StaceyPowers

So, in Oblivion and Skyrim, we had the same basic guilds: Fighters (Companions in Skyrim), Dark Brotherhood, Thieves, and Mages. In Elder Scrolls VI, I would expect to see all or most of these same basic guilds, but maybe we’ll get some new guilds too? If there were going to be some new guilds, what are some ideas you would like to see? A merchant’s guild seems like an obvious choice, though it might be hard to build a story around it. A crafter’s guild seems like another obvious choice. Likewise, a quest line would be hard to manage, but it could just be there to build an RP framework around some kind of advanced crafting system, which IMO Elder Scrolls could really use. Since the mage’s guild has split with necromancers, a necromancer’s guild could be interesting, particularly as one could pit them against the mage’s guild. Another thought since there are so many books in ES would be a librarian’s guild. Yes, it sounds weird, but it would generate plenty of guests, particularly if we take it further and say, perhaps, that our librarians are in search of some deep esoteric knowledge or such. There are a million places to run with that. The ES universe has pirates. A pirate’s guild would be interesting, or even the ability to build ships and gather crews and just go pirating on one’s own. In Skyrim, we do have the Bards, but somehow I always forget to think of them as a guild, as they gave fairly miscellaneous quests, and didn’t have a protracted storyline. But maybe they could in the next game. Some kind of archaeology/explorer guild could be interesting, especially if like our librarians they have an agenda. I also like the idea of some manner of engineering guild working toward rebuilding technologies from the Dwemer and putting them to modern use. Slightly off topic, I also think factions representing divines or daedra might be an interesting idea to play with. I have a particular dislike of the Vigilants of Stendarr, and am constantly killing them wherever I see them. I can’t help but want a quest line where I can hunt down those Vigilants of Stendarr and oppose them in some sort of storyline. What new guilds would you like to see in the next Elder Scrolls game? And what other new factions or types of factions would you like to be able to interact with?

I'd say planning is the start of pursuing the goal, and if it is worth it, jump in immediately.

I think I have mentioned before that video game humour seems to easily be hit-or-miss for me. So, I wondered what for everyone here is the funniest moment you have experienced in a video game? I am specifically asking about scripted humor, not just funny things that happened to you because of a glitch, coincidence, or your actions or someone else’s. I mean humor written into the world or dialogue in some way. I am not sure objectively what the funniest moment to me was, because chances are good I have forgotten. But the first one that springs to mind is a line of dialogue in Fallout: New Vegas: Old World Blues, where one of the brains in the jars/scientists sees you holding up your fingers to try to communicate, and remarks that you are now holding up “fully erect hand penises!” That was probably the hardest I remember laughing while playing a video game in a while. What moment scripted into a game made you laugh really hard?

On a thread regarding speedruns, @Shagger mentioned that speedruns "defy the point of gaming," to which @TheSteelyardDweller mentioned that speedruns might be a "different way to play a game." This got me thinking rather broadly about intention, game design, and practical use (though on this specific point, I think I see things how @Shagger does). Most of us here mentioned that speedruns aren’t really something that interest us. But I am sure most of us can think of times we played games in a way other than was likely intended. For example, I have spent a lot of time in Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament 2004 just trying to clamber up to the highest points on the map as possible. When I was a kid, there were golf games on PC that my parents bought a lot of. I remember I never cared about making the holes. I just kept using the golf club to steer the ball and myself to distant points on the map. I would eventually hit the edge, but the idea that there could somehow be “more” was always tantalizing to me. In hindsight, I realize that I was using the golf games to try and fill my longing for open world exploration. Obviously, I was not making the best possible use of the golf games, but it is interesting to me that I was still trying to do something logical. I just hadn’t found any game that were designed to offer the use I wanted. Does anyone have examples of games you used in non-intended ways? For that matter, does anyone here openly oppose playing games in ways they were not "meant" to be played by their developers? And which games have you played that were extremely open-ended in terms of developer intent and audience use?

I was compiling a list of games on sale at the PlayStation Store today, and I chuckled when I saw that a game called “Job Simulator” is on sale (upon looking up this title, I see it is a rather tongue-in-cheek game). It seems like sim games which involve “ordinary” life occupations or hobbies, i.e. farming, fishing, running a hospital, etc. are quite popular. I have never played one of these types of games before, aside from, say, flight simulators, which I didn’t really get into. For those who play sim games, what is the draw?

