Skyrim - Todd Howard Interview @ EDGE

Hm, I was just thinking on this "weirdness" thing ...

One could ask : "Would the masses like alien encounters ? Weird landscapes & beings ? Or would they rather feel driven off ? And more : Would an alien environment support or hinder their buying decision ?"
 
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As far as I'm concerned running around in the same forest in every game simply bores me.
I understand that people might find the familiarity of it comforting but I just find it dull and uninteresting and Skyrim doesn't excite me at all.
 
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If it actually was _the same_ forest in all games, then i'd get pretty bored too :D

I still prefer foresty areas over desert / wasteland or corridor / hi-tech environments. Though Oblivion did not do a good job of making the forest very interesting to explore, still i enjoyed it more than for example New Vegas environment..
 
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2 for 2 GBG. :thumbsup: I wonder if Todd understands why Morrowind appealed to so many more than Oblivion? Doesn't sounds like it…
 
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Would you therefore suggest that the growth of the market is not related to the appeal of games such as Oblivion?
 
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Also Morrowind was only on the PC and Xbox (which was the underdog console at the time) and not on the PS2. (which was the top selling console) There was also the problem of product awareness which was low since there had been a significant amount of time since their last rpg.


PS. Between 2002 and 2005 there was a significant increase in game sales so by the time Oblivion came out the customer base was far larger then when Morrowind came out.
 
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Thrasher said:
Sales does not equal appeal.
Click to expand...

Ofcourse it does. Games are getting more and more retarded or and/or streamlined, this appeals to a lot more people = more sales. It's hardly rocket science. We wouldnt see games like for example Dragon Age 2 or Oblivion if it didnt appeal to people..
 
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Uh, no... You can't just look at sales and say one game has more appeal just because it has more sales. :rolleyes:

Read geunthar's post for an explanation.
 
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Sorry buy no.. If you were right we would see less games like Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect, and more games like Gothic 1-2 or BG1-2. Streamlined and simpler games appeals to a lot more people. It's not like the devs or publisher doesnt know this, that it's just some random calculation from their side. I wish you were right though. Hell i wish PC games could sell even close to what a console game sells.. as we all know it's not the case :/
 
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vurt said:
Ofcourse it does. Games are getting more and more retarded or and/or streamlined, this appeals to a lot more people = more sales. It's hardly rocket science. We wouldnt see games like for example Dragon Age 2 or Oblivion if it didnt appeal to people..
Click to expand...

So you're saying those games are more appealing because the majority has poor taste? I guess I could agree with that to an extent.

Sales might equal appeal, but appeal doesn't equal quality.
 
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JDR13 said:
Sales might equal appeal, but appeal doesn't equal quality.
Click to expand...

Pretty much.

Though quality is subjective when it comes to media for the most part, so nothing really equals quality.
 
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There are some rare cases where a quality product can both sell a appeal to a lot of people, but i think that's a lot harder to accomplish than to to make a crap product that you'll now almost for sure it'll sell (purely based on appeal, not on quality).
 
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vurt said:
Sorry buy no.. If you were right we would see less games like Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect, and more games like Gothic 1-2 or BG1-2. Streamlined and simpler games appeals to a lot more people. It's not like the devs or publisher doesnt know this, that it's just some random calculation from their side. I wish you were right though. Hell i wish PC games could sell even close to what a console game sells.. as we all know it's not the case :/
Click to expand...

You're not understanding me and Geunther. I'll chalk it up to a language issue, for now. But let me simplify it for you with a simple example. Take any game made 20 years ago. It probably sold less than Harry Potter. That doesn't necessarily mean that today's game is more appealing. It's just that the demand (and supply) for the game is higher.
 
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I do understand your reasoning.. But if that would be the only issue it sold less, then please explain why games are getting more streamlined (TES series included)? It's not like TES series is unknown for anyone (like when Morrowind was released). They should be able to go ahead and make it more "hardcore", instead of streamlined, no? Why can this pattern be seen everywhere in the industry? Could it be so easy that streamlined and simpler games are more appealing? Again, this isnt rocket science :)

Appealing to us, no. Appealing to the larger crowd, unfortunately yes. Appeal = bigger sales. Appeal isnt the same as quality..
 
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