Skyrim: I used to be an adventurer...

...but my flow got broken.

My experience with Skyrim has been long and protracted, but it’s always ended up in the same place- a feeling of dissatisfaction. I can appreciate the work done, but there has been a transition when it stops being fun.

So what is this transition? Have I not been playing it right? It’s taken four serious plays to identify the moment- and what the difference is.

Initially, Skyrim has been extremely immersive, but it gets to the stage when small elements overwhelm the large- and these small elements become busywork instead of fun. I’ve got a massive amount of satisfaction from the exploration, combat and many narrative elements. But these is a moment when this gets taken over by overcomplexity, repetition and suspension of disbelief problems- but it’s a subtle transition. I’ve found that what starts as an exciting quest chain subtly morphs into a fetch and carry, or progress slows until some other element is done. What should be a stroll around town becomes a jog to go to all sorts of different points, to perform various menial tasks. This forces quick travel- which in turn detracts from the fantastic experience of seeing the world- so it ends up as a series of loading screens, interspersed with bouts of selling goods/disenchanting/smithing/mining/the occasional fight.

In short, it stops being a fun experience.  Instead of giving me a feeling of satisfaction, discovery and challenge it feels like an endless task list.

And the crossover point is subtle. In fact, I didn’t even notice the first few times. I just felt, well, that it stopped being worth playing. I stopped wanting to do those things in my quest log.

So isn’t the answer, for me, to just do what I like. Well, yes and no. To do these things involves doing the other parts- until they chip away at the experience. To get the more exciting narrative, you need to go through the factional quests. To explore the areas, you need equipment and skills which cost gold, which needs gathering. To feel fully in control of combat requires levelling and perks. The internal satisfaction of the experience is replaced by the game patting you on the head for completing tasks- a shift from the intrinsic experience to the extrinsic.

If this was an art gallery experience, it would be like seeing the pictures, then being forced to see reproductions of those paintings over and over again- the superfluous eventually overwhelms the impact.