How Skyrim Became Bethesda's Curse | Stranger Than Fiction

[@lydiscott]

Apologies for the odd mic peak and my overreliance on the not-a-real-word, "overreliance". Unless that is a word. LOL!!!! Have a good one guys! NOTE* Modlist used in this video is in the desciption! Its a beautiful one called Elysium Remastered from Wabbajack!

[@EcardEcardian]

Overreliance is indeed a real english word. ˌəʊvərɪˈlaɪəns ,noun: The state or fact of being too reliant on someone or something.

[@lydiscott]

@@EcardEcardianOH WOW THANK YOU!

[@warlordofbritannia]

Excessive use Ubiquitous practice Gross dependency Absurdly generous allocation of responsibility …ok yeah, maybe it’s because I’m tired but I can’t think of many ways to say over reliance (over-reliance?) without saying over(-)reliance either

[@hamizanyunos1502]

@@lydiscott Elder Scrolls has great lore and source material but Bethesda sucks as translating it to a video game experience

[@warlordofbritannia]

The older I get, the more critical I become of Skyrim. At this point there are only two things I truly enjoyed in this game: Dawnguard and RPing as a sellsword, especially at the start. Scrounging for jobs and bounties, slowly saving up to get out of sleeping in taverns and owning a house…all these self-imposed limitations without the hard gameplay rules of a true survival game give both structure and flexibility.

[@lydiscott]

Oh god yeah the sellsword playthrough would be awesome. And YES I hear you with the growing critical-ness surrounding it as you get older. The cracks are showing LOLOL

[@warlordofbritannia]

@@lydiscott And yet, in spite the fact I’ve barely touched the game these past six years, I can still recite nigh-verbatim the entire opening, down to escaping Helgen 😂 Drove my stepfather half-mad last Christmas proving this at the dinner table to my sister and brother-in-law. In a showing of mercy I refrained from giving the first few pages of The Hobbit…eh, maybe this year 😝

[@faithlessfate]

@@Gonzalo_Almendrayoure gross, acting like anyone owes you anything.

[@polo5760]

​@@Gonzalo_Almendra Maybe try not being weird. She's also not obligated to reply to you or anyone. You have to stop being so parasocial she's a content creator not your friend who you talk to daily.

[@polo5760]

@@Gonzalo_Almendra but she doesn't and as I said before she's not obligated to respond to you. if anything you begging for a response is making it worse.

[@Netist_]

One of the major reasons Starfield's worldbuilding feels so shallow compared to Skyrim's, despite the writing being quite bad in both, is that Skyrim has that insane backlog of lore. With that lore, you have the ability to bring a whole host of ideas into a story with a little shorthand. Players familiar with the series will immediately think "Oh shit", and newer players will (eventually, hopefully) uncover what they were missing and that discovery in and of itself breeds affection for the series. A big example that comes to mind is in the Prophecy of the Dragonborn, and some of the conversations the player has with Paarthurnax. And even smaller sidequests in Skyrim tend to loop around and reference existing lore in some way. It makes the world feel so much deeper than it is. Bethesda, I think, took this for granted with Starfield. They thought they could get away with the same level of writing, the same surface-level worldbuilding. But since that writing and worldbuilding wasn't really inspired by anything that came before it, in the same way Skyrim was, it's shallow. And most people, I think, picked up on that. There's no greater depth to most of the storylines in Starfield. No broader implications, or greater cosmic meaning (ironic, given the main quest of Starfield). The storylines in Starfield are exactly what they seem to be on the surface, and that's about it.

[@warlordofbritannia]

That’s a good point. I think, too, what Skyrim did well was hinting at how much bigger this universe and its lore is without overwhelming a player. It’s the anti-Morrowind in this, for both good and ill.

[@Ellimist000]

Yea. If you think of it, all of their successful games depend on having ruins upon ruins and long history to discover. They really should have had alien ruins or previous settler ruins to explore

[@brigandboy1425]

Agreed. And the limitations really shine through when you do something that Bethesda completed specifically. Like the Tower of Magic, for instance. You become the Arch Mage and... what? You don't teach new students. You don't hire new teachers. You don't leverage your power ever anywhere in the game. You don't even get any particularly cool new spells or access to interesting lore and interesting places. You just get a room in the tower with some reagents. And it's like that for every single actual quest in the game. You find out how shallow the actual work done on the game was, and that is the source of the burnout, but what you mentioned is the thing that draws people back in over and over again.

[@lydiscott]

It’s an endless cycle 😂 and I’ll never get over the Dragonborn just being accepted as the arch mage, like what?! Not the oldest and most experienced master wizard?! Who people respect and follow? This noob who’s been enrolled for two weeks?

[@buckrodgers1162]

The reason Skyrim has survived so long is the mods. The modding community has done so much to change, overhaul, add to, completely make unique, every copy of Skyrim. Oblivion has a vast modding community as well. But it didn't have the 'graphical and mechanical longevity' that Skyrim has. Personally, I think the reason Skyrim is both a good game, and has lasted as long as it has; Is not just because of the mods, but also because of the way it's scripting system works. Making it fairly easy to really do anything, and make anything, to add to the game. Skyrim was made during a time when both graphical fidelity, and mechanical gameplay, was in perfect balance. Nothing was sacrificed, to improve the other. Now days, gameplay mechanics are readily sacrificed for better graphics; And the game file size bloat has become insane, Starfailed I'm looking at you. 15GB for Skyrim vs 128GB for Starfailed(the load screen sim). There's no reason Starfailed should be that big with all the load screens it has, but the graphics... Well the graphics are the 'hyper-realistic' type, thus 'bloat'. I've played 3,317 hours of Skyrim (including both the LE and SE) and still go back to it now and again. I played 188 hours of Starfailed, then uninstalled it, and never looked back, that is besides regretting that I bought the game in the first place. Skyrim is a b-e-a-utiful open world that has tons of nooks and crannies to explore, and I still find something new every time I play it. Starfailed however, is a tiny 'box jumper' where you have no reason to explore anywhere besides the main paths; Because there's nothing new, or interesting off of the main paths. Yes, Skyrim is apex BGS. And unless BGS can get their 'rears in gear', TES 6 will be doomed to fail, just like Starfailed.

[@thesageofktn3296]

I have to agree that Starfield being that big in file size makes no sense at all considering how empty everything is. The visuals are still mid considering today's standard for graphical fidelity.

[@TricksterWeazel]

"Skyrim is apex BGS." Ugh god no. Just no. A single quest line in Oblivion shits all over whatever Skyrim has to offer. And that point about graphics? The modding community made Skyrim look good. Even at release its fidelity was below par for the industry. BGS's games have never been graphically impressive. I respect your opinion, and I'm very glad you liked the game -- as did I at certain points -- but having grown up alongside BGS, Skyrim simply can't touch the depth of their previous entries. Skyrim is a prime example of 'as broad as the ocean but as deep as a puddle'.

