Hehe...The first question that i will ask....
Does your friend like playing story driven rpg? like divinity series, pillars of eternity, dark souls, Tyranny, Mass Effect, ES before skyrim, old crpg games, Dragon age series, Deux Ex, Fallout 1 until new Vegas (4 optional), Vampyr, alpha protocol, etc. Skyrim not included. Because almost all of my friends that played skyrim just "played it" they don't actually immerse into the story. They just "bandwagon" into the hype. Well if he likes rpg game and loved to play one of those game that i just said above. You don't need to explain to him why this game is great. You just asked him what's the con of this game? If it's underrated what's the better game? If he doesn't play any one of the game above and finished it. Lol.. You don't need to explain anything. He doesn't like game that have a text or dialog.