Why is Skyrim so liked and what is there even to do?

0wing said:
The audio-visual aesthetics and lore also makes game harder to complete on the same level as gameplay mechanics? Yeah, I'll just disagree.
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See, so that's what you meant with 'hardcore' when talking about these games, eh? Difficulty bumped up to eleven? These 'audio-visual aesthetics' you sarcastically mentioned as if they're insignificant when judging the merits of Soulsborne games provided challenges for the players to overcome in addition to the gameplay mechanics. Again, have you played at least Dark Souls 1, and also completed it once?

Soulsborne games aren't 'difficult' if that's what you meant with hardcore. Soulsborne fanbase has been exhausted with all the 'Dark Souls is hard!' memes by now. Even @Arnust is tired of that memes.
 
If you really want to have a critical opinion of Skyrim, and act like a RPG connoisseur, then Skyrim is meh.
If you just wanna play it for kicks, Skyrim is great.

That's my piece on it.
 
DeadHill said:
This question's been bugging me since I bought the damn game during 2016's summer sales. And I've yet to find out. That said, I have not played previous Elder Scrolls titles and tried playing Skyrim only because of all the praise, both from the typical MrMattyPlays viewers and from the more objective audience. So, I'd like to hear from you what is so captive about the game? Asking here, since finding the latter kind of people is much easier here, rather than on Reddit (at least, I hope so).
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Because it's awesome and fun!

Beautiful people, beautiful scenery, lovely world-building, fun gameplay, and a great dungeons and dragons-esque experience.

It's probably my all time favorite video game.

I've written many posts on it. I'm happy to explain why I love the game. I can talk about any element but I love everything from the story to the characters to the equipment.

It's got its flaws but I spent hundreds and hundreds of hours with it.
 
CT Phipps said:
lovely world-building
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Terrible world building to the extent that the civil war which is literally happening in the province is brushed aside, and ignored by the vast majority of people.
CT Phipps said:
fun gameplay
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Repetitive game-play which has no strategy or technique to it other than spamming enemies till they die.
CT Phipps said:
and a great dungeons and dragons-esque experience.
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D&D and other tabletop games are fun because there are a variety of challenges, and the DM can tailor special challenges to meet the parties needs.

Skyrim isn't that, it's basically dungeon crawl after dungeon crawl, with the dungeons having nothing unique about them, all being filled with the same enemy types, and no other hazards to get around, ever.
 
Jogre said:
Skyrim isn't that, it's basically dungeon crawl after dungeon crawl, with the dungeons having nothing unique about them, all being filled with the same enemy types, and no other hazards to get around, ever.
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Skyrim is an insult word to actual dungeon crawlers.
CT Phipps said:
Beautiful people, beautiful scenery, lovely world-building, fun gameplay, and a great dungeons and dragons-esque experience.
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1. Literally a mod with such a name
2. At a large distance with tons of makeup
3. Half-done
4. Mods
5. Too grindy and samey to be enjoyable
 
Jogre said:
Terrible world building to the extent that the civil war which is literally happening in the province is brushed aside, and ignored by the vast majority of people.
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The Civil War is everywhere in Skyrim. Every single Jarl has an opinion on it and supports one side or the other. It's also destroyed the local stability so that it's overrun by bandits and mercenaries.

Repetitive game-play which has no strategy or technique to it other than spamming enemies till they die.
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Which is awesome and fun.

D&D and other tabletop games are fun because there are a variety of challenges, and the DM can tailor special challenges to meet the parties needs.
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And you can take each section however you want. Stealth, Combat, Magic, or shouts.

Skyrim isn't that, it's basically dungeon crawl after dungeon crawl, with the dungeons having nothing unique about them, all being filled with the same enemy types, and no other hazards to get around, ever.
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I see it as exploring the overworld versus the dungeons. I also felt the dungeons included some incredible accomplishments like Blackreach.
 
The only thing I can think of for why Skyrim is still so well-liked is due to hype, nostalgia and cognitive bias.

As for what to do (and the most likely reason for it retaining those likes), mods. One can convert the whole game into something else so that the bland experience of Skyrim goes away and is replaced with something more substantial.

Or get the mod to bring in blackjack and hookers.
 
Skyrim is absolute trash and I hate it.

Either you'd a console-tard, and its the best "RPG" you can play on modern consoles, or you're a PC player who has never played Morrowind and uses 900 mods to 'fix' skyrim.
 
Alternatively, if you own OG Skyrim in PC, you can just slap in the Enderal Total Conversion for an actual game, 100% free of charge. Actually @CT Phipps you should really do just that. It's a whole new world, which I hope, is actually what you seek for in this kind of games and not the brain dead gameplay.
 
Arnust said:
Alternatively, if you own OG Skyrim in PC, you can just slap in the Enderal Total Conversion for an actual game, 100% free of charge. Actually @CT Phipps you should really do just that. It's a whole new world, which I hope, is actually what you seek for in this kind of games and not the brain dead gameplay.
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Amazingly or not, I find myself enjoying Enderal more than I did Skyrim.
I am going through the first playthrough and the only complaints I can find are that it crashes from time to time, but that is to be expected due to the engine anyway. Wait, I just thought of another thing I disliked. There is a side mission where you have to do something without anyone noticing, but a NPC appears and asks what you were doing there. I disliked this because even if I am sneaking with a lot of sneak skill or even if I am invisible, this really drunk guy automatically sees you and initiates dialogue. I thought that was a bit lazy and not using all the skills and abilities that the player has available (depending on the kind of character you make) was a missed opportunity and made it feel fake and lazy (how in the world does this drunk guy that can't even walk or talk straight sees me while invisible and talks to me)...
But it is much better than vanilla Skyrim.
 
