Me personally, I'm playing a little less than what I typically have been since getting the game, and it's starting to feel like I just got it all over again. My biggest fear with huge, addicting games like this, is that I will play them so much I'll burn them out. Pacing myself and spreading my gaming sessions out is working wonders for my interest level.

What do you guys do to keep the game fresh/exciting?

Streaming dead is dead to friends live. They tell me what to do and I try to live. Insane

Here is a link to ways im keeping my game fresh and a little more challenging. its a post i made yesterday. im not sure if it would be to your liking but check it out if you want to try something new. have fun bud. http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1319865-for-those-who-want-a-challenge/

bought more games

then come back to skyrim after a month or so.

Smart. I have to break it up as well. It's very easy to get burned out on a title.

I started to get burned out - played 110 hours on my Khajiit thief in a month, which is a little too much. So for the past week I've been playing much less, and today I started a new character with a TOTALLY different feel and set of rules.

He is an Orc 2H warrior, and as such means a massive change of gameplay. Because I got all the trophies with my Khajiit (and made a point of doing so) there is now no obligation to do... anything. He is law-abiding, so no more assassinating/stealing to get what I need. A warhammer and heavy armour do not make good sneaking tools, so combat is totally different. None of the skills I used with my Khajiit (bar Smithing) are being used with him.

It's been a total breath of fresh air. Instead of running between guilds, Paarthunax and whoever else is on my bloody quest list, I simply took a cart to Windhelm and wandered south. Stumbled upon an Orc Stronghold that let me in due to my race, and it turns out the stronghold is set up around Gloombound Mine - from which I excavated 45 pieces of Ebony Ore. :blink: smelted it all down, returned to Windhelm (just - I had 14 Wolf Pelts when I came through those gates) and sold all the ingots and gems I had collected, using the money to get a full set of Steel Armour.

I've done nothing significant, I've not been nearly as efficient as I should have, and my progress is slow. But it's a totally fresh experience and I love it, because it's all new again.

Take a week off or I delete my old characters so I can start anew.

Yeah I had to go get Medal of Honor to alleviate my small-arms fire fetish withdrawal syndrome from so much Skyrim. Melee is fun but there is something to be said about popping a cap off with a military issue assault rifle. exhilarating.

I am playing Morrowind with MWOSG and 148 other mods. Suits me more. :whistling: :tongue:

Playing less. Mostly just for an hour and a half each morning. I've also been creating one new character for each Faction/guild, to complete those quests. Make's it play a bit differently for each one, since I'm playing a different race and class each time.

Just started an Altmer pure mage, Sinerinde. Now I have all the three archetype characters going on. As usual, I like the warrior, Halvar Strong-Arm, the least, especially now that there's that smithing skill to level. It also feels like leveling; I don't know how many unnecessary armors I've made, and the skill still isn't high enough. Doesn't feel that natural. But hey, I want to check how demigod-class armors he can get in the end.

My assassin/thief, Hides-Swift-Strikes, the Argonian, is already broken; superb backstabbing and archery, and he basically can't be seen. He's about level 38 and my highest-leveled character by far. Halvard's level 10ish and Sinerinde is about level 7 IIRC.

I'm approaching all the quests from different perspective, backstory, if you will. Here goes.

The Argonian Thief type is all about being a (brainwashed) Shadowscale, and proud of it. He also does jobs for the Thieves Guild to get some extra coin. He doesn't help other people, or if he does, he usually backstabs them (sometimes even literally...) just to gain from it himself. He uses the surrounding war/rebellion as good business opportunity to steal from both fronts. His only weak spot are other Argonians who he feels are his brothers and sisters in a tough spot, unable to help themselves. For them, Hides-Swift-Strikes is a local hero - if the DB or Guild business doesn't interfere with that joyous clan brotherhood feel. He is a professional in what he does, and no-one can stand in his way when he gets the order to assassinate. Not even a fellow Argonian.

Then there is Halvard who is a true Nord. A little slow-witted, likes to drink & brawl at inns, and believes everything the Stormcloak propaganda is feeding him with. True Nord of Skyrim! Uncharacteristically he likes to know about histories and reasons behind some things (because I, as the player, want ); he shouldn't be smart enough for timely clever questions, but I guess sometimes he just happens to light up a bit. Then the light goes off once he's back in Stormcloak/Companions business, and in what he does best: shedding blood, being the Man's Man in the battlefield! Oh the glory and heat or the honorable battle! The songs to lay and ladies to sing! Uh. Or something like that... Oh, and he'll also become the real Dragonborn, to the point he really defeats Alduin, unlike my other chars have.

