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Skyrim scholar uses geometry to determine how walkable the RPG's best cities are, and the results are terrible: "Worse than some car-centric suburbs in Texas"
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Ashley Bardhan
2026-01-13
Everyone loves a walkable city, even an Argonian, I'm sure. But, according to one Skyrim fan and geographic information systems (GIS) graduate student, Tamriel has some serious geospatial issues. The grad student, Henry, recently conducted a study they posted on Substack analyzing how walkable Skyrim's major cities Solitude, Windhelm, Riften, Whiterun, and Markarth are. After converting each city's map into a graph and performing statistical analysis Henry came to a conclusion: not very walkable. "The concept of 'walkability' can be defined in many ways," Henry writes in their study. "Generally, however, there are three key factors which shape it: density (of dwellings, jobs, public spaces, etc), functional mix (the integration of land uses), and pedestrian network structure (connectivity, density, etc)." Skyrim fan works his 9-5 job from within the RPG, battling bandits while tackling emails and facing dragons during PowerPoints: "Work from home became work from Whiterun" Skyrim's Switch 2 port "runs like wet a**," players say GTA feels more alive than Cyberpunk 2077 because Night City "doesn't feel like a real place," says Skyrim artist Other than Solitude, whose low circuity measurements make it about as efficient to stroll in as Chicago, the rest of Skyrim's cities scored "worse than some car-centric suburbs in Texas," Henry says. "Overall, it appears that while most of Skyrim’s cities are walkable from a connectivity standpoint, they fall short at providing direct, efficient routes between residential locations and amenities," Henry observes. "I think the clear winner here is Solitude, given that it has the median Beta index and much lower average circuity. I guess the Imperial legion knows how to plan a city better than the Stormcloaks (or at least pick a better place for their headquarters)!" I just don't know how the Stormcloaks plan to lead an insurrection without decent sidewalks… Skyrim Switch 2 input lag is being investigated by Bethesda after players complained it made the RPG "unplayable," while the devs offer a potential solution in the meantime.
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Jan 14, 12:31 AM
i sold it.. high-quality !This is complex.
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ghostPlant
Jan 14, 12:01 AM
lol This is okay. Brand new.- Co-op is broken. 😤
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