My Skyrim problem
I was looking forward to the fifth Elder Scrolls game, Skyrim, for a very long time. I played through and loved Morrowind and Oblivion, spending approximately 500 gajillion hours with them. I thought Skyrim would be an instant success with me.
I've spent over 100 hours playing and I've come to the conclusion that something is... off about that game for me. I want to love it but these days I just feel very frustrated whenever I start to play.
First and most importantly, I just don't really like the Nords that much. Their culture doesn't interest me, being mostly based around fighting and boasting, which isn't very fantastical to me (especially in a world filled with lizard and cat-people, or ancestor-worshiping elves who live on a volcano island). Their resistance movement seems to have racism as its foundation, which doesn't sit well with me. I feel uncomfortable hearing the Nord NPCs dismiss others for being elves or Khajiit or what-have-you. When I first started playing the game I assumed the sorry state of the land was due to the Great War spilling into and destroying parts of Skyrim... but that actually never happened. They just live in a crappy place with a bunch of run-down towers and roads. Overall, the people of Skyrim didn't resonate well with me. Why should I want to help a bunch of close-minded bigots whose greatest achievements happened centuries ago and who have zero ideas about how to move forward other than to pick a fight with a dangerous empire and toss out the foreigners?
I tried to stay focused on doing quests and exploring the wilderness, since speaking with random NPCs irritated me so much. I was excited about doing the main quest: the dragons looked awesome and I was ready to fight with them all over the place. In a shocking twist, fighting dragons became boring. They weren't a threat to me; I was covered in healing potions and dedicated to kicking butt. Eventually I felt guilty about my rampant dragon slaughter. I thought the dragons were pretty, I didn't want to wipe them out. Can't we get along? :(
I find Alduin a difficult villain to hate. Yeah, he's a dick, but he's never done anything to me personally (as far as I know). And, again, I find it difficult to care about him destroying Skyrim because there's nothing impressive there to begin with. Oh, you guys want to rampage all over these crumbling towers and abandoned forts? Be my guest. Feel free to raze all those bandits who keep harassing me.
I think, most damningly, I find it difficult to care because I already went through "save the world!!" plots with the other games and all my efforts lead up to...nothing. A grey and brown land where nothing has improved, there was no progress at all and in fact people seem generally less well off, less educated, less ambitious than before.
There are things I like about Skyrim, too. The combat system has been cleaned up. I still enjoy running off the path and discovering little caves and houses. I like some of the NPCs. The constellation skill system was very clever.
Just, overall, I find myself unable to really love Skyrim and I feel guilty about that. :/
I've spent over 100 hours playing and I've come to the conclusion that something is... off about that game for me. I want to love it but these days I just feel very frustrated whenever I start to play.
First and most importantly, I just don't really like the Nords that much. Their culture doesn't interest me, being mostly based around fighting and boasting, which isn't very fantastical to me (especially in a world filled with lizard and cat-people, or ancestor-worshiping elves who live on a volcano island). Their resistance movement seems to have racism as its foundation, which doesn't sit well with me. I feel uncomfortable hearing the Nord NPCs dismiss others for being elves or Khajiit or what-have-you. When I first started playing the game I assumed the sorry state of the land was due to the Great War spilling into and destroying parts of Skyrim... but that actually never happened. They just live in a crappy place with a bunch of run-down towers and roads. Overall, the people of Skyrim didn't resonate well with me. Why should I want to help a bunch of close-minded bigots whose greatest achievements happened centuries ago and who have zero ideas about how to move forward other than to pick a fight with a dangerous empire and toss out the foreigners?
I tried to stay focused on doing quests and exploring the wilderness, since speaking with random NPCs irritated me so much. I was excited about doing the main quest: the dragons looked awesome and I was ready to fight with them all over the place. In a shocking twist, fighting dragons became boring. They weren't a threat to me; I was covered in healing potions and dedicated to kicking butt. Eventually I felt guilty about my rampant dragon slaughter. I thought the dragons were pretty, I didn't want to wipe them out. Can't we get along? :(
I find Alduin a difficult villain to hate. Yeah, he's a dick, but he's never done anything to me personally (as far as I know). And, again, I find it difficult to care about him destroying Skyrim because there's nothing impressive there to begin with. Oh, you guys want to rampage all over these crumbling towers and abandoned forts? Be my guest. Feel free to raze all those bandits who keep harassing me.
I think, most damningly, I find it difficult to care because I already went through "save the world!!" plots with the other games and all my efforts lead up to...nothing. A grey and brown land where nothing has improved, there was no progress at all and in fact people seem generally less well off, less educated, less ambitious than before.
There are things I like about Skyrim, too. The combat system has been cleaned up. I still enjoy running off the path and discovering little caves and houses. I like some of the NPCs. The constellation skill system was very clever.
Just, overall, I find myself unable to really love Skyrim and I feel guilty about that. :/