Skyrim Journal: Prologue

Author's Note: The prologue to this journal is intended to serve as a brief insight into my discovery of the Elder Scrolls series and highlight the road to it. Subsequent entries will document my experience with TES V: Skyrim.

I know for a fact that I was in elementary school (primary school for our UK friends) when I'd originally caught wind of The Elder Scrolls. It was during recess on the playground when a fellow gamer mentioned a game called Morrowind. At that age, I wasn't much of an established gamer; I primarily spent time with GoldenEye on Nintendo 64, The Sims on PC and a scattered bit of Playstation 2 titles. However, being an avid Sims fan, my friend's description of Morrowind had tantalised my ears. He described it as "an open world game where you fight with swords and you can make your own character and own a house." Naturally, I was completely enthralled but in my absent-minded ten-year-old days, I didn't write down the name.

Long after hearing about Morrowind, I'd finally remembered it when I saw it on a shelf in GameStop. As I do to this day, I went home and researched it before deciding to purchase the game. After reading reviews that I barely understood and seeing screenshots depicting fights with the undead in tombs, I decided it wasn't for me at the time. Years later, I discovered Fable and settled on that instead. It wasn't until I'd discovered Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas in 2010 that I'd gotten my first taste of a Bethesda game. As New Vegas appealed to me most at the time, I started with that one and soon found myself completely enthralled in the post-apocalyptic world and as it was my first taste of an open-world roleplaying game as well, needless to say you'd have found me hard pressed to play anything else for quite some time.

I'd put over three months' time into Fallout: New Vegas before I researched other open-world RPGs and found TES IV: Oblivion to pique my interest. After noticing that it was from the same brilliant minds responsible for Fallout, I made haste to GameStop and treated myself to a copy. At that time, I was completely ignorant to the fact that Morrowind was of the same video game series and I was not educated on that until I'd heard mentions of Morrowind--which I later learned was a place within the fictional world--and realised what game series I'd been dabbling in.

It was then that I rediscovered Morrowind and took the time to experience it and in lieu of the spoiling I'd put myself through by playing Oblivion first, I was unable to fully enjoy Morrowind and went back to its successor. It was a few months down the line that I'd caught wind of the upcoming game, Skyrim, and knew that I wouldn't have a social life for quite a bit of time.

To this day, I still cannot pinpoint what it is that I adore most about The Elder Scrolls series as a whole. Every now and then I sit down with a pen and paper and make a list of what I like about the game and cross reference the list to see if there's any recurring themes, in terms of open-world, combat, story, roleplaying elements, etc. and the end result is usually a mixture of everything. As much as I'd love to and try to come up with a single reason why I adore it so, it always boils down to a lengthy explanation detailing every positive aspect about it.

In the end, there is no single reason. There is too much within each individual game (nevermind the series as a whole) to allow for the declaration of a single element that properly describes the reasoning behind the infatuation...and that's a good thing. I can't say I've loved any game more than I love Skyrim nor any game series more than I love The Elder Scrolls, and I've played over at least two hundred video games so far.

What I must admit though is that while I cannot land on a single reason why I love the game so much, whenever I have a seat and can't decide what game to play, my heart always points me in the direction of Skyrim's position in my video game shelf.

Over the past year since Skyrim's release, there has been a multitude of video games that've piqued my interest, forcing me to leave Skyrim alone for quite a bit of time. However, as of late I've found myself yearning to get into it once more but lacking the motivation to dedicate hours upon hours to progression in the game--until the release of the Dawnguard, Hearthfire, and Dragonborn add-ons. I purchased the Dragonborn add-on with a Microsoft Points card my brother gave to me on Christmas and since then, I haven't been able to put Skyrim down again.

It's good to be home.

I decided to start this journal to document my rediscovery of TES V: Skyrim and share my thoughts, experiences and adventures with the community. To ensure quality and the prevention of going stale, I will most likely only update the journal with new posts weekly, which will provide more substantially interesting material to write about.

I look forward to sharing my experiences with the community and I hope those interested will keep up with the developments. I have something quite interesting to share that I will be saving until the end of the journal.

Happy Gaming!

[imtheman2013]

My first experience with TES was also Oblivion. My friend had downloaded it, albeit illegally; I put it on my PC and fell in love. Later, I felt bad about technically stealing it, so I bought the anniversary edition.

Then, when Skyrim was released, I stayed up for at least 3 days playing it. Some of my best gaming memories are with Oblivion and Skyrim. I can't pin-point why I love the series either, probably just because it's amazing.

Anyway, I look forward to reading your blog and sharing your Skyrim adventures!

[caseh]

'It wasn't until I'd discovered Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas in 2010 that I'd gotten my first taste of a Bethesda game'

Similar to my experience but I had played Morrowind many years ago but failed to get into it and had not realised that Oblivion was a natural successor.

My first real experience was with Fallout 3 which I would say is the best RPG Bethesda have done. After hammering Fallout 3 for a few weeks I decided to go and look up Oblivion but couldn't get into it. Think I done the games in the wrong order as Fallout 3 just feels like a far superior game.

Had Skyrim bought for me last Christmas and went flat out on it for about a week, I can see why this game got so much love. The scope of the game is absolutely ridiculous. Every man, dog and child you speak to has a quest of some sort. By the time I left Whiterun for the first time I had picked up between 10-15 quests and even though i've spent 30+ hours playing it I have done maybe two sections of the main quest.

Like Fallout 3, I found myself going on random treks 'oh whats that building...' several hours later I may actually do a quest but more often than not getting side tracked into doing random stuff is what I loved about these types of games. Despite the bugs/glitches encountered, no other dev provides a open world experience like Bethesda games do.

[lex-1020]

I am proud to say that I am probably in the 1/10 people who have actually played and beat Arena, the First Elder Scrolls game, I've also played and beat Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim. However I felt that Fallout 3 was a bit of a letdown compared to those. My biggest problem with Fallout had nothing to do with the countless or average story. It was all about the content. With only 8 side quests it felt like an underdeveloped RPG compared to what Bethesda usually creates. I did enjoy the exploration but exploration without a purpose is sometimes very dull.
Morrowind is by far my favorite RPG of all time and I challenge everyone to try and beat it as it is a very difficult game.

Finally just a note. "It wasn't until I'd discovered Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas in 2010 that I'd gotten my first taste of a Bethesda game" Fallout New Vegas is not a Bethesda game. It is published by Bethesda yes, but it is actually made and developed by Obsidian Entertainment.

[imtheman2013]

I think that if Fallout 3 came with all of the later DLC when it was released, it would have left a better impression on you. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the expansions, although the Game of The Year Edition had some framerate issues. Anyway, Fallout 3 stands pretty high in my top RPG of all time list.

[lex-1020]

Yes it would have. Don't get me wrong when I say that Fallout 3 was a bit of a letdown. I'm not saying that it was a bad game in any sense. In fact it was and is still an exceptionally good game, minus of course the painful prolog you have to play through before you get out of the vault. It just, was less of an epic world to get invested in. With things like Skyrim yes there are bunches of stupid little quests but those quests give you reasons to go explore places, other than just simple curiosity. It gave you a reason to get invested in the world. It gave you something to do.
Fallout 3 gave you a little to do, 8 quests, and the rest was up to you. They relied on your sense of curiosity. Were you curious enough to go explore? Did you want to find all of these legendary weapons? ect. I still enjoyed it greatly and put over 500 hours into it. But I felt like they invested more into overall design and less into RPG.