I thought I was the only one who felt this way about Skyrim. I’m in a lonely point in life, but it helps to know someone has the same feeling for a game so special to me.
Skyrim was always unique for me as well. I still remember the day it came out and i was so hyped up playin it on my xbox 360. i came back to that came so often and it was still great. Best atmosphere i ever experienced.
“The value of the myth is that it takes all the things we know and restores to them the rich significance which has been hidden by ‘the veil of familiarity.’ The child enjoys his cold meat, otherwise dull to him, by pretending it is buffalo, just killed with his own bow and arrow. And the child is wise. The real meat comes back to him more savory for having been dipped in a story…by putting bread, gold, horse, apple, or the very roads into a myth, we do not retreat from reality: we rediscover it.” - C.S. Lewis
I find it so sad that people don’t see the world we live in is just as sacred in fact more so. Naturally curiosity and the free-roaming freedom stamped out as children. There is in this world places to discover, plants to utilize their alchemical properties, words of power, magical learnings, discoveries, and practices that permeate all accepts of being from our perceptive to our reality. People to befriend and help who one never knows how they would make it up to you. As great as this game’s myths are (they were inspired and mirror our real world for a reason). Still though I love the explicit metaphors and how such explicitness recon sled that spark and enthusiasm in people who play. I love this game.
@@wastelesslearning1245 YES! A gift of two legs and two arms to learn to use, ways of eating and living and being that enhance this experience called life and empower us to walk tall in THIS world. Nature to be enthralled by. Mysteries to comprehend. Seasons to observe. A body to be stretched and strengthened and shaped for functionality. Cycles to witness. Skills to acquire.
The music definitely plays a big part in it. Just hearing the swelling horns and strings makes me nostalgic and remember a time I had nothing else to do than lose myself in this mystical place or explore the world with my friends.
I was literally going to comment exactly that. I have lost count of how many times I've reviewed the videos of Philosophy of Heroic Suffering and Stoicism in Gladiator.
Although people are doubting Bethesda and ES6 after Fallout 4 and 76, what they fail to realize is that The Elder Scrolls franchise is THEIR FRANCHISE. They created it and brought it to success. Fallout is a franchise they bought on a whim, and now they don’t know what to do with it. Fallout is the stepchild of the Bethesda family, while ES is the favorite child. Therefore, I am certain ES6 will show Bethesda at their best once again.
TRS VI is the only video game I am actually looking forward to. I have 100% faith that Behtesda will knock it out if the stratosphere. I am weird in that I liked Fallouy 4 more than any other Fallout game and enjoyed Fallout 76 at launch for 100 hours.
@@HelloKolla Like I said, I'm weird. I do like Fallout 4 more than New Vegas. I enjoy the game play more and the world is just more fun to wander around in compared to New Vegas. I also love the junk and settlement system.
Yeah I think we've seen that Bethesda is still capable of creating interesting open worlds that are enjoyable to explore. So hopefully ES6 will capture some of that magic.
My favorite part of this game is Sovngarde, without question. The first time I played through, I didn't realize I could never return after returning to earth, and I remember a feeling of intense emotional distress and regret. I restarted the game immediately for another few moments in the afterlife. I remember walking around the map for hours, drinking in every detail, reveling in the landscape and the sky, feeling somehow both small and yet so powerful. And yet, I had to leave. There was more to accomplish back on earth, achievements to earn, skills to upgrade and unlock, and people to help. I will never be a superhero or epic warrior like those in the ancient stories, but for a second I got a taste of that feeling, that responsibility, that limitless potential. Even now, sometimes, I will sit outside Whiterun for hours (In game), listening to the music and watching the cosmos pass by. It may be a collection of colors and pixels on a screen, but for me that experience is emotional, inspiring, and quite real. The places are imaginary, but their legacy and impact is one that re-emerges throughout my life.
Not to be that guy but technically, using earth could be correct. The definiton is "the land, surface of the world." So earth is correct. If he said "Earth" with a capital E, then it would be incorrect.
I... actually wept during this video. I never thought about it this way, but I suppose Skyrim really is my most personal sacred space. I have never... had a video talk to me so intimiately and specifically as this one, LSOO. I cannot describe the depths of my gratitude. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
This was wonderful. I've been exploring the exact same thing myself, and also in regards to Skyrim. The direction you took was beautiful and eye opening. At the base of Skyrim is something intensely transcendental it's so hard to capture in words. I suggest checking out "the soul of the dark knight", it deals with Eliade and the whole crew with regards to Batman and Gotham.
Skyrim is definitely my special place, it’s almost absurd how big of an impact Skyrim has on so many people. I still remember perhaps my earliest memory of it. My brother was Playing the game fighting a dragon on a frozen mountain in the dead of night, with the fire and the sky being the only light source. (probably killed my man dragon man paarthurnax) but I remember finding it so mystical and special even when I hadn’t laid my hands on it yet.
Time and again i wish i could go back to when it first came out and re experience it again and again. If there was every a place i wish i could travel to and live in i really wouod choose skyrik i think
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time to this day still awakens a very nostalgic and mystical place in me. Especially the catchy tunes and navi's little voice
It helps that the game is an absolute masterpiece, easily one of best games ever made. People won't forget, it'll get remastered eventually, I'd say in under a decade.
@@JoyfulUniter It's remastered constantly with mods of all kinds, including texture and model replacements, and new renderers or parallax shaders or whatever.
Skyrim really is my sacred place. Takes me back before I was in college, back before paying bills and mostly back before my best friend passed from cancer. We used to play this game all day and night together.
I've been waiting for this video my whole life. As a devout Christian, I always struggled with the sense that I was experiencing something sacred while playing video games, but there was no language for it. When I would try to explain it to other people, I couldn't explain my feelings. I recently completed my master's thesis which unites religious and games studies together partially in a desire to discover this language. Thank you for helping me know myself better.
To be honest, as a Catholic, the combination of beautiful landscapes and nature plus gorgeous soundtrack is a key to a divine experience. For example, a old cathedral filled with rays of sunlight while a choir is singing touches the soul in a unique way. That's my perspective. Thanks for yours.
@@laramaria2908 Growing up Protestant, I experienced the "profaning" of sacred spaces where my religious tradition devalued sacredness in the material world, or by downplaying the union between heaven and earth primarily demonstrated in the incarnation. It's been a long road but I feel myself inexorably drawn to ancient sacred church traditions now.
@@cfriesen222 I think I can understand. In a way I feel like that too. But there is a concept who helped me enormously. That we are a castle. And God inhabits the very center of us. So when I feel myself disconnected from everything I try to connect within. Unfortunately I'm a lazy person who could have done that with more frequency, but when I do is always special, even without any sensation.
@@cfriesen222 Hey Colin, LOVED your comments to this video :) Is there any way I can read your thesis? I'm tremendously curious about that topic and I would love to discover more about it! Also my own thesis was about the "sense of sacred" in audiovisual works, it's something I'm costantly looking for and it's beautiful that other people out there are looking for the same thing :)
oohh would love to read your thesis as well (or like.. just talk to you bc our stories seem to harmonise - i grew up Baptist & because of that same rift between The World and Heaven, the secular/physical and the spiritual, the body and the soul, i was quite the little aesthete to the extent of starving myself & living pretty miserable in my body and in the world. and then just this summer God absolutely blew my world open and retaught me how to live from the ground up, and, well, i think in Jesus' words "made me whole". so likewise, though i'm committed to my original church for the people and to grow where i'm planted, i've found Eliade & exploring actual historical traditional Christianity *immensely* helpful for just my own understanding of my faith & my personal devotional life) N.D. Wilson "Notes From the Tilt-a-Whirl" Pope John Paul III "Theology of the Body" {my email is abigail.sarah.phil4.8@gmail.com}
Funnily enough, taking an arrow in the knee is an old Scandinavian euphemism for being married. Which is one of the reasons why many hobbyist content creators stop making videos.
A lot of it is the music, vistas, and little peripheral sounds like birds singing, leaves rustling in the wind and bugs chirping. It creates an extremely cozy, immersive atmosphere.
The developers and world builders at bethesda really pulled off something special with skyrim. And jeremy soule really outdid himself. That soundtrack is just too perfect for words. While it's a shame the rest of the experience doesn't live up to the promise of the world they created, time spent in skyrim is still such a wonderful escape.
The first game was outstanding (best video game of all time, in my opinion), but the second was a mess and the third was a bore (although a very visually beautiful bore).
I feel the same, all three games give me that feeling of sacred space. It's a world I've always felt connected to, especially with the friendships & journeys in all three, and exploration in inquisition.
Guys, I just installed inquisition. I find it hard to progress. I'm running around the map like a headless chicken. Somehow I try to convince myself this is how it is, being a human in such vast world would be this tiresome, especially walking or finding someone to talk to in the game. I'll keep it awhile to see how it's going to work out for me.
Ultimate Skyrim, via Wabbajack, (wabbajack.org) you will need a lot of patience, or a Nexusmods premium subscription for API access, but it's completely automatic at that point. This would s with the original Skyrim. (LE or Oldrim) if you want a version for the new version, ((SE) then it will be ready in a few months.