@The Blackangel asked in another thread if those of us who play Skyrim will stop once ES VI comes out. This made me curious how common this behaviour is. Has anyone here abandoned all previous entries in a series upon getting the newest game in that series? Like never played Fallout 3 or NV anymore after getting Fallout 4, or never playing Oblivion or Morrowind again upon getting Skyrim? I wouldn’t expect this to apply to linear games, but I figure with open world games, maybe some people do have this play style. For me, new entries in series don’t make old entries obsolete unless those entries were already very weak to begin with. They just add on to the existing world and give me more content to explore.

I'll just play both. I play Oblivion too :) I'll love having a new world to explore, but it won't cause me to lose interest in the old one I already love.

I had no idea! I love how I am still discovering new things about Skyrim. Lol, I literally said this in another thread. She's my favourite character in Skyrim--she was given so much more background and personality than most, and a war with the thieves guild would've been cool.

Of Bethesda’s published games, I have played Skyrim, Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas so far. I really love all of them, but I feel like Obsidian made some improvements over the rest with NV. I would love to see some of those lessons applied to Elder Scrolls VI eventually, namely: Fewer and more richly-developed companions. There are only a few companions in New Vegas, but every one of them has quests, and most of them have stories (I wouldn’t say that applies to ED-E exactly). There are a few companions in Skyrim I think fit the bill, but the vast majority are almost interchangeable with each other. Nice leveling system. Skyrim’s leveling is easy and intuitive, and I do like it. But I do kind of prefer Fallout’s system (in both NV and Fallout 3) where you distribute points rather than just selecting perks. Companions with solid mechanics. I spend a lot more time waiting around for or actively searching for my companions in Skyrim than Fallout NV, where they seem to follow better and navigate more easily. Also, if one loses track of them, one can see where they are on the map. I’d love to see this simple improvement in ES VI as it saves a considerable amount of time and stress. Plus, you can give more specific combat instructions to your NV companions, and this would be good to see in ES VI as well. Side quests (yes, I am one of those people). I love a million side quests when they are distinctive and interesting, and I love RP. The balance in NV leans more heavily toward both than in Skyrim, so I’d like to see this in ES VI. Complex factions and many possible paths and outcomes. I love the complex relationships and interactions among the many NV factions, and I like that there are so many ways you can complete the main quest line. This would be cool to see in the next Elder Scrolls game. In Skyrim, there was only one way to beat Alduin. There could have been a lot more modification of this through the civil war plot, and quite a bit more complexity with routes and outcomes there too. Speech is actually important—but not annoying. I hate the “persuade” system in Oblivion because of the mini-game. Speech in Skyrim is … there … but I hardly even notice it or think about it. Nor can I think of cases where persuading someone led to a major quest outcome change in Skyrim. But in Fallout NV, it can be vital in getting the outcomes you want, and is actually a cool skill worth putting lots of points into. I’d like to see that in the next Elder Scrolls. Would you like to see any of these features in ES VI? Are there any other features from Fallout NV you would want to see in ES VI? What about from other Fallout games? And what about from other Obsidian games like The Outer Worlds (which I have yet to play)?

For reference, I haven’t played Morrowind. I’ve played Skyrim through multiple times, and am currently on my first playthrough of Oblivion. I think Skyrim built a lot on what Oblivion did and made many large improvements. I would expect Elder Scrolls VI to do the same when it eventually comes out. But are there some things you would like to see ES VI return to in terms of how Oblivion or Morrowind did things rather than how Skyrim did them? For example, in Oblivion, you could get kicked out of a guild if you do something like steal from them or break their rules. But in Skyrim, there is literally nothing you can do to get kicked out of anything that I am aware of, no matter how illogical that is. I don’t entirely have a problem with that, as I can come up with scenarios where one might get away with memberships in all factions in secret, etc. But I do have a slight preference for Oblivion’s more realistic guild system in that respect. There is also the matter of object placement when decorating one’s home. I DO vastly prefer being able to move an object around in the air and precisely deposit as in Skyrim, but the objects always tilt upside-down, which is quite annoying. In Oblivion, at least objects seem to have a tendency to land butter-side-up, even though as in Fallout, it can be hard to guess where to stand when one hits the drop button to make sure they land in the right spot. I’d love to see a “best of both worlds” between these placement systems in ES VI. What do you want to see brought back from Oblivion and Morrowind in ES VI?

