Together Alone: Another Skyrim Blog

As I scroll down my Xbox LIVE friends list lately it’s immediately noticeable that so many of my friends are playing Skyrim. Mine is a friends list mainly comprised of people that I play multiplayer with. Mine are friends that will spend all night on Gears of War 3, Modern Warfare 3 or Super Street Fighter IV. As we fight and shoot, we talk and laugh. We tease and mock, and shout and sing. We make cock jokes and mum jokes, and bitch at Mark “Double Shotguns” Atansky. Some of the best Xbox LIVE parties I’ve been in have been the noisy, rowdy ones, and the ones when we work together as a team so well that the enemy doesn’t stand a chance and rage-quits.

But now everything is calm and still. There’s music in the air. Fires crackle and winds rush over the mountains. Even the distant roar of a frost-breathing dragon is as soothing as the glow of a restoration spell being cast.

The nights are drawing in. It’s that time of year. The dark and and cold outside means there’s more of an excuse to stay in and play games. It feels ever so… cosy, and a little bit lazy, but in a good way; a very good way.

Notifications off. Slippers on. Blanket wrapped around me. I throw myself into Skyrim alongside the rest of my friends list. We’re all wandering the same world at the same time but we’ll never cross paths. We’re fighting the same battles using our own combat styles. We’re learning and training and crafting the things that are interesting to us. We’re warriors, thieves and mages; Elves, Nords and Kahjit; all on a unique journey to the same destination. My friends can’t assist me, they can’t tell me there’s a bear behind me, they can’t trade weapons with me or offer me a ballistic vest. Just like them, I’m on my own, and that’s the way I want it. The burdens are my own. The glory is my own. This story is my own.