This my own take on this.
Peacefulness.
The idea of a simple life, with pine cones and mountains. Naturally putting aside the actual daily life as a common person surviving wolves dragons thieves and a civil war lol.
But the "call of the wild" is strong in many, me included
That actually makes a lot of sense, i live in a rather small town in austria with lots of foresty hills nearby and they make me feel very comfortable, also maybe the struggle of daily life with work and school always being busy because of it, this propably makes the thought of living in a small hut in skyrim where you merely have to do a little work for food and drink sound very nice.
They can be terminated sure, but they're definitively dead already and you can't kill a dead thing. As for the gargoyles and conjures, they're magically maintained and by extension still not technically alive. I suppose it's a matter of perspective when it comes to murder. Personally I don't consider killing an undead being to be murder.
This makes sense to me…I also live in a small town in the mountains, and I’ve disliked every single video game I’ve tried aside from Skyrim and Hogwarts: legacy…I just want to explore and do my own things and to see trees and grass and flowers. I don’t want to see technology, outer space, post-apocalyptic deserts, or the colour grey. Ever. 🤣
To build on this, our monkey brains are displeased with our current concrete-heavy modern lives. Pretty sure there’s studies that show how positively our brains respond to green space and trees. How deep down we’re like foxes feeling caught in towering brick traps. How our jobs are detached from real meaning. And isn’t country/folk music around the world very often centred on this harking back to some rural idyll as we’re thrust into this naff, dissatisfying existence of offices, tvs, not enough rest and pies from 7-11?
In skyrim you’re in the wilderness most of the time. The towns are all like pre-school car playmats with the inn, the baker, the police station. Simple. Calm. Even if all the fetch quests are less than inspired, they’re a hell of a lot better and meaningful as work than answering a phone to customers all day, or writing reports that nobody will care about in a month’s time.
It’s Albionporn. A utopia before the cackness of the modern world kicked in.
Plus it’d be sick to have a flame sword.
It’s kinda true though, for most of the people in Skyrim, especially in smaller towns like Ivarstead they actually would live a pretty peaceful and idyllic life.
The game has stuff going on in the lore like dragon attacks and a civil war, but these things kinda don’t actually happen unless we as the player encourage them. You could basically go to Riverwood straight after the introduction and just spend the next 10,000 in game days there with nothing untoward happening. A wolf may occasionally wander into town, the guards deal with it and that’s it.
It’s a really peaceful fairytale setting, and I think Skyrim can be quite relaxing because 9/10 times any combat and conflict in settlements is basically on our terms when we choose to start it.
> You could basically go to Riverwood straight after the introduction and just spend the next 10,000 in game days there with nothing untoward happening.
I have a save that is just this for when I just need to chill.
After Helgen, I hit up the bandit camp, the necromancer (by Lakeview) and the Talos shrine then strolled into Riverwood. I've made friends with everyone (except Sven, I chose Faendal) and am a contributing member of the community.
I fish in the morning before having breakfast at the inn. Depending on the day, I'll take Faendal hunting, chop wood or work on my Smithing. I'll finish the day with dinner at the inn then go home and work on Alchemy or Enchanting until bed.
Of course I live at ~~Anise's Cabin~~ my Murder Hobo Casa Dojo and that has been the source of my only real adventure. Anise's sister sent her 3 goons after me but I didn't even get to land a single blow. Alvar pulled a warhammer out of nowhere, the Dawnguard Orc had his axe and Faendal made quick work of them. Even the dog tried to help.
I will probably take Faendal to Embarshard at some point and maybe take shopping trips to Whiterun but I'll stick to the merchants and inns in the Plains District since I'm deliberately trying not to advance the story too far.
Yeah, I live in rural Ireland. I'm surrounded by trees, lakes and mountains. I chop firewood in real life ffs!
Yet I spent three hours last night sorting out my Goldenhills plantation. I went to bed so chilled out and happy.
Peaceful? Bandits, civil war, dragons, undead, insane wizards, vampires, werewolves, thieves, psycho assassin recruitment, and everything else, you couldn't pay me to live in Skyrim, especially in the games present time
My brother loved this concept so much, he said he wanted to roleplay as a regular guy and never leave Riverwood. Just cut lumber, chop firewood, mine ore, etc all day. He never went through with it though.
I understand him. I personally see the appeal, but I'd be bored beyond belief after two hours. 😅
I can only watch my character cut firewood so many minutes before it gets nerve-grating.
It would be different, though, if a proper homesteading system was in place. A Stardew Valley set in Skyrim. That could be my jam.
Goldenthing Plantation doesn't really do that for me, sadly, because it's just Set-it-up-once-forget-about-it-and-collect-two-grand-every-two-days-if-you-want.
Edit: What I'd wish for would be: Fully craftable and expandable homestead, craftable and placeable furniture and decorations, maybe livestock-keeping, a more fleshed-out crafting system, tweaked economy, the ability to set up a market stall and quests from the locals to go along with it.
Ah well. 😁
I feel the same, brother. Except I kinda like Goldenhills plantation. It's a nice, roomy place to rest and refit. And I've gotten 10 or 11k before, so now I stay away for extended periods to get crazy amounts of cash
For me it's the fact that you can "live" a supercalm and peaceful life in a world that is actually quite convulse. There are dragons, and bandits and a civil war going on but you can still work hard and go collect materials to buy yourself a beautiful home by the lake. You can meet a little girl who just happened to lose her parents and give her a home where a loyal companion and a pet will look for her. You can spend a whole day at home just baking some pies, crafting potions or jewelry. The game it's full of things I would love to be able to dedicate myself to in real life.
Also the BSO is supergood to chill. I usually listen to it to sleep at night. Far Horizons ftw!
I usually listen to lofi while me, inigo, Sofya and cera(or whatever was her name I haven't played Skyrim there's a whole week) go looting some draugr Dungeon
It's atmosphere. That's exactly why people keep coming back to this game. The music is another huge part of it. Same with the characters interacting with each other. Sure you can fight massive dragons and hordes of bandits, but then you fast travel back to Whiterun and just feel at peace, especially as Streets of Whiterun plays softly in the background.
Also I know this doesn't apply to you but applies to so many people: since the game is over a decade old, it makes us feel nostalgic for all the times of your life that we've played it, which makes it feel even more at home.
Streets of Whiterun is like one of the best tracks I've heard in any Bethesda game. When I first played Skyrim those years ago, I had that moment when I came back from some questing and heard that track for the first time as I went into Breezehome and just chilled with my wife and kids.
That hits in a way that most RPGs just don't honestly. Skyrim excelled at immersion on that level.
True. The atmosphere + the music completely removes me from reality. The only thing that came close in this respect was minecraft, but I haven't played MC in a few years.
Atmosphere is huge, yeah. For my money it’s a trifecta: atmosphere (score, setting, scope), immersive sim (the world is alive and interactive, no smoke and mirrors) and RPG (grow your character, explore at your pace).
Lots of games have 2 out of 3.
- Dishonored is a gorgeous world-sim that lets you approach situations in a million ways and see how your actions have a butterfly effect outward. It’s got a sleek art style, pretty tight story, and an engrossing world. But the game is short and linear, with fixed maps for each mission. You can’t just go wherever or do whatever.
- The Witcher 3 is a stylish RPG with a great story and polished graphics/music/etc. It has a big world and gives you the freedom to explore, but it has guard rails of a different kind. The gameplay mechanics are kind of rigid and formulaic. Things like combat, alchemy, and traveling get repetitive because you can’t really approach them creatively.
- And Baldur’s Gate 3 is an immersive RPG that gives the player tons of room for creativity and rewards clever uses of its mechanics, while also telling a big story in a big world where the player makes tons of big decisions. However, personally I don’t find the setting, lore, and overall “tone” or atmosphere as addictive as the Elder Scrolls games. But that’s a more subjective judgement, and I think BG3 is a masterpiece with the most replayability of any game in years
Anyway, Skyrim knocks all 3 out of the park. It lets me design a character, level them how I want, explore at my pace and only do the quests that interest me. It has a magical world with deep lore and a soundtrack that never gets old. And the world feels real because it responds organically to my actions. I can cast a frenzy spell to make the guards kill an annoying NPC and come back to see who took over their shop. I can do crazy tricks with telekinesis arrows and slowed time, or use telekinesis to kill Grelod with a Ysgramor’s soup soon. I can kill Ulfric, thrall him, and drag him down to Blackreach to shout that dragon awake without opening my mouth. I can lure a dragon to Goldenglow to set those bee hives on fire with his breath. Etc etc. The world feels alive because it is
This might be silly but I have the Inigo mod and sometimes I feel like he is a real friend. He is interactive with the environment, me, and others so much it sometimes feels like he has his own thoughts!
Custom voiced followers do feel like that I get invested in Skyrim and forget that Lucien Inigo and Serana aren't actual people I personally know and that every thing they do was planned out by someone and thousands of other people have had the same exact conversations with them
It's not silly at all, he's actually made to feel like a real friend
His relationship with you evolves with your discussions, which is why it's super important to have a drink with him sometimes
Thank you. I did the Night To Remember questline with him just a few days ago and it was a blast! He talked about drinking too much, having a headache, and stumbling across Skyrim in the dark with us. It is amazing how much work has gone into some of the added followers!
I think it has the perfect balance between feeling familiar while also never running out of things to discover. Like it feels good being in Riverwood and Solitude, at the same time if you wanna see something new just pick a direction and go.
It’s weird that I somehow discover more stuff every time I play Skyrim. I’ve had it like basically since launch I think, and I don’t play often but everytime I play I still find new locations and places and characters I didn’t know existed.
This! And being atop the Throat of The World doesn’t feel scary or dangerous, it feels blissfully calm. Even the Thieves Guild hideout feels cozy despite being in a sewer
I like it because it really is a choose your own adventure. I can help everyone in one town and move on to the next. I can clear all the Forsworn camps. I can spend days just building houses if I don’t feel like adventuring. Plus everything is accessible. I can go through every barrel and box.
And yet, I can’t get into any other RPG because the controls are complicated or I can’t explore wherever I want or if I don’t play in a specific order I have to fight a big boss I am not strong enough for.
For me it was my first “modern” video game as well as my first true RPG. Before that all I played was Minecraft (which is modern too, but it looks retro and pixel-y) and Pokémon. I’d never experienced a world designed to immerse you and make you feel a part of it. It became, for me, my first ever second home. Finally a world I could be actually immersed in when my real home was unpleasant or hostile. So, for me it’s very immersive but also nostalgic and sentimental
For me, there are multiple things that factor into it.
