I’ll start off by saying that this is probably a coincidence, a random of mixture of circumstances with no conscious thought behind it, but it seems that the Argonians have yet to appear in any game footage for the forthcoming Skyrim. Bethesda released a video detailing two of the three non-human looking races, the Kahjiit and the Orcs, and yet the Argonians remained a mystery. I have no particular love for the Argonians but those fans that do are rabid and desperate to see what they look like in the new engine.

I would chock this up to just a lack of forethought and yet the sheer dearth of material had me wondering; do Bethesda know there’s a whole league of Argonian fans out there who buy these games for that reason? Is there something bigger going on? Is there a new radical redesign they intend to showcase at an opportune time?

There have been reports coming out from a variety of sources at QuakeCon who’ve played a preview build and it’s pretty much confirmed that they are at least in the game but aside from that there have been no real comments on the matter. All the fans want is a screenshot. Is that too much to ask?

I’m no Argonian fan but the lack of information out there has made me incredibly curious, the only shred of information I could find was a low resolution clipping of concept art that was so blurred you could barely make out a tail. The suspicious side in me makes me think that perhaps this could be the point, to try and drum up some interest in them, but realistically speaking the Argonians have their diehard fans and most other people won’t even notice their lack of presence.

So I come back to my first conclusion, Bethesda probably just doesn’t know this small part of the community cares so passionately about them, but perhaps if some people became a little more vocal they’d show an image or two? Just a thought.

I’ll start off by saying that this is probably a coincidence, a random of mixture of circumstances with no conscious thought behind it, but it seems that the Argonians have yet to appear in any game footage for the forthcoming Skyrim. Bethesda released a video detailing two of the three non-human looking races, the Kahjiit and the Orcs, and yet the Argonians remained a mystery. I have no particular love for the Argonians but those fans that do are rabid and desperate to see what they look like in the new engine.

I would chock this up to just a lack of forethought and yet the sheer dearth of material had me wondering; do Bethesda know there’s a whole league of Argonian fans out there who buy these games for that reason? Is there something bigger going on? Is there a new radical redesign they intend to showcase at an opportune time?

There have been reports coming out from a variety of sources at QuakeCon who’ve played a preview build and it’s pretty much confirmed that they are at least in the game but aside from that there have been no real comments on the matter. All the fans want is a screenshot. Is that too much to ask?

I’m no Argonian fan but the lack of information out there has made me incredibly curious, the only shred of information I could find was a low resolution clipping of concept art that was so blurred you could barely make out a tail. The suspicious side in me makes me think that perhaps this could be the point, to try and drum up some interest in them, but realistically speaking the Argonians have their diehard fans and most other people won’t even notice their lack of presence.

So I come back to my first conclusion, Bethesda probably just doesn’t know this small part of the community cares so passionately about them, but perhaps if some people became a little more vocal they’d show an image or two? Just a thought.

I am, like, ninety percent certain there were shots of Argonians released to the public. But I could be mis-remembering. I've been wrong before.

I'll try to hunt one down and post it here if I find it.

EDIT: Right around 2:17 in this video you can see some Argonian concept art on the left. Not exactly a firm screenshot. But it's something.

Depressing thread.

@Tim_the_Corsair: Okay...

@Sir_Ragnarok: Yeah, that's the piece of concept art I mentioned, it's the only material regarding the Argonians I've found. I may have slighty exaggerated how lacking in detail it was but it's still not really much. A friend told me that there were no Argonian pictures out there and I thought the same as you, there had to be something, but no. I found it pretty surprising.

If Argonians are reptiles and cold blooded then it wouldn't make sense for many of them to be on Skyrim since it's a colder place. So maybe that's it.

I'm positive Bethesda is fully aware of the pressure that fans are putting on them to give us a picture. They've been very cautious about releasing information to us on Skyrim, slowly but surely leaking little by little, so I'm sure we'll see an Argonian sometime before the game is released. 
 
I'm guessing Argonians just had the biggest redesign of all the races, and they just didn't want to release a picture of them right away and instead save it for a time when it'll really give us a shock. If you visit the official Skryim forums you'll actually find that most people are dying to see what they look like, myself included. I've always been an Argonian player, and after seeing what the other races look like so far my hopes are extremely high for my reptilian buddies. 

I hardly doubt if people start whining loudly that Bethesda's going to do something about it. I mean give them a break they have to keep something a secret

@McGhee_the_Insomniac: I know they're in it, besides I'm not sure what the actual biology of the Argonians is but there are certain species of turtle that can provide internal heat to their bodies while in ice cold water. Strictly speaking these turtles aren't warm blooded but their bodies are heated.

@Hobbies: At this point if they are holding it back I think it is definitely to get people talking about it.

@sreya92: I get that but it's just one race, you know? There's so much in that game that I don't see a race, which you'll spot when you load up the character creation screen, being that big of a secret.

 does Bethesda know there’s a whole league of Argonian fans out there who buy these games for that reason?

I'd be pretty bummed out if Argonians weren't in the game. They were always the race that I played.

I'm pretty sure Bethesda has already released a screenshot of a Kahjit and an Arg...no wait that was an orc. Nevermind.

Argonians will be DLC.

I think it's a bit crazy to speculate that Argonians wouldn't be in a game. That video is nothing but a slideshow of pretty old screenshots, and the "racial variety" of the game world is pretty set-in-stone.

@BrowncoatGrimm said:

 does Bethesda know there’s a whole league of Argonian fans out there who buy these games for that reason?

Tell me this isn't true.

They've said that shots of Argonians are forthcoming. They said so along with the shot of the Dunmer they just released.

They're letting stuff out piecemeal because some of it may not be totally ready, and also that's how gaming press works. You want a constant flood of new information so you can stay in the news.

They just had a vote on which race to show and Dunmer won. So blame the dark elf fans.

@Tim_the_Corsair: So I take it you'll be creating a Troll character in Skyrim?

@august: @yoshimitz707: I saw that Dunmer screenshot, they look pretty cool, but then again compared to Oblivion even the Humans look better.

Also I get the whole trickle of information for press thing, it's just that it only matters to a handful of fans with the majority of people, myself included to a degree, not really caring that much; something to which the facebook poll can attest.