damn, i hope that one day i'd be able to play my modded Skyrim like that. It was amazing on weed edibles, even if i just got lost in the same village over and over again.
Can someone explain the appeal to these games to me?
I did play several hours of Skyrim with some mods last year but the combat felt clunky, the loot felt like a pain in the ass to manage, and there didn't really seem to be a good story and the world felt a bit hollow.
I do realize their age, of course, and this is an unfair comparison but I had a much greater time with Elden ring and the Witcher 3. Both those games are so dense with vast beautiful worlds.
The appeal is that these games were made well before Elden Ring and Witcher 3; before 'open world' was mainstream. Every single NPCs had daily routines, quests were dynamically generated, and what you do in the game had consequences beyond pissing one character off. This made triggering specific quests or events difficult if you were just going 'off the hip', and made replayability a big feature. Because of these systems, there were several interesting "game breaking" issues, but these things were charming in their own right due to how new all these systems were put together with almost nothing like it.
In retrospect, not all the "game breaking" issues were truly understood at the time, and most are a consequence of several factors - the most common being that some quests activate behind the scenes and prevent other quests from starting, even if you haven't picked them up and added them to your journal. So it is possible to do mostly everything in the game with careful planning. But at the time, it really did seem like each playthrough was unique.
It is/was also highly moddable for its time. While it took a long time to detail every aspect of the game, today there is nothing mods can't do. Even Witcher 3 mods can't do a bunch of things that Skyrim mods can. And it's a good gateway into learning how to mod, and modding can be just as fun as playing. Some mod guides are so long it takes days or weeks to implement. It can get quite insane, with some people maintaining multiple 'mod versions': one to play (most playthroughs won't let you add/remove mods mid-play), one to test new stuff, and one to keep up-to-date with whatever mod guide/group they are following (you know, for fun....and the next playthrough).
But mostly it's nostalgia, like how some people like older Zelda or Final Fantasy games. Or how you might play that pointless cozy game you played a million times because it connects you to something deeper to what was going on at that time. We know TES games are pretty bad in a lot of regards, but graphics, gameplay, or story isn't what we are after. Hell, there are now adults booting up Minecraft because it's just the game they grew up with.
Nostalgia is a hard drug. I replayed Pokemon Red easily 10 times over the years. I tried Pokemon Gold (an objectively much better game) probably about the same amount of times, but I could never get through it, because I didn't play as a kid and thus have no nostalgia for it.
I have more nostalgia for Keitai Denjū Telefang, which I played in bootlegged form mis-labelled as Pokemon Diamond (that was before the real Pokemon Diamond was released), and even though this bootleg is horrible in quality, it's easier for me to play than Pokemon Gold.
Your Pokémon comparison reminds me of something I’ve noticed with gaming. Sometimes the game just has to hit me at the right time, regardless of nostalgia. I’ve had games that I bounced off of multiple times, then years later I decide to give it a go and get sucked in. I’m fairly sure this sometimes happens due to other factors in my life at the time (situations I’m currently experiencing, things I haven’t experienced, etc.).
The openness of it. I can play as I want and go where I want. I’ve played Skyrim since its release and never have finished the main story. It’s not the main attraction. There’s so much lore carried through the games since the 90s , it’s endless.
For me, personally, these games are the closest thing on a computer to a nearly endless sandbox tabletop rpg experience. I don’t like having to do some grand “save the world” narrative that RPGs push you into, and in Skyrim I can avoid it after the intro or mod it out. Then I create characters like a tabletop RPG (I develop a backstory and where I choose to go and what I choose to do is based on the character’s personality in my mind) and essentially play it like it is a solo tabletop game where the engine takes care of a lot of the work.
I haven’t played in years, though, because I can’t get the same level of immersion as I did when playing for 5 hours straight before having kids.
After ignoring the TES games my whole life, I first played Oblivion a few years ago, and for once in a very long time, I felt the same feeling I did when playing GTA San Andreas for the first time as a little kid.
I spent the first 10hrs or so just stealing stuff and fighting in the Arena, didn't even touch the main story. In Oblivion, there is soooo much stuff to do, and I didn't even mod it.
Elden Ring is definitely a great game, but it's pale in comparison to Oblivion when it comes to "freedom to do anything". Even Skyrim couldn't top that for me. Don't know about Witcher 3 though, I have yet to play it.
