I remember when I first escaped from the tunnel in the opening scenes of Skyrim, and I stood looking out over the seemingly limitless world before me. It was new, exciting, and dangerous--and it was all mine!

For the first 30 hours or so, that's how it remained. Everything was fun, there were limitless possibilities, and I could do almost anything I wanted to. Most of the time, I would just walk around and explore the land. My character--a single weapon/shield using, rogue/warrior/archer--would sneak around and see what sort of amazing things he could find.

Maybe he would harvest some of the random herbs and ingredients he found, or maybe he would see what was in that scary looking cave over there. Who knows? He could do anything.

My early wanderings took me to the steps of a great mountain. The sun was quickly fading and the warm fall air grew cold, and filled with snow. Bow and arrow at the ready, my character carefully moved through the beautiful tundra, up the mountains foreboding slopes, eager and ready to face what lay before him.

It was then, when I first saw the figure ahead of me. A dark form, illuminated in the moonlight, froze still before me.

My sight cleared and the snow fox stood, beautiful and sleek, as a gust of snow swirled around it. The first arrow flew straight and true, piercing the snow fox through the body--but not enough to kill.

Seeing my prey escape, I quickly gave chase. Sprinting through the white night, the cold snow whipping around me, trees and rocks flying by as I ran.

Suddenly the fox was out of sight, and quickly out of mind.

The light of a camp fire drew my attention, and I carefully approached. As I walked right into the bandit, I barely had time to draw my bow, my arrow falling into the snow. When the fight was over, I had never felt so thrilled by a game.

Fast forward 80 hours later.

Level 37. Having fast traveled yet again from a dungeon to my home in one of Skyrim's towns where I could sell my goods and disenchant/smith some new gear, I realized that I wasn't having fun anymore.

The excitement and wonder was all but gone. Now, instead of chasing snow foxes, I run around town trying to sell my goods to merchants who never have enough money, or trying to smith and enchant my items, or create a potion, in what feels like a never ending cycle of "dungeon run, loot, sell, craft."

I spend more time now trying to sell items and make new ones, than I do questing.

Even the main quest hasn't soured on me.

The first time I met a dragon, it was such a thrill. The first half of the quest line was wonderful. I can't tell where exactly I lost interest, but when it came time to fight Alduin, I actually just left.

I said "no, I don't care", and walked down the mountain, leaving it all behind.

I haven't played since.

This thread isn't meant to be a whine-fest. I love Skyrim--I've loved all TES games. I want to have fun with it again, and I'm looking for help.

I think that one of the factors making me not enjoy the game, is the same thing that first made me giddy with excitement. There is SO much to do in Skyrim, and I think that this fact has stretched me thin and has also diminished my appreciation.

I feel like my character is at the same time critical to the world of Skyrim, but at the same time so far removed.

How did I become so disenchanted with the main story? How did I go from being excited to find new herbs and items, to a grind of selling stuff to merchants and trying to level my smithing and enchanting. I feel like I just do a circuit in the towns.

Somewhere along the line I lost "that loving feeling"--for lack of a better term.

Has this happened to anyone else? How do I start having fun again?

You need to focus on one quest line or purpose at a time. People used to playing linear games can get lost in a Sand Box like this. The game almost makes you find the next step, and when it is not provided, some will lose interest.

What I do when I am tired of the in game quests is go explore or do a collector quest. Finding all the Uniques, or all the Books or all the Dragon Masks or whatever it is you want to collect is a good way to get out in the world and not be tied down to a quest. Exploring is what the game is really all about. The in game quests are really just an excuse to get you out of River Run.

try different char builds, to try new skills and abilities. I played a warrior two handed/heavy armor/smithing first and now I'm playing a thief/assassin one handed (dual wielding)/archery/light armor/sneaking, you'll have new death animations for the one handed weapons and a new playstyle, sneaking behind enemies and kill them before they see you, because if they do that light armor won't last as much as the heavy.

I hear ya. So much to do, so little of it matters. I found myself fast travelling all over the map trying to clean all the junk quests out of my journal. "Return to so-and-so" Who? I don't remember the name. "Kill the giant at xyz" Why? He's not hurting anyone. If I activated all the miscelleneous quests I had quest markers all over the damn map and I couldn't remember what 90% of them were for. I was walking around cities not talking to a soul because I didn't want any more quests. Please don't run up to me and hand me some item that will get stuck in my inventory. I came here to deliver this letter to somebody I'll forget in 5 seconds. Please don't ask me to collect ten of item x for you. I have firewood to chop. Gah.

Here's one problem.


Another problem.


And another.


Never fast travel, don't bother picking up and selling every little piece of loot, because you won't need all the gold, don't take more than one crafting profession without placing limits on yourself.

Sad, but the game is designed to funnel players into that boring cycle you mentioned. It's up to us the players to avoid it.

Help you have fun? Sure ok, what do you like doing?

Maybe you can call a friend and spend some time together, or tune in and watch basketball on ESPN, take a creative writing class, go on a trip, smoke something, go to the library, make a pinata, visit a museum, throw some baseball, dance...is there not enough in this world to entertain you, what are you Elrond???

I had that problem after about 100 hours on my first playthrough. It was not that I was bored, it wasn't that I disliked the game, rather it was more the fact that I was so completely lost in what I should do and had no direction.