I haven't even done that one quest. I skimmed through the 100 hours of non radiant content or so, doing some stuff in the way of the campaign.
I'm just holding to the update to try and see EVERYTHING in this baby.

You might be noticing already that this is more like Gothic or The Witcher than TES or Fallout. The RPG part is largely more for your enjoyment in the way of seeing the story and world. Add to that that it's a mod and one of great scope at that.
 
While I admit it's a guilty pleasure, I still love the game never the less.

It's kind of like masturbation, just it takes longer and you feel less suicidal afterwards.
 
therealyesman said:
Skyrim is really casual. There's nothing unique about it. Nothing memorable.

The game is mediocre in every way possible.
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Ah, yes, the "Casual" insult.

*finger wag*

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As if a game shouldn't just be fun.
 
CT Phipps said:
Ah, yes, the "Casual" insult.
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I think he's calling the game casual, not you casual.

I agree that it's kinda dodgy to call people casuals, but games not so much. There are some obviously casual games, like Skyrim for instance.
CT Phipps said:
As if a game shouldn't just be fun.
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Casual =/= Fun. Casual games can be fun, but often complex games where you spent lots of time working on character creation or making tactical decisions are just as fun if not moreso.

When we call a game "Casual", it's usually implying that it should have been the complex type, but isn't, taking away from the experience.
 
f I had to explain about Skyrim, I have to admit I am a console junkie rather than part of the PC master race. I just don't have the space in my house to do a table computer and am restricted to laptops for my computing use. Consoles also have all of the benefits of convenience for my wife to be able to have her entertainments.

For me, the appeal of the game is it really worked well for allowing you to project yourself into a new world and environment. People complain about all of the Draugr-filled dungeons and the simplistic puzzles but I really think of Skyrim primarily for its cities, mountains, rivers, forests, snow lands, and other environments.

Having come off of Fallout 3, it was an explosion of color and the graphic upgrade from Oblivion was tremendous with the characters every bit as upgraded in appearance as the environment. There's a tremendous variety of the setting that I really FELT like I was journeying to a new world. Leaving from the wide-open beautiful waterfalls and sunlight to the dark, disgusting, and horrifying caves of the Thalmer is some of my most vivid memories of gaming.

The story is a power fantasy but it is a power fantasy you can project your character onto like in the original Fallout games. You can play the character as a murderous Daedra-worshiping assassin, a Stormcloak Nord racist, a cosmopolitan heroic paladin, a professional thief who doesn't care about anything but themselves, and so on.

The quests are simple but they're all deeply tied to the lore with the Companions replacing the Fighter's Guild, the Dark Brotherhood's fall from grace, the Thieves Guild's tie to the Nightingales as well as Mercer Frey's betrayal, and even the Bardic college's desire to make their own festival.

Is it as deep as Morrowind? No, of course not. That was one of the deepest storylines in all of video games and stays well alongside Planescape: Torment but it's certainly a massive return to form versus Oblivion. The use of dragons in the story is something that I also loved as the battles against them, while they eventually wear thin, they are epic and enjoyable.

It was epic and felt epic.
 
While I do think that none of Skyrim's parts are significantly better than "mediocre", it is better than the sum of its parts.
There is no other game that is like Skyrim as far as I know. There are games that look better, there are games with a deeper and more meaningful open world, there are games with better story and writing and characters. But there's no game that combines a phantasy open world (that is well established, too, with a rich lore) with an accessible gameplay and short-term, casual enjoyment. Skyrim is just... Fun. Not for too long, though, and even brilliant places like Blackreach are only fun once or twice and noticably boring and shallow once you've seen them.
Skyrim is good for a few hours of walking around and modding and dressing up your character, but it gets too shallow too quickly. And after a year or so when you've forgotten about it, you can dig it out and enjoy it for a few hours again.
 
CT Phipps said:
The story is a power fantasy but it is a power fantasy you can project your character onto like in the original Fallout games. You can play the character as a murderous Daedra-worshiping assassin, a Stormcloak Nord racist, a cosmopolitan heroic paladin, a professional thief who doesn't care about anything but themselves, and so on.
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I'm pretty sure most characters end up being stealth archers for convenience at some point. Only the hardcore who has modded the game extensively that possesses actual role-play value has tried to role-play in Skyrim.
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It is mindless and shallow but can be modded into something better (the immersion mods are pretty cool for one) and can kill time. I used to enjoy Skyrim but due to said mindlessness and shallowness, it didn't stick with me for long and I moved on to better RPGs.

Nothing against you liking it but you should understand why most people don't regard it highly.
 
I understand but do you understand why people like me love it?

Because that goes both ways.

The roleplay may be mostly in your head with Skyrim but that freedom is there and that's part of why Fallout 1 and 2 were so awesome.
 
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