Chapter 786 - 786: The Legend of the Chicken God

Regarding the content of The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, although only an official website with some simple text and images has been released.

But for players, it was like celebrating the New Year, with major communities and forums discussing the game's content.

Most of the topics focused on one point: what kind of game is The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim leaning towards?

After all, with open-world games like Red Dead Redemption: Redemption and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, as well as industry giants like zeus entering the open-world genre, this type of game has basically been divided into three categories.

The first category is open-world games with strong plots and backgrounds, like Red Dead Redemption: Redemption and The Witcher: Wild Hunt.

The second category is open-world games focused on exploration, like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

And the third, which is currently the most common and chosen by many game studios, is the formulaic approach: a large map combined with multiple outposts and side quests to create a sense of openness.

Although criticized by many players, it must be said that it still has a large market. As long as the grinding and "sweating" content isn't too extreme, coupled with excellent art and scene design, many players will still choose to buy it.

The content is also easier compared to the first two categories, so for most game developers, this formulaic open world is the preferred choice.

However, with Nebula Games, many players never expected that this game called The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim would be a formulaic open-world game.

After all, in the promotion, Lucas directly announced the type of open world. If it were such a formulaic open world, it would be a huge blow to Nebula Games' reputation.

For Nebula Games now, the profit gained from damaging its reputation through false advertising is completely disproportional to what it would lose.

But here's the question: with Red Dead Redemption: Redemption, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and The Witcher: Wild Hunt as shining examples, can The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim reach their heights?

Players on the internet are buzzing. There are those who believe The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim won't be an ordinary open world, those who remain calm and lower their expectations, and those who are pessimistic.

However, compared to the heated discussions and explorations online about The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim.

Inside Nebula Games, Lucas and his team weren't paying too much attention.

Because the entire team was busy developing content for The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim.

"Boss Lucas, this chicken?"

Within the team, Hector, who was conducting a review and calibration, looked at a numerical setting with some confusion.

"In Riverwood's scene design, this chicken will trigger a bounty, but there are no guards in Riverwood in the story."

Hector said to Lucas.

"Ah, this is mainly to increase the player's sense of immersion. In the world of Skyrim, if you commit a crime, you must pay the price. And the villagers are playing their part, right?"

Seeing where Hector pointed, Lucas smiled slightly.

Of course, this was one reason. Another reason was that Lucas felt it would be a shame to do without this chicken.

In his previous life, The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim had a well-known in-joke among players.

This joke even transcended the game of The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim itself.

That's the great Chicken God of Riverwood.

It's well known that the residents of Skyrim, besides regularly worshipping the moody Daedric princes, secretly worship the "Chicken God." And gods cannot be desecrated, otherwise, the consequences are severe.

Among them, the avatars of the "Chicken God" are located in various places in Skyrim.

But the most well-known avatar is the one in Riverwood.

Here, people worship the Chicken God fanatically. If anyone commits an act of disrespect, they will be hunted down to the ends of the earth.

Well, this story is of course a joke.

As Hector said.

In reality, the origin of this meme was mainly due to a design flaw in a scene from The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim in the previous life.

It wasn't a bug as players imagined, but rather an oversight in the map design.

Because in The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, killing NPCs or stealing their belongings will incur a certain amount of bounty.

And the bounty value is independent for each region. For example, if you commit a crime in City A and go to City B, you're a brand new person, as it's not under the jurisdiction of the same Jarl.

To clear your bounty, you either go to jail or pay a fine to the local guards.

Riverwood is a small town under the jurisdiction of Whiterun and is likely the first新手村 (newbie village) players encounter after starting the game.

However, in this新手村 (newbie village), whether it was intentional by the development team or an oversight in the previous life, there were no guards. Although it made sense according to the lore.

The reason given in the lore was that due to Riverwood's proximity to the Rift, and to avoid the steward of the Rift, Nanya, from overthinking, Balgruuf did not send guards to Riverwood until the news of the dragons emerged.

The lore made sense, but the map design was different. Because during this period, if players committed a crime, they couldn't pay a fine to atone or go to jail.

The key was that at the entrance of Riverwood, there was a proud rooster pacing back and forth.

It was so conspicuous, its steps so brazen.

So much so that many players, upon seeing this chicken, couldn't resist the urge to kill it.

And that caused a huge problem.

They gained a bounty, but there was no way to atone for it. Thus, players had to face a horde of angry villagers.

Many players' first death wasn't at the hands of Giants, Daedra, or Dragons.

But rather, they lost their first life because of a seemingly harmless chicken.

Therefore, despite making modifications to most of the content in The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim and fixing some flaws.

Lucas still preserved the "Chicken God" setting in Riverwood.

Of course, it couldn't be preserved as crudely as in the previous life, as it would leave players utterly confused.

Here, Lucas also set up a process. Ralof, who was accompanying the Dragonborn, would provide a warning through dialogue when inviting the Dragonborn to Riverwood. There would also be a friendly reminder at the entrance of Riverwood.

If the player stubbornly attacked at this point, the villagers in the game would act as guards and demand compensation from the Dragonborn for killing the chicken.

The compensation wouldn't be too heavy, as players would have collected some coins during their escape from the Helgen Keep.

Of course, if they didn't have any or were unwilling to pay, then the player would have to experience the villagers' fists.

A Dragonborn's life, without having died because of a chicken, is a regrettable life, not a legendary one.

(End of this chapter)