Lots of sneaking.

And house decorating.

>.<

Don't call me a you-you...

It's easy! Aries, my character is at 150 hours or so at level 31. Mostly cause I like to "visit" some of my fave characters and push them around for a bit. Then later on, it's time to get back to business!

You play TES. We live TES. That's how.

Well said.

well my main has now... around 250 hours in and i don't even do all quests. he's some sort of good character. he only breaks the law, if he is able to help people this way.


i always sleep with him, don't skip conversations, READ BOOKS!, i didn't powerlvl smithing, enchanting, alchemy and actually don't even lvled all 3 skills. only smithing to not get op.


and i even fast travelled for like the first 100 hours. only made mainquest, civilwar and companions. i just started the bards now.... about the whole map explored and millions of books read

Theres a difference between doing everything you can, and taking your time to appreciate the game. People who rush through it complain about the glitches, and not being challenged by enemies, which is because they max out their geear but thats another topic, anyway, I take my time on all my characters, still havent seen everything there is to see, its a very interesting game. (I probably have like 3000 hours on all I think 7 characters I got now lol)

It hasn't been 3000 hours since Skyrim was released.
3000/24= 125 days
125/30= 4.18 months
Hyperbole I know, but I couldn't resist.

its easily done if you dont rush. i can play a couple of hours with one or two quests and spend time roaming, collecting loot and clearing out dungeons. i use a respawn mod set for 1 day respawns so that helps too. when ive finally finished every quest and got all skills to 100 (which will take ages) random generated quests and bounty quests will keep me going for a very long time

What's wrong with you? The speed run by the Beth Employees was under 3 hours. LOL!

I RP and take my time. Hell, I have two or three playthroughs on FNV that are 500-600 hrs each.

You have GOT to be joking ... right? That sounds exceedingly mundane.

I finished with just over 200 hours using fast travel all the time and only guild I did was companions, the game is just so large and takes a lot of hours to fully explore, played on master difficulty which lengthens playtime a few hours and I certainly spent a good few hours reading books. My character is now 'retired' but I still reload draguul from time to time to read one of the many books that have not been promoted to the bookshelf yet.

seems like youre not very good at paying attention to things, as near every single dungeon is tied to a quest, and most have a small story to tell.

I was reading through Lord of the Rings again and thought of a pretty good way to explain it. Some people enjoy the action packed movie version of LotR but couldn't sit still long enough to read the books. Some people enjoy the books but find the movies too shallow and diluted. Some of us have it in us to find pleasure in both.

The movie only types will most likely never see the 200 hour mark on a single character in Skyrim. The book only types are most likely to log in hundreds of hours. The rest will typically be somewhere in between.

As others have said, refraining from fast-travel and exploring the gameworld thoroughly / delving into dungeons inbetween quests is really the way the game should be played. Also, taking character progression slowly really helps.

If you're using fast-travel to get straight to the action, only exploring quest-related dungeons, and grinding to level up as quickly as possible, you're doing it wrong and probably won't get anywhere near the 200 hour mark on one character.

I have 4-8 characters (2 legit, 1 I play on and off, and I just made a decent one with 4 others I abandoned)and I JUST hit 200 hours.

I haven't really began "role playing" until there's a hardcoe mod that has eating/sleeping requirements. Also, I'd restrict myself from fast traveling which is saying a lot considering how you could spend a good 40-50 minutes on a quest if you walk from one side of skyrim to the next and finish a decent quest compared to 5-10 minutes warping everywhere. If I ate/slept/messed around it would probably take me 1:00-1:30 to finish such a quest. SO I guess if you really [censored] around when playing, which I suppose is the most enjoyable and immersive way to play, then I guess you could fit well around 200-400 or maybe even stretch it out to 1,000 hours for one character doing everything there is to do 100%.

Take adderall and play. I'm so focused after that then I can accomplish so many things that I usually wouldn't be able to lol

He's not joking. A lot of people play that way. I do sometimes. Other times, I have a goal I want to achieve, like "finish" a certain quest I am working on so I can go to sleep (never like to quit playing in the middle of something), or get my skill level up just one more level so I can take a coveted perk. Whenever I have a goal like that (and limited time to play) I sometimes rush through the game and my character forgets to stop, enjoy the view, drink a mead, enjoy some food and listen to music in the inn, sleep, etc.