It's not for me either, but i guess not being strung along by the main story line and instead being able to just go anywhere and do whatever is appealing to people who just want to immerse themselves in the games world.
Did you play it at the time it was released or did u try to go back later? Skyrim was and is a legendary game for a reason, to each their own but in its day it was undeniably the best RPG game in existence and it held that title for years! The story is excellent. Games like this and enshrouded will also never achieve full enjoyment in those that don't bother reading the game lore. If yo skip all the books and never read any I cans see why you wouldn't get as immersed as say in the Witcher 3 story where you have more cutscenes fed to you. And don't get it messed up, witcher 3 is a legend too and probably my all time favourite. But it did not offer me the same replayability Skyrim does. And the last point to Skyrim is it runs good on my potato spec laptop so I can play it on about anything!
This. The game only seems dull on the surface but the more you dig into the text and the background the lore is just sprawling.
And yea, Elder Scrolls are as replayable as your imagination while Witcher is only as replayable as the different dialogue options you pick from. Every game you still play "a Witcher" and there is only so far that can take you
Comparing Witcher 3/Elden Ring to Skyrim is just doing it a disservice. Skyrim released in 2011 alongside the original Witcher game and the first Dark Souls.
The first witcher game was released in 2007. The second one was released in 2011. The witcher 3 was released in 2015. Witcher 2 was definitely more polished feeling to me. I found it felt very similar to The Witcher 3.
The Seinfeld effect. Today they seem clunky, janky, unpolished or uninspired. Because you have way better modern examples to compare them to. The catch is that when they came out, they were the first. People have said the same about the Beatles, the rolling stones, the og legend of Zelda, counter strike, etc.
This is exactly what they are doing, too. They are comparing a game from 2011 to games that came out 4 years later (Witcher 3 in 2015) and over a decade later (Elden Ring in 2022)
Skyrim released alongside the OG Witcher and Dark Souls.
At least in Morrowind the journal recorded EVERYTHING. If it was a highlighted keyword, it was going in the journal. Searching that thing was a bit of an issue though.
That’s one of the very few gripes I have with BG3, depending on your party makeup shit can go down real fast and boom someone is unhappy with you or you’re in initiative, the log doesn’t always show everything said or how/why someone is suddenly dead and tracing back is like trying to follow a conversation on twitter
59 Comments
teft@piefed.social · 60 pts · 250d
Time to level acrobatics:
Redacted@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 250d
Okay but when it finally got high enough i could jump on water i was pogging my fucking gourd
tiny_mouse@lemmy.ml · 29 pts · 250d
Why a pen?
shiroininja@lemmy.world · 25 pts · 250d
A weed pen
TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 5 pts · 250d
Try a dmt vape instead. Makes the graphics look much nicer.
Redacted@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 250d
I imagine breaking through playing morrowind and just seeing dagoth ur
TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 249d
Nah man, you'd be floating through space in a bathtub casting fus roh dah to be able to catch the unicorn, everyone knows that
purple_mimosa@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 248d
damn, i hope that one day i'd be able to play my modded Skyrim like that. It was amazing on weed edibles, even if i just got lost in the same village over and over again.
TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 248d
Oh I doubt you will be able to control a mouse and keyboard, or controller, as you would be tripping balls haha
I think it will be similar to this
Also, the effect is 20 to 30 min (although it can feel like a lifetime)
purple_mimosa@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 248d
Damn. TIL. Well, I'd better be in a good headspace if i ever try that for sure.
frongt@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 250d
Taking notes on those weird little puzzles
Or, because it'll hurt more, you twit.
FenrirIII@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 249d
That's a spoon
frongt@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 249d
That's not a spoon. This is a spoon.
malle_yeno@pawb.social · 19 pts · 250d
What are you writing on-- oh different kind of pen lmao
shiroininja@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 250d
LOL my brain
Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 250d
Perfect Saturday morning!
shiroininja@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 250d
Indeed
kurcatovium@piefed.social · 12 pts · 250d
It's too bad Remaster lost all the vibrant colours vibe OG Oblivion had...
octobob@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 250d
I modded them back in haha
https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivionremastered/mods/72
cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca · 11 pts · 250d
Can someone explain the appeal to these games to me?