I hope I can inspire some build ideas from my personal favorites A dark elf assassin now repents for the grief inflicted on others, master of the become atherosclerosis shout, bloodskallblade, and illusion magic. His main goal to put the spirits of the dead and grieving to rest and doing their unfinished business and wrighting the wrongs that still haunt their living ancestors. There is a lot of quests focused around the dead; think of it like a light side of necromancy; how grief can allow us to bond and remembering. Over time the dead who you appear will try to defend you (spectral assassin, conjecture familiar, Arnel shade, ect) and for last resort reserved only for the most wicked of foes in times of great emergency soal tear (optional). Average argonian. No hero in the combatant Semce, she is to her community. Mostly doing quest for common folk and making money through honest work like mining and jewelry craft maybe alchemy. It’s fun to do this stuff on really hard hyper realistic mods to emphasize and encourage you to avoid even stuff like wolves. Lastly Richa Mickbicha. I had a blast with this one. Soul pourpous is to make as much money as possible (to really break the Skyrim economy) build a mansion. A high elf who heard rumors of a transmutation spell that can turn iron to gold. I’ll let you determine how far your greed can take your role play. I would recommend the more enchantments mods (one of them has this enchantment called the philosopher stone that gets you x gold per hour) I like to think of it as her investments and passive income sources paying off or you know her counter fitting as usual. Make sure to relay squeeze all the money out of the people your doing favors for as possible. While I’m pretty sure the ghost appeaser build will never resort to soul theft, mickbicha would most probably see no problem selling souls for moola.
You are so aligned with my way of thinking about things, and what I like and find interesting, the synchronicity is so wholesome. I guess good things are simply good. Favourite channel on RUclips.
I have never seen this peculiar feeling surround any other game as much as skyrim. Nostalgia, familiarity, feeling like coming home and all that. I would even go as far as calling it a cultural phenomenon. And the modding community is the greatest I have ever seen, stuff like enderal makes my jaw drop
Definitely play Morrowind. It's an older game in the Elder Scrolls series and for me it has the same feeling. Without heavy modding the graphics are terrible (it's from 2001) but if you look "past" the graphics and imagine the feeling of being in the world itself, it's like a mystical alien land, like what going to India must have felt like a few centuries ago to Westerners who had never been there, a place of wonder and mysteries. And the soundtrack is overwhelmingly gorgeous. (Oh and, twenty years later, the modding community is still active, and the Tamriel Rebuilt mod is only halfway finished and still going strong!)
It also helps that the mod community has kept the graphics up to date, patched most bugs, added (and continues to add) a bunch of features, quests, and even lands.
My favorite mods were the ones that gave you an alternate start. The need for food/water. Real weather(need to protect yourself from cold for example). And droppable bedrolls. With these ones you could just play like a mundane character that needs to actually do stuff to survive.
@@havokbaphomet666 I understand, and used those mods a bit, but generally preferred to play without them. I liked +content mods, like Inigo (follower), Interesting NPCs(quests and characters), Vigilant (amazing questline touching some of the weirder sides of lore), apocalypse (more spells), combate evolved and TK Dodge (make combat more interesting) and other things like that. Stuff I felt just added more of the base game, or added to its systems.
Breath of the Wild is my sacred space. I can visit almost all areas multiple times and each time still usually gives me the feeling of exploration, inspiration, and peace. Sometimes I feel I'm in Hyrule and coping with the battered state of the world after a long slumber. I'm missing the people who have perished/passed since, but also enjoying the beauty of the world in a bittersweet way.
I think its just that sometimes we yearn for a sense of certainty. The world of skyrim though not completely static, is certain. Whiterun is always there the same and familiar. Dwarvern ruins are always there. Its like going back to an old place you were a million years ago but finding its all the same. Nostalgia.
I thought I was alone in how I felt about Skyrim... But now, tears of joy stream down my face as someone put down in concise words why Skyrim lives rent free in my head. And why I'm going to return to it for the umpteenth time ❤
"No, I would not want to live in a world without dragons, as I would not want to live in a world without magic, for that is a world without mystery, and that is a world without faith." --R.A. Salvatore
I'm playing The Witcher 3 rn and even though the Main story is better, it feels more of Geralt's story and not my own. Despite having a smaller and less realistic world, the lands of Skyrim have a special place in my heart, being essentially Magical and Fantastical in their very being. For me, the greatest Joy was to venture out blindly onto the empty roads oh so clearly calling out to me. The Towns though few in numbers, felt so alive in their people and designs, like bastions of comfort in an unknown and mystical world. The sheer feeling of walking down a snow-covered mountain pass, following a winding and twisting river, riding Shadowmere through a clear field on a sunny day, all while the absolutely mesmerizing and beautiful soundtrack played behind me. It truly took me to a perfect world. And yes I might've been younger when I first trekked the lands of Skyrim, but the memories I made will stay with me till I am ever so old.
Perfectly said. I too felt the same with witcher, while i did play again with new game + ,however , Skyrim holds a very special place muck like oblivion.
Fun fact: if you never follow the main quest up to the point of the first dragon conflict outside of Whiterun, you won't actually get any dragons spawning in the world. Thus, you can play the "non-hero" without any powers.
I’m immediately drawn in. My time in the world of Skyrim has been some of my favorite experiences with story and with fantasy. Your video captures the spirit and feeling of Skyrim perfectly. Thank you.
After spending a total of 150+ hours in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, I've come to realise recently how much I rely on other worlds to find meaning in our own. Having a character you know nothing about and feel nothing for... to then spend over 100 hours playing as them and growing to care so much about them... all while they teach you important lessons... I don't think that experience can ever be replaced. What I find truly beautiful too is how everyone has their own favourite game. Some could find comfort in the innocence of Animal Crossing, and the villagers they befriend. Others could find the thrill of shooters to be their sacred space. For me personally growing up it was Sims 3. Having the ability to become whoever I wish inside of the Sims, while meeting the virtual love of my life and taking up in-game hobbies I dream of doing in real life... it latched onto a part of me that I still haven't been able to let go of. It made me feel wanted, even if it was only through NPCs. Spending all that time with Sims that you've created or fell in love with, and then watching them die and having it rip apart your Sim family emotionally. I felt like I was a part of something. I still vividly remember having my Sim come home from a long shift at the hospital in the middle of a blizzard. She lived alone, and slowly bought nice things for herself the more she worked. She came home to her dark, cold house in the middle of the holidays, and so I had her change into pajamas, light the fireplace and make a warm drink. It was such a somber yet peaceful moment, in a game that's otherwise simple and mainly innocent. I dearly miss the game, and one day I will come back to it, but as of right now I'm trying to find similar feelings in games. Thankfully AC Valhalla was the first game in a long time to make me feel that way. I guess this pandemic has made me feel such a longing for other worlds where I mean something. These days it's hard to feel like you're important. Thank you, as always, for these insightful videos. You always seem to put into words the feelings we cannot typically communicate. 💙
I often like to think that life itself works as an open world RPG video game, just like in Skyrim. There’s always some new person you can meet, or an Easter egg to discover, a skill to master, etc.
The freedom. The fucking freedom to be who you want and explore the whole beautiful world the way you want...Love this video fr lol amazing job I’ve never heard anyone explain this game so perfectly. It’s truly a sacred escape
Games create meaning; they're meaning-making machines. Skyrim and other RPGs are amazing expressions of the ability of human beings to create their own meaning. Perhaps that is what is expressed by the feeling of sacredness.
I mean, nothing in any game or media is original from itself, what u like and hold sacred is not "man´s created meaning", they´re are expressions, reflections and rearrangements of that which is meaningful.
I'll never forget those rainy autumn days in which I should have been attending college classes but I was too busy hiking through Skyrim like it was an actual vacation to some far away country. Ooh how cozy it all was, to just chill at home playing Skyrim...
We all have that one game series we go back to every once in a while. Mine is the Assassin’s Creed Ezio trilogy. Experiencing the story of Ezio Auditore’s life from birth to death is special to me.
I have consistently been listening to Skyrim OST since the beginning. The music of Skyrim has been my sacred space for these last couple of years. It takes me back to when I was actually exploring the real world when I lived in the UK for 2 years. In most of my adventures I had Skyrim OST playing on my headphones. Those memories will forever be one of the greatest moments of my life and will be with me forever. I plan to move to a mountainous place in Europe in the future. I want that feeling of waking up to an adventure again. That was when I was at my highest self. Peace.
I keep coming back to Skyrim because it has become a healing place to me. Wandering the tundra allows me to cleanse my mind and think. I've found myself sitting down on a tavern at night staring at the fire and just think. Skyrim not only entertains me, it gives me peace.
I only played Skyrim for a couple hours (and this video has convinced I need to fix that lol), but even though I couldn't name it the sense of adventure and sacred spaces felt really palpable in what little I tried of the game. There's just something in the presentation and world that imbues each step with meaning. Another wonderful video, as per usual. Oh, and like another comment mention I'm sure this channel itself is a sacred space for many people... it certainly is for me. Thank you for everything you do, LSOO!
