The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

It's possible that the reason I'm replaying Skyrim yet again is that maybe I want to expect that my choice or say in a matter holds weight, holds meaning towards the end of a long adventure. Extra Credits started doing episodes on agency and the illusion of choice and I have to say, yes , I agree with them.

After defeating Alduin (where the victory felt hollow to me), killing Miraak and Harkon, everyone still treats me with a resounding MEH. I never join the Stormcloaks or the Empire because I'm rather tempted by Clavicus Vile's offer to kill off everyone so there'd be no one left to fight. Bam, no more fighting.

Did I catch Bethesda trying to create the illusion of choice but failing miserably? Or is it because there's a lack of consequence I'm detecting faintly? Does Skyrim have enough choice to make it feel like what you choose has agency?

Mods help, you can screw up compleately if you set the characters to mortal, then killing them, of course, why would you do that when you could potencially set the game off its rails and crash. Mods which add expansion, help somewhat, but do include the set off of being incompatible with some quests and mods.

I think Bethesda either made some poor choices in putting together the side quests or simply ran out of time to finish them, as the Mage's College especially is very very short, to give one example of a common gripe.. But even so, they all follow predefined arcs that were never designed to allow for multiple paths and outcomes at the end, same goes for the main quest, and so on..

Looking back on it, pretty much all the others were the same too though, there wasn't too much recognition of the character after completion of side quest lines or main quests in either Morrowind or Oblivion aside from the odd line of dialogue or reward for being a guild master (amounting to a weapon, spell, armor etc usually), etc.

Personally I play Skyrim for the sandbox gameplay and mods, as the choice based action that you refered to is a much more prominent thing in other games. It'd be awesome to see that kind of thing implemented in an open world game, but there aren't many potentials for that around (pretty much the only one being the Witcher 3, supposed to be out next year) probably on the basis that it's a massive amount of work to get it all to flow together as a coherent story when it can be manipulated as you progress through it.

Thanks for your input, Doom. It could be I was a little angry with Skyrim simply for the amount of imagination I was forced to come up with on the fly.

"Uh, yeah, so my parents passed away but left me with a decent inheritance. I decided to use that inheritance to take a trip to Skyrim since Cyrodiil is no longer safe to live in (damn those Thalmor). Uhm, okaayy, I wake up and the first thing I see is a big black dragon that just flew over and roared at me as it was flying north...aaaaannd there's alot of smoke coming from Helgen. Maybe I should jog over there and help the soldiers..............OH MY SHOR this place has been wasted badly. I don't - woah, I don't see many bodies - I hope there are survivors..."

In Morrowind I felt I really did something good (aside from gaining favor from the nicer of Daedric Princes, Azura), and I think Skyrim is a good game. Not a great one, but just good.

Oh you've found us out! You've uncovered the secret! You were being led by the nose the whole time, no choice, no options, it was all Bethesda forcing you along. Damn, I thought the ruse would have held up a while longer.

Here, let me rephrase that. You're adult enough you don't want to be led around like a child through a story, but still childish enough to whine when the game doesn't pat you on the head for defeating the boss.

Skyrim is great at being an open-world game, but terrible at being a RPG. Unfortunately, the previous Elder Scrolls suffer from the same problem. I find this odd because ohter Bethesda games, like Fallout 3, actually have branching dialogue and quest options. Why can't they bring that system over to TES?

Well you don't have that problem in Fallout 3, because once you save the wasteland the game is over. If you do Broken Steel, people still treat you like dirt. Fallout New Vegas is different though. It's broken in many ways, but they actually have a working reputation system. Hmmm, perhaps if Skryim ended the game immediately after you defeat Alduin, and play a ten minute cut scene, people will stop complaining about the lack of respect.

Imagine it: "And so the Lone Dovahkiin wandered off to Akavir and was never heard of again. Lydia picked up the pieces of her shattered life and moved on. Mjoll finally dumps Aerin and moves in with Aela. Etc., etc."

Oddly enough, so does Skyrim, but the complainers just want to ignore. Just now, in the past hour, I was addressed as Praefect by an imperial soldier, and Thane by a town guard. True, no one is holding parades in my honor, but I don't need that kind of stroking.