The Weekend Roundtable: Is Skyrim 'dumbed down'?

• Posted by Paul October 13, 2012 - 613 views

  

  Way back on the old Skyrim Blog site we had 'weekend roundtables' as a matter of course - and they proved popular. So I thought it would be cool to bring them back onto the site.

  Remember these 'roundtables' are for sensible and intelligent debate. One-word replies, ill-considered responses or any kind of spamming will simply be deleted.

  This week, I'm interested to know - now that we've all had access to Skyrim for the best part of a year - whether you think that Skyrim was 'dumbed down' in comparison with Oblivion and - in particular - Morrowind? Here's something I read on another (lesser) Skyrim forum:

  Is it that I am getting older or is Skyrim really not as good as Oblivion which was not as good as Morrowind? To me, Skyrim's predecessors offered more in the way of flexibility of gameplay and character customization. Now in Skyrim we have a sickeningly dumbed down version of leveling up and character creation. Are the other games just too hard for the average player? I do not think so.
  
  I'm all for improving a game, but now that I have played through Skyrim (100+ hours and every major quest) I can give my opinion. My opinion is...Why? Why did Bethesda feel the necessity to take the game in such an insulting direction? The graphics are beautiful and the game is very good (gross amount of glitches aside), but it simply does not live up to the expectations and standards set by previous Elder Scrolls games.
  
  Still one of the best games of the year, but not as good as it should have been. Maybe Skyrim (for me) is a victim of previous great games in the series. Or maybe the developers need to develop a little more respect for gamers.

  Now, I'm old enough and wizened enough to have played The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall when it first came out in 1996. Yeah, I know, I'm a nostalgic old geezer with far too much time on his hands! But, anyway, the reality is that Daggerfall offered a staggering selection of 38 skills to choose from - as compared to just 18 in Skyrim. Honestly, I don't ever recall using the Medical or Backstabbing skills, or learning 'Giantish' so I could walk through a Giant camp without being killed. But anyway, it was there if I wanted to use it.

  In Morrowind we had spells for feather, water walking and levitation; we had spears to fight with; and we had no less than nine separate Guilds and Factions to join - all with considerably longer questlines than anything in Skyrim. Heck even as recently as Oblivion we had the ability to make our own spells!

  Of course back in 1996, The Elder Scrolls was PC only. Since then we had the rise of console gaming, indeed it has become so all-powerful that the X-Box has become the 'lead platform' as we arrive at Skyrim. Perhaps a certain amount of 'dumbing down' - or could it be 'refinement' - is inevitable to cater for the needs and aspirations of a different generation and attitude of gamer?

  So is the poster that I quoted above making a fair point? Or is it all just misplaced nostalgia from old fogeys such as myself? I should add that I'm making the points here in a deliberately provocative manner, simply to stimulate debate....