Stories
have their own world. Many of them may take place in a setting that
quite resembles are own but nevertheless are separate worlds to that
of reality.
Often the
nature of this world can be a factor to the content of the story
itself. A story set in medieval Europe is unlikely to deal with
themes involving the terror of nuclear devastation.
When
Tolkein released his book the Hobbit, it broke new ground by
inventing an entirely new and original world.
Well, new
and original if you ignore all of the plots, characters, themes and
ideas he blatantly stole from Scandinavian literature and
Judeo-christian scripture.
But anyway
the point is that creating new worlds opens new doors to explore in
narrative and can lead to epic tales that have few parallels within
our world.
So, I
cannot help but wonder why Skyrim is so boring.
Skyrim's
basically the Tolkein of video games: its a big world filled with
elves and humans, with an underlying black/white plot and most of it
was copy and pasted from the Vikings.
I quite
enjoyed previous Bethesda rpgs. Morrowind was an exceptional
experience, (forgetting those fucking ass-hat cliff-racers) Oblivion
was nice (well mostly the shivering isles expansion), Fallout 3 had
some great moments and Fallout New Vegas was perfect in each and
every way (although there might be a good reason behind that one).
When I
first heard they were making a new Elder scrolls game I was quite
pleased with the idea. Then I heard it involved the Nords: a Viking
based people and my heart skipped a beat, then they added dragons and
I had a major artery bypass the same evening.
But
amazingly, despite aiming directly for my weakness, Skyrim bored the
living hell out of me. This is quite a miraculous feat. It was like
someone offered me an invitation to a banquet of all of my favourite
foods and half way through devouring the tender hearts of my enemies
I decided it was best if I go to bed early.
Moreover,
Oblivion did not have any leg ups and I actually went into Fallout 3
with negative prejudices towards it and yet these games managed to
sate my appetite better than others.
I ask for
as much in games as I would in any other story telling medium: a
story. Fallout and the Elder scrolls have the benefit of being able
to tell stories whilst at the same time building up upon an already
huge lore base.
But I'm
pretty sure that's where Skyrim went wrong.
There was
a lot of lore already present in the Elder scrolls universe prior to
the release of Skyrim. And even then, Bethesda had its bearded
(albeit of the neck variety) lore masters slaving away to make up for
about 200 years of missed time-line.
I have
fond memories of being buried in a lore book detailing the scandalous
affair of Emperor Talos and his dunmer mistress only to go out into
the world and find nought but ash and fetch quests.
Skyrim
just doesn't take advantage of its lore when creating quests. Nearly
all of them could be placed in another game and not seem out of
place.
Skyrim had
this weird concept that it would be a game where you could do
anything. You can smith, chop wood, climb mountains, do basic
mercenary work, pick flowers as you skip merrily through the fields
with Todd Howard in hand until he whisks you off into the sky to
whatever fantasy dream land he and Peter Moleneaux get their E3
briefings from.
Sorry,
where was I.
Yes,
skyrim can let you do a number of mundane tasks but isn't that what
we're trying to escape? The point of an rpg is that you can do
interesting things in an interesting world that you find fulfilling
in a way the real world could never offer.
Skyrim has
a large world with many quests, more so than Fallout 3, but most of
these do not do anything to expand or take advantage of the lore. For
example: how many quests relating to the dunmer were there in the
grey quarter? One? Was that a fetch quest? It was? How unexpected.
And now how many involved the lore behind why the dunmer were there
and what was happening. None? Well, hello.
Now in all
honesty this is simply my opinion which is fallible. But do you know
what isn't? Statistics!
I took a
look at quests in the main towns, ignoring the main faction quests
and deity quests and came up with percentages of quests that don't
take advantage of OR expand the lore at all. One should note that I
was incredibly generous with these figures (I counted that spider
killing quest in Markarth just because it gave the spider a name for
example).
Dawnstar
80
Falkreath
75
morthal 66
Riften 64
Solitude
68
Whiterun
75
Windhelm
88
Winterhold
100
Now if
those figures are not alarming one should note that 99 percent of
those quests were simply fetch, slay or a few words quests lacking
any sort of story at all. I also think I should point out that Riften
has the lowest number of unrelated quests because any time Riften had
a quest related to corruption I quite happily included it as part of
the lore of Riften. One must also note that Morthal only had three
quests with one of them being a quest to do quests for the people of
Morthal.
So about
now, I am starting to see the reason why the game is as interesting
as a School mass. But as I could never figure out why my School mass
wasn't made more interesting that time a horned monster appeared and
set everything on fire, I can't quite fathom why Skyrim was a let
down when it had dragons.
Dragons
are my favourite mythological subject. And they are a difficult thing
to get right in fantasies. Either a dragon will be portrayed as a
dumb animal that a shiny teethed twat of a hero kills to save the day
or they will be an unstoppable doomsday beast that is killed with a
single arrow (see Smaug the impenetrable).
