I just finished a 'true playthrough' on my Breton Mage with 155 hours logged into the game. A 'true playthrough' is where I try to do as much as I can in-game until I think I've accomplished almost everything. I spent the first two months experimenting with the game just [censored] around and I started this character on New Year's Day. I plan on doing a 'full playthrough' with each of the 10 races making different classes playing different roles and doing things in a different order each time. After that I will do it again but up the difficulty to Expert. By that time, I'd have built a good PC and do it again with alot of Mods installed. I don't know how much playtime that will add. But 150 x 30 is about 4,500 hours of gameplay, minimum. That's not counting mods. Eventually, I'll replay Oblivion on the PC with Mods and play Morrowind on the PC, I hope to put atleast another 1,000 hours into each of those. And I play other games, too.

So, by end of my Tour de Elder Scrolls, I'll have around 7,000 hours into the series since Skyrim's release. That's atleast 3-4 year of playing. And by then, Elder Scrolls: Elsweyr or Elder Scrolls: Alinor (I hope) will be released soon after(a 4-6 year period). And there are lot's of other games coming out in the mean time, GTA:V, Fallout:4, Dragon Age 3, etc. It's a very good time for gaming in general, and next gen consoles are just around the corner (2 years or so) which means consoles will be more like PCs and the Potential of PC gaming won't be held back as much(atleast in the beginning). It's a good time for video games, almost like a Rennaisance period. I am never bored anymore, I will always be busy when I'm playing games.

im still on my true play through with 196 hours in the game and still going strong.

What are you playing as?

I deleted my main by accident, now I just have my other less important characters

Nord, im level 64 trying to do every little thing in the game making him as powerful as anything.

I tend to have a true play through, but then start to branch off and make other saves at the same time, its just, I'll see a Khajiit randomly and think "I really want to make a Khajiit" and that's the start of my thousand of characters.

I'm on my 6th char. Currently playing DID. 2 previous DID died around 20 hrs and 75 hrs. The others were not DID and logged around 250 hrs ea. I do not do everything with any one char. Each one does different questlines from the others. Rotating of course but never beck to back chars. I have yet to advance the MQ past meeting the Graybeards. Even then, that was only with 2 of the previous chars.

EDIT : I take that back, my 1st char was played DID. A pure mage of Conjuration, Alteration and Illusion. I retired her at level 47ish.

This playthrough I've just ignored all the guilds and instead just played through the town and village quests, and trying to become thane in every hold, and also the daedric ones. I'm level 45 already and still have lots to do.

Jesus, I feel sorry for you guys. 7000 hours? imagine if you did something constructive during that time? [censored], that's only 3000 hours away from the amount of time experts say it takes to truly master something.

You feel sorry?

It's none of your business what other people do with their free time. Some people play sport, others watch TV, some play chess, some play games.

And saying that you need a certain number of hours to master something, that's [censored]. I could draw pictures from now until the end of time, it doesn't mean I'll get any better at it.

Good luck. Unfortunately the different races aren't really all that different, there are very few race-specific dialogue trees in the game, and doing a full playthrough 20 times is almost certainly going to get very, very old after the first 2-3 times. Which means you'll probably up the difficulty to expert or master and do another 2 playthroughs and then you'll be waiting for mods. So instead of 20 x 150, we're realistically talking 6 x 150. Of course, that does come close to 1000 hours and that is a whole lot of time. Modders should have made something fancy by then, assuming BGS can be arsed to quit fiddling with Valve's balls and release the damn CK.

They HAVE mastered something......SKYRIM!

No it isn't. I can't bring myself to start a 2nd game with magic in it's current state and without spellmaking. Thankfully there is no point until the quest bugs are squashed.

my problem with skyrim is that I MUST roleplay a character. and, that's both good and bad, but, mostly bad, imo.

otherwise, the repetativeness and lack of depth becomes too much. everything is the same, but, with different approaches.

i never HAD to rp in morrowind or oblivion.

however, the roleplaying is fun, for now. i'll have to wait and see about its longevity and whether it can compete with morrowind, oblivion and the fallouts...

Some people have too much time on their hands.

My first 'True Playthrough' was about my 5th Character, and these first 5 rarely got out of Whiterun before I changed.

The Character was a Typical Male Nord Barbarian type, with 2 handed and heavy armour as his main skills, with a little lockpicking thrown in from time to time.

I took him through the main quest, stormcloaks and Companions quests, as this seemed to be the right thing for a first go at the Main quest.

My current Character is a Male Breton Pure Mage, I play him as a young mage looking to gain knowledge from anywhere, he has joined the college, taken an interest in the dwemer and daedra, meaning these ruins and quests are explored as filling in between college duties. He may or may not do the main quests, depends if the dragon shouts catch his attention

My Next character will be an Female Imperial Archer, Obviously the Legion quests will be done and maybe after this she will take a break to put her sneaking and archery skills to use in the Dark Brotherhood.

Then My Female Dunmer Thief will take the stage, although not worked out her playthrough story yet

It's 7,000 hours in the span of 4-5 years. I do lots of other things including sports.

well good on you buddy. i've had a hard time sitting down and playing my second character. i gotta say, the fact that this game has no choice or consequence makes it LESS replayable not more.

Replayability? Bah, don't make me laugh.
I made about 7-8 characters alright, only played 5 of them seriously, doing different things with them all.
After that, the rest of them were just for fun, like a Witcher and a Monk.

I got 250+ hours logged though. I had a great time, but doing hte same quests again and again gets tiresome.

I rather play Daggerfall. Great fun.

The new dual-wielding mechanic and the way perks have been implemented provided me with an extra 200 or so hours of replayability.

Add to that the way the world reacts to your race, and the random stuff you find just travelling the world...

Yes, though I think I have done most everything... I constantly find new stuff.

Always gonna be detractors, but there is truly no hope for the jaded.

Yay. I was wondering who would be the first to post a negative remark about the game. It didn't take long.

Then you missed mine.

Could not have said it better myself,one play through is enough for me with Skyrim because everything will be exactly the same second time around

I kind of ADD'd Skyrim by making at least 7 playthroughs for a variety of races and playing styles. The lowest has about 20 hours towards it and the highest has about 250.

I keep getting an idea like "Ooh wouldn't an Argonian Knight be cool!" then I make it, RP it for a good 50 hours then do something else.