You know, it's kinda incredible to think that a full year before I even became an Elder Scrolls fan you started work on Elder Scrolls Online.

The year was 2008, I invested in a new PC and got busy with playing all kinds of games. The one game that really captivated me beyond ALL others was The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I estimate about 4,000 hours spent in it (about to add to that lol). And ESO started development a year prior.

When Skyrim was announced, I was sitting in the living room watching what I believe was called the Video Game Awards on Spike TV. My mom was watching with me. I was so incredibly excited by that announcement, that I consider it a core memory.

I admit the announcement of Elder Scrolls Online did not hit the same way. But there's a few reasons for that. In 2013, I never played an MMO. I never liked online games then, probably the only online games I played were Soldier of Fortune, Half-Life 2 Deathmatch, Starsiege: Tribes, Battlezone (both 1998 and Battlezone 2) and Skulltag / Zandronum classic Doom.

Even to this day, I can get frustrated with PVP in general because the idea of getting my bum handed to me by another player doesn't always jive. Now, lately I have been in a more congenial and competitive spirit - the Vengeance campaign was the most fun I had in PVP ever, and probably the most fun I had in any online game fighting other players since the original Tribes.

I was still intrigued by the idea of Elder Scrolls but as an MMO. Initial impressions might have been less optimistic, but then you amazing folks at ZOS added first-person mode. That is the change that brought me on board.

I'm sure Elden Ring, Dark Souls, Final Fantasy and all the like are amazing games. I might even wind up playing them, but I cannot feel as immersed in those as I do with Oblivion, Skyrim, Morrowind, Daggerfall and Elder Scrolls Online. And yet, in ESO I go back to third person when doing dungeons, trials and PVP, but when I am just exploring on my own... the first-person view makes it all the worthwhile. Then again, I am different from the way I was in 2014, but I'll always be an Elder Scrolls fan.

ESO has been there for me through some rough times. A lot has happened in the almost 11 and a half years since I first played in the closed Beta. But it is where I turned to when times were hard. It's where I go when I unwind after a day at work. It's how I listen to music and explore new genres - trust me classic Blues from the 1920s and 1930s goes great with the game, as does the entire discography of Pink Floyd. Or funeral doom metal. My playlist bounces around genres and eras crazier than a colony of Simandoa conserfariam holding a dance party.

I have played through Oblivion around 12 times. That is completing every quest, every DLC, and heavy on story-based mods like Integration: The Stranded Light. I think Skyrim got around 15 characters, and again every DLC, every quest, massive story-based mods (remember Wyrmstooth? I wonder if that guy ever got hired by anyone....). To get an idea of how much time I spend gaming, I've done about 6 full playthroughs of Fallout: New Vegas, 31 full playthroughs of Undertale, the entire Commander Keen series at least 50 times (by the way, if anyone in ZOS reads this that worked on the forsaken mobile game: don't give up. I'd love if the Commander Keen series were introduced to a new generation. A PC-based platformer would be the best at this though), Ultimate Doom at least 1000 times (not kidding some of my runs would beat records from 1999, but I am no Zero Master, Coincident or Decino)

Elder Scrolls Online? I'm halfway through my second story-based playthrough. In 11 years, that's as "far" as I've gotten. That's just because I spent so much of my time with people, online, doing dungeons, trials, PVP and such. It is and always has been a hangout spot, and a critically important one at that. Every computer decision I've made since 2014 has been for Elder Scrolls Online. My 2nd gaming PC that succeeded The Red Dragon was built in April 2014, and it was made precisely because my Red Dragon could barely handle the game during the Beta. My third gaming PC that succeeded The Monolith was also because I wanted consistent framerates and quick loading screens. I get that now, and I easily could stick with just this level of computer for the next 10 years because this set-up runs this and No Man's Sky on max settings at a consistent 60fps. My laptop requirement is only that it can run ESO, and it is now a game I install on every computer I own (a title it shares with Doom)

And I keep wanting to return. Old friends I've known for decades are playing the game, we are reconnecting after almost as many decades apart. It is far and beyond way better than social media ever could be. I can be anyone I want, any gender I want. This level of freedom would have been so critical on my younger self, but I am glad ESO arrived when it did.

I don't know how many lives this game saved, but I can tell you it is at the very least 1.