I stumbled on a fantastic piece of “The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind” fan-art whilst browsing the ever-time-consuming DeviantArt and it got me all nostalgic. The picture is titled “Morrowind Days” and drawn by DA user SnowSkadi.
And that about sums the game up. Everything that made “Morrowind” (and “Tribunal”) so utterly fantastic. Sure there were technical problems, things that could have been done better, unbalanced gameplay. But whatever, that’s life. And for every flaw, every inconvenience, there was something so real and lifelike about that world where you would get destroyed if you set one unprepared foot out of Seyda Neen and into that memorable cave of slavers.
It’s all coming back — learning about the Dwemer, finding Fargoth’s Ring, visiting Vivec for the first time, avoiding the ever annoying cliff racers. The design was incredibly imaginative, taking a step beyond the generic medieval fantasy fare of “Oblivion.”
I remember being overwhelmed by the network of ziggurats and bridges in Vivec, seeing the mushroom buildings of Sadrith Mora for the first time, and thinking that the Silt Strider (big bug bus) outside of Seyda Neen was an enemy.
In “Morrowind,” you really felt like you were starting out as an adventurer in a strange and dangerous world. The massive world was open to you from the beginning, although some parts of it were so out of your league as to be inaccessible. You didn’t start out by meeting the Emperor and his heir as you do in “Oblivion,” but by working for a crazy old man in Balmora and trying to put together a little bit of cash.
The main quest was a lot of fun, but there were hundreds of things to do on the side, whether it was clearing rats out of a cellar for the Fighter’s Guild, slaughtering a cave of bandits for their Skooma, or selling a shop owner’s stolen merchandise back to him.
Despite all of the improvements in “Oblivion” — the radiant AI, the incredible graphics, horses and quick travel — the world of “Morrowind” felt more real. There was danger, and there were things to explore that you’d never seen before.
You had to work your ass off to become an influential player in Vvardenfell, and when you did reach that level, when you had talked to Vivec and cleared the skies over Red Mountain and taken over a Great House, it came with a sense of accomplishment I never felt in “Oblivion.”
Even more than that, I remember the feeling of being in that world, of standing on a porch in Seyda Neen and watching the rain while a giant jellyfish flew by in the distance.
rules
Morrowind was the greatest open play rpg ever, except for that stupid game crashing glitch. I loved the fact that you could rob a house of everything that wasnt nailed down and pawn it for cash. iv never beat the game legit, i was always too busy looting and exploring.
Morrowind was most likely the GREATEST game ive ever played, i never actually finished the main quest seeing as i never had the time cause it takes more than 3 hours like oblivions main quest which may i ad finished yesterday for the billionth time as it starts getting boreing im going back to morrowind tonight. As soon as Oblivion came out i droped morrowind thinking that oblivion was the better rpg but sadly mistaken, then my brother scratched my morrowind cd to hell and i got a disc docter thing and never really got back into it. i do think that everything about morrowind seemed more real and diverse and open to the player. and think that it is a game that will be in history forever. ive seen some other forums about whats wanted in ESV and i say it needs to be more like morrowind, needs more flaws, that make it feel realistic. it needs longer main quests and more side quests. it needs some of what it missed out on in ESIV and i think over all the world you play in needs to be bigger. if you look on the map of cyrodil and compare the island part of morrowind (only part you can play in) it should be bigger and there fore have more to do, but no you cant, i was expecting it to be a much bigger game when i began playing oblivion and was sadly mistaken, so yea :/ PS:i have that fan art as my background now
the only thing the pictures missing is yagrum bigarn!
I agree that morrowind is way better then oblivion. in Oblivion i always felt like i was forced to do everything, and the main quest was way too short. The guilds were way too easy too finish, and you could unrealistically be the master of all the guilds, wich there were way too few of. All the landscapes look the same, green forest with gray castles unless you go north. Then its white snow with gray castles. Morrowind was always changing, yet never forcing me to do anything.
-oh, and the fan-art is my backround now!
WOW LMAO
Wow, that may be the best descriptions of my feeling playing that game. I, however pathetic this may seem, still play morrowind.It is probably my favorite game ever,which is saying something, as I have wasted far too much of my life on video games. I think this is an excellent article and gives a great description of the difference between Oblivion and Morrowind. Kudos to the writer!
Sorry for the poor grammar in that comment.
What you said basically summed up my feelings; I actually felt a tear, true story. Morrowind was by far teh best game I have ever played!!!!
Morrowind is often critisized for its lack of visual textures and human expressions, but it has a seemingly endless amount of quests, dungeons, and lands to explore. Oblivion certainly has better graphics, but it feels too much like a medival fairy tale with a poor history and a linear story line. On the other hand, Morrowind has its history is spread out over hundreds of books and seemingly endless quests.