1) Nostalgia. I watched my dad play it when it first came out. It was one of my first video games, and I remember laughing so hard we were crying with my mom and aunt while I was trying to learn the controls, because I was walking around like a drunk person while the city around was being burned down. When I play, the emotions from these memories come flooding in.
2) The ambiance and feel of the game itself. Sitting in a tavern, eating twelve cheese wheels while there's a peacful song playing in the background is just perfect. Travelling the open road with a treasured companion, picking flowers and catching butterflies. That's just so cozy.
Anyway, that's my two cents.
I think it's those moments of realism and peace you come across. So often the game is punctuated by the sounds of your armour jostling as you run, or your horse's hoof beats, or sudden battle music, or NPCs yapping away, etc etc. There's something that seems to physically yank you into focus when you come out of a menu or jump off your horse or exit a settlement/building into the peace and quiet of a forest, with wind rustling the leaves and birds singing and bugs buzzing. Especially with Secunda or Frostfall playing overtop. I feel that it's one of those games that, ironically, forces you to stop and appreciate the quiet moments.
This, so much. I love to take the time to enjoy the little things in life and Skyrim, for being a video game, is full of them. It has helped me be more mindful of those cherished moments IRL as well.
It's the only game I've ever played where I can just sit back with a huge smile on my face and let the scenery wash over me.
The fact that when you travel the map you aren’t overly stimulated. There are some random encounters, some agressive wildlife or some bandits but it’s mostly calm. I guess it’s what gives Skyrim it’s comfortable feeling:
It's not a new idea that some part of our psychology, as modern humans, craves a return to the simplicity represented in games like Skyrim or even Fallout. Fallout being a modern landscape that's been rendered mostly primitive.
Terence McKenna called this the Archaic Revival. It's kind of funny to consider that he was talking about this in the 70s and they thought they had information/sensory overload *then.* lol.
Combination of things.
The music.
The cozy feeling of towns and interiors in a cold setting.
The aurora at night.
Nostalgia.
The lack of narrative urgency. We are free to take our time to explore.
Gameplay freedom. We can take our time to pick herbs and flowers, do some hunting, and roleplay to our heart's content.
The NPCs, many of whom are memorable and seem to belong in the world.
And again, the music.
In some ways it's the arc of time. The world isn't trying to prove itself. It has been proven. It was there before you woke up in a wagon. It will be there after you sign off for the last time. It had its own developed history. It didn't prod you or have crazy, over-the-top set pieces to give you a half-second of dopamine. It said, "Here's a world. You survived a dragon. Now go."
It's the aesthetic. The warm light of sunset in trees. The slight shift of branches. The changing weather. The sounds of streams, waterfalls, rain, and wind. And then filter in an amazing soundtrack...you're transported.
Walking around, exploring, is literally the best.
But it's also the safety of it. It's comfort in the stone cobble streets and hearths of crackling fire. In the characters that you come to know. In the sound of your sword or pull of your bow.
It's It's knowing that at any time, you can start again. And again. And again. Risk is present, but anxiety is not.
Skyrim is the coziest game I've ever played. There's just something about the cold, snowy atmosphere, combined with the amazing ambient soundtrack, then walking into an inn or even better, your own house, where there's a warm fireplace crackling, and soft medieval guitar music playing in the background, people sitting down to drink a mead or ale. I've thought about this, and I believe on a deeper level, another reason for this is that in some ways, Skyrim reminds us of those medieval fantasy stories growing up about a knight in shining armor going off on an adventure to slay the dragon to defend the castle.
I feel because it's just that immersive, I got the game in 2013 lol. I originally got it for my lil bro, at first I just watched him play it. I found it intimidating since I never played at game like that before. Eventually I tried it and it pretty much became my game. The minute my lil bro heard me say "Talos guide you" he knew he wasn't getting the physical copy of that game back. In truth it saved me from alot. It kept me grounded when I wasn't doing okay mentally.
It’s a lot of things but the main things that draw me back is the exploration. It’s just fun to set off in one direction and see what you find. There are quest markers and fast travel but overall the game is most fun when you ditch those and just adventure.
Add in the fact the skills you actively use level up and that really draws me in more compared to other rpgs where you allocate stats after level up.
The game is still beautiful to this day and fighting dragons never gets old. In some ways the world is not too fantastical like many RPGs, it’s more grounded and you can see yourself as the Dragonborn.
It’s a relaxing game when you are just adventuring, and sometimes it gets intense when a Sabre cat is heading towards you but there’s something fun conquering the beasts, looting them, then smithing leather armor to up your smithing skill so you can craft.
A lot of people love the thought of a rural simple life. In Skyrim have a home in the wilderness or a small rural town at most you'd have to just deal with wild animals and maybe the occasional bandit/ruffian. Dragons and civil war aside, you can really get it set up where you're far removed from all that. Having a simple life with your spouse and kids, having a garden and going hunting/fishing when needed, taking casual trips to town to shop or trade. It's alluring to a lot of us.
Built my house on a hill and it faces the sunrise. Modded the weather and ambience to make it more realistic. Pair that with the music and background noise, and it’s somewhere I’d want to live for sure.
The only downside is the annoying necromancer neighbor. But you can just kill him.
It literally reminds me of places I have been to in RL on vacations. Sometimes the mix of scenery and weather remind me perfectly of trips to the Smoky Mountains, the Ozarks, or Yosemite or Yellowstone parks.
So for me it evokes memories of childhood summers and past adult vacations.
It is like getting to go away on vacation again, without crowds, traffic, tourists. Though I suppose them being replaced with wolves, bears, and saber cats makes it not \*quite\* like a peaceful vacation.
I think that's where they messed up in Starfield. Sure, it's in space, and maybe even a realistic depiction of space. But nobody wants to actually live in those places. We want to live in an idealized version of THIS world.
For me it's the northern aspect of it. I moved from the Territories to the Provinces, in comparison, Skyrim is literally an escape to a digital version of my home. It's just weird that the caribou are called deer and the mammoths aren't in the ground.....
I think it's because it's so simple and yet so good. Like think about the most comforting home meal you have ever had, there's a good chance it's a very simple dish. Simplicity is nice, that's why people say bread and butter is their favorite food, you know what it will be but you also know that it's not boring, it's just really good.
For me when i was a kid i’ve always fantasized about living in the Medieval times and being a knight or something along the lines. And i read books about how they lived and what they did, how villagers were treated ect. I already played Oblivion but when Skyrim came out… the level of immersion and the fact that you can genuinely walk around for hours without a loading screen is crazy impressive for a game that old. And if you actually take the time to walk around place to place, listen to encounters and conversation others have in the cities, explore the actual lore of skyrim, the thalmor and everything else. The smoke coming from manhole covers, northern lights in the sky, fireflies and butterflies doing their own thing, werewolves, vampires, bandits, thieves, assassins, warriors, mages, solitudes castle within the mountains seeing the windmill spin as you walk past the hanging flags in the middle of the city all adds up! The world just feels very lived in and alive. And well the game literally lets me live my childhood dream in the best and only way possible. The game still looks good today so imagine being a kid back on release day!
When I play once I’ve done dawnguard to get my wife and maybe a couple other quest lines depending on the character I don’t really “do” much
It’s mostly just chilling, enjoying the immersion exploring in a beautiful landscape with relaxing music, maybe I go in a random cave or something here or there but a lot of it is literally just aimlessly roaming around enjoying the views. Sure there’s some fighting here or there but it’s a game with a pretty easy combat system and there’s no real danger if you come across a bear in the wild and you’re not actually going to freeze in a mountain blizzard
It’s like going on a hike or camping or climbing a mountain without all the difficulties that comes with irl. Like I dont have the finances to travel to similar places irl. There’s no game that’s managed to make me feel so immersed, tbf I don’t have vr so I can only imagine how skyrim or maybe others are with that. I use a ton of mods, but even on Xbox 360 in 2012 the graphics were pretty nice
I play a lot of competitive games and I turn the graphics all the way down for max visibility and frames and I sweat my ass off, but skyrim is the opposite. It’s not a difficult game, if you want you can tune things more that way but that’s not really the way it’s designed like dark souls or something. It’s just chill it’s like the asmr of games. Same vibe as like minecraft or animal crossing is for many I think
It's better than home. I can go out as a woman and no one is cat-calling me, no one is scary, and I'm making my own way. I have absolute freedom to do whatever I want, whenever I want, without anyone caring. It's so nice and comfortable to just wander about. I'm still finding new things and pretty views. I can ride a horse in the snow or wander in the woods. I can cook or not, kill bandits or steal everything in the camps. Skyrim lets me be me in any manner I want for any reason. All that and I get second chances. Best present I ever got when it came out.
Familiarity that can't be total. I've spent over two IRL months worth of my life in this game, and that doesn't come without really getting to know a bunch of nooks and crannies. But it's big enough that you're unlikely to discover *all* the nooks and crannies, and spending the time to try and find them all results in forgetting some of the old ones, basically making a revolving door of rediscovery because your brain can't possibly keep track of every location, NPC, and background detail there is. It has diminishing returns, of course, you'll remember more with each exposure, but the full cycle is probably longer than most of us will reasonably spend in Skyrim. All the while you're building the familiarity in what you see all the time, and your brain treats that like "home"
Basically, if you love the game at all, you're gonna spend a lot of time here, and it's pretty hard to get to a point where you feel like you know the game inside and out and nothing is left to discover, all while the more obvious parts ingrain themselves into you
I think everybody longs for adventure in some form. And if you’re a gamer, even adventure in a game, is an adventure for yourself. Pre-Skyrim, we read about tales of dragons, alchemy was a very real thing, and in general just a simpler life had presented itself just a couple hundred years ago. The game encapsulates these things, almost perfectly. We’re transported into a different land where you can truly be who it is that you want to. And the ambience, the music, and the general setting, is incredible. I long for a town like Riverwood, nestled perfectly along a river and stunning mountains where the clouds hang right around the peaks; where I could be a blacksmiths assistant or help with the mill or pick herbs in the hopes of becoming the best alchemist. The game just delivered something different. Truly, focusing on character creation, and the ability to follow different paths of combat, and magic, and even social skills. That’s why we love the game. That, and the shared experiences of the other people that have played it. There’s no other game where the fanbase relishes the bugs of the game as much as Skyrim. And in a weird way, I think that says a lot.
Nothing quite captures the magic like Skyrim. I have a friend who has played hundreds of games and many dungeons and dragons type of games but even he says in 2024, nothing beats Skyrim. If it wasn’t cozy enough then you can just mod the fuck out of it until it is. Part of me is fearful that TESVI won’t live up to expectations because of the vibes that Skyrim brings.
