Now, as we all know, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was a turning point in the lives of everyone who played it. It won multiple awards, including G4's and Spike TV's Game of the Year awards, it sucked up (on average) over a hundred hours per person who owned it, and it featured Patrick Stewart as Uriel Septim. It was obviously one of the greater games to have ever existed. However, it is not flawless, and there are some things that should be added (and subtracted) from the next Elder Scrolls title.

[u]Additions and Improvements:[/u]

More Variety in the look of Spells and Magic
The spells in Oblivion had about 3 different looks: lightning bolts, a blue/white flying orb thing, and an orange/red flying orb... thing. Obviously, this isn't a huge gripe, because of the variety of effects and what not, but it would be fantastic if there could be more interesting magic effects, and perhaps if you could tweak the color/size/type of graphic of your custom spells. This would create a more interesting and beautiful world in which to play in.

An Established "Home"
The previous Elder Scrolls titles have allowed you to buy houses and store your possessions there indefinitely, which is a wonderful and convenient feature, and adds to the personal feel of the game. Unfortunately, since it allowed you to buy multiple houses, but didn't distinguish which cities your houses were in, it became difficult and sometimes irritating trying to remember where you left your Mehrune's Razor or Cloak of Invisibility. In the next game, I'd appreciate having a specific Home that was marked on the map, and then be allowed to change where my established home was. Also, it would be a nice addition if you could establish houses outside of the cities as your own, for example, if you killed all of the inhabitants of a cabin in the woods, you should be able to claim that cabin as your own and not have your items disappear from inside.

The Ability To Form Your Own Guild
Oblivion would occasionally allow you to lead one or two or three "followers" on missions (most notably the "adoring fan"), which created a feeling of brotherhood. This was all fine and dandy, but I think the idea could be expanded into creating custom guilds. Obviously, this would be a feature that could only be used by higher level characters, which would add a sense of accomplishment when it became an option. Also, you could create your own crests, guild halls, and choose who to accept into your guild. Your guild members would be able to assist you on particularly difficult quests, and when your brethren died on quests, it might actually have some emotional pull.

Opening a Shop
Similar to opening a guild, but instead of guild members you could hire shop keepers, and then put items you wish to sell into the store. The shop keeper would maintain the goods and sell the items to the locals, should you price them reasonably. This way, you wouldn't have to spend valuable game hours in a shop, but could put all of the items you wish to sell in a store and wait for them to sell themselves, essentially. This would be especially engrossing for players who (like me) enjoy actual role playing, in which you might become a hunter or professional bounty hunter.


[u]Things that SHOULD NOT be in the game[/u]
The Realm of Oblivion
This may cause some arguments, but I believe that since the Oblivion gates were effectively shut and destroyed in the Fourth Elder Scrolls title, they should not make a return in the fifth game. The Bethesda team is a creative group of people, well capable of creating a new antagonist equally as frightening as the demons inside of Oblivion. There were hundreds of "books" written for in-game play, many of which described creatures that do not actually appear in game.

DO NOT MAKE IT AN MMO
Making the fifth elder scrolls game into a Massively-Multiplayer game would ruin the feel and necessity of the Non Player characters, which was a huge part of the experience. The game would not translate well, because the environments in the games (while still huge) are not as big as in an MMO, and if it were it would sacrifice detail and make the game feel more empty (think an even MORE empty Morrowind). Also, I hate 12 year olds, and I play Role Playing games to get away from them.

Keep Children Out of the Game
I mean this in two different ways, don't put any children as NPC's and don't try to pander to the entire gaming community by making this game rated Teen. Bethesda obviously doesn't want us slaying children, because you are unable to kill the annoying 12 year old in Fallout 3 (as stated before, I play videogames to get AWAY from them), and I doubt that they'd change that in Elder Scrolls V (But if they will, by all means, but the little buggers in). Also, bethesda's recent games work better as Mature rated games. I realize that Oblivion was originally rated T, but I agree with the changes. The themes expressed in the games are definitely mature, and I'd like to see them stay that way. Also, Gore!