The lack of unique settings in the elder scroll series.

[KryptonianBlood]

This series has some of the most fantastic fantasy settings. Not just the standard elven forests and large grass plains that generify (made that word up) so many other fantasy series, but very unique climates like those found in Morrowind, as well as fantastical places mention in lore.

Yet we have not been seeing the more unique settings lately. The jungled central command of Cyrodile became a simple generic fantasy setting, with only a few buildings here and there retaining anything unique to the elder scrolls series.

Then came Skyrim, which did a great job of capturing the atmosphere of the Nords...but Nords are not an elder scrolls specific culture. I have seen and played as Nords in countless games long before Skyrim came out, all sharing similar aesthetics. A few special places scattered about (like some of the mountains and buildings) but nothing new for a veteran fantasy fan.

I am worried though that our next game will wind up taking us into another setting that has been done to death in fantasy games and movies.

Highrock could easily wind up being another generic fantasy setting, with only Orsinium standing out.
Hammerfel could wind up a typical Arabian nights type setting. (I might be okay with that, I have a hunch this will be where we go next game)

The rest of the settings, if done according to lore, should all be very interesting. I would love to experience Blackmarsh or Summerset Isles, somewhere with a landscape unique to this series that could once again awe and inspire me like Morrowind did.


But I fear, based on the past two games, that we are sadly going to wind up in one of the two remaining human lands, both of which, while they will surely have some uniqueness, overall lack the alien feel of Morrowind that drew so many of us into the series.

Does anyone here think Bethseda will actually risk placing the next game in a setting that has not been done to death in other fantasy and history based games that already exist?


Also, should we have to worry about the next game simply copying and expanding whatever is used in the online game? Due to limitations in making an mmo, I highly doubt we will be seeing actual walking cities ectcetera.


Removing link to inappropriate image.

[Dark Spark]

... I am worried though that our next game will wind up taking us into another setting that has been done to death in fantasy games and movies. ...

Perhaps it was because Bethesda was wrestling with a new game engine which led them to a conservative approach making the environment of Skyrim. They had to see how realistic they could make the world before taking a hand at making the weird stuff.

[VelothiConservative]

I fully agree. I don't want more of the same, the familiar, earthly. I want what morrowind gave. It was odd and alien in all ways, and I loved that. I hope they'll go for elsweyr.

[Witchery]

I don't understand the interest in completely alien environments; more familiar, earthly environments can be just as (if not more) mysterious and exciting. I much prefer the lands of Skyrim and Cyrodiil to Morrowind. But that's just me.

... I am worried though that our next game will wind up taking us into another setting that has been done to death in fantasy games and movies. ...

Perhaps it was because Bethesda was wrestling with a new game engine which led them to a conservative approach making the environment of Skyrim. They had to see how realistic they could make the world before taking a hand at making the weird stuff.

What do you mean by this? Is Skyrim not accurately represented in game as it is described in the lore? Morrowind is a unique place, yes, and not everywhere in Tamriel needs to live up to its uniqueness.

[Thuro Pendragon]

I didn't play morrowind so I can't speak for its uniqeness but I agree. There was very little true uniqueness in IV or V. It was pretty yes, but not inspiring in anything but the scale. I come on, Alaska is just as pretty (if not prettier) than Skyrim.

[Dark Spark]

I don't understand the interest in completely alien environments; more familiar, earthly environments can be just as (if not more) mysterious and exciting. I much prefer the lands of Skyrim and Cyrodiil to Morrowind. But that's just me.

... I am worried though that our next game will wind up taking us into another setting that has been done to death in fantasy games and movies. ...

Perhaps it was because Bethesda was wrestling with a new game engine which led them to a conservative approach making the environment of Skyrim. They had to see how realistic they could make the world before taking a hand at making the weird stuff.

What do you mean by this? Is Skyrim not accurately represented in game as it is described in the lore? Morrowind is a unique place, yes, and not everywhere in Tamriel needs to live up to its uniqueness.

I mean, they needed to don some 'training wheels' on their new bike (the game engine) so they chose Skyrim because they could use the place to gauge how realistic they could make the game world.

Now that they have experience with the engine, they can grow more bold in their artistry.

[The SheoDovah]

I disagree with Oblivion not having an unique setting. The Shivering Isles were very unique and an interesting place to explore. Whilst Cyrodiil was a bit generic, it is very unique due to the way they protrayed it. Granted, they got lazy and should have made it into a Jungle instead of what we got in Oblivion. From the cities to the overall landscape.


Skyrim, they did protray it in what was said in the lore.

[Thuro Pendragon]

You're right but what was in the lore was uninteresting. Its they're own game they can retcon the lore if they need to.

[OblivionDuruza]

Personally, I think Hammerfell would be an ideal location for the next game, for several reasons.

Firstly, Hammerfell is a location, like Skyrim, which might seem to be fairly mundane, but has a lot of scope for diversity and variety. Instead of simply deserts, Hammerfell could encompass a range of badlands, plains, beaches, oases, jungles, metropolises, mountains and hamlets, not to mention a myriad of interesting Dwemer ruins and other potentially epic dungeons in which to delve.

