[Youpi]

I did have some fun in Skyrim but it was not very fun.


I should have followed this thread Cuba's videos are amazing.
I don't think I've understood any of the jokes.
Would watch again.
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Twitter: @youpi

[TXTSWORD]

Yeah - the game has a total non reaction to your input which is a huge fucking bummer.

[Mr. Mechanical]

No dude you've got it twisted, see, the clearing dungeons and making numbers go up are merely the excuse, the overall justification you might say, for doing more of the shootin' dudes and 'sploring, which are fun enough in themselves but it's nice to have a goal attached to them sometimes.

It's really a very chicken-or-egg type thing for me because both aspects are so bound up with each other. If I didn't enjoy shooting and exploring I wouldn't be enjoying myself as much, but if I didn't have the meta-goals attached I also might not see much reason to continue.
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[TXTSWORD]

I guess the issue for me is that once I had top tier gear, I didn't have any goals. I mean getting good gear was a shitty/flimsy goal as it is. I mean if I tried to set a goal like "I want to clear every dungeon" I would pretty quickly reassess as I realize I have absolutely nothing to gain from completing that goal because I've seen all the tilesets and I don't enjoy killing dudes and I don't need anything or feel challenged any more.

But I get you Mr. Mechanical. I guess what you're saying is kind of true of my real point - which is that meta-goals and most vgame goals in general are a sort of illusion that you build to live in that allows you to have fun. Completing that goal ends the illusion and the fun. In Skyrim it seems all too easy to find yourself with no illusions left... wandering some creepy digital dollhouse.

I think for Ronnoc and I - what existed in the illusion wasn't actually fun. If you enjoy shooting dudes and exploring - as it exists in Skyrim - then I guess you're having real fun.

[Mr. Mechanical]

I am very much a "make my own fun" type person too so this might account for our differences in how we approach this kind of game. I'm not particularly concerned that the game doesn't do a good enough job providing me with goals because I can just as easily come up with my own.
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[Ronnoc]

Which is likely why I've been playing a lot more board games and a lot less video games lately. I don't care if my decisions actually matter, I just want to feel as if they do, and I can't do that with Skyrim. Shoot arrows is actually fun stuff (unlike the rest of the combat, which is pretty nice coming off of Oblivion where arrows didn't seem very good at all), and at the end of my playtime I amused myself by trying to chain dungeons in werewolf form (you can extend your wolf-hood by eating people, and if you're not picking anything up, you can get through some dungeons without losing your form), but I don't have to commit to anything because there is no risk involved. I can always fall back on punching everyone in the face with my super armor.

[Kinto]

Real fun involves the moment-to-moment play be enjoyable enough to sustain a game forever, without any "metagoals".

When all you have is goals (because without them there is no short-term enjoyment that can be sustained for more than a couple hours) you really have nothing but errands.

Errands are things you have to do but you don't particularly enjoy doing, some games recognise this but instead of making the activity enjoyable they make the errand-completion enjoyable/compulsive. They get you addicted to checking off lists.

I dunno if that's illuminating to either of you but reading the last page or so reminded me of the above. It's something I think about a lot (I used to play Wow, quit cold-turkey 2 days after renewing a 6 month subscription and constantly wonder how I ever enjoyed it).
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[Youpi]

If I remember correctly my 60 current goals involve fetching the golden dagger of sijorn and the book of the songs of the kings of hammerfell part III and the forgotten runes of crimsonstead and 30 flowers and dragon's pancreas.
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Twitter: @youpi

[Faithless]

This game sucks. I have nothing else to play, and I feel pot committed, but every time I boot it up, I play for less and less time.

The people who say they "love" Skyrim -- do they finish the game? And if so, why? I don't even feel like there's a story in this world.
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my website

[Mr. Apol]

[Oroborobo]

[1CC]

[8128]

you can ignore catching fish and picking mushrooms altogether

if you're good enough
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[SuperWes]

[Tulpa]

Morrowind's writing is on a whole level above anything found in either Skyrim or Oblivion. The quest writing and design, not just the 'lore'. Though the two are often intertwined in interesting ways. As I've said elsewhere. Killing Vivec after reading his Sermons is far more meaningful to me than joining the psijic order five minutes after going to Hogwarts for Nords, before I've even had a hope of finding anything to do with the psijic order in the natural course of my exploration. Having large-scale world shaking events happen as soon as my character shows up in a place is boring and unrewarding. It feels like the designers are pandering to me, whereas just experiencing a setting before I encounter anything important feels like I have earned whatever I experience.
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[TXTSWORD]

Man, I hated that I couldn't walk into a town I'd never been to before without running into NPC events that I had to take part in immediately before I had a chance to sell off some loot or learn the town or take my coat off even.

[remote]

there may be life in this game yet


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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[Toptube]

oh my god hahaha. this hits a similar note to the RDR glitches.

[Faithless]

[DJ]

I kinda just had an epiphany with this game.

I plugged in a 360 controller and suddenly the combat is shockingly better. Like, to the point where after 10 minutes, going back to KBM feels bad. With the controller suddenly the shield usage makes sense and the motion-based attacks come naturally.

Even the menu suddenly makes a lot more sense.

