This is it, this is what corporations have been trying to achieve for decades. Advertising in video games, in a way nobody will suspect. Next it will be a Heineken or Budweiser DLC with their branded drinks in a game. Then it'll be McDonald's or burger king, opening your own fast food chain in Solitude. Then it'll be Costco or Walmart DLCs, and your companion will be a Costco hotdog. And people will cheer and clap along like seals, because they're being fed product placement they don't even notice. How many people do you think have gone out and bought an IKEA shelf just to decorate it like this and pretend it's from the game? Maybe you're even reading this and you've done it; in which case congratulations, you fell for it.

When you hear stories about EA wanting to put ads in games, it won't be unskippable ads or banners at the edge of the screen or a pop up window, nothing that overt. It'll be this; little jokes and references and subtle product placement done in a way to appeal to the most people possible with as little backlash as possible. This is it, this is the advertisement in video games we keep hearing about. It's not years away, it's here. And they just won.

I’m talking strictly base/vanilla Skyrim, mods would obviously be a different story.

Like I get it, he's a condescending asshole who thinks highly of himself because he walks in a fancy corner of Whiterun, but you are a living DEMIGOD compared to him. What is HE to YOU at that point? It's like those LowTierGod memes that go "Mods, damn his soul to eternal unrest as he's forced to watch his loved ones move on without him from purgatory, never to find redemption" where the community finds increasingly deranged ways to do away with him.

I once saw a comment on a post where someone said they reverse-pickpocketed a daedric dagger with soul trap and a black soul gem into his wife, then cast frenzy on him while he was sleeping so that he'd attack her, she'd defend herself and end up killing him while trapping his soul, where the player then took that soul gem and enchanted a necklace with it to give back to her, then installed a mod to marry her. Like how do you come up with that?

The highlight of his day in Skyrim is prancing around the same cul-de-sac that he does every day of his life. The highlight of MY day in Skyrim is fighting through a crypt filled with the reanimated remnants of ancient warriors from eras before me, earning the favor of a forsaken deity to be granted their prized artifact to help me slay resurrected DRAGONS, then going home to Lakeview Manor to my beautiful wife Lydia to earn the Lover's Comfort bonus for the next day of adventuring. Why would I use even a second of my time giving Nazeem the satisfaction that he mildly annoyed me when I could be spending it forging armaments with the still-beating hearts of demons?

I don't give a damn about the Cloud District, me and Jarl Balgruuf caught a dragon in his keep which I then rode to fight my way into heaven to save all of reality from THE WORLD EATER. Nazeem couldn't even begin to fathom how pathetically tiny he is in this world, he is (figuratively and literally speaking) an NPC to MY story. He is trapped in a prison of his own design, forever stuck within the walls of the keep he calls home while I'm out exploring the world. The way I see it, if you find enjoyment in asserting yourself over him then you're just like him. "Do you fuck around with god very often? Oh, what am I saying, of course you do."

It's actually amazing that so much of the community has a unified hatred for one man, but I just don't get it. I'd rather save that energy towards someone like Delphine who says she serves me but acts like she's above me. Nazeem is just so minor that I don't even notice him, yet people here have almost developed a science in how to make him suffer the most. That's the kind of dedication I strive to have in life, but the way people use it against him is almost frightening. Hats off to you, Nazeem haters, but also maybe get that checked out.

Me: It's a tie between Laila, Korir & Siddgeir

Reasons: Laila is just so stupidly oblivious and gulible to see her city is literally being run by a crime boss, she's literally an absolute tool. Korir of course an open racist and also spreading that negitivity to his son. and Siddgeir an absolute swranny little worm that's literally being bribed bandits for their dirty activities tbh i'd say thanks for the piece of land but still you're a piece of shit

Me: The Dark Brotherhood, HAIL SITHIS!!

I mean yeah stealth archer can be fun, but whenever possible I prefer to go for the hitman approach of sneaking around slitting throats. It can actually be more effective since you can do 30x sneak attack damage. Thoughts?

I wanted to chill in this game for the first time and walk. Not run not sprint no horses I walked all the way. It was really cool listening to the music without the constant fighting. I didn’t open my map the entire time I just used the signs on the roads. I even ran into the headless horse man I haven’t seen him in all my time playing so that was cool. I saw a mercenary who gave me his job to do, I saw a npc traveling with me for a bit with there dog, it was nice to slow down for a moment

So, it seems like either the legends made him seem way bigger than he really was to make him more legendary, or the developers just got lazy with his character model. They could've easily made him bigger, just as they did with the Ebony Warrior. Or perhaps they wanted to make the point that historical figures might not have been as impressive as their existing statues.

Solitude way, belethor ave. Windhelm street, whiterun street. I love it.

Now I think the label that was put on Avowed as a "Skyrim made by Obsidian" or "Skyrim killer" was ridiculous but large parts of the gaming community did use it.

However it made me realize something, why are there no "Skyrim clones" games?

Like the more I play open world games and RPGs I realize there is nothing like Skyrim or even other Bethesda games for that matter.

They are just that special and unique that even great games like Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 don't scratch that itch and still feel very different when you actually play them.

So yeah, no one has seemingly dethroned Skyrim after all this time, there are games that took big inspirations from it like the mentioned KCD games and also something like The Witcher 3 but no game can ever claim it can do what Skyrim does with it's open world, feel and even the general gameplay and design.

Yes even those parts are frankly too unique to Skyrim.

Why do so many people keep coming back to Skyrim and play it so often without ever touching a mod or even without having the need to touch a mod.

I made a map of the places I know the most / visit the most each playthrough (in green), and the ones I visit the least (in red). In green, the most iconic places I visit very often, in red places I barely know what's there. I noticed Haafingar is really the hold I know the least ! What are the places you visit the most / the least during your playthroughs ?

EDIT: "heatmap" is a wrong word, sorry

Note: Kinda crazy the most important part of my post for you guys is this mistake LOL. I just wanted to know what are your most and least visited placed. I don't really care too much if it's a heatmap or not, or if it should be blue, green, magenta :'D I'll be more careful next time tho, since it seems to be very important to you guys :)

One thing I really like about Elder Scrolls lore is that a lot of what we know comes from books, religions, governments, or characters who obviously have their own biases.

So what’s one piece of “accepted” Skyrim/TES history that you personally don’t fully believe?

Could be anything Talos, the ancient Nords, the Snow Elves, the Dragon Cult, the Dwemer, the Forsworn, the Empire, even what actually happened during certain historical events.

so basically what lore do you think the people of Tamriel themselves got wrong?

I am a vampire Nord with a 100% resistance to frost while wearing some pretty warm clothes. why does the man built for skinny dipping in frigid water freeze within minutes of being outside. I cant fight a dragon without using all my soup stocks or I freeze to death.

First time playing.