Have you ever suddenly found yourself overwhelmed with a long list of “to-dos” at work or at home? If so, you surely have been a victim of the video game, Skyrim.
The Elder Scrolls is a fantastic escapism series that is well crafted in story, emotion, and most importantly, immersion. You can pick up Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim and feel like you are actually living in these worlds.
I recently started a playthrough of Skyrim over on my Twitch channel and rediscovered how immersive it really is. From NPCs having their own schedules, to the atmosphere changing between day/night cycles. Each portion of this game feels real in its massive open world scale.
I attempted to walk through the game with no fast travel (except the carts) and discovered something about myself I didn’t know. Skyrim prepared me for real life.
Skyrim Tasks You With Tasks
Just like real life, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim throws an overwhelming amount of things to do your way. The very first time I attempted to play this game, I do remember feeling uneasy whenever I opened my menu to look at the next quest. In fact, I never actually completed the main quest initially because of this.
There is always a new mission or quest whenever you spoke to some one. When you were finished with or even in the middle of that, a new one would pop up as well. It is never ending!
The older I got and the more I restarted the game, this became less of an issue because I eventually learned to immerse myself and prioritize what my character felt was the most important. The random rag-tag gang stealing Skooma shipments? Not my problem at the moment, I’m trying to find out what happened to me after I drank too much with a random wizard at a bar and almost got married.
That’s the beauty of Skyrim. You don’t HAVE to do anything. Literally. Even the main questline.
This game makes you feel like an actual citizen more than anything I have ever played before. I even find myself heading to a bridge or mountain pass and just taking in all the ambiance when real life gets too heavy.
But also, just like in real life, completing these tasks does get you rewarded. Now, you may not get a sweet armor set and sword by creating a few spreadsheets at work, but you get the idea.
The Journey Is Part Of The Quest
As I previously mentioned, I attempted to play the game without fast travel. This is where I found out that I equate real life tasks to the way I manage my Skyrim quests.
I run through my list of missions and prioritize for the day. Since some quests will either take longer to get to or may start a whole chain of sub-quests, I need to make sure I’m being productive and getting what needs to be done, done.
I’d even run into the moments where I’d say “Ugh, that is too far. How about I do some of these other ones first?” and wait. The funny thing about this, is that when I would eventually take that journey, the walks there became my favorite part.
Maybe I did get side tracked by a bear or bandit. Maybe a dragon chased me into a small town where I find I’d actually really like to get a house. Maybe none of this happens if I just put it off.
Sometimes getting somewhere isn’t the point. Sometimes the walk there is.
This applied so much to my real life just because of one video game. I spent too much time debating something because of time. Whether it be distance or the task just takes awhile, I would put something off just because.
Skyrim has showed me that while the task itself may not be the greatest, that adventure, that journey, can lead to some great moments.
It also taught me that, you know, I don’t HAVE to answer that email this second. Or that my project isn’t due this minute. I can complete the tasks I have at hand before taking on 147 new ones. Life will still go on. The tasks will forever be there. The world keeps spinning.
Sometimes You Don’t Notice Yourself Leveling Up
I needed a healing spell in a pinch. I ran out of potions. My healing sucked. It barely did anything. But as I used it more and more, I gained more proficiency. Before I had even realized it, I was looking into other spells and trying out things I didn’t really think I would like. I was meant to be a warrior. Now, I can do anything.
Skyrim lets you take in the world how you want. That includes leveling up. You choose your path. You choose the skills you want to master. Then, you master them. But to do so, you have to practice. You have to repeat your process over and over until it works for you.
This transferred into my life as well. Heck, I could barely write a few coherent sentences together before I kept at it over and over. Before I knew it “Oh I want to open a video game website” was an actual thought in my head.
You don’t wake up one morning and suddenly become better at everything. You have to Skyrim those skills.
In Conclusion
So maybe Skyrim itself didn’t actually prepare me for real life. Maybe it just reminded me that, even though we do get so many things or quests thrown at us all at once, we don’t have to do every single one right now. We can pick what is important to us, finish what we can and save the rest for tomorrow. And every once in a while, forget about the main quest entirely and watch the sunset over Skyrim.
Looking for more Summer of RPGs? Check out a featured article below:
Leave a Reply