(There are at least 1020 side quests)
“…some players have logged more than 700 hours on it. The game continues to be sold on store shelves, six years after its initial release, partially due to the widespread mod community, which has the potential to supply Morrowind with new content in perpetuity.” - the unnoficial Elder Scrolls pages
“After “finishing” Morrowind, I’m left wordless to describe the experience. I could use words like “good”, “great” or “fantastic.” Even “superb”, but they all fall short somehow.”- the armchair empire
I cannot even express the feelings ive gotten from you people just from reading this. It feels like family man. Morrorwind is the most amazing,mind blowing, and not to mention, time taking game I have ever played. Yet it had its cold sense of lonliness that you were alone in the world, without anyone to trust or even any family. The kind of atmosphere that turns your character into a heartless bastard. Or even maybe the exact opposite. This game has opened up so many possiblities of choice that it outdoes real life. I love the fanart, they did a great job. But we all know that not even the largest of canvases could you fit all of the glory of Morrowind on. Just to fathom the INSANE amount of detail put into this game is unbeleivable. Look at all the books! Not to mention that alot of them had very hard to understand grammar in it. Look at all the kallops underwater. I mean, mowwoind had the qualities of a real world. Anyone who knows anything about “good” will agree with me that this game is an amazing peice of work, and the people at bethesda should get a nice cold one for it. Kudo’s to morrowind and all of its fantastic glory, and may we yet see another one of even greater brilliance from bethesda soon!
Absolutely the best. I agree with everybody up there, Morrowind kicks Oblivion’s butt soooooooooooooooooooo many times… Oblivion was awesome, don’t get me wrong, but Morrowind was like 3x bigger in fun. Where are my lances in Oblivion???? And my shurikens??? And the fun-to-explore sunken ships???? And the great diversity of cities??? And where is that feeling of having progressed your character, if the enemies in Oblivion get even stronger and, what took 3 blows to kill in Level 1, now takes 20 to kill in level 30??? ( Skeletons, for example.)
Definitely. I spent 4 years playing both editions of Morrowind, and only about a year playing Oblivion.
My biggest gripe over Oblivion was how upgrading your skills was LITERALLY divided into 5 sections. If you were level 49 with swords, you might as well consider yourself level 25 until you reach 50. B.S.! In Morrowind, level 34 and level 40 showed SOME sign of improvement.
Also, where the HELL WAS THE LOOT in Oblivion? Morrowind had a never-ending opportunity to fumble upon a crate full of 12,000 gold, a one-of-a-kind sword, and all kinds of magic items not found in stores! Oblivion had crate after crate of SPOONS, CANDLES, and MAYBE 5 gold on a GOOD day! It completely KILLED the desire to sneak into houses and steal their stuff, which would have been AMAZING because all the houses and towns were all so different!
Lastly, although Morrowind does become REALLY unbalanced (after 3 years of playing one character) where you can make potions with 3000+ point upgrades and such, Oblivion seemed REALLY FORCED to “balance” the game out. You couldn’t make spells too powerful, potions too powerful, you couldn’t fortify abilities past a certain amount, etc. I could understand why, but I enjoyed being more powerful than Vivec in Morrowind!
hahaha
Everything this blogger wrote is 100% true. walking unprepared out of Seyda Neen was truly gripping. Oblivion didn’t really have that. I felt like I was walking through the a US state park.
I just picked Morrowind back up again, this time as a strict adherent of the Temple. It’s amazing to reenter the game time and time again, expecting the gameplay to get repetitive, and yet there’s always a totally new way to approach the world. It feels like I’ll never tire of the game.
ahh morrrowind a good game i think they shoul remake it with batter grapphics but it will always be a god game
Hi all,
I,too,just felt a tear rise within my eye,reading the words of the author.Makes me wish to add my own thoughts and feelings about my first encounter with our beloved MW. The first person I saw was Jiub. He was soo cool and calm,with such a fine voice,easing your mind as you get ready to go out into the new world.(I since have saved him,and he is my yummy companion.A mod was created for this,since he is so popular.)