Many people find that the game is most enjoyable when taking their time and treating their character like a real person living in a real world. Might sound mundane to some but it is what the game is all about for a lot of folks.

Actually, I really can't believe that people can play out that many of the quest lines in so little time.

I have 250+ hours of GAME TIME on a single charater. I say 'game time' as my play time is much much more - due to myself or follower getting killed and having to resort to a save game. I'm at level 47, have yet to playout the civil war, thiefs guild or collage in Solitude.

If you want to rack up a few more hours I'll give you one hint: turn off the quest markers on your compass.

I'm from old school 'dungon crawing' and will read every book, open every vial, every chest, explore every room. I also enchant, collect alchemy supplies, mix potions, smith and sometimes wonder what I have stored in my three houses. (ever get the "hand out 20 Mora leaflets" quest?)

While I will fast travel, I rarely use the roads and would rather see what the developers stuffed in between places than quickly go from place to place. Because of their (&^(&%^ map its sometimes difficult at best to find if a destination is on one side or other of some mountians or find a path to it - or around the mountians.
Many of the early ring or pillar puzzles I played out - without the help of the internet. Outside of sheer luck (or the internet or console) I don't see how others could possibly fly though many of the puzzles or locks that require picking.

My charator rarely sleeps however, I've spent quite a few hours waiting for the Yarl to get up to collect a reward - shops to open so I could sell items - slept or waited for a NPC to arrive so I could kill them.

I recall one early dungon requiring multiple trips to because it was guarded by 2-4 ice trolls and I had to get myself & follower leveled up high enough to survive them to even access the dungon! One of the larger dungons took over two evenings in itself to crawl through - it was so large and had so many to fight off!

Thankfully, by the time I playout my 1st charator I'll have forgotten many of the details of the 1st 100hrs of playtime and will be able to enjoy the game all over again as a different charator or playstyle.

I really dident think that games like THIS are a "race" to see who finishes in the least amount of time.

I know what you mean, I still have my character I started when I was 17. I'm 35 now. Can't even begin to think how many hours of active game time I put in that character.

I never could with any of my characters. Generally when they get to about lvl 35-40 they feel too overpowered and I feel the need to start over.

Sometimes I just roam around with no purpose which is why it took me 100 hours just to beat the main questline. I do this on Assassins Creed and Grand Theft Auto too. Sometimes I can just sit there and free run around town on Assassins Creed for an hour or two and I don't even realize how long I've been doing it until I look at the clock. Sometimes just exploring the huge world is more fun than doing quests.

I feel the same way, I just got 200 hours total over 2 characters. I know most people here "role-play" but I could never stand doing for very long. I mean, I role-play a bit, but I don't take the time to eat three meals a day or anything like that

with ease

just RP and decorate your house and don't use fast travel

No joke.

In fact, one of the mods I made allows me to use Firewood in various crafting recipes (in vanilla all it's useful for is improving Long Bows and selling for early cash), and on my current character I've probably spent at least 6 of his 25ish hours chopping wood. I also spend inordinate amounts of time at the Alchemy tables seeing how many different effects I can get in one potion, as well as out gathering/purchasing reagents.

My first two characters, both retired, have over 150 hours each; that includes using Fast Travel all the time, but also includes detailed exploration of each dungeon and of the area between my current location and the current quest destination. As they were made for exploratory purposes I didn't care if they found everything or not, since I was using them to collect information for my more serious characters; those will each have well over 200 hours, despite RP-based limitations on which quest lines they will do, since I will be taking my time with them.

I'll still be using Fast Travel, though, since it doesn't actually get in the way of exploration. After all, you have to find a place before you can Fast Travel to it, so if I'm 'zapping' myself to a given location that means I've already been there and won't miss anything by not pacing it off instead. On the other hand, I'll also be spending a fair amount of time trying to scale cliff-sides I'm not meant to, as there are a fair number of small stashes hidden away in obscure cracks in the rocks that you'll never find if you stick to the paths. Not that there's anything great in said stashes; the whole point is to actually find them, then chuckle at the joke that particular developer was playing on someone when he or she hid the stuff there. As a side bonus there are some well-hidden Ore Veins up there too, so I get some crafting materials in the process.