“There’s an old joke – um… two elderly women are at a Catskill mountain resort, and one of ‘em says, “Boy, the food at this place is really terrible.” The other one says, “Yeah, I know; and such small portions.”
Woody Allen.
We don’t get video games of high quality on a regular basis. For us it can often be a long time between drinks. On rare occasions in the last 30 years of video gaming I have been spoilt for choice, but these have been rare circumstances. My post yesterday regarding savouring Skyrim received a reply which I had been expecting. Frankly I was surprised that there weren’t more that were similar. But for every comment that someone takes the time and trouble to write down I am sure many more readers were thinking along similar lines.
The comment in question is from Okrane, and I’m glad that this person took the time to voice their feelings. Lets have a look at what was written.
“… you mean the all the horrible fetch quests?
or maybe the shitty interface which when u are a wizard you have like 30 spells and skills and only 8 hotkeys?
or the really boring combat, where you whack a sword at the enemy from level 1 to 50 and beyond, or throw the same fireball over and over…
or perhaps the interesting dungeons where you battle the same kind of undead over and over again.
and I could go on. The only good thing is the big ass world which can seem interesting to explore but only when you are willing to ignore all the other shit.
For gameplay the game is really shit and does not provide much fun if trying to achieve anything else but explore …”
I understand this point of view, and I have seen it reflected in many posts from bloggers lamenting the very same points raised here. But as I said yesterday, you have to learn how to eat. You don’t wait a long time between meals and then stuff your face as fast as you can while complaining how bad some of the food is. I don’t like gathering quests either, which is why I ignore them. I have completed one as it involved an interesting alchemy line, but apart from that example the rest lie unloved in my quest journal. However, I am sure that there are many players out there that do like those quests. Thus, the developers included some. They did want to make a profit, and I for one am happy that they did. More similar games for me. But don’t complain about something while simultaneously stuffing your face with it. I mean, it’s not like there’s a shortage of quests in Skyrim.
I play a warrior who likes to sneak around and shoot things with a bow, so I’m not up on the mage-like problems regarding hotkeys. A friend of mine does play a mage in Skyrim and he loves it. As far as he is concerned, 8 hotkeys are more than enough. Back in the day when playing a mage you were lucky if you got two spells every 24 hours. But the latest incarnations of video games give him unlimited powers at his fingertips. Now with Skyrim he forces himself to make a choice.
Selectively playing in this way gives you more rewards in the long run. The game lasts longer. What’s the point of blasting your way through so much content when these sorts of games come around so sporadically? Learning how to eat is about not gorging in one sitting, but taking your time and enjoying the ride. I for one, never use fast travel in Skyrim. Why rush? Is there another game that needs my attention so much right now? Of course not. Whenever I find myself playing a session for too long and I begin cutting corners then I know it’s time to quit for the day. I’m not gaining any more pleasure from that session, I’m just playing for the sake of playing and getting things done. That’s the ignorant method, and we all fall prey to it. The trick is recognising it for what it is and having the discipline to shut it off at that time.
As for the combat being boring, I find it exhilarating. No bells and whistles here. No fancy moves of whirling blades. You have to get in and cut the enemy down before he gets you. That’s what combat is all about. I still sneak into any unknown area with the possibility of enemies. I love the thrill of taking them down with one shot from my bow. It doesn’t happen often though because I haven’t artificially gimped my skills. I’ve set them up so I can have fun, but still have a challenge. Why ruin it for myself? Why indeed. But as I said yesterday, you have to know how to play.
February 21, 2012 at 10:27 pm
I play a mage in Skyrim and when I realised it was getting boring casting the same spell over and over I went into the options and turned the difficulty to maximum. Now I have to use every trick I’ve got just to survive more than one enemy at a time, and being mana efficient is extremely important to not completely run out during the fight. I need to pay very close attention to enemies movements because even with my protective spells if I let them hit me with a power attack it will oneshot me.
Protip: spec into Restoration to make your healing spells also restore Stamina. You will do a lot of sprinting.
February 22, 2012 at 5:46 am
Or to put it another way: you like the things that you like, and I like the things that I like.
Sometimes, some of the things I like are things you also like.
Sometimes, some of the things I like are things you don’t like.