The lack of this kind of deep feeling is I think why Cyberpunk 2077 hurt so much. I think people were primed to make it their next sacred space, something they could fully get immersed in and have their emotional investment pay dividends for years to come, only to have it fall flat. I know that's how i felt.
I agree with you in that its definitely not my escape like I was hoping, but I don't think it fell flat. The city is a little cold but the game has great characters and a great story. If you keep jumping into new missions you can immerse yourself quite well. I'm role playing as the major from ghost in the shell and its a really good time.
I feel completely crazy when talking about Cyberpunk, because for me it seems as if it is my own Skyrim, I keep coming back to it constantly, even though I’ve done everything so often now, yet with Skyrim, I haven’t been able to enjoy it since my first play-through. Sadly I haven’t really questioned why I have these feelings all too much yet, but in the constant discussion of Cyberpunk’s disappointment I find myself unable to relate to any of it.
This video is incredible. I have a memory (that's more a whole-body feeling) of playing Ratchet and Clank and/or Dino Crisis 2 in my parents house when I was little. To this day, I sometimes go back and listen to the soundtrack or watch someone playing the game. I can access a simpler, protected, warm, excited, and uncomplicated time. The idea of sacred spaces makes perfect sense to me. Thank you for making the videos you make. Every time I feel as though you click something into place in my head that's already been aligned but never been connected.
Forever my comfort game. The only virtual world I feel like I can truly exist in and stop to smell the roses and gaze at the stars. Can practically feel the cool air
This video broke me in a way I don't really know how to describe... There are several video games that I can just constantly over time replay and enjoy over and over again, Skyrim being one of them. I have had trouble explaining to people in my life, especially in intimate relationships why I love video games. I could never articulate what this video does in my own words. I don't want to escape reality, I very much enjoy and appreciate the really world around me... but at the same time, I feel like it is just missing something that only video games can give me. When I come back to Skyrim it fills me with this belonging that is so much more nostalgic and 'safe' than my childhood home or anything of the like. Thank you so much for making this video, I am so glad I got to experience it!
Beautiful. There's always been something special about Skyrim, it feels quietly powerful in a way that's hard to describe. There's something amazing about the fact that the game doesn't rush you along--a huge part of the experience, arguably the most important part, is the freedom to explore at your own pace. You can wander around for hours doing nothing in particular, and it will feel every bit as rewarding as doing quests
It's been almost ten years since 11.11.11. When visiting important place after a while it often doesn't quite feel the same, it can even be disappointing. Skyrim doesn't really change, but we have.
I’m a non gamer. But I liked to watch my big sister and then my friends playing video games from times to times. I have the same feeling you have of the game with the real life, like you said: exploration, talking to everyone, working on my skills... My sacred space as been internet and especially RUclips, since 2009. I consider it like my third parent because of the impact it has on me.
I am simply amazed that you find Skyrim a sacred space type of game ... Skyrim has been my escape world for ten years now and I seem to never tire nor get bored of the missions and story , never cease to be amazed by a sunset or star filled sky ... for me , the music makes all the difference into feeling as if I have actually been there ... PS ... my hobbit hole from LOTR is just to south of Skyrim so I never feel very far from either home 🧐
This spoke to me. Its wild how my experiences in Skyrim almost feel like an extension of my lived experiences in reality. Its my home away from home. Always a place to return to, with new things to explore and experience. And its hard for any game to top that.
A brilliant video once again. You nailed it! This is one of the reasons I make games, and is something I strive for in my games. To take the problem seriously and not 'just' make entertainment. Funny this came out a day after I released my new game.
This was an amazing essay on Skyrim and I want to speak truthfully about this. Hearing your words on the center of our souls, finding the sacred in our world, and the meaningful lives we can live was profound. I felt taken away, and I cried, and I went to my knees to pray. Once again this was a great video on the story world and the sacred spaces, it's been a long time since anything has made me feel the things I felt while listening and watching. I hope and I pray that I can live a life with meaning. I want to live a life with meaning. Thank you, I hope you have a wonderful day today. Lots of love.
Morrowind was my sacred space. I still to this day love collecting all the Glass armor, finding the daedric dia-katana, and leveling up my acrobatics to 100. I honestly never even played through the main storyline. I just loved the strange world I inhabited.
I haven't played it for 10 years, but I still remember getting an early Daedric weapon from one of the House Hlaalu councillors for finding that abandoned mine near Balmora and sharing the location.
Bruh this hit me hard. I can completely relate with what you said. Skyrim is so many things for me. Its a game I played my college days, and illicits memories from that time. Its world of beauty and wonder, where my imagination wanders. And most importantly it's a place I can escape to when the real world seems overwhelming.
The games I find myself always returning to, no matter how many playthroughs I've completed are the Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins and last, but certainly not least The Witcher 3. The characters just elevate these games to the next level for me, so much so that it almost feels like saying hello to a good friend you haven't seen in a while. Please keep up the good work. Your essays are a rare treat of hopefulness and compassion.
You are one of the justifications for the existence of RUclips. This was an amazing video. I'd had some similar thoughts, but could never put it into words as well as you do. Watching this, I felt as if my mind had cleared and laid out all the answers at my feet. Thank you so much for your insight.
I hadn't heard of skyrim... a beautiful game. I stopped playing role playing games when my arthritis became too painful. Maybe I need to visit the doctor and what he could do? What I thought of, as you were speaking, was writing a story.. even a novel, and creating through the novel, an inner sacred space. An inner temple of initiation. I am considering returning to a novel I began writing as young woman. I lost my nerve while writing it... found it too personal and painful. It is now time to continue. The world has changed immeasurably since I was 30. I could self publish, not to make money, but to share my vision of my inner worlds. There is more to life than the profane. I feel as alien in this age because I truly believe in the sacred being the basis of all life.
I keep returning to Skyrim only because of the mods,(currently 260 mods haha). I'm an old gamer , I think for me its Daggerfall followed by Morrowind. But in general the idea of a virtual world to escape into has always been part of my life for better and worse. I love RPGs, and exploring magical worlds, from the book to the pc, because ours is a bit too.. mundane.
I still return to Skyrim on occasion. I live in Whiterun at Breezehome. I just can’t bring myself to live anywhere else. When i travelled to Solstiem and spent a sizeable amount of time completing the quests there and helping the people, upon my return to Whiterun i had a meaningful nostalgic glow burn bright with in me. Like i had been away too long. I spent (and still spend) a large amount of time simply selling treasures to local friends. Cooking, spell making, redecorating and crafting in my small intangible world.
That's an interesting point. The game has some places which are more nostalgic for us than other places. I generally end up always buying Breezeholme instead of the other homes in the game just like you do.
My favourite Skyrim character was a "Staff and Lore" master, who only used staves, so never earned XP. Stayed level 2 and did almost the entire map of the game. He collected all the books in the game and build a library as his ultimate end game.
This video could not have been better. It perfectly summarizes what I've been struggling to put into words, but haven't been able to. thank you SO much!
I appreciate and agree with your analysis, but I would like to add that Skyrim feels more special due to the connection I have come to feel with other Skyrim players. Though it's an individual experience, we all share this sacred space. Games like this spark people's creativity and they create fascinating videos and mods that deepen my own connection to the world. When I meet another Skyrim player, I know we have a whole special world in common and I love when we share our experiences within it. Cheers to all the world's gamers!
You’ve beautifully articulated a feeling I’ve felt for years and haven’t yet been able to put words to. Thank you for putting so much effort into making this video and sharing this with us :)
Been following your channel for years. Never commented on a single social media post. Wanted to let you know that your work is a gift to existence! Ive never seen you do an analysis of Westworld, but I feel you would really be able to five deep into many aspects of consciousness and reality with that one.
It's New Vegas, for me. Though, it's a bittersweet affection, because it shows us ourselves, somewhat. Which makes it less of an escape from reality, like skyrim is.
All you videos are so beautiful. You express your ideas so poetically that I was nearly in tears at the end of the video. I am envious of your talent and I think you should feel very proud of your work
Recently returned to Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky. To me, it was more than a nostalgia trip, it was returning to something so intimate and familiar to my childhood that I could relate to it on a very deeply meaningful level. This video speaks to my feelings on certain very important games/media experiences I have had, I think I will be looking into reading some of your source material on sacred spaces.
Skyrim is the only game i could back always just to explore the world, i love all cities, roads, the people, is like home , no other game accomplish this
This video put everything that I felt and didn't even know that I felt to words. I often find it difficult to explain why Skyrim is beautiful and very special to me, why I feel this way about it. And "nostalgia"never truly captured the feeling but now I understand. Thank you
I absolutely love this video essay and relate to everything you said. Skyrim is my most beloved game of all time. I played and loved vanilla Skyrim and played this game with mods which made the experience even better and more fulfilling. Insane amount of mods is proof that Skyrim is not only an unique and sacred personal experience but also an impulse for creativity.
I had a thought after reaching level 100 and maxing out my character to my preference. Why is it that I have this crazy amount of drive and determination to improve my character of that resides in a imaginary world, yet I lack the motivation to do anything with the life I choose I live. Perhaps its the wonder of that imaginable world, or the fact that nothing can truly finish me. That drive never really existed in my life regarding myself, I only cared about the worlds that I would never in real life be apart of.