Further, Hammerfell brings with it the intrigue of the Forebear/Crown conflict, which is both easy enough to engage with for even the most casual, while also bringing with it a depth that already exists in the lore. Therein lies a uniqueness that transcends the physicality of the setting and allows the player to engage with the world on a socio-cultural level, something which Morrowind did incredibly well, and contributed more to Morrowind's charm than giant mushrooms ever did.

Finally, Hammerfell would allow Bethesda to bring both new Skyrim generation fans and old timers together, without trashing any pre-Skyrim lore or failing to do justice to a province like the Summerset Isles (the original reason TESIII was Morrowind rather than Tribunal).

[Witchery]

What do you mean by this? Is Skyrim not accurately represented in game as it is described in the lore? Morrowind is a unique place, yes, and not everywhere in Tamriel needs to live up to its uniqueness.

I mean, they needed to don some 'training wheels' on their new bike (the game engine) so they chose Skyrim because they could use the place to gauge how realistic they could make the game world.

Now that they have experience with the engine, they can grow more bold in their artistry.

Ah, now I see what you meant by that.

[Orz]

The "Creation Engine" isn't new at all. It's just the same old gamebryo engine re-branded with just a couple new features . I don't think that they were practicing using their new engine any more than with Oblivion. If there ever was a time when Beth had to experiment, it was when they first started using gamebryo with Morrowind, and look what they did with it!

I don't think that they choose Skyrim to gauge how realistic they could make the game world. Such testing is done with internal demos, not whole games. Besides, what's wrong with a more realistic setting? Morrowind's alien look wouldn't be special if every TES province looked alien. I'd personally get sick of them trying to make it look completely different and alien and want something more normal. Also, having the majority of Tamriel be kind of normal makes the game more believable in my opinion.

[VelothiConservative]

The "Creation Engine" isn't new at all. It's just the same old gamebryo engine re-branded with just a couple new features . I don't think that they were practicing using their new engine any more than with Oblivion. If there ever was a time when Beth had to experiment, it was when they first started using gamebryo with Morrowind, and look what they did with it!

I don't think that they choose Skyrim to gauge how realistic they could make the game world. Such testing is done with internal demos, not whole games. Besides, what's wrong with a more realistic setting? Morrowind's alien look wouldn't be special if every TES province looked alien. I'd personally get sick of them trying to make it look completely different and alien and want something more normal. Also, having the majority of Tamriel be kind of normal makes the game more believable in my opinion.

Hence why they should go to elsweyr next since all games before or since morrowind were in normal settings.

[Orz]

Yeah, I'd also like to go somewhere more unique next. What I was saying was that the setting of Skyrim was neither bad because it wasn't exotic, nor a test of the capabilities of the engine.

[DragonoftheNorth]

I really hope they go for Summerset for the next game. Skyrim was a fun world but it looked like earth, while I think with new gen consoles they could really blow us away with Alinor/Summerset Isles in the next game, though I feel like tbat decisoon has already been made.

[OblivionDuruza]

My real concern with the series going somewhere too exotic is that the reality will never be able to meet our expectations, and thus we'll end up disappointed.

Even Skyrim's realisation in-game came as a bit of a let-down to me, and others, and certainly Cyrodiil caused a lot of upset among fans of the series who had pre-dated its release (I never had an issue with it because I never anticipated Cyrodiil's release, having joined the franchise after Oblivion had released). We're already starting to see the same on the internet with regards to ZeniMax Online's comments about the Isles and their portrayal in ES:O.

Morrowind was awesome because it took a step somewhere nobody was really hoping to go. Because of Bethesda's success with the TES franchise, I feel that it will only get harder for them to tread new ground with it. Sure, Bethesda might one day be able to produce something that's incredible in its realisation, but will it be enough to meet with our imaginations?

For that reason, I'm a little trepidations about going to the Isles until much later in the franchise. In fact, I've even thought, in recent times, that I would prefer it to be Bethesda's last TES game so that there's absolutely no chance of it being an upset that spoils the series for me (a little extreme, I realise). The emotional investment in the awe-inspiring descriptions of places like Alinor in the lore is real.

[Kerr]

Morrowind was a cool volcano mushroom land but I don't think that is what made Morrowind so great. Yeah it was cool but it wan't the core of what made Morrowind great, I think it was because the world was so interesting and immersive. Morrowind and to a lesser extent Skyrim both had really rich and interesting worlds which is something they both had in common despite one being much crazier than the other. The world being so interesting and immersive is something I feel Oblvion didn't do as well, I mean it did it to a certain extent (The Shivering Isles in particular was great) but that special magic wasn't there quite as much as the others. So I'd be fine if they did somewhere more "normal" like High Rock or somewhere strange like Black Marsh, but if they did somewhere strange they have to approach it as such.

[Mattbott]

My real concern with the series going somewhere too exotic is that the reality will never be able to meet our expectations, and thus we'll end up disappointed.