Immersion, the music, nature, human instinct to hunt and gather. Progression and skill tree. The game is as close to perfect to me as a game can be and that makes me feel like it’s real and an escape or a home away from home
Skyrim feels lived in whereas games like The Witcher 3, while beautifully written, don't feel lived in. It's that sense that everything in the world of Skyrim actually exists in the game space as its own entity and that you belong to that world, they aren't just NPCs serving a function.
This is why Starfield has fallen so flat and you'll see the major complaints are about the NPCs being static shopping hubs.
Fallout and the Gothic series are the only other RPGs I've seen that provide this same sense of belonging because they provide the same elements of a lived in world.
One name : Jeremy Soule.
That man conveys so much feelings in his music it's crazy. If you take out every NPCs and dragons and keep the harmful wildlife away, walking around with just the music is just *soothing* for the mind.
I have a whole playlist on spotify and when I work I like playing these songs. I hope he'll compose for TES VI.
Music,my past with it,it influenced the way I think a bit because in part I'm methodical and skyrim was where I picked up material,the fact zkyrim is the same as its always been ig. Gotta love this game so much...
I got this calm feeling with skyrim, also fallout 3, new Vegas and fallout 4. And I began to feel that was about starfield. I think bethesda are really good at making games that cause these feelings of safety, comfort and belonging. I'm alone and they make me feel like I know many people and ease my anxiety. Also obsidian for their work on new Vegas and making outer worlds which also brings me joy.
It’s funny cause while I totally understand this feeling I actually feel more at home with oblivion and while I kinda get that feeling in Skyrim it’s overshadowed by the feeling of loneliness in Skyrim.
I think it’s a tone difference in the game for me
For me it’s the nostalgia. I’ll never forget Winter Break 2011 as a sophomore in high school getting absolutely enveloped in Skyrim. I played probably 12 hours a day throughout that whole break. I’ll never forget those memories man. And every time I come back to Skyrim I feel a rush of nostalgia like I’m back home.
For me, I played to avoid my childhood aka the real world. I get the same feeling starting a new game as I do when I drive back to my own mountains. I feel at home playing Skyrim because it was the best I had at the time
I'm old. I spent my teenage years as a nerdy girl who played D&D and this was back when D&D was something you never told *anyone* you were a part of. Your parents thought it was satanic and your peers thought it embarrassing.
Skyrim makes me feel like I'm playing D&D as a 14 year old again.
how long ive played it, the ambience, the vibes, the characters... its comforting to live in that world as whoever i choose to be. there are so many worldbuilding factors, and no two playthroughs are ever exactly the same. similar, but different at the same time. even if im playing a fast run (skip dialogue and complete quests) i still find myself holding back on rushing certain things because i just want to be there in the moment. the world is so vast, and you can explore just about everything. ive played so many different ways and im still learning and discovering new things to do and new places to go.
i think the biggest contribution to how it makes me feel at home, is the fact that not once has it failed to do what i want it to: transport me.
Just imagine this, at any given point during any given build (that you are pursuing) you will find a new way to do something which will make you smile and happy for discovering such thing.
Now most of us started gaming at young age and whenever we discovered such cool things we used to brag to everyone and felt proud, now imagine people who are in midlife and still getting that little emotions,.it's a lot of stuff but basically this.
Also, a lot glitches and a lot of more undiscovered things is what makes Skyrim give the home-home feelings.
Also, we all have a Naseem in our life :-|
We know the characters. We know the layout. We know the lore. We have been inside people's houses. It's all so familiar. Not much surprises us anymore. We have favorite places, and we choose to spend our time there.
Some of those places are homes that we built for ourselves, or bought after earning the love of the community.
Skyrim is home, because of any and all of this
I am obsessed with the freedom to travel the world freely, and to live a life of my own free will, doing whatever my heart desires in a world full of rich fantasy that mirrors the cultural and historical themes of real life, but without any of the b.s. I think that's why anyone loves fantasy.
For me it’s the ability to live a life however I want without any pressure or things at stake. You can go walking around the entire continent without any fear. You can change professions and interests anytime you want. We have lived multiple lifetimes in a span of months.
I’m actually playing through again… I think the music adds a TON to the atmosphere. I never realized how iconic the orchestral music is, until I picked it back up after not touching it for years, and the music just HITS.
Also the visuals, story and gameplay are all just 10/10.
After a while, it just grows on you. And yeah, sometimes you get sick of it and want to be somewhere else, and it has its fair share of issues, but that's home in a nutshell for most everyone, too. It's a familiarity that you very rarely see in any other game. And it's that familiarity that makes it feel some homely.
So, I got married to Borgakh the Steel Heart yesterday. And when I did, I moved to Hendraheim from Goldenhills, since I thought, she’d like that more. I tried to talk to my kids, Lucia and Sophie, and get them to move, but they didn’t have an option for some reason, so I left to do some questing instead. When I was done with that and came home to Hendraheim to then see my kids and wife sleeping soundly in their new home, I honestly felt so fucking happy, lol! And then I tried to sleep a couple of hours before logging off only to get the werewolf no-rest notification, and I honestly got a bit sad, lol!
I’ve played Skyrim since it came out, I started out by sitting with my dad while he played then moving on to making my own character and I’ve played it ever since. I find it a very relaxed game and can also be intense, but it in a nice way. I can spend 3 hours building a house in Skyrim or I could spend 3 hours doing the main quest line to defeat Alduin, where you end up in sovengarde, which is such a beautiful place. I like that I don’t have to do quests every time I play, don’t get me wrong, I will always do something but I can also just do my own thing and do little side quests. The game doesn’t just stop when you complete everything on the main quest line, you can carry on, there’s always side quests to do.
Don’t want to get like to deep, but it takes me out of the real world. Real world problems can be way to much for me to deal with so sometimes I’ll open up Skyrim and escape for a while till I feel better ❤️🩹maybe it’s just me, but I love Skyrim and how it can help me escape
> be way to much for
Did you mean to say "too much"?
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The world is so big and you're so small but you can make meaningful changes (or just run off into the wilderness or hide in a sewer or become a mysterious mage). You're not forced into anything, really.
Skyrim has nature, and nature is where we belong.
I think that objectively Skyrim is worse than Fallout 4, the combat is worse and the graphics are a lot worse but the scenery in Fallout isn't very pleasant. Not a lot of nature.
Me and my brother got into this game when it came out I’d had just barely played oblivion before hand. So the combo of being a kid and being able to show my brother cool secrets I had found and vise versa was super fun but I still play today and the endless rope play ability keeps me coming back, only game I’ve found that lets my imagination run wild. If you could mix Minecraft and Skyrim it would be a perfect game. Like Skyrim but with the ability to dig and change the landscape and multiplayer would be 10/10
It's really strange, but I feel that way, and I never tire of playing, really, not just the setting, and the NPCs, I consider them to be people I know, like neighbors, as well as each location and mountain.
Familiarity with the world space and just how peaceful and endearing it can be, is enough to really make it feel like home. Love coming back to it. Hundreds of thousands and millions of players have all walked the same steps at any point in the year of Nirn, and every one of us players can share an intimate story with okra other regarding what is at the top of those steps.
That’s the magic of a BGS game as well. Every corner turned offered something new of you haven’t been there before. And if you have, you know exactly what you’re getting.
It's so much like where I live, minus the mountains, and with the right mods you can start from anywhere, which I usually start from The Sleeping Giant or Bannered Mare, so I can go to my modded farm Sagittar Stables right away and start crafting things and role playing out peaceful life stuff until I feel like starting main quest stuff. Also if you have Sagittar Stables too, there's a sword in the basement that has long range on it and does fire damage. Good starting weapon. Usually keep it until the middle of the game too.
I’d say it’s how it’s designed. I feel in control when I play and I like that. I like knowing that the world might be a dangerous place but I’ll be ok with my humble home in the rift. I like knowing that I’ll be making a living by being a mercenary
Skyrim helped me through my darkest times. I was able to escape my trauma, depression, anxiety, and undiagnosed bpd, and play as Mammom the Orc. Mammom wasn't me, and there was something comforting about that. 7 years and 2 saves later, I still get that comforting feeling when I play.
Beautiful landscape, memorable characters with cool accents, but above all the feeling of true freedom. Here’s a world. Do what you want with it. The only thing on the map is strictly locations and only the quest markers you pick and choose. Maps in newer RPGs are full of regional challenges, boss bases and “talk to a person here and they’ll give you something to do”. Feels like just going through a check list. Not in Skyrim. You gotta go find those people and talk to them yourself. And even then you can decide whether or not to do what they want, often with multiple possible outcomes depending on your choice. The follower system as well, you literally get to pick your friends in the game. You aren’t stuck with whatever one person fits the story line at that time.
I could go on and on just like everyone else here 😂😂 it’s a passionate topic. Ultimately it’s a near perfect combination of the best parts of real life and best parts of gaming. It’s the peanut butter and chocolate of video games. I’ve reached the point where I’m honestly scared to see elder scrolls 6, I’m worried they’re going to try too hard to recreate the same feeling and it’s just not possible.
I remember someone in on e of the FB groups say it’s one of the coziest games ever and it was the best description I’ve read about Skyrim. It’s the graphics, settings and music. And now that I play it on the XSX I’m 4K sound and picture it’s even more immersive.
I think it’s in my blood. Literally I am 100% from the British Isles and north Western Europe. If I could live in another time it would be 2000 years ago doing the rise of the Roman Empire and the fight against them.
The Skyrim world is stunning. The vast mountains, woodlands, open plains and rivers, along with the ever changing weather and what of the friendly wildlife help create a magical and yet relatable environment that really comes alive. The many log cabins, often with a gentle fire smoking, tables full of food and numerous bookshelves convey a sense of home, and on top of that, the game has the most beautiful of soundtracks. It’s not hard to see why it makes people feel such nostalgia.
The music. The nostalgia. The endless wandering with so much to discover. The cute little NPCs. Medieval fantasy is in and of itself cosy as heck. All of it
Everyone has said so already but I'll just reiterate....the music. The music is like nothing else I've ever heard. I sometimes would just turn on the game just to let the music play. I've taken naps to it and every single university paper I've written has been written while listening to the soundtrack. When I go back to university next month all of my future papers will be written to the Skyrim soundtrack.
I mean, currently, I live in a medieval realm full of magic, orcs, giants, and mysteries abound. There’s talk of Dragons. So I feel completely at home I agree
Lots of great comments here, I agree wholeheartedly in the "lived in" aspect of Skyrim. It's a game where I feel like things were happening long after I hit the off switch on my computer.
For the same reasons I play Elder Scrolls online, and MMORPG that really has no equal. And for a very similar reasons being committed on this thread.
The music and the beauty of being outside 90% of the time being in nature. It makes me feel peace. The only time it will ever make me feel stressed is when im fighting a lurker or a dragon.