Sometimes, some of the things I don’t like are things you like.
**This is not a malfunction**
This is variety. This is the fact that you and I are different people and no matter how similar we might be, we are not the same.
Even the most universally reviled games/books/movies/insert-thing-here have a few people who secretly or not-so-secretly love them. This is almost a universally good thing.
While there are a finite number of things created, the number is large. You may be fortunate, and like something which is extremely common. You may be less fortunate. However many of the things you like are being made, there could always be more of them. But a world filled with only the things you like is not necessarily the paradise you might first assume.
A common story: when I was a kid, I loved tuna sandwiches. Loved them. So I had tuna sandwiches every day for lunch at school. After a while, they stopped being my favourite sandwich. I stopped wanting to eat them at all.
You have to have a few things you don’t like, if only so you can use them to remind you why you like the things you like. Otherwise everything becomes… bland. Plus if you only ever have the things you know you like, you’ll never discover anything new.
Another common story: I always hated blue cheese/shellfish/rare steak. I wouldn’t touch it. The thought made me ill. Then one day I had some by mistake/as a bet/to be polite/because there was no other option, and I realised it was delicious. Now I love it.
–
One of the things that irritates me about gaming forums/discussion is that they so often degenerate (my view) into “universal truths”: “My favourite control scheme is the one in Halo* becomes “Every game should use Halo’s control scheme — why would you even bother doing anything else. It’s clearly superior, and anyone who disagrees is an idiot”.
There’s nothing wrong with having a preference. But a few people agreeing with you doesn’t make it fact. It’s still a preference, and it’s still completely legitimate to disagree.
February 22, 2012 at 8:38 am
At a certain point, the argument becomes ridiculous. You can make a bowl of soup last weeks too, by only eating a spoonful at a time. Doing that does not make it a better meal.
I did what you did at first. Exploring every cave and… cave, and cave I came across, even when there was no formal quest to go there. Dragons didn’t even start showing up until level 40 because I didn’t advance the main quest. But then the soup started to go bad, and I realized that all these actual quests sent me right back into the same caves I already cleared out. And then Enchanting broke the game, I one-shot all the mobs from stealth, and even if arbitrarily gave them 10x HP, it would not increase the intellectual challenge. Why not play with one hand behind your back, while we’re at it?
It is really great that you are able to derive continued sustenance from Skyrim, just by walking around and exploring and so on. Perhaps your tone is tailored as a counter-point to mine and others, but I otherwise reject the notion that “we’re doing it wrong.” There is nothing inherently noble about someone being entertained by watching paint dry, just as there is nothing inherently noble about someone who never left Ultima Online or has played Ms. Pacman over and over for the last 31 years in a row.
February 22, 2012 at 6:27 pm
Fact of the matter is, it is also a very big shame that the game was shipped this way. I mean, for a game like WoW or any other adventure / rpg game, creating the content is one of the biggest parts, and Skyrim succeeded at that. I believe they have just missed the mark of making a very enjoyable game by a little bit, but its enough to make the flaws remarkable.
Take the UI. Remove that shitty console interface (which is the biggest gripes of games today: we started settling for shit because most kiddies have consoles and will buy and eat any shit we give them), and replace it with WoW’s interface, you know just buttons on a bar and a paperdoll inventory and you have something good.
Combat: Same thing, add some interesting stuff, in order to make it feel more strategic and less spam. This would be aleviated by the bad UI, because you can use more powers more seemingly, but they could have added some special attacks or skills to make choices in combat matter.
Lastly, the quests are pretty good, but they get repetitive really fast.
Also what makes the game really bad is the fact that you have this huge world, but all the quests send you in opposite directions of the map, forcing you to take the shortcut, if they would have centered the quests in one place, the world would have felt bigger and exploration would have been more interesting. Frankly I am more familiar with WoW areas than Skyrim areas because I have spent more time dabbling in a single area with quests…
Anyway, what I am trying to say is, Skyrim has great potential but they messed up at the very end. They have treated the audience like retarded console kids and gave them a really basic gamplay with a big world to explore and expected people to spend thousands of hours looking at the pretty pictures. I have invested about 60 hours (which is good for a single player game) and got bored with it.