《Skyrim》是款开放空间的大型角色扮演游戏，受到众多玩家的喜爱。

Skyrim from gamerant.com

《Skyrim》不只是逃避现实的游戏体验，它还颇具启发性。Barbarian Nord Theodore给予我们绝佳的想象空间，从中我们能够获得某些生活经验及写作技巧。

下面是几点相关内容：

1. 开放空间充满各种选择，能够同时迎合各种口味。Theodore是第16个关卡，我只体验核心故事关卡的头几部分。为什么？因为我刚装饰好我的房子，化身狼人游荡于村庄中，消灭那些反对杀戮的人员。核心故事可以暂缓。这里的相关经验是，Theodore变成有力量的真实生命，其碰巧能够挥舞Skyforged Steel宝剑及吐火。

例如，我计划通过系列多元关卡任务和锻造技术将自己推向第20个关卡。这是我目前想要进行的内容，但也许在第2个关卡，当Theodore就制作出自己的第N把铁质匕首时，我会选择返回主要关卡。

《Skyrim》呈现开放感觉（游戏邦注：不存在任何繁琐内容）。游戏不会出现任何烦人的紧急箭头要求我朝某故事迈进——从加载游戏那刻起故事就为我所有，直到我流失5小时，再次在同个山脉中迷失。

2.你总是拥有工具和选择。我和Lydia共处，她是我的管家，有11把战锤，她和电影首映中的干咳一样引人注目。当她诱使巨人向我靠近时，我需保证自己能够顺利存活。

这并不总是行得通。她非常醒目，我刚拐弯，就有很多巫师朝我靠拢，当山脉路线变成垂直模式时，她果断向后倒退，然后迷失10分钟，但我所持有的就是手边道具。当生命/《Skyrim》向你呈现山脉，让你沿途攀登到达强盗营地，然后前往山林路线，最终抽出宝剑，进行真正的任务。工具不会离开你，虽然你让次要同伴携带龙骨和额外宝剑。

3. 在游戏世界中，玩家希望感到自己的重要性。我现在是狼人，在我的首次厮杀过程，我会撕裂若干守卫和行人，他们并不知道庞大死亡机器总是享有通行权。次日，这就变得整个城镇的谈资。守卫和寡妇纷纷谈论昨夜摧毁他们生活的恐怖事件。

这是非常吸引我的“时刻”。我进行某些操作，这些操作和游戏主要情节或飞龙毫无关系，然后游戏世界给予相应回应。游戏玩家有一定需求，《Skyrim》让他们能够使用爪子、进行咆哮、呼喊及融化矿石。

游戏设计师——角色是否重要？他们是否会影响所有内容？不妨试着自己寻找答案。

4. 创作——即便你是个多面手，也会有一些自己常用的招术。Theodore没有用到很多魔法。他有充足的策略能够将一些铁变成金子，但总体来说，他用到剑盾的时刻比较多。角色具有选择机会，但通常我选择将利器刺向对手。

在我的游戏世界中，角色能够进行的操作很多。他们能够进行侦查。他们能够进行交流。他们能够采取行动。他们能够探索大大小小的谜题。但游戏通常存在某些操作“舒适地带”，角色代表相应的宝石。古怪侦探Kestrel是解决问题的钻石，而Charlie Commons则是超自然污秽空间中的绿宝石。

这基于我的体验风格。我能够轻松决定从宝剑转移到魔法，虽然这起初有些棘手，但我觉得自己能够适应。但通过后来的刀战，我的动作更深入。我朝游戏空间迈进，沉浸于具体内容之中。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

What Skyrim Has Taught Me About Writing, Game Design and Life

Everyone award yourself +50 Nerd points for reading this article.

So Skyrim happened. And is happening. And will happen until the mountains crumble into the sea.

If you haven’t heard, Skyrim is a huge open-world role-playing experience that many of you are having, and many more of you should be having.

More than just escapist game-playing, Skyrim has been instructive. Theodore the Barbarian Nord has been a wonderful opportunity to develop some imagination, some life lessons and some writing skills.

Here are a couple:

1. An Open-World is full of options that appeal to multiple interests simultaneously. Theodore is level 16, and I’ve only gone through the first parts of the main story quest. (Learned two shouts, haven’t gone see the Graybeards yet) Why? Because I just kitted out my house, and have been roaming the countryside as a lycanthrope, killing those who would oppose my hirsute bloodlust. The main story can wait. The experience here is all about Theodore developing into a potent, realized being. Who happens to swing a Skyforged Steel sword and breathe fire.

This afternoon for example, I plan on pushing myself towards level 20, by way of a few Miscellaneous quests and Smithing. Those are things that I like to do currently, but maybe in two levels, when Theodore crafts his umpteenth-billion iron dagger (I have forty pounds of leather strips….), I might decide to move back towards the main quest.

Skyrim offers that sense of openness without any of the nagging. I don’t have some blinking urgent giant arrow railroading me towards one specific story — the story is mine from the moment the game loads until I’ve lost five hours and gotten lost in the same mountain range…again.

2. Life Lesson: You’re never without tools and options. I’m running around with Lydia, my butler-ess with an elven warhammer, and she’s about as helpful as a hacking cough during a movie premiere. (I believe her thought process is “Is there a large and potentially lethal hazard ahead? I’ll bring it to Theodore!”) And when she lures those two giants and that troll to me, I need to be able to not die.

It doesn’t always work out. She was a peach for luring a pack of necromancers towards me just after I turned that corner, and when the mountain path went vertical, it was great of her to backtrack and get lost for ten minutes, but all I had was at hand – and that’s what I needed. When life/Skyrim gives you a mountain to scale en route to a bandit camp, head for the treeline, draw your sword and get to business. Your tools never leave you, even if you make your less-than-stellar companion carry all the dragon bones and the spare sword.

3. In the game world, the player wants to feel like they matter. I’m a werewolf now, and during my first canine moments, I may have torn through a few guards and pedestrians who didn’t realize that the howling death machine always has the right of way. The next day, it was the talk of the town. Guards and the widows spoke about the horror that came from the night to ruin their lives.

And that was the “hook” moment for me. I did something, something not affiliated with the main plot of the game or even dragons, and the world responded. The player of a game has needs (a need to feel like they matter, a need to make an impact, a need for encouragement and consequences), and Skyrim satisfies all of them with all the claw swipes, howls, Shouts and smelting of ores.

Game designers – do the characters matter? Does what they do affect anything? Ask yourself, and push yourself to find the answer.

4. Writing – Even if you’re a Swiss Army knife, there are a few tools you use often. Theodore doesn’t do a lot of magic. He’s got enough juice in him to transmute some iron to gold and occasionally light some dark rooms up, but on the whole, it’s sword and shield time. The character has the options, and the building blocks to be quite deep and broad, but time and again, my play style involves putting the pointy metal end into the soft bits of my opposition.

In my books, the characters can do a lot. They detect. They communicate. They act. They delve into mysteries great and small. But time and again there is a ‘comfort zone’ of actions they engage in, and those are the brighter facets of their character-gem. Kestrel the eccentric detective is a shiny diamond of problem solving while Charlie Commons is a rich emerald of supernatural sleaze.

The experience is shaped for and by my play style. I could easily decide to switch from swords to magic, and while it would be awkward at first, I think I could adjust. But with every subsequent sword-slash, I’m one motion deeper. I fall forward into a world and drown in the details.（Source：writernextdoor）