Where were you (gaming-wise) a year ago? Two years ago? Five years? Or seven or eight years ago when TES4: Oblivion first came out? Which character(s) were you with at the time? ... You can be creative with your answers. Pick any era of time you like.

A year ago I was gaming mostly on Xbox. Imagine that. 2013. I was actually more addicted to Skyrim, and only played Oblivion maybe once a week. THAT has certainly changed now that I've got Oblivion on PC. Anyway, my main characters on Xbox were Lady Saga and Kahreem of Weet, both of whom are still alive, and I still game with both to this day.

http://i936.photobucket.com/albums/ad208/xenaclone/Image0142.jpg is a Redguard doing Thieves Guild. He is a former bandit who thought it might be more profitable to become a thief. A thief who lives in plain sight, amongst ordinary citizens.

And http://i936.photobucket.com/albums/ad208/xenaclone/Image0162.jpg (aka Aerin from Valenwood) is a Bosmer who is pretty much a random explorer. Mostly what she did (and what she still does) is roam around. She's been passively looking for Ayleid statues for Umbacano. That's her "Main Quest" I guess you could say.

A year ago, I made a comment to somebody here on the forums that I'd get a PC pretty soon, and start gaming on PC. And this person said 'it'll never happen'. At the time, I wasn't sure if it would happen or not, tbh. But now it's become a reality.

Well enough with a year ago, what about five years ago?

----------------------------

Five years ago Elder Scrolls was still new to me. I was on PS3 back in those days. A lot of regulars here were already used to open-world games, but this was still a new concept for me. A lot of RPGs and 'RPGs' on PS and PS2 are linear. I was a Playstation gal during the 2000s, and believe me, I played a lot of linear games. Tomb Raider, Tomb Raider 2, TR3, TR: Legend, TR: Revelations, etc. Then there's Crusaders of Might and Magic. Bard's Tale. Legends of Dragoon. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, Champions of Norrath .... the list goes on and on...

One thing about all these games is they are (as I said) linear. I would often see some scenery in these games, and get tempted to explore it. BONK. Can't do that. There's an invisible barrier there. So when I discovered TES 4: Oblivion I was in heaven. Yes there are barriers in this game, but you have to travel an awfully long distance to find them. In the meantime, just the fact that my char. could walk off the path she was on, and maybe find something new, even if it's nothing but a small grove of tiger lilies, was a huge deal to me.

Back in those days, Renee Gade II was my main gal, along with Igodah Go^Pe.

http://i936.photobucket.com/albums/ad208/xenaclone/Image012.jpgwas a pure fighter; my first real roleplay in a modern video game. I RP'd back in the 1980s in high school, playing a DnD spinoff game, but I had never RP'd in a video game before. Before RG2, there were three characters whom I played as if they were Lara Croft. They weren't really RPs, I didn't really put very many limits on what they could do, how much they could carry, what they were interested in, etc. So one of these characters (the original Renee Gade) wound up taking on every quest she came across. She became a Jill-of-all-trades, and her game was very distracting. Too much stuff going on. I rage-quit RG1's game towards the end of 2008 because I didn't like what I was seeing as her gameworld leveled up.

Four months later I decided to give Oblivion another try. I created Renee Gade II in April of 2009. It was fun being with Renee Gade II because with her, I decided to really focus on who she was as a person. She only used the default healing spell, that was it. No other spells. She only carried one weapon, and maybe had a daggar for backup. She only wore one armor suit at a time. Only was interested in Fighter's Guild, and a few sidequests here and there. That sort of thing. She also got lonely, and attempted to cover up her lonliness with mild thievery. RG2 eventually attempted to turn this around though, by taking up the Pilgrim's Way.

But it was interesting because she kept screwing up. She would be right in the middle of Knights of the Nine and steal an Imperial Legion's horse. Get a bounty. Now she needs to redeem herself. I liked this. In my old Tomb Raider-style days, I might have reloaded an old save to get around her blunders, but with roleplay, these 'blunders' only made more sense. She was fallible and imperfect, and I embraced this.

http://i936.photobucket.com/albums/ad208/xenaclone/Photo-0032.jpg was the opposite of Renee. Igodah Go^Pe was a mostly pure mage who only used one weapon at a time; usually a shortsword. Igodah was created for the Main Quest & Mage's Guild, but she eventually became a somewhat evil soul. She hated orcs, so she spent a fair amount of time murdering them. She eventually did become Arch Mage, and nearly finished the Main Quest too. But she died.

Actually both Renee and Igodah died at different points in 2009. And both their games got infected by the A-bomb, too. But that's where I was, four to five years ago.