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If you know me, you probably know that I love video games. I have several gaming systems, a massive library of games, and several books about the subject. I've made gaming YouTube videos, I've streamed games on Twitch, I watch gaming content, I keep up with the industry, and I (most importantly) play games almost every day.

To me, games are the most essential art medium in my life. That's because not only are games my favorite art medium, they're also the most diverse. In one game you could explore a 3D fantasy world as a monster-hunting mercenary, then boot up another game and solve a mystery in a 2D pixel art point-and-click game, then boot up another and manage a modern city of your own design, and so much more. And that only scratches the surface. There are so many genres of games, and so many games that break those genres.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is the game that truly launched my interested in games. I had played games for a good portion of my childhood, but Skyrim was the first game that showed me what was possible. It's a 3D fantasy game set in a fictional country called Skyrim. In this game, you can do and be anything you want. Yes, you can play the main story and "complete" the game, but it's truly open-ended. After you create your character, you can join factions, become a dungeon crawler, buy a house, complete quests, fight in a civil war, or even just chop wood of a living! The possibilities truly feel endless. I've been playing for almost 15 years, and there are things that I haven't seen in the game.

Skyrim captured my imagination and showed my 12-year-old self that video games can be truly incredible.