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Hearthfire - Opposing views


El`derina

Hearthfire: Do you like this DLC?  

64 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you like this DLC?

    • Yes, it adds more flavor to Skyrim and more homes is just what we needed!
    • No, They are basically releasing the same stuff with a different mechanic.
    • No(Some other reason)
    • Don't care.


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Well, It's just a logical continuation of the whole character creation system as well as Bethesda's immersion philosophy. So yes, it'll add some flavor and I don't see why people wouldn't like that. You get to interact more with the world as well as NPCs and actually become part of the living populace of Skyrim rather than always sprinting from one assignment to the next.

That said, immersion is ultimately worthless without good game mechanics. Hearthfire seems to add a cool little detail, another option to play around with or ignore - much like cooking or mounted combat (which actually turned out to be extremely helpful with my little project). But it doesn't add much content from either a mechanical or narrative perspective, which is what people want and were expecting to a higher extent than a detail that would maybe have been classified as pretty cool if it had been present in the vanilla game, but certainly not a major selling point. I know that when I think about the next DLC, slightly evelated immersion levels are not what comes to mind first. Whatever building a house is, it's not epic in the literary sense of the word.

 

Frankly, I would be more jazzed if this DLC would make your spouse exempt from being the target of thieves' guild quests, and if Ysolda (as a spouse) would react differently during A Night to Remember. Hell, try adding spouse quests. What kind of marriage is this, you're home once a month only to have your loved one cough up some casheesh and maybe some food ...

I'm already miffed by the way same-sex marriage is implemented - not by the same-sex marriage itself, but because the Dovahkiin seems to be the only gay/lesbian in the entire province whereas all eligible NPCs seem to be bisexual. (Another Skyrim-related pet peeve is how the culmination of the Brotherhood questline seems to have no effect on, well, anything. And the effect of your behavior in Cidhna mine is minimal as well.)

At least to me, these are the kind of inconsistencies that break immersion much more than the inability to build your own orphanage. I mean, I already got over the fact that my character doesn't have to eat to survive rather easily ...

 

Want immersion? Try seasons.

 

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This is all assuming that Hearthfire will be little more than what it's being advertised as, however. When DG was announced I thought: "Whaaat? Vampires? Paladins? Come one, Bethesda, gimme Thalmor conspiracies, Falmer/Dwemer secrets, Daedra, Dragon alliances, access to another province, a full-fledged Forsworn uprising, or a new faction to join." In the end, it turns out the announcement was leaning too heavily on vampire lords, crossbows, and (yawn) armored trolls to judge it as a whole.

Likewise, while Hearthfire sounds even less interesting than DG to me from a story or gameplay persepctive, it may add more cool stuff (including quests) than I'm anticipating. I'd love to build a city from where to fight both the Empire and the Stormcloaks ... ah, a guy can dream ;)

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@Lachdonan

Well,... for me, it's more that they are releasing barely above patch level work(if even that) and are charging 5 times Horse Armor(which quite frankly, will have gotten more use out of than THIS DLC, despite all the bad said about it) >.>

and don't get me wrong,... $5 is pocket change, god forbid anyone complain about that 'when what you are buying is worth it'.

But I am not buying a single tootsie roll if it's price suddenly jumped 5x its actual value, and will instead raise an eyebrow at the seller and say "WTF?!" simply out of principle.

 

Otherwise, i wholeheartedly agree.. what they did looks nice... just like that tootsie roll... but I feel sorry for the sucker that bought it >.>

And yes,.. it does bode ill for the future. If I remember correctly, they mentioned 3 'near' shivering isles scope DLC... dawnguard doesnt touch shivering isles in scope or size, but beats it in quality(in my opinion at least,.. but nothing beats CHEESE FOR EVERYONE!!), Hearthfire doesn't do either, and the clock is ticking.

 

and despite dawnguards quality, it still isn't as enjoyable as shivering isles... I dont know about the rest of you,.. but I dont care about dawnguard now that I have played it. Yet Shivering Isles is something they could remake for Skyrim and I would pay full price, or reinstall oblivion.. thats not a bad idea now..

Heck,... they could recreate morrowind and I'd buy it double Triple A price, so long as I didn't have to deal with anymore streamlining or dumping down bulls***... Yes, the future bodes ill on many fronts regarding TES. :(

 

(Minor Edit): To avoid confusion, Hearthfire isnt one of the 3 DLC they were refering to, as far as everyone knows,.. it's one of the "many minor" projects they wanted to work on... which actually confuses me,... at the begining I was under the impression they didnt wanna do small DLC anymore, thought it was directly stated >.> oh well.

Edited by El`derina
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I don't know what Bethesda's DLC strategy is and I hope they do continue to support Skyrim for a while yet (as Elder Scrolls Online is being handled by a different team), at least longer than Oblivion. That being said, giving us the CK has already meant a massive amount of FREE DLC. CK was a masterstroke as it meant they could effectively hand over the toy box and go and do other stuff, whilst occasionally making a new toy available.

 

Beyond patches and minor fixes if needed, there is no reason why Bethesda should have to produce more content. I'm just happy that they do.

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