RPS@PAX 2022: Skyrim Grandma’s complete PAX East panel

One of my biggest highlights from PAX East a couple of weeks ago was attending Shirley Curry, aka: Skyrim Grandma’s panel about her roleplaying adventures in Bethesda’s enormous RPG. Despite suffering a stroke just a couple of months beforehand, the 85-year-old YouTuber was on fine form during her PAX East panel, speaking to a packed out theatre of fans and viewers who have spent the better part of six years following her various playthroughs through Skyrim as a multitude of different characters. She talked briefly about her writing and character creation process for her Let’s Play-style videos, before spending a whopping 45 minutes answering questions from the audience. These covered everything from her favourite things in Skyrim to her favourite, real-life candy, and also included a surprising number of horror game recommendations. In her own words, she loves stuff that’s “weird and creepy”, and has recently been looking for something new to play. “I’d really like to play a dark, scary game,” she said, and the audience were only too happy to oblige.

It was a truly wonderful way to spend a Saturday afternoon, and as soon as it was over, both Liam and I knew it was too good not to share. Here’s a written transcript of the entire audience Q&A in full, plus a summary of her opening speech, for your reading pleasure.