Why was Skyrim popular?

[rusty_shackleford]

I've had a couple normies I interact with play it again as an adult and tell me they didn't like it at all compared to when they played it as a kid(the game is almost 20 years old for you people that don't feel old yet)

Why and how did it gain so much popularity so quickly?
I played it around release due to a friend mentioning it and found it to be a sterile, boring, non-reactive sandbox.

[rusty_shackleford]

**** I hope we don't already have this thread, I'm not going to look while doing late night posting

[KnightoftheWind]

Because it's very accessible, has a wonderful aesthetic/soundtrack, and is infinitely customizeable. There aren't any games like Skyrim, and the closest alternative (Tainted Grail) came out several years after the fact. Not a difficult question to answer, really.

[rusty_shackleford]

and is infinitely customizeable

Massive majority of copies sold were on console

[wndrbr]

It was babby's first rpg for a lot of people.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

The controls and movement and moment to moment feel is good enough. Moving around, whipping out a bow and zooming in and sniping something, sneaking aroumd scoping out the cave bwfore aggroing. Also the world is condensed in terms of PoI placement. You walk for 30 seconds in any direction and will stumble upon or spot a bandit camp or a cave or etc, or you get attacked by bandits. You are never bored.

You can play for a long time before running out of things to do.

You can't brick your build by investing or "wasting" a point. You do not need foreknowledge or to do out of game research or homework before character creation. There is no feeling of walkthroughitis.

All characters are voiced acted. The expense of voice acting combined with this not being a book-esque story heavy game like a JRPG or a VN, or movie-esque like Mass Effect, means that the dialogue is short and to the poimt so you can get back to gameplay. No having to skim paragraphs of wikipedia text and clicking links to get basic quest info.

The map is broken up into visually different zones so it feels larger and remains more memorable and visually interesting for much longer. You aren't spending countless hours in monotonous brown wastelands or greenery.

The game has decent hooks, be it the civil war and constant military patrols and a call to arms to pick a side, the return of dragons that you see in the sky as a regular reminder to get on with the plot, each town has an event at the start that draws you into its plot, etc.

The game is generally coherent (ie you were smashed by a giant or electrocuted by a dragon priest and died) unlike a lot of later RPGs where you seemingly randomly die for reasons that are hard to decipher at a glance.

Atmospheric music.

[rusty_shackleford]

maybe it was the first open world RPG that didn't feel completely jank to play and/or very unfinished?

[KOS-MOS]

I had the game on console when I was a kid, and I never understood all the hype around it. To me, it was really boring, the world felt empty with limited interaction, no survival elements, and a very basic story and dialogues. All the caves/ruins/dungeons looked the same. The quests felt no different from what you’d find in an MMORPG, and while the gameplay was fine, it wasn’t anything special. From what I remember, I was extremely bored playing it, just wandering around, killing enemies, picking flowers, and talking to soulless NPCs.

I was never really into Bethesda games, so I guess it just wasn’t for me. That said, I did enjoy Fallout 3 and Morrowind.

If you absolute need to mod a game to make it enjoyable, that game sucks.

[Tadeusz]

Why and how did it gain so much popularity so quickly?

Howard is a genius of marketing apparently.
Skyrim had this immersive sim feel tied with the relatively big world to explore. I guess this was enough for most players even if action and RPG aspects were lacking.

[rusty_shackleford]

Skyrim had this immersive sim feel

One of the biggest disappointments to me was they decided to scrap much of what made oblivion unique rather than expand it, all the AI behaviors and such are a complete downgrade

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Another point in Skyrim's favor is the aesthetic/presentation. The characters are adults and serious (satisfying people who did not like youthful JRPG heroes or "naivety"), but again the dialogue is much more to the point. It does not feel up its own *** or cringey or tryhard like Bioware or The Witcher. No offputting sex scenes or adultery. The characters look worn but not ugly except for bug eyed elves. No irony or subversive undercurrent to everything. The straight forward down to earthness is an appeal.

[rusty_shackleford]

Another point in Skyrim's favor is the aesthetic/presentation. The characters are adults and serious (satisfying people who did not like youthful JRPG heroes or "naivety"), but again the dialogue is much more to the point. It does not feel up its own *** or cringey or tryhard like Bioware or The Witcher. No offputting sex scenes or adultery. The characters look worn but not ugly except for bug eyed elves. No irony or subversive undercurrent to everything. The straight forward down to earthness is an appeal.

