Skyrim - 300+ hours of content?

Remove dungeon mob respawns from the game and repeatable quests, plan your way to clear all dungeons and solve all possible quests and you'll probably get 300 hours.

With dungeon mob respawns and repeatable quests the time is more than 300 hours.

I think you are all full of shit .
Measuring length of this type of a game in absolutes is absolutely meaningless.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Isn't Skyrim supposed to be a bigger game overall than Morrowind or Oblivion?

Maybe it is supposed to, but it isn´t, overall, at least when compared to Morrowind.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
I think there's more "meaningful" stuff to do in Skyrim than in any previous TES game, as well as in the latest Fallout games.

Not in my opinion, at least when, again, compared to Morrowind.
And I´d say it has only slightly more, quest-wise, than Fallout: New Vegas, considering all the mutually exclusive content in that game (but Skyrim has definitely more content exploration-wise).

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
There are hundreds of unique quests with unique stories and voice-overs, and though many are small - just as many are not.

If by hundreds you mean two hundreds, maybe.

But such comparisons are pretty meaningless as well, Skyrim is certainly a huge game, much bigger than non-open world games like DE:HR or TW2, but also much bigger than a supposedly big open world-y 2W2.



Anyway, here´s an anecdotal example of my playthrough.
I think I´m quite a slow player (read most of the books, don´t rush through dungeons, don´t click through dialogues), I´ve played the game on master, mostly as a sword&shield, partially spellcasting dude, not abusing crafting rampantly (almost didn´t level alchemy, was raising smithing progressively - maxed around level 53, same with enchanting, which I left at 90).
After 140 hours, at level 53, I felt like I completed and explored pretty much everything non-repeatable, but I´ve played 20 hours more which I devoted to looking for places I might´ve missed and power levelling my character to get certain "master" quests and check out the game systems I haven´t used much.
After I´ve done this I declared my game finished and depleted .

Here are some of my stats after 160 hours:

300+ hours of content seems a little exaggerated if we are talking about unique and interesting stuff. Who would be interested to do the same things over and over for 300+ hours? Also, having to visit the same locations is kind of a killer for me since the element of surprise is lost.

I agree with those who say that 300+ hours is an exaggeration. Sure, you can prolong play time by not using fast travel, grinding radiant quests and revisiting dungeons but that's scraping the barrel IMO.

Let's see, DeepO did 136 of the possible 405 non-repeatable quests at 160 hours. So if we wanted to do every single quest, we're looking at 460 hours or so. Thanks for the proof, D'oh

Note that many of these quests are Radiant, so they can be repeated. That would take the # of hours played to ridiculous levels though.

If you get over 100 hours in any game, you got well more than your money's worth. So we should all be happy. We're basically ripping Bethesda off with all the gameplay we're getting from their title.

On top of that, we'll be getting to play the game over and over with different settings, graphics, quests, companions thanks to the awesome mod community. That's the single greatest thing to think about, imnsho.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
Let's see, DeepO did 136 of the possible 405 non-repeatable quests at 160 hours. So if we wanted to do every single quest, we're looking at 460 hours or so. Thanks for the proof, D'oh

That´s total bullshit and you know it.

I pulled it from UESP which is generally pretty accurate, feel free to read each quest to check for yourself though

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Categorykyrim-Quests

Pages in category "Skyrim-Quests"
The following 199 pages are in this category, out of 405 total

Still, I agree that I'm being pretty silly with the 480 hours. After all, you've done most of the bigger quests so the other quests may not be near as long. Some quests are very simple too, like the quest to give the shop girl a forged letter in Riverwood. That "quest" takes all of 30 seconds to complete.

If you rush through to do all the main/faction/guild quests and power level crafting skills to extreme levels quickly, you can so it in less than 300 hours. But if you actually want to explore every inch of Skyrim and do every quest there is far more than 300 hours. It's a simple fact.

I find it odd that some folks seem to want complete this game as fast as possible, and pretend they've actually experienced all the content. This is the wrong kind of game for that mentality.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
I pulled it from UESP which is generally pretty accurate, feel free to read each quest to check for yourself though

But majority of those quests fall under miscellaneous.
Check out the "misc objectives" tab in the picture I´ve posted.
Also, some of the quests which raise the "quests completed" stat pretty much fall under repeatable content (like Dark Brotherhood Forever).

Originally Posted by Thrasher
If you rush through to do all the main/faction/guild quests and power level crafting skills to extreme levels quickly, you can so it in less than 300 hours. But if you actually want to explore every inch of Skyrim and do every quest there is far more than 300 hours. It's a simple fact.

