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[teezzy]

Remember when Skyrim first dropped and nobody would shut up about it? Suddenly dudes I knew with 360s/PS3s who mainly just played CoD or sports games were all up in the latest Elder Scrolls title

Was Oblivion super popular outside of the enthusiast market? I have like no memory of how it was received. I remember discovering the Elder Scrolls through Morrowind on Original Xbox and thinking I had stumbled on pure nerdy gold.

How the heck did this have such crossover appeal? Something to do with Fallout 3?

Please explain to me, a casual

 

[Tranquil]

It's a good game.

 

[Sosokrates]

Imo because its the best lord of the rings style game and it was beautiful.

 

[bender]

For as much shit as I give Bethesda, they make compelling worlds. And since they've focused on releasing their games on consoles alongside the PC, they've dumbed down the core mechanics and game play systems which makes it much more approachable for the masses.

 

[GnomeChimpsky]

Infinite replayability and the illusion of depth wrapped in an accessible package. You don't really get these kind of open worlds outside of Elder Scrolls and Fallout.

 

[lh032]

because is a very accessible game.
magics, mysthical creatures and dragons, first person, RPG, open world...you have everything.

 

[Dr.brain64]

Yt twitch GAF etc.

 

[kingfey]

 

[rolandss]

It made what is usually a complex formula simple and accessible, was a technical marvel on PS3 at the time and had a compelling narrative and exploration. It was also really easy to just pick up and play for 15 minutes or 15 hours. You never felt stuck. You could always do something to progress in one way or another. You could have a blast ignoring the story. I and a bunch of friends loved it, including guys that only played NBA2K and CoD. It just struck all the right chords.

 

[Laptop1991]

Also the mods as well, which is the selling point of the AE as creation content, on the Legendary Edition i played 1370 hours, 70 Vanilla the rest with mods, you can change the game to how you want with them, if there was no mods i doubt the game would be as popular now.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Bethesda RPGs also give you difficulty sliders. Put the game on easy and it's really hard to get killed unless your gaming reflexes are that bad. So anyone can run around and explore.

 

[Hendrick's]

Because deep down we all have an instinctual need to collect spoons and make pillow forts.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[BaneIsPain]

I took arrow to the knee ?

 

[MrA]

Because deep down we all have an instinctual need to collect spoons and make pillow forts.

Don't forget stacking a tower of cheese wheels to climb any mountain

 

[killatopak]

The memes

 

[FranXico]

Straightforward gameplay mechanics.

 

[Allandor]

TV spots at that time. Even my wife wanted to play that game where you can fight against dragons. She never heard of elder scrolls, she just remembers Skyrim.

 

[Rykan]

There are several reasons for it. Skyrim came out right after a decade during which high fantasy became mainstream in pop culture, first started by the Lord of the Rings Movies, Harry Potter (lesser extend, not neces. high fantasy) and later Game of Thrones which I believe was broadcasting during that same timeframe.

It also launched in a generation in which the open world genre peaked in popularity. Basically, everything came together for Skyrim.

Edit: Oh and its also a pretty good game. That too.

 

[Malcolm9]

Like others had said, it was the pinnacle of an open world fantasy game at the time. I even persevered with my PS3 play through which got worse and worse in performance the further you progressed.

It's still good today but some of the mechanics and gameplay have aged considerably, the combat is pretty awful and I even thought that at the time. It will be interesting to see what Starfield and ES VI are like and how they'll develop the formula.

 

[Beer Baelly]

All the stars aligned

 

[Yoboman]

Its pretty simple:

They had a big hit with Oblivion and then an even bigger hit with Fallout 3. They built massive amounts of momentum
Second, they had one of the best trailers ever

 

[Touch fuzZy. get BizZay]

I think Oblivion going console focused really opened a lot of eyes and had people who had no idea about Elder Scrolls paying attention.

Combine that with a very popular game reveal at Quakecon that tore up the interwebs maybe?

 

[TheSHEEEP]

It's a VERY easy game, IMO.
Easy to get into, easy to play and hard to fail at (unless you turn the difficulty way up or install mods).

By default, it's really a power fantasy enabler.
But still quite suitable for more hardcore gaming with many mods tuning it more towards that demographic. I got around 400 hours in it, about 70% of which is with the Requiem mod.

Oh, that an dragons, of course.
And memes.

 

[JimmyRustler]

It had a lot ot do with Oblivion and Fallout 3 as well. The Bethesda formula grew over time. It didn't come out of nowhere.

 

[BadBurger]

1. It's good

2. It's accessible

3. The marketing campaign was pretty dope

4. It played and looked really well even on potato computers and the old consoles back in the day

 

[Kumomeme]

one of reason is lot of people would be shitting on its combat, but for casuals, it is very accessible.

so basically a good example of a game that designed with casuals player in mind.

another reason is just the usual formula of open world, dragon's medieval, magic etc.

 

[Ceadeus]

I think it helped that the intro was cinematic. It was kind of new at the time on console.

Then the underground escape served as a not too cumbersome tutorial and getting out to finally reach the first town , with its very good ost was far enough to hook anyone into the world.

 

[Kaachan]

Skyrim is a pretty easy and straightforward game. Bethesda took so many RPG elements out of the game (no real classes, stats) which made it more causal.

And memes. Horrible “arrow to the knee” memes.

 

[Tschumi]

I swear I had played better games than Skyrim before Skyrim, even when it was new i thought its open world was just kinda samey with other ones like oblivion, wow, and similar.. people here speak of it as if it's world is an ai-run marrix-level fantasy setting..