So, I always get upset when I am doing the start of the Thieves Guild quest line where you are debt collecting and you have to collect from Keerava in the tavern. In my first two playthroughs, I wound up having to threaten her family to get her to comply. On my third playthrough, I visited her last (which I hadn’t done before), and she immediately handed the money over without a single argument. So, I think by visitng Keerava last, you can skip threatening her family. Just a small tip for others who also might like to avoid threatening Keerava :) She and her partner will still be mad at you for eternity for collecting though.

@Crazycrab and I were discussing in another thread a little bit about the game breaking problems on PS3 which, to my knowledge, affect Fallout: New Vegas (the worst offender in my experience), Fallout 3, Skyrim, and (I assume) other titles in both series. I'm always surprised at how few people mention these issues, and not everyone seems to have them, which I can't figure out. As best I can tell, the problem has to do with the increasing size of one's save files. As they get larger and more complex, the world starts glitching and freezing and falling apart. I wanted to know if anyone has discovered any tips for minimizing and delaying these problems. So far, here are my recommendations: Set priorities. I don’t worry about this too much except in NV, but there is a reason I am on my third? fourth? playthrough there already. If you have this problem as badly as I do, you just have to accept limited, smaller playthroughs, and plan accordingly so you can do what you want most on each round. Don’t waste time on things you don’t have to/don’t really want, and if you need to level, do it efficiently. Avoid loading complex areas when not necessary. Over time, you get a feel for which areas like to glitch. If at all possible, only walk into them when you actually need to complete a quest objective, and leave immediately when you finish that. Need to load a complex area that is glitching? Fast travel clear across the map and back and try again. Say, for example, that Camp McCarren is freezing. Try fast travelling way across the map to say Red Rock Canyon, and then back. Sometimes this will resolve the issue temporarily, allowing you to progress. You can also try restarting the game. Sometimes that works too. Keep that blood and guts perk OFF on Fallout. All those little giblets flying around get logged into the growing save file. They add unnecessary complexity, and will hasten the glitching of the world. Don’t bump into random objects. Yes, it might look like fun to knock over that huge pile of crates and send Nuka Cola bottles flying everywhere, but it will have the same bad effect as the blood and guts perk. Certain weapons seem to make the VATS problems worse for me. If I avoid guns with a high rate of fire, that seems to help a lot. Does anyone have any additional suggestions for minimizing and/or working around these PS3 save data/memory issues while playing these Bethesda games?

The guild quest lines are among my favorites in Skyrim. I found them more fun and compelling overall than the main quest line, actually, and I always dread reaching the end of any of them. My favorites are the Mage and Thieves quest lines. But my complaint about all the quest lines for guilds in Skyrim is that they are all essentially the same. I have heard other people make this observation before as well. In all cases, you show up, find the guild in disarray, someone randomly puts faith in you to fix it all, and through a series of events, you help resurrect the guild from its disarray and you are put in charge. I realized this was a pattern before I was halfway through the third of four guild quest lines on my first playthrough, and knew exactly what to expect from there on out, minus the specific details. So, my question is, how could Elder Scrolls VI improve off of this? And are there other improvements you can think of for guild quest lines? Alongside more variety, I think it would be interesting if you could play out storylines against guilds. For example, Mjoll in Riften refers quite dramatically to the city as her “great beast to be slain.” But there is no quest line where you can choose to side with Mjoll and actually help her slay her great beast by going to war with the Thieves Guild. I love the Thieves Guild, but I also love Mjoll, and I think a compelling storyline could have been arranged around helping her win. I also would like to see some quest lines after restoring guilds to their glory, if that is still going to be common in ES VI. For example, after restoring the Thieves Guild in Skyrim, I wanted a stranger to walk into town and commission us to do some kind of highly-complex uber-heist with a whole new multi-step quest line. Something like that would be awesome in ES VI. What do you want to see from guild quest lines in the next Elder Scrolls game?

Favorite classic PC game?

I think this might be our largest pool of nominees yet. That's awesome!

I always wondered this too. Very informative @Shagger and @Dead2009.

A family dynamic is compelling for me as well, and part of why I think I always get so attached to my followers in Dragon Age.

I was asking specifically about video game locations for picnics =D but this is a more interesting response than I would have gotten on that. People tend to avoid cemeteries, so they do seem very tranquil to me too, and aesthetically, they can be quite lovely. That sounds like an amazing place full of history, and its neglect makes me sad. I am sure that the maintenance you did has helped though, and that the place appreciated the care you gave it. Wrapping around to this, the Memorial Gardens (cemetery) in BioShock Infinite would be a nice place for a picnic, assuming one hasn’t yet awakened/manifested Lady Comstock’s “ghost.” There is also a nice cemetery in Rapture, but I don’t recall if it is in BioShock 1 or 2.

