My ‘To Be Played’ List is Out of Control so Naturally I Started Playing Skyrim Again
By: Eric Pierce
Tags: Gaming, Pop Culture, Skyrim, Xbox, Writing

It’s kinda hard to believe that Skyrim came out 9 years ago. In some ways, it seems like it’s been here forever. Certainly it’s remained in the forefront of my gaming consciousness. Maybe its assumed permanence is some side effect of its ubiquity – its been ported practically everywhere. And I’ve been there for each iteration:

on the Xbox 360 at launch in 2011.

the legendary edition on PC a few years later.

when it arrived on the Xbox One in 2016, with mod support.

on the Switch in 2017 – Skyrim on the go!

Thanks to Xbox’s streaming functionality, I’ve even played Skyrim briefly on my phone.

Skyrim was the last game I waited in a line to purchase on the day it released; the occasion remains unique in that I clearly remember the mostly uneventful transaction nine years later.

Most games are launched on Tuesdays but November 11, 2011 was a Friday. I believe they launched on Friday because of the cool 11/11/11 date. I was appreciative of it for less symbolic reasons: I’d taken the day off from work, which meant I had 3 uninterrupted days of play ahead of me.

There were probably a half dozen of us queued up outside the GameStop in the mall, waiting for employees to roll up the gate at 10 AM and let us have at thee. My wife had come along good-naturedly, even though I’m sure there were other things she’d rather be doing on a day off. The kids had been shuffled off to school and we were waiting to buy a videogame.

I clearly remember thinking that we were probably the only people who had to adjust our schedule to be there, a pair of 30 year-olds surrounded by college kids. The guy in front of us was a portly twenty-something wrapped in a green denim duster, greasy hair askew at awkward angles. He kept rattling the cage and demanding the employees “gimme my skrim”, like an imprisoned madman yelling at the guards. He quieted once we were let inside, but renewed his demands with vigor once he had the complete attention of the cashier. I honestly believe it’s the only thing he said the whole time.

My own transaction was notable only in that it was quick and without any ranting.

My first character was a burly Nord in the style of Conan the Barbarian. He carried a giant sword and eschewed magic. I don’t recall his name, but before I stopped playing him we’d conquered the dragon threat, reclaimed the north for the Nords, and stood atop the Champions. I purchased the DLC but put the game aside before I made any headway.

Later forays into Skyrim came through selective mods, which enhanced, improved, or modified the gameplay, freshening up an experience I’d already sunk several hundred hours into. I no longer cared about the Dragonborn storyline, one of the game’s weakest. Rather, I just kinda wandered and let the game find me. And pursue some of the quests I’d not previously attempted.

Last week I fired up Skyrim for the first time in at least a year, reviving a game with a date stamp of 2017. Thus was Mister Whiskers reborn from the digital ashes and turned loose on a world in search of heroes once again.

But Mister Whiskers is nobody’s hero. Hence all the tomb raiding.