What is your opinion on video games?

I got a new pool game on Xbox.
Seems nice. Since Covid i can't play with friends anymore so now it's virtual pool.
Maybe some day again we will play pool again in real life.

I've never been interested in them. There was a particular experience where I went to a family's home to provide tech support and discovered that the man of the house spent most of his time in front of a screen playing video games. I felt bad for his wife and children. It seemed like he was missing out on the fullness available in his life, and his wife and children were being denied a healthy relationship with the dad/husband.

I haven't been into video games since highschool, but I just ran across this one on the Infowars news feed. Someone might find it funny. There's a guy who looks like that guy who made a zillion $ as a gamer on YouTube. What's his name? PewDiePie....had to look that up so I wouldn't be embarrassed by how out of touch with video games I am. Lol. The reviewer's handle is NerdWars.
The new game is called New World Order Wars.


NWO Wars

"NERDWARS is a longtime Infowarrior who's now fighting in the nerd culture war. Bringing together the Nerds and Patriots...."

I was going through some power and hand tools thinking about how I would like to pass on skills to the next generation. We would home school and have the best shop class in the county. Early projects would require the use of hand tools, miter box and hand saw, etc. Only Mom and Dad would have phones and computers would be for work. The kid's toys would be non-electronic. Just a thought while getting a job done a little earlier.

No disrespect to you gamers. It's just the way I've decided to live since HS.
Video games are as addictive as gambling to a lot of people. I broke it my senior year. My brother is still a big gamer as far as I know.

😄

My gaming skills are embarrassing so I like the games that I can play by myself. Friends tried to get me to play Fortnite with them online but I was horrible at it. It was basically just a game where everybody is trying to kill everybody else. NO FUN! I always got killed right away which was not only no fun but showcased just how horrible I am. I have no desire to kill my friends or anyone else. If I shoot anything in a video game, I prefer it to be a computer generated enemy who will not have an emotional response to it, like the Space Invader thing above. I did find one game I do like called Skyrim... no one but me against the game. It's beautiful to look at and so many different strategys to try out. I can go anywhere in the game and do things in any order I decide on. They tell me it is an old game but it is fun and that is what counts.

I am an artist but I lost all my art supplies. Art is definitely better but at least I found a game I really like.

I'm not great at games, either, though I do still play some. I did Fortnite for a while, and was always quite bad at it.
I agree Skyrim is a lot of fun. I usually binge play it for a while till I burn out on it. Or get frustrated with frequent crashes. But I do like to use quite a few mods, so that's why so many crashes.
Also I tend to make a Lot of characters, so I'm always playing the same content over and over, which burns me out. I can get bored easily playing the same character too much.
Anyways, I could ramble on it more, but I'll spare anyone reading the droning haha.

Always lovely to see you, HoneyBee ... I hope you are well! Love Magenta

Sorry, I messed this up too.

I am glad to find that someone else enjoys it like I do. You do not really need to play the same material over and over if you do not want to. Aim anywhere and just go. I do not just do what they expect me to do. Helgen is the ONLY thing I really need to do every time. Once released from that I go where I please. many times I do not go to Whiterun or even Riverwood. Sometimes I can ignore the whole Dragonborn thing. I can adventure without it. I rarely use the shout thing even if I do have it. So many races too that I have never played them all. I play it on xbox so I have no mods unless you count the Anniversary Edition's additions that used to be mods before they added them to the game.

Yeah I've done that numerous times as well, just taking off anywhere.
More often than not I skip the Dragonborn quest line. I, also, don't use the shouts too often. I usually prefer casters, and use mods that add all sorts of spells, so not much need for shouts.
I also like playing sneak characters, especially with a bow and arrow. They're great for coasting through most dungeons, but can be a challenge during boss fights, or if you get too many mobs at once.
Morvarth's Cavern is a prime example. It's pretty difficult to finish that as a stealth character as it seems so hard to stay hidden.
I don't play most races, either. I mostly just pick human races. And not usually even Nords. I've tried the other races and just can't get into them from an immersive standpoint. Which is ironic since in most games I'd not pick humans first.

I will admit, since I restart so often with new characters, and mostly the same races, I keep a save at the end of Helgen, or more than one with a couple different races, one for casters and one for anything else. That way I avoid having to replay Helgen over and over.

I've not played Anniversary Edition. I still have Legendary. Best mod selection.

How about followers? Tend to use them? If so who do you usually favor?
I have a mod that let's me take up to 20 followers. I can keep any with me I choose or drop them off at home to stay. Also prevents friendly fire.
I also had a necromancer mod that allowed a number of skeletal minions to follow me. As well as being turned into a lich, myself. So extra powerful.
Plus I could raise dead. So I took. 10 followers plus minions and summoned dead into a dungeon once and you can imagine how smoothly that went 😂😂
But when I came out I started having constant crashes. Even sending the followers home didn't help. So that playthrough ended there. Bummer.

