Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Tuesday is Dovahkiin

There is a game called Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim; if you are a gamer or know a gamer, you have probably heard of it. My husband is a big fan of the series, particularly the third game in the series. I was skeptical, at first. I had played Oblivion, the fourth, and wasn't really into it. Admittedly, I don't know if I gave it a fair shot, but it seems to be less liked than the third, so perhaps I was not wrong.

Still, Skyrim offered a lot. Beautiful graphics, a decent variety of races (four men, four elves, two beasts), some interesting factions, dragons, and a combat system I could get behind. And since my husband had bought the game for himself, I said "hell, I can play while he is at work, give it a go". My life has been Skyrim ever since. Every page on my tumblr has two to five posts about Skyrim, be it reblogs of 'skyrimconfessions', videos of covers of the main theme, or just me posting about my Skyrim adventures.

You'll be getting a condensed version of that in 3, 2, 1...
  • My Argonian character - a lizard woman with tusks and feathers - was what pulled me in, really. Light armor, one-handed weapons, high sneak, lockpicking, pickpocketing. Made a great thief and assassin, and she was a fantastic character. I named her 'Ophiucha', of course. Snake bearer for the lizard girl. It was fun, but it was... inexperienced.
  • The obsessive nature of gaming came in. I had wasted a few levels playing with perks in two-handed weapons and goodness that just wouldn't do. I created a wood elf, named Olwen (as an aside, I have a fondness for women whose names begin with O, and clever readers might note a tendency for my FMCs in my novels to have names beginning with O). Similar stats, here. A tendency towards the sneakier arts. But with archery. Archery is a beautiful thing, if you have high sneak, because you really can just sniper people and get away with it.
  • You can also get away with it if you are Thane. There is a preacher who - I swear to Talos - is preaching 24/7 out in Whiterun, and I was forced to kill him. The guards ran up to me, asking me to pay for my crime, to which I replied "yo, I'm Thane" and they were like "oh, carry on then". Fantastic.
  • I desperately wish I could marry Delvin Mallory. He is a member of the Thieves Guild, based on Jason Statham (in appearance and accent), and my goodness, I am in love. He's an author, a thief, a friend of the Dark Brotherhood, he's sexy, and hell, he's just a good guy all around. Not one of the marriageable people in the game though (and there are several, too).
  • This game seems to encourage homicide. I had a husband who, unlike my other husbands Vilkas and Balimund, was a sexist pig. Your spouses can make you meals, you see. Vilkas and Balimund both say something along the lines of "here you are, dear, I'll have another one for you tomorrow", but Sadri? He's like "I should be asking you that... but fine, here, shove off."
  • I murdered him and hid his body under the table so Aela (my new wife) wouldn't find it.
  • I have made several characters, beaten the game in two or three different ways, joined every major faction at least once, and yet I am still not content to stop playing this game.

1 comment:

  1. I'm buying that for my boyfriend this Christmas! Hope you don't mind if I follow.

    ReplyDelete