I haven´t rushed through anything, it´s just some of you guys play it reeeally slow .

I gave Oblivion 600 hours of my life and it looks like Skyrim will absorb even more. I like this kinect idea that I've been reading about. I hope that the guy gets all the kinks ironed out. I could get some decent exercise that's actually fun for a change.

@DeepO

Why are you getting so defensive and have a need to insult anyone whose opinion differs from you? You're not doing yourself credit.

I also bet you used a guide to find everything as soon as possible.

I haven´t rushed through anything, it´s just some of you OCD guys who play retardedly slow .

Aym knot returded. Eye no how to play games the write weigh, stoopid.

To the contrary Thrasher. I love exploring and so I am taking it slow. I just don't join all the factions with one character or plan to get involved in all of radiant quests. I am not even saying that Skyrim isn't a big game or doesn't give you value for money. Just that 300+ hours seems like an exaggeration to me but, since I haven't finished the game yet, I might be forced to eat my words!

I have to lawn mow the territory. Every area must be cleared on the fog of war (which annoys me to no end, since the local map sometimes forgets where you've been). They should have fixed that bug from Fallout 3. Another reason why I am sure the "engine" is mostly the same. :/

I am easily over 300 hours. But I can understand folks who just want to do the quests and avoid the sightseeing and finding every little secret. I love finding them.

For example, I am oddly very pleased every time I find an ore deposit to mine, and am annoyed than no one has mapped them all to see if I've found them.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
@DeepO

Why are you getting so defensive and have a need to insult anyone whose opinion differs from you? You're not doing yourself credit.

Oh please, like I have been deathly serious anywhere in here .
If you take issue with "OCD, retardedly slow", then I´m sorry for that, that was a tongue-in-cheek opposite to "rushed" you operated with. And if I wanted, I could take your post I reacted to as an insult too .

Originally Posted by Thrasher
I also bet you used a guide to find everything as soon as possible.

You´d loose, though I had to use wiki(s) to get through few bugged quests.

Also,

Originally Posted by Thrasher
But I can understand folks who just want to do the quests and avoid the sightseeing and finding every little secret. I love finding them.

I certainly didn´t avoid sightseeing, it´s something the game is great at providing players with. Along with possible "secrets" and mini-stories it was what compelled me to explore the game world pretty thoroughly, by my standards, even when I was not on a specific quest.
I´ve found 7 (plus one non-numbered) of those treasure maps, for example.

Where did I insult your state of mind? Saying someone rushed is not insulting their state of mind. But if I you react with a personal insult as you did, I'd say something IS wrong with you.

All I said was that doing all unique stuff at 80 hours without rushing is bullshit, and I say that because I know for a fact that it's bullshit.

As for the 300 hours, it's most definitely a realistic number - but it would be up to the individual how "special" those 300 hours were - and how much of it was unique. That would be a question of pacing.

As for unique content, Skyrim is king over Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas - at least for the vanilla versions. Unique content meaning art assets, amount of voice acting, books, items, unique locations, and so on. That's straight from Bethesda - and I've seen nothing but support for that from my time with Skyrim.

However, that's no guarentee that people will spend more time with it - or enjoy more time with it.

I'm well aware there are people who spent hundreds of hours on all previous TES games - but it's for certain they didn't do it by experiencing unique content.

For how long has Skyrim been out?

The people claiming to be "done" with it at this point are amusing. Let's see if you stay away from it from now until the next TES game, shall we.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
Where did I insult your state of mind? Saying someone rushed is not insulting their state of mind.

State of mind this, state of mind that, the point is that these things are relative, as I noted right in the beginning of the first post I´ve made in this thread.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
I find it odd that some folks seem to want complete this game as fast as possible, and pretend they've actually experienced all the content. This is the wrong kind of game for that mentality.

And I find it odd that some folks with certain play style need to imply that folks with different play styles lie and pretend when assessing their experience with a game.
See?

Anyway, once again, I´m sorry. That one post was a case of rushed and inappropriate wording on my part. I´ve even edited it now for good measure!

Originally Posted by Thrasher
But if I you react with a personal insult as you did, I'd say something IS wrong with you.

You better stop right here or I´ll take my apology back .

Originally Posted by Thrasher
For example, I am oddly very pleased every time I find an ore deposit to mine, and am annoyed than no one has mapped them all to see if I've found them.

What's the point of clearing out an iron ore mine when you're already running around in daedric armor?

So you can smelt the iron ore into ingots, then grab some leather strips and make a dagger or 2 . Can't hurt to train your smithing every chance you get. Notice I didn't say "make 50 daggers" though.