I "only" played 285 hours in total. I finished the Companions, CoW, Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, Dragonborn, the MQ at least once, on different characters.

But I have not yet even traversed 1/4 of the map. And there's Shadow of Morrowind which gives a good portion of Morrowind to explore.

i agree that there is so much to do in skyrim and i'm always finding new locations or seeing something a bit new.

however, for me, it's overstated, in that, i also repeat far more things on every playthrough. and, rping something differently isn't to be taken into account.

for everything "new" how many things were the same?

if i were to only go to new locations and skip every place i've already been how long would it take to find every location?

don't get me wrong here because i too have played for 1K+ hours and i love it when i see something new.

but, i understand that if, from character #1, i would have completely eliminated visiting all known locations on subsequent playthroughs, the gameworld becomes MUCH smaller.

I view the large amount of content in big RPGs as somewhat like life – the idea of seeing and doing everything feels absurd. My elf and I simply enjoy the path of wandering, exploration and dungeon diving for fun. If we help someone along the way with a quest or two, that’s fine.

As far as time for playing, for most of my life I could never have supported a robust gaming schedule. But like AIBQuirky, I am now retired - with the means and time to pursue what I want. Sometimes, the passage of years can grace us with unique, even unexpected, perspective -

When I was six, I had an invisible friend.

Every day, she and I would get up and go play.

The impact of my early years of school was gentle at first but, gradually, the joy of play yielded to the rigors of advanced schooling followed by a long and successful career.

It took every bit of half a century, but I was finally able to find her again.

Every day, she and I get up and go play.

Way to go!

I'm at 3000+ hours and have intentionally done all the parts I instinctively wanted to avoid (Dark Brotherhood, vampire DLC, necromancy, etc.) I'm glad I did the stuff that I was leery to try; lots of it is fun and some of it is .. meh. I think the next trick is Vampire Lord and I'm almost there.

I play instead of watching TV or when I'm between jobs. I'm jealous of the retired players who can really dig into it, guilt free! Just make sure you guys get enough physical activity, ok? Sometimes, I play standing up - it helps limit the game time and I'm not nearly as stiff or creaky as when I play sitting on the sofa.

Skyrim was the only game where I completed everything on one character (He no longer exists). The DLC brought new life but a lot of the times there is still things I find or forget about. I usually like to read the books in game sometimes just to see if there is something new I should investigate or ponder

Oh ya, 556 hours according to Steam. There have been times I played in offline mode so I think it should be a bit higher than that because it certainly feels like it!

Yesterday, I passed by the Talos shrine which is near your Lakeview house, and has dead worshipper bodies near it. For first time ever, realized there was a dead altmer just down the drop-off, on other side of shrine, and he had a little note in his belongings. It was so cool to be able to find things like this even after so many hours playing the game.

I'm pretty much in the same boat. Nearest relatives are on the other side of CA from us. And we live in an ethnic neighborhood where Caucasians are a really tiny minority. The only neighbor that I socialize with to any degree just started playing Legendary Skyrim a few months ago. (Our socializing consists almost entirely of me playing "tour guide" as he gets his feet wet by playing a RPG for the first time in his long life.)

I've done near everything in skyrim on the 360

Now that I'm on the PC I've only completed a few vanilla stuff and a LOT of mod content since December when I got the game on steam.

after 3.5 years of playing skyrim i still discover some small things i ve never seen before especially in the DG and DB espansion

and since irecently reinstalled the game with new and updated mods it is almost lile a new game

btw i wasted 14 hours installing rgz fame and those mods including tsting and refining settings

tells you how awesome this game was and still is even after all these years

I average around six hours a day, every day. So getting on for approx 8000 hours and I've only done the big quest lines once and scratched the surface of the games full offering.

I don't mind my one character doing everything because she changes her nature as she slips down the wrong path into thievery and murder before finding redemption as a heroine (that's a female hero to you youngsters, not an illicit substance!) eventually.

