How immersed do you play?

[elricshan]

When i play i make a person and a background and then do al the tings that type of person would do. right now my caracter is a vampire who stribe to become an goddess that wil rule over the vampires and destroy the werewolfes

[Pineapplerum]

I'm hardly a realistic player. I'll go for a few days without eating or sleeping in the game. Then I'll remember the message you get after you get some sleep about being well rested and I think maybe not sleeping will effect the way I fight so I go off anywhere I can find a bed and get 4 hours of sleep. I only eat when I need health, usually, in the middle of a hard fight.

Most of my moral choices are close to the ones I'd make in real life. I can't imagine not speed mapping to different places. It would just take way too long to do anything because my horse is so slow and I'm constantly getting lost and going in circles. I really don't like the map they give you. You can't see any roads or which way is best to travel. And I get tired of killing off those annoying wolves after awhile.

But I hardly rush through it, in the hurry and get a lot of quests or dungeons cleared, sense. Right now I'm more interested in the story line and understanding exactly what is going on.

[ogridum]

The pleasure is on the journey. Not to reach the destination. I dont see Skyrim as a competitive game, where efficiency and power is above all. When I play an MMORPG Im the last person in the world to waste any time doing anything besides doing the most efficient thing to level up or make the most amount of money/valuables per time and micromanaging multiple accounts on virtual boxes, using all macros/exploits/cheats I can find/design. When I play MMORPGs Im there to cause effect on players themselfs. When I play single player RPGs, playing like that gives me no pleasure, no satisfaction. Before playing Skyrim I came straight from Dwarf Fortress. The only similarity between both playstyles is that they are extreme and I invest all the time and effort I can to do the things I need to do.

 

 

So here is the list of my self imposed rules for Skyrim.

All of those implemented at the same time with a new character with barelly any knowledge of the game (first character was level 50 in like 7 hours and I was like... "oh s*** I think Im about to ruin the best game of all time" because I originally thought it was part of the challenge/design decision of the developers. When I realized I wasnt achieving anything by doing that due to how stupidly easy everything was balanced/thought out, so I took a step back, rethought everything I was doing and figured out I had to make a previous "contract" with myself to legimitize and justify everything in a way that makes my conscious not harm my immersion/experience. Most of the times I tried to do this in other games, I would reach many invisible barriers due to the lack of tools/features. For that, Skyrim is the closest game to perfection in that sense... AAA title at least. This game was clearly not designed with the intention for the players to "beat" the game, because it doesnt take its challenges seriously with all the lack of balancing, the excess of freedom, and how game mechanics of acquiring things, crafting, trading, ai, leveling and level scaling works.

 

Finally my list:

-Must play on master difficulty all the time

-Must use real time scale set to 1 all the time

-The post processor injector settings were tweaked so gamma was increased to realistic levels of darkness. Its part of my immersion to not have everything visible. If I want to see something, I take out a torch or use a spell. Therefore I set gamma to 1.50 (default for most people is 1).

-No changing of armor gear during combat, except taking out shield.

-No drinking potions while the game is paused. Must fall back from combat for at least 6 seconds to drink a potion or be far from enemies and in cover to drink more than more potions.

-Must role play physiologic needs regularly:

-Must eat food every day.

-Has to use "sleep" every day like in real life, or sleep for longer in situations where you deprive yourself from sleep. After sleep is the only moment the player can save the game.

-Must take shower every few days and REMOVE cloths to shower and wait/jump a bit before putting clothes back on.

-I remove my helm (has it on favorites) when talking to people in towns.

-I remove all my gear, except my dagger when sleeping.

-I crouch to do physiologic necessities when nobody is looking.

During low temperature scenarios, such as night snow, heavy snowing, snowing or rain in high altitude and blizzards, player must roleplay adequate behavior: seek refuge, remain close to a fire source, use fur armor, frost/fire cloak /stoneflesh magic, frost resist on armor or drink a frost resist potion. If none is available, role play hypothermy.

-No Fast Travel.

-No fast travel through carriage.

-No using "wait" to skip time passing.

-No quick save and quick loading

-Character dies, must use the save made after last sleep. "Everything was a bad dream".

-Player can only hike slopes that have 130 degree of inclination or more. No wall running of anything with less than 130 degree of inclination.

