Are You Fascinated by the Virtual World of Skyrim?

When we say "virtual world", we usually refer to an online space shared by other users who are avatars, but starting today, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim presents another kind of virtual world, which every user wanders alone, free (more or less) to create a new life. Watch:

I'm most impressed by the fully contiguous world, and the breadth of player options. We'll be writing more about it soon, I think, but for now I put the question to you: How fascinated are you by the world of Skyrim?

Comments

[Yordie Sands]

Ok, I have to admit, it is fascinating. But... how lonely, how solitary, no friendships, no romance. Hmmm... but it's gorgeous there.

[Shug Maitland]

I am not a gamer, Final Fantasy frustrates me, combat in general frustrates me. Skyrim is the first game that has me interested, just because of the beauty and expanse of the world they have made.

[Orca Flotta]

Yes, pretty cool graphics. Can't say much about the gameplay since I'm not interested in gaming. It's probably very good ...

BUT

to call this a virtual world, just because the mountains are no backdrops, just because you can chose from 1000 items to gear up, doesn't make it a virtual world.

It is a video game! Pure and simple, barbarians hacking and slashing at each other weith swords and axes and magic spells. URRGS ... killkillkill ... level up, gear up ... HUUUAAARGH! ... gain skills and abilities ... kill more!

No cooperation, no economy, no relationships, no communication. This is a very singleminded game, intended to live out your aggressions and frustrations.

I guess every 13 y/o male teen will love it. Older people and wimmin hopefully not so much. It's beautifully executed but super primitive at its very core.

[Hamlet Au]

"how lonely, how solitary, no friendships, no romance"

I think in Skyrim you can get into friendships and romances with the AIs. Who won't cheat on you or drag you into their RL drama with their spouses, or stand around in the Welcome Area spouting off stupid crap in voice. So you know, tradeoffs. :)

[EhrmanDigfoot]

It's a beautiful environment, but I agree with Orca and Yordie. I wish there were real people in that environment and meaningful creative tasks that could be accomplished.

No matter how large or dynamic these sandbox style games become, I still feel unbearably lonely playing them. More importantly, I feel like I'm wasting my time.

People who spend their time in front of a computer are often accused of shutting out the real world—accused of a certain solipsism by those who prefer the wild raging fleshy parts of life.

I've never been able to respond to this criticism with satisfaction, even as their worlds often prove in time far more ephemeral than ours.

I think though, that if I were to try again, I'd tell them that there exists a real choice even as we sit staring at the screen . . . a choice between the real world and one inside our heads.

[arscill]

How sad of using all of that visual beauty just for fighting? What waste of talent. How gorgeous it would be if you could 'settle' there and have a second life ^^

[DMC Jurassic]

The Skyrim in-world object display, allowing the player to zoom in, rotate & look at in-game objects is the basic direction future online shopping carts and virtual world marketplace item point-of-purchase presentation ought to go...

[rikomatic]

It's pretty and looks fun, but not a virtual world by any definition that I know. It's a single player game.

[roland legrand]

Impressive graphics, huge world, but indeed: you're alone there, and it seems like yet another version of WoW - but then again, WoW is a very rich social environment.

[Rin Tae]

I love Skyrim, and while it is more or less a nicer looking version of Oblivion it provides enough improvements to be more fun then the the older game.

But would I call it a virtual world? No way. It is a really well made sandbox game with a representation of a fantasy world one can freely walk around in. It is also not a cooperative game (what I actually like since there are no distractions or IM storms suddenly breaking over me) or a MMO in any sort.

And I guess since I knew this world in the game and the way of playing form Oblivion I might not be as impressed by it as someone who has stepped into a sandbox game for the first time.

So in the end Skyrim is a game that promises to offer lots of fun playing and exploring but it is not a virtual world in the sense of SL. Now of course if parts of SL could look like this ... all of it ... all this free land on the mainland ... but bringing the great looking worlds of games together with a platform like SL has always been difficult and always will be. Especially since only a small faction of people has the computers needed to fully experience it and anyone demanding such a visual greatness should remember that this would shrink the membership base of the virtual world in question to a very small group.

