The Environment at Play
Confronting Nature in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and the “Frostfall” Mod
Abstract
In this paper, I argue that the natural environment in the base game of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is devoid of agency and power in the face of the player’s colonialist endeavours to explore, conquer and master that environment. Weaving together insights about spatiality in digital games from (ecocritical and postcolonial) game studies, as well as performance studies, the paper problematizes some of the most basic elements of digital games in general: navigation and movement. It then moves to a discussion of the “Frostfall” mod as one possible option to counteract the destructive and oppositional relationship between the player and nature in Skyrim. “Frostfall” is a mod that adds weather survival elements to the game, by which the player can freeze and die from hypothermia if they do not take the appropriate measures to cope with Skyrim’s harsh climate. In this way, the ‘power fantasy’ set up in the base game becomes somewhat limited, as the player’s agency encounters nature’s newfound agency and must find ways to negotiate the gameworld while taking seriously the environment as an agent in/of that gameworld.
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Bealer, A. H. (2012). Eco-Performance in the Digital RPG Landscape. In G. Voorhees, J. Call, & K. Whitlock (Eds.), Dungeons, dragons, and digital denizens: the digital role-playing game (pp. 27–47). New York, NY: Continuum.
Bethesda Game Studios. (2002). The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind [PC]. Bethesda Softworks.
Bethesda Game Studios. (2006). The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion [PC]. Bethesda Softworks.
Bethesda Game Studios. (2011). The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim [PC]. Bethesda Softworks.
Bethesda Softworks. (1996). The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall [PC]. Bethesda Softworks.
Bohunicky, K. M. (2017). Ecomods: An ecocritical approach to game modification. Ecozon@, 8(2), 72–87.
Chang, A. Y. (2011). Games as Environmental Texts. Qui Parle, 19(2), 56–84. https://doi.org/10.5250/quiparle.19.2.0057
Chesko. (2016). Frostfall. Retrieved November 13, 2018, from http://skyrimsurvival.com/home/frostfall/
Corner, J. (Ed.). (1999). Recovering landscape: essays in contemporary landscape architecture. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press.
Crick, T. (2011). The Game Body: Toward a Phenomenology of Contemporary Video Gaming. Games and Culture, 6(3), 259–269. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412010364980
Duncan, A. (2018, February 14). Savage Beasts: The Spatial Conflict between Civilization and Nature in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Retrieved September 7, 2018, from http://www.firstpersonscholar.com/savage-beasts/
Errant Signal. (2015). Errant Signal - (Spoilers) Fallout 4 and Role Playing. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqkZXNZwZq4
Euteneuer, J. (2018). Settler Colonialism in the Digital Age: Clash of Clans, Territoriality, and the Erasure of the Native. Open Library of Humanities, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.16995/olh.212
Evans-Thirlwell, E. (2017, November 17). On the secret smallness of Skyrim. Retrieved November 12, 2018, from https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-11-15-playing-skyrim-after-breath-of-the-wild
Fahey, M. (2011, November 17). The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: The Kotaku Review. Retrieved November 12, 2018, from https://kotaku.com/5860518/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-the-kotaku-review
Finch, G. (2011, July 20). The Top 10 Game Mods of All Time. VICE. Retrieved November 8, 2018, from https://creators.vice.com/en_uk/article/4x45mp/the-top-10-game-mods-of-all-time
Fuller, M., & Jenkins, H. (1995). Nintendo and New World Travel Writing: A Dialogue. In S. Jones (Ed.), CyberSociety: computer-mediated communication and community (pp. 57–72). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Retrieved from https://web.stanford.edu/class/history34q/readings/Cyberspace/FullerJenkins_Nintendo.html
Gallagher, R., Jong, C., & Sinervo, K. A. (2017). Who wrote the Elder Scrolls? Modders, developers, and the mythology of Bethesda Softworks. Loading... The Journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association, 10(16), 32–52.
Galloway, A. R. (2006). Social realism. In Gaming: essays on algorithmic culture (pp. 70–84). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Haraway, D. J. (2016). Staying with the trouble: making kin in the Chthulucene. London: Duke University Press.
Hoving, I. (2017). Writing the earth, darkly: globalization, ecocriticism, and desire. Lanham: Lexington Books.
Hutchinson, L. (2017, December 21). War Stories: Lord British created an ecology for Ultima Online, but no one saw it. Retrieved November 12, 2018, from https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/12/an-afternoon-with-lord-british-creating-ultima-onlines-unknown-virtual-ecology/
Jagoda, P. (2018). On Difficulty in Video Games: Mechanics, Interpretation, Affect. Critical Inquiry, 45(1), 199–233. https://doi.org/10.1086/699585
Juul, J. (2013). The art of failure: an essay on the pain of playing video games. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Keogh, B. (2018). A play of bodies: how we perceive videogames. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
King, G., & Krzywinska, T. (2003). Gamescapes: exploration and virtual presence in game-worlds. In M. Copier & J. Raessens (Eds.), Level Up: Digital Games Research Conference (pp. 108–119). Utrecht: Universiteit Utrecht.
Kücklich, J. (2005). Precarious playbour: Modders and the digital games industry. The Fibreculture Journal, 25(5). Retrieved from http://five.fibreculturejournal.org/fcj-025-precarious-playbour-modders-and-the-digital-games-industry/
Lammes, S. (2003). On the border: Pleasures of exploration and colonial mastery in Civilization III Play the World. In M. Copier & J. Raessens (Eds.), Level Up: Digital Games Research Conference (pp. 120–129). Utrecht: Utrecht University.
Lammes, S. (2010). Postcolonial playgrounds: Games as postcolonial cultures. Eludamos. Journal for Computer Game Culture, 4(1), 1–6.
Magnet, S. (2006). Playing at Colonization: Interpreting Imaginary Landscapes in the Video Game Tropico. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 30(2), 142–162. https://doi.org/10.1177/0196859905285320
Manovich, L. (2001). The language of new media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Martin, P. (2011). The Pastoral and the Sublime in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Game Studies, 11(3). Retrieved from http://gamestudies.org/1103/articles/martin
Mayers, K., Koomey, J., Hall, R., Bauer, M., France, C., & Webb, A. (2015). The Carbon Footprint of Games Distribution: The Carbon Footprint of Games Distribution. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 19(3), 402–415. https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12181
Mejia, R. (2016). Ecological matters: Rethinking the “magic” of the magic circle. In M. Kapell (Ed.), The play versus story divide in game studies: critical essays (pp. 171–186). Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Mojang. (2011). Minecraft [PC]. Mojang.
Mukherjee, S. (2015). The playing fields of Empire: Empire and spatiality in video games. Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds, 7(3), 299–315. https://doi.org/10.1386/jgvw.7.3.299_1
Nitsche, M. (2008). Video game spaces: image, play, and structure in 3D game worlds. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Plumwood, V. (1993). Feminism and the mastery of nature. London and New York, NY: Routledge.
Shibolet, Y. (2018). Game Movement as Enactive Focalization. Press Start, 4(2), 51–71.
Survivor’s Guide to Skyrim. (n.d.). Retrieved November 8, 2018, from http://tes-mods.wikia.com/wiki/Survivor%27s_Guide_to_Skyrim
Swalwell, M. (2008). Movement and Kinaesthetic Responsiveness: A Neglected Pleasure. In M. Swalwell & J. Wilson (Eds.), The pleasures of computer gaming: essays on cultural history, theory and aesthetics (pp. 72–93). Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Co.
Waggoner, Z. (2009). My avatar, my self: identity in video role-playing games. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
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