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THIS ISNT ABOUT WHAT -MAKES- TES, TES.
IT ISN'T ABOUT WHAT FEATURE IS MOST IMPORTANT.
This also isn't about TESO.
TES is a very variable game and different people play it for different things.
I want to see with this poll, if there is a unifying element, or alternatively, the most popular element. I would give you the option to vote for multiple options but unfortunately the forum doesn't allow for that.
So please, select the one reason that is the -most- important to you in TES.
Option explenation:
Combat
Simply the combat. You enjoy TES games for swinging your sword at things or shooting fireballs at skeletons.
Dungeon Crawling
You play TES to explore its instanced dungeons, avoid traps and fight your way through enemies to the boss at the end.
Exploration (Discovery)
Be it for profit or fun, you enjoy setting out into TES to uncover new places, hidden secrets, interesting loot and items as well as quests (their story) and lore. (this is not about if you like the lore, secrets, etc, just that you like to discover them)
Crafting
You enjoy hunting animals, scavening dungeons, harvesting plants and mining to craft your own gear. You like to be resourceful and self-sufficient in the field.
Story
You play TES for the main story. You feel it has good writing and presents a good motivation to play the game. You enjoy the stories main characters as well as the lore surrounding it.
Side Quests
You enjoy TES for its handcrafted sidequests and events. You like joining the Blades or the Imperial Legion, fighting in the Arena or assassinating the Emperor. You think the side quests are what makes the world of TES alive.
Narrative/Mechanical Freedom
You like to create your own narrative and don't like to be bogged down by preset paths. You like being able to do things your way, play the game in all its facets however you like. You like to kill quest NPCs, defy the will of Daedric Lords or just help out in the world playing its hero. You enjoy creating your own unique character from bits and pieces without preset paths and goals.
Numen
This is a hard one to explain.
Numen is something that goes beyond game-mechanics or is describable and perceptible by just the senses.
Its a feeling that behind this matte-painting of a mountain there is actually other people living. Its the feeling you get where the world seems somehow "alive" or has its own "character".
Its when you start developing attachments to your characters and start subconsciously believing that they are "real", that the world in front of you is "real".
You don't see empty character-meshes running around the world, but actually people that have needs and desires, that live and die.
Its tightly knit into immersion, but in a different way, its past immersion.
Comments
Played: EQ1 (10 Years), Guild Wars, Rift, TERA
Tried: EQ2, Vanguard, Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Runes of Magic and countless others...
Currently Playing: GW2
Nytlok Sylas
80 Sylvari Ranger
What happens when you log off your characters????.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFQhfhnjYMk
Dark Age of Camelot
This.
And exploration
Tamriel feels like a world, where you are free to do whatever you like and to be whoever you want to be
At the moment it doesn't look like TESO is going to be focusing on that
I have a character in Skyrim with something like 80+ hours played (I know not that much) that has not done a single quest.
I also have a character in Skyrim with 100+ hours with lots and lots of quests complete as well as the main story, Companions, and Civil War major plot lines.
One is a stealthy, sneaky, back stabbing, bow-using thief / assassin.
The other is a brawn, sword+board, heavy armor wearing Soldier / Knight.
I like Skyrim because I can do so many different things in the game.
There is no one path to take, there are so many choices.
Freedom > All.
i didnt vote ..i stoped playing after morrow wind for my own reasons but i wont be one of those ppl that shoot down games just because they are doing something a lil diff or not the "norm" of what they have been doing for years ..why i liked playing TES franchise is because i liked their product..all of them..its simple..if they offer a good product to the consumer time after time..they / them or who-ever will get my cash / effort and i wont shunn it down just because its diff or not "the norm"
The point of this poll isnt to figure out what "makes" TES, TES, its about figuring out what people -think- the most important aspect is for them.
I enjoy all of the above, but if I had to pick one (and i did) its the Numina that makes me play TES games, it certainly isn't the combat, but a TES without combat wouldn't be TES.
You get my drift?
There is no option for me. I love the freedom of creating a character in a world and just going. I usually avoid the main questline for the first 150 hours or so as I just run around exploring everything, doing everything, killing people who annoy me and stealing anything I feel like. The first 150 hours I set out and wreck havoc on the world because I have the freedom to do whatever I want. After my first run through of doing everything and anything I feel like I will usually start a new character, pigeon-hole him into a specific role (my first guy is usually a jack of all trades) and play the game through storylines and sidequests I may not have gotten to before.
So, in essence, I love being able to do whatever I want with no restrictions at all. Morrowind gave me greatest sense of that, in my opinion, and that is what draws me to TES games.
Edit: I voted for discovery but its honestly a tie between that and numina for me. They both create the atmosphere of TES games and are staples within the games.
Immersion.
