Everyone is miserable.

[DarkOutlaw49]

Personally, I think that the new, darker story could be really intriguing...

 

...if they convey it in a meaningful way during the game.

 

Oblivion started out rainbows and sunshine, and I'm perfectly happy with that. But once the world began to crumble and denizens of hell seriously threatened to enslave humanity, the tone of the game never changed. We never saw it affect anything. Characters talked about the effects of the assassination and the Oblivion crisis, but it seemed like all of this was happening in secret somewhere and we, as the player, were outside looking in. :psyduck:

 

I realize that having the tone and atmosphere of a game change accordingly is difficult when you're rendering a massive world with oodles of NPCs, so I'm more than willing to except a little bit of fudging here and there. I just hope that if the Empire is broken and the world is plunged into a chaos that is changing the face of the world, we'll be able to see (and maybe even influence!) a little bit of it. :wink:

[SansSword]

But once the world began to crumble and denizens of hell seriously threatened to enslave humanity, the tone of the game never changed. We never saw it affect anything. Characters talked about the effects of the assassination and the Oblivion crisis, but it seemed like all of this was happening in secret somewhere and we, as the player, were outside looking in.

 

Not true. How many times during conversations with NPCs did a character mention the siege of Kvatch? Or one NPC speaking to anther NPC on the street to marvel at all the daedra pouring forth?

 

Countless times for me, why I remember this.

 

While I agree perhaps the physical landscape could have been more drastically altered or destroyed due to the Oblivion summonings, I felt the characters in the game were aware of what was happening. But they still had to eat, sleep, work, converse, fend off enemies, and live. Isn't that what you would do? Still gotta live

 

As for the Empire disintegrating, eh, that's just another chapter in history. Empires crumble. Every single one has and every future one will too. And then new Empires rise to take their place.

[Alcrin]

Not true. How many times during conversations with NPCs did a character mention the siege of Kvatch? Or one NPC speaking to anther NPC on the street to marvel at all the daedra pouring forth?

 

Countless times for me, why I remember this

 

When do you ever see the effects of the Oblivion crisis aside from these conversations NPCs have about Kvatch? Aside from the occasional gate in the wilderness you'll find, you'll never ever encounter Oblivion unless you specifically go out looking for it. But at least it looks like Skyrim solves that problem, if dragons really do attack towns of their own volition.

[billyro]

That will eventually become annoying, like after the 25,000th dragon.

The Imperial empire has collapsed a bit, but then again, we're in Skyrim.

[IrishRainbow]

I wonder how the Empire fell they had one chancellor more bandits and marauders then common citizens and the bandits and marauder somehow got their hands and daedric, dont forget about the guards making it illegal to pick up what you knocked over. Edited September 2, 2011 by IrishRainbow

[JimboUK]

But it does open the door to a spinoff Ayleid world series.

 

Now that I would like to see.

[Jakeschulz]

its not all bad, there are 2 regions in skyirm which are happy and rich. each with a city but not sure of the name atm. so its not all bad.

[worm82075]

In Arena the entire continent of Tamriel was playable.

I would hardly consider a single city in each region which were only reachable via fast travel an "entire playable continent".

[SansSword]

When do you ever see the effects of the Oblivion crisis aside from these conversations NPCs have about Kvatch? Aside from the occasional gate in the wilderness you'll find, you'll never ever encounter Oblivion unless you specifically go out looking for it. But at least it looks like Skyrim solves that problem, if dragons really do attack towns of their own volition.

 

Like I said, it's true that Bethesda could have done more to up the Oblivion awareness factor of the NPCs, but I think it's not so bad. I actually think it's pretty well-balanced. Remember Cheydinhal, those residents sure were petrified of the gate outside their city.

 

Obviously, the main draw of the Oblivion gates was going inside them as opposed to their effect on the outside world.

 

Skyrim dragons, on the other hand, are a lot more mobile than static Oblivion gates.

[AltreU]

In Arena the entire continent of Tamriel was playable.

I would hardly consider a single city in each region which were only reachable via fast travel an "entire playable continent".

 

Actually, I'm pretty sure you can cross the entire continent. I ran from city to city in Skyrim and Valenwood and I assume that you can run region to region.