I do not use any followers. If I do it is for a specific purpose and then send them home right after. I do use them as stewards for the houses I build. I enjoy playing as a stealth archer too and they ALWAYS give me away. They seem to set off all possible traps as well. I can not seem to be stealthy with a follower. Archery is also the only way I can kill dragons because they seem to prefer hovering and blasting me from above. At least with a bow I can do damage to them. I only had 1 experience playing as a mage and it was hard to survive long enough to become effective. After level 100 I was able to kill dragons with spells but I paid my dues getting there. The best part of the Anniversary Edition is the horses. I love having an essential non-killable horse or unicorn or even reindeer. There are a lot of new quests and armor too and with camping I can make a campsite and thereby set my own fast travel point. In hard to reach areas, it really helps.

Yeah. Other than specific occasions I don't actually care for them either. Or if I'm trying a difficult build.
I've tried Holy builds and even with spell mods adding more damage based spells, and a follower, it was painful. The damage is mostly damage over time spells, which means lots of kiting and trying to keep track of DoT spells active on them. And more than 2-3 mobs is impossible.

Agreed. Melee and dragon fighting is a nightmare. Sometimes as a caster as well as different dragons have different resistances. So if you focus on fire and get a dragon with fire resist, you're in trouble. But no one's immune to arrows.

Ah. I use a horse mod. Gives you the option to make them unkillable among other things. Though I have no unicorn or reindeer. A unicorn sounds cool.

Because I bounce around so many characters I've never made it to 100. Most I think I've gotten is 65. Then I burn out. When I come back to the game months or even a year later I'm so lost with my characters I start all over.

I had a campsite mod, but I think it was more of an immersion thing, but with a working bed. But no fast travel points. That sounds handy.

I really enjoy most of the Anniversary Edition add-ons - probably 80% I use all the time. I am hooked lol. My favorite house came with it. My favorite arrows too and so many crossbows. Arrows follow a parabolic flight pattern. Bolts are higher velocity and it covers a lot of ground before they lose that straight flight. They are noisy when fired which I thought was going to be a problem for stealth characters but turned out not to be all that bad. Crossbows also are always loaded when carried so that first shot has no draw time. My favorite arrows are called cork bulb arrows. They are quieter than normal arrows and carry a paralyze effect which rarely works. They have an area of effect whee they hit. Fire one into a room full of traps and watch them self-destruct and that more than makes up for the eas;y resisted paralyze effect. The are really useful for gem traps - just hit the upper portion of the pedestal. What can I say? I am spoiled by the benefits of Anniversary Edition.

You give up too early. Legendary dragons do not even spawn until level 78. Most of my leveling is done while leveling my skills. I think they factor that in which make early game leveling really fast.

Don't know that I've ever used crossbows much. Arrows feel more fun and smoother for me.
Can't recall any of those arrows you've mentioned. They do sound handy, though.
Yeah. Paralyze effects don't seem to proc often. Almost to the point of useless.
I do use a mod for bows and arrows. It adds scopes to bows. Actually two scopes.

I do quit from burnout though. I play until I'm sick of the game and don't want to touch it haha. Really I need to focus on one character so I can get further before burning out. A caster, of course. 😉

Ever tried playing as vampires or werewolves? I've tried werewolves a few times. Didn't find it as fun as expected.
I've done vampires numerous times, but I have to play them modded. Vanilla vampire playthroughs are just not fun for me.

Not sure if they patched this in the Anniversary Edition, but there was a cheat to level up more before leaving Helgen. Near the end you have the water, the final passage before exiting. On your left you hop up on that rock formation so whichever guy you followed faces it. Then jump down behind him, careful not to go too far or it'll turn him around. Then you can go stealth and dagger him. The hits and stealth count and you can level them both up at once.
Doing this with 1 or 2 hand weapons also works, just stay behind him so he doesn't dodge them.
Having a mod that grants extra armor and weapon options in Helgen, I can do this and be level 20 in 30 mins. Plus maxed stealth, raised one and two hand, raised bow. I forget, do daggers count as one hand, or are they separate?
Though they say it throws off the balance when you leave Helgen and can actually make it harder at first, until it adjusts.
I get so bored at early levels, having such limited options.
So imagine that. I walk out of Helgen at 20 and still can barely last to 60 😂
Pretty sad, I know. =P

I do not consider myself a young adult, but I love video games! I have been far too busy with other things in life to actually have the time to play anything, but it truly takes time to be able to enjoy other things in moderation. When you subject yourself to the will of God, he will make sure your desires match up with his. Even if you don’t think they would! Anything that can easily beset you is certainly something you need to practice restraining from.

