Did I pick the wrong side?

[terzho]

I want to know if I picked the right side in the civil war by joining stormcloaks. Not based on their beliefs or system of governence but based purely on which side the mod makers picked. The reason for this is that when the creation kit comes out there will be quests based on the civil war and as seen from the faction mods from fallout new vegas it is obvious that the more popular faction gets all the quests made for it (NCR).

 

So this is my question. Did the majority of players pick the stormcloaks?

[JimboUK]

Its like being offered a choice between the Nazis and the Khmer Rouge, neither are very inspiring.

[terzho]

Its like being offered a choice between the Nazis and the Khmer Rouge, neither are very inspiring.

 

As I said in the post, I didn't care about political reasons I just wanted to know which side had the majority of players.

[abaris]

Its like being offered a choice between the Nazis and the Khmer Rouge, neither are very inspiring.

 

If it was the quests would be at least interesting. But as it is, it's just a choice between a tupperware party and reading the phone book.

[JimboUK]

Its like being offered a choice between the Nazis and the Khmer Rouge, neither are very inspiring.

 

As I said in the post, I didn't care about political reasons I just wanted to know which side had the majority of players.

 

In that case the poll needs a both option for those of us who have played more than one character. @Abaris behave yourself. :D

[Vallen87]

Imperials for me. If it was a united effort of all the nords against the Imperials then I would have gone with the stormcloaks. But half of them are with the Imperials so the stormcloaks are just rebels who tried to overthrow their king and usurp his throne

.

[BrknSoul]

Unlike New Vegas, the side you pick has very little impact on the main quest (or any other quests, for that matter). Also the two faction's questlines are very similar to each other. This involves;

 

 

 

Joining a faction

Finding the Jagged Crown

Delivering a message to Whiterun

Invade/Protect Whiterun

Liberate/Reunite Skyrim (This involves taking over a couple of forts, forging some documents, rescuing some men and blackmailing a Jarl's assistant)

Battle for Windhelm/Solitude

 

 

 

I think Bethesda kinda went a little half-arsed on the non-main quests. Compare, for example, the Mages Guild quests in Oblivion, vs the quests for the College in Skyrim. Oblivion has you doing all sorts of cute quests all around Cyrodiil to get accepted into the Arcane University, and then working your way up the ranks and defeating a nasty Necromancer King. The College of Winterhold has you look for some books, delve a couple of dungeons and then having a fight around an oversized christmas decoration.. and then, bam! you're Arch-Mage.

[Shantih]

The situation in Skyrim is different and it's hard to compare it to Fallout New Vegas. In FNV the Legion is clearly "evil" in comparison to the NCR (there are some pretty bad NCR officers and the central government is corrupt but they don't go around crucifying people and enslaving them -not that the Legion doesn't have some redeeming features and the NCR some serious limitations). FNV is really biased towards the NCR which is something that made some sense but can still be frustrating to players who want to play a Legion affiliated character (especially in the Honest Hearts DLC). You simply have more things to do as an NCR sympathizer in the unmodded game and most mods have been made following this bias.

 

Skyrim is more balanced in that respect so the choice is not as obvious. At first it may seem as if you're choosing between the underdogs and the repressive foreign empire but then fanaticism, bigotry and xenophobia tend to blur things...

 

It's just like real life, there is no "perfect" solution. There is no good option. At least not one that is entirely good. Ulfric is a very ambiguous and unlikable character but the Empire (and the Thalmor Dominion) could (should?) be taken down a peg or two.

 

I think that it's a great thing that Bethesda is trying to infuse some moral ambiguity into the Elder Scrolls. It's not something that we've been used to with Bethesda although it was the central element in the Pitt DLC for Fallout 3.

 

It may be fantasy but it doesn't mean that everything has to be clear cut. It's only natural that you think that you may have made the "wrong" choice. It only means that your character is not a fanatic but a human being who can make mistakes and who can understand that he or she has been mislead by people who only pretend to care about the people of Skyrim.

[Hosam]

I have played both since I started the game, but my initial choice was Stormcloaks. This was my first elderscrolls game so I did not know a lot of the backstory, and siding with the people who came real close to chopping my head off did not seem like a good idea. I wasn't even on the list! At the risk of going on tangent, it would have been nice to know how I landed in Imperial custody to begin with (maybe a "Return to Helgen" quest?)

 

When I later discovered that Vignar is bugged, and all suggestions to solve the problem failed (talking about "the Fallen" quest), I never sided with the Stormcloaks again. Politically speaking, the more I played the game the more I felt that Ulfric was wrong. Right now I don't get any of my newer characters involved in the civil war since it just does not seem right with a character that is neither Nord nor Imperial.

[ironbug99]

I picked the stormcloaks for a purely selfish reason and trying to put myself in my characters shoes. The empire was going to execute my character for no reason except being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sounds like an oppressive regime to me.