Dishonored is my sacred world. Dunwall is dark and often cruel, but each life I spare and each act of kindness brings it away from the brink and to a place of light and hope. That world has enraptured me like no other. Each play through reminds me that each interaction matters, that each action I take matters, and touches more lives than I realise - In game, and out.
The thing that Skyrim gets right, is the freedom to go anywhere at any time. Just wander for hours, only doing quests that you happen to come across. You can get lost for weeks, not even paying any attention to the main quest line.
I love how it’s not one of those games where you wish you could experience it for the first time again. It grows on you and becomes more and more interesting the more you know about it.
For that, main characters can have the burden of psychopathy, sociopathy, and machiavellianism, as well as whole host of grandiose personality disorders.
@@JinroTheCorpse the character in max payne isn't a character for us to self project into like skyrim or half life, the point doesn't apply. Idk what makes you think that is a good idea anyway smh. And even if our character is bound by mental illnesses, they ( or I should say, we ) have the power to change it in just a fraction of a second, we are always in control, you don't like sociopathy on your character? Fine, nothing changed anyway, the NPCs doesn't hold grudges. Don't like them being a guy? Fine, just some console commands and boom, you are a girl now. In real life many of us don't have the ability to change that, nor the money and the effort. Even if a situation still goes out of hand in video games, most of the time you can load a save file and know exactly what to expect. There's however no such power in real life. Sometimes life just goes well off the road and you can't do anything about it. My point is? Our characters can be who we want them to be. We can't do the same to ourselves. Hell, you can be the richest man in the world and get your life destroyed in mere seconds because some guy drove his car after he is intoxicated.
Guts from berserk had it rough. Its a classic, if you havent seen it I recommend it. Sad story with very human sorrow :( but its worth the ride for an excellent emotional roller coaster
I found this because I was wondering why I always come back to this game. Every six months to a year I’ll play for a week or two. Sometimes a month. And the memories of younger years come flooding back. But those new memories from within those six months to a year are “transferred” into Skyrim. But it’s never the negative memories or energy, it’s always the happy peaceful ones. And when I’m in a bad place, booting up Skyrim and playing is like filling up the current negative with the past positive. This game was a large portion of what I played after my ex dumped me. Reminding me that things could be worse and there is much to be thankful for. Which for me is also part of the healing aspect you spoke of.
omg, i did not expect this video to be so profound and beautiful. I have just recently discovered skyrim but i definitely understand this feeling of sacred space. i felt it in subnautica, Far Cry and AC blackflag and also in some books like the Hyperion cantos and hitchhikers guide to the galaxy...
This is a powerful video. It pulled up thoughts and emotions from a much deeper place inside me compared to what other experiences can do. If you do not consider yourself an extraordinary artist yet, then you should.
Something about this incredible game occupies a special place in my memories that keeps coming back on late nostalgic nights time and time again…the beautiful combination of enchanting, mystical lands and familiar experiences hidden behind the veil of a realm that feels at the same time like it was 5000 years in the past and 5000 years in the future means so much to me and will always occupy a special place in my heart. I think for most of us, Skyrim is a way to satisfy that part of us full of wonder and curiosity about the world ❤️
No other experience has given me as many laughs as Skyrim PSVR (unmodded). On one occasion I had Lydia (a companion, literally) following me around but she couldn't climb down the mountains that I did, so I left her behind, while I snuck up on a large enemy encampment at the bottom. I was just about to let loose an arrow from cover (planning on quiet takedowns) when Lydia appeared at the far end of the bandit village, running through it and alerting about a dozen enemies. "Here I am" she cheerfully announced when she had reached me, while a small army charged towards us over her shoulder. "Brilliant" I told her, and burst into laughter.
Another thing about games like Skyrim is they tend to draw upon our own natures, & that is a reason they can have broad appeal with less regard to political boundaries or age. When I first play a game like Skyrim, I have two desires, to explore the limits & all the out-of-the-way places, and to try to break the game with unexpected choices. An example. In the Dark Brotherhood questline, you are tasked with the murder of a bride at her wedding. My solution was to hide myself, then give (reverse pickpocket) her husband a frenzy potion. He then attacks & kills his bride only to be cut down by those in attendance. At that point I can shrug & walk away with no bounty or danger to myself. It made my day to see the developers had not anticipated this choice & the scripted arrival of "backup" to help you bust out of a hostile situation still occurred. They also give us a look at our capacity for both heroism & villainy. My girlfriend watched me perform the actions mentioned above & she said, "You are truly evil." It's just a game, however. In that space I'm allowed to perform acts through the extension of the character in the game which I would never do in real life. Although there is something to be said about us facing the dragons which dominate our existence.
"You may leave the zone, but the zone never leaves you" is a popular saying in the Stalker fanbase. There is something fascinating about that depressive Eastern European atmosphere when every step could be your last. Nearly everytime i feel overwhelmed by Life, i come back to the zone; it has become a ritual. The fight for survival in the harsh environment is analogous to the struggles one experience in the Life's lowest point. Ironically, the unforgiving Stalker universe gave me more hope than others, more "joyful" virtual worlds.
thankyou for your insight, wisdom and vulnerability. We all have those places that are sacred - because they have in a way been imbued with it by us. I watched a person react to the lord of the rings movies - who laughed all the way through - there is nothing wrong with doing that - but it upset me. I realise now that they have become a sacred space for me that provided comfort when my long time partner died. You have certainly helped me to understand what was happening. Thankyou.
"Why do we keep returning to Skyrim?" Because Elder Scrolls VI is nowhere in sight and no game since 2011 has truly matched what Skyrim has offered. Freedom to do what you want in the open world they created, with enough content to justify that freedom. Most other games lock you into the roll of a character, like the Witcher. In Skyrim, while you are the Dragonborn, you are whatever character you want to create first, with a sizeable amount of factions for you to justify playing that character. No other games, outside of isometric RPG's, really allows you to play like that on the size and scope that Skyrim did.
Yep, I haven't played any other games which use that same Bethesda Elder Scrolls formula. So it's no wonder I keep going back to Skyrim and also Oblivion now and then because I can't get that experience elsewhere. Mods help a lot too.
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
I thought I was the only one who felt this way about Skyrim. I’m in a lonely point in life, but it helps to know someone has the same feeling for a game so special to me.
Many of us do. You are far from alone in your Solitude!
Skyrim was always unique for me as well. I still remember the day it came out and i was so hyped up playin it on my xbox 360. i came back to that came so often and it was still great. Best atmosphere i ever experienced.
We are one of a kind, you and I. I'm glad to have met you.
you ain't alone man, im right there with you.
Yeah, I'm sure you are one of the few who felt this passionately about the highest-selling single-player RPG of all time...
“The value of the myth is that it takes all the things we know and restores to them the rich significance which has been hidden by ‘the veil of familiarity.’ The child enjoys his cold meat, otherwise dull to him, by pretending it is buffalo, just killed with his own bow and arrow. And the child is wise. The real meat comes back to him more savory for having been dipped in a story…by putting bread, gold, horse, apple, or the very roads into a myth, we do not retreat from reality: we rediscover it.” - C.S. Lewis
Great! Thanks for sharing. Where is it from?
@@mehowkielan1984 that's from his "On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature"
thank u for this
I find it so sad that people don’t see the world we live in is just as sacred in fact more so. Naturally curiosity and the free-roaming freedom stamped out as children. There is in this world places to discover, plants to utilize their alchemical properties, words of power, magical learnings, discoveries, and practices that permeate all accepts of being from our perceptive to our reality. People to befriend and help who one never knows how they would make it up to you. As great as this game’s myths are (they were inspired and mirror our real world for a reason). Still though I love the explicit metaphors and how such explicitness recon sled that spark and enthusiasm in people who play. I love this game.
@@wastelesslearning1245 YES! A gift of two legs and two arms to learn to use, ways of eating and living and being that enhance this experience called life and empower us to walk tall in THIS world. Nature to be enthralled by. Mysteries to comprehend. Seasons to observe. A body to be stretched and strengthened and shaped for functionality. Cycles to witness. Skills to acquire.
Playing skyrim over and over again is like pilgrimage to me
that's a really good comparison
Gotto make that yearly pilgrimage to high hrothgar
Great analogy
@@Kade_Bauman yeah the analogy so great Bethesda make a money out of it 🤣🤣🤣
@@bam_bino__ my pilgrimage is waking up and helping Serana 😎
me: i’m just going to pop on a little youtube video while i cook my dinner :)
me 22 minutes and 48 seconds later: crying happy tears into my pasta
The music definitely plays a big part in it. Just hearing the swelling horns and strings makes me nostalgic and remember a time I had nothing else to do than lose myself in this mystical place or explore the world with my friends.
The music is addictive
They need to get Soule to make the music for TES 6
Yup was thinking the same thing. The composer really did a great job. If I had to use one word to describe it, it would be: captivating.
This channel is my sacred space...
