...please try again at another time. [Ok]

No, not okay. This is not something a single player game should tell me, ever.

Set Steam to Offline Mode to avoid this -- you should only be using Steam in its normal mode if you want the other features Steam offers. In which case it's not Bethesda's fault, as you DO have the option of Offline Mode. You can use Offline Mode forever.

Right now Steam's servers are getting hit hard due to holiday sales, so if it needs to patch or something you just have to keep trying until it works. Or until "Offline Mode" works, if you choose to use it.

Switched to offline mode, "This game is currently unavailable..."

Did you try verifying the game's assets? It may be that you were in line for an update, and for some reason the Steam server can't process it. A force update might help push it through. Just tossing out ideas..

Oh for the...good call on looking on that Jaga, it declared that 180 files failed validation and that got me thinking. The soft-link back to the real folder that skyrim's files live in got slain some how. Restored link: Life's good.

*grumble* if only that error had been somewhat helpful in what it was trying to indicate. Thanks guys, now I'll just have to remember that steam occasionally eats softlinks in its folders, or something like that.

Excellent, glad you're getting closer to a resolution.