Skyrim
manages to do both.
This is
sort of surprising given the complex lore behind dragons in Skyrim.
The dov of Skyrim have not only their own unique culture and psyche
but also come with their own language, something that the writers
made for skyrim and the developers neglected to feature no more than
once or twice in the game.
Frankly
the dragons were a gold mine of quest opportunity however they seem
to feature as nothing more than a side note and are entirely confined
to the main quest.
There are
only three dragons that talk to you in the game (1 additional if you
pay for DLC) and only two of them give you the option to talk back.
The one you can't talk back to, by the way, is the main antagonist of
the entire bloody game!
Of course
you will encounter dragons outside of this, but then they will be no
more than the next evolutionary step for cliff racers rather than
actual worthwhile experiences.
Ironic
that dragons feature so little in the game when this was the concept
that Bethesda based the entirety of Skyrim around.
Dragons in
the trailer, dragons on the main menu, a song about dragons, come to
think of it the box art shows a big dragon as well.
Its hard
to believe that what is actually going on is Skyrim is supposed to be
a dragon apocalypse of a scale similar to the oblivion crisis.
Especially
when none of the npcs even see the dragons as a threat. Nobody
outside of the main quest really give much of a shit and nothing gets
burned down outside of Helgen. I even remember Tullius referring to
the dragon crisis as a “nuisance”.
Compare
this to the main quest in Oblivion where an entire town gets wiped
off the map and you run the risk of being shanked by that friendly
neighbour you once trusted with your hedge clippers because it turned
out they were secretly an agent of the dark lord all along. Oblivion
was like how extremist terrorists think they are seen by the world
and Skyrim is like the reality of the matter.
Actually,
on the subject of Oblivion and Skyrim, there seems to be a big gap in
content between the two.
In
Oblivion you had the huge Imperial city surrounded by different towns
all differing between each other in their culture and architecture.
In Skyrim
the cities are all rather small and a lot of assets have been reused;
making Falkreath, Morthal and Dawnstar identical.
Actually,
come to think of it, a lot of the cities in Skyrim had conveniently
suffered damage during the interregnum between Oblivion and Skyrim.
The huge
cosmopolitan Riften had been burned down and rebuilt as a smaller
settlement. The trade capital Whiterun had fallen into ruin due to
recession. The civil war destroyed most of Windhelm and Winterhold
fell into the sea for no well-explained reason.
A lucky
thing the story went in that direction because it meant Bethesda
didn't have to work as hard building Skyrim.
Now this
obvious bullshit can only be explained by two possibilities.
1.
Bethesda games studios has been body snatched by Aliens who don't
understand human game design.
2.
Bethesda games studios has gotten lazy or stupid or probably both.
Given the
lack of substantial evidence for extra terrestrial visitors I would
think it safe to go with the latter.
Frankly,
this should be obvious, even when one takes a look at the little
things.
In
Oblivion I have a fond memory of meeting a terrifyingly paranoid elf
and as I was role playing as the nosiest bastard on the planet, I
broke into his house only to find that he kept a large battle axe at
his bedside table. In Fallout 3 I had a similar experience of
rummaging through somebody's house, (only in this case the house was
abandoned and by abandoned I mean the previous occupant had come down
with a serious case of three rounds in the eye) and when I went up to
the bedroom this time I found not an axe but several tubes of
morphine (sorry politically correct med-x) and then looked to the bed
to find two skeletons holding each other. I went into another room
and then found a child's bed with a some braces and crutches and
various medical instruments. As I pieced together my theory as to
what had happened, I had a poignant moment of sobering reflection as
I checked under the bed for cans of dog food.
Compare
this to Skyrim where if you enter a house you will find the exact
copy and pasted cell of the previous house you entered.
This lack
of attention to detail in the environment would have been forgiven if
it were made up for in the NPC characters but by all the princes of
Oblivion they are bland.
I have met
horses with more character then the NPCs of Skyrim. To help you
understand my plight: a character, that is a good character, is a
complex web of personality traits; virtues and flaws, lusts and
resents, pride and regrets; a huge number of things all eating each
other in a great ouroboros of identity or (persona for all the Shin
Megami players). And to make things even more complicated, these
qualities all change over time and are affected by the character's
experience.
This is
not what you will find in Skyrim. In Skyrim people are sign posts
displaying an occupation written in big crayon writing.
Here's a
test: take a random character from Skyrim and try to pick out two
flaws and two virtues of their personality.
(I say
two, by the way, because everything has at least one flaw and one
virtue, my chair has for example has the virtue of being a chair and
the flaw of being the worst chair in fucking existence).
Now with
the same character identify two relationships they have with two
other separate characters (preferably a good relationship and a bad
relationship).
Now this
test may seem a bit simple but that is actually how bad it is in
Skyrim.
Try this
test with one of Bethesda game studio's previous games or even
Obsidian's Fallout New Vegas if you want the full picture of how
little effort they put into the narrative.
