By: Stephen Crane
There is something incredibly brilliant about The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim as a massive single player game. It's such a full, lush world with interesting characters and stories just waiting to be made. Unfortunately not all of the characters are unique and often, despite the NPCs, things can get a bit lonely. Of course, given how mod-able the game is, it was only a matter of time before one plucky player got to work turning Skyrim into an online experience.
Skyrim Online is in the early stages of development as two developers, Maxime Griot and Charles-Antoine Patenaude, work very hard to meet community demands and deliver the online experience Skyrim deserves. It is currently in its earliest stages with a small list of features in place and a longer list on features waiting to be implemented. Currently races, positions, chat, and a very basic arena are set. Other features like mounts, authentication, voice chat, etc. are being worked on. Other listed goals include PVP, Guild vs. Guild, group quests, etc.
The community for this mod is pretty small, but dedicated. There is an average of 70 players online at a time with a max of 82 players at once. That comes out to a total of 14,000 connections. If you want to join in there are installation instructions on the website as well as plenty to read.