My Skyrim OCD

I need help. The only game I want to write about is Skyrim. I started a piece about Assassin’s Creed Revelations but lost interest after the first paragraph. This is as far as I got: ‘Spent a few hours playing ACR. The sense of déjà vu is overwhelming. I stopped paying attention to the increasingly convoluted storyline after ACII. Truth is, I couldn’t give a toss about Desmond’s latest animus abnormality. I play the series for the beautifully realised grace and brutality of the protagonist. The double neck-stab assassination is still as satisfying as ever. Slinking about on rooftops and sinking slivers of cold steel into unsuspecting citizens is what keeps me playing.’ And that’s all I have to say about ACR.

I considered writing something about Skyward Sword too. I was going to say how much I love it. How wonderful the motion controls are. How effing brilliant the Beetle is. I was even going to say that Skyward Sword is the game that finally usurps Ocarina of Time as the best Zelda game in the franchise. Honestly, I was going to write about all these things, but Skyrim kept bullying them into the shadows. It’s hard to ignore a daedra-clad Dovahkiin.

So instead I gushed silly about why Skyrim is my game of the year. I talked in bewildered tones about the game’s world-conquering meme. I bitched about the achievement-breaking bugs and mused upon the absurd amount of time I devoted to its world. The crazy thing is, Skyrim launched in a year that is widely regarded as the best the industry has seen. And yet it’s Skyrim that hogs my every thought. I’ve been struck by a perverse form of writer’s block. All I want to do is talk about Skyrim, to the exclusion of everything else. I get a little too excited when Rock Paper Shotgun writes yet another blog entry about Bethseda’s Best Game, because I know they adore it as much as I do.

If I’m honest I’m not sure what to do about it. Has Skyrim broken me? Quite possibly. All I can do is ride this out until I – hopefully – return to normal. Until then expect a few more Skyrim blog posts or a prolonged absence from writing until I find another game that induces the creative juices to flow.