[@buckrodgers1162]

@@TricksterWeazel, When I say 'Apex BGS' I mean mechanics vs graphics wise. Everyone and their grandmother knows that BGS couldn't write their way out of a paper bag. I hated the story of Skyrim for one single reason; It completely defies the lore. They turned the Elder Scrolls into GD time machines. And anyone who knows the TES series, knows that it just impossible. The mechanics and graphics however; Well they are 1000% better than the weightless 'blade waving' of Oblivion. And the graphics are better as well; No more choice of '13ridge Troll(YT censorship prevents that first word)' or 'Mountain Troll'. I did like Oblivion's quests a lot more, The Shivering Isles specifically, hence my avatar. But that was not what I was talking about at all. I was only referring to the overall 'Mechanics vs Graphics'.

[@Ealais76]

@@TricksterWeazelbuddy oblivion has the depth of like a fountain compared to Skyrim’s kiddy pool. It’s barely more in depth at all

[@maiqtheliar789]

@@Ealais76 If you want depth in a Bethesda game then you need to play Morrowind. On OpenMW to at least modernize the engine. Morrowind is dated by today's standards. But it has the most depth out of any Bethesda game. Morrowind has enough depth to drown in if you let it happen. It also saved Bethesda from bankruptcy so I guess they had a lot to lose so they went all out.

[@Psycho-go5yr]

To me, Skyrim was the foundation of what could have been a truly legendary game. The world was interesting, and I could approach it as whatever character I wanted to be. It drew me in to its world... But then failed to truly deliver. Mods have done amazing things for Skyrim. They polished the uncut gem that was Skyrim and made it beautiful... But they shouldn't have had to. And yet despite that, I still love Skyrim. And I continue to hold out hope that the next Bethesda game will be that legendary title that Skyrim could have been. I sometimes feel like Im in an abusive relationship that I just cant walk away from.

[@lydiscott]

It’s a vicious cycle with each release. You want to believe they’ll change, BUT THEY… never do. Dang. 😔

[@AndromedatheBasshead]

I'm playing through Skyrim for the first time, and I think you hit the nail on the head. The ability to fill in the blanks yourself is what makes it really enjoyable.

[@sebastiandalessandro4221]

That’s… what an rpg is lol

[@thesageofktn3296]

Skyrim was a game that I played religiously back when it came out in 2011 on my Xbox 360. I became a fan of Bethesda right after that and began exploring their previous games like Fallout 3, Oblivion and Morrowind. Then, I continued to support them and let me tell you, I was there when the hype for Fallout 4 was at an all-time high. I was one of those people that were waiting for the release of that game and when it came out...well, lets just say it was "just okay". That was the first sign I saw that Bethesda was stuck in the past a little bit and their laziness was creeping up to show itself. Fallout 76 happened and we all know how that turned out. Not much else to be said about it that has already been said. Sure, the game is better now and I do play it from time to time but it doesn't take away the fact that at release, it was a disaster. Put aside the technical issues, the game itself was just Fallout 4 but with MMO and online functionality. The same bugs, the same issues with lacklustre storytelling. This was the second sign and arguably the nail in the coffin that Bethesda was becoming obsolete in their design philosophy. And then, Starfield happened. Trust me when I say that 20 hours into the game, I couldn't bring myself to finish the game because of how barren and empty the game felt. There was zero "magic" in the game and began to regret making a preorder of the game. I live in Malaysia and if you look up how expensive games are here, then you'd know how much of a financial sacrifice I made getting the game. It was the final nail in the coffin and I began realising that Bethesda is really stuck in the past, refusing to change and make significant improvements to the way they make their games. They trying their best to capture the same lightning in a bottle as they did with Skyrim and it''s clearly not working. "It just works" used to be funny but not anymore. It doesn't even make me chuckle when I hear it anymore. Saying this really hurts is an understatement for a Bethesda fan. All hope for TES VI is low for me right now.

[@lydiscott]

Thanks very much for your thoughtful comment, I really wish things had gone upwards for Bethesda and their quality rather than downwards over the last decade. Disappointing and a shame to witness. Not fair to our wallets either, I’m sorry that Starfield was what it was. Wish big companies would actually see that what they make SHOULD be worth the money. Not just riding on past success.

[@TheEndKing]

Comparing the Dragonborn to Nate or Nora from FO4, it's interesting how attached people get to their personal player character in Skyrim. Ironically, the FO4 character keeps us at a distance because so many of their story is set in stone.

[@ziimulhah3223]

It's much easier to get attached to a blank slate. If you roleplay your Dragonborn, you have full power over everything they know, everything they did prior to their Tapestry, their Alignment, all of it. If you treat your Dragonborn like your avatar, you still form a connection, because there are fond memories associated with that character. The Sole Survivor, by contrast, has one voice, one backstory, and a sole motivation with a Good-skewed Alignment, and you can't change that. It's much more restrictive.

[@warlordofbritannia]

The accidental canonization of Nate the Rake actually opens up some opportunities, I’d argue

[@Netist_]

True, and yet V from 2077 is also pretty beloved. If you're not going to give me a blank slate in a game like this, the writing better be good.

[@ziimulhah3223]

@Netist_ Actually, that's a good point. V is a pretty established character: they're voice-acted, come with a backstory and canon age, but at the same time, are just vauge enough to let you fill in the big gaps, and people still connect with their Vs. Comparing that to the Sole Survior looks even worse.

[@Neakal]

I came across a video the other day comparing Nate/Nora to V and it made some very similar observations as here, so I think you're right.

[@Valenspire]

Ah this is a nice perspective, it is often said that skyrim is great for RP, but maybe it is just that it has rich lore that carry it's lack of good character bits. I also think like the micro stories within Skyrim are quite good themselves. One of the things that I always appreciated in the elderscrolls games is the the ability to pick up a book in the game and read it, it's one of the things that pull me into the world and when that is combined with the top tier visual aesthetics and music, it's so good.

[@lydiscott]

I do love the books! Very good point. They’re a small detail that adds a lot of something 😄

[@warlordofbritannia]

Every playthrough I wind up collecting a library of in-universe history and lore books for my home

[@Ellimist000]

Its easy to make what's called an emergent story, where unexpected things can happen (or bugs lol) and it can ripple forward if you let it

[@aidenpopour594]

I find that Skyrim is a good game for relaxation. It's a nice world to just walk around in and forget the world for a while

[@lydiscott]

Totally agree! It’s so beautiful especially with mods!

[@bonedragon7665]

Skyrim for me is a perfect example of the whole being better than the individual parts. I can’t give top marks to any given piece of the game, but I still adore the game all and all, worts and all ;)

[@lydiscott]

Very well said!

[@josephmarch7142]

It started for me with Morrowind. It had that same appeal of being part of the world sandbox. The stories i created in those games were rich, textured, and personal. I haven't felt like that since.