I did play several hours of Skyrim with some mods last year but the combat felt clunky, the loot felt like a pain in the ass to manage, and there didn't really seem to be a good story and the world felt a bit hollow.
I do realize their age, of course, and this is an unfair comparison but I had a much greater time with Elden ring and the Witcher 3. Both those games are so dense with vast beautiful worlds.
asmoranomar@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 250d
The appeal is that these games were made well before Elden Ring and Witcher 3; before 'open world' was mainstream. Every single NPCs had daily routines, quests were dynamically generated, and what you do in the game had consequences beyond pissing one character off. This made triggering specific quests or events difficult if you were just going 'off the hip', and made replayability a big feature. Because of these systems, there were several interesting "game breaking" issues, but these things were charming in their own right due to how new all these systems were put together with almost nothing like it.
In retrospect, not all the "game breaking" issues were truly understood at the time, and most are a consequence of several factors - the most common being that some quests activate behind the scenes and prevent other quests from starting, even if you haven't picked them up and added them to your journal. So it is possible to do mostly everything in the game with careful planning. But at the time, it really did seem like each playthrough was unique.
It is/was also highly moddable for its time. While it took a long time to detail every aspect of the game, today there is nothing mods can't do. Even Witcher 3 mods can't do a bunch of things that Skyrim mods can. And it's a good gateway into learning how to mod, and modding can be just as fun as playing. Some mod guides are so long it takes days or weeks to implement. It can get quite insane, with some people maintaining multiple 'mod versions': one to play (most playthroughs won't let you add/remove mods mid-play), one to test new stuff, and one to keep up-to-date with whatever mod guide/group they are following (you know, for fun....and the next playthrough).
But mostly it's nostalgia, like how some people like older Zelda or Final Fantasy games. Or how you might play that pointless cozy game you played a million times because it connects you to something deeper to what was going on at that time. We know TES games are pretty bad in a lot of regards, but graphics, gameplay, or story isn't what we are after. Hell, there are now adults booting up Minecraft because it's just the game they grew up with.
squaresinger@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 250d
Nostalgia is a hard drug. I replayed Pokemon Red easily 10 times over the years. I tried Pokemon Gold (an objectively much better game) probably about the same amount of times, but I could never get through it, because I didn't play as a kid and thus have no nostalgia for it.
I have more nostalgia for Keitai Denjū Telefang, which I played in bootlegged form mis-labelled as Pokemon Diamond (that was before the real Pokemon Diamond was released), and even though this bootleg is horrible in quality, it's easier for me to play than Pokemon Gold.
evilcultist@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 250d
Your Pokémon comparison reminds me of something I’ve noticed with gaming. Sometimes the game just has to hit me at the right time, regardless of nostalgia. I’ve had games that I bounced off of multiple times, then years later I decide to give it a go and get sucked in. I’m fairly sure this sometimes happens due to other factors in my life at the time (situations I’m currently experiencing, things I haven’t experienced, etc.).
shiroininja@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 250d
The openness of it. I can play as I want and go where I want. I’ve played Skyrim since its release and never have finished the main story. It’s not the main attraction. There’s so much lore carried through the games since the 90s , it’s endless.
evilcultist@sh.itjust.works · 11 pts · 250d
For me, personally, these games are the closest thing on a computer to a nearly endless sandbox tabletop rpg experience. I don’t like having to do some grand “save the world” narrative that RPGs push you into, and in Skyrim I can avoid it after the intro or mod it out. Then I create characters like a tabletop RPG (I develop a backstory and where I choose to go and what I choose to do is based on the character’s personality in my mind) and essentially play it like it is a solo tabletop game where the engine takes care of a lot of the work.
I haven’t played in years, though, because I can’t get the same level of immersion as I did when playing for 5 hours straight before having kids.
FalschgeldFurkan@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 249d
After ignoring the TES games my whole life, I first played Oblivion a few years ago, and for once in a very long time, I felt the same feeling I did when playing GTA San Andreas for the first time as a little kid.
I spent the first 10hrs or so just stealing stuff and fighting in the Arena, didn't even touch the main story. In Oblivion, there is soooo much stuff to do, and I didn't even mod it.