I would feel pretty lost playing as Engineer class I think. Heck, I often just skip bringing anyone who isn’t just straight up solid with combat with me on missions (so Ashley is always with me) unless I don’t expect much fighting, and I just ignore all the locked containers I can’t open. I like Tali a lot, but that does mean alas she doesn’t get to go out with me much. Regarding coronavirus, I think that it is almost inescapable to run into these resonating themes in games—so many of our games focus on pandemics, apocalyptic scenarios, etc., so we encounter it all over the place. I’m also replaying TLOU right now (just started Left Behind again), so I get major quarantine vibes every night when I play.

I am on my first playthrough of Mass Effect (first game) playing as Vanguard, and I agree, it is a super fun class. I had no idea what I was doing when I picked it out, but in hindsight I can say I picked exactly the class I ultimately would have ended up wanting. This is indeed a good series for quarantine. I'm going a lot more slowly than you though since I have other games on rotation. Glad you are enjoying it!

In a different thread, some of us (sorry, forgot who, can’t find it right now) were talking about Ellie in TLOU, and how easy it is to bond with her emotionally through Joel. I was theorizing that this may be one of the reasons why even gamers who aren’t all that keen on LGBTQA+ portrayals often give Ellie a kind of “pass” (not universally, to be sure, but if they make an exception for one game, TLOU is usually it). You learn to care deeply about Ellie because you feel protective of her. By experiencing Joel’s emotional journey, it is easy to think of her as your own daughter when you are playing, or to want her to be your daughter, just as Joel eventually does. I think this worked really well to build empathy and emotional connection in BioShock Infinite too. Elizabeth definitely can take care of herself, but you still feel protective of her, and you build that same father-daughter bond with her. While building those bonds, as the gamer, you also learn to relate closely to Joel and Booker in those games as well. So, I would suggest that the parental bond in a video game between the player character and another character seems to be a great way to build an emotional connection in the gamer. As an unrelated example, another thing I have noticed helps me bond emotionally with a character is when there is some small, personal detail written into them with which I can interact in a way that helps them. Like, in Dragon Age: Origins, there is a part where Morrigan tells you a sad story from her childhood involving a mirror. Later, there is a mirror in a shop, and if you buy it for her, she’ll be surprised and delighted, and it feels like you have helped heal an old wound. You get the feeling you are the only friend she’s ever had, and at that point, at least for me, I was very attached. Now I am wondering if anyone else has made any observations in this area. Are there are relationships, situations, or so on which you have noticed do a great job helping you emotionally connect with the character you are playing or an NPC you are interacting with?

Sometimes I see games which look really cool from an aesthetic standpoint, but which have received mediocre or bad reviews. I was wondering if anyone here can think of a game you have played which was really cool to look at, but wasn’t all that great from a gameplay standpoint. And if so, were you still satisfied with the experience, or were the aesthetics not enough? What could the game have done to live up to its appearance and deliver an overall better experience?

I am listening to the ambient noise from the Emerald Vale from The Outer Worlds right now while I am working. I haven’t had a chance yet to actually play The Outer Worlds, but it sounds like such a peaceful, idyllic environment (let me guess—it’s probably full of insane enemies =D). It got me thinking about in-game locations where I wish I could eat a picnic, hike, and just relax for a day IRL. The top one which comes to mind is definitely The Rift from Skyrim. I would say most specifically that part of it where the trees meet the mountains over where that one hunter dude who worships Kyne (forgot his name) has his house. I never get tired of just hanging out in that area. Of course, pretty much anywhere in the Rift would be amazing, so long as one is avoiding the bears. It being perpetual autumn is a big plus =D My next pick would probably be Arcadia from BioShock. Not because it is the world’s greatest picnic location or anything, because it totally isn’t. More just because I am always trying to imagine what it was like to live in Rapture before the fall. What about you? In what in-game location would you most like to just enjoy a relaxing afternoon?

Those of you who have read my posts probably have noticed by now that my usual reaction to most puzzle games is agitation, frustration, and sometimes pure rage. But there are exceptions. On another thread, @The Blackangel mentioned a game called "Word Cookies" being relaxing, and it sounded kind of similar to the terminal hacking mini-game in Fallout, which I actually do find really relaxing. So, what are some other relaxing puzzle games which you can recommend?

I never did finish that one 😞