You have never played Skyrim.

disintegr8

Skyrim was my first foray into the Elder Scrolls world and I loved it. I then went back in the series and played Oblivion, and while I enjoyed it, being used to Skyrim, it seemed strange and possibly a little backward. I now realise Skyrim was possibly a step away from the Elder Scrolls format that most people enjoy.

The first time I played ESO it just seemed awkward and unnecessarily complicated. Playing on console and never having played an MMO, I had no idea what I was doing. Console provides minimal instruction and assistance for new players.

I actually had to use Google to figure out why I was effectively stuck in Daggerfall at level 5. Every time I came up against an enemy in Glenumbra I got slaughtered, with no way of knowing that I should have traveled to Stros M'Kai as it was my actual 'starter' island. I actually came very close to giving up.

Having played ESO now for 2 years, I could not imaging getting fully engaged in Skyrim again. I would certainly enjoy the option of an 'offline' or solo instance of ESO but Skyrim would not pass as a substitute for that now.

phairdon

This game is my choice out of the two. Only completed Skyrim once and once was enough.

rossk25

I got into TES by playing Skyrim. I loved it an I was hooked! Then I went and played Oblivion and loved TES even more, making me read up on the Lore, understanding Tamriel, races and just general TES universe.

I only got into ESO beginning of last year and I have been hooked since. I still play the game almost daily and weekends I can go hours and I still never get bored.

My choice would have to be ESO, the fact that you can zip around different regions, have PvE and PvP environments, is more challenging, can create different characters that play totally different and the game is still growing.

Ffastyl

With mods, Skyrim might be for you. Like ESO, I'd only recommend a single playthrough on vanilla. For Skyrim, that's anywhere from a day to a couple months; for ESO, that's a year or two. Once the newness has faded, neither has significant enough substance to stay. Mods can and do add a lot of substance to Skyrim, but ignoring the hassle of installing mods properly, they do not resolve the issues within the foundation they build upon.

Skyrim's writing is simplistic to the point of bad, no character besides Serana actually having more than one dimension. The major quest lines are spectacle over substance, feeling more like a summer blockbuster than anything memorable or thought provoking. The scenery is gritty to a fault. The drab color scheme gets tiring, making what should be beautiful look like crap. It takes a lot of fine tuning through mods to make it look less one note. Weapon and armor designs are also ripped from WoW -- they're ***, and judging by the popularity of LeanWolf's Better-Shaped Weapons, everyone agrees. It feels like Bethesda put so much into upgrading the graphics, they forgot to build a game.

Mods add a lot of content, a lot of well made and replayable content, but the base game is still bad. No mod has fixed that. Playing Skyrim with mods just highlights how bad vanilla is by contrast.

All that said, I would return to Skyrim if not for the absence of one mod: realistic combat animations. The vanilla ones are apish and replacers either polish them or replace them more flashy ones. Most animation replacers only touch idles, leaving the horrid swinging animations in. If a mod is released that replaces those with something... better, I have a few dozen land expansion and well written quest mods to burn through.

But vanilla Skyrim vs vanilla ESO? I am not sure. ESO yields more mileage, but it has many elements (such as dailies) which encourage addiction, keeping me here after the fun has gone. Skyrim would be undoubtedly shorter, but at least I can quit that one.

ThePrinceOfBargains

Tandor wrote: »

TheMaster wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

TheMaster wrote: »

Grabmoore wrote: »

TheMaster wrote: »

I’d be playing Skyrim. The only reason I even started playing this joke of an Elder Scrolls game is because of Skyrim. And I’m only playing it now in anticipation of TESVI. It’s hilarious that people actually think this game has more substance than Skyrim. For the buggy mess that Skyrim actually was, this game is a shell in comparison.

...but ...but Skyrim was boring after you mastered it.

ESO is the better choice for me, because you can interact with people.

Do people not read titles anymore? It clearly says “you have never played Skyrim,” as in “you’re not suffering from fatigue.”

Ignoring the question of what having played Skyrim has to do with suffering fatigue, did you only read the title and ignore the original post? The OP specifically states "Imagine you've never played Skyrim". (my bold)

It has to do with the clear intention of the topic. I fail to see how the addition of the word “imagine” changes anything. You were meant to look at this topic and think back to the anticipation of Skyrim’s release, the first day you got it, the first character you created. How you feel about it after having played it for hours on end shouldn’t come into play. That defeats the purpose. The thought should be “would you rather experience Skyrim over again for the first time (remembering your first experience) or play ESO”? For me, it’s Skyrim. Not even close. ESO, while good for an MMO, is a mediocre game at best.