[@Mr._Anderpson]

Yep, the best thing about open world Bethesda games are the unique stories you create as you move through the worlds. This was a given for fossils like myself who dropped hundreds of hours into the massive but empty world of Daggerfall. Somehow, the NPCs seemed less dead inside than the ones in Skyrim. Not a disparagement. Enjoyed the video.

[@katietree4949]

Bethesda dropped off after Oblivion. Relied too heavy on player made mods, became the quintessential 'hey kids, im hip' meme and dove into the vacuous corporate modernized grey slate of misunderstanding.

[@ZombieMurdoc]

Lazy is definitely the right word. Bethesda also has a real problem over-relying on gimmicks and face value bs that just leaves you disappointed, but Skyrim's atmosphere and customizability is what makes it still fun.

[@mattclarke169]

Spot on! As somebody who writes fiction as a hobby and non-fiction in a semi-professional capacity, I've always played and appreciated video games as a form of creative exercise. Certainly some games are more artistic than others, but all of these experiences give me new ideas. Many RPGs facilitate this to a greater extent, like Skyrim does and some Fallout games do. Plenty of the character builds and stories I've played through over the years were actually prototypes for characters I'd implement into my own work. This is all awesome, but I don't think it always has to come at the expense of the main quests. It's kind of a bummer that my Breton Nightblade who hunts vampires and bandits in his free time between archaeological digs and artifact collection just *happens* to be the guy who's supposed to save Nirn. That last bit could've easily been the most interesting part. I've seen other devs like BioWare do a better job of creating convincing apocalyptic scenarios. I'm not sure about Starfield, as I haven't played it myself yet, but Bethesda just isn't what they used to be. This ran a little longer than I expected, but to summarize, sometimes I want a little more than just a sandbox from a game. It's a lot easier to tell your own story when you have a little substance to work with. Anyway, great video!

[@lydiscott]

Thank you so much for your comment! Lovely to read. Totally on point with the “interesting character… oh, who also happens to be the savior of the world, I guess” 🤣

[@jamesroper4952]

For me I'm always the adventure seeking heroic mercenary. Traveling Skyrim with my best friend and sidekick Inigo. In one play through I might be Red Sonja, Conan the Barbarian or my own version of those characters. With the wisecracking, sweet rolling loving, crack shot blue katjit, named Inigo.

[@anthonyschlott916]

I can no longer play Skyrim without Inigo & Lucien and their back-and-forth banter. I do like combat mods that make it so I actually die in the beginning-middle parts, but it's Inigo and Lucien that make the game interesting. I go for an adventurous Nord too since it works out easily.

[@BlueViper8907]

Ahhh!! I got your book yesterday! I didn’t realize you’d realize it was me! Haha! Diving into this tonight ❤

[@Grey101-r4j]

A night to remember, is one of the best side quests.

[@lydiscott]

Ahhhh that is a fun one. Was how I first discovered markarth lol. Woke up and was like “OH GOD NOT A DWEMER RUIN”

[@faithlessfate]

Been enjoying your cp content, delighted to discover you like skyrim too. Excited to watch you pick this apart.

[@lydiscott]

Ahhh thanks so much for watching! Hoping to someday take a closer look at where the more recent Bethesda titles have gone wrong one of these days.

[@tilervonbiscuitbrown4393]

HAAAAANK!!! DONT ABBREVIATE CYBERPUNK HANK! HAAAAANK!!

[@warlordofbritannia]

Yeah…wait WHAT CONTENT?!?!

[@faithlessfate]

@@warlordofbritannia all her cyberpunk videos on this channel?

[@Vargon9]

The timing of me finding this video is impeccable, considering I'm about to start my first modded playthrough.

[@tapioorankiaalto2457]

Skyrim VR is just beautiful with the right mods. Standing on top of the mountain at the Blades HQ is a beautiful experience.

[@kritizismmusics9737]

5:00 ikr its the fan fiction i just wanna run around half werewolf half vampire eating amd drinking blood dammit. Fucking dragons 😂

[@deepseastonecore3017]

Did you hear about the ghoul's new daytime talk show? It's called Phantom of the Oprah

[@Baconator96]

I'll have you know Serana has the depth of one of those weird multi layered 3 dimensional cardboard cutouts.

[@StratumPress]

Skyrim is one of the few game worlds I'd want to live in and was a fully immersing gaming experience.

[@lydiscott]

SAME HERE! Such a beautiful, rich world.

[@faithlessfate]

@@Gonzalo_Almendragross. You arent owed anything from anyone. Youre coming off hella creepy.

[@faithlessfate]

@@Gonzalo_Almendraso? You arent owed anything from anyone. You come off like a creep.

[@Blazing_Hyperion]

I have 519 hours in Skyrim and I have never gotten past the Alduin’s Wall section of the main quest. Meanwhile, I have completed every major side quest 3x over, and most of the minor quests the at least twice.

[@mattf666]

omg that Skyrim music is ingrained in my soul, get a warm feeling every time I hear it

[@christophmahler]

I stopped living in SKYRIM when I realized that even with never escalating the main quest in Whiterun or ever leveling up, I couldn't prevent the deaths - or major glitches - of non player characters (Windhelm)...

[@johngrant4470]

I think you are right. Helped me figure out why I enjoyed BG3 a lot..then happened to check the Nexus and boom, back to skyrim, where the huge majority of my story dialog is internal. Again. It's an unfinished, evolving work for me. I get excited over something as simple as finally finding a mod that gives me a proper "heels down" riding animation, and then post screenshots of that to my kids.

[@Pro_Butcher_Amateur_Human]

My Khajiit Scratches-Your-Face was orphaned in a shipwreck off Argonia as an infant, and was raised by Argonians (she got her name for constantly scratching her adoptive parents). After her parents stood up to and were killed by the Thalmor while she was away selling some of their produce, she sold their farm and travelled to Skyrim, as the Nords were in a cold war with the Thalmor and she wanted to make it a very hot war. She's in an asexual marriage with Serana. I haven't played Skyrim in 6 or 7 years, but I can still remember all this off the top of my head. You're entirely right. All the best parts of Skyrim are the ones in our heads. Our little internal fanfictions made an aggressively average game memorable. As a game, Kingdoms of Amalur was better at the time. Hell, Oblivion was better IMHO. But Skyrim had such an amazing world with so little narrative that we filled in the gaps ourselves and made it a great story.

[@TheMecoolerest001]

Very good video Lydi. I couldn’t agree more. Bethesda has always been very weak with their story telling and characterizations. An exception would be the Dawnguard DLC for Skyrim. But that just goes to show how deficient the other aspects of the game are. And I have done the same thing as you so many times. Just wander off from the main plot and make my own character backstory. Another certified Lydi banger!