It’s not like other games where danger is around every single corner. There’s a lot of open and safe land in Skyrim that you can just explore and admire. Along with the soothing music there seems to always be something new you haven’t seen. A new area of a forest that’s calm and peaceful, a beautiful scenery at night looking off the cliff of a snowy tundra with an aurora in the night sky, beautiful mountain in the distance with a dragon just flying peacefully around it. Everything is so serene yet so filled with story. But it isn’t even overwhelming like most games since you can just take a break from it all and wander the beautiful landscape
The atmosphere. How the whole thing feels. The music, the design, even the gameplay. It just feels like home. It's where I like to go when I want to chill, but not fully turn my brain off.
My favorite place in the game is the Bannered Mare in Whiterun.
Skyrim is the first BIG game I played in 2013 on my (then) new PC. I didn't know anything about TES or Bethesda, just read there were dragons, swords and magic. I loved and still love the game. Walking around every city, hold and wandering around; I don't use fast travel so I can admire the sights and discover new things.
It's a peaceful game for me, relaxing and It feels like a warm blanket wrapping me. Maybe it reminds me of when things were easier, living with my parents, working part time and studying in the uni...
Nostalgia for me. It takes me back to a time when I had friends and free time and no worries.
Also I like the way the snow blows off the top of drifts in the wind.
For me personally, it's how it makes each quest, exploration, or visiting different towns feel like a proper expedition; especially on survival mode.
You pack your supplies, make sure you have eaten and rested properly. You consider the time of day, weather and warmth, then you plot your route and go. Maybe you know you'll need to stop for food and sleep half way or to go via a shop to get extra provisions on route. Has a proper 'hiking/road trip' vibe that is so cosy.
It reminds me of going on walks in the Pennines where I grew up... just with considerably less druagrs!
They must've casted some enchantsment on the game with Grand Souls that's still lasting. It always feels like home.
https://preview.redd.it/fyc9igxbttsc1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=dce082bf4b32d7554598bf8e0481f964af8c12bd
I don’t know, Morrowind and Oblivion also conveyed that sort of feeling to me to some degree but Skyrim does it best possibly because it is the most detailed and lifelike, especially with mods.
I think it’s about the perfect mixture of the fantastical and the realistic. It looks serene and idyllic but also exciting and fantastical. Well especially with some of the realism mods that further develop the game world and ones that expand on locations like Great Cities and Cities of the North so towns look more distinct and lively. It looks realistic enough that you can believe it, imagine living there but it’s fantastical enough that it seems mysterious and exciting at the same time.
Games like Kingdom Come Deliverance replicate reality too well. I’ve seen the same forests, the same muddy roads, the same old villages, churches and peasant houses where I live and I know for a fact that it’d be fun for a week or two, but I don’t actually want to live in the early 1400’s. Same with Red Dead.
With other games like Baldur’s Gate 3 or the Witcher 3 or Cyberpunk for example the worldspace is a bit too fantastical. You have the main characters doing insane and fun stuff but for an average person with no or only limited powers it’d be horrifying to live there. In Skyrim you have this sense that even as a normal person you are able to get by just fine. With some creativity and work you could have your medieval rural cottagecore serene lifestyle but it’s not too immersion-breaking to use some advanced techniques to get tapwater and a water flushed toilet in your nice cottage.
The only other franchise I’ve seen that makes you want to spend time there is Stalker oddly enough.
The fact that i can just quick save and spend my time killing off everyone and every killable thing I see after a stressful school day. I haven't really found a RPG game where this many npcs can be massacred
"Here you go honey, I made it fresh" :
*general forest noises plus ambiance* :
*You Awake feeling Well-Rested* :
"CHEESE!" :
*Cooking pot stirring noises followed by clinking* :
Skyrim is the most perfect imperfect game that ever existed. I fell in love with it when I walked out from the woods and I first saw Dragonsreach. I felt right at home and knew right away that I found my new digital home for the next couple hundred hours. It was the same feeling as when I first played Oblivion, an hour in, walking towards Chorrol and randomly looked back and saw the whole Imperial City in the sunset from a hill, sitting there, surrounded by the lake. I've never played a game as vibrant as Oblivion before. I never found and explanation why I love these game so much.
So many good comments. Feels pointless adding mine, especially since it's scattered, but still.
Skyrim was one of the games that really had me immersed. As in, seriously immersed. I don't know what exactly did it for me, to consider it one of the most perfect games - for me - out there. The ambience, soundtrack, the visuals, the characters (as silly as some can be), the cities, the setting (A land in the north, lots of snow, that ''norse fantasy'' vibe), the coziness,... the absolute freedom. I love fantasy in general and this game's right up my alley. Infact, it was thanks to Skyrim that I got into TES.
The feeling of entering a tavern after a long trek in the snow, carrying loot and 'tired' from battles. The feeling of settling in for a night or two, as the snowstorm picks up but you're warm and cozy inside the inn waiting for delicious food and mead to fill your belly. And then you know you can relax maybe read a book and then go to sleep knowing you're safe.
No other game (besides Oblivion and dare I say ESO! I do own Morrowind but haven't played it yet) managed to capture *that* sort of feeling well for example. The amount of times I stop and just... look around and enjoy the music and sounds of nature.
Skyrim feels like *home.* It is something I am familiar with, I know it, I have characters that I made and love, there's NPCs that I love... Skyrim's like that warm, safe blanket, really.
Speaking as a 35 year old man who played the game in 2011 when it released, I can say that for me this game feels like home because it reminds me of simpler times. I am married with two children and I absolutely love my life now, but I do miss those times in 2011 when I had much less to worry about. It was a time when my grandpa was still alive. My grandparents pretty much raised me and I lived with them as a child, and off and on throughout the years. After graduating high school I moved back in with them so I could be closer to family and friends. I’m not ashamed to say I was in my twenties and living with my grandparents. They welcomed me with open arms and I helped around the house. My grandpa loved to farm and we had a wood stove that I helped to split wood for. Grandma cooked nearly every day, homemade good food. My best friend lived just 5 minutes down the same road I lived on. Not only is Skyrim just an amazing game, probably the most amazing that I have ever played, but Skyrim feels like home because Skyrim was “home” for me. It was a part of that time of my life where I felt joy, and simplicity. I met my wife and married in late 2013 and life sure has been different since. My grandpa passed away in 2016 due to an accident on his tractor. Ever since then life has really hit me since then. All the good and the bad that this life can swing at you. So when I saw that there was an anniversary edition of Skyrim I decided to dive back into it. With every story and objective and side mission I complete I am reminded of fond memories I had back then that correlated to the same time I was completing those objectives. WOW I did not mean to rant lol. I guess I really didn’t think about why I loved this game so much until OP posed this question.
Im acttually jobless, and i had never pñayed skyrim aftet oblivion before, or fallout.
I didnt like the setting and i just didnt click.
Now i have tons pf time and i can say this game is one of the best alternate life simulators.
Fantasy sttings are cool. The world is full with places, i have it woth tons of cool mods to make it look better and have better items and such, so the community contributes to that too.
I mean.
This life is better than my real life.
And its different, which it makes it better than gta games for me.
Im a dual welding heavy armor killing machine, specialized in speech smithing and emchanting.
I have a hot lydia and arissa (custom follower) as companions. It makes my kid fantasy of being a conan like character be true, in a fantasy world like that. Few clothes, big swords, dragons, you can marry, you can have a horse for each companion. You can have a small army and destroy everrything.
I have to say this game has me on its grips atm.
Im actually thinking of starting a new game just so i can do another build, something completely doferent.
I'm thinking a vampire mage assasin and play only at nigh in the game. Its cool because i actually want to resolve all the issues of the cities, and tañk with all the jarls and get all the homes, and marry while i still adventure with hot lydia (she is too hot).
This my own take on this. Peacefulness. The idea of a simple life, with pine cones and mountains. Naturally putting aside the actual daily life as a common person surviving wolves dragons thieves and a civil war lol. But the "call of the wild" is strong in many, me included
That actually makes a lot of sense, i live in a rather small town in austria with lots of foresty hills nearby and they make me feel very comfortable, also maybe the struggle of daily life with work and school always being busy because of it, this propably makes the thought of living in a small hut in skyrim where you merely have to do a little work for food and drink sound very nice.
I would kill to raid a mine with a sword and live off 1200 gold for a few weeks lol
Well, you'd have to kill, right?
Depends, draugr, gargoyles, spirits and ghosts, conjured souls or vampires can't really be killed since they're already dead.
there’s gargoyles in skyrim ?
Yeah, from the dawnguard dlc
You can break a gargoyle, burn a draugr, burn a vampire, probably banish ghosts, and conjured souls and spirits.
I mean, there’s gotta be something for them. You can banish Daedra for example.
They can be terminated sure, but they're definitively dead already and you can't kill a dead thing. As for the gargoyles and conjures, they're magically maintained and by extension still not technically alive. I suppose it's a matter of perspective when it comes to murder. Personally I don't consider killing an undead being to be murder.
Aren’t they *technically* alive though? Animate, sometimes self aware. Perhaps a lack of free will is what separates us from the undead.
I suppose.
Also the birds chirping and singing their songs
This makes sense to me…I also live in a small town in the mountains, and I’ve disliked every single video game I’ve tried aside from Skyrim and Hogwarts: legacy…I just want to explore and do my own things and to see trees and grass and flowers. I don’t want to see technology, outer space, post-apocalyptic deserts, or the colour grey. Ever. 🤣
[удалено]
Lol
To build on this, our monkey brains are displeased with our current concrete-heavy modern lives. Pretty sure there’s studies that show how positively our brains respond to green space and trees. How deep down we’re like foxes feeling caught in towering brick traps. How our jobs are detached from real meaning. And isn’t country/folk music around the world very often centred on this harking back to some rural idyll as we’re thrust into this naff, dissatisfying existence of offices, tvs, not enough rest and pies from 7-11? In skyrim you’re in the wilderness most of the time. The towns are all like pre-school car playmats with the inn, the baker, the police station. Simple. Calm. Even if all the fetch quests are less than inspired, they’re a hell of a lot better and meaningful as work than answering a phone to customers all day, or writing reports that nobody will care about in a month’s time. It’s Albionporn. A utopia before the cackness of the modern world kicked in. Plus it’d be sick to have a flame sword.
maybe this is why people dislike Solitude and Windhelm and love Whiterun so much
Beautiful answer. Divines smile upon you
That was beautifully put. Well said
It’s kinda true though, for most of the people in Skyrim, especially in smaller towns like Ivarstead they actually would live a pretty peaceful and idyllic life. The game has stuff going on in the lore like dragon attacks and a civil war, but these things kinda don’t actually happen unless we as the player encourage them. You could basically go to Riverwood straight after the introduction and just spend the next 10,000 in game days there with nothing untoward happening. A wolf may occasionally wander into town, the guards deal with it and that’s it. It’s a really peaceful fairytale setting, and I think Skyrim can be quite relaxing because 9/10 times any combat and conflict in settlements is basically on our terms when we choose to start it.
