Why is ‘The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim’ still so popular?

In NME‘s first Field of View, we talk about the phenomenon that is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and why the role-playing game is still being played every day — watch the full video above.

Ten years have passed since The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was released and we’re still talking about it. We’re still talking about it because there’s still a lot of interest in it and a hell of a lot of people are still playing it… but why?

The game was first released in 2011 and its re-release to multiple platforms over the years, including in eight distinct formats, has become a running joke in the community. The thing is, this just means Skyrim is perpetually available. This means that every new generation not just of consoles, but of players has access.

The modding community is a major factor as to why the game is still relevant, with modders creating entirely new content, including quests, with nearly 100 thousand mods available for it across different platforms.

There is an end to Skyrim’s main story, and there are endings to all of its side-stories and mini-quests throughout. But that doesn’t mean the adventure is ever over. Not counting the DLC, Skyrim literally keeps on generating unlimited new missions to do — overheard conversations, notes handed to you, books discovered, all starting you off on yet another path.

Skyrim is popular because it bridges that gap between the unknowable nonsense of a ‘true’ RPG and the absolutely knowable nonsense of a ‘normal video game for normal human beings’.

The real reason anyone’s still playing Skyrim all these years later, though, is pretty simple: they’re still trying to save time by repeatedly jumping over that mountain in their way, rather than doing the normal thing of just walking the path around it.

The whole video can be watched in full above.