Like the title says, I have gone 365 days without Skyrim. Now, what might not be clear is that I have not even OPENED Skyrim yet. It’s still in the plastic, in fact. Sitting there. Mocking me. I started the day count as a kind of a joke. Like a junkie waiting for that next sober coin, or an accident-prone environment counting how long it’s been since somebody last died.

It might be confusing as to why I would even buy a game that I didn’t intend to play immediately. There are several factors in this. Events happened to line up, or maybe it was the stars, against the journey that Skyrim would take me on. I got it in a state of madness during sales on Amazon last year. I knew that I wouldn’t play it right away, but I honestly didn’t think that a year later it would still be wrapped up in cellophane. I thought that I would get through everything else, and have a grand old time running around in an Elder Scrolls game, loving life. And now. Now it’s been a literal complete rotation of the Earth.

I want to illustrate some issues here, that have conspired to make this so:

1. I have an enormous backlog of games. There are currently 34 physical 360 games sitting on my game shelf waiting to be played. This does not count the digital content on my hard drive. The arcade games. The free games with gold. Some of these games have some level of progress on them, most of them do not. I continue to accrue games because of sudden irresistible price drops, 2-for-1 sales, and gifts. I know that I probably should heel my game buying, but there are times when you just can’t pass up a 50 dollar game hitting a temporary 14 dollar sale price. Also free. Free physically undeniable.

2. I am an Elder Scrolls addict. When I played Morrowind, it took me a year and a half to explore the world completely to my liking. When I played Oblivion, it took a year. I think I still have a couple of things I could get in Oblivion, actually. When I played these games, I played nothing else. I would play for hours. Not two or three or even six or seven. There would be 12 or more hours lost to these games in each sitting. I was leveled up as high as levels go. I had houses filled with shit I’d stolen and liked. Every side quest was done. Every little thing that could be found was found. Every single option explored. I know, for a fact, that it would be the same way with Skyrim.

With these factors, one might be able to see why I wouldn’t immediately put Skyrim into my Xbox upon receiving it. One might forgive the lack of playing. One might even, maybe, feel sympathy. (Probably not though. It’s not a real plight.)

I had planned to attempt a gaming week, where all I did was burn through the backlog, get caught up, and be able to play this game. Every time I planned that week, though, something happened in real life to delay it. And delay it. Now, despite my great desire to get into this game, it looks like it’ll be pushed back even more.

You see. Another system has come into my house. It has come alongside more games. One of those games needs to be played as immediately as possible. So I’ll be finishing my current playthrough of ME3 (that’s how behind I am), and playing this new game on this new system while poor Skyrim looks on from its special spot. Because it is honored. Just. Too. Involved.