I agree. I have learned and gained so much new knowledge and perspective from this channel
Lol yeah especially after this vid
Your comment was enough to get me to subscribe.
Nothing is truly sacred my friend.
I was literally going to comment exactly that. I have lost count of how many times I've reviewed the videos of Philosophy of Heroic Suffering and Stoicism in Gladiator.
1:18 "And gives you these little dopamine hits..."
_proceeds to flatten lady with arrow_
I sure hope the developers of The Elderscrolls 6 watch this. I'm really hoping it can capture this same magic.
Although people are doubting Bethesda and ES6 after Fallout 4 and 76, what they fail to realize is that The Elder Scrolls franchise is THEIR FRANCHISE. They created it and brought it to success. Fallout is a franchise they bought on a whim, and now they don’t know what to do with it. Fallout is the stepchild of the Bethesda family, while ES is the favorite child. Therefore, I am certain ES6 will show Bethesda at their best once again.
TRS VI is the only video game I am actually looking forward to. I have 100% faith that Behtesda will knock it out if the stratosphere. I am weird in that I liked Fallouy 4 more than any other Fallout game and enjoyed Fallout 76 at launch for 100 hours.
@@boobalooba5786 Correction; you probably haven't played New Vegas
@@HelloKolla Like I said, I'm weird. I do like Fallout 4 more than New Vegas. I enjoy the game play more and the world is just more fun to wander around in compared to New Vegas. I also love the junk and settlement system.
Yeah I think we've seen that Bethesda is still capable of creating interesting open worlds that are enjoyable to explore. So hopefully ES6 will capture some of that magic.
LSoO: Skyrim is Cyrodiil's northernmost region
Nords: And I took that personally
Excuse me ! but What are you doing here? :D
@@AlexCatanaMusic Alex, my friend! I see you are a man of culture as well :D
My favorite part of this game is Sovngarde, without question. The first time I played through, I didn't realize I could never return after returning to earth, and I remember a feeling of intense emotional distress and regret. I restarted the game immediately for another few moments in the afterlife. I remember walking around the map for hours, drinking in every detail, reveling in the landscape and the sky, feeling somehow both small and yet so powerful. And yet, I had to leave. There was more to accomplish back on earth, achievements to earn, skills to upgrade and unlock, and people to help. I will never be a superhero or epic warrior like those in the ancient stories, but for a second I got a taste of that feeling, that responsibility, that limitless potential. Even now, sometimes, I will sit outside Whiterun for hours (In game), listening to the music and watching the cosmos pass by. It may be a collection of colors and pixels on a screen, but for me that experience is emotional, inspiring, and quite real. The places are imaginary, but their legacy and impact is one that re-emerges throughout my life.
Nirn*
Not to be that guy but technically, using earth could be correct. The definiton is "the land, surface of the world." So earth is correct. If he said "Earth" with a capital E, then it would be incorrect.
Bruh just reload a save
I... actually wept during this video. I never thought about it this way, but I suppose Skyrim really is my most personal sacred space. I have never... had a video talk to me so intimiately and specifically as this one, LSOO. I cannot describe the depths of my gratitude. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
This was wonderful. I've been exploring the exact same thing myself, and also in regards to Skyrim. The direction you took was beautiful and eye opening. At the base of Skyrim is something intensely transcendental it's so hard to capture in words. I suggest checking out "the soul of the dark knight", it deals with Eliade and the whole crew with regards to Batman and Gotham.
Thanks! Big fan of your videos :)
@@LikeStoriesofOld Your game looks great in this video essay. Could you share which graphical mods and ENB you used, please? :)
@@electric_eclectic probably the Nolvus modpack
Skyrim is definitely my special place, it’s almost absurd how big of an impact Skyrim has on so many people. I still remember perhaps my earliest memory of it. My brother was
Playing the game fighting a dragon on a frozen mountain in the dead of night, with the fire and the sky being the only light source. (probably killed my man dragon man paarthurnax) but I remember finding it so mystical and special even when I hadn’t laid my hands on it yet.
Time and again i wish i could go back to when it first came out and re experience it again and again. If there was every a place i wish i could travel to and live in i really wouod choose skyrik i think
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time to this day still awakens a very nostalgic and mystical place in me. Especially the catchy tunes and navi's little voice
HEY! LISTEN!
H E L L O ? !
It helps that the game is an absolute masterpiece, easily one of best games ever made. People won't forget, it'll get remastered eventually, I'd say in under a decade.
@@JoyfulUniter It's remastered constantly with mods of all kinds, including texture and model replacements, and new renderers or parallax shaders or whatever.
@@JoyfulUniter it was remastered tho
Skyrim really is my sacred place. Takes me back before I was in college, back before paying bills and mostly back before my best friend passed from cancer. We used to play this game all day and night together.
Rest in Peace for your best friend buddy!!
Been playing Skyrim for 10 years consistently and I think it will always be my favorite game
Me too
Me three
Me four!!
Me five
The way I see it, Red Dead Redemption 2 is the best game ive ever played but… Skyrim is my favourite game of all time
I've been waiting for this video my whole life. As a devout Christian, I always struggled with the sense that I was experiencing something sacred while playing video games, but there was no language for it. When I would try to explain it to other people, I couldn't explain my feelings. I recently completed my master's thesis which unites religious and games studies together partially in a desire to discover this language. Thank you for helping me know myself better.
To be honest, as a Catholic, the combination of beautiful landscapes and nature plus gorgeous soundtrack is a key to a divine experience. For example, a old cathedral filled with rays of sunlight while a choir is singing touches the soul in a unique way. That's my perspective. Thanks for yours.
@@laramaria2908 Growing up Protestant, I experienced the "profaning" of sacred spaces where my religious tradition devalued sacredness in the material world, or by downplaying the union between heaven and earth primarily demonstrated in the incarnation. It's been a long road but I feel myself inexorably drawn to ancient sacred church traditions now.
@@cfriesen222 I think I can understand. In a way I feel like that too. But there is a concept who helped me enormously. That we are a castle. And God inhabits the very center of us. So when I feel myself disconnected from everything I try to connect within. Unfortunately I'm a lazy person who could have done that with more frequency, but when I do is always special, even without any sensation.
@@cfriesen222 Hey Colin, LOVED your comments to this video :) Is there any way I can read your thesis? I'm tremendously curious about that topic and I would love to discover more about it! Also my own thesis was about the "sense of sacred" in audiovisual works, it's something I'm costantly looking for and it's beautiful that other people out there are looking for the same thing :)
oohh would love to read your thesis as well (or like.. just talk to you bc our stories seem to harmonise - i grew up Baptist & because of that same rift between The World and Heaven, the secular/physical and the spiritual, the body and the soul, i was quite the little aesthete to the extent of starving myself & living pretty miserable in my body and in the world. and then just this summer God absolutely blew my world open and retaught me how to live from the ground up, and, well, i think in Jesus' words "made me whole".
so likewise, though i'm committed to my original church for the people and to grow where i'm planted, i've found Eliade & exploring actual historical traditional Christianity *immensely* helpful for just my own understanding of my faith & my personal devotional life)
N.D. Wilson "Notes From the Tilt-a-Whirl"
Pope John Paul III "Theology of the Body"
{my email is abigail.sarah.phil4.8@gmail.com}
You're finally awake .
I heard them say we've reached Morrowind. I'm sure they'll let us go.
Welcome to the Colony! *smack*
I think that just adds to the point of the video. It's like you are waking up from the dream of a profane life, unto a new one of adventure.
These words have a complete new meaning to me now! :')
I used to be a RUclipsr like yourself.... then I took an arrow in the knee and now I can't walk to my computer to record video essays.
😂 your username made me laugh. Monty python and the life of Brian, right?
@@sanketbhandari5981
Not to be confused with the Judean People's Front.
@@eldorados_lost_searcher Splitters!
Funnily enough, taking an arrow in the knee is an old Scandinavian euphemism for being married. Which is one of the reasons why many hobbyist content creators stop making videos.
That's fucked dude. Get well soon.
A lot of it is the music, vistas, and little peripheral sounds like birds singing, leaves rustling in the wind and bugs chirping. It creates an extremely cozy, immersive atmosphere.
The developers and world builders at bethesda really pulled off something special with skyrim.
And jeremy soule really outdid himself. That soundtrack is just too perfect for words.
While it's a shame the rest of the experience doesn't live up to the promise of the world they created, time spent in skyrim is still such a wonderful escape.
For me it's and always dragon age, the world and the companion just fulfill my fantasy of going somewhere and making friends along the way
Dragon age origins is my favourite game
The first game was outstanding (best video game of all time, in my opinion), but the second was a mess and the third was a bore (although a very visually beautiful bore).
I feel the same, all three games give me that feeling of sacred space. It's a world I've always felt connected to, especially with the friendships & journeys in all three, and exploration in inquisition.
Guys, I just installed inquisition. I find it hard to progress. I'm running around the map like a headless chicken. Somehow I try to convince myself this is how it is, being a human in such vast world would be this tiresome, especially walking or finding someone to talk to in the game. I'll keep it awhile to see how it's going to work out for me.