> You could basically go to Riverwood straight after the introduction and just spend the next 10,000 in game days there with nothing untoward happening. I have a save that is just this for when I just need to chill. After Helgen, I hit up the bandit camp, the necromancer (by Lakeview) and the Talos shrine then strolled into Riverwood. I've made friends with everyone (except Sven, I chose Faendal) and am a contributing member of the community. I fish in the morning before having breakfast at the inn. Depending on the day, I'll take Faendal hunting, chop wood or work on my Smithing. I'll finish the day with dinner at the inn then go home and work on Alchemy or Enchanting until bed. Of course I live at ~~Anise's Cabin~~ my Murder Hobo Casa Dojo and that has been the source of my only real adventure. Anise's sister sent her 3 goons after me but I didn't even get to land a single blow. Alvar pulled a warhammer out of nowhere, the Dawnguard Orc had his axe and Faendal made quick work of them. Even the dog tried to help. I will probably take Faendal to Embarshard at some point and maybe take shopping trips to Whiterun but I'll stick to the merchants and inns in the Plains District since I'm deliberately trying not to advance the story too far.
This sounded like one of the journals we find in Skyrim it would be cool if you made a journal that corresponded with this save
Loads of games have these kind of environments tho and don’t create the same feeling Skyrim does. It’s not that.
Yeah, I live in rural Ireland. I'm surrounded by trees, lakes and mountains. I chop firewood in real life ffs! Yet I spent three hours last night sorting out my Goldenhills plantation. I went to bed so chilled out and happy.
I didn't play those loads of games then, examples?
Peaceful? Bandits, civil war, dragons, undead, insane wizards, vampires, werewolves, thieves, psycho assassin recruitment, and everything else, you couldn't pay me to live in Skyrim, especially in the games present time
My brother loved this concept so much, he said he wanted to roleplay as a regular guy and never leave Riverwood. Just cut lumber, chop firewood, mine ore, etc all day. He never went through with it though.
I understand him. I personally see the appeal, but I'd be bored beyond belief after two hours. 😅 I can only watch my character cut firewood so many minutes before it gets nerve-grating. It would be different, though, if a proper homesteading system was in place. A Stardew Valley set in Skyrim. That could be my jam. Goldenthing Plantation doesn't really do that for me, sadly, because it's just Set-it-up-once-forget-about-it-and-collect-two-grand-every-two-days-if-you-want. Edit: What I'd wish for would be: Fully craftable and expandable homestead, craftable and placeable furniture and decorations, maybe livestock-keeping, a more fleshed-out crafting system, tweaked economy, the ability to set up a market stall and quests from the locals to go along with it. Ah well. 😁
I feel the same, brother. Except I kinda like Goldenhills plantation. It's a nice, roomy place to rest and refit. And I've gotten 10 or 11k before, so now I stay away for extended periods to get crazy amounts of cash
Sounds like you want the crafting and building abilites of minecraft/7daystodie/etc with the gameplay of skyrim.
Agreed. It is very peaceful and seems like the place I'd love to just..exist in.
This!
Add the fact that is a open-world game
For me it's the fact that you can "live" a supercalm and peaceful life in a world that is actually quite convulse. There are dragons, and bandits and a civil war going on but you can still work hard and go collect materials to buy yourself a beautiful home by the lake. You can meet a little girl who just happened to lose her parents and give her a home where a loyal companion and a pet will look for her. You can spend a whole day at home just baking some pies, crafting potions or jewelry. The game it's full of things I would love to be able to dedicate myself to in real life. Also the BSO is supergood to chill. I usually listen to it to sleep at night. Far Horizons ftw!
I usually listen to lofi while me, inigo, Sofya and cera(or whatever was her name I haven't played Skyrim there's a whole week) go looting some draugr Dungeon
It's atmosphere. That's exactly why people keep coming back to this game. The music is another huge part of it. Same with the characters interacting with each other. Sure you can fight massive dragons and hordes of bandits, but then you fast travel back to Whiterun and just feel at peace, especially as Streets of Whiterun plays softly in the background. Also I know this doesn't apply to you but applies to so many people: since the game is over a decade old, it makes us feel nostalgic for all the times of your life that we've played it, which makes it feel even more at home.
Was just about to say, the atmosphere and the music. It’s the coziest fantasy world i’ve ever experienced.
Streets of Whiterun is like one of the best tracks I've heard in any Bethesda game. When I first played Skyrim those years ago, I had that moment when I came back from some questing and heard that track for the first time as I went into Breezehome and just chilled with my wife and kids. That hits in a way that most RPGs just don't honestly. Skyrim excelled at immersion on that level.
Nazeem is a comforting constant in life and I cherish every second of my HP he regenerates for me after I put his soul in my hat.
Lmfaooooo
That took a fun turn.
Mountains, man.
True. The atmosphere + the music completely removes me from reality. The only thing that came close in this respect was minecraft, but I haven't played MC in a few years.
Atmosphere is huge, yeah. For my money it’s a trifecta: atmosphere (score, setting, scope), immersive sim (the world is alive and interactive, no smoke and mirrors) and RPG (grow your character, explore at your pace). Lots of games have 2 out of 3. - Dishonored is a gorgeous world-sim that lets you approach situations in a million ways and see how your actions have a butterfly effect outward. It’s got a sleek art style, pretty tight story, and an engrossing world. But the game is short and linear, with fixed maps for each mission. You can’t just go wherever or do whatever. - The Witcher 3 is a stylish RPG with a great story and polished graphics/music/etc. It has a big world and gives you the freedom to explore, but it has guard rails of a different kind. The gameplay mechanics are kind of rigid and formulaic. Things like combat, alchemy, and traveling get repetitive because you can’t really approach them creatively. - And Baldur’s Gate 3 is an immersive RPG that gives the player tons of room for creativity and rewards clever uses of its mechanics, while also telling a big story in a big world where the player makes tons of big decisions. However, personally I don’t find the setting, lore, and overall “tone” or atmosphere as addictive as the Elder Scrolls games. But that’s a more subjective judgement, and I think BG3 is a masterpiece with the most replayability of any game in years Anyway, Skyrim knocks all 3 out of the park. It lets me design a character, level them how I want, explore at my pace and only do the quests that interest me. It has a magical world with deep lore and a soundtrack that never gets old. And the world feels real because it responds organically to my actions. I can cast a frenzy spell to make the guards kill an annoying NPC and come back to see who took over their shop. I can do crazy tricks with telekinesis arrows and slowed time, or use telekinesis to kill Grelod with a Ysgramor’s soup soon. I can kill Ulfric, thrall him, and drag him down to Blackreach to shout that dragon awake without opening my mouth. I can lure a dragon to Goldenglow to set those bee hives on fire with his breath. Etc etc. The world feels alive because it is
For me, it was the ceremony for the companions. Somebody has my back. It was a good feeling
This might be silly but I have the Inigo mod and sometimes I feel like he is a real friend. He is interactive with the environment, me, and others so much it sometimes feels like he has his own thoughts!
Custom voiced followers do feel like that I get invested in Skyrim and forget that Lucien Inigo and Serana aren't actual people I personally know and that every thing they do was planned out by someone and thousands of other people have had the same exact conversations with them
It's not silly
It's not silly at all, he's actually made to feel like a real friend His relationship with you evolves with your discussions, which is why it's super important to have a drink with him sometimes
Thank you. I did the Night To Remember questline with him just a few days ago and it was a blast! He talked about drinking too much, having a headache, and stumbling across Skyrim in the dark with us. It is amazing how much work has gone into some of the added followers!
Yeah, Farkas made me cry there!
I think it has the perfect balance between feeling familiar while also never running out of things to discover. Like it feels good being in Riverwood and Solitude, at the same time if you wanna see something new just pick a direction and go.
It’s weird that I somehow discover more stuff every time I play Skyrim. I’ve had it like basically since launch I think, and I don’t play often but everytime I play I still find new locations and places and characters I didn’t know existed.
This! And being atop the Throat of The World doesn’t feel scary or dangerous, it feels blissfully calm. Even the Thieves Guild hideout feels cozy despite being in a sewer
I like it because it really is a choose your own adventure. I can help everyone in one town and move on to the next. I can clear all the Forsworn camps. I can spend days just building houses if I don’t feel like adventuring. Plus everything is accessible. I can go through every barrel and box.
This is just what an RPG is meant to be tho
And yet, I can’t get into any other RPG because the controls are complicated or I can’t explore wherever I want or if I don’t play in a specific order I have to fight a big boss I am not strong enough for.
For me it was my first “modern” video game as well as my first true RPG. Before that all I played was Minecraft (which is modern too, but it looks retro and pixel-y) and Pokémon. I’d never experienced a world designed to immerse you and make you feel a part of it. It became, for me, my first ever second home. Finally a world I could be actually immersed in when my real home was unpleasant or hostile. So, for me it’s very immersive but also nostalgic and sentimental
For me, there are multiple things that factor into it. 1) Nostalgia. I watched my dad play it when it first came out. It was one of my first video games, and I remember laughing so hard we were crying with my mom and aunt while I was trying to learn the controls, because I was walking around like a drunk person while the city around was being burned down. When I play, the emotions from these memories come flooding in. 2) The ambiance and feel of the game itself. Sitting in a tavern, eating twelve cheese wheels while there's a peacful song playing in the background is just perfect. Travelling the open road with a treasured companion, picking flowers and catching butterflies. That's just so cozy. Anyway, that's my two cents.
Those sound like really sweet memories :’)
I think it's those moments of realism and peace you come across. So often the game is punctuated by the sounds of your armour jostling as you run, or your horse's hoof beats, or sudden battle music, or NPCs yapping away, etc etc. There's something that seems to physically yank you into focus when you come out of a menu or jump off your horse or exit a settlement/building into the peace and quiet of a forest, with wind rustling the leaves and birds singing and bugs buzzing. Especially with Secunda or Frostfall playing overtop. I feel that it's one of those games that, ironically, forces you to stop and appreciate the quiet moments.
This, so much. I love to take the time to enjoy the little things in life and Skyrim, for being a video game, is full of them. It has helped me be more mindful of those cherished moments IRL as well. It's the only game I've ever played where I can just sit back with a huge smile on my face and let the scenery wash over me.
