I am actually shocked that people are still interested in Elder Scrolls VI. Remember, this is a studio that in its entire history has never really innovated or improved or anything.
That's putting the case rather strongly, don't you think? They took an evil path later but until Oblivion the series was ingenious and pretty much incline. Even after that, some* changes in later games
were for the better, and I'll fight you on that.
*not all
I'll say it out loud: I enjoyed hundreds of hours in Skyrim (not even counting previous ES games). The main reason? No game or series comes close to Elder Scrolls in terms of pure LARPing potential. There is a ton of lore and substance that provides a broad and colorful backdrop to tell all kinds of crazy stories. And whether anyone admits it or not, the character system allows the player to explore several deep and distinct playstyles. If you want, you
can be the "100% achiever" head of the Thieves Guild
and archmage of the Mages Guild etc., which is obviously stupid ... but nothing forces you to do that
at all**.
**Well, OK, except for the stupid MQ that does indeed force you to get your toes wet in every guild. But you don't really have to do the MQ at all either.
Speaking for myself, I played four different characters:
1) A straight up Conan-type warrior who perfected fighting skills and went around following rumors of dragons and hunting them;
2) A Dark Elf wizard slash detective who didn't carry armor or weapons, stalled on a pilgrimage to Summerset Isle to seek out the Psijics when the arrest took place. (I was blown away when the Psijics actually contacted this character in the game!) Interested primarily in hunting Daedric artifacts, and there was plenty to do there;
3) A spy from Wayrest in High Rock, again with no weapon skills, sent with a mission to cause problems for Orsinium by destabilizing the region, which was brilliantly accomplished by infiltrating the Stormcloaks and helping bring those idiots to power;
4) A serial killer Wood Elf, who fought for justice by stalking and murdering the region's many lumberjacks.
Note that in my 347 hours I never came close to finishing the MQ.
I have similar stories for New Vegas and even Fallout 3, lots of fun gaming memories there. If you want to talk about the characters I made for Morrowind and Daggerfall and the stories I told there, we can do that too (though memories are hazier). To most Codexers I'm "doing it wrong" because I don't care about accumulating xp, but this is what RP gaming is all about for me. Show me another studio that makes games that give me
both this kind of freedom
and enough open world content to push against that I can create these kind of stories, and I will definitely play them. Right now I'm frankly unaware of any game that does it better than Skyrim, for all its many faults and failings.
Now. Elder Scrolls 6, I don't know about, because Fallout 4 appears to have taken a giant step backwards in voicing the protagonist, making all skills and perks only relate to combat, etc. It really doesn't look like you can meaningfully play more than one type of character. (I haven't played Fallout 4.) Maybe ES6 will do the same thing, ruining the one thing about the series I always found so appealing. ES5 certainly took away some options I liked. How much dumber will ES6 get? I'm not exactly holding my breath (like I did for Skyrim) ... but I will read the previews with interest to see whether I can "do my thing" when the game comes out.
