The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim without a main quest

[Wayne R]

I read from the bulk of the questions and ideas here that the main quest doesn’t get much of a mention, we seem to be more concerned about things that you do "outside" of the main quest, our interaction with the environment and how realism is an important factor. So my question is this would you like a future Elderscrolls title to deal more with the day to day survival of your character, deep interactions with environment and maybe quests given on the basis of how you develop your character? Using a standard controller or mouse/keyboard how would this work and what features would you like to see?

[desilva]

Given a development in Radiant AI, I think such a thing might be possible by the time TES VI is released. But it at a standstill needs a main quest because even though Minecraft has gotten fairly popular, non-RPG people in particular want purpose. I would have no problem with a TES without a MQ or maybe one where the MQ only came with the expansion. It’s always seemed a little odd that in so many CRPGs the fate of the world depends on you from level 1. It ain't like that in most PnP.

[RyanInt]

I know I would prefer the game to lack a Main Quest. Sure, the stories can be fun, but I'd really rather have these stories in books. Agreed, that would be great. Only thing is the main quest is kind of the selling point, they would need another way to make money. Most other options I can think of are worse than a main quest (which really doesn't have to hurt the game for RPG players too much in my opinion, I really enjoyed Oblivion's main quest for the most part and had no issue ignoring it when I wanted to).

[Hiller]

I would personally hate endings in Elderscrolls, indeed Fallout had an ending, but then again it had a start (you were born) but they "fixed" that with DLC didn't they? As for attracting non-RPG'ers, I get the point, but so far my non-RPG'ers friends have said, Skyrim looks awesome but isn’t it an RPG, I don’t like RPGs (each to his own I suppose), you could wrap it Gold Leaf and they still wouldn’t buy it! I have been gaming since 1984 and my gaming history is varied, but some people stick like glue to FPS, to them the main story in a game is un-important they just want to own their mates in multiplayer.

[AZUL]

I would happily play them without a main quest. I'm playing NV right now and I just got onto The Strip at level 29. I have visited nearly every place on the map so far, all from just exploring. I love to see what is over that hill, around the corner, and in that there dungeon or building. When I finally got to the Strip, and started the main quest, I was kind of disappointed. I don't really care to help any of them. I am kind of glad that I've seen everything now, because I can quit and still have had a great experience.

[RockOn]

In Oblivion the main quest was about 40 hours I think, and I could play 400 easily just doing all the other stuff. I agree it could be done, but for marketing purposes, you almost need to have a central basis somewhere. What might be cool is to have an epic battle/intrigue conflict plotline, but allow your character the opportunity to choose sides, ala Golden Saints / Dark Seducers in Shivering Isles, Build it up so the playthroughs required following totally different chapters with different quests, and character interactions. You'd really have two totally different main quests that you could play through!

[Squibbit]

Lots of people who played Arena and Daggerfall back when they were new, basically just played the games for the side quests. The main quest was of less importance. That kind of changed with Morrowind though, as the game world became noticeably smaller and there is a finite amount of side quests. But even so, there are still (a smaller amount of) people who never finished the main quest because it never was in their interest. They just did exploring instead. Same with Oblivion.