[@lydiscott]

AHHHH thank you so much Mecoolerest, I’m really glad you liked it! Dawnguard was definitely a strong(er) point for Bethesda, it’s a shame it wasn’t repeated. And gahhhh the character backstory generator experience is just *chefs kiss* gotta love the human brain lmao

[@TheMecoolerest001]

@@lydiscott Dawnguard had a good story and easily the best companion in any Bethesda game with Serena.

[@PainfullySubjective]

for me the draw has always been the world itself (& the music) not the story. to this day, i remember climbing up a snowy mountain at night, aurora in the sky, wind howling & kyne's peace starts playing. so i stop, look up at the sky & just enjoy that moment. & i know it's a simulated world but gods, it feels good!

[@lydiscott]

They absolutely NAILED the atmosphere. Still love just standing on a mountain at night and listen to the music.

[@3dartxsi]

What i feel made Skyrim so appealing was that it employed a "swiss army knife" approach to european fantasy. If you want to slay a dragon, you can. Kill a giant? Crawl through a dungeon? Cast a spell? Be an assassin or thief? Storm an enemy castle? Yes, yes, and yes. There are orcs, elves, evil wizards, zombies, curses, etc. When you hear someone dedcribe No Man's Sky as "Skyrim in Space" then think of your favorite space opera and ask yourself if you can do the stuff from that. The chances are that you cannot. You'll realize then that the people making that assertion dont know what made Skyrim fun.

[@FlaminTubbyToast]

Nothing makes me angrier than the fact that they re-release this every year and yet there has been no substantial update or improvements outside of the dlc and a few patches.

[@lydiscott]

Even the graphical “improvements” were so dated at the time of their release with each edition. Gahhhh.

[@videocrowsnest5251]

I think another thing that adds to Skyrims charm is how it has so many comical and janky bugs/elements/and a physics engine that is about as stable as a Khajit on skooma sometimes. Which only enrich the nonsense experience at best when no game breaking bugs happen. Even intended mechanics have this ridiculously comical element to them: Fus Ro Dah is a peak example of this, as it lets one just ragdoll blast anything from bandits to fricking bears to characters in any which direction one feels like, paralyze spells make people fall flat on their faces only to awkwardly get up once it wears out, etc etc etc. The NPCs and enemies behaving stupidly add to this. Doing things like just giving a thousand yard stare if you dance on their dinner table to knock stuff about, or after being peppered with arrows just remarking it musta been the wind or something. It's all so comically janky. But the good, amusing kind of janky. And because it's all unintended or a result of...ehem..."Bethesda quality" it's pretty much lightning in a bottle and hard to replicate this kind of comical nonsense factor.

[@alsaiduq4363]

This perspective of skyrim being a huge sandbox for our fanfiction is interesting because honestyl, i never was able to get into doing fanfiction inside of the game because as soon i defeated Alduin my first time, the illusion broke and lack of any reactivity towards my actions in the world made me unable to "role play" as anyhting.

[@lydiscott]

Totally hear you with that lol to this day that moment always deflates me

[@_iarna_]

I have uh... 1600 hours in Skyrim, according to Steam. Despite that, I've never considered myself a fan, because I bounced off the base game hard back when it came out. But I came back to it years later and it was mods that made it work for me. (Or rather the act of modding, both through curation of my own modlist and making my own mods.) I was hopeful that Starfield would, at the very least, be a solid foundation for sci-fi type modding. (You see this in Fallout, but Fallout is... uh... not aesthetic, and I couldn't ever really get past that. Too much horror for my taste.) But, alas, the bones aren't good, and no amount of modding will really fix it. (Cyberpunk has ultimately filled that gap for me, but it does tie you into the plot a lot harder, and that will definitely set a time limit on how long I play it.)

[@lydiscott]

Imagine a cyberpunk game, true open world, truly blank slate character…. Would be so good!

[@ravendelacour1917]

Bethesda made an empty stage, autonomous extras and bit players, script suggestions and let the player string them together into their own narrative.

[@cobalt968]

I might be misremembering, but I believe that the initial creator for the TES series wanted to gradually amp up the features and tech such that it would become a fantasy life simulator. He departed around the time that Oblivion was released. Modern Bethesda appears to have much less lofty ambitions, and it showed in FO4 and Starfield.

[@polo5760]

I'll never be able to hate Skyrim it's just such a good roleplay game and it may have limited options it still gives you that freedom to do whatever you want. But a added benefit that skyrim has is the modding community. There are so many mods that continue your story or make the game a better roleplay game with better mechanics.

[@lydiscott]

Oh ya! So many great mods on the nexus. Can’t get over all the graphical enhancements and ENB. Great stuff!

[@Zeta1127]

I haven't finished Skyrim yet. My 360 save where I had done almost everything is so bloated that I have been unable to continue. I now have Skyrim as the SE on Switch and the AE on Steam, so I should be able to properly play it going forward. After I finish an achievement run, I will finally play it as something other than a Nord Spellsword. I also have Morrowind and Oblivion, but Morrowind is awkward to play on PC due its age and I was struggling to progress the Knights of the Nine in Oblivion. I enjoy Skyrim's gameplay more than Oblivion and probably Morrowind, due to the flexibility of weapons, spells, and powers/shouts in Skyrim compared to spells and powers all being on one button in Oblivion.

[@APOLLYON-IV]

I feel personally attacked by that Serana joke lmao

[@lydiscott]

LOLOL

[@victorcharles27]

Wide as an ocean Deep as a puddle Perfect description 👌 😊

[@twinphalanx4465]

I've always used skyrim as a way of playing a charecter usually ignoring dragon rising until I absolutely have to deal with it which usually is never nowadays. I use the missions as story beats for the story of my charecter that I'm writing in my head. Usually play with low volume so I domt break my own immersion when skyrim story tries to surface from the waters of oblivion. Right now I'm just goofing around with my alchemist enchanter who is using the imperial military and the dark brotherhood to get close to the emperor (hes a kajit so not allowed in cities without a hood or a reason like it's an imperial city so an imperial legionnaire could realistically be allowed in. That's where skyrim actually is successful, use its playground and omit its words, the collage of winterhold benefits MASSIVELY from this playstyle in my world the collage isnt just most of what's left of winterhold but its dying as well because of skyrim politics so a Catman who nobody knows can become this temporary archmage because very few people care. Forsworn conspiracy I use during the dark brotherhood campaign to add complications to the mission I'm currently on, same with blood on the ice (when it works)

[@lydiscott]

Ohhh this sounds very fun! 😄

[@BreadApologist]

Funny skyrim tale 7325 Fugitive gravity: So I was up in markarth one time, got up near waterfall area, looking down on a lower pathway. Suddenly for no reason whatsoever a random guard just rocketed up into the air and fell back down, dying on impact. A min later another guard comes upon the corpse all “im going to find whoever did this” legend says he is still looking for gravity to this very day. Also that might have been the play through that solitude pissed me off so much I used dark forbidden magic (console commands) to turn everyone in the city into a 3 inch tall, living skeleton.

