4 and FF6 are among my favorite games of all time and made my childhood. When FF7 was released it revolutionized the RPG world, expanded its popularity, is remembered as the best RPG and best FF of all time by a very large number of people. People who had never bought an FF, or even an RPG or fantasy game in their life bought FF7. All of my friends bought it and became obsessed with it in the way I was for FF4 and FF6. I bought FF7, I played the heck out of it. Everyone else, all my friends, all the gaming press, everyone adored that game; I almost loved it, but I personally didn't like the direction that series was going. I never bought FF8 or any FF game since. They changed from what I enjoyed about them. Déjà vu for Skyrim. I don't necessarily agree with you Skyrim is a good game from the get-go. I sold my console copy because it was useless without mods. I enjoy PC games, I was a PC gamer before I was a console gamer, I agree PC gaming is superior in virtually every aspect to console gaming, but that said I'm a young(ish?), poor, married man, all I have is a rundown laptop and a PS3 these days. In all likelihood, I'll be getting a PS4 over a gaming rig in the foreseeable future. If TES6 is no good on console, as is, without mods, I'm not buying it, simple as that. I don't even understand the whole "praise Bethesda" dynamic. They are people doing their jobs. I want a doctor to perform a good service; I want a video game developer to make a fun game. I payed them $140 for the game, I think I'm entitled to gripe about it. It doesn't do anybody any good to be disingenuous. At the end of the day, Bethesda cares about as many sales as possible, I care about me. If that means they make a game everyone else loves and I hate, well good for Bethesda and everyone else I guess. Sure it is just my opinion but I still won't buy a game I don't like. But either way, I don't see how anyone needs to rationalize why this thread exists or why people feel entitled to post opinions on it.

Don't be naive, Bethesda didn't release anything "just for us," they release it to make a bottom line. The Creation Kit takes all the pressure on them to maintain longevity for the game and shifts it to the consumer. Few people would admit Skyrim was amazing if they had the console version. I still play Oblivion, Fallout 3 and New Vegas on the reg, even on my PS3, so what does that say about Skyrim? The only reason it comes close to being AAA is because of the hard work done by the community, which Skyrim can take the credit for. Sure it's (kind of) a blast to play Skyrim: thanks to the community at Nexusmods. Still, it's not that great, which is why I stopped playing it months ago. Even knowing that mods make their games, Bethesda still turned around and screwed the modding community by making every new DLC screw up everything in existence. I don't understand your mentality. Do you buy every game that comes out because it's popular? Do you have any opinions of your own? Duke Nukem Forever was in development for 15 years while being worked on by who knows how many employees at however many production companies. That doesn't make it amazing. Why not just buy every game that comes out then? You may be absolutely satisfied with the game, along with 10,000,000 other people for all I care, it doesn't change my opinion, and that's that unless the series has more to it, I'm buying the next one on sale, too. "AAA" title or not. Looking around at the thread, I'm not the only person feeling that way, and most of the gripes I read have a foundation in fact.

Short answer: shoulda been Fallout. Fallout is easily the greatest series ever conceived, Fallout 2 being the best game of all time, just barely beating Might and Magic VI as my most played game of all time. I still have the original disc(s) for them bought the year of their release, which was 1998, and I've replayed them both from beginning to end earlier this year, fifteen years later. Both games never saw proper sequels because of corporate idiocy. Might and Magic IV & V, aka World of Xeen, is the RPG with which I have the fondest memories, my favorite RPG you might say, with Final Fantasy IV taking runner up. Even the Isles of Terra remains a solid game worth playing. Baldur's Gate was a great classic series too, that remains unchallenged in many respects. But if I have to judge the entire series, not individual games, and include any genre, the list is probably: Fallout Hitman (though Absolution was a bit of a disappointment) GTA (also loved RDR) TES Virtually the only games I've bought for years come from these series. Sorry Bethesda, I love your stuff, bought Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim, and have played each of them to death, over a thousand hours I'm sure between the four of them, but there is just some serious charisma dripping from these games that TES lacks. TES has top notch lore, and the potential to surpass these games though, I'm sure of it. It's just not there yet. I love the huge sandbox and the great stealth mechanics in TES, but that's the only modern aspect of RPGs I'd genuinely term an improvement. Many modern "improvements" nerf RPGs. Fancier graphics limit the amount of spells and weapons but most especially the types of enemies to be found in them and voice acting decimates the script. I think TES needs to find some middle ground there if it is to be the greatest RPG series of all time. Most underrated game which deserved a long and storied series: Arcanum. If you haven't played Arcanum, go play Arcanum.