Sinerinde is a dark mage. Kind of a necromancer, although he wouldn't necessarily use that word. He's more like The Ruler of the World or something. I actually planned naming him a Camoran, but left the surname off anyway. He could find out later (say, come Dawnstar's Museum time?) that he is related to them. Or thinks he is, anyway. Or hopes. He's not your most stable guy and definitely not the friendliest one. He's cold, calculating, and he either completely despises weak people, or think of ways to remove the strong ones out of his way. He can be quite pleasant to those who he thinks he needs to be pleasant with - but only for a time being. Only until he's strong enough to take their positions... Well, sometimes it's this. Sometimes it's intensive magickal training in one of his little lairs across Skyrim. He relys most on Destruction, Conjuration and Illusion, some Restoration too if needed. I find him hardest of these to play. And, at the moment, the most interesting. Going through the College with him. Again. Accidently did already with Hides. It was surprisingly short. But this time, Sinerinde is doing all the side quests as well, as he feels he needs to lick higher-ranked mages' butts - for now. When he's finished off the College, he'll be starting all the Daedric quests I can find (no internet etc.) when I think he's strong enough, i.e. the loot artifacts will be leveled well enough. :facepalm: )

I'd wager I've only done 1/4 of the game's quests all in all, so there's much to be found with any type of character!

Too bad the game kinda makes me start a new one for a while. It seems all the characters break pretty fast, no matter what you do with them.

good suggestion.

already find Skyrim is not so funny now..even with alots of mods

http://nadrig.blogspot.com

I play 3 characters and switch daily between them. Level 34 assassin/thief/bow user. Also a level 24 pure mage. They both have enchanting, but not power-leveled. And two days ago I rolled an orc warrior now level 14 - melee, and bow for long-range, with smithing and enchanting, but again, not power-leveling these. And, they all sneak, pick locks, etc., but I level those skills as they do those things, only putting perk points in things like archery, 2H, light/heavy armor, destruction, etc.

I walk a lot, with many side trips to dungeons, so it could take me 2-3 real life days to get to the place where my quest objective is. I play about 7-8 hours every day (retired), broken up into 3 different time periods during the day.

This is a far cry from my WoW days - despite a full-time job, I still played about 80-85 hours per week, and longer if there was a 3-day weekend or holiday weekend.

Did that for about 5 years, then Rift for 7 months - and started slowing down then.

Yep. There is lots for cheap games in Steam. I bought Neverwinter Nights 2 platinum, just for 9,90 Euros. That was good investment :thumbsup:

Gnar-Ma, my first character, is at level 73. I finished all the quest lines and it took me 152 hours. I felt like I had nothing to do, nothing to discover or anything. That wasn't true.

But, to start fresh, I made a character that I haven't made before. A dark elf, old and gray but with a good amount of strength left in him, who prefers two-handed weapons and heavy armor and rarely casts magic. The irony is he is one of the last Telvanni.

I try new playstyles and new races

I play on Adept (default) difficulty but I challenge myself to play as if it were real-life. Eat and prepare meals, fight drunk sometimes, try to avoid conflict whenever possible, try to win friends and get rid of enemies without lifting a finger to them. It forces me to think, be careful, and change my strategies rather than my more usual "I HAVE BETTER ARMOUR AND SWORD. YOUR ARGUMENT IS INVALID" approach.

Do 20 hours of fallout and then 20 of skyrim, dosent matter If I'm in combat or I stop and switch games so it gives me something excited to come back to.

Cheers

Haha, I've been playing Skyrim since the day it released and I haven't even beat the MQ yet. I've actually started over a couple of times though. I didn't like the direction my character was going the first time I played. Second time I found the 'sweet spot' I wanted, third time I started recording my character's adventures and uploaded a few videos to Youtube. Knowing that my game is being recorded really helps me roleplay better and get into my character more. Then I also try to make the fights interesting. If it goes too badly, or too well, I reload and try it again.

This actually seems like a good idea. I'm gonna try it. Though it'll be tough!

Ive changed the way I play the game to make it more immersive and interesting. With my lvl 19 wood elf archer I only allow myself 150 pounds of carry weight (minus armor). Also I turned the crosshair off to make archery more difficult. Also, and this is the biggest one I stopped fast traveling everywhere....I only fast travel to go back and dump weight or use carriages to travel quickly from hold to hold.