[@lydiscott]

LOLOL tiny skeletons

[@sithmorpheus9747]

Glad you're back.

[@erikcharrier5943]

Morrowind may have perfected the roll your own adventure formula. Skyrim was a return to that with better tech and a little less personality.

[@MonicleMustachey]

excellent work! I have great memories of skyrim, I remember my favorite mod of skyrim, Thomas the train as a dragon ... good times!

[@ef174]

Babe wake up, a new Shaped by Stories video just dropped

[@lydiscott]

Lololol

[@Sarcastic_Sophist]

Interesting video, I already lamented somewhere that Skyrim doesn't have a good ttrpg. However to go beyond that, I lament that Bethesda has not thought to wrtite more stories based on this world. Imagine a series of novels following karliah as one of the last faithful nightingales preparing to take down mercer frey. Perhaps a story of a mage in the college of winterhold rising through the ranks. The world of nirn has so much interesting stuff a writer could play with and Bethesda seems content to squander that potential even as they coast on it. Nirn has incredibly rich lore, the likes of which I rarely see in game settings. Hell Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines one of my favorite games drew me in through great lore and writing. My hype only grew learning there was an even wider world I had yet to see. I wish more game developers put money into writing as oppsed to amping up graphics. I still replay dragon age origins, but most modern games I barely finish. Because it looking pretty doesn't compel me to play nearly as much.

[@lydiscott]

AGREEEED writing is where true longevity resides. As dated as Dragon age origins looks, it’s still a great experience because of the story.

[@Sarcastic_Sophist]

@@lydiscott Another series I wish had a good ttrpg. Love spending time in the world of thedas. Granted I have trepidations about veil guard (still hate that name). Bioware much like Bethesda feels like a shadow of what it once was. Really saddens me as bioware made some of my all time favorite games.

[@chrisadams1438]

"The game that makes you gaslight yourself into liking it" Christ what a velvet-gloved condemnation lol What I do like about Bethesda games more than anything else (aside from the modding community obviously) is the atmospheric quality of the world. These guys REALLY know how to make an immersive playground for their players. It's just a shame they're not as good at putting immersive stuff to do in them.

[@stnylan]

Skyrim was I think partly just luck of timing, it caught the world and captured many inaginations at a crossing place of culture & technology basically impossible to replicate. And it is painful to watch Bethesda try. I love your phrase of melting into the world, because that describes my Skyrim experience pretty well. The world of Skyrim tells its own story, its own history, and is its own character. In my view some of the best games allow the player the craft their own story. This is why I love some strategy games (think Civilization series or Europa Universalis series rather than an RTS though) because in my head I can create a faux-history, or imagine stories set in this alternative reality forged between the game and myself. Recently discovered youe channel. Some very thought provoking videos.

[@lydiscott]

Aw thanks very much for watching! And thank you for your thoughtful comment. 😄 AND OH GOD I gotta try Civ my dad loves those games lol! Totally hear you with RTS being a genre that lets you shape your own story.

[@coensalfischberger1471]

Shoutout to swampass

[@meinfaustkampf8221]

Skyrim with mods, infinite possibilities, now better with wabbajack, from SFW to NSFW, you have it all, even GOT dragons and more. Truly the best buy I made.

[@justa_gigi]

SBS absolutely *dunking* on Bethesda "...why I think their success with it was an accident is because they failed to reproduce it..." i- oooOOOF!! 😭

[@bradleysublett]

Bethesda see game making as "lets push out the blueprint and have modders do the ACTUAL work" and they deserve EVERY bit of backlash for the laziness they're showing with how they handled starfield. I LOVE skyrim and i will ALWAYS love Skyrim, but we DO need them to evolve as game makers in the quality of their games in WHO actually makes their games actually unique

[@Netist_]

It could have worked if Starfield was a good blueprint... But...

[@dex6758]

You actually unlocked, for me, the reason I found Skyrim so mediocre and never understood the hype until now. I have such a lack of creativity and imagination that Skyrim felt hollow. I can appreciate a great narrative and world building with games such as the Witcher 3 or Cyberpunk when that story unfolds as I walk the path of it. However, it never occurred to me that that's what Skyrim was supposed to be doing for me, so thank you!

[@halloweye4613]

So brave and controversial topic! Absolutely agree they have it in them to make a better game than Skyrim. The Spacepunk in me was soooo hoping Starfield was going to be it! So much of that game is amazing, so so much of it is not! As odd as it is Fallout 76 was the "fill in the blanks" narrative for me, mostly because I didn't have a choice in the early game! Fantastically done thanks for the content!

[@lydiscott]

I love that Fallout 76 was that kind of narrative playground for you! I actually hear far more positive things about 76 than I do about Starfield despite its unfortunate launch. might have to give it a try one of these days if I can get my cousins and dad interested in playing it lol

[@halloweye4613]

@@lydiscott if you enjoyed the base building in starfield you'll find love for 76. It really isn't enev the same game as the beta. Beta had a lot more brutal play VS player encounters. I kinda miss that, really felt like a post nuclear war then.

[@TheSmithy7113]

In my personal opinion, bethesda should start hiring mod authors, especially the successful ones to help make TES6 and even the new stuff. Clearly Bethesda can't do well on their own. Skyrim was a step down from oblivion, which was in turn a step down from morrowind. just like how Fallout 76 was a step down from 4, NV, 3, ETC. you see the picture. Bethesda wants to play it safe. Dumb down the games enough that we don't care about the story, but rather the game itself, the fact that it is a bethesda OWRPG title. Even then, New Vegas did a better job BECAUSE Obsidian worked on it instead of mostly bethesda. From morrorwind down, bethesda's games have taken step after step down in quality. It's sad to see.

[@mygetawayart]

you do realize they already hire modders, right? They always make a point to bring it up. Heck, it's the excuse they always bring up to justify the Creation Club paid mods, that it can be a revenue stream for them and eventually lead to it becoming a job.

[@Ronuk1996]

I think the open world is amazing there few open worlds that reach that level. The likes of Kingdom come, RDR2, Witcher 3, fallout3, San andreas,New Vegas, Bully, Oblivion and BOTW being some of few well made open worlds on that level.

[@poeticrapier]

I've felt this since Morrowind. Bethesda makes empty worlds and mid stories, because they know modders will fill the empty spaces and enhance their story. They are all to happy to cash the checks made from the popularity generated by the mods.

[@narfd.8837]

I never loved Skyrim as that kind of setting just does not capture my interest. That is also why I have so much respect for The Witcher 3, as it held my attention for over 90 hours despite it's setting. In my opinion Bethesda never had really good stories, but their enviromental storytelling has always been great. I loved to roam around in Fallout 4 just to piece together stories, read what happened with various people and just explore the culture of Fallout 4's Boston. And for some strange reason they decided to basically throw all that away with Starfield, making that game feel hollow and lifeless.

