The Next TES Options

[1234king]

I know i'm kind of jumping ahead and thinking to far into the future, but i want to know what you guys think the next TES will be like, or if you do know then tell me please. I mean like what province do you think it will play in, or what would be a good name for it and how they are gonna improve. Please share your thoughts

[Rane]

You know, as much as I'd wish I will be proven wrong, I fear that the next TES installment will be even more of an action-focused game. Sure, I might be making jokes about how less of a RPG Oblivion is most of the time and point out its failures the rest of time, but I guess what I really should be doing is voicing my opinion, sharing my views and trying to give ideas and constructive criticism somewhere where the developers could read it. Problem is, I'm not even sure where that would be. There was a time I saw the devs drop in at the official forums almost every day, commenting on whatever they felt like. Now, I'd dare to say that we might see a handful dev posts at its most every month.

The devs themselves claim that they do read most of what's being said, but what's the point of that if they do not chime in on the discussions? After all, they were behind the decisions and the integration of all the features and aspects of the game. They could at least give a reason as to why they made certain choices. Further, I'd be very interested in reading what [dev name] would have done differently if given enough time/resources/choice.

Anyway, returning to as to why I've lost pretty much any hope that the constructive criticism aimed at the game (yes, such criticism does exist) would really help the next installment. Looking back at the complaints that were brought up with Morrowind, we now find that some of the flaws of MW were fixed with Oblivion.

One, things are easier to find. Of course, one could question if things really needed to change in this aspect and if it's not too easy to find now (in my opinion, the compass in its current state was a bad decision).

Two, the animations do look better now. The "stick up yer rear" is gone and usually creatures'/NPCs' movement is smooth. Still, this is merely eye-candy, which I don't find to be that important in RPGs.

Three, the ability to become a demi-god at level ~20. Yes, you pretty much became the most powerful entity in the entire game at the middle-levels, leaving little or no challenge for your character. With Ob, we were given level-scaling. A system that really doesn't make any sense. In what world does every being grow stronger at the exact same rate without any limits? Again, a flaw replaced by another flaw.

My point is, to me it seems like the improvements made between MW and OB have either turned into disasters or then they have only helped the series move away from the RPG genre. The quality of the dialogue in Morrowind, the lack of choice/consequence situations and a linear mainquest were all flaws that were brought up with Morrowind, yet I find these in Oblivion, without any visible improvements. If BethSoft continues to focus on improving the more action/adventure-like features of the series then the least they could do is to market their next game as what it is instead of continuing to claim the game to be a RPG.

If you ask me, I'd say we should be expecting either a really bad RPG set in the Summerset Isles, or then a really good action/adventure game where you are taken on a journey to the land of the Altmer.