2.1 Perception

Racism seems to be a rather common trope in Skyrim, in that if you play a non-human race most humans will address you by your race. They will say "Khajiit" instead of some oblique reference to who you are or your name (but, to be fair, no one uses your name in Skyrim). One shop owner even mentioned she was watching me carefully, which I am assuming is a reference to the commonality of thievery among Khajiit. I was going to rob her blind but I decided that I'd rather not take the chance of building a bounty or other issues early in the game, and felt rather bad doing it. Not to mention I was literally playing right into that virtual stereotype.

Our main path for interaction in this early segment is simple dialog and exploration. We can head to the mill and speak to the craftsmen there, or we can head to the pub and hear the chatter and happenings of the local area. The developers seem to have attempted to make this interaction as organic as possible, since excepting some early required dialog, all of this is optional. In fact, much of Skyrims content is hidden outside the main questline and must be found through dialog and exploration. There are some limitations however, in that the dialog is often repeated and has a limited number of paths it can take. The world has small errors in it too that pop you out of your "immersion" as well (mostly by looking so ridiculous you can't help but notice it). And Skyrim's never ending supply of bugs are no help, either.

The options above though all work to integrate us into the world as smoothly as possible, however. This ease of dialog and the fact that it isn't forced on us at all allows us to build our own views of the world we play in, and expands its background and lore in a way that doesn't require us to look outside the game itself. We find our characters identity, and our motives, being shaped simply by our interaction with the NPC's (non-player characters) in the game. Even the environment itself shapes our perceptions, with Riverwood a tiny little hamlet snugly tucked between towering mountains giving us the illusion of a space bigger and cozier than it really is.