Meta-reflection

          One might not think that playing a game could help with writing, however analyzing games can help show what writing techniques that the creators of the game included. These skills can then be applied to one’s own writing in order to create better writing pieces. In this case the game Skyrim was used and I went through the process of completing a few quests along with other various forms of interaction in order to see what writing techniques were incorporated not only in the main game but also with the surrounding environments.

When beginning the game I decided to just go ahead and use my actual name. It doesn't appear that naming the character something else would have a major effect on my experience so I chose to keep it the character's name as my own. Although my name doesn't mean anything in the game it appears that other’s names determine their importance among the different societies in the game. Some names such as Jarl appear to be given to those who have power and it seems as if maybe there is a monocratic form of governing. There appears to be many different types of beings and governments among the world of Skyrim including those of the Imperials and the Storm cloaks.

       As for the importance of names; names can define a person both in a game or in real life without even mentioning what the person is like or who they are. A simple name can in some cases reveal what a person has done in their past and can give them influence over people or  allow them to receive certain respect from different groups of people depending on what they have accomplished.

     In order for me to create a name that might be beneficial or known in the game I would need to know the background of both the environment and the characters of Skyrim. If this information was presented to me then it would be much easier for me to create a name which fits the atmosphere of the game. I'm sure that eventually the different names of the characters I interact with throughout the game will bring about more meaning to me as I continue with the game but as of right now the names and different races of the characters have no significant meaning to me.

When starting the game I chose to go with the race Dark Elf. I figured that I could have just gone with the characters most like humans but I was curious to see how playing as a different type of character would affect the interactions between my character and others later in the game. I think I followed one of the Storm cloaks instead of the Imperials or at least that what it appeared I had done after I talked to the man I was following throughout the cave system. I am not positive on this fact but I believe the Imperials were the people who were executing people and were the ones who were about to execute me.

          One of the different forms of appeals that came along went with determining which type of character I had to choose. All of the different characters had different benefits to them which brought about the decision of choosing which character I thought had the best benefits for my case. This could be said as being an example of logos because of the factual information about the different characters being presented. I would say that this has been the most impactful appeal so far in the game.

  The different genres have included books and letters. There appears to be many different books scattered across the game which have a variety of information about the world. It appears that different letters can also be found by people who have also come through the same places I had. These letters sometimes include the people's names and there background along with what they were doing in that location at the time.

After escaping the dragon I followed the man named Hadvar into a town called Riverwood. Here Hadvar introduced me to his uncle Alvor. Here Alvor informs me that I must let the Jarl know about the dragon. I am assuming at this point that the Jarl can be compared to being similar of that of a king. It is interesting to see how as a player I can communicate with many different people and discover what their life is life and what is going on in the world. From talking to just Alvor I discovered a war that was going on between the Empire and the Thalmor. This type of interaction is interesting because any other player could have easily just ignored Alvor and would have learned less than half the information I did about Skyrim.

In terms of choices given for interaction, I am given many different topics to talk about and when asking about all of the subjects I realized I had learned much about Riverwood and the surrounding cities. Some of the limitations of conversation are that I do not get to choose what I ask. The choices of conversation are predetermined. However, I can reply to some questions/topics in different ways which cause the other character I am interacting with to have different responses based on what I state. 

These different options in the game give the player the freedom of choice. Players are given the choice to interact with the people of Skyrim along with the choice to ignore them. It’s interesting because two different players can have completely different game play experiences and I could see many different ways that people could play this game.

My first step in completing the task "Before the Storm" was to make my way to Whiterun. Throughout talking and interacting with different people within the city of Whiterun it is clear that the game gives you different options on how I present myself. When I first went to the Jarl of Whiterun I was asked about the dragon attack. The option I chose on how to explain what happened involved me talking about how I was a prisoner and how I was a criminal that escaped from my captors. By including this information instead of just explaining the dragon attack, the jarl learned about my past. He commented on my statement saying how he found it interested that in included my criminal history. 

I do not know what options other people have for interacting with people but I expect all my other classmates to have the same speech options since it is just the beginning of the game but I have no way of knowing that. I'm expecting that there will be vastly different character interactions and story lines among the class as our first interaction are most likely to affect our game play later on

Some useful ways of recording data in this game is to go about and talk to the residents of the game. In this case I went and talked to the residents of Whiterun. Through talking to the residents of Whiterun I learned a lot about the community and what was going on in the world of Skyrim. This included information about certain residents feel about other residents and who blames who for the war along with which side they are on. It appears that the majority of people living in Whiterun are Nords because most people appear to have human characteristics however I do run into the occasional Khajiit on the outskirts of town. Most people sound the same however there are a few accents and once I struck up a conversation I found out that most people with accents were from a different place in Skyrim. Many individuals brought up what was going on in their life and sometimes this would lead to me having to go on a quest in order to help them out. For instance, one lady was trying to open a market however she had to impress someone so she asked if I could go out and retrieve something for her. There appears to be more of a pathos appeal used because the residents make it seem as if they absolutely need me to complete the quest.

When talking to the residents it appears that the creators of the game want the player to say certain things to the residents in order to get a reaction. When talking to the residents, I had many choices of what I could say however I always went through and said all of the options that I could. Normally one of these responses would lead to either a quest or me learning something new about the world of Skyrim.

Within the town there appear to be everyday town jobs like their used to be in the past. This includes a marketplace where everyone sells their products such as meat, jewelry, weapons, etc. There is also a bar that offers a place to sleep and a temple located toward the center of town. In terms of location, the market with all of the different venders is located more toward the center of town while one of the weapon stores and the bar are located at the front of the town.

The creators of Skyrim include many textual, visual and audio clues. Throughout the quest, "Bleak Falls Barrow" there was a lot of information that I noticed could be discovered through talking with the people around Whiterun and Riverwood. For instance, in Riverwood I found out that the golden claw I had found on the quest actually belonged to a shopkeeper and that it was stolen from the shop a few days before I went on the quest.

In terms of visual clues, there are many throughout the word of Skyrim. Since it’s an open world game, the player can simply walk around the world and discover vast amounts of new things. I personally believe that this is a great way to give the player access to new information. The player gets to discover new things every time they venture off into the unknown land.

 Textual clues are also very prevalent within the world of Skyrim if you know where to find it. The areas that the player goes on quests has books littered everywhere. I have picked up a couple of the books and realized that the books actually present a lot of information on the world of Skyrim. This includes information on different races, the history of towns, and previous wars. I would say this method can be effective however, most people will not take the time to read the books they find so it is not completely effective or as effect if another character explained the background of Skyrim like some do.

          All of the writing skills and techniques mentioned are just some of the many that can be found in the game. As of right now I only have a couple hours of game play yet numerous techniques have presented themselves to me. Skills such as the use of appeals and how to present information have appeared a vast number of times throughout the short time the game has been played. These techniques are easily applicable to any type of writing that is required for any type of job as these techniques can be used to attract the attention of people, present information in an easily understood way while also allowing the writer to do so much more in order to attract and keep the audience’s attention.