I suddenly felt as if the whole world had changed,literally. The way my PC area is set up,there is no light but for over the keyboard,it’s a tiny golden light to see only the keys,a Skull lamp with an low amber bulb,plus the screen itself.My screen is a rather large flat screen,and I lean into it kinda.Theres plenty of room in front of the screen on my desk,so I was about to become totally submerged in Morrowind. I had had no pre-knowledge of this game either.No idea at all. I had never played any PC RPG game other than Diablo 1&2. Nothing. I’m handicapped,and dont go out,hardly at all,so I’d been playing silly little games like Bejeweled,etc,and Diablo forever. My friend came over and said I had played Diablo enough,so he put Morrowind in and left.Poof! No instruction or anything. Oh,..well,he DID lay a big brownish book down on my desk.That much he did.Thank God! Lol! I was soooo not ready for anything like this,and it knocked me for a loop when I walked up the stairs and out onto the ship deck. I stopped and went,..WOW,..just wow,then OhMyGod.
I fell immediately in love with what was to be my home since 2004.Yup,..I still live there too.
I did try Oblivion. (My friend Jim likes that better,after for some reason,which is why I got his MW disc.)I really gave Oblivion a good go,but nope. I have to agree with others here who say it is too controlling.It just wont let you get comfortable and live in it,which MW does.
My signature on PES is::
“Oblivion is a playgrOund,Morrowind is Home”.
With all the mods that keep coming out for Morrowind,nearly every day still,the world grows,and in endless ways.There is even one mod that lets you get married and have a family.Another will let you play as a prostitute,or have a lovely romance,and then the other mod that conects both mods together for the ultimate living Morrowind. I also have turned several of my handicapped friends on to MW adn their quality of life has grown immensely. They dont feel bored,sad,or listless anymore! Keeps their minds going and occupied.Sooo cool! Now we have a full little community of people who meet in the ballroom of our building weekly.Lol! I hope that doesnt sound silly,cos it has really helped people,more than just some game.It’s all that freedom to move,and non linear living to do! I know there will never be another game as incredibly awesome as this one,..unless Bethesda combines Oblivion with Morrowind. Just put Ob’s graphics into MW and that is all you need,oh,..and the full lot of landmasses onboard.I did a poll,asking all the people I emailed who play MW if they would pay much more money for a new combined Morrow-blivion,and they said yes. I said”$75.00?”,they said yes.I said,”$100.00?”they said yes.Without hesitation. I said “$150.00?”,..they also said yes. I know I would pay it.
Sorry I got carried away,but it feels really nice here,and I so very much enjoyed not only the authors post,but each of yours as well.Thank you for an enjoyable moment of reading,guys.
**Sorry for any typo’s,..I took my pain pills a little bit ago,so I’m driftin’.
Take care,
Sandy
ps,
Your thoughts are being kept by me for my MW Nostalgia Archive.
You all are so right. Morrowind was certainly the best RPG I’ve ever played, and i think, the best ever made. Oblivion was too storybook-ish. If they make ESV, it should be just like morrowind with better graphics and new quests and a new story. It should also involve the entire world, not just one region. Imagine the jungle homeland of the kajit or the swamplands of the Argonians. Or better, a slightly different storyline for each race. Only a game with these things would surpass Morrowind. I’m gonna go play it now. Not even kidding. As soon as I post this comment I’m off in the Island homeland of the Dunmer.
Wow! This picture is soo great. And I agree with what many people have said. Even when I hear the theme to Morrowind it sends a little chill up my spine. I am still playing the game and I just got a friend into it. It doesn’t matter that it came out years ago and the graphics are a little outdated, the story, the quests, and the world in general more than make up for that. I love the game so much (eventhough sometimes I get afraid while playing it) because it feels more realistic and any other I have played. You start out as a pathetic player and work very hard until you improve and gain some status. And you feel like you acomplished something. I did not feel that way when I became Arch-Mage (sp?) in Oblivion. I am going to play Morrowind again tonight now that I’m thinking of it. Just my 2 cents.
This brings such great memories. I remember playing Morrowind, it was one of the most fun games I’ve ever played, and this picture displays it perfectly. I still play Oblivion, I guess it’s time to put old Morrowind into the drive again.
Morrowind is not the best RPG ever. It is the only computer RPG ever. Morrowind is not a story that you are pushed through, or even one of those games that claims to be limitless just because it has optional sidequests. Morrowind puts you in a world, and lets you do whatever you want with it. It is literally impossible to finish Morrowind, because even stting aside the specific quests, of which there are thousands (some of which, particularly the houses, guilds, and vampire sects, are mutually exclusive at high levels, requiring multiple characters to go through), there are cities full of people and buildings, and over a continent worth of caves, temples, and weird stuff that could take a lifetime of continuous gameplay to truly explore. Long live the talking mudcrab merchant.
