I know I’m coming quite late to the party with this one, but I want to tell you about my experience with Skyrim. I enjoyed the whole Elder Scrolls series and played Skyrim when it was first released by Bethesda Game Studios in 2011.

And even though the open world and RP action of The Elder Scrolls V is quite extensive, my experience with Skyrim can be summed up in six words: ‘You are encumbered and cannot run.’

And the first time I encountered this infuriating observation, was not deep into the game, no, it was within the first couple of minutes of the opening sequence. While I was being told to run, and fight, and pick up armour. Which I did. I picked up all the armour and all the weapons. But I also managed to score 16 baskets, 8 buckets, 8 cast iron pots, 2 brooms, 2 kettles, an assortment of books, some potatoes, eggs, and also some rabbit and pheasant meat. I didn’t know what any of this stuff was worth yet but I didn’t want to leave it to chance. So I trudged on through the opening sequence, walking - rather than charging - into battle as I went. I kept picking up everything I could because let’s face it, I was already encumbered so I figured I may as well make the most of it and sell it all at the first vendor I came to.

This is mint, I thought to myself. I’m going to be rich! I’m going to march myself straight to the first town – very slowly – sell all of my baskets and cast iron pots and I’ll be rolling in dough. But by the time I finally made it to the first town and found a vendor, I learned that each one would only buy some things from you – and they have limited cash to spend. So there I was with enough gear to start a trade caravan and a vendor who was offering me precisely zero coins for my stack of 27 carrots. So I sold what I could and walked to Whiterun, collecting bees, butterflies, flowers, and wolf pelts along the way. Whiterun was the first big town where I planned to buy my house, and my horse. When I got there, I discovered that I would need 7000 coins all up to get both of those things. That was also when I learned I’d have to complete another dungeon quest to even be eligible for my house.

The 7000 gold total actually seemed quite plausible given at that stage the weight of my collection was over 800 and the weight allocation is 300 so I figured I’d be cleaning up just as soon as I could find a vendor who needed a truckload of buckets. So before I set out on my next quest, I found a group of vendors to hock my stuff to, only to find the first vendor only had 160 coins to spend. Come on! I sold him a few stacks of bread rolls and wine and that was about all he could afford. Then I went to the next vendor who had 300 or so to spend. After offloading all I could to two more vendors I had made over 1500 gold and my weight was down to 275. I was finally unencumbered! I ran a few rings of that market square just to feel the wind in my hair.

I sobered up when I realised I didn’t have anywhere to offload my unsellable hoard before going on my first big quest and I was practically encumbered before I even left the Whiterun gates. And in fact I hadn’t even left the castle grounds when I stumbled upon a farm with some cabbages and potatoes that were ready to harvest (what? Clearly you can see I’ve got a problem here. You think I was going to learn from my first hour of walking around encumbered? That crop would be worth around 15 bucks!) and so I continued on my way with a weight of 290. Now I know what you’re thinking. Why didn’t I go back and sell my cabbages and potatoes and then go again? Well, really, let’s face it, that wouldn’t do me much good in the long run would it, so I ran – while I still could – to the next location.

During my dungeon run I collected everything that wasn’t bolted down. Even the same sort of stuff I knew I hadn’t been able to sell in Whiterun the first time. It almost became a game in itself, and I wondered if there was a trophy for carrying epic amounts of phat lootz. My weight got to a whopping 1100 and after I sold all of that I actually had enough gold to buy my house AND all of the associated upgrades. I still had plenty of junk that no vendors apparently wanted and considered trying to open my own homewares store. When that didn’t seem possible I just dumped all the crap in the middle of the floor of my house and went about my business.

On a side note, do you want to know how many hours I clocked doing this? 75 hours. And after 75 hours of this completely insane behaviour I had literally forgotten that there are DRAGONS in this game.

I know I’m coming quite late to the party with this one, but I want to tell you about my experience with Skyrim. I enjoyed the whole Elder Scrolls series and played Skyrim when it was first released by Bethesda Game Studios in 2011.

And even though the open world and RP action of The Elder Scrolls V is quite extensive, my experience with Skyrim can be summed up in six words: ‘You are encumbered and cannot run.’

And the first time I encountered this infuriating observation, was not deep into the game, no, it was within the first couple of minutes of the opening sequence. While I was being told to run, and fight, and pick up armour. Which I did. I picked up all the armour and all the weapons. But I also managed to score 16 baskets, 8 buckets, 8 cast iron pots, 2 brooms, 2 kettles, an assortment of books, some potatoes, eggs, and also some rabbit and pheasant meat. I didn’t know what any of this stuff was worth yet but I didn’t want to leave it to chance. So I trudged on through the opening sequence, walking - rather than charging - into battle as I went. I kept picking up everything I could because let’s face it, I was already encumbered so I figured I may as well make the most of it and sell it all at the first vendor I came to.

This is mint, I thought to myself. I’m going to be rich! I’m going to march myself straight to the first town – very slowly – sell all of my baskets and cast iron pots and I’ll be rolling in dough. But by the time I finally made it to the first town and found a vendor, I learned that each one would only buy some things from you – and they have limited cash to spend. So there I was with enough gear to start a trade caravan and a vendor who was offering me precisely zero coins for my stack of 27 carrots. So I sold what I could and walked to Whiterun, collecting bees, butterflies, flowers, and wolf pelts along the way. Whiterun was the first big town where I planned to buy my house, and my horse. When I got there, I discovered that I would need 7000 coins all up to get both of those things. That was also when I learned I’d have to complete another dungeon quest to even be eligible for my house.

The 7000 gold total actually seemed quite plausible given at that stage the weight of my collection was over 800 and the weight allocation is 300 so I figured I’d be cleaning up just as soon as I could find a vendor who needed a truckload of buckets. So before I set out on my next quest, I found a group of vendors to hock my stuff to, only to find the first vendor only had 160 coins to spend. Come on! I sold him a few stacks of bread rolls and wine and that was about all he could afford. Then I went to the next vendor who had 300 or so to spend. After offloading all I could to two more vendors I had made over 1500 gold and my weight was down to 275. I was finally unencumbered! I ran a few rings of that market square just to feel the wind in my hair.

I sobered up when I realised I didn’t have anywhere to offload my unsellable hoard before going on my first big quest and I was practically encumbered before I even left the Whiterun gates. And in fact I hadn’t even left the castle grounds when I stumbled upon a farm with some cabbages and potatoes that were ready to harvest (what? Clearly you can see I’ve got a problem here. You think I was going to learn from my first hour of walking around encumbered? That crop would be worth around 15 bucks!) and so I continued on my way with a weight of 290. Now I know what you’re thinking. Why didn’t I go back and sell my cabbages and potatoes and then go again? Well, really, let’s face it, that wouldn’t do me much good in the long run would it, so I ran – while I still could – to the next location.

During my dungeon run I collected everything that wasn’t bolted down. Even the same sort of stuff I knew I hadn’t been able to sell in Whiterun the first time. It almost became a game in itself, and I wondered if there was a trophy for carrying epic amounts of phat lootz. My weight got to a whopping 1100 and after I sold all of that I actually had enough gold to buy my house AND all of the associated upgrades. I still had plenty of junk that no vendors apparently wanted and considered trying to open my own homewares store. When that didn’t seem possible I just dumped all the crap in the middle of the floor of my house and went about my business.
On a side note, do you want to know how many hours I clocked doing this? 75 hours. And after 75 hours of this completely insane behaviour I had literally forgotten that there are DRAGONS in this game.

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Created Jul 30, 2018 at 9:33pm • Submit your own review...