I agree with you in some of your points. I can see how a lot of "causal gamers" would be like "WTF is this" if they saw a game where most of the people are 'furries', i.e. Elsweyr or Black Marsh. It breaks the stereotype of the Tolkenesque land that causal people are looking for after playing Oblivion and Skyrim. This is not to say that they won't make a game in a weird alien world. Just look at Morrowind and Shivering Isles. They were in weird worlds and peole loved them. For the other part about dumbing down, I kinda like the way they did things in Skyrim. They took out the redundant things like Athletics and Acrobatics (although I do miss the classes and a lot of the separate skills). What my fear is that they will continue that trend and the next game will lack the leveling and skills making it just like a Action Adventure game where all you do is choose how your character looks. Which is my fear as well. I agree athletics was a little redundant since it was basically a second speed stat, but to me acrobatics was a huge loss. I had flipping and jumping characters that played much differently than more 'grounded' ones. I felt it was a lame cut. Same with hand to hand. Another lost opportunity. You may as well cut Khajiit if you're going to cut hand to hand. Then again, Skyrim practically did. Going back to setting a game in a world too alien not being mainstream, I may have agreed with this at a time perhaps before WOW or Mass Effect, but we've now seen the "casual gamer" readily accept large cow people and true blue aliens without batting an eye. Things really have changed over the years. I don't know how old you are, but I can remember a time where "Tolkien-esque" would never have been used in the same sentence as "casual gamer." Even if it were a gamble, I think especially post-Skyrim they could afford to be more risky about it. I doubt they will though, only because it's wise to be a cynical consumer. Oblivion wins out for me over Morrowind and Skyrim, but not for its setting. I think the Tolkien-esque world is a bit played out too but it's difficult for me to pinpoint what precisely worked for me in Oblivion more than Skyrim, but going back now to Oblivion I know it is there and I have a tangible sense of enjoying myself a lot more playing it over Skyrim. What I can tell you concretely is it is not Oblivion's relatively cheesy setting that does it for me. I would be much happier in Elsweyr or Black Marsh, if only because it is fascinating and new. Khajiit were always my favorite race because they were martial artists and had a Taoist sensibility about themselves. It never occurred to me that they'd be conflated with furries or furries would like them, but even if they do, BFD. So while Oblivion's my favorite game in the series, I vote Elsweyr. Elsweyr or Valenwood. I don't know how much lore people have read about wood elves and Valenwood, but they're probably one of the stranger fantasy races ever conceived. If they made a map where the cities moved around (as they're built on top of Ent-like trees called Graht-oaks) it would make for a pretty unique, dynamic world. Think of the 'no fast travel' purists. Also, venturing further into the future, the provinces could be less racially one-sided and become more cosmopolitan like Cyrodiil was in Oblivion. One thing I did enjoy as far as culture was concerned, was the way that Cyrodiil felt very naturally influenced by the surrounding provinces. Where Bruma was Skyrim-like, Cheydinhal more Dark Elf influenced and Leyawiin was very Elsweyrian, Skyrim's cities seemed to have a sort of homogeneity throughout the province. I understand that Nords are very proud of their culture but Skyrim didn't feel as authentic, intriguing or complex. Cyrodiil seemed to have this "interracial" culture exchange thing happening near the various borders which was more fascinating than the "Nords Only" province of Skyrim. I'm rambling, but I think whatever direction they go, one thing I'd really like to see is more underwater locations where being an argonian or having waterbreathing spells is a necessity. They could create much more interesting lakes and oceans with their own dangers. The river and oceans in all three games have been lost opportunities for cool hidden locations.

Thank you for this post. Finally SOMEONE else agrees with me. Elder Scrolls and Bethesda games in general are going further and further away from a true RPG. Fallout NV was very good in the RPG aspect compared to Fallout 3 or Skyrim. Agree, agree. Skyrim exemplifies the action-RPG genre: more Legend of Zelda than Baldur's Gate. I'd like to see more traditional RPG elements given as much TLC as the action.

Good for us your opinion means nothing. 3.4 million sales the first 48 houres. The average score of the game is what, 96+/100? Hopefully there's only one status bar, two magic schools, one weapon type, and armor equips all in one item slot. I hope they just keep cutting elements from the series because as long as that = sales, it's all good! Mostly it was hype, hype, hype. I fell for it, too. It's a cool game, even an awesome game, but this is not the direction I want to see TES go. In Skyrim's case, less was not more. Is anyone really saying, "MOAR LESS!!!"?