So what I did was after thinking it through, I came up with a little backstory for my character, deleted my save and rerolled her with a few tweaks(went more pure mage) to what I wanted to accomplish with her. I find that knowing who my character is and has come from has helped me enjoy the game and the world a bit more, and has given me direction and purpose whenever I play.

May not be your thing, but it is something that worked for me.

That's the problem with the "Quest" format. always having some objective to complete, levels to attain. I really was disapointed at the lack of interpersonel interaction for instance with my wife. Give me a break, she drives me nuts saying things over and over. Hell I even got annoyed that the home decores were stuck in stone. Can't buy extra chests or maniquines, let alone store tropies or what not.

NPC interaction is where the game fell short in my opinion. Thats why on-line games are so popular. Of course I realize how difficult programming AI's to simulate real people is, but at least kill the redundant stuff they say over and over..

They did make marriage too realistic.

Thanks! This is great feedback and it's much appreciated.


Very true.


I certainly have put too much stock in "picking up everything and sell it!". And it's taking a lot of the fun away from the game. I think you're right about not having more than one crafting profession.. it's getting to be too much and I can see it being OP later on.


I was asking about how to make Skyrim fun again, not my personal life. I don't think this would be the appropriate place for such a request.

Anyhow, thank you all again. I'm going to re-roll a character and try it again--this time only using smithing. I was trying to do everything at once and as a result, had no direction.

This was very helpful!

There's just an oversaturation of trivial tasks in the game. Every single town and outpost shouldn't have to have a quest linked to it, but they do. Skyrim would have benefited more if those same towns and outposts had more background and lore/character development associated with them, instead of fetch and retrieve "quests" which really do feel like chores. Maybe more mysteries or puzzles involving those "generic" npc's to make them more memorable. I don't know really, but I feel the same, once you've taken in the scenary and the graphical beauty of the game, you begin to notice the substance, or the lack-thereof.

Yeah, If you had to look for the quests.. like actually read the books and figure it out... with no guarntee there would be anything to find.... and definately have more stuff to spend money on... buying a store, farm, hoker..ha

Oh thanx for noticing CCNA (hate that bit**)

When the OP exhausts all the excellent advice two things will happen; he will play again and enjoy the game- he will not. If he does enjoy the game; how long will it last? This is the second thread in this vein I've seen in as many days, and yet another in a long line.

I thought the best advice was to stop fast traveling and get out there.

Good advice

But no one asked the question, WHY?
What made him stop walking to places and start fast traveling? Why did he start doing this?

The answer is simple. Too many tasks, too little variety in procedure (as far as quest goes). Go here, find item, retrieve, bring back to me.

Rinse, repeat.

Once the game starts feeling like a chore, the fun is gone, things like fast travel and loot hoarding/selling are the escape and reward respectively.

Having never played any of the prior games, I was ignorant of the format and the first time I play-through of Skyrim I ruined from just 'taking off' in my own direction. Before I realized what I had done, I had killed or otherwise locked alot of quests. When I realized the world wasn't as open as I first thought, it killed some of my enthusiasim. ah well, nothings perfect.

Take your time doing quests, dont just run from town to dungeon then back to town with your encumberance on the max.

Plan a character a little more, for example after a few 2-4 hour characters I decided on a pure mage build and here was my plan before even starting:

My Bretton Male has just crossed the border to join up with the college as he is looking to develop and build his magicka knowledge. After escaping the axe and leaving river???? (can remember its full name) he will travel as directly as he can to Winterhold, only entering caves/dungeons on the way if it is starting to get late in the day and he needs a place to rest up. - Will restock/stay over in cities he passes if its that time of day Lunch/Dinner or again early evening.

Once in the college and during the college quests he gets a taste for both the Dwener and Daedra, and wants to learn more about them, so when he is sent out on a College quests he will also plan his journey to pass any Dwener ruins or Deadric Shrines and will spend time exploring and completing these.

Once he is the Arch Mage, I plan on playing him as though he is taking a sabatical from the college and will be a David Caradine 'Kung Fu' type character wandering the wilderness taking upon most of the radiant quests in taverns and passing NPC while heading along the Main Quests, as he now feels ready to answer the greybeards calling.

This allows my characters to have some structure while still exploring and completing quests that fit with his build.

After this I plan on doing the Stormcloaks and Companions quests as a plain Nord Barbarian Character
Then, the Darkbrootherhood and Legion quests as a Imperial Archer.
Then the Thieves and maybe Darkbrotherhood again as a Dual weilding Dunmer

These other characters will have a plan for their exploring

Skooma-fiend and Asgard both have it right.

The game can get overwhelming with minor quests where not enough detail is provided to make you wonder why Fugly Thorbad wants 10 buckets of Giant snot, which is indicative of larger issues, and if players make choices which have poor consequences later in the game, particularly in relation to how they play their game, ultimately that's their problem....no game tweaking can fix the fact that player X decided to hit his or her armour cap before they ever did their first major quest.

Thanks again guys.

Not fast traveling is key, as you all say. It takes me out of the world too much.

I guess I just felt disconnected from the quests--both the small ones and the main quest. Part of this is my fault for trying to do too much, but also it just feels sort of empty. My character doesn't really interact with anyone and there arent very many "meaningful" choices. There aren't any consequences.

Oh well, I'm going to start over fresh and give it a go.