Immersion and Skyrim

Or: Why I can only role play this game for some reason.

There is a lot of content in The Elder Scroll V: Skyrim. Much like any Bethesda game, you can sink a lot of hours into the game to see everything, and to need to play multiple times to see different sides of the story. In their previous offerings through the Fallout series, I haven't had a problem playing the uber-Vault Dweller or Courier who came from obscurity to wander the wasteland to see everything and do everything, becoming a kind of superhero.

I went into Skyrim thinking that it would happen here as well. Instead I found myself getting caught up in really roleplaying my character instead of scouring the map just to see everything. I can't say when it happened, but at some point I looked at the map after spending a lot of time around Winterhold and Windhelm and realized there was a lot I hadn't seen, but realized my character probably didn't care. It was enough that this Breton was the Dovakin and had just become the Arch-Mage of the Magical College of Winterhold. What interest could an Arch-Mage possibly have in a thieves guild, or the fact he's not evil enough to go cannibal, or to willingly help most of the Deadra.

This meant that many errands, quests, jobs went unfulfilled because they fell outside of what my mage would either explore or ever consider getting caught up in. Most of the time it meant looking the other way. Most of Skyrim had problems that either weren't his concern, or were outright evil that he didn't want part of. This isn't to say that he didn't occasionally get sucked into events. The main plot lines are hard not to get wrapped into.

One such situation was Markarth and the Foresworn. As I made my way into the misty, damp mountains and found a gorgeous living city in the abandoned ruins of the Dwarves, I initially thought my character would like this place. The immediate murder in the market soured that. The subsequent imprisonment and manipulation by the deposed Foresworn King made him hate the place, and the exploitation of the workers of the silver mines that made Markarth one of the thriving Nine Holds made it hard to like the city whether my character backed the Empire or the Stormcloaks. I realized after the fact that my character could have shivved the Foresworn King and been done with it, but even imprisoned in the mines, he wasn't going to do that. Not in his character to be so murderously aggressive (defensive yes, but not offensive).

This did lead to the character avoiding Markarth altogether, only visiting to thin the Foresworn ranks. This was the start of my character not taking kindly to being used or manipulated. If he was manipulated, it usually meant not dealing with said manipulator. Alternatively if said person then tried to double-cross or use him as a scape-goat, a certain rage that was kindled in Markarth usually meant their end.

I still find this strange. Usually such games allow an evil or a good path, but there are enough titles, places, and variety of things to do in Skyrim that my mind doesn't believe that one character would be able to fit all of them into their life time.

This does set me up to replay the game and main story lines with considerably different perspectives to feel like the different quests, titles, sub-plots could fit into the experience. This is the first time in a very long time I've had an RPG feel like this without feeling somehow disingenuous about giving me choice. Skyrim's expansiveness lets me play two very different characters, that may complete the same primary story, but they'll have gotten there two very different ways.