Economic Life Lessons - The Elder Scrolls

When I got the original generation 1 XBox, it caught fire.

After I bought another (this grudge smolders like that first console, Microsoft), I spent the first year playing action hits and shooters. Kind of out of character for me as an RPG and strategy fan. I forgot all about them until I developed an itch, a yearning for something more. My inner middle-school aged self called out from within, “I need a great RPG, a really truly great one.” In that moment I realized I couldn’t even name an RPG for the console.

A quick history.

It was Final Fantasy VII that broke open the world of RPGs for me. Typical origin story. Like having your best sex the first time, I peaked too soon. I’d spend the rest of my middle school days playing obscure titles like Tales of Destiny, and going 24+ hours straight with Final Fantasy Tactics. My GPA would never recover. It was my best friend who let me borrow both, only a best friend changes your life like that.

I think they were his older brothers too. At the time it was a thing. His bro definitely didn’t see those games again for a while.

With that voice from my youth, crying out to relive the magic and adventure of Final Fantasy VII, I googled something like “best rpg xbox”. I had zero expectations of finding anything worth while. I didn’t think XBox, Microsoft, or anyone involved had anything like that in them. And that seemed to be confirmed when all I really came up with were results for a recently released game, The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind.

That title! Eye-roll. A bit wordy, kind of goofy, kind of cool. Forgive my ignorant high-school self’s prejudices, this way my intro to Bethesda Softworks and the Elder Scrolls. And Morrowind was exactly what I was looking for.

Or so I thought. It was actually quite a bit more. The world, lore, movement, customization, flow, it really hit the spot. But the menu system and mechanics were extensive, and I was never good at exploiting the potential in those details.

For a long while, I didn’t take full advantage of it all because I didn’t really understand it. I was pretty excited to jump in, as soon as I created my character, I did as I pleased. Ignored the main quest, off I went into side quest land, skipping lots of info boxes, including the ones about fast traveling. I ended up playing for more than a year getting places on foot. It’s a testament to the quality of the game that I had a great time doing so.

I eventually discovered fast traveling when a friend came over and just, did it. Totally embarrassed but it blew my mind. It took me about as long to learn that prison hurts my character's skills.

When I did manage a synergistic chain of race perks, enchantments, potions, and blessings, it was because the internet existed and I could glean that from other players. A great example of the division of labor paying off. We all get more productive playthroughs thanks to these uploaders. And the authors and editors (the readers) profited from putting their work out there, psychologically at least.

Another economic concept at work in game, and in our real meat lives, is opportunity cost. Learning its lessons are important for succeeding in the Elder Scrolls and in life. I, learned nothing for a long time. Turns out I’m fairly stuck in my ways and repeated my behaviors in both Oblivion and Skyrim.

The game presents the player, some might say floods the player, with options. Myself, I was so caught up building the “perfect” character, trying new mixes of race and stats. I would play for only so long before building a new one. I eventually burned out on the repetition after 100s of hours of fun.

There were always compromises to make and trade-offs to calculate, and I often refused to do so. I wanted to try for a “perfect” character. They would be prepared for every kind of roadblock in the pursuit of every kind of reward, especially the rare ones.

Wanting and trying to do it all isn’t impossible but it does require significant more setup and time. Players that attempt this will find they’re dealing with more tedium and creating more repetition for themselves, most likely culminating in a lesser experience on the whole. Which is still a pretty great time, just a bit clunky and awkward.

A charismatic, axe-and-sword wielding archer-thief-sneak, that can smith and enchant, and cast destructive and healing magick, requires several commitments. Time, skill points in those areas, as well as the proper “backend” attributes like charisma and intelligence. I found balancing it all out maddening. Players have done it, more successfully than me, but it’s a hell of an undertaking, mostly because it requires damn near perfect knowledge of the entire game, events, mechanics, etc.

Having more potential paths to solve a problem available to the player will force them to consider all of them, leading to a kind of decision fatigue. Having the means to do something and investing the time and energy are two different things. It increases the time spent doing something already part of the game, trekking back to safe houses and stashes for the right gear. That’ll start to feel like a side quest in itself. I know I’m not the only player who, by the time they’re ready to begin the actual mission, forget what they were trying to do.

Eventually I got tired of stopping to consider if I had another way to do this thing X, of going back to my stash and grabbing my optimal archery stuff, or getting that water breathing mask. I wanted to move through it all faster, with less pondering. Once that feeling set it, bashing became SOP for everything. Even where I could complete an optional goal by not being so direct. And it was at that point I realized I’d have had more fun bashing had I invested more in being a capable basher.

The jack-of-all-trades existence is a clumsy one, even with foreknowledge and walkthroughs. Players will be faced with many more tradeoff situations, between short term and long term needs. Higher one-handed would be great now against these damn bandits, but there’s a need for strong destruction for that one mission later. And afterward comes a boss, requiring gold for potions or skill points and magicka for healing spells.

This entrepreneurial management of future conditions will happen anyway of course, but it’s greatly minimized as a source anxiety with a more tightly focused character. Not to mention, having it all sometimes means having much more to lose. There's a freedom in simplicity.

And that’s where another life lesson comes through: a perfect character is a flawed one. There will never be enough pros to counter all the cons. The cons will always seem bigger and more numerous. Managing some will sprout others. And so, to accept this and succeed, just be honest about how you’re likely to play.

I became more honest as time went on. To begin with, I wanted it all!

It didn’t take long to learn one thing, I’m ruthlessly impatient and ruthlessly selfish in these games. That first character was abandoned quickly since it wasn’t capable enough at ruthlessness. From there on out, I tried to either keep that aspect and build on it. Or take new roads and challenge myself that way.

I’d restart and add sneaking, marksmanship, and lock picking to complete my mischievous basher approach. Even with 4 “specializations”, I’d still suffer through many locks I was one point away from opening because I spent the point earlier on light-armor to survive a tough fight. Ditto for a some kind of battle mage.

Another, is me trying to become better with magick. I’m a terrible mage, I’m not creative enough with magic, this is my “learn new skills” game. I watch players string together spells to stop or evade enemies and think to myself, “I want to do that!” But I always try and use magic like I would an axe.

Then my menus get cluttered with spells, I misunderstand what they do out of impatience. I confuse similar sounding terms in the heat of the moment, like healer, healing and health scrolls. I end up casting a spell that increases healing ability vs. one that actually heals, then I'll cast another only to watch as my health bar extends instead of fills.

In the same vein, I could never do a straight thief or marksman. I move too quickly (read: without regard for my surroundings), which ensures my nimble thief and distance fighter end up stepping in traps and face-to-face with enemies. Or alternatively, I move too slowly, creeping through dungeons and forests and taking away all the momentum and excitement.

Real life is just as complicated as the world of the Elder Scrolls. We can only do so much in this life. But we can do more when we account for what we’re not able to do when we commit to a certain course of action (opportunity cost). Notions of perfection are based on beliefs about an uncertain future that will likely change when you arrive at that moment. It’s important to keep in mind long term goals and not inadvertently sacrifice them for shorter term ones.

We are entrepreneurs of and in our own lives. We have skin in the game, we are forced to manage present resources in the face of future uncertainty. it's tough enough as it is, so don't overcomplicate it. We’re all playing roles, trying for a satisfying and rewarding playthrough. Don't try harder than you have to, try smarter.