I provide nursing care to my elderly mother and therefore I have a fair bit of 'free time' spread throughout the day and in the evenings I seldom bother with TV, preferring instead my own little cyber world. I fact these days I make a point of avoiding news programmes and reading the papers. I have enough to keep me occupied without worrying about distant events or the lives of precocious celebrities.

At my venerable age (a tad over the big five o) I tend to please myself more and worry about what other people think, rather less. And believe me I do get a fair bit of stick from my huge family of outlaws for being a middle aged gamer. Apparently, playing Skyrim is childish and a waste of ones life, but watching fictitious soap characters on TV or following the footie with religious zeal is a perfectly respectable use of one's evenings! Go figure!

Edit.......Hmmm, well waddya know.......reading a few posts here it seems I'm not the only ageing stick twiddler. In fact there seems to be quite a lot of us 'mature' gamers, which surprises me, I must admit, I thought the 'average' Skyrim junkie would be aged around 22. Well, so I'm in good company then.....anyone for a boiled sweet?

I don't tend to play for long sessions, but play every day and must be around 2000 hours on PS3.

One thing I recently discovered just east of Anise's Shack, there's a ledge by the river with a deer carcass and a gem inside of it. (Can't remember what type)

Me, I'm closing in on a 4000 hour mark.

I do have a life outside Skyrim, and an office job from 9:00am to 6:00pm, and go on holidays without a computer or an internet connection.

I don't watch TV however -- at all -- got rid of it physically in fact a few years ago -- and that contributes a lot to having free time to play.

A couple of hours in the evenings, not every day but most working days I think, plus some more on weekends -- it all adds up.

And playing Skyrim isn't even my only hobby by far, mind you. So I don't really see why people are amazed at playing times in the 3000-6000h range.

Geez, I think I'm somewhere around 5000 hours total and I've never come close to seeing everything. I'm the kind of player that if I have my marker set on my next objective I won't stray from it. How many times I've discovered a cave or whatever and would say "I'll come back to that later" and end up forgetting. If I would remember to go back or just explore more when I discover new things.

Same for me. I have probably "discovered" over 90% of the areas in Skyrim, but not even come close to actual "exploration" of them yet. It is always, "I'll come back to that later." and later never comes

About 600? hours here. No way have I discovered everything. I haven't completed several questlines either. Amazing game.

The difference of course is that Skyrim is for many the pinnacle of the TES series .. I've only just started Skyrim although I've had it for over 3 years but no matter how good I find it to be Morrowind will remain my favourite, I'm sure .. while ESO is a pale imitation of a TES game that's getting less and less TES-like the longer ZOS are allowed to mess with it.

And here I was thinking my paltry 800 hours is a sign of addiction

I know, I'm only 965 hours, so we hardly count as weird.

Around 800h is my standard for a single character

How does one know when or even if they've done everything there is to do in Skyrim? I've done every guild, every daedric quest, every divine quest, become Thane of every hold. I've gotten married, adopted orphans, build every house. About the only thing that I have not done is to

If it's achievements, I've done all 75 of them. My hours on Steam show 2,090 and that's not counting my hours playing on Xbox 360. Yeah, I have a lot of free time. My children are grown and gone and my hubby is at work a lot. In 2011, I lost my job of 10 years, due to reductions. That was also the same year I was diagnosed with cancer and my father-in-law died. Skyrim was pretty much the only bright spot in that year, a place to escape to from real world problems.

I haven't played since November but lately I have been getting the urge and will give it another run through.

In-game statistics help with that. There are counters for locations discovered, locations cleared, quests completed, and many others. Some of them are unfortunately inaccurate, but on the whole it's a very useful tool to measure one's progress.

So was my wife, also in 2011. All the best to you! Hope you beat it as thoroughly as you did the game!

I am a bit of an achievement junkie.

~~~

I am sorry to hear that, DCP. As for me, so far I'm good.