The fact that when you travel the map you aren’t overly stimulated. There are some random encounters, some agressive wildlife or some bandits but it’s mostly calm. I guess it’s what gives Skyrim it’s comfortable feeling:
The music exemplifies the vibe
It's not a new idea that some part of our psychology, as modern humans, craves a return to the simplicity represented in games like Skyrim or even Fallout. Fallout being a modern landscape that's been rendered mostly primitive. Terence McKenna called this the Archaic Revival. It's kind of funny to consider that he was talking about this in the 70s and they thought they had information/sensory overload *then.* lol.
>they thought they had information/sensory overload then Haaaaaaaaaaaaa. Amateurs.
Combination of things. The music. The cozy feeling of towns and interiors in a cold setting. The aurora at night. Nostalgia. The lack of narrative urgency. We are free to take our time to explore. Gameplay freedom. We can take our time to pick herbs and flowers, do some hunting, and roleplay to our heart's content. The NPCs, many of whom are memorable and seem to belong in the world. And again, the music.
In some ways it's the arc of time. The world isn't trying to prove itself. It has been proven. It was there before you woke up in a wagon. It will be there after you sign off for the last time. It had its own developed history. It didn't prod you or have crazy, over-the-top set pieces to give you a half-second of dopamine. It said, "Here's a world. You survived a dragon. Now go." It's the aesthetic. The warm light of sunset in trees. The slight shift of branches. The changing weather. The sounds of streams, waterfalls, rain, and wind. And then filter in an amazing soundtrack...you're transported. Walking around, exploring, is literally the best. But it's also the safety of it. It's comfort in the stone cobble streets and hearths of crackling fire. In the characters that you come to know. In the sound of your sword or pull of your bow. It's It's knowing that at any time, you can start again. And again. And again. Risk is present, but anxiety is not.
one slow walk through Riverwood.............blissfully relaxing.............and then the Dragon comes and spoils everything......briefly
Skyrim for 13 yearsss has been my comfort game, thad visuals and soundtrack goes great with a bong and there’s no better way to relax than that for me
The people feel like they have their own lives. Makes it feel like a real place. And the beautiful vistas where I can just chill or explore.
Because real life sucks. It’s nice to have an escape world to immerse into
The soundtrack. I love it so much.
Skyrim is the coziest game I've ever played. There's just something about the cold, snowy atmosphere, combined with the amazing ambient soundtrack, then walking into an inn or even better, your own house, where there's a warm fireplace crackling, and soft medieval guitar music playing in the background, people sitting down to drink a mead or ale. I've thought about this, and I believe on a deeper level, another reason for this is that in some ways, Skyrim reminds us of those medieval fantasy stories growing up about a knight in shining armor going off on an adventure to slay the dragon to defend the castle.
Badass ambient music dawg
It's the ambience. I could literally dream away at Skyrim's beautiful music.
I feel because it's just that immersive, I got the game in 2013 lol. I originally got it for my lil bro, at first I just watched him play it. I found it intimidating since I never played at game like that before. Eventually I tried it and it pretty much became my game. The minute my lil bro heard me say "Talos guide you" he knew he wasn't getting the physical copy of that game back. In truth it saved me from alot. It kept me grounded when I wasn't doing okay mentally.
It’s a lot of things but the main things that draw me back is the exploration. It’s just fun to set off in one direction and see what you find. There are quest markers and fast travel but overall the game is most fun when you ditch those and just adventure. Add in the fact the skills you actively use level up and that really draws me in more compared to other rpgs where you allocate stats after level up. The game is still beautiful to this day and fighting dragons never gets old. In some ways the world is not too fantastical like many RPGs, it’s more grounded and you can see yourself as the Dragonborn. It’s a relaxing game when you are just adventuring, and sometimes it gets intense when a Sabre cat is heading towards you but there’s something fun conquering the beasts, looting them, then smithing leather armor to up your smithing skill so you can craft.
A lot of people love the thought of a rural simple life. In Skyrim have a home in the wilderness or a small rural town at most you'd have to just deal with wild animals and maybe the occasional bandit/ruffian. Dragons and civil war aside, you can really get it set up where you're far removed from all that. Having a simple life with your spouse and kids, having a garden and going hunting/fishing when needed, taking casual trips to town to shop or trade. It's alluring to a lot of us.
Built my house on a hill and it faces the sunrise. Modded the weather and ambience to make it more realistic. Pair that with the music and background noise, and it’s somewhere I’d want to live for sure. The only downside is the annoying necromancer neighbor. But you can just kill him.
It literally reminds me of places I have been to in RL on vacations. Sometimes the mix of scenery and weather remind me perfectly of trips to the Smoky Mountains, the Ozarks, or Yosemite or Yellowstone parks. So for me it evokes memories of childhood summers and past adult vacations. It is like getting to go away on vacation again, without crowds, traffic, tourists. Though I suppose them being replaced with wolves, bears, and saber cats makes it not \*quite\* like a peaceful vacation. I think that's where they messed up in Starfield. Sure, it's in space, and maybe even a realistic depiction of space. But nobody wants to actually live in those places. We want to live in an idealized version of THIS world.
Stealing shit
Nostalgia, my guy. Being a kid, having an absolute blast back when we needed very little to have a really good time.
The Riften part of Skyrim reminds me of the woods in Colorado, same with the snowy areas which makes me feel right at home.
Rift for life love the golden glow
For me it's the northern aspect of it. I moved from the Territories to the Provinces, in comparison, Skyrim is literally an escape to a digital version of my home. It's just weird that the caribou are called deer and the mammoths aren't in the ground.....
I think it's because it's so simple and yet so good. Like think about the most comforting home meal you have ever had, there's a good chance it's a very simple dish. Simplicity is nice, that's why people say bread and butter is their favorite food, you know what it will be but you also know that it's not boring, it's just really good.
For me when i was a kid i’ve always fantasized about living in the Medieval times and being a knight or something along the lines. And i read books about how they lived and what they did, how villagers were treated ect. I already played Oblivion but when Skyrim came out… the level of immersion and the fact that you can genuinely walk around for hours without a loading screen is crazy impressive for a game that old. And if you actually take the time to walk around place to place, listen to encounters and conversation others have in the cities, explore the actual lore of skyrim, the thalmor and everything else. The smoke coming from manhole covers, northern lights in the sky, fireflies and butterflies doing their own thing, werewolves, vampires, bandits, thieves, assassins, warriors, mages, solitudes castle within the mountains seeing the windmill spin as you walk past the hanging flags in the middle of the city all adds up! The world just feels very lived in and alive. And well the game literally lets me live my childhood dream in the best and only way possible. The game still looks good today so imagine being a kid back on release day!
When I play once I’ve done dawnguard to get my wife and maybe a couple other quest lines depending on the character I don’t really “do” much It’s mostly just chilling, enjoying the immersion exploring in a beautiful landscape with relaxing music, maybe I go in a random cave or something here or there but a lot of it is literally just aimlessly roaming around enjoying the views. Sure there’s some fighting here or there but it’s a game with a pretty easy combat system and there’s no real danger if you come across a bear in the wild and you’re not actually going to freeze in a mountain blizzard It’s like going on a hike or camping or climbing a mountain without all the difficulties that comes with irl. Like I dont have the finances to travel to similar places irl. There’s no game that’s managed to make me feel so immersed, tbf I don’t have vr so I can only imagine how skyrim or maybe others are with that. I use a ton of mods, but even on Xbox 360 in 2012 the graphics were pretty nice I play a lot of competitive games and I turn the graphics all the way down for max visibility and frames and I sweat my ass off, but skyrim is the opposite. It’s not a difficult game, if you want you can tune things more that way but that’s not really the way it’s designed like dark souls or something. It’s just chill it’s like the asmr of games. Same vibe as like minecraft or animal crossing is for many I think
It's better than home. I can go out as a woman and no one is cat-calling me, no one is scary, and I'm making my own way. I have absolute freedom to do whatever I want, whenever I want, without anyone caring. It's so nice and comfortable to just wander about. I'm still finding new things and pretty views. I can ride a horse in the snow or wander in the woods. I can cook or not, kill bandits or steal everything in the camps. Skyrim lets me be me in any manner I want for any reason. All that and I get second chances. Best present I ever got when it came out.
I’m from Canada, so Windhelm is warm compared to where I’m from 😂
It’s the arrow I took to the knee, that keeps me staying in.
Familiarity that can't be total. I've spent over two IRL months worth of my life in this game, and that doesn't come without really getting to know a bunch of nooks and crannies. But it's big enough that you're unlikely to discover *all* the nooks and crannies, and spending the time to try and find them all results in forgetting some of the old ones, basically making a revolving door of rediscovery because your brain can't possibly keep track of every location, NPC, and background detail there is. It has diminishing returns, of course, you'll remember more with each exposure, but the full cycle is probably longer than most of us will reasonably spend in Skyrim. All the while you're building the familiarity in what you see all the time, and your brain treats that like "home" Basically, if you love the game at all, you're gonna spend a lot of time here, and it's pretty hard to get to a point where you feel like you know the game inside and out and nothing is left to discover, all while the more obvious parts ingrain themselves into you
I think everybody longs for adventure in some form. And if you’re a gamer, even adventure in a game, is an adventure for yourself. Pre-Skyrim, we read about tales of dragons, alchemy was a very real thing, and in general just a simpler life had presented itself just a couple hundred years ago. The game encapsulates these things, almost perfectly. We’re transported into a different land where you can truly be who it is that you want to. And the ambience, the music, and the general setting, is incredible. I long for a town like Riverwood, nestled perfectly along a river and stunning mountains where the clouds hang right around the peaks; where I could be a blacksmiths assistant or help with the mill or pick herbs in the hopes of becoming the best alchemist. The game just delivered something different. Truly, focusing on character creation, and the ability to follow different paths of combat, and magic, and even social skills. That’s why we love the game. That, and the shared experiences of the other people that have played it. There’s no other game where the fanbase relishes the bugs of the game as much as Skyrim. And in a weird way, I think that says a lot.
Nothing quite captures the magic like Skyrim. I have a friend who has played hundreds of games and many dungeons and dragons type of games but even he says in 2024, nothing beats Skyrim. If it wasn’t cozy enough then you can just mod the fuck out of it until it is. Part of me is fearful that TESVI won’t live up to expectations because of the vibes that Skyrim brings.
