Very important life lessons I learned from ‘Skyrim.’ Seriously.
For over a year now, I’ve been totally addicted to the game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. As anyone else who is also addicted to Skyrim knows, you can easily spend hundreds of hours playing, killing dragons and taking names. There have been plenty of other games that have risen in popularity since Skyrim’s debut in 2011, but I’m still playin’ Skyrim, because the addiction is REAL, guys.
Maybe I’m writing this article to justify the ridiculous amount of time I’ve spent playing this kickass game, but there are seriously some pretty sweet IRL lessons you can take away from this world of glory and destruction, even if said world includes mages and vampires. Behold, adventurers, before you take an arrow to the knee: The lessons I’ve learned (I TOTALLY swear) from Skyrim.
Be observant . . . you never know what you’ll find.
In Skyrim, you’ve gotta check all the nooks and crannies for great stuff. Sure, you can charge through the game without checking any chest, barrel, or shelf, but you’ll lose out on SO much loot and so many things that make Skyrim amazing. Obviously, you probably won’t find potions or coins just laying around in everyday life, but being observant and paying attention to details will make life so much more enriching than just keeping your head down. (Plzzz guys, don’t take this to mean that you should steal stuff. Totally different.)
Treat your body right.
It can be tempting to go through the game focusing on the objectives and nothing else, but resting up and eating healthy home-cooked meals will give you bonuses in Skyrim. Sound familiar?
Practice makes perfect.
One of the best parts of the game, IMHO, is building up your skills. It takes a ton of work, but once you do it, it’s SO rewarding, and your character is able to defeat enemies and accomplish tasks you couldn’t even come close to beating before. Sure, this might be just a game, but this sort of dedication can apply to anything. Want to be an amazing painter, but you’ve never picked up a brush? Hey, you can do it — you’ve just gotta put in the “game time” to paint your masterpiece.
It’s better to be highly skilled in a few areas than average at everything.
Everyone who plays Skyrim knows that it’s better to totally kick ass at a few skills than to try and increase them all evenly. You can’t belong to every single guild right off the bat — you have to find your specialty. You’ve only got so much time in life, so find your thing . . . and totally OWN it.
Networking and connections are essential.
You can shoot arrows at anything and everything, but you’ll increase your skill level much faster if you know an archery expert who can teach you. And IRL, even though you can work incredibly hard and achieve anything you want to on your own, connections certainly don’t hurt.
Reading rocks. Read ALL of the books.
Many books you can read in Skyrim will up your skill level in ways you may not expect. Again . . . sound familiar? You never know what you’ll take away from a good book!
Words matter . . . and so does tone.
When conversing with non-playable characters (NPCs) in Skyrim, you often have different options re: what to say. Sometimes, those options all amount to the same general meaning, but they sound different dependent on tone — they can be threatening, kind, rude, etc. The NPCs reaction is almost more dependent on your tone than on the content of what you say. This is honestly true in real life too! Say it like you mean it, and say it kindly.
Always be prepared!
In Skyrim, if you don’t have the right tools and equipment, you’ll end up running away frantically from a fire-breathing dragon. On the other hand, if you have TOO many tools, you’ll be overburdened and have to drop a ton of precious cargo on the ground.
Maybe the whole fire-breathing dragon thing won’t ever apply to your real life (though who knows), but being appropriately prepared for your IRL adventures will never, ever hurt. Oh yea, and don’t overpack.
Spiders are always the worst. Always.
Probably the most important Skyrim life lesson, because just look at these things.
SPIDERS ARE ALWAYS TERRIFYING.