Dude! When I saw this I seriously cried. The game really is that good. Iv’e been playing this game for years on the old xbox, and now iv’e upgraded to playing it on pc and modding
I totaly agree with all the others, Morrowind really did pwn Oblivion. I mean Oblivion was a good game, but come on Bethesda. Why make me into an exploring item hog on Morrowind, only to try and force me back in Oblivion? It really depressed me that I couldn’t cart everything out of Oblivions first dungeon and sell it. I was really excited for Oblivion when I heard that they were going to have buyable property and horses and the game just looked so much more epic than Morrowind. Then I played it and gave up after looting everything in site in the Imperial city for several hours, and still not having enough to buy the cheapest house in the game. At least in Morrowind I could just steal a house to store things in as long as I remembered to return every 72 hours and interact with everything so it wouldn’t disapear. You don’t even need a new game as far as im concerned, with all the mods out there that improve the graphics and add quests and landmasses, you could keep playing indefinately.
when i first played oblivion, i thought that i would never play morrowind ever agin. that was antill i found out that there was no spers, scerts,(not that i wear them), citen armer, and lost of other main stuff. The only rilly big thing that i LOVEd was the costomisation of the charicter. though u couldent have wiked dark elf face tatoos.(dark elfs in oblivion looked gay by the way).
hey, how come morrowind has fallen off the radar recently? how bout we go out there promote morrowind, kick ass, kill some netch, blah blah blah, i mean, people wanted oblivion for the houses and horses right? two mods that came out weeks after release gave horses and houses to buy! a few other mods let you rotate items in game, others still let you move (and steal) furniture! come on, with all the mods out there why did we go to the oblivion thing? so come on ’sera’ and give morrowind a second, third, fourth and as many chances you need to make the game fun, its worth it you n’wah!
I agree I just bought Morrowind at Gamestop and I’ve completly stopped playing Oblivion, sure the graphics might not be as good but you have a much stronger feeling of accomplishment when you do things and the monsters aren’t leveled now make it quick outlanders and go play
Totally agree with your sentiment. Its like Morrowind was some huge murky ocean, with millions of caves to explore, and Oblivion is a shallow little play pool with slightly better graphics.
And most of all, Morrowind scared me. It did. Just taking that first step out Seyda Neen onto the long and winding road was terrifying.
And Morrowinds MUSIC! AH! SWEET JOY! BEAUTIOUS! FANTASTIC! Just listening to it on media player brings back the mushrooms, the cogs, the first sight of Vivec through the fog, the walking into a library and reading everything, the glimpse of an undiscovered monster that causes you to run like shit. ARKHAN! DAMN! WHAT A STORY!
Oh yeh, and the fact that you were free to muck up the world if you liked, by killing caeus cosades or vivec or some other quest character, instead of just being told that they were ‘unconcious’.
Despite the game having some horribly broken mechanics, it is my favourite game of all time.
I’m not finding my cd and reinstalling for more morrowind fun.
I found the game relaxing and humbling. Dwemer caves had a good feel. What bugged me was the loading times (xbox version). Apart from that, it was a real exploration game, with no demand to complete quests.
Morrowind changed everything everyone knew about playing games simply by removing the barrier between absolute freedom and those long “If you could just do this it would be awesome” talks you have with your friends about other games.
Morrowind is a great game that is now my current favorite game ever. I have played Oblivion ( i do not have it) and my friend is convinced that it is better than Morrowind. But Morrowind is the best game i ever played. I have Morrowind and I play it all the time whenever I get the chance. My other friend, who said cliff racers suck (above me), calls me occasionally and we talked for two hours straight about Morrowind. sometimes we aren’t even playing the game but we still talk over the phone.
the game is far better than Oblivion and is definately a work of art. The graphics are definately old, but the gameplay is all I care about. The quests are so much fun! I have the game of the year edition (XBOX) and beat all 3 main quests for bloodmoon, Tribunal, and of course Morrowind. The only thing is that i had cheated on the game w/ health and magicka cheats. So now I started a game without cheating and it is so much more satisfying knowing that I actually worked hard to get where I am.
One funny thing about both Morrowind and Oblivion, is actually the lack of children! There are no children in Morrowind! Also my friend told me that people don’t move at all… But the game is definately the best game I ever played and is my all time favorite.
PS the Artwork is great up there and is my favorite ever.
PSS I know this is a bit critical to Morrowind because it may be better than Morrowind. No one has compared Morrowind to Bethesda’s Falout 3… Don’t get me wrong either, Morrowind will definately always stay in my XBOX collection and will definately NOT collect a single spec of dust, unless of course it is collecting dust while in my XBOX
XD
PSSS I always laugh when I look at Vivec’s expression in the art.
XD
You know what would be awesome? Morrowind Total War.
You know what would be cool. Morrowind/Elder Scrolls Total War. Would be awesome with all the great houses and we could have nords and imperials and god knows what else invading Morrowind.
