Importance Score: 30 / 100 🔵
The Curious Case of Disappearing Gamers, The Elder Scrolls, and Absurd Challenges
The internet fosters a peculiar form of intimacy, doesn’t it? On my Steam friends list, numerous individuals have simply vanished without a trace. One acquaintance has been gone for a year, another for a staggering 3646 days. In the real world, such disappearances would prompt a police investigation. Yet, the digital separation afforded by a computer screen transforms these former daily contacts into mere ghosts. I sincerely hope for their return. This phenomenon extends beyond my Steam friends list and into the realm of Elder Scrolls challenge videos.
The Return of Micky D
Two years ago, games YouTuber and Bethesda enthusiast Micky D uploaded a Fallout video and then promptly disappeared. He recently resurfaced to celebrate the Oblivion remaster, followed by a bizarre new video titled: “Can You Play Daggerfall Without Leaving Daggerfall?”
Watch On
The Premise of the Challenge
The concept is simple: initiate The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall, escape the introductory dungeon, traverse the game’s ridiculously expansive map (comparable in size to Great Britain) to the city of Daggerfall, and then confine oneself within its walls. The objective is to accrue a million gold—enough to purchase the most lavish residence in town—without ever venturing outside. It’s an arduous undertaking, one that I’m grateful to have experienced vicariously through a highly entertaining video.
Micky D ultimately succeeded in his ambitious endeavor, although he found himself trapped in his new home’s attic due to a disappearing staircase glitch—a seemingly divine message.
The Allure of Absurd Challenges
This experience led me down a rabbit hole of Elder Scrolls challenge videos, reminding me of unconventional playthroughs I hadn’t considered for some time. These include:
- Players navigating the opening segment of Morrowind without vision.
- Completing the same section without walking.
- Attempts to eliminate a god-like figure starting at level 1.
Stress-Testing Games
I find these challenges captivating, even though I might not undertake them myself (except perhaps for content creation). They represent a form of “stress testing,” pushing a game into uncharted territory to assess its resilience. Simultaneously, they unveil hidden qualities that might otherwise go unnoticed.
For example, possessing sufficient knowledge of Morrowind‘s initial level layout allows one to navigate it blindly by heeding directional audio cues (or nearly so; the player eventually had to document the necessary keystrokes, but the underlying principle is valid).
Flexibility and “Admirable Brokenness”
It is a testament to the flexibility and, arguably, the “admirable brokenness” of these classic Elder Scrolls titles. And this is before factoring in modifications that introduce elements like zombified characters throughout the game. Intentionally, a player in the vanilla game is neither designed to defeat a god at level 1, nor is it intended to amass a fortune within a single town nestled in a map mirroring the expanse of Britain. However, the games’ fluid, unusual, and unrestricted systems render these feats possible.
More prudent developers might refrain from including arrows capable of instantly killing any target or allowing the permanent elimination of crucial characters in the main storyline. Yet, their youthful indiscretion in doing so provides players with opportunities to layer complex challenges onto a game far removed from the developers’ original intentions, even decades after its release. I find these imperfections endearing.