Uh.

Hm. Didn't expect that.
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[CubaLibre]

Well... yeah. It's obvious that the game is built around dual analog, especially the menus - not only is there no other explanation, Bethesda said it thsemselves in prerelease press. "We are redoing the menus so they are easier to navigate with a controller." That's why they're bad. As I've said elsewhere, as stupid as the console vs. PC debate may be in any number of other contexts, Bethesda games are the best case for a series that has truly been "consoleified" for the worse.
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Let's Play, starring me.

[TXTSWORD]

I imagine I would still be able to enjoy the game were I on PC so I could play around with mods and the modding kit (did that ever release even?)

[DJ]

[DJ]

Aaaand shit here I go having fun with this game again.

I always do this with Bethesda games: Their characterization is terrible so I wind up making my own. I'm playing a Kingpin-style character who won't necessarily just kill you for fun but has no compunction against killing you if it furthers his ends in any way whatsoever. Didn't even start the main quest, headed straight to Riften, have already murdered 7 people in my first half hour of the game and have 20,000 gold.

Gonna make a medieval crime lord. This should be fun.
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[DJ]

Hey this mod actually makes the calm lake water look like calm lake water. Neato.



Dunno about the position of that sun reflection though. Hm.

Anyway if I had any artistic skill whatsoever I'd make the following GAEMER COMIC about my exploits tonight:

*My character walks into the thieves guild covered in blood*

Thieves Guild Quest Guy: "Alright, you're back! Did you burn those three bee hives like we asked?"
Me: "Yup!"
TGQG: "Ha! That'll show that stupid wood elf. Thinks he can hold out payment on us, does he? Now he'll pay up for sure!"
Me: *gets concerned look on face, has thought-bubble flashback of senselessly murdering the owner and about 30 guards with a giant sword*
TGQG: "By the way...Why are you covered in blood?"
Me: "Oh, uh, you know. Wolves."
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[Teflon]

[TXTSWORD]

[GrimmSweeper]

[TXTSWORD]

^I killed the guy in that quest and they kicked me out of the guild until I paid a fee.

[1CC]

[SuperWes]

The biggest flaw with this game is that it's really boring. Everyone wants you to do something for them, but nobody has anything interesting they want you to do. Enemies are way too few and far between, and fighting them is simply a matter of walking backwards and shooting them a bunch.

The world is really well done though, and feels mostly real.

-Wes
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[remote]

If by "the world" you mean the terrain itself, but none of its inhabitants.
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[SuperWes]

[GrimmSweeper]

They went for the easy way of scaling difficulty with enemies by making them beefier the higher you go, which doesn't make fights any more interesting than when you first encounter them. This is a huge problem with dragons because the fights just DRAAAAG ON and it is incredibly difficult to get away from them in broad daylight. Also, one-hit kills in melee if they're feeling especially nasty.

Mages would be more fun if there were greater variation to their spells. That's more of a problem of Destruction and Conjuration being ho-hum close range inferno/frost, long range bolt/blast and 5 different summons of different commonalities (frost atronach, dread zombie, flame/storm atronach, familiar from common to rare). Drink resist potion, spam your primary attack, drink healing and repeat until dead. Or if sneaky, wait for good moment to get behind them and dagger stab/bow crit.

EDIT: OH HO, there's a glitch to exponentialize fortify skill enchantments and potions. Strike what I said before, this sounds like the perfect way to blow through the game in nothing flat. Going to try tonight on my main game then try it on a fresh game to see how quickly the main quest can be resolved.

[GrimmSweeper]

I've succeeded in crashing the game attempting to enchant a newly minted shield with a potion giving at least a 2 million boost to enchantment. It really doesn't like that.

So to speedrun the game all one needs are the ingredients to fortify restoration (I'd say enough for 5 or 6 starting at a level 1 character), an item that will boost alchemy so that we can reapply it to each subsequent potion, ingredients for fortify smithing to be created after the loop and then whatever is required to enhance your current set of equipment, particularly your melee weapon and bow since the armor rating will cap really easily. Regenerate stamina would probably be a good idea so you can run forever. Once you got all that done, it's just a simple matter of running the main quests fast without levelling for perks.

[Kitten ClanClan]

I despise Bethesda, but I will admit some interest in buying Skyrim because I am interested in the idea of playing as a CAT PERSON and doing CAT PERSON THINGS. Is the game as horrible for role-playing as I have heard it is? I hear that I will only very rarely even be acknowledged as a CAT PERSON or really even reminded I am one at all, and this kind of kills the really minimal interest that I have.
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[Teflon]

[GrimmSweeper]

You won't be barred from entering cities. You won't be discriminated against. Maybe your race will be remarked upon by guards and townspeople but that quickly gets subsumed by having high level skills. The khaijiiti NPCs will treat you the same way as they would another race. Even in Windhelm where there's open discrimination on the Dark Elves AND Argonians, being those races in that city will not have the citizens there treat you any differently.

Such a missed opportunity.

[Kitten ClanClan]

Well, shucks. How disappointing. Thank you for the information, at least.
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[TXTSWORD]

[remote]

somewhat amusing


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letterboxd | last.fm | steam