Ten Years of Oblivion, y'all. Options

[Renee]

Have some cake, folks. Tomorrow shall be a celebration!

October 24, 2008 is the day (actually it was night) when I first discovered TES IV: Oblivion. Although I had seen a Bethesda game in the early 2000s; I was at a party and somebody was playing a brand-new game on the brand-new Xbox, and this game had a lot of fog in it and LOTS of room to roam around, I remained clueless about it. I have a slim memory of asking the guy who was playing "hey, what's the name of this game?" And his answer (The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind) would've been too complicated to remember. Perhaps I wrote the name down. If so, I lost that scrap of paper.

One thing which struck was the way its world seemed endless. It went on and on and on. Thinking back, now I realize the guy was roaming around the Pelagiad area at the time. Everything was sort of Dr. Seuss-looking and colorful. Another memory from that party: I kept thinking that at some point, all of this would end. The guy would accomplish some task and then a huge banner would flash across the screen...

CONGRATULATONS, YOU HAVE GAINED LEVEL 6!!!!

... and then this "world" would end and he'd be in the next one, sort of like Tomb Raider. But that never happened. There was just one world to explore, and it was huge.

I spent much of the 2000s looking for this game, unknowing that it was never released on Playstation. During my search for that game, I bought and tried plenty of others on PS and PS2, hoping I'd find the mysterious one with all the fog in it. Of course, I never did.

Fast-forward to October 24, 2008. I was bored one night. I had a bit of money saved, and began to think if there's anything worthwhile on the PS3, I'll go ahead and get a PS3 then. So I went to GameRevolution.com (my favorite gaming website at the time) and began reading their PS3 reviews, starting with the As. Assassin's Creed was not out yet. I'm pretty certain I would have just stopped at AC if it had been out. Thankfully, it was not, or was not on PS3 yet.

I moved on to the Bs. Then the Cs. The Ds. Es. F.... G ... H .. I JKLMNOPQRST.

T Okay, so a game with a complicated name caught my attention. Here is its review. Actually, I will quote its very first paragraph now.

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Like most adult geeks reared on Dungeons and Dragons, I often find myself a bit disconnected when faced with the endless waves of Japanese RPGs that have taken over the genre. Every time I find myself in the shoes of yet another spiky-haired protagonist with a mysterious past and a sword the size of a telephone pole, I wonder where all the role-playing has gone.

Not that there aren’t some excellent imports out there, but is walking my pre-designed character, his bossy, magical girlfriend, and a talking animal through a linear story in which I save the spirit of the earth, or the essence of Gaea, or whatever they’re calling it this time, really role-playing? If you’re truly playing a role, you should be able to forge your own destiny as a sneaky thief, a righteous paladin, a crude barbarian, a pretentious mage, or a vile murderer.

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That right there is what caught my eyes. Because that was ME, so far as gaming went. I felt like those two paragraphs described ME as a gamer. I had spent all these years playing linear games.... not all of them were horrible, but every one of them was linear. I'd literally go to step off some path, hoping to be able to explore some pretty underbrush, but *bonk* nope.... can't even step off the path. "A bit disconnected." ... "Pre-designed characters."... "Weapons the size of telephone poles."... Why doesn't anybody make a game which allows ME to make the character I want to make? Is such a thing even possible?

After not even reading that whole article, it took me maybe 40 minutes to jump in my crappy Corolla, drive to the nearest mall, and plunk down $400 for a PS3 and this cool new game. The next few hours were then a blur. I rolled a character named Lady Anne. She was my first! I don't even know what she looked like, I never took a picture of her. But after spending 3 hours doing the tutorial, delivering the Amulet, I decided that Lady Anne would "retire" in Chorrol, because I loved the opening experience so much, I immediately wanted to do it all over again, with some other character (whose name I have forgotten).

Anyway, that's my story. Thanks for listening. Feel free to share your stories, too.

This post has been edited by Renee: Mar 23 2023, 04:20 PM

[Renee]

Yeah me too. It literally jumped out at me, this game. It changed my life. I had substance abuse problems back in the latter 2000s that I was really struggling with. So this game, which pretty much began to steal away ALL my available free-time, was quite the blessing because it gave me something to do, assuming my daughter was at one of her friends' places, or whatever.