Sorry it took me so long getting back to you but I felt I could answer better if I first tried out what you were telling me. Yes, I can beat on Ralof or Hadvar and affect my game by doing so but I would not use this method. In my opinion, they will never patch your ability to do this because it is just the game acting exactly the way they intended it to. Sneak attacks are built into the game mostly for the thief build. One handed weapon perks do not seem to work for daggers and the only perk that is for the dagger (that I know of) is in the sneak skill tree and it multiplies the damage done on sneak attacks with a dagger by 15 TIMES!!! They just never thought people would use it on their allies. Both of these character do not retaliate because they are there to help new players. They also will not die from your attack because they are essential characters.

This is method only hurts the player who use it. The way to really benefit is to use skill trainers. You get only 5 skill training slots per level and then you must wait for a level up to get 5 more. If you leave Helgen at level 20, yes, your level is higher but at a great price: 20 levels of 5 skill slots means you LOSE 100 skill training slots. Ouch!!! Since levels take progressively longer to attain as you keep playing, I can see why slow progress might make you feel like you are burning out on the game. Skills make your character so much stronger. I do not get tired of the game and burn out because the challenge remains. I think the most fun part of the game is developing your character. You start out weak and you develop a strategy to see what you are capable of without the game kicking your backside. LOL Sometimes I bite off more than I can chew but then I turn tail and boogie as fast as I can. Eventually things turn around and I do not need to run as much but in the beginning it is more important to put my points into stamina instead of health so I can run away when I overextend myself. I know guys do not like running away but I do not have a problem with it.

You say your favorite character is a mage but playing a mage was very hard for me. I felt very weak: no armor protection at all for the entire game - wow! I mastered all 5 of the schools of magic. As I did so, I grew more confident. My favorite is the sneaky thief build even though I do not like stealing things. But, there are a lot of things to take in Skyrim that aren't really stealing. I try to only take things that are not in red text. Also when starting out, there are a lot of people to help and they pay you for helping them.

You also said you added mods for more powerful spells. If those make the game too easy, that might sap some of the fun too but on this matter I speak with no knowledge because I have never modded anything. There might be mods I would like though. I would like more mods that define what my character looks like... especially if one could add realistic red hair because I am a redhead and the game's attempt at red hair does not even come close. Or, I would love it if there was a mod that would get rid of dark and rainy days and maybe one that can eliminate the cloud cover when I am looking at the map. These would not change the way the game plays but they would make it more enjoyable.

Ah. Makes sense.
I'm sure they could set it to not work on those two, if they chose to. Probably don't care enough to bother haha.

"20 levels of 5 skill slots means you LOSE 100 skill training slots"
I'm not grasping what you're saying here. If I do this I gain skill points like normal. So I can put points into the skill tree like normal. So what training slots am I missing out on?


My burnout is more related to bouncing between various characters, causing me to play the same content over and over. I may play a character a day or two, then I get bored of it.

Running isn't my favorite move but one I'm familiar with 😂
I've done my fair share of running away in that game.

One strange thing I've noticed is some characters are, for lack of a better word, unlucky. I have my saved level 20, start a game, and may play it normally. The next time I start on the same level 20 and just get monkey stomped constantly. I'd say roughly every 5th character this happens to. Unplayable. Odd.

Yeah. Being a mage requires some kiting. But there are also different mage builds. Sneak mage, for example. Some of the builds may be less viable in vanilla. I utilize a mod that alters the skill tree. Not to cheat, but to add more variety, make things make more sense. Add more options.
For example if you want to be a fire mage and spec into that, it boosts your fire spells in ways vanilla does not, but also weakens your frost spells, so you're also having to give something up.
So I can sneak mage to a fortress and cast a spell and cause the fortress to fight itself. Or they add more offensive spells to holy to make it a more viable class. Or necromancer. So makes don't have to be just blast blast and run.

Sneak bow is probably my favorite after mage. But, yes, the dagger bonuses for sneaking are insane. That's more assassain than thief, though.
My take on in game theft varies by character. If I become a member of the Dark Brotherhood my character isn't bothered by stealing, for example. But if I want to be some holy paladin type, then thieving is out. I let the characters direction define his morality.

Well the mods add more spells. More variety. Some can be a bit over powered, but I find there's usually not much practical use for those.

