Alright, I admit, I have gone back to playing Oblivion. Even with the last updates that I added in the last post talking about how I would have finally wanted to stop playing Oblivion, I’ve come to end up playing it yet again. After MikeOn314, along with a few other people that I know that have played Oblivion when it came out along with the subsequent DLCs, I’ve come to understand now that it’s all about constantly questing while peppering your quests wayside travels. This involves getting lost in some areas to end up finding shrines of some deities of questionable morals and ethics, making potions out of herbs that you find at random around your environment, raising your acrobatics, athletics, and what have you while getting into fights all the time and looting.

There is so much more to add to that list but it’s definitely constantly about going around and meeting objectives that allows you to really feel that the pacing of the game is accelerating to a particular direction and manner where you don’t feel like you’re just mining through a game needlessly or mindlessly. The sense of purpose is the drive of the game along with exploration. So what then of the main quest of the game? Well it turns out from what many tell me is that the main quest is….not very interesting. And given the descriptions of how many have played the game before me, the best way to play oblivion – and Skyrim if you happen to be playing that game as well – is to allow detours to “happen” along the way. It’s sort of like doing what happenes in Lord of the Rings, where you have your starting party and you think that the story is going to continue in the particular pace and direction when suddenly something happens or a decision is made where your character ends up following a great detour or a set or two of detours. And all of this may seem, when observed in detail, as isolated obstructions, but then allow you to witness the building of the character(s). Which then all comes together once you come back to the “main course”, if you will, and you then realize that all the trails and detours really helped put a zest to the main quest overall – from start to finish.

And that was probably the reason why I did played the game initially as I did: I did not consider in taking deliberate long detours.

So it’s why now, with GUNGHO917 – who is just starting to play Oblivion – I’m advising to take as many detours as possible before continuing onward and to grow his character as much as possible before ending up finishing the main quest. And there are benefits to it which will later make the challenges brought on by the main quest seem insignificant I’m sure. So it’s best for anyone that is playing either Oblivion, or Skyrim, or any possible future Elder Scrolls title in going about. But now….about myself.

All about the Gold

So since I have already finished the main quest, and subsequently closed myself out from being able to loot within places of Oblivion with the total elimination of oblivion portals, I’ve now come to end up looting ruins, caves, forts, and mines. Not exactly the most satisfying of places to go to all the time (especially true if all these places happen to be nothing more than level design remixes that were made by the very same level designer) with some few among these categories being a considerable exception. So right now the whole entire time now is dedicated to essentially tomb/mine/fort/ruin raiding. But what would be the point aside of leveling up combat attributes of my character? Well it’s really just all about the looting and then selling off items found for various prices while fooling around with the haggle slide bar.

The other thing is that, while going around the entire map and exploring new places to pillage, I collect enchanted items and weapons to which, at some point, I’ll end up selling off (although this is unlikely) while buy just about every little piece of real estate I can get along with their respective upgrades. And all for following the dumb rule: whoever stops playing with all the in-game toys wins.

No but seriously though, it’s a bit fun sometimes to find some considerable amount of resellable loot (especially heavy armor) and then just spend on tools instead of very expensive services to repair, recharge, enchant your items of daily use. After a while you’ll be filthy rich and with more money than you could ever bother with spending or looting for. There are a few people that will try to complete all quests, buy all the houses, collect all the enchanted weapons they can get, hoard as much of particular weapons os possible and mod their game to the max. I…well…I just want to finish the quests and get on with the next massive title.

Stay tuned for the next installment on this subject!