What Skyrim Gets Wrong (& Right) About Real Lockpicking

What Skyrim Gets Wrong (& Right) About Real Lockpicking

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Skyrim’s Lockpicking is a skill in that has a number of both accuracies and differences when compared to its real-life lockpicking counterpart.

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What Skyrim Gets Wrong (& Right) About Real Lockpicking

Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a game that certainly encourages some roguery in the form of breaking into locks, but those not skilled in real-world lockpicking may well wonder whether or not there’s much truth to the process. Lockpicking is one of the many Skyrim skill trees that can be leveled up, in this case in order to access more difficult locks and get to the precious loot inside. The game’s version of how lockpicking works is surprisingly well-researched, but there are still some inaccuracies compared to the real thing.

Lockpicking, like many skills in Skyrim, is a practice that can technically be ignored, just as the player can choose whether they want to be an archer or a swordsman, or be an honest hero or thief. It does, however, provide an interesting means to bypass certain doors that may otherwise need keys or to open chests that contain valuable gear and gold.

In the real world, lockpicking is mainly just a hobby for most, only becoming necessary for professional locksmiths to help people who have lost their keys. It is, however, considered an official sport, and tournaments are held to find the most skilled lockpickers all over the world (though they aren’t aiming to steal anything).

What Skyrim Gets Right About Lockpicking

What Skyrim Gets Wrong (& Right) About Real Lockpicking

First of all, Skyrim’s stealth skill system seems to understand a few key aspects about the art of lockpicking. The player can clearly be seen using what’s known as a tension tool alongside the actual lockpick. The tension tool is important because it applies a small amount of torsion to the internal mechanism in order to stop the unlocked pins from slipping back down while the others are being worked on. Skyrim makes full use of this essential tool, although the player only has to worry about the lockpick, as the tension tool is essentially applied automatically – a simplification of the process.

Another factor that comes into play in both real and Skyrim lockpicking is the inherent inability to actually see what’s happening inside the lock. This means that picking a lock requires careful precision and imagination, as well as a great deal of patience. The game definitely forces the player to be patient, as there is no quick fix to opening a difficult lock. The Dragonborn merely has to keep trying until they get it right, and any rushing risks a pile of broken lockpicks.

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One more interesting addition to the lockpicking art in Skyrim is that of the Skeleton Key. During Skyrim’s Thieves Guild questline wherein the player eventually becomes an agent of Nocturnal, they receive an artifact known as the Skeleton Key. The ultimate aim is for players to hand the key back over to Nocturnal, but many decide to keep it instead since it functions as a lockpick that never breaks. The real-life Skeleton Key is far less dramatic. It’s merely a term given to a specialized key that’s designed to fit a wide variety of common locks. It does hold significant symbolism, however, in art and culture, often being thought of as a symbol of the discovery of secrets, something the developers were likely aware of when creating Skyrim’s coveted Skeleton Key.

Of course, not all locks can be picked, and this is the case in Skyrim as well. This is mainly to prevent passing through doors or taking items that the player has not yet earned, or to prevent overpowered abuse of Skyrim’s sneak skill, and the key for those locks is often part of a greater reward. Similarly, there are some high-security locks in the real world that just cannot be picked by traditional means even by experts, especially those that need a password instead of a key.

Finally, while pickpocketing in Skyrim won’t get you in trouble unless you actually steal what’s inside, this is not the case for lockpicking. The player has to be sneaky about it, often literally, using the Sneak skill to hide from NPCs who will object to the invasion of privacy, whether you take anything or not. This is another realistic touch, as while lockpicking in and of itself is not illegal, it’s a tough thing to disguise as anything else, and likely enough to get someone in trouble.

How Skyrim Gets Lockpicking Wrong

Despite these homages to real-life lockpicking, there are some inaccuracies in the way this art is depicted in Skyrim. For example, players must figure out how to open locks of varying difficulty in-game, from novice to expert. The harder the lock is to open, the easier it is to break your lockpick and have to start again. While this makes sense from a gameplay perspective in the way of adding an extra layer of difficulty, it doesn’t quite hold up in the real world. An actual lockpick is unlikely to break or even bend, as they are deliberately designed to withstand the strain put on them when picking a lock. Because Skyrim’s method of lockpicking requires a trial-and-error style of using many lockpicks, players usually find themselves hoarding hundreds of the tiny tools just in case. In real life, a lockpicker would only need a handful of different shapes, not loads of the same kind.

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It’s not clear what century The Elder Scrolls would exist in if it were real, but the technology in the game suggests that its locks would definitely not use electrical components as some modern locks do. With that being said, the Dwemer, or dwarven inhabitants of Skyrim, have left behind the technology that would likely make picking their locks very difficult. If the dwarves have automatons and steam engines that still work centuries later, one might think their locks would hold up better. Another problem in Skyrim is that many inhabitants can easily use magic to freeze or blast open a lock, something the player is never able to do, regardless of being the most powerful being in the world. While a real-life lockpicker could resort to using liquid nitrogen or a blowtorch, the magic system in Skyrim makes old-fashioned locks basically obsolete.

Overall, Skyrim got a lot of it right. Locks in the real world can definitely range in difficulty when it comes to lockpicking, and each lock that is successfully opened does make for a valuable gain in experience. It is a complex art that requires much patience and skill, the right tools, and relies on feel rather than sight. Many Elder Scrolls veterans might find locks an interesting hobby after playing so many quest-filled hours of Skyrim’s story; but even if it’s not illegal, it’s still not advisable to go around town picking every lock in sight.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/skyrim-lockpicking-real-difference-wrong-elder-scrolls/

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