Yesterday, during a period of downtime and tiredness, I found myself booting up the Xbox and playing a little further in Skyrim.
This game is all good fun and, at times, quite inspires me through some small detail or other: the design of a deserted tower evokes a sense of something that could be transposed into a proper roleplaying game.
And then it struck me… just that exact point: this game isn’t an RPG.
Not that Skyrim claims to be, mind.
The official Skyrim website offers us to:
“Play any type of character you can imagine, and do whatever you want; the legendary freedom of choice, storytelling, and adventure of The Elder Scrolls comes to life like never before.”
But you’ll find it hard to see the designers of the game describe it as an RPG. But it is based on one.
“Skyrim reimagines and revolutionizes the open-world fantasy epic, bringing to life a complete virtual world open for you to explore any way you choose.”
“Choose from hundreds of weapons, spells, and abilities. The new character system allows you to play any way you want and define yourself through your actions.”
Roleplaying Isn’t Limited
“Unfortunately, computer games patterned loosely after pen and paper RPGs have come to be known as roleplaying games too. This is a tremendous insult to face to face gaming. It’s like comparing watching a movie about hang gliding to actually hang gliding. Both deal with the same subject but offer vastly different experiences. The movie is a carefully crafted experience with no authentic interaction; no matter what the viewers do, they can’t change the story. No matter what kind of computer roleplaying game the user plays, the end result has been decided by the game designers long before the user started playing. Some computer RPGs offer more choices and more illusion of freedom, but ultimately, none of them allow total freedom of imagination. Nor can they. That’s what face to face roleplaying is about – freedom.”