Well if you want to reinterpret the original post by taking words out of it then fine, but I tend to read what the OP says and then respond to that. However, if you're really that praising of Skyrim and that critical of ESO why are you even here? And please, don't pretend you're only here until a game that hasn't even been designed yet let alone begun development sees the light of day. Is there really nothing else you can do to entertain yourself than play a "joke of a game" for several years until something else comes along?

What are you even talking about? In what way does the word “imagine” change the obvious intention of the topic? In what way could you possibly interpret it differently? The OP wants you to imagine Skyrim as if you’ve never played it. As in, he doesn’t want you to respond as someone who’s played Skyrim endlessly and is naturally bored of it and can pick apart all of its flaws. He wants you to respond as if Skyrim would be a completely new experience. When you think back to your first experience with Skyrim, just how much did you like it and would you rather experience that or play ESO now? Interpreting this any other way defeats the purpose because obviously most people on the ESO forum are going to want to play ESO, a game with periodic updates and new content, as opposed to a game that they’ve likely played to death and hasn’t been supported in years.

And yes, I’m only playing this until TESVI is released. It’s a source of new Elder Scrolls content, albeit a pretty mediocre source that’s hardly even recognizable most of the time.

Zbigb4life

ESO, no doubt about it

Azurya

Apache_Kid wrote: »

ESO.
Skyrim just doesn't have enough content, especially compared to earlier Elder Scrolls single-player games.

well that is true for the content Zenimax made, but nowadays there are so much community-developped extensions, like the beyond-project that it is fun to play it! and at least there I have an home with a sauna and a fully functional bath!

Lizzrdd

I play both...also I would not recommend playing Skyrim unless on PC. I mod the hell out of that game, and it keeps it fresh and new for me at least. But I also like ESO just as much.

peasant007

AcadianPaladin wrote: »

- Horse combat + horses don't disappear when you dismount.

I just got done replaying Skyrim recently. I was doing the "Living the life as an NPC" type thing. Live Another Life mod, menial chores mods, lived in the tavern and made maybe 150 gold a day before I needed to buy food and a place to sleep for the night. But I scraped together enough money to hire Marcurio (My character lived at the Bee and Barb in Riften) and then scraped together more for a horse.

Rode said horse down the road heading for the next town and got attacked by a jaguar. Dumb horse tried to fight it. It (the horse) died immediately, thus wasting my very hard earned gold.

10/10 would waste 1000 gold on a stupid horse again.

As for the OP's question, I tend to look at every game I play as a game with its own identity. I liked Daggerfall for Daggerfall. Morrowwind for Morrowind. Oblivion for Oblivion. You get the picture. When you look at each game like that without comparing Morrowind to Skyrim to ESO it tends to be more enjoyable.

Though, remembering my poor horse and how much fun I had just doing the most menial chores (on purpose) in Skyrim makes me wish I could do something similar in ESO (out of necessity by Survival mods as opposed to just Role Playing it all).

*shrugs*

Go play Morrowind if you miss it. Go try Skyrim and form your own opinion of it instead of relying on other people's opinions. Ultimately it sounds like you are burned out on ESO. It happens.

Minyassa

I've never played any Elder Scrolls game besides ESO. So honestly I'd have to see how I felt about the graphics in Skyrim, but I'm probably not going to be really impressed with anything earlier because customizing toons is very important to me. I'm a cosmetics snob. Whichever game has more pretty shinies is going to be the one I enjoy more.

Ulfgarde

Comparing ESO with any other ES game is pretty much a stretch. They're very different entities from each other for a good reason.

Would say though that the questing system in ESO isn't bad but not on the level of a good singleplayer RPG. Definitely better than fetch quests and probably the best quest system ever implemented in an MMO.

Besides that, there's really no comparison here.

klowdy1

Would you rather play GW2, or Mario? Seriously, the 2 games are similar in name alone, they are totally different feeling games.

Kimba_Do

Heh, this one played so much Skyrim my HDD now has a groove worn in it. Don't really see that they can be compared (Skyrim and ESO) as they are not in the same class. Better would be ESO vs. WoW or Asheron's Call or UO, i.e. online vs. online.