@@y.b4251 inquisition is a single player MMO, there a lot of things to do but no reason to do it
Man, I wish I could play Skyrim fresh again after all these years
Ultimate Skyrim, via Wabbajack, (wabbajack.org) you will need a lot of patience, or a Nexusmods premium subscription for API access, but it's completely automatic at that point. This would s with the original Skyrim. (LE or Oldrim) if you want a version for the new version, ((SE) then it will be ready in a few months.
I hope I can inspire some build ideas from my personal favorites
A dark elf assassin now repents for the grief inflicted on others, master of the become atherosclerosis shout, bloodskallblade, and illusion magic. His main goal to put the spirits of the dead and grieving to rest and doing their unfinished business and wrighting the wrongs that still haunt their living ancestors. There is a lot of quests focused around the dead; think of it like a light side of necromancy; how grief can allow us to bond and remembering. Over time the dead who you appear will try to defend you (spectral assassin, conjecture familiar, Arnel shade, ect) and for last resort reserved only for the most wicked of foes in times of great emergency soal tear (optional).
Average argonian. No hero in the combatant Semce, she is to her community. Mostly doing quest for common folk and making money through honest work like mining and jewelry craft maybe alchemy. It’s fun to do this stuff on really hard hyper realistic mods to emphasize and encourage you to avoid even stuff like wolves.
Lastly Richa Mickbicha. I had a blast with this one. Soul pourpous is to make as much money as possible (to really break the Skyrim economy) build a mansion. A high elf who heard rumors of a transmutation spell that can turn iron to gold. I’ll let you determine how far your greed can take your role play. I would recommend the more enchantments mods (one of them has this enchantment called the philosopher stone that gets you x gold per hour) I like to think of it as her investments and passive income sources paying off or you know her counter fitting as usual. Make sure to relay squeeze all the money out of the people your doing favors for as possible. While I’m pretty sure the ghost appeaser build will never resort to soul theft, mickbicha would most probably see no problem selling souls for moola.
Become atherial; my bad I’m on iPhone with Dyslexia so I can not edit comments ;/
I'm about to replay it for the first time since it came out. I feel like I've forgotten so much it'll be close to a fresh playthrough 🤷
mods 😈👺
You are so aligned with my way of thinking about things, and what I like and find interesting, the synchronicity is so wholesome. I guess good things are simply good. Favourite channel on RUclips.
Right. The level of deepness LSOO goes is what keeps me coming back
Me too! But... beware of the echo chamber. God knows i am not.
I have never seen this peculiar feeling surround any other game as much as skyrim. Nostalgia, familiarity, feeling like coming home and all that. I would even go as far as calling it a cultural phenomenon. And the modding community is the greatest I have ever seen, stuff like enderal makes my jaw drop
Definitely play Morrowind. It's an older game in the Elder Scrolls series and for me it has the same feeling. Without heavy modding the graphics are terrible (it's from 2001) but if you look "past" the graphics and imagine the feeling of being in the world itself, it's like a mystical alien land, like what going to India must have felt like a few centuries ago to Westerners who had never been there, a place of wonder and mysteries. And the soundtrack is overwhelmingly gorgeous. (Oh and, twenty years later, the modding community is still active, and the Tamriel Rebuilt mod is only halfway finished and still going strong!)
It also helps that the mod community has kept the graphics up to date, patched most bugs, added (and continues to add) a bunch of features, quests, and even lands.
My favorite mods were the ones that gave you an alternate start. The need for food/water. Real weather(need to protect yourself from cold for example). And droppable bedrolls. With these ones you could just play like a mundane character that needs to actually do stuff to survive.
@@havokbaphomet666 I understand, and used those mods a bit, but generally preferred to play without them. I liked +content mods, like Inigo (follower), Interesting NPCs(quests and characters), Vigilant (amazing questline touching some of the weirder sides of lore), apocalypse (more spells), combate evolved and TK Dodge (make combat more interesting) and other things like that. Stuff I felt just added more of the base game, or added to its systems.
@@havokbaphomet666 have you tried survival mode in the anniversary edition?
@@havokbaphomet666 a Minecraft/Zelda Skyrim??
Breath of the Wild is my sacred space. I can visit almost all areas multiple times and each time still usually gives me the feeling of exploration, inspiration, and peace.
Sometimes I feel I'm in Hyrule and coping with the battered state of the world after a long slumber. I'm missing the people who have perished/passed since, but also enjoying the beauty of the world in a bittersweet way.
I think its just that sometimes we yearn for a sense of certainty.
The world of skyrim though not completely static, is certain. Whiterun is always there the same and familiar. Dwarvern ruins are always there. Its like going back to an old place you were a million years ago but finding its all the same. Nostalgia.
Well said.
No matter where our waking life goes, Skyrim will always be there, waiting.
I thought I was alone in how I felt about Skyrim... But now, tears of joy stream down my face as someone put down in concise words why Skyrim lives rent free in my head. And why I'm going to return to it for the umpteenth time ❤
"No, I would not want to live in a world without dragons, as I would not want to live in a world without magic, for that is a world without mystery, and that is a world without faith."
--R.A. Salvatore
I'm playing The Witcher 3 rn and even though the Main story is better, it feels more of Geralt's story and not my own. Despite having a smaller and less realistic world, the lands of Skyrim have a special place in my heart, being essentially Magical and Fantastical in their very being. For me, the greatest Joy was to venture out blindly onto the empty roads oh so clearly calling out to me. The Towns though few in numbers, felt so alive in their people and designs, like bastions of comfort in an unknown and mystical world. The sheer feeling of walking down a snow-covered mountain pass, following a winding and twisting river, riding Shadowmere through a clear field on a sunny day, all while the absolutely mesmerizing and beautiful soundtrack played behind me. It truly took me to a perfect world. And yes I might've been younger when I first trekked the lands of Skyrim, but the memories I made will stay with me till I am ever so old.
Perfectly said. I too felt the same with witcher, while i did play again with new game + ,however , Skyrim holds a very special place muck like oblivion.
Fun fact: if you never follow the main quest up to the point of the first dragon conflict outside of Whiterun, you won't actually get any dragons spawning in the world. Thus, you can play the "non-hero" without any powers.
I’m immediately drawn in. My time in the world of Skyrim has been some of my favorite experiences with story and with fantasy. Your video captures the spirit and feeling of Skyrim perfectly. Thank you.
After spending a total of 150+ hours in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, I've come to realise recently how much I rely on other worlds to find meaning in our own. Having a character you know nothing about and feel nothing for... to then spend over 100 hours playing as them and growing to care so much about them... all while they teach you important lessons... I don't think that experience can ever be replaced. What I find truly beautiful too is how everyone has their own favourite game. Some could find comfort in the innocence of Animal Crossing, and the villagers they befriend. Others could find the thrill of shooters to be their sacred space. For me personally growing up it was Sims 3. Having the ability to become whoever I wish inside of the Sims, while meeting the virtual love of my life and taking up in-game hobbies I dream of doing in real life... it latched onto a part of me that I still haven't been able to let go of. It made me feel wanted, even if it was only through NPCs. Spending all that time with Sims that you've created or fell in love with, and then watching them die and having it rip apart your Sim family emotionally. I felt like I was a part of something.
I still vividly remember having my Sim come home from a long shift at the hospital in the middle of a blizzard. She lived alone, and slowly bought nice things for herself the more she worked. She came home to her dark, cold house in the middle of the holidays, and so I had her change into pajamas, light the fireplace and make a warm drink. It was such a somber yet peaceful moment, in a game that's otherwise simple and mainly innocent. I dearly miss the game, and one day I will come back to it, but as of right now I'm trying to find similar feelings in games. Thankfully AC Valhalla was the first game in a long time to make me feel that way. I guess this pandemic has made me feel such a longing for other worlds where I mean something. These days it's hard to feel like you're important.
Thank you, as always, for these insightful videos. You always seem to put into words the feelings we cannot typically communicate. 💙
I often like to think that life itself works as an open world RPG video game, just like in Skyrim. There’s always some new person you can meet, or an Easter egg to discover, a skill to master, etc.
Returning to Middle Earth gives me great hope for humanity every time.
Same, I sometimes rewatch Sam’s speech from two towers just reinvigorate that feeling
@@samuelsmith5400 Precisely.
The freedom. The fucking freedom to be who you want and explore the whole beautiful world the way you want...Love this video fr lol amazing job I’ve never heard anyone explain this game so perfectly. It’s truly a sacred escape
Games create meaning; they're meaning-making machines. Skyrim and other RPGs are amazing expressions of the ability of human beings to create their own meaning.
Perhaps that is what is expressed by the feeling of sacredness.
I mean, nothing in any game or media is original from itself, what u like and hold sacred is not "man´s created meaning", they´re are expressions, reflections and rearrangements of that which is meaningful.
@@icarovdl Forgive me, but is this meant to be derogatory? I’m trying to make sense of your comment.
A couple weeks before the Mass Effect remaster comes out - you have perfect timing for this topic, my friend.
I'll never forget those rainy autumn days in which I should have been attending college classes but I was too busy hiking through Skyrim like it was an actual vacation to some far away country.
