444 Words About: Lockpicking in Skyrim
When I picture Skyrim in my mind and memory it’s a lock. It’s almost always a lock.
Lockpicking is one of a number of skills the player can invest in over time as they level up, but I’ve always treated it as a minigame unto itself. The screen centers on a beautifully rendered lock; I could probably describe the texture file from memory. Little scratches and oxidation marks cover the metal. The player has to move a lockpick to a location somewhere between 180s degrees, and once the pick is in place they turn the other joystick and watch as the lock may slowly open up.
Often though the lock jams, the pick breaks, and I have to start again.
Skyrim was released in the year 2011, and I played it originally on my family’s Playstation 3, then again for my own Playstation 4, and now on my Playstation 5. I know I’ve logged at least 100 hours or more. Had I known I would write this essay I would have kept a log of lockpicking: how many times I picked locks, how long it took me, how many times I tried to open a lock. Yes there were trolls and flame atronachs, but I fought far more Master locks with only 17 lockpicks in my pack, each snap only increasing my mania. There were zombies and necromancers in tombs armed with bows and daggers, but a chest in the corner marked “Novice” was a siren song marking a quick easy victory. Even just a few coins was enough to slake my thirst.
Picking locks was fun. The puzzle itself aside, there was an auditory joy to listening to the lock crack open. Even the sound of a lockpick breaking was fun.
Skyrim is a videogame that is massive in terms of the sheer amount of content contained within. So much so the game left players boggling at how much they could do. A player could spend hours reading books, exploring caves, or even picking locks. What matters is that even just a small minigame could have such a tremendous impact on me as the player.
While the main storyline of Skyrim is the protagonist discovering they are a legendary being called “Dragonborn” who must stop the dragon Alduin from consuming reality, most of the gameplay is just exploration. I will encounter homes, caves, dungeons, and castles scattered across the realm of Skyrim, and all of these locations will have doors and chests that are locked. I could leave these be and move on, but the minigame is just too enticing. And as long as it’s not Merida’s Beacon I’ll probably need whatever’s inside.
Joshua “Jammer” Smith
1.15.2024
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***UPDATE***
I’ve uploaded a video on YouTube of myself reading this essay. You can listen to me read it by following the link below: