The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrimis a game notoriously filled with bugs and glitches based around things like NPC scripting and path-finding. Even though the game has been re-released on so many platforms it has become a running joke among fans, these bugs have never fully been ironed out in any updated versions. But sinceSkyrim’s base game is over a decade old, and is still so well-loved by its fans, many of these bugs have become an endearing quirk of an otherwise critically acclaimed game, rather than the annoyance bugs are usually seen as in newly released games.
Skyrimwas a revolutionary game when it was first released in 2011, andits influence on open-world game design can still be seenin new games likeHorizon Forbidden West. However,Skyrimis now two console generations old, and as games continue to advance in technical design and scripting, cracks which players would have ignored while first playingSkyrimare standing out more and more.
RELATED:Strange Skyrim Clip Shows Nazeem Flinging Around in the Sky
Searching throughSkyrimcommunity posts online will almost certainly yieldsome kind of humorous or bizarre glitch or bug. One such example found recently by Reddit user aussi_88 is a fairly common bug amongSkyrim’s NPCs which sees them sitting without a chair under them. The Reddit users screenshot shows elderly Whiterun resident Bergritte Battle-Born engaged in an indefinite power-squat that puts the player’s adventuring Dragonborn to shame.
The character’s casual demeanor as if really sitting on a bench does give the humorous sense that this squat position is the easiest thing in the world for Bergritte Battle-Born, and that she is simply showing off in front of the comparatively weak hero. Most funny glitches inSkyrimhave to do with how the NPCs or animal AI interact with the world of the game.
Skyrimis such a huge game and the scripting of its NPCs is such a web of interaction possibilities that all it takes isone small interruption that the developer didn’t anticipate for things to go awry. Clearly Bergritte Battle-Borns script knew to walk over and sit down on a bench, but whether the player interrupted this process at the wrong time, or the path-finding simply got confused, the character ended up in a squat looking at the bench she was meant to sit on.
This kind of bug was reasonable in a 2011 game as massive and ambitious asSkyrim. Games released today, though, have equally, if not more, complicated scripting, but players now expect a much more polished experience. CD Projekt Red recently announcedit was switching game engines for the nextWitchergamedue to the need for a more reliable platform than its aging in-house engine could provide. It is unknown yet if Bethesda is switching engines forThe Elder Scrolls 6,or remaining with the Creation Engine, but it could run into the same issue.
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim - Anniversary Editionis out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
