I wanted to write a review of Skyrim, but then I realized that it wasn't a great use of my time. See, there are dozens, hundreds of reviews of Skyrim put out by journalists more intelligent and trustworthy than I.
And all I'm going to say is that the game is amazing, you should buy it, and it'll be your favorite game faster than you can say Modern Warfare. But then, I got to thinking. Why do I love Skyrim so much?
My playtime in The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim is ninety-nine hours, five minutes, and fifty five seconds. That's a little over four days (out of the last 19 it's been out) that I've spent playing the game.
I'm pretty sure I haven't racked hours like these since World of Warcraft, but the bigger point is that I have racked hours like these.
And the question is why. It's not the first video game I've ever been immersed so deeply in. My playtimes on Fallout 3, New Vegas, and Oblivion (all games by Bethesda, the same developer) are all similar.
So, what is it about the Bethesda method that's so gripping?
Well, before we go into that, let's set some ground rules. "Immersion" is a concept you hear a lot. The story or the world generally does the immersing and it's viewed as a tool to get the reader or viewer to keep reading or watching.
The audience of a movie, for instance, has no say in how the story will progress, so the director has to have something immersive about it to keep the audience invested in something they have no agency in.
Games, however, look at immersion differently. Because they're directly goal-oriented (in that your actions are required for the plot to move forward) immersion isn't nearly as difficult a concept to achieve.
Games align the player and the protagonist, such that when a supporting character tells Master Chief or Commander Shepard to complete an objective, the player is motivated to complete it. The developers bank on this alignment to get them to finish the game.
In practice, this doesn't always work. A bad story or bad gameplay will take us out of it, in the same way that a bad story will in any other media. The thing is, immersion doesn't end there for Bethesda and Skyrim.
Every quest in Skyrim is introduced the same way. A supporting character will complain about a problem they can't fix, you ask them for more information, which they give, then you either agree to fix the problem or not.
At first, this can be strangely frustrating, as no one ever flat out tells you to do anything. Even quests like "Save the world, please" can be answered with a flippant "I got some important stuff to work on, maybe later." But with a deeper look, it's actually an ingenious way to immerse the player.
We have not one, but two chances to leave this potential quest behind. Bethesda literally gives us the choice between "I'll help you" and "I don't have the time."
Every quest is deniable. In fact, the game has so many, that blindly answering "yes" is daunting, leaving you with a journal of unfulfilled objectives.
The immersion here is twofold: You have the drive to complete the objective, as you control all actions of the protagonist, but you also have the ability to decide which objectives are worth completing and which aren't.
This is the magic of Skyrim, the reason it's on everyone's lips, the reason it's made so much money, and the reason I've spent days playing it. Bethesda gives you a game (and more importantly a character) that gives you control, as all games do, but also gives you choice.
That choice allows you to personify the character, rather than just direct him, and personifying that character, even if he and I are dissimilar in every way, is an incredibly rewarding immersive experience.
The other half of this immersion is setting. The game, Skyrim, isn't named after a character or concept or theme. It's named after the world it is.
Skyrim is a living, breathing society that exists on my hard drive or game disc, and it invites me to join it. It's not just a game where I blast dragons with fireballs, stealthily slay necromancers, or charge headlong into epic warfare.
It's a game that lets me buy a home in a city where I've helped the populace. It's a game that lets me pick a husband or wife. That lets me join a guild of warriors, mages, assassins or thieves.
Your character in Skyrim isn't just about the combat, gameplay, or even story. It's like they're a person for whom you get to make any life choice you can.
