No idea what to write about, so what the hell, I will talk about my Skyrim life.

The first thing you have to know is that in RPG style games like Skyrim, which have a lot of options as to how your character develops, there are what are known as “builds”. Basically, they are ways of playing the game that result in a certain kind of character by using and improving the right set of skills and by choosing the right weapons and armor and other accoutrements in order to turn your character into a very effective version of whatever build you are following.

Confusing? Well here’s an example. One of my builds I called The Ninja. I really wanted to play as a ninja, so I  found a mod that added ninja weapons and spells to the game.

I installed it, and had fun for a while as a ninja, with skills in stealth so I could glide silently up to enemies and take them out with a katana to the back. I had ninja powers that let me do things like disappear and leave three identical copies of me behind, which attacked the enemy while I snuck around to stab the enemy in the back.

Actually, a loit of it was about stabbing people and creatures in the back. It’s even more fun than it sounds. And it forced me to adjust my play style. Normally, whatever sort of character I am playing. I almost always just charge into battle and kick some ass.

But being a ninja meant it was worth it to be less direct. And I discovered that. despite my usual impatience with indirect things, it was also fun and interesting to sneak up to enemies sometimes and spring on them and kills them so fast that they are dead before they even know they are hurt.

But after all that misdirection,. I needed something extremelty direct. So my character right now is Malkoth the Maker, a huge orc that uses huge weapons to layeth down the smack on the bad guys.

This is by far the easiest sort of character for me to play. No pondering what spells to use. No need to plan a battle strategy. Not a lot of need to use the Block (as in, with a shield) button as things tend to die realy fast when you hit them.

Just pure fucking brute force applied with all the skill and precisions of a sledgehammer to the forehead.

It is very satisfying to my Taurean nature. Big man hit bad thing very hard. Repeat.

Oh, and he’s called The Maker because it is with this character that I have explored the “crafting” options of the game. Like the name suggests, crafting lets you make stuff in a game. It’s quite popular in video games because it gives people that sense of satisfaction that comes with making things.

And all without having to have any skill in it yourself! Suits me.

So I have made weapons and armor for my big Orc, then refined them, then put enchantments on them to make them even more awesome.

And it must have had an effect, because I have taken this mnagnificent thug of mine further through the game and to a higher character level than ever before. And that’s a good thing, because it means I am not feeling twitchy and restless any more.

Recently, I have had a pattern of starting a new character based on the “build” in my mind, getting them to around level 20 then getting bored and going on to the next idea for a build. There’s nothing wrong with that – after all, the whole point of playing video games is to have fun, not to fulfil a specious obligation to an imaginary character.

But it gave me a feeling like I was missing a lot of the game due to my impatience. And it turns out that I was right. Hanging in there has brought my character to new heights of power that I had never seen before.

He is truly one magnificent brute now. He can kill dragons in 30 seconds. A lot of regular enemies are one shot wonders to him now.

He rarely has to hit anything twice.

And I am having fun with all that power. My guy is Level 34, and I am not quite done with him yet because I am not going to stop playing him because his weapon skill is almost at 100, and apparently something magical happens then. I don’t know what…. something about resetting the skill to 15 and giving me extra powers or something… but I am daying to find out.

After that, I will probably move on to my next character build idea : the Necromancer. I have wanted to explore the other sorts of magic in the game besides the combat stuff (shooting fireballs and such), and I in particular wanted to explore Conjuration magic, which lets you do things like make zombies out of corpses and summon powerful critters to do your bidding.

I have also wanted to play a character thjat works through others instead of throwing himself into battle, and being the guy who summons stuff works great for that. I can just summon some minions and hold back while they fight the baddies, tossing a well chosen and timed spell into the fracas when appropriate.

It will take even more restraint of my tendency to throw myself into battle than the Ninja build did, but that will be part of the challenge and thuis part of the fun.

After that, my next character build idea is The Paragon, who will be a shiny golden example of all heroic virtues and with whom I plan to do every quest from every town.

That’s crazy ambitious, but what the hell, that just makes it more fun.

So that’s the updatge on the part of my life that is spent in a video game. You’d think I would be tired of it by now, but there’s just so many ways to play it and so much content available that it keeps me happily engaged for hours on end.

And it’s way easier than actually having a life.

I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.