The Addiction of Modding Skyrim

A large percentage of people find themselves modding Skyrim over and over, but never sticking to a playthough. Is this a problem? An addiction? And if so, how do you break the cycle?

Any contributions are very appreciated!

Modlist used:

PERSONAL INFO:

Ice cream artwork by FloatyNebula

[Shmilia]

My friend described modding pretty well: it's like shopping but you don't have to pay for it.

[julius]

I use the 80% rule with any creative endeavor I involved myself in. If I'm 80% happy with something I've put together I'm done tinkering. This approach enabled me to do things like finish writing songs, complete mod lists, etc. and it is a life saver.

[anonymostoxicmale]

modded for about a week. now up to lvl 65 having fun. selve discipline!

[celticfrost]

This is why Wabbajack is such a life saver. Currently playing a Requiem modlist. can't play without requiem, changes the game so much for the best.

[WizardOfAtlantis]

Serial restarter here. Can't stop modding, and if I mod it enough, the 'universe' I'm 'in' has changed so much that it demands a restart. Which I then mod...which will demand a restart, and so on.

[basedx.]

We've been here for a decade and will continue to upgrade our PCs and mod Skyrim for another decade 😂

[wizeller]

I have been modding this game for 5 years, still haveen't played it, but don't regret it one bit. My masterpiece is almost complete.

[BergweinGaming]

This channel is so neat. The only Elder Scrolls mod channel I still actively follow. Great mixture of #content and insights like these. Also just find your voice and manner of speech very soothing!

[SnW_Wolf]

in advance, sorry for the long post. 🤗

april 2024: i conviced some "friends" (acquaitances) to play skyrim together mod, went to their places every day to
personally mod skyrim for them. They didn't last a week playing, probably didn't even play 10hs that they went back to whatever casual games they play.
I said to myself "fine i guess it's just me then". Modded the shit out of it 2000+ mods, took me 2 and a half months, I was happy with it.
Played the main quest, all the DLCs, etc, then went city by city completing each city quest, also collected all daedric artifacts. The mantella mod added 1000+ immersion.
a year later i can safetly say my adventures are done, my character is happily married to Elisif and had 2 kids and living in Lakeview manor, he ended becoming emperor of tamriel after claiming the throne by being the rightful heir to it by the dragonblood (super long story involving mantella mod)
I still log in some hours a week and just walk around the manor chatting with npcs. didn't touch the mod list again.

[titanics.o.s]

Found this video while modding skyrim lmao

[joshvalenti]

Ive found the best process for me is having a modded version of the game ready to go for when I want it rather than falling down a mod hole.
I have a tweaked version of the aurora modlist on my PC ready to go with a level 40 stealth archer (because its the best) ready to go when I wanna return. Now that I have this playthrough ready to play I don't feel that urge to get a new list up and running every few months after seeing a new skyrim mods of the month video.

[JeremyJahnsAsBlade]

We were all obsessed with Skyrim. We played it over and over and over again. We know the whole map and every detail like the back of our hand. Now, we're desperately trying to recapture the magic of our first playthrough, knowing it can never be.

[vergodagoat]

I love this video, it really hits the nail on the head about how I and many others feel about Skyrim.

We have a vision in our heads about how to make the “perfect Skyrim”, but when it comes down to it, I feel like that perfect Skyrim is just chasing that nostalgic joy like when we first played. This is always going to be my favorite game.

[JeremyJahnsAsBlade]

Next time I play, I'm ditching the main quest entirely. It's been holding me back.

[jonah]

at a certain point I had to just ban myself from trying new modlists or adding new mods for a bit and just sit down and PLAY. Now I've got a 200+ hour playthru in Lost Legacy modlist plus a challenge run where I can only use unarmed and restoration magic (with the bonus that my character is lawful good to the point she wouldn't even loot an urn in a dungeon). one thing that helped was watching other people having fun with runs in minimally modded skyrim like Joov.

[Mackzills]

i have about 800 hours in skyrim and have never once beat the base game lol thanks for all the modding content over the years btw!

[maubraymzoma]

Started modding Skyrim in 2014 but I had a weak PC so I focused on learning how to mod and didn't really get to playing it. Now that I've got a medium spc PC, I've decided to hop back into the rabbit hole of learning and testing mods out but this time I have given myself a deadline of June to sort out my modlist whereby regardless of what comes, I am going to stick to one playthrough from start to finish.

[twistedsoul]

this hits home so hard, i think iv played like 75% of the skyrim wabbajack modlists and havent done a full playthrough, i am now playing RO also and i am finding it waaaay better than the others, i think its because of how vanilla it feels and dont need to look at like 20 tutorials to even play the modlist :D

[Alder-Talies]

A year or two ago I decided to get the last few achievements I needed to 100% Special Edition/AE and played it through completely vanilla. Instead of just getting the 11 werewolf perks and few crime related achievements, I got completely immersed; every questline, every house, horse, daedric artifact, every word wall, all the masks, all the claws, every AE story i came across, skilled everything up, and finally put the game down when I was over level 90, 200 hours in, and felt like there was absolutely nothing left for my character. It was like a modding detox.

[JimijaymesProductions]

I've never had Skyrim at 60fps, but it looks and plays amazing. I have one modded playthrough but I change it (mod wise) nearly every time I play. Ive still kept my mods under 400 despite never really removing mods.