New Obsession: Skyrim

Dammit, Shiloh! You have done it again!

My dear friend Shiloh has always supported me and my hobbies, but she has also fueled my addiction over the years. This year she gave me a copy of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition for Christmas at the start of this month (We like giving gifts early, don’t judge!) and I have become addicted.

This was the first Elder Scrolls game I have played, but not the first Bethesda game as I am a big Fallout fan. So, when I started the game I had some high expectations.

Not only did Skyrim meet them, but crushed them.

Man, this game is fun! The world is massive and there is so much to do. Like Fallout, Skyrim gives you so many different choices not only in dialogue and story progression but also gameplay. Do you want to take the sneaky route? Would you rather talk your way out of conflict? Or do you just want to burn everything to the ground? The choice is yours.

Thing is, I have a Christmas temp job at a certain card store. This means I don’t have as much time as I would like to play Skyrim. If the shop is quiet I find myself daydreaming about the fun I could be having slaying dragons and causing chaos, but instead, I am having to deal with serious back pain from carrying stock all over the place and getting screamed at by customers.

No, really.

Just today (Monday 12th) I was working at the till and a woman was blocking the man I was trying to serve. When I politely asked if she could move over a little so I could help him, her hellhound of a husband pounced. “How dare you talk to my wife like that! Learn some patience!” He yelled finger pointed in my face, while I was shaking behind the till.  He looked like he was going to sock me in the jaw.

I have never been so scared in my life! He was at least two heads taller than me with the build of a rugby player. He gave me a death glare when he and his wife left. Keep in mind, Wifey didn’t say a word at all. I was just doing what my boss told me to. Plus, I do have autism so it might have come out as rude, but that is still no way to treat someone!

During my lunch break, after I had calmed down, I thought about how fitting it would be if I could use Thu’um in real life situations like this. You want a shouting contest, mate? Bring it!

But alas, I can’t. Reality is such a buzz kill.

Despite the fact this job has taken away nearly all of my free time, moments like this drive me to start up Skyrim the second I get home. One of my co-workers gets it, though. I told him that I was given Skyrim and he gave me a pitying look and simply said: “Your life is over”. Needless to say, he was right.

I have lost sleep from playing this game late into the night since that is pretty much the only time I have to play Skyrim and it is not enough! On my days off (though I barely get those, I have one this week) I will not move away from my PS4. I will skip meals and sleep if it means I can level up, or learn a new shout.

When I played Fallout 4, I never bothered with mods. For a while, it was hinted that they would be available on PS4, then they said it wouldn’t but now it is. Honestly, I didn’t really care. At the time of writing, I haven’t used any mods yet, mostly because I haven’t really found any that interest me.

Skyrim has become my go-to game. Mostly because you go from being a nobody who is looked down upon to being The Dragonborn. Not to mention, shouting NPCs off cliffs never gets old to me. The ragdoll physics crack me up. In an odd way, it has helped me through a pretty stressful time. Though, the lack of sleep and copious amounts of Mountain Dew certainly hasn’t had a positive effect on my health. But hey, that is a price I am willing to pay!