[@warlordofbritannia]

Exploring the Commonwealth as a Masshole is unending fun. The only thing they got wrong is Boston’s road system-way too straightforward and rational, not enough roundabouts and redundant exits.

[@warlordofbritannia]

Actually, they got the Saugus Ironworks completely wrong. It’s a 17th century foundry of just a few buildings and a watermill. The real interesting feature is that it abuts a ridiculously sharp curve in the road that seems to claim at least one driver every year. They got so many other locales in that area correct (Lynn Woods, Salem Witch building), but they just had to screw that one up didn’t they? 😂

[@QuarantineV1]

What Bethesda pretty much did was make a game which is narratively weaker than the previous entry in all regards. The twin main quests don't really hold up as well to the Oblivion crisis, and none of the guild questlines hit quite as hard as their counterparts from Oblivion. There is a bit of an ironic shared theme amongst all of these questlines though: decline. The Tamrielic Empire, Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild, Companions and College of Winterhold are all basically at the lowest points they've ever been. Your actions as the dragonborn may have brought enough short term success to keep much of these groups afloat (maybe; depends on the playthrough), but there is no way things are going to be fine in the long term, except maybe the Companions due to being in Nord land. I think the theme can be applied to Bethesda's game design, and how we all seem to be getting collectively aware of how flawed they are.

[@AwareWolfOnWheels]

I never pay attention to the main quests in TES games, I just play around the forced narrative. You can do that because the story is so basic. Oblivion is still better in terms of story, TDB quest line still stands out as one of the best.

[@lydiscott]

LOVE oblivions dark brotherhood quest line. All the quest lines for the most part seem to hold up better than any of skyrims.

[@sean1910]

i understand the sentiment of bethesdas laziness being their downfall but i enjoy their games. Wanting to become a writer myself BGS games allow me to write my own story in this world and help me immerse myself in what is essentially just a giant playground and i’m ok with that. If i want rich story games i go to rockstar games, old bioware, cd project red etc. but if i want a experience completely unique and one that is limitless ima go to BGS games

[@AlastorKrieger]

Bethesda needs to bring back Steam Workshop support. Their mod manager is still clunky.

[@Ellimist000]

Gopher discovered the formula years ago: (Exploration + Creation)*Mods = Replayability squared 😂 Starfields creation is limited, its exploration is downright problematic, and as I understand it was harder to mod at launch compared to the other games

[@unsat9300]

I play both Fallout 4 and Skyrim often for these same reasons, Bethesda isn’t the thing that makes their games achieve greatness, it’s the modders and personal creativity of their players that pushes their games from mediocre to incredible. Though Bethesda does have their strengths, writing meaningful stories has never been one of them. I hope that they reflect on their failings on starfield and how it destroyed their biggest strengths, creative world design and interesting detailed environments, but considering how much they have done to double down on their creative decisions I highly doubt things will get better anytime soon.

[@lydiscott]

Well said, same here. As hopeless as it feels I still wish they would get their act together lol

[@dimarichmain]

Shaped by unlocked stories.

[@jaycensolo9749]

Bought the game Nov. 11, 2011, played it so much I killed 2 xbox 360s. hadn't played since 2017 (no xbox/ time) BIL gave me his old 360 (last model before One) 2 months ago. Now I am playing again, I honestly do't really know why I like the game of which I have the legendary edition but I will agree with Adult Swim and call it a time vortex I can start and 9-10 hrs. later notice I am still playing. It was/ is the only elder scrolls game I really got into also the only one I like genuinely.

[@anderporascu5026]

It isn't Skyrim that makes us love the Elder Scrolls, it is the years of work that make us love it and the depth that is there. Elder Scrolls has had years, Starfield is merely starting and so we expect them to create endless pages of lore as well as introduce alien races before it merits the word 'classic' though it is off to a good start it still needs a lot of work.

[@TaliffsTrials]

I think with mods Bethesda's decision to introduce the Creation Kit for Skyrim and Fallout was a double-edged sword. On one hand, it empowered a passionate modding community to elevate the games far beyond their original scope. However, this same decision inadvertently undercut Bethesda's ability to sell additional content. The community's free mods consistently outshone Bethesda's paid offerings, earning the studio the nickname "Bugthesda" for its lackluster attempts at post-launch content. With Starfield, they've made modding more complex and introduced the paid Creation Club, a move that alienates the community that once revitalized their games. By restricting and commercializing modding, Bethesda risks losing the creativity and support of their most passionate fans. It's disappointing to see them repeat past mistakes.

[@AutismIsUnstoppable]

Depends on the DLC. There are exceptions but moders generally can't make something like Dawnguard.

[@TaliffsTrials]

@@AutismIsUnstoppable Actually i think they could, but it very much depends on their skill and time allowance as its all done for free in their own time. After all look at fallout London though i do think for something like Dawnguard a team might well be needed.

[@AutismIsUnstoppable]

​@@TaliffsTrials Fallout London is one of the exceptions and it apparently took over 100 devs and 5 years to make. Beyond Skyrim looks like its shaping up nicely and will hopefully be another exception to that rule but these mods are not the norm and never will be due to the amount of people, organisation and time required.

[@TaliffsTrials]

@@AutismIsUnstoppable On that we definitely agree.😄

[@ExternalDialogue]

I dont really agree with the notion that the enjoyment one has of Skyrim is a trick or that it was entirely unintended, i mean all art is an illusion, we wouldnt say its a devious trick that the mona lisa is actually a piece of canvas covered in pigments suspended in oil, and not actually a real woman. Skyrim's experience is too holistically crafted to give you little hooks to latch onto to drive your imagination, to a degree i cant really say its coincidence. I dont really feel comfortable saying Skyrim's characters lack depth when there are multi hour long videos analysing the character dynamics of a homeless guy, an innkeeper and a woman we never even see in the game. Its not exactly those impactful and awe inspiring character moments that Cyberpunk 2077 or the Mass Effect trilogy pulls off, but there is depth in Bethesda's ability to craft stories where players are so easily able to fill in the blanks.. Be it by accident or fully intentionally, or somewhere in between, its undoubtedly a quality of the game that it can so effortlessly make the player's fantasy go off the rails, its more important for an RPG than any skill system or dialogue checks. As for their failure to replicate it i dont think it falls on incompetence or greed. I mean if they were greedy they would not have 7+ year long development cycles, nor would they put their insanely profitable and popular franchise on hold for over a decade to make a new IP to test new ideas, that is absolutely by no means the cheap and easy road to success. The people making these games clearly care and have a vision, one which is just not very easy to realize. There is a reason why there isnt any games quite like theirs, cause its hard to do and costs a ridiculous amount of money to make.

[@Heraclanthes]

I found Skyrim’s story so boring that I rewrote it completely - in the form of a fanfic. I rewrote it with Talos as the antagonist.

