Post #9 (Why Skyrim is So Great)

I haven't played Skyrim in a while, and I'm starting to feel like I really want to. Lately, I've been asking myself why I like playing this particular game so much.
In "How To Do Things With Video Games," Ian Bogost gives a number of reasons why this game appeals to me.

Firstly, one of my favorite things about Skyrim is the texture of the game. Although the Skyrim world "remains imprisoned behind the glass of our televisions and our monitors," it still is vibrantly rendered enough to immerse me in that world (82). I am engaged because I can believe the gamescape laid out by the game designers.

Another reason I like this game is due to what Bogost calls "kitsch," or "the overt application of convention" (83). Like his examples of kitsch games, the Skyrim world is based on a sentimental idea of medieval life- life before cars, planes, and industry. The player gets to roam the land, maybe on horseback, and explore beautiful wild vistas. Skyrim also aligns with Bogost's idea that "kitsch was always meant to be displayed" in that achievements can be posted on a gamer's Steam or PlayStation profile for the world to see (87).  In a way, even the virtual weapons and armor that players amass through game play act as the "virtual trinkets" Bogost claims "might help realize the video game equivalent of Kinkade's million-sellar art" (88). As a player, I appreciate amassing the trinkets offered i the game; it lets me measure my success and creates new goals for me to achieve.

Finally, Skyrim allows me to relax in the way Bogost associates with "lean backward" media. No, I'm not sitting back on my sofa eating Cheetos. I lean forward and click buttons to avoid sudden death by Blood Dragon. Game play is engaging, challenging, but accomplish-able. This is contradictory to Bogost's claims. But if I want to take a long walk through the pretty wild lands of the Skyrim world, just for fun, I can at any time. Occasionally, a saber tooth cat will ambush me and I'll have to defend it. Yet something about vanquishing the foe is immensely satisfying and deeply relaxing in a way Bogost does not understand. Bogost believes calming games can only achieve total relaxation by being "leaning-back" games; however, why can't an adventure game combine both? I believe Skyrim offers both excitement and relaxation in a way Bogost hasn't considered. Besides, I don't want to play a relaxation game all the time, I want mixed elements of relation and engagement.

The refresh rates of screens (the medium) on which video games are broadcast already wire our brains for engagement and excitement; Bogost needs to go read a book if he really wants to achieve total relaxation.