Yeah that's a big problem for them especially as the graphics get better and the lore gets more defined

morrowind was my first TES game so i assumed that Tamreil was all fantastical, with strange animals and plants etc, and that Cyrodiil was therefore so normal because of a change of graphics and design (LOTR was out by then as well and that rocked everyone's design world). SO to have Skyrim also as a pretty "Planet Earth normal" sort of place suggested to me the style of game has altered. But Solstheim knocked that idea on the head as it can be directly compared with Vvardenfell and I can see where they are going.

Summerset Isle I think will be very exotic, a bit like Melnibone perhaps, but the other lands we haven't seen (desert, swamp and bosmer forests with giant walking trees) I don't think will be too alien, though the cultures and architecture in these lands I hope will be unique

[CreeperX]

Yes, I too would like to see something more alien next. Morrowind had all these unique creatures and designs. Same can be said about Oblivion's Shivering Isles DLC. However, the main game was mostly your typical medieval kind of fantasy with wildlife mostly consisting of bears, wolves, rats, etc. We have had two games now with the similar kind of setting. The environments and cultures resemble your typical and "safe" fantasy settings with this more earth-like focus.

My personal preference for next game would be Summerset Isles because I do think it's time to have something more weird and unique next. Summerset Isles is said to be an ancient land with vibrant colors and plenty of mystery. It's also heavy on magic which is something different from your more warrior focused locations.
Yet, I also have to agree with OblivionDuruza. While I really want to see Summerset Isles, it does have a bigger risk of not being able to meet our expectations.

[Mattbott]

if you want to wow people with a location i think the best way is sometimes to lure them in with normality and then wallop them with weirdness.

Going to Xen at the end of half life did this for me, as did hopping through an oblivion gate (and also over to the Shivering Isles) in TES4. In Skyrim the big unique wow was blackreach, but these are all just examples of supplementary locations in games, not the actual land. Dark Souls builds up a very dark medieval/gothic atmosphere and this makes it distinctive even though much of is is straight from european history
TESO will give us a taste of all the places which could also detract from the scope of imagination for the next TES game by giving us expectations - the more you fill a story with detail, the less room there is for imagination

the challenge is there for the devs, they decided on a formula of 1 game = one race/homeland presumably because it would mean a different design style for each adventure, so I hope they go back to their roots a bit and forget about the LOTR movies for one, i still keep getting Dragonsreach mixed up with Edoras

[MJJ]

I'm with the crowd thinking that Elsweyr might be an interesting setting for Elder Scrolls VI. You could start out with more Imperial looking cities and towns in the north where the cultures interact but as you go further south the setting becomes much more varied. There's just enough lore on the Khajiit society to give writers some hooks while it's still open enough to paint a wide canvas of architectures and atmosphere.

I'm cooler to the idea of setting the game in Summerset Isle as Thalmor were set up as being an antagonist in Skyrim. Still, if set there I'm sure the writers will make great material out of it and certainly there's a catalyst for an alien environment here.

No matter where they put the game I'm sure the writing will make it interesting. If I had to chose I'd go with Elsweyr.

MJJ

[KryptonianBlood]

I'm with the crowd thinking that Elsweyr might be an interesting setting for Elder Scrolls VI. You could start out with more Imperial looking cities and towns in the north where the cultures interact but as you go further south the setting becomes much more varied. There's just enough lore on the Khajiit society to give writers some hooks while it's still open enough to paint a wide canvas of architectures and atmosphere.

I'm cooler to the idea of setting the game in Summerset Isle as Thalmor were set up as being an antagonist in Skyrim. Still, if set there I'm sure the writers will make great material out of it and certainly there's a catalyst for an alien environment here.

No matter where they put the game I'm sure the writing will make it interesting. If I had to chose I'd go with Elsweyr.

MJJ

I hope they dont force us to go against the Thalmor. I think it would be very interesting to paint them as the good guys in the next game. Perhaps the villains in another.

[VelothiConservative]

I'm with the crowd thinking that Elsweyr might be an interesting setting for Elder Scrolls VI. You could start out with more Imperial looking cities and towns in the north where the cultures interact but as you go further south the setting becomes much more varied. There's just enough lore on the Khajiit society to give writers some hooks while it's still open enough to paint a wide canvas of architectures and atmosphere.

I'm cooler to the idea of setting the game in Summerset Isle as Thalmor were set up as being an antagonist in Skyrim. Still, if set there I'm sure the writers will make great material out of it and certainly there's a catalyst for an alien environment here.

No matter where they put the game I'm sure the writing will make it interesting. If I had to chose I'd go with Elsweyr.

MJJ

I hope they dont force us to go against the Thalmor. I think it would be very interesting to paint them as the good guys in the next game. Perhaps the villains in another.

I'd prefer that we can choose both, as with stormcloaks and imperials. The main conflict should be something bigger than mere mortals squabbling, like dragons. But obviously, not dragons again. If it's set in elsweyr, it could have something to do with the moons perhaps? Although, they already had such a crisis, which the altmer helped them with.