As I was walking though the beautiful landscape of Skyrim, I had a strange thought. Skyrim is such a beautiful game world to explore and discover all the sights, characters, and locations.

How cool would it be to have Skyrim without any sort of combat so that a non-gamer type could enjoy this beautiful world without worrying about dying or fighting foes. Instead, just walk around and meet the characters of Skyrim and help them out with whatever they need. I can see this being great for older people who aren't exactly gamers, or disabled people who aren't able to get out and want a virtual world to lose themselves in for a while. Even for someone who suffers from severe depression and doesn't want to leave their house, they can forget about real life and lose themselves in this wonderful world.

Wonder if there is a mod that can make this a reality? Instead of "go here and kill this person and return this item" quests it would instead be "go here and talk to "A" who will need your assistance with "X" quests.

Just a thought...

There's a game like that called 'Dear Esther', I think. Haven't played it myself yet, although I intend to. It's basically some kind of exploration/mystery game entirely without combat or action. Can be bought off Steam, I reckon.

While from a psychological standpoint it might hypothetically be an applicable method of easing the pain, I think it might affect one negatively instead if the psychological disorder is deep enough. If there is no psychological disorder, however, I see no larger problem with it aside from severely limiting one's social interaction and experience, both of which are absolutely vital parts of survival. Completely plunging oneself into a world that doesn't exist is rarely if ever healthy.

I agree that for a long term solution to say... depression isn't healthy, but could ease some pain for a little while. I haven't heard about that game Dear Esther, but is it sort of akin to a "Myst" type game where there is no combat, no way to "die" but just to explore? I think there should be more of these types of games available to the public.

I've always wanted a game like that. A game that focuses almost entirely on the open world and exploration - almost like a hiking sim, with quests and NPC interaction. Of course. the gameworld would need to be huge (far, far larger than Skyrim) and diverse, to keep the player interested.

Not TES though. Combat and dungeon crawling is too big a part of the series.

Yeah, TES without combat and dungeon crawling would be like Gran Turismo without cars. Or Ace Combat without fighters. Or Mario without mushrooms

However, i'd say Shadow of the Colossus is pretty close. The Forbidden Land is a large, beautfiul place with amazing detail, and the only things to fight are the colossi that only wake up at set places at set order.