11 years ago today, ZeniMax Media published the Bethesda Softworks game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. And the world, and my life, would never be the same.
For the last 11 years of my life - through the births of five children, and three divorces, and two bankrupcies, and that month I was in jail because apparently it is a crime to jokingly write a bad check - Skyrim has been a constant part of my online identity.
I don't even know why. It is the third best TES game at best, and maybe clears the top 15 games of all time list. So it isn't the best game. But it remains one of the most FUN games, even if that might be mostly due to unpredictable emergent open-world gameplay, and a ton of insane, wacky glitches. Fun counts for a lot in this terrible straight world in which we are forced to live, and Skyrim? Skyrim brought that fun.
For a taste of that fun, here is my previous Tumblr blog, that I can't access now because I don't remember the password to the email address it was linked to:
karstaagskookykastle-blog
"That is your tribute to that game?! Shamelessly promoting a dead TES fan Tumblr?!"
Well, yes, fuckstone. Because that blog is 11 crazy, cringey years of my life, bound up in TES fandom, and all thanks to Skyrim. Because I had played Oblivion before Skyrim, but I didn't become a gross fanboy lorehound until I played Skyrim and got interested in the setting of this world where horses could climb mountains. Then I played Morrowind with cheats enabled and my journey into sad geekdom began.
So that not-a-link (I can't get it to post a link right, fuck it) is a fitting tribute. I'm sure it would blow the mind of 14 year old Toddathan Phelonius Howard if he knew that the game he was spending months single-handedly programming in his parents basement has now become the puzzle-filled masterwork inspiring millions of imaginations. Thank you for all your hard work, Todd. We are ALL laughing now.
Because Skyrim is not a glitch. 11 years later, it is truly a FEATURE.
