LogFAQs > #913762154

Zeus posted...

...although it's more realistic that way.

I don't really play games with magic and elves and 8-foot long swords and undead dragons and time travel for realism, though.



Zeus posted...

And, depending on what you do, it's possible to kill less important NPCs which either make some of the smaller (and non-radiant) quests either impossible to start or to finish.

I consider that far more negative than positive. Especially when the game's shit coding can result in dragon or vampire or giant attacks killing quest-giving NPCs when you have zero ability to do anything about it.

I get the appeal for some people to have your actions leave a lasting impact on the world, but when the only significant impact you can really make is denying yourself content as if the game is punishing you for being reckless or ruthless, then that's not really a selling point in any way to me.

And the fact that quest-crucial NPCs can't be killed almost makes it worse to me in some ways. Because they tend to be the only people I've ever really motivated enough to want to kill in the first place.

It's like the ability to get married in the Fable games. Sure, you CAN do it... but the game gives you almost no reason to CARE enough to want to do it. All the samey generic NPCs with about four different voices all sort of start to blur together to some degree after a while.



Zeus posted...

idk, it's actually pretty flavorful given that there's a tremendous amount of lore and many of the quests touch upon it

Almost none of that really means anything to YOU as the character in the game, though. It's more like "Man, a lot of interesting stuff happened in this world, in the past, when you weren't around. And if you're willing to sit around reading books about it, you can learn about it. YOU'RE mostly going to be doing a lot of stupid radiant fetch quests, though."

At that point, I'd almost just rather go read actual books. Most of which are much better written.



mooreandrew58 posted...

Bethesda rpgs are great for those who like to role play more than just what the game provides story wise. I come up with back stories for chars and habits/personalities I stick to unless given no other choice.

Oh, I agree. Like I said, I made something like seven different Couriers, and each had relatively distinct personalities, and for most of them I came up with a fair amount of backstory of what they were doing before the game started. For some, I came up with a LOT of backstory.

But while "Hey, you're a blank slate, make up your own story and personality" is a great thing, to some degree you have to give that character something to do that actually matters in some way, otherwise the whole thing just becomes a bit masturbatory. If I'm doing 90% of the work to come up with my personality and look and backstory and current story and after story, I'd almost be better off just writing my own stories or playing D&D or something.

And I acknowledge it's a difficult balance to strike. Skyrim is an example where I feel like the narrative is relatively weak, but the flip-side of that coin is Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, where I feel they go too far with telling you exactly who your character is an what they want, to the point where I feel locked in to someone else's story and stop caring. Bioware always seemed to be good at balancing leaving enough gaps for you to decide who your character is, while still giving you enough story to make it matter. Bethesda, not so much.


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