This is fair, I can't really remember Skyrim ever wasting my time with useless dialogue. Something to be said about the brevity required for a fully voice acted open world game being developed at the time.
I'm not sure if I'd say it's a reason it was popular, tho. Maybe a reason people liked it(even if they didn't realize it until they got the opposite e.g., characters talking constantly, even to themself)

[Tadeusz]

One of the biggest disappointments to me was they decided to scrap much of what made oblivion unique rather than expand it, all the AI behaviors and such are a complete downgrade

True. I was mostly fine with Oblivion but I noticed a decline of quality in Skyrim with things like that. I also didn't like new combat system with objects for different hands, a simplification of character properties (birthsigns, stats and skills felt less impactful), bad UI, bad guild storylines and so on. Skyrim was a big downgrade from Oblivion for me so I don't get this hype for it either. The visuals are nice I guess but that's it.

[KnightoftheWind]

and is infinitely customizeable

Massive majority of copies sold were on console

Really?, that's a little surprising. A friend of mine had the misfortune of purchasing the game on PS3, so I assumed most people who enjoyed Skyrim were on PC.

[rusty_shackleford]

and is infinitely customizeable

Massive majority of copies sold were on console

Really?, that's a little surprising. A friend of mine had the misfortune of purchasing the game on PS3, so I assumed most people who enjoyed Skyrim were on PC.

Yes, and it wasn't even close. 2011 was still peak console dominance.

[TKVNC]

It was non-offensive, with a sportsball team questline. It also had vikings (or at least, popular culture Vikings) which are the Coca Cola of history.

As other people have discussed, it was mostly devoid of obvious real world politics, and didn't come across as a reddit fantasy world.

[rusty_shackleford]

It was non-offensive, with a sportsball team questline. It also had vikings (or at least, popular culture Vikings) which are the Coca Cola of history.

As other people have discussed, it was mostly devoid of obvious real world politics, and didn't come across as a reddit fantasy world.

It was too early for much of this to be applicable. 15 years of failures has made obvious what doesn't work, but it doesn't explain why something that worked did so.

[TKVNC]

It was non-offensive, with a sportsball team questline. It also had vikings (or at least, popular culture Vikings) which are the Coca Cola of history.

As other people have discussed, it was mostly devoid of obvious real world politics, and didn't come across as a reddit fantasy world.

It was too early for much of this to be applicable. 15 years of failures has made obvious what doesn't work, but it doesn't explain why something that worked did so.

I think it's in there. Things work because they avoid things that don't work. I don't think there's more to it.

[DecadeRiptide]

I've had a couple normies I interact with play it again as an adult and tell me they didn't like it at all compared to when they played it as a kid(the game is almost 20 years old for you people that don't feel old yet)

Why and how did it gain so much popularity so quickly?
I played it around release due to a friend mentioning it and found it to be a sterile, boring, non-reactive sandbox.

The combat is fun, the life skill system is good (crafting, smithing, alchemy, etc), dungeons are well designed, tonnes of quests, little secrets scattered around the map, medieval/fantasy setting (with uniquely designed armour sets, interesting magic, and swords), easy entry into the lore, good soundtrack, and also mod support on PC which helped. Also there isn't much DEI.

Idk how people don't find it fun. I find that game more fun than most modern games. Like yeah Genshin is also an open world but it's just full of clutter and meaningless junk, where in Skyrim the locations are typically tied to some quest or have some reason as to why they are actually there.

Also, many of the armour sets are tied to completing questlines. No new game does this and instead just throws them in a battle pass with a £20 price tag. Working through a quest line because you want that specific gear is fun.

[KOS-MOS]

I've had a couple normies I interact with play it again as an adult and tell me they didn't like it at all compared to when they played it as a kid(the game is almost 20 years old for you people that don't feel old yet)

Why and how did it gain so much popularity so quickly?
I played it around release due to a friend mentioning it and found it to be a sterile, boring, non-reactive sandbox.

The combat is fun, the life skill system is good (crafting, smithing, alchemy, etc), dungeons are well designed, tonnes of quests, little secrets scattered around the map, medieval/fantasy setting (with uniquely designed armour sets, interesting magic, and swords), easy entry into the lore, good soundtrack, and also mod support on PC which helped. Also there isn't much DEI.

Idk how people don't find it fun. I find that game more fun than most modern games. Like yeah Genshin is also an open world but it's just full of clutter and meaningless junk, where in Skyrim the locations are typically tied to some quest or have some reason as to why they are actually there.

Also, many of the armour sets are tied to completing questlines. No new game does this and instead just throws them in a battle pass with a £20 price tag. Working through a quest line because you want that specific gear is fun.

Genshin wasn't mean to be fun.

[DecadeRiptide]

I've had a couple normies I interact with play it again as an adult and tell me they didn't like it at all compared to when they played it as a kid(the game is almost 20 years old for you people that don't feel old yet)

Why and how did it gain so much popularity so quickly?
I played it around release due to a friend mentioning it and found it to be a sterile, boring, non-reactive sandbox.

