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This creepy-ass fox

Welp, I’ve gone back to Skyrim. I was largely inspired by watching this lady play.

Note to self: if you thought you could stream games and your gimmick would be “old lady plays games”, you’re late again.

I like watching her because she doesn’t necessarily play the game the way she’s “supposed” to. If she can’t find out why that man wants her to assassinate his wife, she is by-god not going to do it. And she interacts with NPCs like she’s playing with Barbies. It’s a hoot.

Make your own game is a thing you can do in open world games. There’s a man who plays Far Cry 5, which is set in current day rural Montana. He doesn’t care about the storyline at all, he just wants to go into the woods and shoot bears. With a handgun. That’s the game he wants to play.

Anyway, main stories like to make you do things that are uncomfortable. I don’t know why game designers are like this. No, Skyrim, I don’t particularly want to be co-opted by a cannibal cult. No, I don’t want to crush a political figure to death on her wedding day, while she’s giving a speech to her guests.

And no, I most definitely do not want to beat a priest to death over and over (a minor godling revives him for the purpose) for the sin of treating victims of the plague. Even if I get a really good mace for it.

My first time through Skyrim, I realized I was doing fewer quests and spending more time in the wilderness to hunting, then back to the city to sell my stuff and buy more arrows. Basically, I had a job. But it was a really fun job.

There are 273 scripted quests in the game. But there are 343 locations big enough for a map icon (and about the same number too small for an icon). You can just walk around and mess with things, forever.

Comments


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: August 24, 2021, 8:26 pm

In later editions of the game, they added the ability to build a house, get married and adopt children.

I married Temba Wide-Arm from Ivarstead, the lady who hates bears. This was annoying.


Comment from durnedyankee
Time: August 24, 2021, 10:01 pm

Durned son numero tres doesn’t understand why I take my moral code into games with me.
I’m sure I miss out on gear and powers, but the designers can kiss my Yankee foot if they think power and gear is the meaning of life.

I think we currently have more than enough real world examples to prove it ain’t.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: August 25, 2021, 5:25 pm

Yes, I’m uncomfortable stepping outside my normal behavior. Like, I played through the whole Mass Effect series without giving the asshole answer or having sex with a crewman. I didn’t even realize the latter was possible until the third game asked me who I’d sexed.

Sleeping with the crew would be a slam-dunk sexual harassment suit and would be awful for ship’s morale.

Also, video game sex is painfully awful.


Comment from Anonymous
Time: August 27, 2021, 1:47 am

It’s nice to know that other players don’t play a kosher game, and create their own. I prefer to wander and mess with stuff most of the time…the historic settings, and parkour are what make AC fun. Who wouldn’t want to run over the rooftops of Damascus, Venice, or Paris? And man, the clothes are gorgeous.

Hmmm…is that too girly? Don’t care. Still gaming.

Skyrim has some awesome mods and the intersection of mods and AI should be interesting. Unscripted NPC conversations interacting with situations or the world around them will spice things up.

When ya do want to break stuff and kick ass Witcher 3; Wild Hunt fills the bill.


Comment from Sabrina Chase
Time: August 29, 2021, 12:14 am

Isn’t Grandma Shirley a hoot? The very first video of her I saw she was getting so distracted by the high quality graphics of this little stream a kobold got the drop on her. Three times. The gamers love her, and she went to PAX East and was quite the VIP at the game company booths too. Also, by fan request, she is now a NPC in Skyrim! Is that not a cool legacy?

I also don’t like changing my core morality in a game. It bothered me when I had to go through someone’s belongings and take something, without permission, after being *invited into their home*. Just not done. The ending of Obduction also stuck in my craw for the same reason. Everything was fine until the end, and you were railroaded into only one choice that I felt immoral.


Comment from durnedyankee
Time: August 29, 2021, 10:31 am

Don’t go by me though. I tend to play military strategy games where, as the game winds down, I recognize I’m working hard to make Europe safe for Mr. Hitler and his friends.

But “I vass only vollowing orders” has always been a very unsatisfactory sop for my conscience.
It is what I have long referred to as the “Nuremberg Defense”.

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