I Think Skyrim May Have Saved My Love Of Video Games 🖤

Video Games are a passion for me that stems from when I was about 7 years old and I discovered that the Amstrad CPC at my mate Briggsy's house could play a video game called Football Manager 2. 

From that day forth I fell for every computer and every console that came out. If I think back even further I do actually remember playing my sister's Pong Machine at home in the early 80s but that is a distant hazy memory that didn't drive my love of video games but probably helped me along that road a bit.

Fast forward around 35 years and I'm still a video games lover but the difference now is that not only do I own various systems to play the latest video games but I also run my own video games website that requires me to be switched onto video games every day of the year.

Some might say that type of always-on mentality can wear you down a bit and I would say to them that,

"Yes, you are correct, it can wear you down". 

The problem with loving video games and running a video games website is that you struggle to split enjoying video games from creating content a lot of the time and often the lines get blurred. Rather than just sitting down to enjoy a video game in the moment you instead find yourself wondering whether you should start a video series feature on the game and limit yourself to playing it only while you're recording or maybe you should write a review or an opinion piece on the game.

This is when video games can become more like work than pleasure. I can imagine that this type of quandary is common for most journalists in the industry who commit hundreds of hours to video games and then have to produce articles, videos and podcasts associated with their experiences with a 'hot take' to back up their thoughts on the game or the various other video games that they are currently playing.

At this point, you can feel burned out from video games and maybe you could find yourself falling out of love with them. Not so long ago I was close to this point as the constant cycle of social media, website management, latest video game releases to play, podcasts to listen to and future releases to keep track of felt like it was bogging me down. 

But then I found the perfect antidote to this...I took weekends off of gaming and instead planned my video games content creation and consumption across a 5-day week leaving myself to detach from the wonderful world of always online video games at the weekends to go and play football, and golf and spend time with my family without the distraction of content creation (full disclaimer, we often play Minecraft at weekends but that doesn't count ;) )

This new way of dividing my week has meant that I can plan my weeks better and enjoy more quality gaming time that consists of content creation and just enjoying video games for being fun to play. It really has made a massive difference to my well-being. 

The other factor that has truly helped is my Steam Deck. My go-to relaxation video game is now Skyrim on the Steam Deck in the evenings after work. Once all my jobs are done then I'm free to roam around in Skyrim and pick off a few satisfying side quests to level up my dual-wielding warrior Abbindas. 

I hadn't played Skyrim until 2023 despite loving all of Bethesda's 'Fallouts' and it had always felt like I was missing something from my video game resume and now after playing it this year on Game Pass using my Steam deck I feel complete and reinvigorated and ready for the onslaught of wonderful video games to come in 2023. 

VIVA TAMRIEL!*

(* I think I'm going to be playing this game for the rest of 2023 as it's ridiculously large with so many things to do)