Outside of the income generated from his channel, YouTuber habie174 also earns a living via a standard 9-5 job that allows him to work from home. But as more and more remote workplaces are implementing return-to-office policies, habie147 fears his days as a remote worker may be numbered, and wants to find a way to make the most of his homebound workplace productivity before he’s dragged back to in-office work. The solution? Stop working from home, and start working from Tamriel.
The content creator (who frequently makes content about VR games) just uploaded a video of an experiment in which he spends his entire workday inside Skyrim VR, in the hopes it will keep him from getting distracted by the constant urge to check his phone.
“Would I even feel the need to scroll [on social media] if the view from my desk was a giant phosphorescent mushroom?” habie147 asks, referencing Skyrim‘s various appealing environments.
Thus, the first order of business was finding an acceptable spot to set up for the day. Habie147 initially tries to find a decent spot within the city limits of Whiterun or Solitude, but finding the perfect workspace isn’t as easy as one might think.
“Looking for good office space in Skyrim is like looking for a sex toy in a grocery store, because it makes you think, ‘Why am I doing this here?'” he explains, before eventually taking a seat on a tree stump at an abandoned campsite, summoning his workplace desktop via “a little SteamVR black magic,” and clocking in. He even sets himself up with a few quests for the day, which consist of scheduling some marketing emails, engaging in “random QuickBooks shenanigans,” finishing a PowerPoint presentation, farming contact information, and, most crucially, not getting fired.
Unfortunately, things go off the rails pretty fast. Not long after sitting down, habie147 is mugged at knifepoint by an NPC, causing him to search for more peaceful environs. He settles down in the middle of a stream, which works well until a dragon spots him and decides it wants some Dovahkiin for dinner. Finally, habie142 retreats underground to a peaceful cave full of glowing mushrooms and dwarven ruins, a locale that seems to yield the desired results.
“I don’t think I’ve checked my phone in an hour and a half,” he says.
However, all good things must come to an end. Habie147 says that after about two hours in the cave, “I did start to lose my mind a little bit.” He decides to end the day in the most peaceful area he can think of — the peak of the Throat of the World — and is in the middle of spawning in an aurora borealis when the unthinkable happens: the phone rings.
Ultimately, the YouTuber makes it through the call unscathed, and says he’d work in VR every day if headsets weren’t so heavy and uncomfortable to wear for long periods of time.
“This is the worst idea I’ve ever had,” habie147 admits. “But I’ve had it for a while, I’ve just been too scared to try it on the off chance my boss finds this video. But I’m hoping I can convince him I just faked all of this and none of it was real.”
On the bright side, I hear Silent Hill has a few vacant rooms available for curious VR aficionados. No word yet on what the office culture’s like, though.