Yes. There are mods for everything you can think of. It's actually insane. There are mods for hair, eyes, skin, body shape, trees, weather, grass. Mods that change entire cities. Add new areas. Mods that change the appearance of individual NPCs, mods that alter who you can marry, add more weapons and armor, or change the appearance of vanilla weapons and armor. Mods that add new creatures and beasts, or change their behavior. Mods that change the way NPCs behave. You can add more traveller's on the road. There was a mod that added battles that you could stumble upon and participate in.
Chances are if you can think of it, it's been modded. And stuff you never thought of, too. Even one that removes the clouds from the map. 😁

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim

That's where I get mods from. You can see them all there. But... fair warning. They do have.... adult mods there as well. But you can opt out of seeing those as a member. Or block specific creators.
Also has a media section so people can share screen shots of their game and character.

Down side of bidding is that its Work. And you have to either take the time to learn some deeper stuff to make things stable, or just do what I do. Assume that you're doing the right thing and hope it works. Considering the instability in my games, I'm not the most lucky. But the tech stuff is too much for me to learn how to make it more stable.

Get rid of dark and rainy days? In Skyrim? I love rain in games. Even in real life I enjoy overcast and rainy days.

I think we found the reason your levels seem low.

Yes, you get the levels you earned but you forfeit ALL of the skills levels you could have purchased from the skill level slots that come with each level up. Let's say at level 1 you use your sword and you gain one level in one handed weapons BUT from that level up you also gain 5 skill level training slots so you could then go to a trainer like conjuration magic and train that 5 times without ever using any magic. In the beginning it takes fewer points to gain a level so just the act of being taught 5 skills, you will probably level up again. Each level up brings 5 more skill training slots too. You can have 10 unused skill slots at a time. When you acquire the first 5 you click on level up and you do not need to use the skill level slots immediately but do not immediately click level up the next time it says one is available. Before you do, you want to go to the skill trainer of your choice ane cash in on the 5 sill slots you are carrying and then it is safe to click level up. Clicking on level up before you use up the first 5 will overwrite the first 5. That is where you lost 100 skill level slots. By continuing to earn levels before going to a skill trainer, you kept overwriting the first 5 skill training slots. Slow leveling brings higher levels in the beginning. It is up to you where you get the gold to purchase the training. If you follow the course they expect you to follow: Helgen -> Riverwood -> Whiterun etc. a good choice while starting out is to take Faendal as your follower because he is also the journeyman archery trainer. He can train you up to level 50 archery. As soon as he trains you 5 levels, you can trade items with him and take your gold back. Archery can go up very fast. Who says you can only spend money once? If you forget to trade your money back right away, it will start draining from his inventory like he is spending some and yet he never leaves your side. So there are 2 ways to increase skill levels: those you earn and those you purchase. Money becomes crucial in the beginning. If you travel to Iverstead early on, Klimmick is waiting on the bridge out of the city and he gives you serious coin to carry supplies up to the chest in front of High Hrothgar and this also gives you a chest where your possessions can accumulate safely absolutely permanently AND a fast travel point so you can zap directly to your stored items. The first treasure map chest for the chest in the hollow log across the river from Riverwood is also safe storage and a lot closer but it doesn't have the cash incentive or instant access from anywhere. There are also many NPCs who you can help. They can reward you with gold or items and it makes friends for you too. You can also help shopkeepers, stable owners, etc. and many items lose their red "steal" tag and they become free or hovering over a horse can give you the "ride" option and you can take off on the horse and it isn't stealing. When you dismount, the horse will start walking home. If you fast travel he will fast travel with you and be there and available again. The cycle will keep going until you ride a different horse or the horse gets killed while walking home. I prefer training a wild horse or unicorn (they do not die) and visit a stable to register/name the horse and choose a saddle (if you want a saddle).

IRL, I enjoy rain. I LOVE the scent of new falling rain. However, in Skyrim while trying to target distant enemies or just scanning for their possible presence, I would appreciate more light and clarity.

I don't see the difference between leveling up my 1h in the cave vs paying someone to level it. I don't see anything I'm losing.
I know I don't level my character up until I'm done. I keep at level one till I'm ready to leave.

I'm often poor at game mechanics. My mind simply doesn't grasp them well, often. I played World of Warcraft for 15 years and still only had a basic understanding of, for example, armor. I knew what attributes went with which class. But there was a lot more to it, apparently. Well beyond my ability to comprehend.

It's also why I tended to skip raids, and as time went on, dungeons. Sometimes the fight mechanics didn't register for me. I don't know if it's just different wording or I'm missing something, but when I first read about doing this, the things you're saying were not listed as negatives by those listing negatives.

But the horse renaming/registering seems to be an AE feature.

Most the other stuff you mentioned I already knew as I've played the game on and off for years.