*sighs thinking about why grafic cards are so expensive and goes to play some more skyrim on the lowest grafic settings*

[Angie Mornington]

Why do games always have to take place trillions of years ago? I don't want to chop wood and slay dragons and wear dingy clothes. Where are the modern games that aren't violent?

[Hamlet Au]

Angie, you might want to try Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It's got a lot of similar immersive qualities, and you can play it non-violently (with the exception of several "boss" encounters.)

[foneco zuzu]

I played for years just 1 game, Morrowind (eS4)!
Despite being a single player game, that amazing community of modders made me stay with it until Oblivion arrived, and then Fallout 3!
And then, Sl, still i can only remember how i spent countless hours on The Elder Scrolls universe!

[foneco zuzu]

And modders made Morrowind much more then just a fighting game, i spent amazing times just fishing, or breeding horses, or just creating outifts, due to the amazing talents of a lot of modders.

[Ezra]

Probably most SLer won't accept a definition of "virtual world" that doesn't include other people as an ingredient. I tend to feel the same.

But as whatever kind of 'world', Skyrim is one in a lot of ways Second Life needs to grow to be. The inclusion of tools to help build AIs is going to be a good start, and that would've been at the top of my list.

The second biggest thing Linden Lab needs to address to ever have Second Life inclusive of lands as immersive as Skyrim and even earlier Elder Scrolls titles is to tackle the issue of 'expanse'.

Second Life is essentially a miniature museum. There's not a whole lot that can be fit into 256mx256m while respecting real-life scale. I have no idea how, but for Second Life to ever have the immersiveness of Skyrim, Linden Lab is going to have to figure out how to offer terrains to shape, texture and build upon as big as the 16kmx16km landmasses Blue Mars offered.

Of course, this has to be achievable in a way other than stitching together one 256mx256m one at a time at 100-300 USD a pop.

The question is, what inspires the shot callers at Linden Lab? Does Rod for example want anything like Skyrim possible in Second Life? I do love our miniature museum that we call a grid, and 50% of the time I don't even notice how cramped everything is, but anytime I go adventuring in an MMO, running my sim around a Sims 3 town, or play a Bethesda like Skyrim I'm reminded just how small 256mx256m really is.

[Flo2]

I love Skyrim so much that I leave SL now for a few weeks to play it. (If the game is as good as I hope, for a few months!)

Those who wrote "feels lonely" in the game, or "No cooperation, no economy, no relationships, no communication" are simply and definitely wrong, and it clearly proves that they don't play the game. These factors are _in_ the game.

[Ezra]

Those things are in Skyrim but only as playthings. Second Life offers cooperation, economy, relationships and communication obviously in much more real ways when dealing with real people, real money and real time. All the more reasons why "virtual world" can't be used as a blanket definition of every graphical expanse of land where there's a whole lot to do.

[Flo2]

"Only" as playthings? Playthings are sweet and precious. - What do you feel when someone say to you "SL is not real"?

I know SL offers real real people with real economy - with all its disadvantages, too. With real drama... jealousy...rivalry...abuse reports from rivals...content theft...unpleasant neighbors... possessive "friends"... - All these bad things and more. Sometimes it's very refreshing to escape from these real things to a game, where I can be alone. At last, alone! :))

[shockwave yareach]

It is still just a game, as there is no ability for the character to make his own stuff or create their own part of the world. The game company creates every bit of it and the user is limited to going anyplace and saying anything within it. It takes more than graphics to make a VR - you have to have interaction and creation as well.

SL is a virtual world. Skyrim is a game.

But I'm very interested in getting Skyrim and playing it, though I don't have the free time to do it and SL both.

[Orca Flotta]

Flo2 wrote:
Those who wrote "feels lonely" in the game, or "No cooperation, no economy, no relationships, no communication" are simply and definitely wrong, and it clearly proves that they don't play the game. These factors are _in_ the game.
----------------------

Yes it proves what we all knew already and what I made clear in my post. Of course I don't play this or any other games. So what did you prove other that you can't comprehend written text?

And where you see economy and community in a single player game with prefabricated items remains a riddle forever.

The nquestion we tried to solve here is not if Skyrim is a good game or a better pastime than SL, but just if it qualifies as a VW.

I say NO! It doesn't. Skyrim misses ALL the neccesary ingredients for a virtual world.