I wouldnt say they're in a league of their own, and if they are then its a shame.
But no, they are Fantasy RPGs. First-person Fantasy RPG to specify further.
Everyone wants to cite exploration as being the cornerstone of these bum games, let me share my opinion of exploration: Exploration is most definitely the cornerstone of a great, open world RPG. Now what makes up exploration? First and foremost, the views and sights. And ill give Bethesda that, Oblivion looked great for its time, and Skyrim is even stunning at times, with the draw distance and the dynamic environment(s). BUT, why do we explore? To find things mostly, and I cant stand finding things in Skyrim
Seriously, consider, your one man (or two I suppose, give credit where its deserved) whos delving into a deep dark dungeon…and your going to kill everyone and loot the place dry…I cant stand it!
First of all, one thing I hate is a game in which 1) You can easily acquire so much money, like a fortune, and thatd be alright if it werent for 2) Nothing to spend that money on! Offer real entertainment, if your looking for immersion force the player to have to eat, and drink, its would give you a real reason to wander into a tavern and possibly find out something cool. Skyrim has this idea that their taverns are the Main hub of the town, and thats where players should go to find things out. Well the taverns are boring! Each and every one has a bard and couple quest givers. NOT ONE cool hooded guy sitting in the corner. Wtf right?
So you hit up 3 small dungeons, solo, on an easy difficulty. I can almost guarantee your gold problems will be solved. In fact, youll have so many generic, nameless (Know what I mean by that?) pieces of gear and treasure that youll end up giving some of the shit away to the shop keep!
Now would you rather, have to scale a tiny pass, dodge a boulder, ya know have to treverse some treacherous terrain, steep cliffs, and all for one unique, powerful item. A real magical item, not another damn war axe with (X) enchantment. Or another necklace with (X) enchantment, unless it applies to your character your just going to sell it. Thats what I meant by nameless. The items are nameless, they arent personal and im quite sure most of the loot is randomized. I would trade 3 inventories (I hate that too, why the hell can you walk into a dungeon and walk out with like, 6 warhammers? Plus more! Realistic loot carrying anybody?)
3 inventories of crappy crap crap for just 1 item, 1 special artifact that I actually had to go through hell and risk my ass for, and what if it had a story? What if that artifact has 5 different, unrelated things you can do with it? How about a cool, unique item that has no apparent use? But after carrying it for a while you notice a change in your character or something? I dont know, but most and most importantly, all of these cool features and ideas wouldnt be limited by technology, because its a choice to use my resources on fewer, but much much richer elements of the game. If the resources dont go there, then they go here instead, towards something better.
See, I feel like these games are going for quantity over quality. I love the size and scale of the worlds, but its almost no use without the proper features and content.
I have had tons of fun with these games since I was a kid, and it was only when I got bored and finally detached, declared that I might actually not like the game, is when I found its greatest faults.
I feel like Bethesda might be catching onto this, and maybe we can hope for something better next time, but its still going to follow the ES model, which in my opin. is not the right direction. What theyre hopefully getting is the reality of this One-flavor Skyrim thing that made the game dull and boring after so long.
They criticized Oblivion for being Too general, following your typical European fantasy game, and its cool that we could explore another, very singular region of Tamriel, thats awesome, if I liked the world and the lore.
They dont realize that Oblivion kept so many people playing because it WAS so general, and thats the model you want! You just expand on that further, and you know, ive caught wind of the new Skyrim DLC and I have to say thats a great move to make, to allow players to travel other lands, break the one-flavor curse. Even with Skyrims wonderfully crafted world, with the different biomes (kinda) and all, its still just that same Skyrim flavor, equipped with the character binding Dovahkiin element (Playing my Dovahkiin was a blast though, I have to admit) and the same damn start to the game every time. Skyrim is a much better game than Oblivion...Oblivion had a better flavor. Ya know, it tasted better, and I hope you can all connect with that.
More on the lore though, honestly I always found it cheesy; laughable npcs, not a single bad ass voice on one of 'em either, and just the whole tone of whats going on, I never really wanted to be a part of it, id make up my own stuff. Now see thats a big thing right there: As a designer, you want to make a world that players Want to be a part of. It might sound obvious, but really think about that.
I know a lot of you still enjoy these games, and like their lore and world. I just dont like Cat people I guess
Or lizard people, but you know what? Every wicked, mismatched beast race HAS a place, but its probably not in the towns, not as the shopkeep and probably not even a playable race, ya know?
In our world we have a reptilian race, but theyre nestled deep within our Great Bog, far away from any kind of civilized nation. We didnt do that on purpose or anything, to keep them far from the towns, we just thought it made sense.
Same deal with the orcs, if an Orc, or lizard man for that matter, found his way into the main country, the men would ruin this creature. Hell they wouldnt even make it past the Borderlands
I respect peoples decisions and tastes, you want to have a whole nation of cat folk? Go for it, but its not necessarily a world I want to be part of. Ill play it for the game it is, but ill never adopt its ideas or use them out of context, because they arent cool enough. But im one person and these games appeal to a very broad spectrum of people. And there you go, you have money getting in the way of good videogames. Should we make a game thats worthy of our name and who we are? No, make a silly stupid game that everyone will kind of love. Because that means sales! I say screw sales. Not really, BUT, hardcore games always get more respect and seem to have a smaller, but stronger fan base, those are the mof*cking sales I want.
I suppose ill wrap up, for the hardcore gamers out there, the RPG enthusiasts and all the tabletop roleplayers, you know the struggle. Not saying there isnt fun to be had here, because there is, but I am saying that theres 100% more fun to be had from another first-person RPG. By way of different features and innovative thinking.
Thanks for reading