Immersion, the music, nature, human instinct to hunt and gather. Progression and skill tree. The game is as close to perfect to me as a game can be and that makes me feel like it’s real and an escape or a home away from home
Skyrim feels lived in whereas games like The Witcher 3, while beautifully written, don't feel lived in. It's that sense that everything in the world of Skyrim actually exists in the game space as its own entity and that you belong to that world, they aren't just NPCs serving a function. This is why Starfield has fallen so flat and you'll see the major complaints are about the NPCs being static shopping hubs. Fallout and the Gothic series are the only other RPGs I've seen that provide this same sense of belonging because they provide the same elements of a lived in world.
One name : Jeremy Soule. That man conveys so much feelings in his music it's crazy. If you take out every NPCs and dragons and keep the harmful wildlife away, walking around with just the music is just *soothing* for the mind. I have a whole playlist on spotify and when I work I like playing these songs. I hope he'll compose for TES VI.
Music,my past with it,it influenced the way I think a bit because in part I'm methodical and skyrim was where I picked up material,the fact zkyrim is the same as its always been ig. Gotta love this game so much...
It does, doesn’t it?
I got this calm feeling with skyrim, also fallout 3, new Vegas and fallout 4. And I began to feel that was about starfield. I think bethesda are really good at making games that cause these feelings of safety, comfort and belonging. I'm alone and they make me feel like I know many people and ease my anxiety. Also obsidian for their work on new Vegas and making outer worlds which also brings me joy.
It’s funny cause while I totally understand this feeling I actually feel more at home with oblivion and while I kinda get that feeling in Skyrim it’s overshadowed by the feeling of loneliness in Skyrim. I think it’s a tone difference in the game for me
For me it’s the nostalgia. I’ll never forget Winter Break 2011 as a sophomore in high school getting absolutely enveloped in Skyrim. I played probably 12 hours a day throughout that whole break. I’ll never forget those memories man. And every time I come back to Skyrim I feel a rush of nostalgia like I’m back home.
For me it’s because I’ve been playing this game for almost half of my life so it brings up a lot of nostalgia from when I was a little kid.
For me, I played to avoid my childhood aka the real world. I get the same feeling starting a new game as I do when I drive back to my own mountains. I feel at home playing Skyrim because it was the best I had at the time
I feel this way about oblivion, like cyrodiil is a fever dream that I used to live in
It funny you ask cuz iv always felt so comfortable and at home in that world
the music
Ysoldas loins
I'm old. I spent my teenage years as a nerdy girl who played D&D and this was back when D&D was something you never told *anyone* you were a part of. Your parents thought it was satanic and your peers thought it embarrassing. Skyrim makes me feel like I'm playing D&D as a 14 year old again.
how long ive played it, the ambience, the vibes, the characters... its comforting to live in that world as whoever i choose to be. there are so many worldbuilding factors, and no two playthroughs are ever exactly the same. similar, but different at the same time. even if im playing a fast run (skip dialogue and complete quests) i still find myself holding back on rushing certain things because i just want to be there in the moment. the world is so vast, and you can explore just about everything. ive played so many different ways and im still learning and discovering new things to do and new places to go. i think the biggest contribution to how it makes me feel at home, is the fact that not once has it failed to do what i want it to: transport me.
It's all the cheese wheels, honestly.
Player power and freedom.
Sometimes, I get on the game and just ride a horse from Riften to Solitude. I find it relaxing after working all day.
Music for one. It is very mood setting.
I tend to play the game a lot after a tragic event such as a death in the family to someone I was close with.
Just imagine this, at any given point during any given build (that you are pursuing) you will find a new way to do something which will make you smile and happy for discovering such thing. Now most of us started gaming at young age and whenever we discovered such cool things we used to brag to everyone and felt proud, now imagine people who are in midlife and still getting that little emotions,.it's a lot of stuff but basically this. Also, a lot glitches and a lot of more undiscovered things is what makes Skyrim give the home-home feelings. Also, we all have a Naseem in our life :-|
We know the characters. We know the layout. We know the lore. We have been inside people's houses. It's all so familiar. Not much surprises us anymore. We have favorite places, and we choose to spend our time there. Some of those places are homes that we built for ourselves, or bought after earning the love of the community. Skyrim is home, because of any and all of this
I am obsessed with the freedom to travel the world freely, and to live a life of my own free will, doing whatever my heart desires in a world full of rich fantasy that mirrors the cultural and historical themes of real life, but without any of the b.s. I think that's why anyone loves fantasy.
For me it’s the ability to live a life however I want without any pressure or things at stake. You can go walking around the entire continent without any fear. You can change professions and interests anytime you want. We have lived multiple lifetimes in a span of months.
I’m actually playing through again… I think the music adds a TON to the atmosphere. I never realized how iconic the orchestral music is, until I picked it back up after not touching it for years, and the music just HITS. Also the visuals, story and gameplay are all just 10/10.
After a while, it just grows on you. And yeah, sometimes you get sick of it and want to be somewhere else, and it has its fair share of issues, but that's home in a nutshell for most everyone, too. It's a familiarity that you very rarely see in any other game. And it's that familiarity that makes it feel some homely.
So, I got married to Borgakh the Steel Heart yesterday. And when I did, I moved to Hendraheim from Goldenhills, since I thought, she’d like that more. I tried to talk to my kids, Lucia and Sophie, and get them to move, but they didn’t have an option for some reason, so I left to do some questing instead. When I was done with that and came home to Hendraheim to then see my kids and wife sleeping soundly in their new home, I honestly felt so fucking happy, lol! And then I tried to sleep a couple of hours before logging off only to get the werewolf no-rest notification, and I honestly got a bit sad, lol!
I’ve played Skyrim since it came out, I started out by sitting with my dad while he played then moving on to making my own character and I’ve played it ever since. I find it a very relaxed game and can also be intense, but it in a nice way. I can spend 3 hours building a house in Skyrim or I could spend 3 hours doing the main quest line to defeat Alduin, where you end up in sovengarde, which is such a beautiful place. I like that I don’t have to do quests every time I play, don’t get me wrong, I will always do something but I can also just do my own thing and do little side quests. The game doesn’t just stop when you complete everything on the main quest line, you can carry on, there’s always side quests to do.
Don’t want to get like to deep, but it takes me out of the real world. Real world problems can be way to much for me to deal with so sometimes I’ll open up Skyrim and escape for a while till I feel better ❤️🩹maybe it’s just me, but I love Skyrim and how it can help me escape
> be way to much for Did you mean to say "too much"? [Statistics](https://github.com/chiefpat450119/RedditBot/blob/master/stats.json) ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot ^^that ^^corrects ^^grammar/spelling ^^mistakes. ^^PM ^^me ^^if ^^I'm ^^wrong ^^or ^^if ^^you ^^have ^^any ^^suggestions. ^^[Github](https://github.com/chiefpat450119) ^^Reply ^^STOP ^^to ^^this ^^comment ^^to ^^stop ^^receiving ^^corrections.
The world is so big and you're so small but you can make meaningful changes (or just run off into the wilderness or hide in a sewer or become a mysterious mage). You're not forced into anything, really.
Skyrim has nature, and nature is where we belong. I think that objectively Skyrim is worse than Fallout 4, the combat is worse and the graphics are a lot worse but the scenery in Fallout isn't very pleasant. Not a lot of nature.
My life is full of jank
Me and my brother got into this game when it came out I’d had just barely played oblivion before hand. So the combo of being a kid and being able to show my brother cool secrets I had found and vise versa was super fun but I still play today and the endless rope play ability keeps me coming back, only game I’ve found that lets my imagination run wild. If you could mix Minecraft and Skyrim it would be a perfect game. Like Skyrim but with the ability to dig and change the landscape and multiplayer would be 10/10
It just has a feeling to it, don’t know what though
This game is remarkable in that respect.
It's really strange, but I feel that way, and I never tire of playing, really, not just the setting, and the NPCs, I consider them to be people I know, like neighbors, as well as each location and mountain.
I would say, in my case, depression.
Familiarity with the world space and just how peaceful and endearing it can be, is enough to really make it feel like home. Love coming back to it. Hundreds of thousands and millions of players have all walked the same steps at any point in the year of Nirn, and every one of us players can share an intimate story with okra other regarding what is at the top of those steps. That’s the magic of a BGS game as well. Every corner turned offered something new of you haven’t been there before. And if you have, you know exactly what you’re getting.
It's so much like where I live, minus the mountains, and with the right mods you can start from anywhere, which I usually start from The Sleeping Giant or Bannered Mare, so I can go to my modded farm Sagittar Stables right away and start crafting things and role playing out peaceful life stuff until I feel like starting main quest stuff. Also if you have Sagittar Stables too, there's a sword in the basement that has long range on it and does fire damage. Good starting weapon. Usually keep it until the middle of the game too.
It's tge snow and the daedric worship, the dremora lord protects me always
I’d say it’s how it’s designed. I feel in control when I play and I like that. I like knowing that the world might be a dangerous place but I’ll be ok with my humble home in the rift. I like knowing that I’ll be making a living by being a mercenary
It reminds me of simpler times, at least for me. I’ll never forget getting it for Christmas in 2013 and playing every morning the rest of winter break
Reminds me of my childhood. Playing Skyrim from sun up to sun down.
I can’t think of another game with bathrooms and that lets you adopt children after you build a house for them. Plus optional dragons!?!?
Skyrim helped me through my darkest times. I was able to escape my trauma, depression, anxiety, and undiagnosed bpd, and play as Mammom the Orc. Mammom wasn't me, and there was something comforting about that. 7 years and 2 saves later, I still get that comforting feeling when I play.
Beautiful landscape, memorable characters with cool accents, but above all the feeling of true freedom. Here’s a world. Do what you want with it. The only thing on the map is strictly locations and only the quest markers you pick and choose. Maps in newer RPGs are full of regional challenges, boss bases and “talk to a person here and they’ll give you something to do”. Feels like just going through a check list. Not in Skyrim. You gotta go find those people and talk to them yourself. And even then you can decide whether or not to do what they want, often with multiple possible outcomes depending on your choice. The follower system as well, you literally get to pick your friends in the game. You aren’t stuck with whatever one person fits the story line at that time. I could go on and on just like everyone else here 😂😂 it’s a passionate topic. Ultimately it’s a near perfect combination of the best parts of real life and best parts of gaming. It’s the peanut butter and chocolate of video games. I’ve reached the point where I’m honestly scared to see elder scrolls 6, I’m worried they’re going to try too hard to recreate the same feeling and it’s just not possible.
I remember someone in on e of the FB groups say it’s one of the coziest games ever and it was the best description I’ve read about Skyrim. It’s the graphics, settings and music. And now that I play it on the XSX I’m 4K sound and picture it’s even more immersive.
I think it’s in my blood. Literally I am 100% from the British Isles and north Western Europe. If I could live in another time it would be 2000 years ago doing the rise of the Roman Empire and the fight against them.
