1.2 Unbound

I ended up choosing a Khajiit character, which I had alluded to in my last post. I felt it gave me the opportunity to use a neat name, I've never played a non-human race before, and I liked the idea of playing a stealthier race instead of your standard run-of-the-mill Imperial. Something else I thought of was the reputation of the Khajiit in the Elder Scrolls Universe- thieves, seen always with suspicion. An Imperial would be unlikely to be arrested   Additionally, keeping up with the trend of new choices, I followed the Stormcloak character instead of the Imperial as well.

I think the appeals to Pathos play most importantly into these two decisions. For the choice of race, it was just simply an emotional choice made by me due to what I know of the background of the Khajiit. Generally prosecuted and regarded as a lesser race by the elves and humans, it seemed fitting to me that the Hero that would rise up and save their world would be someone that barely registered in their thoughts. Just a typical underdog hero story, and who doesn't like one of those?

Same thing happened with the Stormcloak decision. I have started Skyrim many times (only to get bored partway in) and have always chosen the Imperial character. Personally, I am a very by-the-book follow-the-rules type of person. The Stormcloaks are a rebellion to be purged since they are obstructing the legitimate government. This time though, I had to wonder why the Imperials were prosecuting me. As a Khajiit character, I had even less reason to like this "legitimate" government that was prosecuting and oppressing me because of my race (I'll start a tumblr blog and gripe about privilege if need be). All of these appeals to Pathos were written into the intro sequence in an organic way by the developers, or were part of the larger game universe. Either way, listening to emotion and not logic was a new idea for me.

I also believe it is rather interesting how Bethesda manages to weave a story. They always attempt to immerse the player fully, doing their best to never make the character feel they are being punched out of their immersion. The intro sequence loads simply, and gives us ample time to learn how to pan our view. Simple conversation and thematic events set the tone, and our character creation and naming is done in a way that flows better than the usual "here's a menu before the game even starts" method of character creation common to most RPG's. I'm not even sure you could give a genre except that of a video game; it is a unique medium in many ways. The audience is never really fully set, anyone could play this game. The information varies based on your choices, and few of your interactions are entirely forced. You are happily led along into living this experience simply through playing the game- what other genre so easily lures you into a deeper universe and experience?