[@seasonedbread171]

woah im playing skyrim rn this is crazy

[@lydiscott]

Ahhh that’s awesome lmao!

[@owensowders5329]

Shaped by Peak

[@righteousham]

Learning all the wrong lessons from Skyrim is on brand for Bethesda. I wonder anyone with decision making power ever looks into videos like this? Much of the Elder Scrolls lore was written by people that no longer work for the company, I believe. Starfield has what I like to call, functional lore. Basically, it's given just enough lore to hold the paper thin universe together with nothing extra and this is all pretty transparent. Every attempt to look beyond the surface level explanation for anything in that universe will find nothing. Good video.

[@lydiscott]

Thank you for watching, and for your comment. Totally agree with you on Starfields flimsy feel.

[@DEViL_X1612]

make one video on songbird from cyberpunk it will boom

[@Ellimist000]

This video is really, really on point 😁

[@lydiscott]

Aww thanks for watching! 😄

[@terrancethomas9002]

I love Skyrim so much. Its terrible, janky, the writing is mediocre at best, but the reason it works so well as a hotspot for modding is because in essence its a canvas for you to paint your own narrative onto, and thats what modding is on a more extreme level. Ive got like 300 hours in skyrim and i dont think ive ever made it past the very first main quest with Delphine and the horn of Jorgen or whatever, i just vibe. Also side note, ive been binging through your videos while ive been working today and idk how you dont have so many more subs, your stuff is great!

[@lydiscott]

Ahhh thank you so much Terrance! I’m so glad you like my videos! And totally hear you. I will say, Skyrim was the best intro to mods I could’ve asked for - and still haven’t found a game that has quite the same amazing quality and variety of mods as this game.

[@Neakal]

This will be a controversial thing to say, but i always felt Skyrim was overrated. Don't get me wrong, the world is absolutely gorgeous, it is fun to wander around, and the combat is fun and dynamic. But I struggled to get into the game in most places, and found much of it pretty shallow. There was a lot of "wow, that is pretty" but there was little to none "Oh my god..." moments (Vault 11, Sierra Madre) that defined New Vegas for me. Ultimately, I realised I struggled to enjoy Skyrim for the same reasons I did not enjoy Fallout 3. When Fallout 4 was announced, I predicted it would be more Skyrim than New Vegas. Unfortunately, I was proven right. I played Skyrim, Fallout 3, New Vegas and Fallout 4 all to completion. But only New Vegas continues to have "moments" that stay with me emotionally. I think being able to make your own story is an interesting idea, and I realised after watching your video I definitely did it with Skyrim. Even then though, I found the story to get in the way of my roleplaying. My Hircine-Worshipping, Skooma-addicted, Werewolf-Supremascist Dragonborn fought a one-sided war against the Vigilants of Stendarr and attacked them whenever I met them. And yet, the DLC pretty much overrode my work (including my destruction of their Pre-DLC base). Yes I know you can side against the Vigilants, but the way that option was presented just did not gel with my Dragonborn, so I did not pick it. Ultimately, it left me dissatisfied. In contrast, I feel both New Vegas and even Cyberpunk 2077 (After I got tons of immersion mods and did a second playthrough *determined* to enjoy the game and roleplay) offered me way more ways to roleplay.

[@sardonicus6708]

Skyrim is 'wish fulfillment' How many of us wish we had no responsibilities, no need to work etc. The only selling point for me is still the open world aspect. I prefer the mechanics of Morrowind, as in you better have some serious chops (pun intended) to be in charge of the fighters guild. I'll be running UESTRPG the TTRPG version of Skyrim/Oblivion soon, if anyone wants to play I'll be running it online, so 'hit me up'

[@chefrowlet]

"Skyrim's story is *functional*" well talk about damning with faint praise right from the beginning lol Skyrim was the only M-rated game my parents let me buy before I was "old enough." My brother and I put hundreds of hours into it on my old 1st gen 360, without the DLC, drooling over youtube videos of modded playthroughs. I think what fundamentally makes it work is that the story is light and loose enough that you can wander off and have adventures-scripted within quests or otherwise-with more structure than Minecraft but less than a typical RPG. The game might be an inch deep, but it's miles wide; it's an anecdote juggernaut, the kind of game (like D&D) where everyone wants to share the funny/cool/awesome/tragic thing that happened last session, and someone playing the same game, maybe even with the same quests and locations and NPCs, will have something different to share in return. There are enough major landmarks, enough gentle player guidance that players will be able to say something like, "you know that one bandit cave on the way to Riverwood?" in the same way you'd ask your roommate about the park up the road, and most players will know what you mean, or get excited you're telling them about something they missed. A water cooler game. Buggy but most of the bugs are funny instead of game-breaking. Music and environmental design that BEGS to be enjoyed to the fullest. The quirks of the engine and physics enabled props that, to this day, are impressive and all but unique to Beth games. Simple, approachable combat and gameplay overall so even kids can pick it up, but with some knowhow and effort can be broken into a true powergamer experience. Boy it's bad, but man oh man it's good.

[@lydiscott]

OHHH I love this comment! Agree with you entirely, very well said.

[@comyuse9103]

skyrim is an abject failure on essentially every single level, and i have no god damn idea why its as fun as it is. about the only thing it does any sort of decent at is the exploration, and even that feels like just a skeleton.

[@lydiscott]

Agreed 100% it’s wild. They got VERY lucky.

[@M3h3ndr3]

I love skyrim, but I think it has served its time, if someone without nostalgia plays cyberpunk before skyrim they will be bored out of their mind. I think bethesda is never gonna make good games again starfield is proof of that, and CDPR is now what Bethesda was supposed to become.

[@warlordofbritannia]

Uhhhh, did you mean to release this now?

[@lydiscott]

11:59 YEP LOLOL i promised myself "today's the day"

[@faithlessfate]

@@Gonzalo_Almendradude give it a rest

[@CRYOKnox]

This might be the best and enlightening video I have seen. Now I understand why I am drawn to Fallout 4 and Skyrim so much. Where Skyrim has this nothing your mind filling in. Fallout 4 has it's settlement system that lets you roleplay even more than Skyrim. That's why Fallout 76 is just a meat grinder outside of the community.amd why Starfield is just so... Trash...

[@ricknewman5404]

Skyrims story is so mind numbingly boring it took me 11 years to finally finish it. I would rather do anything else in that open world.