 

-No unreasonable, not natural, unjustified methods to improve skills. This is very very important to me and even with all the rationalization and reasonable justification for "training", my current character "personality"/'approach" does not like or is even aware of the idea of "training":

this means no rubberbanding sneak behind a balcony near a vendor. While its ok when hunting or stealing/pickpocketing or trying to assassinate someone. Sneaking everywhere in town without an insidious purpose other than training a skill is not reasonable.

not using azura black star for cheap enchanting leveling, If the player stumbled upon the quest naturally without previous knowledge of the devious exploitative possibilities, its ok. Starting a new character and doing a bee line for it is not ok. If it is acquired a long playthrough where the player has effectivelly paid his deeds by leveling enchanting the hard way up to level 80 or so, its excusable, but not to abuse it by non stop enchanting up to 100 in a sit. This exception is just to not negate completely one of the unique rewards for quests just because the unlucky player got spoiled about it.

Not abusing bribery in Riften to raise speech skill. Speech has to be leveled naturally. Its ok to sell items one by one, its reasonable to imagine the character bartering for each item individually and thus gaining more experience in doing so.

Not intentionally breaking lockpicks over and over on a master lock for the purpose of fast leveling. This has to be leveled naturally, players has to do its best to get the locks opened.

Not hurting yourself on fire/blizzard/fall damage in a method that by itself could represent a threat for the life of the player (anything that deals huge chunks of damage in one attack/event) for the purpose of training restoration or training with an enemy that represents a threat (character is not going to risk its life stupidly during training). If the damage to life is manageable by its nature, then it could be naturally used by a healer to train its abilities. This allows the player to use enemies/methods that obviously dont represent a threat as training subjects, such as conjured enemies without weapons, mudcrabs, slaughterfish, due to their obvious characteristics. Using terrain against their physical limitations is perfectly fine, like dragging enemies to slopes or river streams or way below me.

In combat is not fine to abuse the AI pathfinding, for example: you know the enemy cant reach you in a straight path, but it can do so if it turns back and circle around an obstacle, but after the enemy starts doing so, you promptly move again to an area where the actual pathfinding cant reach you, forcing the AI to find a new pathfinding and then repeating it over and over, making it so you can easily and unreasonably kill an enemy by abusing the AI, such as a frost troll/bear/giant/mammoth getting stuck behind a rock or elevation that it would be realistic in that situation for said enemy to just escalate, jump over, jump down or pass over, but due to the mentioned AI limitation, it does not do so. Its ok to attack a target from a strategical advantageous position, but once the AI has figured that the current path cant reach the player and makes up a new pathfinding, the player can either remain or move to a different spot, but after the player moves again, and the AI addapts the pathfinding, the player cannot go back to a previous position, forcing the AI to backtrack everything again in an endless exploitative cycle when the AI limitations when judged by the player would not hinder the actual enemy from reaching the player. A giant, frost troll, big cats and bears should be able to jump over an obstacle the player can also jump, but since they dont do so, the player cannot use the AI limitation to get a cheap kill. The player can only use/explore strategic points that enemies would not legitimaly be able to reach, even if they could jump/escalate according to their individual physical characteristics.

 

Pickpocketing attempts must be preceded by reasonable undetected aproach to the targets (no just walking behind them after they saw you and then activating sneak, its unreasonable because the npcs should still know you were just there, therefore the player must account for npcs memories and refrain from pickpocketing unless he is certain that according to the situation the npc is not aware of his presence, such as approaching enemies from behind, in dark areas, or while they are sleeping are examples).,

 

Allowing oneself to get hurt moderatelly by an enemy that is no threat for the purpose of training restoration/alteration/block/light armor/heavy armor is allowed. Just like the random event student that asks to train his magic abilities on you. Its reasonable and part of the role play.

Conjuring enemies to use them as sparing to train one handed/two handed/archery/destruction magic is ok, as well as weak enemies the player knows that doesnt represent a threat to its life, such as a mudcrab or a slaughterfish, due to their obvious limitations, its reasonable within the setting to use them for the purpose of evolving ones abilities.

It goes without mention that naturally improving during life threatening situations has no limitations, as long as the character intends to cease the aggression as fast as possible by disabling/killing the threats. Not maiming dangerous enemies. Thats unreasonable. Player must role play realistic threat for its life and role play accordingly.

 

-Player cannot use an alchemy guide for the purpose of finding all the effects of each ingredients without error or waste of materials. Players has to eat alchemy ingredients to find their properties buying the alchemy perk, read recipes they find in-game. Attempting to find ingredients by trial and error only if the player never read an alchemy guide, thus not being spoiled forever.

