Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-2165692-20140425203121/@comment-17114085-20140824152456

Smoking.Chimp wrote: Harold Burned-Mane wrote:

Datadragon Odahviing wrote: Having said this, there is ample in-game evidence supporting the contrary conclusion that the Falmer are not blind. For example, the Dovahkiincan see while wearing a Falmer helmet. This is true, in context, because it is part of the in-game reality of which the Dovahkiinis a part. This in-game reality could not follow from the blindness of the Falmer because blind Falmer would not leave holes in the helmet where none were needed as this would be counter-productive to the purpose of the helmet and, presumably, the Falmer are not without any brain-matter. It is not lore that you can see out of a Falmer helmet only because nobody else has ever tried wearing a Falmer helmet to see if what they've heard about the Falmer being blind is really true. However, relative to the Dovahkiin, it becomes lore as soon as s/he tries the helmet on and is not blinded - which, by the way, is not beyond the game mechanics. The direct inference which follows, likewise, becomes part of the Dovahkiin's idiosyncratic version of lore. The Falmer are not blind, they just want everyone to believe that they are blind for political=strategic reasons. The reason why the player can see while wearing the helmet is the same reason why the Moth Priest can walk around Fort Dawnguard while being blind and wearing a piece of cloth over his, now useless, eyes. The Moth Priest is blind, he clearly states that he is, yet if you attack him he fights just like a normal person would. This is because the game was never designed to take into account a person's ability to see or one during combat, much like the Falmer. They are blind yet they don't act blind because of the game's limitations, not because they want to trick people into thinking they are blind. That is completely stupid speculation.

Also that effect is from Morrowind, and in no way appears in Skyrim. You can't say that because you aren't blinded like you could be in Morrowind as an argument for this. Those two games have different mechanics. It would be like saying that a person couldn't use a spell and a weapon, one in each hand, before Skyrim...and such that skill must only have been learned by the population of Tamriel during the 4th Era. That is absurd. These are different game mechanics that only appear in certain games, they don't influence anything lore wise in the other games. Unless Bethesda wants to explain why they removed or added a certain game mechanic, like levitation from Morrowind. They explained that it was outlawed by the Mages Guild so people wouldn't keep asking. "Why can't I use levitation?! I could use it in the last game!"

It doesn't matter if gameplay =/= lore creates immersion breaking, because it is impossible to make a game that is 100% immersive. The developers have to decide what they want or don't want to add to the game, and sometimes that breaks immersion. Like for example how weapons and armor don't degrade in Skyrim. Does that mean that during the 4th Era they found a way to make indestructible weapons and armor? No, it is just a game mechanic that they didn't add for some reason. It doesn't mean that now everything is indestructible. This is immersion breaking, yes, but that doesn't mean that gameplay =/= lore is wrong. In reality, those weapons and armor would degrade and break down, like they did in Oblivion and Morrowind.