I am a nerd and I have always been a nerd.
You’ve known this for a while now, I’m sure. Especially since I posted my article Stuck in the Shire (one of the greatest articles I’ve ever written) on this Substack.
When I get the chance (mostly on Saturdays), I boot up my Xbox One X and play one of my favorite games.
Skyrim.
Today’s letter is about the game I adore and about my observations of life through the lens of this profound game.
Side Quests
If you’re unfamiliar with the terminology, a side quest is a mission that a player takes within a video game that ultimately does not matter to the main story.
These side quests usually exist to expand the player’s experience of the world, provide them with additional resources to complete the main quest, and/or to make the video game feel more realistic.
In Skyrim, the Dragonborn (a person with dragon blood who can kill dragons and absorb their souls to learn their language) is meant to prevent the dragons from laying waste to civilization but can also be a petty thief.
Or a farmer
Hunter
Blacksmith
Trader
Alchemist
Parent & husband
Mercenary
Soldier
The list goes on and on.
But all of those jobs and side quests don’t get any meaningful attention in the main story of these video games like Skyrim. Besides some passing commentary from NPCs (non-playable characters), there’s really not a lot of impact that these side quests impart on the game world.
Still, I can’t help myself but to run around for hours and hours of my real life, picking flowers and brewing potions to make money so I can buy all of the houses and all of the weapons within the world of Skyrim.
I am an opportunist within many video game worlds, and Skyrim is no exception.
As a level 1 character, I can pick flowers around the villages and towns without going into extreme danger and make thousands and thousands of gold coins with my rudimentary potions. Without cheating, I can quickly become the most powerful being in all of Skyrim because of the things I found for free around the villages.
Side quests are the whole reason to play the game. It’s boring being the biggest and most powerful character right from the start. It’s fun running around without any weapons trying to pick flowers so I can make myself rich. It’s what I would actually do if I lived in that world. I wouldn’t be delving through all of the dungeons, that’s for sure.
Josh Brown talked about side quests in one of his posts:
“I have this thing I’ve been repeating to myself over and over again lately, it’s almost like a mantra. “No more side quests.”
And that makes sense.
He’s in his forties now, he’s the CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management and he’s one of the premier financial market voices out there. He’s got kids and employees and clients all relying on him to focus. To conquer his main quest.
I don’t have a main quest yet (but I do have an idea for what my main quest might be…).
I’m still chasing flowers to make my potions so I can get those gold coins. (Well, maybe not gold coins because gold sucks ass right now, but you get my analogy). I’m “looting” and making a name for myself, one that the bards will hopefully sing about for years after my passing.
Picking Flowers
I have a modded version of Skyrim on my Xbox One X.
Mods are community-created additions to a video game. They are often weapons, clothing/armor, companions, or places. Sometimes they transform the game in many ways, or help players "break” it.
The Cheat Room is one such mod. It allows you to cheat the game in a myriad of ways.
16 year old me would be freaking out at how simple it is to just ignore the crap that he hated. He would go nuts at the fact that I now have access to unlimited resources thanks to The Cheat Room.
16 year old me had to break the game within the game’s core functionality.
Gamers often refer to this as min/maxing.
When you start Skyrim, you soon find yourself in a village outside of the city of Whiterun. It’s a relatively safe area with the only threat being the occasional wolf pack or skeever (rat). I would live here until my character made it to level 15.
Every day, I’d run around picking flowers so I could make potions that I could then sell for tens/hundreds (and eventually thousands) of gold coins.
Potions of Slow that also had poison effects could be worth 1500 gold coins when made at Alchemy level 100 (Legendary) with the appropriate perks.
It’s human nature to want to break the game in order to give ourselves an advantage.
If you play a multiplayer game competitively, you will soon find yourself using the most optimized hardware/character/weapons/strategy to win. There is no other choice.
And that’s when the game stops being fun.
A Bard’s Song
Sitting in the Winking Skeever tavern drinking my Honingbrew Mead, listening to Lisette sing about the return of the Dragonborn:
Our hero, our hero, claims a warrior's heart.
I tell you, I tell you, the Dragonborn comes.
With a Voice wielding power of the ancient Nord art.
Believe, believe, the Dragonborn comes.
It's an end to the evil, of all Skyrim's foes.
Beware, beware, the Dragonborn comes.
For the darkness has passed, and the legend yet grows.
You'll know, You'll know the Dragonborn's come.
I’m 16 years old and I’m finally playing what’s being called one of the greatest video games ever. I’ve been rushing through the main quest to get my first dragon shout and I am taking side quests to help me earn those precious gold coins.
I knew that from the Oblivion days that going to Inns, Taverns, and Guild Halls to get quests would often lead to unique discoveries but I was not prepared for bards to sing about my adventures.
It wasn’t until later that I realized it wasn’t as special as I thought it was but for the moment I was giddy with excitement.
In the real world, the bards that sing songs about our adventures are named Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and Reddit. Our profiles help us paint prettier pictures than reality itself may allow. And as we listen to the songs of others we may often get fooled.
But remember, the starting quests are similar for every player. We all start as babies, have experiences that cause joy and sorrow, find people (friends and family) that mean a great deal to us, and try to discover our purpose.
The Main Quest
In Skyrim, your main goal as the Dragonborn is to kill Alduin and all the dragons he’s raising from the “dead”. Every player has this core goal and the outcome remains the same (with only moderate variations in flavor) no matter the player’s decisions.
The Skyrim allegory stops there.
Finding a main quest in the real lives we lead is often much harder than it seems.
I’m not one of those rare people who knew what they wanted to do from a young age.
But in the last couple of years, my side quests and fights for survival have given me glimpses at what I'd like to do for the community I reside in.
I am good at telling a story, simplifying the complexity of modern life, and connecting with the worlds I may never directly understand.
I want to be a person that others can lean on using the things I am inherently good at.
What that means for my future, only time will tell.