Is it time to go back to Morrowind?

Huw the Poo · February 20, 2015, 04:25:03 AM

That was a great video Toonces, thanks for posting it! That guy sure does love Morrowind! He says the same things I've been saying for years to anyone who cared to listen. Morrowind is a masterpiece and totally unique, and that's why I'm so excited to finally be able to play it again; there's nothing else like it available on Windows, let alone Linux. I'm really glad you're enjoying it again.

Back when I first played it I actually kept an alchemy journal. I went out and bought a suitably olde-worlde notebook and wrote down all my observations about the reagents in the front, and all my precious recipes in the back. I wish I knew what happened to it.

Quote from: Toonces on February 19, 2015, 10:20:43 PM
At the risk of sounding snobby, I can see after playing the game a while now how it can be considered better than Skyrim.

I will argue this until the heat death of the universe. In fact I'll go one level snobbier and say that Morrowind is demonstrably a better game than the rest. I mean, take the interface as a single example. In Morrowind you just right-click, and it's all just there, everything you need, and even customisable too. The interfaces of Oblivion and Skyrim seem almost designed to get in your way and hinder gameplay. Sometimes I'll watch my lady playing Skyrim and shake my head in disbelief at the hoops it makes her jump through just to equip a sword or drink a potion.

Morrowind is a stunning accomplishment and represents Bethesda at the height of their powers. They've done nothing so impressive in the years since, in fact no developer has. It's one of the best games I've ever played and one of only a handful I keep going back to.

BanzaiCat · February 20, 2015, 07:23:02 AM

Okay, you guys make some compelling arguments. I put Morrowind on my wishlist...it's rather telling, too, that a 13-year-old game is $20 (though this IS Steam we're talking about, here, so it shouldn't be surprising).

Once I grab it on sale sometime I'll probably hit you guys up for what mods/updates I should apply to it.

Huw the Poo · February 20, 2015, 08:01:31 AM

Can you find a boxed copy anywhere Banzai? Cheaper than Steam. For example the GOTY edition is less than £5 on the UK Amazon.

Rayfer · February 20, 2015, 08:06:03 AM

toonces.....thanks for that video, it was quite excellent. I have Morrowind sitting in my Steam library...just might fire it up this weekend.

Shelldrake · February 20, 2015, 08:16:14 AM

Quote from: Banzai_Cat on February 20, 2015, 07:23:02 AM
Okay, you guys make some compelling arguments. I put Morrowind on my wishlist...it's rather telling, too, that a 13-year-old game is $20 (though this IS Steam we're talking about, here, so it shouldn't be surprising).

Once I grab it on sale sometime I'll probably hit you guys up for what mods/updates I should apply to it.

Amazon has the boxed GOTY version for $9.49 with free shipping.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Elder-Scrolls-III-Morrowind-Pc/dp/B0000CNUUP

BanzaiCat · February 20, 2015, 09:19:50 AM

Unfortunately, CDs and DVDs aren't an option. My PC is going on 8 years old and the DVD drive crapped out about 3 years ago. I've survived thanks to downloadable games.

However, once my bonus hits my account March 6, I'm going to get a new rig...I found one at Sam's Club that's a package deal, a 27" monitor with a desktop that has 12GB of RAM and a 1TB HD, and a 3.4GHz processor (currently I have 2GHz). This PC has seen me through some awesome gaming times since 2007, but it's time for an upgrade! I might grab a boxed version then. :)

Rayfer · February 20, 2015, 11:27:44 AM

Quote from: Banzai_Cat on February 20, 2015, 09:19:50 AM
Unfortunately, CDs and DVDs aren't an option. My PC is going on 8 years old and the DVD drive crapped out about 3 years ago. I've survived thanks to downloadable games.

However, once my bonus hits my account March 6, I'm going to get a new rig...I found one at Sam's Club that's a package deal, a 27" monitor with a desktop that has 12GB of RAM and a 1TB HD, and a 3.4GHz processor (currently I have 2GHz). This PC has seen me through some awesome gaming times since 2007, but it's time for an upgrade! I might grab a boxed version then. :)

I hope this isn't an inappropriate question....but, what's the price range of that pc at Sam's Club. I have 7 year old rig that is limiting my play to older titles. I got TW: Rome II in the last sales but can barely get it to run, and even with that the battles look awful.