The combat is fun, the life skill system is good (crafting, smithing, alchemy, etc), dungeons are well designed, tonnes of quests, little secrets scattered around the map, medieval/fantasy setting (with uniquely designed armour sets, interesting magic, and swords), easy entry into the lore, good soundtrack, and also mod support on PC which helped. Also there isn't much DEI.

Idk how people don't find it fun. I find that game more fun than most modern games. Like yeah Genshin is also an open world but it's just full of clutter and meaningless junk, where in Skyrim the locations are typically tied to some quest or have some reason as to why they are actually there.

Also, many of the armour sets are tied to completing questlines. No new game does this and instead just throws them in a battle pass with a £20 price tag. Working through a quest line because you want that specific gear is fun.

Genshin wasn't mean to be fun.

Was just using it to compare the open worlds.

[KOS-MOS]

The combat is fun, the life skill system is good (crafting, smithing, alchemy, etc), dungeons are well designed, tonnes of quests, little secrets scattered around the map, medieval/fantasy setting (with uniquely designed armour sets, interesting magic, and swords), easy entry into the lore, good soundtrack, and also mod support on PC which helped. Also there isn't much DEI.

Idk how people don't find it fun. I find that game more fun than most modern games. Like yeah Genshin is also an open world but it's just full of clutter and meaningless junk, where in Skyrim the locations are typically tied to some quest or have some reason as to why they are actually there.

Also, many of the armour sets are tied to completing questlines. No new game does this and instead just throws them in a battle pass with a £20 price tag. Working through a quest line because you want that specific gear is fun.

Genshin wasn't mean to be fun.

Was just using it to compare the open worlds.

Your comparison is ********.

[DecadeRiptide]

Genshin wasn't mean to be fun.

Was just using it to compare the open worlds.

Your comparison is ********.

Your ********

[KOS-MOS]

Was just using it to compare the open worlds.

Your comparison is ********.

Your ********

You're*

And I'm not even fluent in english, you ******* ******.

[DecadeRiptide]

Your comparison is ********.

Your ********

You're*

And I'm not even fluent in english, you ******* ******.

You're comparison is ********?

[ArcaneLurker]

As a kid, I played a lot of Morrowind and Oblivion so I was just hyped for a new release of such a unique sandbox, and there was enough there for me to enjoy the first 50 hours a lot. Didn't even play the main questline at that point. Theatrics, visuals and the fact it had dragons probably played a part, because of my age. My friend thought it was a dumb game though, he called it Skyrimjob.
Beyond that initial phase, I liked modding it more than playing it lol.
I played the main questline much, much later, and was very disappointed. Still not played Skyrim DLC btw, whereas I've played through the Morrowind DLCs, so it just goes to show the difference in skills of the upper management/ direction/ writing.

[Roguey]

Every Bethesda game was selling better than the last, first Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3. They were refining their formula for mass appeal. Unfortunately for them, hit the ceiling with Skyrim.

[KOS-MOS]

Every Bethesda game was selling better than the last, first Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3. They were refining their formula for mass appeal. Unfortunately for them, hit the ceiling with Skyrim.

When a game is good, people will buy the next one out of trust. In the meantime, new players join those who already bought the previous title. However, when a game is disappointing, part of the player base won’t buy the next one, while others may be more or less willing to give it a second chance. If the following game is disappointing as well, the number of potential buyers for the next release will shrink even further, and so on.

Bioware is the perfect example of this.

[logincrash]

As a kid, I played a lot of Morrowind and Oblivion so I was just hyped for a new release of such a unique sandbox, and there was enough there for me to enjoy the first 50 hours a lot. Didn't even play the main questline at that point. Theatrics, visuals and the fact it had dragons probably played a part, because of my age. My friend thought it was a dumb game though, he called it Skyrimjob.
Beyond that initial phase, I liked modding it more than playing it lol.
I played the main questline much, much later, and was very disappointed. Still not played Skyrim DLC btw, whereas I've played through the Morrowind DLCs, so it just goes to show the difference in skills of the upper management/ direction/ writing.

Same situation here. I racked up over 500 or so hours in modded Skyrim without ever touching the main quest. I hadn't even got the Shouts. But once I decided to actually play through all the major quests (main quest, guilds, DLCs), it completely RUINED Skyrim for me. The writing is the worst thing about Skyrim, which is saying a lot since pretty much every aspect of that game is dogshit. The Thieves' Guild and the Companions were the most infuriating.
I haven't played the game once since then.

[DecadeRiptide]

When a game is good, people will buy the next one out of trust

I'll never understand why people do this though