Yes, I
know, I'm late to the party. Shut up.
Perhaps
it is the alleged writer in me, but I appreciate a good narrative. I appreciate a good, well written story that
unveils itself with a proper pace.
Narrative is something that most people is lacking in video games, but
there are games out there with a good story behind it.
In
Fallout 3, you play as a person on the search for their father. You go out into an unfamiliar environment,
encounter many various types of people, and battle seemingly insurmountable
odds to accomplish this goal. In the
end, the player finds his father and reconnects with him.... for about five
seconds before the person you spent the entirety of the game seeking leaves to
go accomplish something more important that the player. Granted that thing is providing people with
clean water, but still, that's not a good example of parenting.
Fallout:
New Vegas begins with the player being shot and left for dead in the middle of
the Mohave Desert. Throughout most of
the game, you seek to find out who left you for dead, and the role you and they
play in a massive conspiracy to do... something. Actually, I didn't finish Fallout: New Vegas
due to persistent bugs. Fallout: New
Vegas is an example of a game with a good narrative, but who's gameplay hinders
the experience of the game. If Fallout:
New Vegas hadn't been riddled with bugs, I'm sure the narrative that was being
constructed would have paid off in a spectacular fashion.
The Elder
Scrolls V: Skyrim is set in the kind of high fantasy setting that has nothing
to do with history, reality, or anything that actually happened. Such a setting provides ample opportunities
to tell many varied complex stories that have illusions to things that actually
happened. Just ask George
R.R.RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR Martin.
What the
makers of Skyrim, Bethesda, did with this opportunity is truly
spectacular. Skyrim did nothing with
this opportunity. Nothing. Nothing.
A spectacular display of nothingness only before seen in Congress.
As near
as I can tell, there is no overarching story in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim,
or, at the very least, not one that I cared about. Sure the gameplay is flawless, but all that
does is allow me to without obstruction experience the vast supply of nothing in
front of me.
In the
game, you can pick up objects in the environment and carry it with you. If you pick up too many items, you can reach
a point where you are carrying more weight than you character can bear, forcing
you to walk very, very slowly. There
were many times in playing Skyrim where I was carrying too many objects. Rather than shed myself of low value or high
weight objects, I choose to walk very, very slowly. I did this for one reason: I needed to catch
up on episodes of The Rachel Maddow Show.
Making this
choice should have been a sign for me.
Rather than being eager to experience more of the narrative and the
world that Skyrim had to offer, I chose to play Skyrim passively while watching
videos on my iPad. I didn't make this
choice because the game I was playing was bad.
I made this choice because the game I was playing was not stimulating me
intellectually on any level. To me,
Skyrim wasn't an uncomfortable gaming experience, it was just boring.
While I
do have an appreciation for the world that Bethesda created with Skyrim, I
wanted a compelling reason to continue adventuring in this world. In my playing of Skyrim, that reason was
never presented to me. Perhaps others
see value in walking through a world with nothing to do but kill endless
supplies of skeletons, but I don't. I
want a reason to kill an endless supply of skeletons, other than they are
trying to kill me. I want a story. I want a purpose. I want some there there.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: B-
I need
some help identifying this object. I am
unclear as to what it is and what it represents. If you know what the object pictured below
is, please contact me.
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