...Why Skyrim?

Skyrim is one of the most consequential games ever made. It has stayed overwhelmingly popular since it's release, and I often find myself wondering...why? Skyrim has no shortage of flaws, yet it cemented a place as an all time great that people are still playing to this day. So, I've spent a good chunk of the last few months trying to find out what all has led Skyrim to become Skyrim.

Second Channel: @razbutwo

Audio edit by @HeavyEyed
Thumbnail by @hotcyder

Sources:

[MisterPebbelz]

After traveling with Lydia for 70 hours we came across cave number 997 and she said "Oooh, I wonder what's in THAT cave..." and that is why skyrim.

[ganymede]

To me, Skyrim is the coziest uncozy cozy game

[strongbear]

Skyrim feels more as a bedtime story or place you visit than a video game. I think that is the reason people come back

[stillmoms]

As the primary video editor who worked on that main gameplay trailer for Skyrim, I appreciate your kind words. It has been a long time since I worked for Bethsoft, but I still have fond memories of the time I spent working on the marketing for Skyrim. I spent my time there embedded with Todd’s BGS team and worked closely with many of them to make the trailer happen.

[Ramquesting]

Always why skyrim never how is skyrim :[

[JoCat]

I literally just reinstalled it yesterday, perfect timing

[eusouluizgustavo]

*Skyrim feels like home.* That's why. It feels like a time when things were simple.
Nowadays, we use the same escape mechanism. When the game loads, we escape to another dimension, without life's real challenges, to a world where you can do just about anything.

You can prove this, by just walking around, appreciating the perfect ambience, with mesmerizing sights everywhere. It's just perfect.

[smilfusii]

I got stuck at that exact same Master Vampire once, I scoured my inventory for anything I could use to turn the tides, when I found an invisibility potion I picked up before. I used it, snuck up to him (which was impressive for my 2 handed, heavy armour warrior build) and managed to pickpocket the enchanted Orcish War Axe he'd been wrecking me with (for some reason it was in his inventory and he only equipped it when he detetced me) and I mopped the floor with him. There are few other games that make me remember otherwise insignificant moments like that, and none that I have as many memories of than Skyrim.

My tip for a fun playthrough - any time you enter a new area (i.e. going into/leaving a dungeon), you aren't allowed to use any of the equipment you have in your inventory and have to scour for new gear in the area. Extra hard mode: don't use bound weapons

[brothermatatoe]

We all have the same internal Skyrim binge clock it seems.

[IronPineapple]

“You see that mountain? You can climb it.”
😴😴😴
“You see that fork? You can pick it up.”
🤩🤩🤩

But yeah real talk, this is the aspect of Skyrim (alongside the overall vibes and exploration) that really makes Skyrim and Bethesda’s overall approach to open world games still stand out to me in a big way even when the roleplaying and combat elements fall far behind its competitors.

[CampingforCool]

I honestly feel like Jeremy Soule’s soundtrack is about half the reason I still desire to return to Skyrim. It’s just such an incredible and comforting atmosphere

[KatieGimple]

Part of what makes Skyrim so good is that none of the systems are outright bad; at worst they are just ... fine. Not good, not bad, just fine. The combat for example is floaty and without much skill expression, but it looks cool and does it's job. It's not great but it does what it needs well enough to support the fantasy of the game.

[ashes]

I had a friend that had over 100 hours in skyrim. She would rarely leave whiterun, had sneak and pickpocketing leveled to like 80 or 90, and basically just enjoyed being the town pickpocket thief, and would occasionally kill characters that made her mad. On the occasion she left town, she'd try to find an enemy to knock off a cliff, or just mess around with the open world. She was the one that introduced me to the game, and was completely blown away when I started showing her the daedric quests, potions, enchanting etc, but never really enjoyed playing that content herself.

That's what makes the game great imo, you can play it ANY way, when so many games back then gave you little freedom to make your own story.

[TylerPutnam.]

and don't forget about the gaming grandma that still plays Skyrim and uploads videos of her telling stories through different characters she creates in the game

[FBI-sreg]

Skyrim kind of feels like a dream. You even wake up at the beginning. You can stay as long as you want, do whatever you want, nothing has real consequences, it’s the ultimate escapism

[ferrelagrios]

My take on Skyrim's combat is this.

While at the beginning I did find the combat to be... Simplistic, it wasn't exciting, it's just there. In fact I tried to mod combat multiple times.

But during those modded combat playthroughs made me realize. The game did not focus on combat because the game doesn't want players to focus on combat alone. The game wants you to fight but at the same time it wants you to appreciate the world too, not try to outlive the world but live within it.

And you put it really well, the game wants you to go through the door and stay. And that's what I felt. I have never modded combat anymore outside of adding new weapons and/or spells to use.

The game's design is simple but that's what it helped me who have played it for so long to appreciate the world, the stories, the experience.

[anotherKyle]

to me the success of skyrim also comes from the ability to ignore vast parts of the game and still feel like you are doing what you are supposed to do, which makes it easy to appeal to a lot of demographics. i was interested in the world so i took a two handed weapon and clumsily smashed my way to the cities and dialogues, my friend took a bow and went hunting after leaving helgen and didnt enter a city for the next 10 ish hours.

[michaelhibberd]

A note on the Sven/Faendal quest, if you marry her during the quest, both Faendal and Sven get mad at you, but if I'm not mistaken, Faendal says "better you than sven" or something like that

[Novastar.SaberCombat]

Because it was an awesome, epic, open-world game which everyone was waiting for after Morrowind and Oblivion. And Jeremy Soule's music was UTTERLY PERFECT. No questions about that.

[pinkpink-kbdl]

for me, it was the first open world game that I spent a large amount of time in. You can just run across the whole map essentially from the beginning of the game. That, paired with the tangible feel of the world made it a real place in my mind. I first played it at around age 12/13 and spent so many hours there. It sounds so cheesy but going back to skyrim is like going back to the camp you spent all your summers in, or going back to the house you grew up in. Playing games from my childhood is nostalgic, but you dont just play skyrim, you visit skyrim, which make the nostalgia hit even harder