 

-No console modifications such as adding/removing money/perks/skills/levels/carryweight, etc.. Cosmethic changes such as removing the hud for screenshots are ok. Changing FOV to a lower value for the purpose of zoom cheating with eagle eye is not allowed. Player has to choose one FOV setting and stick to it. Its ok to use the map or the quest markers. Its justified as the equivalent of the character socializing more in depth with the npcs to gather more accurate information on the targets/locations.

 

-I read all books, notes, diaries I come across.

-I evaluate what items to take with from an expedition, if its worth resting or going back before proceeding further into dangerous areas (like when my companion starts saying things like "this doesnt look good")

 

-When I craft, either alchemy, blacksmith and enchanting. I evaluate the how realistic it would be for me to craft that specific item in that specific time frame. So I self imposed myself rules such as minimum time between crafts, as if imagining and aknowledging a realistic time to craft a piece of weapon or a piece of armor. Usually 30 minutes per the most common materials and pieces of weapons, double that for armors and jewelry and even more time for items involving rarer materials. For alchemy, atleast 5 in-game minutes per brewed potion and 15 minutes per each enchantment.

-I roleplay a trader when selling my crafted goods "Buy Alicia Dragonborn daggers of paralyze! The best in all Skyrim!"

-I give food, potions and other items to my companions, take breaks, heal them, cast courage spells every so often.

 

-I also walk when Im towns and there is no sense of urgency that justify me running. If there is a sense of urgency due to quests, current situation or weather conditions, or any justifiable reason, then its ok to run in towns.

 

 

 

I think this covers most, if not all the "self imposed rules".

"The way its meant to be played". Its a shame people ruin their own experience inadvertently, by not staying true to the immersion, trying to be fair and reasonable, justifying everything in a coherent way. Preventing themselfs from using cheap routes.

Edited November 21, 2011 by ogridum

[Esteris]

I don't have enough time in my life to play the game this slowly :)

 

Besides, I guess, I'd get pretty bored by walking slow towards the destinations. It's just so boring and pointless. I'd rather spend the time running around the world with fast travel and collecting prettiest books/items to hamster up in the house or something.

 

I never read the random books I find (only plot/quest related ones, I especially like riddles!). I don't like to listen to people there chat about lore, but if some interesting event is spoken about that may lead to something, I take the bait.

 

I sleep when I feel sleepy irl. It's this craving that I satiate in game so that I can play for a while longer without going to my real bed :psyduck:

 

I don't eat food, unless I'm bumping some statistic or have too much stuff to carry.

 

But I do most of the quests the way I'd like to do them. That's why I never bothered with Dark Brotherhood before. I would though, if I knew that their goals would be alike mine and I could agree about the killings.

 

In every other game I play elf/something weird but pretty. But unfortunately, in Skyrim, I'm "forced" to play human simply because their faces look best. Waiting for mods with some nice and more interesting races :)

 

Generally I don't limit myself in the game at all and if something is doable, I'll do it. That's why I am very cautious of mods that could potentially unbalance the gameplay and make it too easy. I've learn with other games that these absolutely ruin my experience. If someone drops an uber-awesome imba sword, I've two options, and neither is fine. If I take it, the game gets too easy and not fun. If I don't, I've no point in trying to do well because I have to limit myself in not doing well which defeats the purpose.

 

If alchemy lets me drink 10k potions at once, I will. If it would let me to craft 10 swords from one ore, I'd craft them all. If I could fast-travel from dungeons, I WOULD AND I WANT A MOD TO LET ME. Because running out of them is BORING :P

Edited November 21, 2011 by Esteris

[BarefootWarrior]

I don't have enough time in my life to play the game this slowly :)

 

Besides, I guess, I'd get pretty bored by walking slow towards the destinations. It's just so boring and pointless. I'd rather spend the time running around the world with fast travel and collecting prettiest books/items to hamster up in the house or something.

 

I never read the random books I find (only plot/quest related ones, I especially like riddles!). I don't like to listen to people there chat about lore, but if some interesting event is spoken about that may lead to something, I take the bait.

 

I sleep when I feel sleepy irl. It's this craving that I satiate in game so that I can play for a while longer without going to my real bed :psyduck:

 

I don't eat food, unless I'm bumping some statistic or have too much stuff to carry.

 

But I do most of the quests the way I'd like to do them. That's why I never bothered with Dark Brotherhood before. I would though, if I knew that their goals would be alike mine and I could agree about the killings.