I thought the story was wallpaper, like the mini quests were typically fun tes fare, enjoyed them, but the main story fell flat with me, the faction choice felt so aesthetic to me, i didn't want to do it because i didn't want to kill off too many of the NPCs... Morrowind had the best, least cliche story, oblivion next but a bit cringe, skyrim.. i felt like "fus ro dah" was peak cheesiness..

The gameplay, combat, i just thought the magic was a BioShock ripoff, the swordplay was pretty similar to oblivion, bows too..

i think i enjoyed the verticality of the landscapes, can't deny that, but i think after i did my usual thing of maxing out all the profession quest chains then the main quest on a few differently built toons i just never went back again. I've replayed oblivion and Morrowind, both, since, multiple times each.

 

[STARSBarry]

Thanks largely to the mod scene there's also people who I know that traditionally only play the sims who play both Fallout 3 and Skyrim. They essentially play there character like a barbie doll.

 

[skit_data]

It was because of the awesome main theme song. Finally we swedes understood what it was all about:

 

[Starfield]

Like others had said, it was the pinnacle of an open world fantasy game at the time. I even persevered with my PS3 play through which got worse and worse in performance the further you progressed.

It's still good today but some of the mechanics and gameplay have aged considerably, the combat is pretty awful and I even thought that at the time. It will be interesting to see what Starfield and ES VI are like and how they'll develop the formula.

They're taking inspirations from Skyrim for Starfield. Like how all the factions are working and involved with the world and also some certain features you only found in Skyrim and no other BGS game might return for Starfield.

 

[ClosBSAS]

It's a good game.

do people really believe this? honestly....i can see the appeal from the open world at the time..but the jank, the terrible graphics, the performance, the disgusting animations. it really baffles me how people considered this a good game even for its time.

 

[Stitch]

Because it's baby's first RPG

 

[ParaSeoul]

Same thing with Fallout 3

 

[sertopico]

Cause it is an even more simplified rpg than its predecessors, hence perfect for casual gamers. And as a game, it is shallow and uninspired.

 

[SSfox]

I feel same thing with Genshin Impact nowadays, lot of people that usually play only stuffs like cod and fifa, and whom if you try to suggest games like FF, DQ, tales or some JRPG they would tell you like: "no way I play this, it's for weebs". Now same people are all in invested in Genshin and go all out and crazy to get their waifus.

 

[Shut0wen]

Its a casual game, incredibly easy on any difficulty after lvl10 plus theres alot to explore and do, i havnt played skyrim since it came out to 360 plus the trailer at e3 was so fucking hype

 

[Banjo64]

do people really believe this? honestly....i can see the appeal from the open world at the time..but the jank, the terrible graphics, the performance, the disgusting animations. it really baffles me how people considered this a good game even for its time.

No mate, it sold over 30 million copies because everyone thinks it’s a shit game.

 

[ClosBSAS]

No mate, it sold over 30 million copies because everyone thinks it’s a shit game.

lol its a shit game.

 

[Saber]

It has to do with how it starts. You pick a weapons and start swinging. Theres isn't much in swinging swords and throwing arows, really.
But most important, people can literally put on easier levels and be done with. Difficulty levels can be changed at anytime.

 

[Starfield]

Skyrim isn't actually casual its just appealing to casuals

 

[JCK75]

I can't think of a more accessible RPG, no thought is really needed into where you're going to go with it just pick stuff up and start using it and add points when you found what you like.. I love the ability to just be any class at any time just based on actually doing it.

 

[DevilMayFlyForAWhiteGuy]

Oblivion was one of the Killer Apps on 360, then got a port to PS3 as well. Fallout 3 and New Vegas were pretty damn popular despite having shitty PS3 versions. Skyrim was riding off of the goodwill they gained from those games while ditching the goofy graphics of Oblivion and being more technically good looking than Fallout 3/NV. It had Dragons in an open world game and you could randomly encounter them, not many, if any games did that. The artstyle was also pretty damn cool, going back to the more gritty look of Morrowind with the angular, alien looking elves.

Plus to this day it’s still pretty fun to play with thousands of mods to choose from.

 

[Yoshichan]

It was because of the awesome main theme song. Finally we swedes understood what it was all about:

I AM FUCKING DYING

LAUGHING SO HARD

 

[ReBurn]

A lot of people have cognitive dissonance when reality doesn't match their idea of a stereotype.

 

[Matt_Fox]

-It's first-person (many RPGs leading up to this point had been isometric)

-It was the follow up to Oblivion (itself a big name title)

-Game Of The Year awards coming out its ears

-It's got a super addictive gameplay loop, of looting and levelling up your character

 

[Northeastmonk]

I waited in line for an hour in the cold to get a PS3 copy and the big strategy guide back in 2011. I finished it back in 2011 and have only dabbled with it since on PC, PS4, and etc. Dragons were popular and it gave everyone a reason to play the same fantasy type game. Bethesda isn’t making these games every 2-3 years outside the MMO.

TES scratches that fantasy itch for a lot of people. Just as Star Trek is to fans, Star Wars, and etc. I think of how there are Ultima fans who lived and breathed that series of games. While TES was introduced to me with Morrowind on Xbox, that game or franchise is my type of Ultima. I wasn’t around Ultima until I had the means to play them.

 

[Fugitive Sex]

The vulgar enjoy the vulgar.