And I'm glad IV was my first Elder Scrolls experience, not III. I'm glad my first was the one everyone used to call "generic." I realized some time in 2009 or 2010 that if this game is a generic, streamlined, dumbed-down fantasy game, then I'm a lover of generic, streamlined, dumbed-down fantasy games. :tongue: From my perspective, Oblivion was not really generic, streamlined, or dumbed-down. After playing all those linear games from the '90s and 2000s, TES IV (to me) seemed absolutely spectacular and open, with lots to do and plenty that's never even gotten done.

That being said, i wish you would try Skyrim, crow. You already have the game. And you don't have to use Steam, although I don't wanna get into how to avoid Steam publicly, I do know of someone who's avoided it for many years, and he's not had any problems.

There, I said it.

[mirocu]

And I'm glad IV was my first Elder Scrolls experience, not III. I'm glad my first was the one everyone used to call "generic." I realized some time in 2009 or 2010 that if this game is a generic, streamlined, dumbed-down fantasy game, then I'm a lover of generic, streamlined, dumbed-down fantasy games. :tongue: From my perspective, Oblivion was not really generic, streamlined, or dumbed-down. After playing all those linear games from the '90s and 2000s, TES IV (to me) seemed absolutely spectacular and open, with lots to do and plenty that's never even gotten done.

Completely agree.

That being said, i wish you would try Skyrim, crow. You already have the game. And you don't have to use Steam, although I don't wanna get into how to avoid Steam publicly, I do know of someone who's avoided it for many years, and he's not had any problems.

There, I said it.

Thanks, but I have no interest in playing Skyrim.

[RaderOfTheLostArk]

Ugh, don't get me started on the whole "generic/dumbed down/etc." stuff that this fanbase uses against every subsequent game. Especially when most of the people who say that garbage love the game that STARTED the streamlining (Morrowind). If there were more Daggerfall fans that were more vocal or still populated the fanbase, they'd be saying the same garbage about Morrowind. Hell, I bet there were even some Arena fans back in the day that complained that DAGGERFALL "dumbed down" mechanics. Streamlining isn't inherently good or bad. It all depends on what exactly you do. Morrowind/Oblivion/Skyrim all have both good and bad examples of streamlining.

I think this obnoxious "dumbing down" thing is mostly just people who feel this overwhelming need to feel superior on the Internet because they, for whatever reason, can't accept that there are different tastes and there other good games that don't fit what they want. And the only way they can feel superior is by being condescending to others and games they just don't like.

Anyway, Skyrim was my first one. To be honest, I didn't like Oblivion at first because I didn't expect it to be so different from Skyrim. But I gave it a chance and I started to really enjoy it. I came to actually love how different each game feels yet they all feel like they fit together in some way. Admittedly, I don't love it as much as Morrowind or Skyrim, but there is still a lot to love about it. For example, Oblivion has better overall side quests (i.e., not main quest or faction) than both Morrowind and Skyrim, IMO.

Thanks, but I have no interest in playing Skyrim.

Just curious, 'Rocu: Why don't you ever want to play Skyrim? Besides the fact that you are a filthy pleb. Just kidding. But seriously, how come it doesn't interest you?

This post has been edited by RaderOfTheLostArk: Mar 15 2019, 11:00 PM

[mirocu]

Just curious, 'Rocu: Why don't you ever want to play Skyrim? how come it doesn't interest you?

I've played Oblivion for 12 years and counting and it's like saving up to have long hair; it's time invested and you don't give that up easily. I've played other games in between, sure, but they are temporary which is something Skyrim couldn't be as it's open world as well. Yes, I do play Fallout 3 too but I can't have yet another game in that category. Also, Skyrim is too similar to Oblivion with spells and archery etc. I think this is the best I can explain why. I don't have an inherent hate for Skyrim or anything.

Oblivion is where it started for me and I still remember that indescribable feeling I got when I was new to it. It's the only game that ever caused me to get bad teeth for awhile becuase I simply couldn't stop playing to brush properly even after six hours of constant gaming!

Besides the fact that you are a filthy pleb.

Are.... Are you Uleni or just his deciple?

[RaderOfTheLostArk]

Are.... Are you Uleni or just his deciple?

Pah! Uleni is far beneath me! I'm nobody's disciple!

But fair enough on Skyrim, I suppose.