Elden Ring is definitely a great game, but it's pale in comparison to Oblivion when it comes to "freedom to do anything". Even Skyrim couldn't top that for me. Don't know about Witcher 3 though, I have yet to play it.
radiouser@crazypeople.online · 5 pts · 250d
You sleep rather soundly for a slanderer.
cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 250d
😂
AgentRocket@feddit.org · 4 pts · 250d
It's not for me either, but i guess not being strung along by the main story line and instead being able to just go anywhere and do whatever is appealing to people who just want to immerse themselves in the games world.
innermachine@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 250d
Did you play it at the time it was released or did u try to go back later? Skyrim was and is a legendary game for a reason, to each their own but in its day it was undeniably the best RPG game in existence and it held that title for years! The story is excellent. Games like this and enshrouded will also never achieve full enjoyment in those that don't bother reading the game lore. If yo skip all the books and never read any I cans see why you wouldn't get as immersed as say in the Witcher 3 story where you have more cutscenes fed to you. And don't get it messed up, witcher 3 is a legend too and probably my all time favourite. But it did not offer me the same replayability Skyrim does. And the last point to Skyrim is it runs good on my potato spec laptop so I can play it on about anything!
Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 248d
This. The game only seems dull on the surface but the more you dig into the text and the background the lore is just sprawling.
And yea, Elder Scrolls are as replayable as your imagination while Witcher is only as replayable as the different dialogue options you pick from. Every game you still play "a Witcher" and there is only so far that can take you
ameancow@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 250d
Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 248d
Comparing Witcher 3/Elden Ring to Skyrim is just doing it a disservice. Skyrim released in 2011 alongside the original Witcher game and the first Dark Souls.
cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 248d
The first witcher game was released in 2007. The second one was released in 2011. The witcher 3 was released in 2015. Witcher 2 was definitely more polished feeling to me. I found it felt very similar to The Witcher 3.
Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 248d
Oops, read my dates wrong it seems.
dustyData@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 250d
The Seinfeld effect. Today they seem clunky, janky, unpolished or uninspired. Because you have way better modern examples to compare them to. The catch is that when they came out, they were the first. People have said the same about the Beatles, the rolling stones, the og legend of Zelda, counter strike, etc.
frongt@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 249d
Citizen Kane.
You watch it now, and it's just a regular movie. But in 1941, it was incredibly unorthodox. It set the benchmark for modern movies.
Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 248d
This is exactly what they are doing, too. They are comparing a game from 2011 to games that came out 4 years later (Witcher 3 in 2015) and over a decade later (Elden Ring in 2022)
Skyrim released alongside the OG Witcher and Dark Souls.
damnthefilibuster@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 250d
What game is this?
shiroininja@lemmy.world · 26 pts · 250d
Oblivion the original. Not the remaster
damnthefilibuster@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 250d
Lovely!
shiroininja@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 250d
It still holds up for a 20 year old game
marlowe221@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 250d
Oblivion
damnthefilibuster@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 250d
Thanks! It’s lovely!
kwomp2@sh.itjust.works · 10 pts · 250d
you can also stir it with a finger
AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 250d
What's the pen for?
Dozzi92@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 250d
Weed.
AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 250d
Gotcha. I was pretty sure that Oblivion has an in game journal, so I wasn't sure why notes would be taken.
FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 249d
That would be Morrowind, where people gave you directions like “just past the creek to the east.”
AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 249d
At least in Morrowind the journal recorded EVERYTHING. If it was a highlighted keyword, it was going in the journal. Searching that thing was a bit of an issue though.
FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 249d
That’s one of the very few gripes I have with BG3, depending on your party makeup shit can go down real fast and boom someone is unhappy with you or you’re in initiative, the log doesn’t always show everything said or how/why someone is suddenly dead and tracing back is like trying to follow a conversation on twitter
ameancow@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 250d
shiroininja@lemmy.world · -6 pts · 250d
Nah, I got yo dad for that, son.
ameancow@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 250d
shiroininja@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 249d
Woof lol
Harvey656@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 250d
Pen, pineapple, apple, coffee.
chunes@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 249d
That looks so much better than I remember.
Maybe I'm just tired of modern, overly-processed graphics. There's a certain clarity to this era of graphics that's hard to pinpoint.
biggeoff@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 249d
shiroininja@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 248d
Yeah it looks good without mods. I’ve never modded oblivion because I never felt a need to.
Rhoeri@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 249d
I don’t get it.