CalibanX

Ginnyfizz, I wasn't actually responding to you but since your quoted me: I just see a lot of hysterics around all this. There are sometimes times when events intrude upon our routines & schedules. If my girlfriend came to me and said, "Look I've got 3 super hard tests to take in a week or so, so I'm not going to be available as much cuz I have a ton of studying to do". I would be okay with that. I would assume any rational person would be. Similarly, if you're a gamer and when Skyrim is released you want to play it hard for a week or so I don't see what the big deal is. If she had a game that she was really excited about and wanted to play it hard for a week or so I would be okay with that. In fact, I would be happy for her. Perhaps I'm just a more independent person? Which is fine by me as I tend to get along better with strong, independent women anyway. In short, I don't accept an absolutist framing of this issue. I believe people can pursue their interests and be in relationships too.

Behold: The meat of Skyrim! :)

This was really enjoyable to listen to. I love hearing the people "behind the scenes" talk about building up the culture of Skyrim from scratch. Very cool! http://www.elderscrolls.com/community/completely-blue-sky-concept-skyrim/

Yes. That is an excellent book. I'm pleased to see that there are still some Nords with the requisite sophistication to appreciate fine literature.

http://www.blogadilla.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/thulsa-doom.jpg

So Argonians have sex with a magic tree? Huh. I did not know that. And they have a penchant for fondling plants? My Goodness! What a singularly fascinating culture they have...

I think of Argonians as the misunderstood underdogs among the races. Plus, they just have character. And they're funny-looking too. :)

I want to get drunk in an Argonian bar in Skyrim. And in an Orc bar too. :)

"Picking a game before a relationship?" Is that what playing a game means? This sentiment just strikes me as being trite. Well, how about putting computer use before a relationship? Are you commenting on a Skyrim forum instead of spending that time with your partner? Do you work something like 40 hours a week? Are you putting your job before your relationship? All of those hours could have been spent with your partner? Please. Do you put bathing and pooping before a relationship too? How about the idea that individuals can pursue their own interests and be in a relationship without having to be co-dependently tethered to one's partner 24 hours a day? While it's true that any activity has the potential for abuse, there's no reason to assume that playing a game while it it new and novel and fun in any way means that you're putting it above the needs of one's partner. That's ridiculous. Should I never read a book if I'm in a relationship? That consumes hours of one's time as well.

I see nothing wrong with having a week or two when your free time is spent exclusively in Skyrim. For the fans, we've been waiting for this game for freaking years. If my girlfriend had a game (or other activity) that she was this excited about I would totally be okay with her wanting to play it hard when it first came out. Actually, when Skyrim does come out, me and a lady friend of mine have both preordered and we've both taken off work so we can do Skyrim hard for the weekend. But we actually play together. We'll start with my character first, and then after 5 hours or so we'll go to her place and play her character for 5 hours or so. While getting drunk most likely. This is how we spent a lot of hours together with Oblivion. I find that some games you can play together and just swap chairs every half hour or so while both people are still engaged in the game. It's f***ing awesome!

Well, if Skyrim fails to deliver than this would be my official mod request: To designate each dungeon with one Boss to fight. Without the boss-fight, dungeons are always going to be a bit of a let-down. Without the Boss, there's nothing to really fear in dungeon crawls, which, if you think about it, takes up a lot of time when playing Bethesda's open, sandbox type games. The more enemies to fear the better. Without enemies to fear, any game will quickly become stale, no matter how pretty it is.

In Oblivion it was a pretty common occurrence that after clearing out a dungeon, I'd leave without ever knowing if there was a designated Boss in there. They just didn't stand out. So, amidst all of the many improvements Todd & others have mentioned about the dungeons being better designed etc, I haven't heard much in the way of Boss fights. With the exception of Dragons of course. But I'm assuming they are primarily going to occur outdoors. One thing that would make me very happy to see in Skyrim would be identifiable dungeon bosses. Bosses that are clearly tougher than the rest of the opponents in a dungeon and/or if the Bosses were somehow visually different to further differentiate them from other opponents. Has anyone heard anything concerning Dungeon Bosses in any interviews? If not, what would you like to see in dungeon boss fights?

Thanks for the link. I enjoyed that.