[@EcardEcardian]

As someone that has played Bethesda's games for decades. I can say that when it comes to Elder's scrolls. Skyrim is not Bethesda's curse, it is just pure lazyness from Bethesda to rerelease Skyrim over and over, it is a cash grab for them. Or you can just look at their mmo games. They are DLC gallore. To get all the DLC in ESO, cost you a mounth salery. I saw when Bethesda games went down hill and it was before Skyrim, it is not the only ip they really throwed under the buss. In Elder's scrolls case, Oblivion was the big downgrade. Skyrim is just a continuation of that downgrade. I do not feel immersed playing moden Bethesda games. That is due to the constant information flow. Like their version of a mini map that is the compass. There is no alternative paths to go about doing something, it is fallow the big quest arrow at all times. The journal does not tell you much where to go. The NPC do not really give directions anymore and they speak and it is of little substance. Oblivion came out, it was there the quest arrow became a thing, and NPC didn't really bother to tell you about the path there. This constant shoehorning of their creative club into everything is not healthy, than braking all the mods with their updates. Payed mods is not a thing, it is not going to happen Bethesda. They have tryed that sense Oblivion, I will never forget Horse Armour DLC. Anyways back to last good game, Morrowind, that game that came out in 2002. Was their last good game they made. It didn't hold your hand at all unlike Oblivion and Skyrim. Puzzles where complex, there was no mini map, you had to find your own way, that made that world feel larger than it was, because you only had a general idea where you where in the world, than a lot of systems that was not in the moden games. Morrowind had this: If a place was too hard, well go and do something else, come back later. Because the mobs in Morrowind will just curve stomp you if you are under leveled or under geared. Skyrim is easy. They went with more is less with Skyrim. In Morrowind there was a house system, guilds, etc. Can't really pick all of them at once. Got to pick and chouse. Morrowind did something Oblivion and Skyrim didn't do. When you became a demigod in Morrowind, even the factions that hated your guts, spoke to you with respect, because they knowed you can crush them like a bug if you whated to. Oblivion, Skyrim, you save the world and become a champion in the guilds, people speak to you like you are a peasent nobody. Besides making your own spells in Morrowind was fun, also enchantments. That medium armour got yeeted is odd to me, what happend to spears?

[@lydiscott]

I gotta play Morrowind again one of these days, really enjoyed it when I played it for the first time a couple years ago. Was super impressive even from a technical perspective, considering its time. Also has such cool vibes!

[@EcardEcardian]

@@lydiscott Indeed. Morrowind has the best atmosphere and the game is a special one. Too made they ain´t make them like they used too. The game was a complex game for its time.

[@sickjoe9174]

Bethesda does a good job of making frameworks for modders to propagate and story telling through world details.

[@maiqtheliar789]

The only Bethesda game with an actual good main quest is Morrowind. That story was written by an insane man who was on ALL of the drugs. I'm not even making that up either. The guy that wrote most of Morrowind loved his drugs. Then they fired him. Oblivion's was still decent at least. Since then there has not been a single Bethesda game where I would consider the writing solid. New Vegas wasn't made by Bethesda so that doesn't count. Seriously if you want to see how good Bethesda writing COULD be try Morrowind. Actually immerse yourself into the world. Read the books. Talk to people. Yeah I know it is dated. but honestly it isn't that hard to get into if you do so with an open mind. If modern Bethesda games had even half of the writing quality Morrowind had then they would be some of the best written games in the industry.

[@lydiscott]

LOVE Morrowind!!! Awesome experience!

[@grayearly3116]

Skyrim is a great starter game, but once youve grown your video game taste buds, its no longer strong enough on its own

[@lydiscott]

Very true

[@jyphelballet7569]

Sorry but BGS didnt trick me, and they re on the road of perdition, as Bioware. Fallout 76, Starfield and a totally shamefull F4 remastered, having more bugs than the original, breaking all mods. The're no more illusion, people see them for what they are. A studio of dev, leading by a pathologic liar (TH), who have not be able to evolve with the Game sector in this last 20 years. As their creation engine, and games, they re obsolete. They have no more the skills required by the games development nowadays, plus their ego blind them to any auto-citicism, and so stuck them. As a dev, they re dead. ES6 announced in 2016, will be as Starfield, obsolete, and stuck with the Creation Engine, when everyone will be on UE5.7, and the next gen console will be launched. And the next Fallout in 2035....... What a downgrade. So no one is under their illusion, they re delusionnal. Look around, From Software, Larian, Rockstar, Square Enix (with FF14, FF16 and FF7 re), Atlusand on and on.

[@faithlessfate]

Todd wants to make ES6. Bethesda keeps putting him to other things and derailing him.

[@lydiscott]

The idea of him saying “Its like Skyrim, but in Hammerfell” both makes me VERY excited and also like “TODD NO MAKE IT BETTER THAN SKYRIM”

[@faithlessfate]

@@lydiscott he also has to beat out Beyond Skyrim now, which is gonna be difficult. They made TES better than Bethesda did.

[@sebastiandalessandro4221]

Erm… you guys realize that the game came out in 2011 on the 360? Why are people still criticizing a game that came out when I was 13? Ah yes of course I know why, because it’s easy to do it for those clicks and views. Let me go find a game that came out on the original Xbox in 480p and completely destroy it and say how bad the graphics and resolution is. It’s embarrassing

[@Drakescythe9]

Unpopular opinion - I think Skyrim is so overrated it hurts. I played five hours into that game and I was BORED. It was so boring it was insane. Another Bethesda game where people told me "get X hours into the game and it gets good." No game that is actually worth my time is one that I've had to wait HOURS for it to get worth my time. None. Even the original Mass Effect, which has a strong opening section and then the boring Citadel section after that, still was able to hook me within the first hour.

[@Apoleqi]

Come on dude, you've played the game for 5 hours, you can't possibly know if it is overrated You didn't like it, didn't get hooked, fine, not everyone has to But people have played it for thousands of hours and still love it, don't pretend they're all stupid and you know better because you have played 5 hours, that's just ridiculous

[@anderporascu5026]

​​@@ApoleqiHe said 'unpopular opinion' and your reaction was predictable lol. There are lovers of Skyrim and haters just as there is with any game.

[@Apoleqi]

@@anderporascu5026 I have no problem with him not liking the game, I have a problem with him calling it "overrated" because of that Calling it overrated basically means "people are wrong for loving it because the game actually sucks" Like he knows better than everyone else with his 5 hours of playtime lol

[@anderporascu5026]

@@Apoleqi I hear you, I love it for what it gives me even if Kingdom Come is better for a sheer medieval simulation, it isn't the game for me as I dislike real worldism and Elder Scrolls is my favorite of fantasy series even if I need to read more fantasy. As for space sci-fi, any of the titles work for me, I agree with the video host that I prefer to do my own adventure and care less about the social dynamics or plot. Make it my own is how I roll.

[@comyuse9103]

@@Apoleqi i've played well over 5 hours; its over rated. it fails in almost every part of game and RPG design. its fun to mod, but it is a bad game.

[@Emperor.Penguin.]

As someone who has just under 4000 hours in Skyrim, whos played it on and off since I got it in 2012, and who just yesterday was looking through mods for a future playthrough, this video totally speaks to me. 😂🐉🪓

[@lydiscott]

LOLOL I hear you there RIP my entire steam account full of two hundred unplayed games because of Skyrim’s existence