Ooh how cozy it all was, to just chill at home playing Skyrim...
We all have that one game series we go back to every once in a while. Mine is the Assassin’s Creed Ezio trilogy. Experiencing the story of Ezio Auditore’s life from birth to death is special to me.
I have consistently been listening to Skyrim OST since the beginning. The music of Skyrim has been my sacred space for these last couple of years. It takes me back to when I was actually exploring the real world when I lived in the UK for 2 years. In most of my adventures I had Skyrim OST playing on my headphones. Those memories will forever be one of the greatest moments of my life and will be with me forever. I plan to move to a mountainous place in Europe in the future. I want that feeling of waking up to an adventure again. That was when I was at my highest self. Peace.
I too had been listening to it daily for years, until the advent if Covid. I was listening to it again just yesterday when I went out shopping.
I was thinking about installing Skyrim again today and this was the first video recommended to me by RUclips.
I keep coming back to Skyrim because it has become a healing place to me. Wandering the tundra allows me to cleanse my mind and think. I've found myself sitting down on a tavern at night staring at the fire and just think. Skyrim not only entertains me, it gives me peace.
I only played Skyrim for a couple hours (and this video has convinced I need to fix that lol), but even though I couldn't name it the sense of adventure and sacred spaces felt really palpable in what little I tried of the game. There's just something in the presentation and world that imbues each step with meaning. Another wonderful video, as per usual.
Oh, and like another comment mention I'm sure this channel itself is a sacred space for many people... it certainly is for me. Thank you for everything you do, LSOO!
The lack of this kind of deep feeling is I think why Cyberpunk 2077 hurt so much. I think people were primed to make it their next sacred space, something they could fully get immersed in and have their emotional investment pay dividends for years to come, only to have it fall flat. I know that's how i felt.
I agree with you in that its definitely not my escape like I was hoping, but I don't think it fell flat. The city is a little cold but the game has great characters and a great story. If you keep jumping into new missions you can immerse yourself quite well. I'm role playing as the major from ghost in the shell and its a really good time.
I feel completely crazy when talking about Cyberpunk, because for me it seems as if it is my own Skyrim, I keep coming back to it constantly, even though I’ve done everything so often now, yet with Skyrim, I haven’t been able to enjoy it since my first play-through.
Sadly I haven’t really questioned why I have these feelings all too much yet, but in the constant discussion of Cyberpunk’s disappointment I find myself unable to relate to any of it.
My heart broke when I saw the veil falling and saw how soulless it was
What a gorgeous video. Beautifully articulated.
This video is incredible. I have a memory (that's more a whole-body feeling) of playing Ratchet and Clank and/or Dino Crisis 2 in my parents house when I was little. To this day, I sometimes go back and listen to the soundtrack or watch someone playing the game. I can access a simpler, protected, warm, excited, and uncomplicated time. The idea of sacred spaces makes perfect sense to me. Thank you for making the videos you make. Every time I feel as though you click something into place in my head that's already been aligned but never been connected.
Forever my comfort game. The only virtual world I feel like I can truly exist in and stop to smell the roses and gaze at the stars. Can practically feel the cool air
This video broke me in a way I don't really know how to describe... There are several video games that I can just constantly over time replay and enjoy over and over again, Skyrim being one of them. I have had trouble explaining to people in my life, especially in intimate relationships why I love video games. I could never articulate what this video does in my own words. I don't want to escape reality, I very much enjoy and appreciate the really world around me... but at the same time, I feel like it is just missing something that only video games can give me. When I come back to Skyrim it fills me with this belonging that is so much more nostalgic and 'safe' than my childhood home or anything of the like. Thank you so much for making this video, I am so glad I got to experience it!
Beautiful. There's always been something special about Skyrim, it feels quietly powerful in a way that's hard to describe. There's something amazing about the fact that the game doesn't rush you along--a huge part of the experience, arguably the most important part, is the freedom to explore at your own pace. You can wander around for hours doing nothing in particular, and it will feel every bit as rewarding as doing quests
It's been almost ten years since 11.11.11.
When visiting important place after a while it often doesn't quite feel the same, it can even be disappointing. Skyrim doesn't really change, but we have.
I’m a non gamer. But I liked to watch my big sister and then my friends playing video games from times to times.
I have the same feeling you have of the game with the real life, like you said: exploration, talking to everyone, working on my skills...
My sacred space as been internet and especially RUclips, since 2009. I consider it like my third parent because of the impact it has on me.
I am simply amazed that you find Skyrim a sacred space type of game ... Skyrim has been my escape world for ten years now and I seem to never tire nor get bored of the missions and story , never cease to be amazed by a sunset or star filled sky ... for me , the music makes all the difference into feeling as if I have actually been there ...
PS ... my hobbit hole from LOTR is just to south of Skyrim so I never feel very far from either home 🧐
This spoke to me. Its wild how my experiences in Skyrim almost feel like an extension of my lived experiences in reality. Its my home away from home. Always a place to return to, with new things to explore and experience. And its hard for any game to top that.
A brilliant video once again. You nailed it! This is one of the reasons I make games, and is something I strive for in my games. To take the problem seriously and not 'just' make entertainment. Funny this came out a day after I released my new game.
This was an amazing essay on Skyrim and I want to speak truthfully about this. Hearing your words on the center of our souls, finding the sacred in our world, and the meaningful lives we can live was profound. I felt taken away, and I cried, and I went to my knees to pray. Once again this was a great video on the story world and the sacred spaces, it's been a long time since anything has made me feel the things I felt while listening and watching. I hope and I pray that I can live a life with meaning. I want to live a life with meaning. Thank you, I hope you have a wonderful day today. Lots of love.
Morrowind was my sacred space. I still to this day love collecting all the Glass armor, finding the daedric dia-katana, and leveling up my acrobatics to 100. I honestly never even played through the main storyline. I just loved the strange world I inhabited.
I'm somewhat similar with Skyrim.
Morrowind for me as well.
I haven't played it for 10 years, but I still remember getting an early Daedric weapon from one of the House Hlaalu councillors for finding that abandoned mine near Balmora and sharing the location.
Bruh this hit me hard. I can completely relate with what you said. Skyrim is so many things for me. Its a game I played my college days, and illicits memories from that time. Its world of beauty and wonder, where my imagination wanders. And most importantly it's a place I can escape to when the real world seems overwhelming.
The games I find myself always returning to, no matter how many playthroughs I've completed are the Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins and last, but certainly not least The Witcher 3. The characters just elevate these games to the next level for me, so much so that it almost feels like saying hello to a good friend you haven't seen in a while.
Please keep up the good work. Your essays are a rare treat of hopefulness and compassion.
You are one of the justifications for the existence of RUclips. This was an amazing video. I'd had some similar thoughts, but could never put it into words as well as you do. Watching this, I felt as if my mind had cleared and laid out all the answers at my feet. Thank you so much for your insight.
I hadn't heard of skyrim... a beautiful game. I stopped playing role playing games when my arthritis became too painful. Maybe I need to visit the doctor and what he could do?
What I thought of, as you were speaking, was writing a story.. even a novel, and creating through the novel, an inner sacred space. An inner temple of initiation. I am considering returning to a novel I began writing as young woman. I lost my nerve while writing it... found it too personal and painful. It is now time to continue. The world has changed immeasurably since I was 30. I could self publish, not to make money, but to share my vision of my inner worlds. There is more to life than the profane.
I feel as alien in this age because I truly believe in the sacred being the basis of all life.
play skyrim
I keep returning to Skyrim only because of the mods,(currently 260 mods haha). I'm an old gamer , I think for me its Daggerfall followed by Morrowind.
But in general the idea of a virtual world to escape into has always been part of my life for better and worse. I love RPGs, and exploring magical worlds, from the book to the pc, because ours is a bit too.. mundane.
True. This life is crap!
You knew it was coming. Show us that mod list!
Right? What ENB is that, and which flora mod is that? The world was so sunny and the grass was so lush, I want that!!
I still return to Skyrim on occasion. I live in Whiterun at Breezehome. I just can’t bring myself to live anywhere else. When i travelled to Solstiem and spent a sizeable amount of time completing the quests there and helping the people, upon my return to Whiterun i had a meaningful nostalgic glow burn bright with in me. Like i had been away too long. I spent (and still spend) a large amount of time simply selling treasures to local friends. Cooking, spell making, redecorating and crafting in my small intangible world.
That's an interesting point. The game has some places which are more nostalgic for us than other places. I generally end up always buying Breezeholme instead of the other homes in the game just like you do.
My favourite Skyrim character was a "Staff and Lore" master, who only used staves, so never earned XP. Stayed level 2 and did almost the entire map of the game. He collected all the books in the game and build a library as his ultimate end game.
This video could not have been better. It perfectly summarizes what I've been struggling to put into words, but haven't been able to. thank you SO much!
I appreciate and agree with your analysis, but I would like to add that Skyrim feels more special due to the connection I have come to feel with other Skyrim players. Though it's an individual experience, we all share this sacred space. Games like this spark people's creativity and they create fascinating videos and mods that deepen my own connection to the world. When I meet another Skyrim player, I know we have a whole special world in common and I love when we share our experiences within it. Cheers to all the world's gamers!
