Task 2 - Audience Response

In this task, I aim to gather players thoughts on The Elders Scrolls V: Skyrim's content by asking them question on how they felt the game tried to communicate to them and to the target audience. I also aim to gain their views on the more mature aspect of the game such as violence, and if they felt it negatively affected them or the experience.

Q: Do you like Role Playing Games?
Interviewee 1. Yes, I have played them for as long as I remember.
Interviewee 2. Yes, I enjoy RPG's and I have done for a long time.
Interviewee 3. 50/50, I mostly prefer online First Person Shooters, but I have played some RPG's which I have enjoyed.
Interviewee 4. Yes, I haven't played many RPG's but I have enjoyed the one's I have played including Skyrim.



Q: How do you personally feel the game is catered to your gaming interests?
Interviewee 1. I find this game fun to play due to its game mechanics and atmosphere.
Interviewee 2. I played Fallout, and the games are similar, which appealed to my interests.
Interviewee 3. I liked Lord of the Rings, which is similar so that appealed to me enough to play Skyrim.
Interviewee 4. It's a change to the genre's I usually play, which gives it a refreshing appeal.



Q: Did you feel Skyrim had a high level of violence, or did you feel it has a larger emphasis on exploration?
Interviewee 1. I feel it is more about exploration than violence.
Interviewee 2. I feel it is more about the exploration than the violence, due to the games open world being so detailed and explorable.
Interviewee 3. I think it can be more violent, due to other games having far higher levels of violence in comparison.
Interviewee 4. I think it is tame in comparison to how violent it can be such as in games like DOOM.



Q. From your time playing Skyrim, did you feel the game appeals more to Hardcore RPG fans or a more casual RPG market?
Interviewee 1. I think that Skyrim appeals to a more casual audience due to the lack of gameplay mechanics such as degrading weapons and perma death that was prominent in the RPG's of the 90's.
Interviewee 2. I feel that Skyrim is dumbed down significantly compared to its predecessors. The Elder Scrolls have gone from hard core cult classic games to games catered towards children in my opinion.
Interviewee 3. While I think Skyrim is more complicated than most RPG's I feel it is aimed at a more casual market. Especially when compared to RPG's such as Dark Souls.
Interviewee 4. I think that Skyrim is more casual than other RPG's in the market due to its easy difficulty and it's constant hand holding.



Q: Did you feel that Skyrim is a game made for a more mature audience, or a audience that is primarily consisted of younger age group?
Interviewee 1. I feel Skyrim is more aimed at a mature audience due to its violent content and it mature take on the usually tame fantasy genre.
Interviewee 2. I think Skyrim is more mature than anything, due to gameplay aspects such as the ability to decapitate enemies should you wish.
Interviewee 3. I think Skyrim was made for a younger audience due to its toned down gameplay mechanics and its lack of real difficulty.
Interviewee 4. Skyrim seems to be aimed at more mature audiences because of the games violence and the nature of the racism aimed at members of an ingame race.

Q: Do you feel Skyrim adheres to the codes and conventions of the fantasy genre, and if so, did that appeal to you?
Interviewee 1. I think Skyrim is very much your typical fantasy game due to its main character being a hero who's very existence is to save the world. Due to its lack of imagination, the codes and conventions did not appeal to me.
Interviewee 2. Skyrim does follow fantasy codes a lot, but due to this, it lacks a narrative or gameplay that is really unique in comparison to other games in the genre. While the gameplay appealed to me, the narrative did not.
Interviewee 3. Skyrim sticks to the codes and conventions of fantasy throughout and does not deviate from them all through the entire game. However, since I am a big fantasy fan, this appealed to me.
Interviewee 4. Yes, I think Skyrim did adhere to the codes and convention, but this may of prevented Skyrim from being truly unique. While I enjoyed Skyrim, I would of liked it to deviate more to deliver a more varied experience.


Overall, the audience liked Skyrim and felt it catered to their gaming interests. When it came to looking at whether Skyrim had a greater emphasis on violence or exploration, there was a common consensus that Skyrim was more about exploration than violence. The interviewees felt this due to the fact the game's violence is tame, in order to tone down its focus which would increase player interest in the games exploration aspects.

When asked about whether Skyrim has a greater focus on casual players or hardcore players, there was universal agreement that Skyrim is a casual RPG. The main reasons given were that Skyrim was not challenging and game mechanics such as degrading weapons had been removed taking away from the realism. They also felt competitors such as Dark Souls were true Hard Core RPG's and had aspects of gameplay that Skyrim lacked in order to appeal to the hard core.

When asked about whether Skyrim was focused on a young or mature audience, the general feeling was that it was aimed at adults. One person felt it was aimed at children due to low difficulty and lack of realistic mechanics. The other felt it was a mature game because of the violence and the mature themes explored.

Finally, the interviewees felt that Skyrim did adhere to the codes and conventions of the fantasy genre. Every participant felt Skyrim followed them to strictly and as such, Skyrim prevented its self from being truly unique and giving the genre something that hasn't been done before.