Sadly there's no english source but i thought some of you would enjoy this.
»Skyrim«: Das ist der 88-Jährige, der einen Aushang machte, um weiterzukommen - DER SPIEGEL
"Translated by google"
»Skyrim«: Das ist der 88-Jährige, der einen Aushang machte, um weiterzukommen - DER SPIEGEL
"Translated by google"
The man whose "request to the neighborhood" recently excited thousands of game fans moves his hands as if a controller were lying in them. "In the beginning, I miss being told what to do," says Klaus-Jürgen Langner about his introduction to "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim," one of the most popular video games of the 2010s.
Langner is sitting in front of his house in Berlin-Spandau, which he lives in with his wife, and he drinks grape spritzer. "I wanted to start playing and quickly realized: It's not that easy," says the 88-year-old. That is why he sought help, printed out a hundred posters and distributed them in his vicinity.
What was intended as a message to the neighbors became a social media hit. Last week, a photo of Langner's poster spread on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The notice was shared a thousand times, far beyond Berlin-Spandau. "How cute" and "very personable" was commented on, or also: "I think it's cool that he's still with us at that age." Apparently, many are fascinated when someone Langner's age is interested in video games.
»Skyrim« is a role-playing game, a complex work that demands a lot from the players. It is notorious for its huge fantasy world, in which one can spend tens or even hundreds of hours. Klaus-Jürgen Langner actually saw himself prepared for this, he has role-play experience.
A few years ago he played "Morrowind," he says, an earlier part of the "The Elder Scrolls" series, in English. It wasn't easy. But the game world of »Morrowind« captivated him, so Langner, wandering around and marveling at the landscape. At that time he was still playing on his PC. He wanted to try out »Skyrim« on it, but the device was already too old.
"An expert told us that it would be expensive if we upgrade the PC so that it could handle the game," says a neighbor and friend of Langner's. The 59-year-old is called Heinz and helped create and distribute the posters. Heinz also solved the problem with the PC: He went to a shopping center and bought Langner a Playstation 4 with a »Skyrim«.
When playing, however, Heinz could hardly help. "We didn't even manage to escape from the first fortress," he says, who doesn't know anything about games himself. "We walked all the walls but didn't find out." That is how the idea for the poster came about. "Klaus-Jürgen was looking for people who live in the area and who drop by from time to time to help," explains Heinz.
"Do what you think", Langner also takes this motto to heart in "Skyrim". He doesn't care about the story of the game, he says. He wants to experience the world, the huge glaciers and the wild rivers from whose whirlpools the fish jump. Only the beginning wouldn't be so difficult.
The desire to play "Skyrim" arose out of pain. His problem is the hip, says Langner, but according to his doctors he is already too old for an operation. When he read about Skyrim on the Internet, he thought of Morrowind. How the older series part made him forget the time while he concentrated on playing. He wanted to experience something like that again.
"When I set up the Playstation 4 and tried to install the game, Klaus-Jürgen was in bed with pain," reports neighbor Heinz. "But then the game was on and he sat down in front of the monitor. Lo and behold: the pain was blown away. "
Klaus-Jürgen Langner himself says that when he plays "Skyrim" he forgets his suffering. Then he focuses on the game, loses himself in its world. After playing, he sometimes has back pain, yes, but it's worth it. "I write my own stories there," he says, "I want to experience something".
He has now found support for the role play, says the 88-year-old, a nice young man from a youth camp in the area. He showed him and his friend Heinz how to escape the first area of "Skyrim". Now the game world is open to both of them.
It is not easy for him to remember which controller button has which function, says Langner. Or what all the symbols mean, which is shown to him on the screen. But if you watch him play, you will notice how much fun it gives him.
At the moment he is at a point where he comes across three boulders on a mountain slope. You should give his character special powers, Langner has to choose. He chooses to become a warrior first. "So that I don't always get blown away". Then the figure continues, the entrance to a dungeon is nearby. Is his character already strong enough to survive in it? "I'll just try it out," says Langner.
