I began by listening to Irileth and the Guard speak to the Jarl about the dragon seen attacking the West Watchtower. The Jarl then tells me that he needs my help again, asking me to help Irileth fight the dragon, and I agree. When we meet with other guards at the main gate of Whiterun, Irileth provides them with words of encouragement, speaking of their responsibility as Nords to fight, their honor and the glory ahead. I then followed Irileth and the other guards to the West Watchtower, and the dragon appears. Even having played through this game a few times, the first dragon fight is always difficult. This time, I fought him using primarily my bow and two scrolls of fireball. I moved out of the tower, fired one or two arrows at the dragon, then moved back in before it could fire frost at me. This took some time, and once its health was very low (and I had run out of arrows) I moved in to kill it with an Ancient Nord Sword. My character absorbed the dragon soul, I learned the "Fus" shout, and I returned to Whiterun to speak to the Jarl of what had occurred. He told me of the Greybeards, a mysterious group who would know more about my newly found powers.
Playing through this game as a text, I have noticed that I do certain things very differently. I spend much more time waiting to hear conversions from start to finish, and when conversing with other characters, I spend more time considering the results my speech options will yield. Instead of rushing through quests, I take my time in listening to what each character involved has to say. I have become much more efficient at note taking; I have to try to take down the important aspects of what a character is saying very quickly because unlike with traditional written text, I cannot simply re-read something, and characters generally do not repeat things. Other than the genre of conversations, I have had to deal with visual clues. I have had to use menu/inventory screens to learn about new items and try to decide what is best for each new situation I am put in. I have had to decide by only the appearances and names of enemies whether or not I will be able to fight them successfully or should flee. Playing as character whose main focus lies in stealth, I have had to find ways of dealing with enemies that are too powerful for me to fight directly.
So are the Greybeards associated with the stormcloaks or the imperials? If they make for a group of their own, then three different sides would be more complicated. I think its great how you view the game now, and do you think that you will be more aware in other games now that you have had this opportunity? Im sure it would be hard to forget these newly learned skills and not to apply them to other aspects of the future.
ReplyDeleteListening and writing down notes to conversations is a very hard thing to do, so I applaud your diligence because it seems like you are really understanding how to use Skyrim as a text. I noticed that a lot of the characters speak a little too fast and their accents do not help with comprehension. Maybe in the future the game designers will add a subtitle option, so it will be easier for the players to fully understand what they are saying.
ReplyDeleteI have also found it difficult to catch all the little things going on in the game. I think I am reacting similarly to viewing the game as a text, because usually I try to skip through the conversations as quickly as possible. I feel like viewing the game as a text and paying attention to every little thing is extremely beneficial to understand all of the complex things happening in the game.
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