Stormcloak Vs. Imperials...hmmmmm.

[lquebecois]

Sadly, though, your choices have absolutely no effect on anything of importance in the game, so those pros and cons remain theoretical.

How could it be otherwise, though, if Bethesda is to leave room for future sequels to the series? For the main quest there is no choice at all: Alduin gets defeated by the Dragonborn and this fact will be a rock-solid part of history in all future content. For every other quest line, any choice apparently offered must be an illusion that can be glossed over or it must be something that would never be definitively recorded in history, leaving all doors open for the devs to use in filling in the backstory for the next TES game. It would be impossible for them to accomodate all the variant outcomes of real choices.

 

This is exactly for that reason that i prefer fallout instead of the Elder Scroll, in fallout, the liberty of choice that you describe right now is way better developed at a point that it will change the history on how your game end (especially in new vegas)

Edited April 9, 2012 by lquebecois

[RedRavyn]

@ BrettM and henkuberogus: I'm not suggesting that player actions have to be accounted for in future games in the series. I'm saying that there should be observable consequences for those actions that would logically happen within the current game. As I pointed out, if the Stormcloaks are victorious then this means, among other things, that Talos worship would be re-instated. It isn't, to my knowledge. We have this grand, sweeping storyline (potentially, at any rate), that the developers muddled through with poor story-telling and illusory choices, and it leaves a bad taste in the mouths of players who take their gaming seriously.

 

Bethesda didn't even follow through with the logical consequences of the Main Quest, where the Dovahkiin should have access to an army of dragons. They don't do diddly squat, even though they are being recruited systematically. As I've pointed out, elsewhere, you become the Listener for the Dark Brotherhood and you're still the peon out making the kills. You become the Harbinger for the Companions, and you're still doing odd extermination jobs for Aela. There are no real rewards for all the hard work you do to complete these questlines. Your character works his butt off to attain the highest level within an organization to still wind up being treated like the new cub.

 

As I said ... the Bethesda developers are starters and not finishers. I've never played Morrowind, but I do know we saw this same paradigm in Oblivion. All our role-playing is for naught, because none of it matters. Think about it for Skyrim. I can choose not to assassinate the Emperor. Now, how does that affect future ES games? I'm sure that the devs intend for every player to do every single primary quest, but not all of us are going to do that. So I let the twerp live, only to find out in the next ES game that the Emperor was assassinated during a trip to Skyrim. That's the way it will be and everyone knows it -- and yet we have the choice to not do so in this game.

 

Don't give us options if they don't mean anything.Don't give me the illusion of an open game, when it's really just a not-so-cleverly disguised linear game. Lay the cards on the table and tell us that the game is designed for 12-year-olds and that all we're doing is pushing a character thorugh a predestined story-line.

 

I fell for all the hype just like a lot of other people did, and I'm disappointed at Bethesda for stooping to such tactics to dump the most bug-ridden game I've ever seen on the unsuspecting public. I'll still play it. I'm convinced that the modding community will eventually "fix" this broken game. They did it with Oblivion. They can do it with Skyrim.