Whats the deal with prisoners in the Elder Scrolls sage...

Raoul9753

Well, in Arena you were no prisoner at the start. I didnt play Daggerfall, so I dont know there...

But everything after that?

Morrowind: You are a prisoner for unknown reason, who is on his way to be released.

Oblivion: You are a prisoner for unknown reason who comes free cause you happen to be in the cell with the secret passage.

Skyrim: Wrong place at wrong time made you a prisoner who is on his/her way to execution, who comes free cause of Godzilla

ESO: You are a prisoner of a Daedric prince, who comes free cause the prisoners make a riot.

 

 

Serioulsy... either these guys seriously suck at coming up with ways to start a game or someone there has a real stiffy for prison/prisoner fantasies xD

 

The best part is... it never really matters for the game afterwards. Best part was Skyrim... "Yeah, your men captured me and wanted to execute me..." "Yeah thats nice... Hey, wanna join us?"

 

Your take? Do you feel its kinda strange that every game starts the same way or do you dont mind?

Elikal

Hehe, it's tradition. I like it. It also gives a plausible rationale why you are an unknown nobody.

Oh and Daggerfall was the only exception. You are supposed to be the hero from Arena, who freed the Emperor, so you are summoned as the Emperors personal friend. I love the cool Daggerfall Intro.

Check it out:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niU1bRqxrIU

arieste

Originally posted by Raoul9753

Your take? Do you feel its kinda strange that every game starts the same way or do you dont mind?

I just consider it a fun "shoutout" to the single-player games.     I figure that the long-time ES players will get a kick out of it, while non-es players will just treat it as something new and interesting.

 

Overall, i very much dislike the idea of "you're the chosen one to save the world" type of setup in ANY mmorpg.  I think it's bad design, but pretty much all themeparks use it.    I would much rather have "you're a random person in this world, do what you will" setup.    But that has nothing to do with the prisoner idea specifically.

Sovrath

Originally posted by Raoul9753

Well, in Arena you were no prisoner at the start. I didnt play Daggerfall, so I dont know there...

But everything after that?

Morrowind: You are a prisoner for unknown reason, who is on his way to be released.

Oblivion: You are a prisoner for unknown reason who comes free cause you happen to be in the cell with the secret passage.

Skyrim: Wrong place at wrong time made you a prisoner who is on his/her way to execution, who comes free cause of Godzilla

ESO: You are a prisoner of a Daedric prince, who comes free cause the prisoners make a riot.

 

 

Serioulsy... either these guys seriously suck at coming up with ways to start a game or someone there has a real stiffy for prison/prisoner fantasies xD

 

Your take? Do you feel its kinda strange that every game starts the same way or do you dont mind?

It has nothing to do with "sucking" at starting a game.

It has more to do with creating a connecting element throughout each game. In some ways it's a quirky Rashamon Effect in that instead of having the same scene with different characters commenting/experiencing that scene you have the same character with the same setup but a different situation/scene.

This has been a conscious decision. I think daggerfall had something similiar in that after you speak to the emperor you end up having to break out of some prison/dungeon thing.