 

In every other game I play elf/something weird but pretty. But unfortunately, in Skyrim, I'm "forced" to play human simply because their faces look best. Waiting for mods with some nice and more interesting races :)

 

Generally I don't limit myself in the game at all and if something is doable, I'll do it. That's why I am very cautious of mods that could potentially unbalance the gameplay and make it too easy. I've learn with other games that these absolutely ruin my experience. If someone drops an uber-awesome imba sword, I've two options, and neither is fine. If I take it, the game gets too easy and not fun. If I don't, I've no point in trying to do well because I have to limit myself in not doing well which defeats the purpose.

 

If alchemy lets me drink 10k potions at once, I will. If it would let me to craft 10 swords from one ore, I'd craft them all. If I could fast-travel from dungeons, I WOULD AND I WANT A MOD TO LET ME. Because running out of them is BORING :P

 

You bring up several good points as does the post before yours. I do not rely on 'mods' to increase my skills or strengths, never have. I learn the game as I am doing now and rely on my own skills. I'm probably one of the few who do not rely on armor, I wear little in the way of armor if any. I want to know that I can use my learned skills / talents and not rely on it. So far, I'm not doing to bad. In this game for instance, I am relying on my archery skills and my Katana sword, along with my magic...and of course the occasional shout. Along with that, I play the game along with my own 'morals' if I can say that? I have no wish to just go out and kill things or people, I like to play with part of my values and feel good about it. That is why I have abandoned some quests. I didn't agree with what I had to do in order to complete the quest. Now I realize that some of you out there my disagree with me, but that is part of why I enjoy games like this...you can be who ever you want and what ever you want...that is bad or good. I choose to play as a 'good' guy and sometimes this game will not give you that choice (as many others), and that's ok...I'll just skip it and move on.

 

So in one instance, I can get quite 'immersed' in a game, but so far this game has not gotten to that point. I just play as I wish, explore and get lost in my world for a while. None the less, I am enjoying this game and having a good time.

[Solitude102]

I tend to play in a much slower pace and in a heavily immersed manner. Not only do I enjoy the game more, but also for a longer period of time -- Rather than ransacking through everything in a couple days.

[InuyashaFE]

I sleep when I feel sleepy irl. It's this craving that I satiate in game so that I can play for a while longer without going to my real bed :psyduck:

 

I feel the same way about food, I cook in the game when I'm hungry. xD

[Goliath978]

Good to hear.

 

Yeah like for me: over 200-300 hrs easily on oblivion and sill NEVER finished the dark brotherhood or guilds. I will eventually but take my time. As a result I have such a strong knowledge and attachment to cyrodiil deeper than if I'd done everything steamroll. Never had a char over level 25.

[ducksternator]

Love the attention to detail, Ogridum!

 

I played an Imperial in Morrowind and Oblivion and always used the best armour, shield, sword and a couple of spells. I acted as I would have if I were in the game. I freed slaves, hunted down criminal syndicates and destroyed every vampire I could track down.

 

I'm going to try something a bit different with Skyrim though - mainly because I love the features available in the game. Magic was terrible in Morrowind and could only ever be used as a slight advantage - not as a main skill. Oblivion improved on it all greatly and from the looks of things Skyrim allows for a full on Mage character.

 

That being said - I love the dual wielding and the thief/assassin abilities. So this time around I'm going to roleplay as an entirely different character to myself and play a bit of a whimsical rogue. He'll dabble in magic and use two blades. He'll shun the idea of work and he'll attempt to break out of every prison.

 

Regardless of how you immerse yourself in the game - you have to enjoy the journey, rather than just the finish.

[tmx]

I don't play that many games, the last game I bought was Oblivion 5 years ago. I don't take it too seriously, if I get stuck, I don't mind lowering the difficulty or turn off collision (since there are no more levitation.)

 

Although the Elder Scrolls series are the only games I get into since they have some good writings, so I do read the books in the game. I don't know the writers for this game, but I wish Bethesda give them more credit, they really make the foundation for the game. Lots of the game books materials are influenced from real life religion, etc. Without those materials, the game might just be another boring elves game.

 

I play as an unarmored mage + archer, and I've been dying more often in this game so that raised the challenge I guess.

 

Biggest problem of this game (and the previous) is too much concentration on dungeon and indoor. I enjoy doing the hiking and being outdoor, the overworld of this game seems a bit small after you discovered everything.

Edited November 21, 2011 by tmx