CRITICAL REVIEW: Skyrim by Emily Tenenbom
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, released in November 2011, is the fifth and latest installment in the action role-playing video game series The Elder Scrolls. Developed and published by Bethesda, the game was a commercial success, selling over 7 million copies within its first week, and was highly regarded and praised by critics internationally. The game takes place 200 years after the events of its predecessor, Oblivion, on the fictional planet of Nim and within the province of Skyrim.
The ultimate goal in the game is to defeat Alduin, a dragon returning to the continent of Tamriel, who is prophesied to destroy the world. ‘The future of Skyrim, even the Empire itself, hangs in the balance as they wait for the prophesized Dragonborn to come; a hero…and the only one who can stand amongst the dragons” (elderscrolls). However, there are multiple layers of goals that overlap and co-constitute ongoing objectives. A perpetual aim is to improve the skill set of the player’s chosen character. Once the character gains the necessary experience to strengthen skills in the categories of magic, combat, and stealth, the player-character is then encouraged to accept tasks relative to their new capabilities in order to advance levels in the game. Within the broader context of the main quest of defeating Alduin, players are given smaller quests by NPCs (non-player characters).
One of the most notable features of Skyrim is that it is a role-playing game which contains open-world gameplay; the player-character can explore an incredibly deep, complex fictional space indefinitely, and even neglect or disregard the goals of the main quest. The nonlinear gameplay allows one to travel the expansive landscape, explore the various communities and cultures, interact with other players, pick up mundane objects, and even study history by reading books. The ability to infinitely take on quests and even to develop your own creates within a spectacular and meticulously-detailed world the tendency to lose the physical body and escape or become absorbed into Skyrim. Thus, this game is a perfect example of mediating identity through technology simply because of the vastness of the fictional world and possibilities of adventure. It truly is a whole other world that can consume the “real life” individual.
A second feature that makes it ideal as a representation of a technology of the self is the ability at the beginning of the game to choose one’s character from within a variety of races—human, elf, or anthropomorphic humanoid figures such as a cat or lizard. The characters all have different physical appearances, as well as variance in natural abilities and distinctive advantages in combat. They also each have particular stereotypes. For example, the Khajiit are feline figures that are generally considered to be thieves, and thus the NPCs interact with them accordingly and with distrust. In this sense, Skyrim is not only realistic in that its depictions are often lifelike and include extensive detail, but it is also realist in that behavior and social hierarchies of domination are not excluded from gameplay. On the other hand, while the Khajiit are obviously members of a significant underclass and are treated as such, they are appealing to players because of inherent advantages in combat, such as claws. Thus, the racialization of players is not straightforward, but rather a complex matrix of subjugation and domination manifesting on various levels—economically, physically, and socially.
Skyrim’s text interrogates and complicates our understanding of culture and about our world. The setting is essentially a parallel universe, also with hierarchical and intelligent beings, relationships, and ramification-bearing actions. It could be said to represent the gamification of life in an ordered, heteronormative society. The game highlights aspects of society that might go unnoticed or unquestioned, and therefore requires that the characters and players look critically at their own real-life cultures and normalized attitudes and behaviors. The text allows players to step into an identity different than their own, but without necessarily assuming the form of an existing real-life identity and the perceptions and assumptions that come with it. Thus, Skyrim does not explicitly question existing racial, gender, and sexuality paradigms, it creates an entire world that forces us to face the phenomena of hierarchy, domination, and choice.
Works Cited:
http://www.elderscrolls.com/skyrim/overview/
http://www.gamespot.com/features/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-walkthrough-6345388/?page=2