BanzaiCat · February 20, 2015, 11:43:48 AM

Rayfer, no problem. It's $899. Here's the link:

http://www.samsclub.com/sams/hp-27-desktop-bndl-core-i7-4770/prod12560239.ip?navAction=push

My local Sam's Clubs don't have it, but it looks like they have one in a ghetto SC that's relatively nearby. Not sure I want it that bad to go do that. I might just order it online.

I'm looking at Sam's Club because I got this rig I have now (a Gateway FX) from Costco. It was a bundle with monitor/keyboard/mouse etc. and was $1700. That's probably one reason why it's lasted me so long, because it was an investment. I think the $899 price tag is pretty good for everything it's including, and the reviews are good (just one bad out of 24 or so reviews).

Toonces · February 20, 2015, 03:24:09 PM

Morrowind routinely goes on sale for pennies on Steam. Just be patient.

Sparhawk · February 20, 2015, 10:15:13 PM

After watching that video I really feel compelled to go back to Morrowind. To me the game was nothing less than magic. No game since has given me such immersion. I had no previous computer gaming experience to compare Morrowind to when I started playing, my first machine was 2 months old. My wife literally had to sit on my lap naked to get my attention. I loved the map sold with the game, you can locate different kinds of sites such as caves or shrines on it and I would explore and log in a notebook each one I came across. It was so easy to get your butt kicked to begin with and I quickly developed my favorite Elder Scrolls strategy of sneaking and sniping my way through dungeons that I use to this day in Skyrim. Morrowind had a way of humbling me as well: I had just finished the main quest and started the Tribunal expansion, feeling fully secure in my greatness and supreme power with my daedric waraxe of life stealing, I came across a character in Mournhold who attacked me and I promptly swung my axe a total of three times before I realized I was nearly dead. Wow, what a wake up call.
Great game, many aspects that I miss such as trying to maximize my attributes when leveling up. I loved flying, miss it.

Toonces · February 21, 2015, 03:36:53 AM

Huw the Poo · February 21, 2015, 09:24:17 AM

Well, while I agree that TES has been dumbed down since Morrowind, I think it's for different reasons and I didn't always agree with the points being made in the first video. That said, I don't think the second video properly addressed the issues either. For example, I don't recall an accusation of dumbing down the games in a deliberate attempt to make them appeal more to casual players - nevertheless I think that did happen for precisely that reason. The second video was wrong to call it an immature conspiracy theory and was also wrong to point out that different people worked on Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim; in a company like Bethesda (which was acquired by Zenimax, lest we forget) it's the people at the top who make that kind of decision, not the coders themselves.

Anyway. For me personally, both videos miss some of the main points. There's a raft of accusations that can be levelled at Oblivion and Skyrim. To name just a few examples:

Oblivion introduced automatic scaling. I understand the reasons why, but I don't agree with them at all. I remember when I first played Oblivion I quickly realised that there's no need to explore all those lovely caves, ruins and other dungeon-like places. You can just return to the same cave whenever you level up and hey presto - there's more loot and now it's better than what you found before! That's astonishingly immersion-breaking.

Lots of skills and associated items/weapons were removed during the transition from Morrowind to Oblivion, and more still were removed from Oblivion to Skyrim.

You're forced to focus on combat. This is a consequence of the auto-scaling. In Morrowind it's perfectly viable to play any kind of character you like. In Oblivion and Skyrim, though, monsters level up as you do so if you haven't been focusing on combat skills the game just gets tougher and tougher. I usually play a paladin-like character so it isn't a big deal for me, but is endlessly frustrating for my lady who always prefers to play thief-like characters.

The quest system (which is mentioned in the videos). This is partially down to personal preference but it can definitely illustrate the dumbing-down of the series. Oblivion and Skyrim give you lovely big pointers to everything you need to do, while Morrowind much more immersively records everything sequentially in a journal. One of the best illustrations of why this is good comes very early in the mage guild quest line. You're given the task of collecting some alchemical reagents for a mage. Instead of just pointing to each reagent with a bloody great arrow, a verbose description of the area in which they grow is written in your journal, along with written directions. Not only is this much more realistic, but it really involves you in the world. It's the mark of a design team who are immensely proud of the world they've created and want to show it off. It's a simple quest, but one of the best parts of the game in my opinion.

I could go on for ages, but essentially my point is yes, the TES series has absolutely been dumbed down since Morrowind. The intentions and reasoning don't really matter as far as I'm concerned, and I am aware that many people prefer the way Oblivion and Skyrim do certain things. That's fine. But for me personally, Morrowind is by far the superior game.