You’ve beautifully articulated a feeling I’ve felt for years and haven’t yet been able to put words to. Thank you for putting so much effort into making this video and sharing this with us :)
You made Skryrim beautiful again.
Been following your channel for years. Never commented on a single social media post.
Wanted to let you know that your work is a gift to existence!
Ive never seen you do an analysis of Westworld, but I feel you would really be able to five deep into many aspects of consciousness and reality with that one.
It's New Vegas, for me.
Though, it's a bittersweet affection, because it shows us ourselves, somewhat. Which makes it less of an escape from reality, like skyrim is.
All you videos are so beautiful. You express your ideas so poetically that I was nearly in tears at the end of the video. I am envious of your talent and I think you should feel very proud of your work
Rain, dinner cooked by mom and a notification from LSOO ..
Recently returned to Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky. To me, it was more than a nostalgia trip, it was returning to something so intimate and familiar to my childhood that I could relate to it on a very deeply meaningful level. This video speaks to my feelings on certain very important games/media experiences I have had, I think I will be looking into reading some of your source material on sacred spaces.
Skyrim is the only game i could back always just to explore the world, i love all cities, roads, the people, is like home , no other game accomplish this
This video put everything that I felt and didn't even know that I felt to words. I often find it difficult to explain why Skyrim is beautiful and very special to me, why I feel this way about it. And "nostalgia"never truly captured the feeling but now I understand. Thank you
You just put into words why I love RDR2. That world is my sacred space.
I absolutely love this video essay and relate to everything you said. Skyrim is my most beloved game of all time. I played and loved vanilla Skyrim and played this game with mods which made the experience even better and more fulfilling. Insane amount of mods is proof that Skyrim is not only an unique and sacred personal experience but also an impulse for creativity.
I had a thought after reaching level 100 and maxing out my character to my preference. Why is it that I have this crazy amount of drive and determination to improve my character of that resides in a imaginary world, yet I lack the motivation to do anything with the life I choose I live. Perhaps its the wonder of that imaginable world, or the fact that nothing can truly finish me. That drive never really existed in my life regarding myself, I only cared about the worlds that I would never in real life be apart of.
I love your mods used in this video. And your calm, deep commentary
I love this channel so much
Its #1 for me.
Skyrim is so damn comfy. There is nothing like it when it comes to simulating life in a fantasy universe.
This video justified all those hours I spent, not playing skyrim, but living in skyrim
Dishonored is my sacred world. Dunwall is dark and often cruel, but each life I spare and each act of kindness brings it away from the brink and to a place of light and hope. That world has enraptured me like no other. Each play through reminds me that each interaction matters, that each action I take matters, and touches more lives than I realise - In game, and out.
The thing that Skyrim gets right, is the freedom to go anywhere at any time. Just wander for hours, only doing quests that you happen to come across. You can get lost for weeks, not even paying any attention to the main quest line.
I love how it’s not one of those games where you wish you could experience it for the first time again. It grows on you and becomes more and more interesting the more you know about it.
Main Characters are not hindered by mental illness, this is why they may explore freely without the burden of depression, anxiety or loneliness.
Too real
For that, main characters can have the burden of psychopathy, sociopathy, and machiavellianism, as well as whole host of grandiose personality disorders.
@@JinroTheCorpse the character in max payne isn't a character for us to self project into like skyrim or half life, the point doesn't apply. Idk what makes you think that is a good idea anyway smh.
And even if our character is bound by mental illnesses, they ( or I should say, we ) have the power to change it in just a fraction of a second, we are always in control, you don't like sociopathy on your character? Fine, nothing changed anyway, the NPCs doesn't hold grudges. Don't like them being a guy? Fine, just some console commands and boom, you are a girl now.
In real life many of us don't have the ability to change that, nor the money and the effort. Even if a situation still goes out of hand in video games, most of the time you can load a save file and know exactly what to expect. There's however no such power in real life. Sometimes life just goes well off the road and you can't do anything about it.
My point is? Our characters can be who we want them to be. We can't do the same to ourselves. Hell, you can be the richest man in the world and get your life destroyed in mere seconds because some guy drove his car after he is intoxicated.
Guts from berserk had it rough. Its a classic, if you havent seen it I recommend it. Sad story with very human sorrow :( but its worth the ride for an excellent emotional roller coaster
There's a game, Hellblade Senua's sacrifice. That game is mental. It gives me a difficult time after every session.
I found this because I was wondering why I always come back to this game. Every six months to a year I’ll play for a week or two. Sometimes a month. And the memories of younger years come flooding back. But those new memories from within those six months to a year are “transferred” into Skyrim. But it’s never the negative memories or energy, it’s always the happy peaceful ones. And when I’m in a bad place, booting up Skyrim and playing is like filling up the current negative with the past positive. This game was a large portion of what I played after my ex dumped me. Reminding me that things could be worse and there is much to be thankful for. Which for me is also part of the healing aspect you spoke of.
Oh f*ck, here comes my 42nd character. The night mother calls me.
omg, i did not expect this video to be so profound and beautiful. I have just recently discovered skyrim but i definitely understand this feeling of sacred space. i felt it in subnautica, Far Cry and AC blackflag and also in some books like the Hyperion cantos and hitchhikers guide to the galaxy...
This is a powerful video. It pulled up thoughts and emotions from a much deeper place inside me compared to what other experiences can do. If you do not consider yourself an extraordinary artist yet, then you should.
Something about this incredible game occupies a special place in my memories that keeps coming back on late nostalgic nights time and time again…the beautiful combination of enchanting, mystical lands and familiar experiences hidden behind the veil of a realm that feels at the same time like it was 5000 years in the past and 5000 years in the future means so much to me and will always occupy a special place in my heart. I think for most of us, Skyrim is a way to satisfy that part of us full of wonder and curiosity about the world ❤️
I wonder if you have ever read CS Lewis. His writings go beyond The Chronicles of Narnia. Good video!
No other experience has given me as many laughs as Skyrim PSVR (unmodded).
On one occasion I had Lydia (a companion, literally) following me around but she couldn't climb down the mountains that I did, so I left her behind, while I snuck up on a large enemy encampment at the bottom.
I was just about to let loose an arrow from cover (planning on quiet takedowns) when Lydia appeared at the far end of the bandit village, running through it and alerting about a dozen enemies.
"Here I am" she cheerfully announced when she had reached me, while a small army charged towards us over her shoulder.
"Brilliant" I told her, and burst into laughter.
Another thing about games like Skyrim is they tend to draw upon our own natures, & that is a reason they can have broad appeal with less regard to political boundaries or age. When I first play a game like Skyrim, I have two desires, to explore the limits & all the out-of-the-way places, and to try to break the game with unexpected choices.
An example. In the Dark Brotherhood questline, you are tasked with the murder of a bride at her wedding. My solution was to hide myself, then give (reverse pickpocket) her husband a frenzy potion. He then attacks & kills his bride only to be cut down by those in attendance. At that point I can shrug & walk away with no bounty or danger to myself. It made my day to see the developers had not anticipated this choice & the scripted arrival of "backup" to help you bust out of a hostile situation still occurred.
They also give us a look at our capacity for both heroism & villainy. My girlfriend watched me perform the actions mentioned above & she said, "You are truly evil." It's just a game, however. In that space I'm allowed to perform acts through the extension of the character in the game which I would never do in real life. Although there is something to be said about us facing the dragons which dominate our existence.
"You may leave the zone, but the zone never leaves you" is a popular saying in the Stalker fanbase.
There is something fascinating about that depressive Eastern European atmosphere when every step could be your last. Nearly everytime i feel overwhelmed by Life, i come back to the zone; it has become a ritual. The fight for survival in the harsh environment is analogous to the struggles one experience in the Life's lowest point.
Ironically, the unforgiving Stalker universe gave me more hope than others, more "joyful" virtual worlds.
Beautiful and thoughtful essay and analysis. Breath of the Wild always has that effect on me.
thankyou for your insight, wisdom and vulnerability. We all have those places that are sacred - because they have in a way been imbued with it by us.
I watched a person react to the lord of the rings movies - who laughed all the way through - there is nothing wrong with doing that - but it upset me. I realise now that they have become a sacred space for me that provided comfort when my long time partner died.
You have certainly helped me to understand what was happening. Thankyou.
"Why do we keep returning to Skyrim?"
Because Elder Scrolls VI is nowhere in sight and no game since 2011 has truly matched what Skyrim has offered. Freedom to do what you want in the open world they created, with enough content to justify that freedom. Most other games lock you into the roll of a character, like the Witcher. In Skyrim, while you are the Dragonborn, you are whatever character you want to create first, with a sizeable amount of factions for you to justify playing that character.
No other games, outside of isometric RPG's, really allows you to play like that on the size and scope that Skyrim did.
Yep, I haven't played any other games which use that same Bethesda Elder Scrolls formula. So it's no wonder I keep going back to Skyrim and also Oblivion now and then because I can't get that experience elsewhere. Mods help a lot too.