Why do so many people draw parallels to medieval Europe to justify their arguments? I have seen this parallel used in reference from thievery to sexism to disease. While Nirn is not technologically advanced, it is, on an overall social, cultural, and scientific basis much closer to modern society than medieval society. The people of Nirn have a complex understanding of biology, physics, mechanics, astronomy, and basic hygiene, and are more or less rolling in wealth. There are only ten homeless people in the whole kingdom/province of Skyrim!
I think we can safely say that populations and cities in Skyrim are representative, not exact. The same pretty much goes for any sort of Bethesda game, or the games for some other companies' franchises (like Mass Effect). The people in the game are a combination of the important individuals of the time period and some random people as representative of a larger whole. Biological diversity in Tamriel would be impossible given the displayed numbers, and the number of bandits far outnumbers the number of civilized people. The same goes with Forsworn. Furthermore, there's apparently more Stormcloaks than there are people in all the cities combined. Think of old free-roam games set in real cities. Oftentimes, they condensed and removed parts of the city. This wasn't due to getting some bad Mexican food there one time, it's because it was impossible to show literally everything. That's why the entire selling point of the True Crime games was being a 1 to 1 recreation of their city, and Sleeping Dogs, from the same devs, did the same with a section of Hong Kong. Thus, the people and cities of Skyrim can be used to infer their canon status.
For example, Riften is Fantasy Clevetroit (Cleveland + Detroit). No explanation needed. Chances are, in canon, there's thousands of homeless. The Gray Quarter of Windhelm is likely far larger in actual canon, and packed with thousands of elves. After all, if you take the numbers literally, how could anyone be threatened by such low numbers? Likewise, the "College" of Winterhold thus becomes an actual College, with tons and tons of students. Going backwards for a moment, same with the Mage's Guild in Oblivion. The issue is the amount of detail put into each character and location. As you add detail, you have to sacrifice numbers. For example, in free roam games, there's millions of generic civilian NPCs, but at most you might be able to steal a few bucks from them or kill them. In Bethesda games, there's far less, but each one has way more depth and interactivity. The same goes with cites. In some free roam games, there's a massive city... and you can barely do anything with it. Hell, part of GTA4 and 5's selling point was how interactive the cities were.
I like to call this "The Sliding Scale of Free Roam Detail and Variety". On one end, you have games like the Saints Row franchise, GTA and Prototype. Low detail, high variety. Millions of NPCs, massive cities, stuff like that. On the other, you have Bethesda games, for which "Why are cities so small?" is such an old question that honestly it's just kinda stupid by now. It's limitations of game design. In canon, the cities are tens of thousands of people. You see what matters for gameplay, lore and worldbuilding. The Cloud District is likely a fancy fantasy suburb. Dragonsreach has more rooms than my college has toilets. Riften is a disgusting mess that looks like the dragons already attacked it.
The general rule of fantasy works is that it's like the Middle Ages unless stated, but all the insane bullcrap that they believed back then is actually true. For example, magic and potions. Or fuckmothering dragons. Now, this said, I will agree that guards can easily fall under 'unless stated", but I have an easier defense: Gameplay and Story Segregation, which is what this all comes down to. To make gameplay work, there's way too many bandits, way way way too many soldiers, the towns are way too small, the "castles" are microscopic and the idea that there could be biodiversity is impossible since humans and elves should just be classified as endangered species, going by these population figures. However, storywise, Whiterun is a huge bustling metropolis, Riften is a wretched hive of scum and villainy, Solitude is basically their Washington DC and there isn't so many damn bandits. If this explanation upsets you, just repeat to yourself "It's just a game. I really should just relax" until you do.
@Faraneth, This isnt medieval, this is Nirn, Guards have been in shops in all the Elderscrolls games except Oblvion which had many on the streets waiting to catch you instead.
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For example, Riften is Fantasy Clevetroit (Cleveland + Detroit). No explanation needed. Chances are, in canon, there's thousands of homeless. The Gray Quarter of Windhelm is likely far larger in actual canon, and packed with thousands of elves. After all, if you take the numbers literally, how could anyone be threatened by such low numbers? Likewise, the "College" of Winterhold thus becomes an actual College, with tons and tons of students. Going backwards for a moment, same with the Mage's Guild in Oblivion. The issue is the amount of detail put into each character and location. As you add detail, you have to sacrifice numbers. For example, in free roam games, there's millions of generic civilian NPCs, but at most you might be able to steal a few bucks from them or kill them. In Bethesda games, there's far less, but each one has way more depth and interactivity. The same goes with cites. In some free roam games, there's a massive city... and you can barely do anything with it. Hell, part of GTA4 and 5's selling point was how interactive the cities were.
I like to call this "The Sliding Scale of Free Roam Detail and Variety". On one end, you have games like the Saints Row franchise, GTA and Prototype. Low detail, high variety. Millions of NPCs, massive cities, stuff like that. On the other, you have Bethesda games, for which "Why are cities so small?" is such an old question that honestly it's just kinda stupid by now. It's limitations of game design. In canon, the cities are tens of thousands of people. You see what matters for gameplay, lore and worldbuilding. The Cloud District is likely a fancy fantasy suburb. Dragonsreach has more rooms than my college has toilets. Riften is a disgusting mess that looks like the dragons already attacked it.
The general rule of fantasy works is that it's like the Middle Ages unless stated, but all the insane bullcrap that they believed back then is actually true. For example, magic and potions. Or fuckmothering dragons. Now, this said, I will agree that guards can easily fall under 'unless stated", but I have an easier defense: Gameplay and Story Segregation, which is what this all comes down to. To make gameplay work, there's way too many bandits, way way way too many soldiers, the towns are way too small, the "castles" are microscopic and the idea that there could be biodiversity is impossible since humans and elves should just be classified as endangered species, going by these population figures. However, storywise, Whiterun is a huge bustling metropolis, Riften is a wretched hive of scum and villainy, Solitude is basically their Washington DC and there isn't so many damn bandits. If this explanation upsets you, just repeat to yourself "It's just a game. I really should just relax" until you do.