Everything else is done well enough, but the immersion is what makes TES a different breed of game. That, and it's one of the few good single-player game franchises--seeing as how everthing is turning into an MMO.
Oh wait.
Also, mods keep the game fresh and devoid of annoying things. Hate something in the game? There's a mod for that.
Pretty much what I was expecting, Freedom+Exploration.
I wonder if Zenimax understand the minimun requirements for a TES game
Bethesda should have developed this game
I bought every single TES game since TES:Arena, but sure I am not going to buy this mess.
SWTOR+GW2 is not a good combination
You're not getting it.
I'm not playing the games just for one element of gameplay nor can I lift one feature above the others in such absolutes like a poll with only one vote.
It's not so simple anyway for me, for example the combat, I really like the FPS style targetting, but besides that the combat is way too simple.
Perhaps the only thing easy to name without having to explain anything, a major thing in the ES games that I love, is the world and lore.
+1
Essentially, it's all the reasons mentionned. The first-person combat makes the gameplay more engaging for me. Most of my time is spent exploring. How many times where I've seen something and thought "what's this" only for the same thing to happen 5 minutes later and before I know it's 2 A.M . I don't play TES game exactly for the main story though, as it's always been fairly average, but TES games shines the brightest in its side quests. Crafting never played a big part of the TES games however (ignoring Alchemy). And finally, FREEEEEEEDOM!.
Another reason that wasn't mentionned : The modding community. It's glorious!
Everything you need to know about Elder Scrolls Online
Playing: GW2
Waiting on: TESO
Next Flop: Planetside 2
Best MMO of all time: Asheron's Call - The first company to recreate AC will be the next greatest MMO.
If TES games had a more traditional MMO style of 3rd person combat with hotbars and skills, it would be the best RPG ever made for me. I have purchased every single TES RPG but have never finished them because the combat is the most boring.
Everything you need to know about Elder Scrolls Online
Playing: GW2
Waiting on: TESO
Next Flop: Planetside 2
Best MMO of all time: Asheron's Call - The first company to recreate AC will be the next greatest MMO.
In The Words of William Wallace:
Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeedom!
But what really happens..
Biggest positives:
Freedom / Exploration / Discovery
First person perspective
Biggest negatives:
Rubber-banding world (Oblivion)
Only small amounts of discoverable content, with most tied to guilds/factions as quest hubs or long arc main storyline
im curious, you put discovery in your positive, and also in your negative.
what i like the most is they are true RPG's. i can be a murderer, a thief, a knight, a traveler, a villager, a blacksmith, an alchemist, an ass hole, the games me the opportunity play a role, in a virtual world. something i think most mmoRPG's have missed on. i guess that's why developers and fans just call them MMO's nowadays.
I like the concept of exploration / discovery as a game mechanic. I feel it takes the game "off rails" and gives it more of an adventure feel. That's the positive part.
The negative part is that even though the game allows for exploration and discovery, most of the questing storyline content is still based on conventional quest hub design. What I would prefer is more content where you wonder into a cave and accidently find your way into storyline content.
Sure I can wonder into a cave, find vampires and kill them. But why are the vamires there? Are they doing something interesting? By killing them, did I open up dialog content somewhere else in the game?
Most of the time, exploration on it's own amounts to wonder in somewhere, get attacked, kill them and take their stuff. I think it could be more than that.
This is why in some sense I really, really miss open world sandbox fantasy MMORPGs.
Sadly I think far too many of the l33t kid PK FPS junkie crowd have gotten into MMOs to ever make such a sandbox viable unless you completely seperate PvE and PvP.
What makes TES (Skyrim specifically for me) so good?
It's MY sandbox.
What would ruin Skyrim for me?
Exploring out in the wild, find a cave/dungeon and start clearing it - get to the end and.... dozen or so people standing around spamming /dance and making Chuck Norris jokes waiting to spawn tag a named mob respawn...
Sneaking through a city, picking pockets and breaking into homes and shops, murdering the occassional shop keeper / villager... and having a naked half-elf following me around doing /yell and bunny hopping...
Traveling through the woods looking for mines and hunting dear for leather to make and modify/enhance some more armor, pursuing my love of being a blacksmith... and having some kid PK me and then spawn camp my corpse after looting all my custom-made gear and items.
Long story short - the reason sandbox games really don't "work" for me and so many others anymore -
Most MMO players are idiots/assholes.
Sure, you ca say "yeah but in a true sandbox you could kill the naked half-elf following you, bring your guildies and clear out all the players spawning the named mob, and bring a friend or two and hunt down and kill the PK who camped your corpse" - which is all true.
But not good enough - MY sandbox and MY experience has already been ruined.
And I am simply not going to pay to be someone else's content - especially when it's at the expense of my enjoyment of the game.