....but i can't stop watching that awesome live action Skyrim trailer. So awesome! It just goes to show that old ideas (dragons) can be made fresh and invigorating again with a different take on them. I can't wait to battle these mighty dragons! Arg! 11l11l11 can't come soon enough! :)

So, according to this, everyone who has a 64 bit computer with at least 4 GB of RAM must install that Large Address Aware Patch? How else are you supposed to get the "6GB of RAM for the HD version" of the game without it?

Um, actually, I was being sarcastic. I was *hinting* at Dragons. You don't need Horde mode. You already have Dragon mode. Ha Ha.

Or, how about instead of fighting a Horde of enemies have it so that you fight one really powerful enemy equivalent to a lot of smaller ones? Maybe something really big and powerful looking that would chase you if you tried to run away? And to make it even scarier, you pretty much had to fight it alone? And if you managed to kill it you'd get some kind of awesome power or something? ;)

I think you also get to improve one of your 3 Attributes at Leveling... It may seem minor, but for those who pursue a multi-class types of character, which of the three to improve could easily become a hard choice at times. There still are "birth sign" Abilities, you just don't pick one at character creation.

Well, games that are tightly scripted have this kind of linear progression of threat. With a sandbox game though, it becomes more problematic. Although, I did make a character once in Oblivion that was built as a no combat/no magic character. He just snuck around everywhere pickpocketing and running away from enemies. It was actually pretty fun. I think I got about 15 levels out of that character. The combat that annoys me tends to be the "wild animals always attack" scenario. I got sick of every mudcrab, wolf and boar suicidaly attacking me every time I wanted to just relax & pick flowers for a while. A mod fixed that though. :)

I'm certainly not aesthetically opposed to killing bandits & monsters in dungeons. I plan to do that for many hours in Skyrim. The "kill everything" crowd I was referring to I would characterize as wanting to kill every NPC in the game for instance and wants mods that lets them kill children. Cuz, killing old people and children is SO bad ass. I'm just thankful that I'm not such a person.

-Impressive...most impressive...

I can't help feeling like the "kill everything" approach to gaming is just juvenile. Bethesda spends three years trying to make a living, immersive world with radiant quest AI and tons of quests and dungeons and diversions, gorgeous vistas and over 60.000 lines of voiced dialogue and you're response to that is that you want to run around and kill farmers and bar maids? I'm sorry, but are you 10 years old? It's like going into a four star restaurant ordering pizza or peanut butter and jelly. -Anyway, that's pretty much how I feel about the "kill everything" crowd.

I suppose the definition of "persistent" probably needs some clarification in order to answer this question better. When I think of Bethesda games I definitely think of them as persistent. People seem to be thinking about the effects of combat upon environments (blowing stuff up). But that's not how I view weather or not a game presents a persistent game world environment. What makes Skyrim persistent for me is that when I go into a location that has manipulative objects, if I pick up those objects and toss them around the room they will stay where I left them. If I pick a plant outside and come back later, that plant will remain picked. People and monsters you kill stay dead and leave bodies behind. It also feels persistent in the sense that objects are "real" 3D objects with weight and rudimentary physics that you can manipulate and move. The environment is not 2D painted walls & backdrops as it is in MMO games and most other video games. To me, that's what "persistent" means.

I doubt that it will be necessary for mage types to spend any Perks in the Smithing tree since they're primary mode of attack would be Magic. Upgrading armor and weapons isn't the usual way the Mage skill set works. If you want to play a battle-mage of some kind, then you might want to spend some Perk points on Smithing.

I wouldn't get all worked up about this. How ever Bethesda wants to sell the game is a-okay with me. They have made it pretty clear that they're whole approach to gaming is the "do what ever you want" sandbox model. That's their defining characteristic. It's what separates their product from their competitors and they know it. They're not going to abandon that anymore than Burger King is going to abandon selling burgers. Yes there are those who like to kill everything in the game. I don't understand the motivation to want to do that myself. But if appealing to those casual consumers makes Skyrim GOTY then as a fan, to me that means that I can expect increasingly better product from the company. Despite any bugs or flaws or changes Skyrim has, I have no doubt it will be a totally immersive fantasy world experience that will have massive replay value for years. Which is what, I think, the majority of the fans want most.