Orjix

I would rather play morrowind (ES III)

Runschei

I like both games.

The main reason I don't play Skyim much is because I've ran out of stuff to do. I have modded my Skyrim into hell and back at the point it is now nearly broken. I don't even knoe how to fix the current broken things

In ESO I also get to interact with others, which is a giant + for me.

grannas211

Outside of graphics, Skyrim is far and away the worst elder scrolls game.

Lord_Etrigan

I got it when I had a PS3 and loved it so much that when the next chapter ESO was announced for PS4 and not for PS3, I went out and bought a PS4.

I had all the DLC's, was Vamp who transformed into a Vamp Lord floating above the ground and cruising the open world with my two followers:

Serana oooh Serana how we used to blot out the sun with my Auriel's Bow and arrows kissed by your sweet Vamp's blood and my crazy friend Cicero cracking jokes whilst we slaughtered dragons.

I’m counting down the days for SKYRIM VR and maybe just maybe one day us console peasants will be able to add some mods to our SKYRIM VR experience.

This one can only dream.....

newtinmpls

Bierdeife wrote: »

I never played it.

I have never played skyrim

RANKK7

I don't give a damn about Skyrim, worst TES for me.

grannas211 wrote: »

Outside of graphics, Skyrim is far and away the worst elder scrolls game.

This.

Kay1

Oblivion followed by Morrowind were not just better, but 60 times better.

Golden era of videogames, I miss feeling hype for a game.

newtinmpls

Runschei wrote: »

In ESO I also get to interact with others, which is a giant + for me.

You said it!

That is why I'm here.

Argah

Got Skyrim a few weeks back for dirt cheap and gotta say, it don't live up to what I expected it feels super dated and combat is horrible, definitely not like I remembered.

Sotha_Sil

Argah wrote: »

Got Skyrim a few weeks back for dirt cheap and gotta say, it don't live up to what I expected it feels super dated and combat is horrible, definitely not like I remembered.

Well it was released 6 years ago... it is still one of the best solo rpgs out there maybe not the best ES game. You can't really compare it to ESO as those games are completely different : one is a MMO, the other one is solo. But I would say ESO has definitely more flaws than skyrim.

Ilithyania

Skyrim had good story, but after 1000 hrs the world felt lonlely.

and when you can pause the game and drink 50 healing potions the game becomes too easy.

Argah

Sotha_Sil wrote: »

Argah wrote: »

Got Skyrim a few weeks back for dirt cheap and gotta say, it don't live up to what I expected it feels super dated and combat is horrible, definitely not like I remembered.

Well it was released 6 years ago... it is still one of the best solo rpgs out there maybe not the best ES game. You can't really compare it to ESO as those games are completely different : one is a MMO, the other one is solo. But I would say ESO has definitely more flaws than skyrim.

I know it's old but loved it back when released and couldn't believe it is so bad, guess I thought it would play similar to eso.

Hokiewa

Arena.

I loved Skyrim and played it for thousands upon thousands of hours but it does get repetitive. Morrowind was far more complete but Skyrim does look amazing (remastered version).

I'm relatively new to ESO so I'm still learning but it has occupied my free time the last 6 months.

Aspects of both I really like but they aren't similiar in most aspects.

Karmanorway

Skyrim was nice, morrowind was better since it had more depth, but eso is better then skyrim, way better because first of all there are more auests, more variaton in gear, more variation in landscapes, not Only snow wherever u go, and theres the pvp

Jade1986

Skyrim was 10 miles wide and 1 foot deep.

ESO is 5 miles wide and 5 miles deep.

So, eso.

Castagere

I'M in the camp with Skyrim being an over blown over hyped game. Morrowiind was the last great TES game. I remember playing Morrowind at launch. It was a unique RPG. You had to use your brain to play it too. No mounts or fast travel. You had to learn to use the map. But as soon as it was ported to the consoles the complains about not having mounts and how hard it was to use the map it all went dumb down after that. The Skyrim reviews were some of the worse i ever read. They actually forgave all the game bugs because it was a large world and it looked amazing. Not my words but so called pro writers saying this. So its Morrowind first then ESO for me.

Doctordarkspawn

I allready do play Skyrim more.