Yrkoon wrote...
*sigh* On the dragon riding issue, I'm constantly being told to "drop it", only to turn around and see a half dozen of you posters bringing the topic back up and discussing it away. Screw that. I reserve the right to engage in a skyrim-based discussion on this thread, just like the rest of you.
So lets see what we got.
Giggles_Manically wrote...
I have to agree with you....part of the fun in Skyrim is doing kick ass awesome stuff you cant do in real life.
What kind of talking point is that? There is a list a mile long -- 10 miles long -- of kick-ass things you can do in Skyrim that you can't do in real life. But that doesn't mean we need giant flashy biological fighter jets to saddle and ride for kicks.
What is so bad about riding dragons when:
A) You already did it once in the MQ and
You can rip reality a new one simply by speaking?
I mean you have a shout that yanks a dragon out of the sky already.
Finally: a rebuttal worthy of properly responding to. Lets see....
w/regards to A: technically we didn't. The dragon riding was implied. It literally occured in a cutscene, and it was placed in the game as a one time plot device to solve the issue of "how are we going to get the player from Point A to an unreachable-by-man point B" But Considering the known list of Achievements for the Dragonborn DLC, I'm fairly certain Dragon riding in it will be something on a different scale entirely.
As for B: For crying out loud, can we tone down the straw man burining for a few minutes? This was *never* a discussion about Reality, or lack of it, or suspension of it. Instead, it was always about something else.
1) the horrible disease that has tainted even *mature* games these days finally making its way to Skyrim: needless flashiness for marketing sake - not unlike rogues in DA2 tossing hand grenades in the air and then Chuck-Norris-roundhouse-kicking them at enemies for the "awesome" factor when they could instead just straight-up throw them at enemies.
2) YES, it's cartoonish. And UNLIKE other stuff that has been mentioned as a comparison (stuff like vampirism, and intensly powerful magic e.g. Thu'ums and actual realism-breaking spells etc,) Dragon riding is exclusive to youth-based fiction, while the other stuff has a LOONG history in both Mythology and classic literature.
3) Dragon riding was a l33t skill in World of Warcraft. Anything that reminds me of that stupid MMO and its drone addicts, automatically damns itself as bad and irredeemable in my eyes.
4) it's just a cheap concept who's utility purpose could be better implemented via a) flight-spells
less gaudy mounts. (Griffons, Hippogriffs, Pegasi, Nightmares etc.) or even c) dwemer technology.
And before any of you spout the LAZY and DISHONEST argument-dismissal of: "If you don't like it, then don't play it/buy it/whine about it", I'll say it again. Nothing is going to stop me from buying and playing Dragonborn, and then returning here to discuss all of it. What I'm doing here is simply explaining, to people who have been asking, Why. I. Dislike. The. Notion. of Dragon. Mounts. In a masterpiece of art like Skyrim.
Yrkoon - you're normally right on target but I think you are reaching here; your logic and assumptions don't back up your argument as much as you think it does.
1) You are dead wrong abot the dragon riding being implied in the main quest. We saw it, Odahviing told us he'd have to do it, and he explained to us what it would be like. There is nothing implied about that.
2) Yes, DA2 having rogues kick gernades was silly and stupid. It has zero functionality and, as far as I know, zero precedence. That being said, it's a horrible analogy bc/ dragon riding has functionality and I've seen and heard about it in the fantasy genre.
3) Dragon-riding is not exclusive to youth-based fiction. Dungeons and Dragons actually had rules for it, an occasional Dragon magazine or accessory book would have a dragon-rider on its cover or in a picture somewhere. It's not exactly common as say fireball, but again, it's *not* unheard of.
4) World of Warcraft comaprisons are not applicable. By this logic any future RPG that incorperates an element from World of Warcraft will damn itself. Better get your money back from that Kickstarter campaign.
5) Debatable. Nothing casues DMs more headaches than when the PCs have access to flight spells. Making flight common via mounts and technology (even if "lost") raises lore and gameplay questions. Why doesn't Tullius have hippogriffs? Where are the Dark Elf airships? Why don't enemy mages fly? Why is the Dragonborn the only human/elf that flies? Dragon-riding actually resolves this conundrum to a degree; only the dragonborn flies because he is awesome/special/has exclusive access without raises nagging questions.
Look, it's perfectly fine to argue you despise the notion of dragon-riding stylistically. But when you try to ground a subjective opinion in objective based logic, your argument is built on top of dubious assumptions.
Just say you don't like it and doesn't fit with what you consider is quality role-playing.