Now I am
pretty sure this is simply laziness on their part. Bethesda game
studio's are not incompetent: they proved that with Dawngaurd.
I was
quite disillusioned with Skyrim by the time I pulled Serana out of
that hole in the ground, and thought that all I would receive would
be the relief I felt from finding that Bethesda had finally hired an
actual professional voice actor instead of shoving a microphone in
front of the closest celebrity as they took the bus home.
It was
while I was in Morthal, (or was it Dawnstar? Falkreath? Rorikstead?!
One of those towns that all look alike) alright lets just call it
Forthstarstead, anyway I was handing over my daily allotment of
garnets and ruined books to the Black smith when I turned to find
Serana was not actually where she was before but had decided to
sharpen her sword, all the while griping about how shit the weather
was.
I felt a
tear come to my eye and the moment would have been all the more
poignant had Sigtrygg Turnip-Wrestler not leaped in front of my face
to enthusiastically declare that he chopped wood for a living.
Serana
broke the mould in that she had an actual personality and even had an
entire development over the course of the main quest. Dawngaurd as a
whole was also quite well done. The characters were fair, the plot
was quite rigid and it went interesting places with the lore.
It had its
flawes but compared to the rest of the game, this was like your dead
horse suddenly leaping up and winning the grand derby.
A pity
that it fell back down for the great Solstheim races.
But
seriously, from the looks of things Skyrim was an utter farce in the
building of an interesting world. Bethesda seemed to be pushing
towards the old game's industry tactic of nailing together false
promises and stupid gimics and hoping the fans don't put their boat
on the water or at least know how to swim.
I really
wish I did not have to point out how dumb this tactic is and why
ignoring your story for good gameplay is the worst tactic one could
possibly regurgitate but alas such is the plight of the historian to
learn not to repeat his mistakes even as he watches everyone else
waddle about repeating theirs.
Bethesda's
exploration gimic will only make them special as long as other game
developers don't follow suit. The only thing that keeps the Elder
scrolls and Fallout special is their story. If one does not invest in
the quality of narrative, their game series stops being what it is
and devolves to the state of a mere representation of its genre.
Or in case
there is a Bethesda employee watching this from the hive,
MAKE GAME
LESS STORY = LESS MONEYS FOR DIZZY DRINK.
Actually,
maybe I am being a bit harsh on Bethesda. Maybe they aren't being so
lazy.
Maybe
Zenimax has been bullying them again. Or maybe Bethesda has been too
busy exploiting smaller games companies into being bought out (this
happens look it up).
Perhaps
Skyrim was just a fluke and it will be all better next time.
And then
the dream dies with Fallout 4.
Sigh.......
POST
WRITE:
You know,
I wrote this a few months ago and during the time I had no real
insight into the inner workings of Bethesda. I have since been doing
some research for other articles and have come up with some
interesting premises regarding Bethesda's true intentions behind
Skyrim.
From what
has been said and done, it seems that Bethesda is more interested in
creating a video game for all players. This has been used constantly
in interviews, to which I will link in the description: an idea that
they are making games that appeal to everyone and not just one group
of persons.
I think
that makes perfect sense, the blandness and uninterestingness of
Skyrim and Fallout 4 are a result of Bethesda spreading itself too
thin in an effort to appeal to everyone.
It may
sound like a grand idea to make a game that appeals to everyone.
But if one
bakes a cake while taking into account everyone's favourite flavour
it will either end up tasting like nothing or tasting like shit.
Do you think about even half or what dribbles out of your mouth? Or in this case out of your fingers?
ReplyDeleteYes.
DeleteI believe that answers your question.
I mean really? Half of what you did make points on make sense but others are out of your hands and discussions about such things only waste the time of your readers and yourself why not worry about the things you yourself can change BTW seen your mods on Nexus and where I agree with some points you made and while I am not a mxr fan "fair use" laws do not work that way you cannot by law ban one person such as me or even a list of people to review your content sorry does not work that way look it up buddy
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment! I'm glad you appreciate the article, (in a manner of speaking). I am quite aware of the fair use acts, though merely because something is legal does not necessarily make it moral (see slavery, persecution, honour killing, and other assorted hilarious screw ups made and being made by our dear kin) furthermore, I am not presenting a legal case but rather voicing my disdain. That is both legal and in this case moral.
ReplyDeletePS I'm not your buddy, friend.
Man, I wonder why there are so many angry people up there.
ReplyDeleteI think the point about being bland to appeal to the mass market is pretty vital to understanding the whole thing. It's very clear that the vast majority of gamers are happy with Skyrim having the flaws you have pointed out, and it seems like there is really a minimal cost to churning out games that appeal to everyone.
Even No Man's Sky, which is pretty widely hated, made tons of money because it was so hyped. All Bethesda has to do is hype games then release them. I can't even blame them - they're a company and no one is being forced to buy their games.