Skyrim - "Millions" of PC Players

[Dhruin]

Todd Howard has given his DICE 2012 keynote speech, talking about the success of Skyrim. Joystiq has some interesting snippets:

Of the "over ten million" players, Howard says that "many million" are playing the game on PC. Based on Steam statistics Bethesda has seen, "the average playtime is 75 hours," something Howard called "amazing." Our assumption is that there are a number of players worldwide who have yet to power down their machines since the game's November 11, 2011 launch.

More information.

 

[Couchpotato]

I have played three characters already with over 60hrs each. Now get working and release fallout 4.

 

[DArtagnan]

This is probably why they bothered with the texture pack

 

[JuliusMagnus]

I have clocked 102 hours with one character. I'm seriously contemplating a new character. I've done the main quest, the companions, the thieves guild and the mages college but I haven't touched the civil war or Dark Brotherhood or the Bard's College.
But I still have several levels to go till level 50 so I might just complete those on misc quests.

 

[Pessimeister]

Geez slow down mr potatoe, I haven't even bought the game yet. Just too many others from last year and others to catch up on. My students keep putting the pressure on for me to pick it up though.

I may even wait until the winter here just to enhance the feeling of playing it and make it more apt.

 

[crpgnut]

I'm not sure how many hours total with this character, but I'm about level 47 or so and I haven't done any of the main quests, except for the mage's college. I've been collecting all the shouts that I can. I've got 17 of them, which I think is all of them, except for ones tied to parts of the main quest. 10 of those are at 3 words, and the rest are at two. It's funny but with all the dungeons I've explored, I've still got tons of undiscovered locations.

My plan is to have this character do everything he can, although I'm taking some time off now for Reckoning. Amalur doesn't seem very deep, so I probably won't play it too long, maybe a week or two though. Time will tell. I'm a dokkafar female in that game vs a high elf in Skyrim. Whoever said combat is better in Amalur is on drugs. Amalur has twitchy melee combat that is pretty cool, but archery, stealth, and magic are lightyears better in Skyrim.

 

[Nikus]

If Steam is to be believed, it says I played 147 hrs. Single character, lvl 50 and still have a lot to cover: the main quest, civil war, a few guilds and towns are all untouched.

Off-topic, re: Reckoning I just don't understand how I'm supposed to fight. It's too fast and clumsy, I must be doing it wrong. My favorite melee combat was in the Gothic series, maybe I'm too slow for Amalur...

 

[KapitanUnterhosen]

I have played three characters already with over 60hrs each. Now get working and release fallout 4.

Isn't that going to be an xbox3 launch title in late 2013/early2014?

 

[Paul]

I put the game down after 182 hours and finishing all main questlines except the civil war (screw that, both factions suck).

Fantastic game, although pretty poor RPG. I am glad it is succesful on PC though.

 

[Cm]

The game is great to play so far. If you want to explore an open world, this one is great. The side quests so far have been interesting enough for the most part to keep you coming back to finish them. It is like a splash of Gothic for world exploration, Witcher for the good/bad choices, and Dragon Age for the different class choices and skill choices. Bad part is your decisions really don't impact the game or your character...and you can basically be everything in the game at one time.....bad but nothing that will stop me playing....but it does drop it on my ratings scale compared to other games.

 

[Thrasher]

OK, I am almost done with my thief/illusionist (who by the way at level 45 is 100 in archery, one-handed, sneak, lockpick, talking, illusion, and almost 100 in light armor).

A couple more stages with the main quest and dark brotherhood and maybe 2 more daedric quests and I'm done. Finished the bard quests and thane / house in every town except Windhelm. Was going to do the Stormcloaks quest line to get all houses/thanes with this guy, but I am getting tired of him. It's too repetitive. Have revealed something like 320 locations. A few left over I probably won't bother with.

I want to play a pure mage for the challenge and change of style. Thinking no lockpicking either, just to keep him focused on Destruction/Conjuration. But we'll see.

 

[Couchpotato]

Isn't that going to be an xbox3 launch title in late 2013/early2014?

It might if given the rumors its a sure bet Sony will be last again.

 

[JuliusMagnus]

Amalur has twitchy melee combat that is pretty cool, but archery, stealth, and magic are lightyears better in Skyrim.

In the end I don't feel either is better, I think they are quite different and it comes down again to taste.

I like to play in first person, I like to feel I have sword in one hand and a shield in the other. It might not be pretty but I like it. In Reckoning I started to get annoyed when the Shield was completely seperate from sword and you can't dual wield shield and sword. It just irks me, I've never seen a medieval fight like that. I guess they're idea was to have the shield be as useful to archers as it is for melee. That AND AND mentality irks me somewhat. The trade-off for archers is that they have range and shadows, things a melee fighter doesn't have so why give the archer a shield too? It's good to have trade-offs. (Even Skyrim is guilty of AND AND mentality).

But everything became clearer after I heard Rolston on the livestream interview: he wanted to make fun console rpg combat. And I think he achieved that, at least I think Amalur is better at it than the Fable games.

But that type of combat is not my cup of tea just as Dragonagey Neverwinterey, Baldursgatery, MMOery combat isn't my favorite kind. And neither is the Dungeonsiegery Diablony kind of combat.

 

[darkling]

I have clocked 102 hours with one character. I'm seriously contemplating a new character. I've done the main quest, the companions, the thieves guild and the mages college but I haven't touched the civil war or Dark Brotherhood or the Bard's College.
But I still have several levels to go till level 50 so I might just complete those on misc quests.

The Bards College has ONE quest. You're not missing much there.

 

[Thrasher]

4 actually.

 

[JuliusMagnus]

The Bards College has ONE quest. You're not missing much there.

4 actually.

Thanks for the head's up.

Yeah, had a quick look at the wiki and of the 'recovery' quest I already seemed to have 'recovered' one already by simply exploring and completing misc quests.

The next character might just be the one to brave the DLC.

Or I'll relocate my character, his main base (and house) has been in Whiterun. Because that city has been most well travelled and therefore probably plucked mostly clean of quests.

 

[Thrasher]

I should add that the Bard's quests were the weakest of the faction bunch. Just a persuade test for one, the other 3, simple fetchs. Nothing to phone home about, except the OK skill boni rewards.

 

[Zloth]

Hmmm, only 58% of players have gotten to level 25 according to Steam. There must be a lot of people with way over 100 hours balancing those folks out. (Or maybe the recent sale really sold a lot and knocked the average down?)

 

[azarhal]

Hmmm, only 58% of players have gotten to level 25 according to Steam. There must be a lot of people with way over 100 hours balancing those folks out. (Or maybe the recent sale really sold a lot and knocked the average down?)

None of my characters made it to level 25! and I spent over 100 hours with the game so far... I kept re-rolling (and installing mods now).

 

[sakichop]

I had 3 pc's. All over level 25 in 133 hours.