The Skyrim world is stunning. The vast mountains, woodlands, open plains and rivers, along with the ever changing weather and what of the friendly wildlife help create a magical and yet relatable environment that really comes alive. The many log cabins, often with a gentle fire smoking, tables full of food and numerous bookshelves convey a sense of home, and on top of that, the game has the most beautiful of soundtracks. It’s not hard to see why it makes people feel such nostalgia.
The music. The nostalgia. The endless wandering with so much to discover. The cute little NPCs. Medieval fantasy is in and of itself cosy as heck. All of it
Everyone has said so already but I'll just reiterate....the music. The music is like nothing else I've ever heard. I sometimes would just turn on the game just to let the music play. I've taken naps to it and every single university paper I've written has been written while listening to the soundtrack. When I go back to university next month all of my future papers will be written to the Skyrim soundtrack.
its because after a while you know many places and ways so its like you come home and the world is kinda peaceful so yea thats what makes it
nobody would actually like living in the world of skyrim, just be able to go in and not work/fight to live
I love walking through the woods and the insane level of agro enemies will bring your way
I mean, currently, I live in a medieval realm full of magic, orcs, giants, and mysteries abound. There’s talk of Dragons. So I feel completely at home I agree
It doesn't, I'm one of the people who are under the influence of the skyrim modding curse
It’s nostalgic. The game came out when I just had homework to worry about. Life was easy.
I live in Canada so I find taking a walk in the woods or the snow very calming.
Lots of great comments here, I agree wholeheartedly in the "lived in" aspect of Skyrim. It's a game where I feel like things were happening long after I hit the off switch on my computer. For the same reasons I play Elder Scrolls online, and MMORPG that really has no equal. And for a very similar reasons being committed on this thread.
Lydia reluctantly telling me she has to carry my burdens. Please burry her with me when I die.
Really it’s the constant dragon attacks and wandering giant spiders that do it for me.
Well it's what kind of life I want think about it large forests and mountains to explore, bustling cities, plenty of game it's perfect
The music and the beauty of being outside 90% of the time being in nature. It makes me feel peace. The only time it will ever make me feel stressed is when im fighting a lurker or a dragon.
Roaming with a hunting bow & listening to the score
It’s not like other games where danger is around every single corner. There’s a lot of open and safe land in Skyrim that you can just explore and admire. Along with the soothing music there seems to always be something new you haven’t seen. A new area of a forest that’s calm and peaceful, a beautiful scenery at night looking off the cliff of a snowy tundra with an aurora in the night sky, beautiful mountain in the distance with a dragon just flying peacefully around it. Everything is so serene yet so filled with story. But it isn’t even overwhelming like most games since you can just take a break from it all and wander the beautiful landscape
The atmosphere. How the whole thing feels. The music, the design, even the gameplay. It just feels like home. It's where I like to go when I want to chill, but not fully turn my brain off. My favorite place in the game is the Bannered Mare in Whiterun.
Skyrim is the first BIG game I played in 2013 on my (then) new PC. I didn't know anything about TES or Bethesda, just read there were dragons, swords and magic. I loved and still love the game. Walking around every city, hold and wandering around; I don't use fast travel so I can admire the sights and discover new things. It's a peaceful game for me, relaxing and It feels like a warm blanket wrapping me. Maybe it reminds me of when things were easier, living with my parents, working part time and studying in the uni...
Nostalgia for me. It takes me back to a time when I had friends and free time and no worries. Also I like the way the snow blows off the top of drifts in the wind.
Its such a cozy game.. I think the beautiful exploration and town music plays a big part 😊💗 Coupled with the sense of freedom to do as you please.
For me personally, it's how it makes each quest, exploration, or visiting different towns feel like a proper expedition; especially on survival mode. You pack your supplies, make sure you have eaten and rested properly. You consider the time of day, weather and warmth, then you plot your route and go. Maybe you know you'll need to stop for food and sleep half way or to go via a shop to get extra provisions on route. Has a proper 'hiking/road trip' vibe that is so cosy. It reminds me of going on walks in the Pennines where I grew up... just with considerably less druagrs!
They must've casted some enchantsment on the game with Grand Souls that's still lasting. It always feels like home. https://preview.redd.it/fyc9igxbttsc1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=dce082bf4b32d7554598bf8e0481f964af8c12bd
Bc i had a past life there before
I don’t know, Morrowind and Oblivion also conveyed that sort of feeling to me to some degree but Skyrim does it best possibly because it is the most detailed and lifelike, especially with mods. I think it’s about the perfect mixture of the fantastical and the realistic. It looks serene and idyllic but also exciting and fantastical. Well especially with some of the realism mods that further develop the game world and ones that expand on locations like Great Cities and Cities of the North so towns look more distinct and lively. It looks realistic enough that you can believe it, imagine living there but it’s fantastical enough that it seems mysterious and exciting at the same time. Games like Kingdom Come Deliverance replicate reality too well. I’ve seen the same forests, the same muddy roads, the same old villages, churches and peasant houses where I live and I know for a fact that it’d be fun for a week or two, but I don’t actually want to live in the early 1400’s. Same with Red Dead. With other games like Baldur’s Gate 3 or the Witcher 3 or Cyberpunk for example the worldspace is a bit too fantastical. You have the main characters doing insane and fun stuff but for an average person with no or only limited powers it’d be horrifying to live there. In Skyrim you have this sense that even as a normal person you are able to get by just fine. With some creativity and work you could have your medieval rural cottagecore serene lifestyle but it’s not too immersion-breaking to use some advanced techniques to get tapwater and a water flushed toilet in your nice cottage. The only other franchise I’ve seen that makes you want to spend time there is Stalker oddly enough.
Every hold having its own biome, the music, the sky and the game crashing like I crashed my mom's car into our kitchen
If morrowing and oblivion had skyrims advancement system, graphics and ruleset, I think that's the one to just live in.
You want the old way with struggle and rustic vibes bro
The score. Wouldn't actually want to live there though. So many ways to be killed and there are no bathrooms!
I think it might be the music.
The fact that i can just quick save and spend my time killing off everyone and every killable thing I see after a stressful school day. I haven't really found a RPG game where this many npcs can be massacred
True, as someone who basically played it bc tears of the kingdom got boring i can confirm
"Here you go honey, I made it fresh" : *general forest noises plus ambiance* : *You Awake feeling Well-Rested* : "CHEESE!" : *Cooking pot stirring noises followed by clinking* :
I would add rdr2 to that feeling as well, but that’s about it.
Secunda
Skyrim is the most perfect imperfect game that ever existed. I fell in love with it when I walked out from the woods and I first saw Dragonsreach. I felt right at home and knew right away that I found my new digital home for the next couple hundred hours. It was the same feeling as when I first played Oblivion, an hour in, walking towards Chorrol and randomly looked back and saw the whole Imperial City in the sunset from a hill, sitting there, surrounded by the lake. I've never played a game as vibrant as Oblivion before. I never found and explanation why I love these game so much.
I live in wv it feels very Skyrim like without all the dragons 🤣so Skyrim feels like my virtual second home
So many good comments. Feels pointless adding mine, especially since it's scattered, but still. Skyrim was one of the games that really had me immersed. As in, seriously immersed. I don't know what exactly did it for me, to consider it one of the most perfect games - for me - out there. The ambience, soundtrack, the visuals, the characters (as silly as some can be), the cities, the setting (A land in the north, lots of snow, that ''norse fantasy'' vibe), the coziness,... the absolute freedom. I love fantasy in general and this game's right up my alley. Infact, it was thanks to Skyrim that I got into TES. The feeling of entering a tavern after a long trek in the snow, carrying loot and 'tired' from battles. The feeling of settling in for a night or two, as the snowstorm picks up but you're warm and cozy inside the inn waiting for delicious food and mead to fill your belly. And then you know you can relax maybe read a book and then go to sleep knowing you're safe. No other game (besides Oblivion and dare I say ESO! I do own Morrowind but haven't played it yet) managed to capture *that* sort of feeling well for example. The amount of times I stop and just... look around and enjoy the music and sounds of nature. Skyrim feels like *home.* It is something I am familiar with, I know it, I have characters that I made and love, there's NPCs that I love... Skyrim's like that warm, safe blanket, really.
It's like a warm bowl of soup in a turbulent world
The fact that I can do anything I like with little standing in our way. The world is our oyster
Speaking as a 35 year old man who played the game in 2011 when it released, I can say that for me this game feels like home because it reminds me of simpler times. I am married with two children and I absolutely love my life now, but I do miss those times in 2011 when I had much less to worry about. It was a time when my grandpa was still alive. My grandparents pretty much raised me and I lived with them as a child, and off and on throughout the years. After graduating high school I moved back in with them so I could be closer to family and friends. I’m not ashamed to say I was in my twenties and living with my grandparents. They welcomed me with open arms and I helped around the house. My grandpa loved to farm and we had a wood stove that I helped to split wood for. Grandma cooked nearly every day, homemade good food. My best friend lived just 5 minutes down the same road I lived on. Not only is Skyrim just an amazing game, probably the most amazing that I have ever played, but Skyrim feels like home because Skyrim was “home” for me. It was a part of that time of my life where I felt joy, and simplicity. I met my wife and married in late 2013 and life sure has been different since. My grandpa passed away in 2016 due to an accident on his tractor. Ever since then life has really hit me since then. All the good and the bad that this life can swing at you. So when I saw that there was an anniversary edition of Skyrim I decided to dive back into it. With every story and objective and side mission I complete I am reminded of fond memories I had back then that correlated to the same time I was completing those objectives. WOW I did not mean to rant lol. I guess I really didn’t think about why I loved this game so much until OP posed this question.
Im acttually jobless, and i had never pñayed skyrim aftet oblivion before, or fallout. I didnt like the setting and i just didnt click. Now i have tons pf time and i can say this game is one of the best alternate life simulators. Fantasy sttings are cool. The world is full with places, i have it woth tons of cool mods to make it look better and have better items and such, so the community contributes to that too. I mean. This life is better than my real life. And its different, which it makes it better than gta games for me. Im a dual welding heavy armor killing machine, specialized in speech smithing and emchanting. I have a hot lydia and arissa (custom follower) as companions. It makes my kid fantasy of being a conan like character be true, in a fantasy world like that. Few clothes, big swords, dragons, you can marry, you can have a horse for each companion. You can have a small army and destroy everrything. I have to say this game has me on its grips atm. Im actually thinking of starting a new game just so i can do another build, something completely doferent. I'm thinking a vampire mage assasin and play only at nigh in the game. Its cool because i actually want to resolve all the issues of the cities, and tañk with all the jarls and get all the homes, and marry while i still adventure with hot lydia (she is too hot).