Hello, my name is Jessta.
-hello Jessta.
I have been a cheat addict for forever and i renounce my ways.
-Good for you.
Amen.
I’m surprised to see so many people agreeing with me about MW in comparison with Oblivion. I really love Oblivion, but the atmosphere, story and gameplay of MW was loads better than Oblivion.
The modding scene for it amazing, too.
I HIGHLY doubt I’ll dig any game more than MW.
I once found a master trainer in a random cave…
looking at this actually drew a tear from my eye. Genuinely I am crying right now because of all those fond memories of Morrowind. As a gamer first, and forever beating the crap out of every aspect of Morrowind, without using a single cheat or exploit, all on my own. It is my most proud accomplishment to date. I don’t ever let my friends borrow my copy because it’s a really hard game to find where I come from. I refuse to let them play it because I fear they will cheat their way to the end, or just turn the difficulty straight to the bottom, and it breaks my heart whenever anyone does that, depriving themselves of the epic adventure of Morrowind. Oblivion was such a dissapointment it made me cry, but in a bad way. I was expecting to continue the epic adventures of my favorite Khajiit pal Redeyes, when the utter dissapointment shattered me.
what frustrated me especially in Oblivion was that a decent weapon that I would find early on would become mere crap in a matter of levels and all the guards and bandits would automatically have something better and they would get faster and stronger like theyve been secretly taking steroids and opening crate after crate of yarn single gold pieces and other craptacular stuff like that. The thing about Morrowind is that you could find something great that you could use for the rest of the game and wouldn’t have to worry about an npc catching up with you
If you have Oblivion on PC you can put Morrowind into Oblivion. Infact, you can add the entire continent and all the islands. And viewable distant objects, and push the view distance, and redo all the texxtures with high res ones. My Data folder is over 22 gigs, it’s crazy and thanks to a lot of talented modders, it all looks great. Best of all worlds, ace of all trades. Modding is amazing. This is why PC rapes Console.
Orcs don’t have TAILS!!!!!!!!
The vital comparison between Morrowind and Oblivion is that in Oblivion, you are given a pat on the back and a welcome from everybody prettymuch wherever you go. Everything is levelled to you. Stepping out of the tutorial dungeon, you know immediately that you could take a potion or two, use a poison and take down Umbra or any other tough character in the game. It is the demeaning knowledge of the fact that you will run into nothing but baby scamps if you choose to play at a low level through the game, and you will still dominate every bandit and NPC you come across. The levelling system is not rewarding, neither are the items. Once you hit a high level and start getting glass and daedric weapons and armour, suddenly it’s the NEW FASHION and everyone outback is wearing it. WHAT HAPPENED? In Morrowind, daedric armour was so rare, that you had to buy the expansions to get each pauldron, else kill Divayth Fyr, a required storyline character!
Onto Morrowind. You are pulled out of prison and stuck in the hold of a murky boat, docking at a rundown town by the name of Seyda Neen. You open the hatch, go through the formal procedure of obtaining your papers for release, (then steal everything in the back rooms), get outside as the game finishes teaching you how to view your menus, attack, move and jump, and then tells you: “You’re on your own now. Good luck!”
“… Wait… what? No, don’t go yet! Come back! But where exactly am I? Where do I go? Who’s this guy I have to take some random package to? What and where is this place called Balmora? How do I even pronounce or remember all the names and information I’ve just been drowned in? I can’t even remember the name of the town I’m in!”
You step outside, hoping that the town’s inhabitants will be welcoming.
“My time is precious so make it quick!”
“How do you do outlander?”
Nope. Prettymuch everyone hates you, not because of anything you’ve done, namely because you HAVEN’T done anything yet. As well as that, they know somehow that you’re a foreigner. It must be the look on your face and the quivering lower lip; the expression of a lost little child.
In Morrowind, you are not welcomed warmly. You are pushed into an uninviting culture predominantly of irritated Dark Elves (and others) who are already tired of the damned foreigners and Imperials getting onto THEIR land. It is up to you to prove yourself. To gain some trust and respect. When you finally gear up and head out of town, you may stumble across a cavern door.
“Addamasartus eh? Maybe I can spend the night in here.”
Wrong. And it is all too likely that your first experience with bandits will be a fatal one. You are little more than a novice with a weapon, you are wearing 2nd hand mismatched armour bartered with your few gold coins of release grant from town, no wonder you didn’t survive.
“Holy crap, and those are the weak characters obviously. How will I survive in this place?”
Morrowind makes you feel constrained to begin with. You are fearful of travelling out of town lest you die, but you know inevitably that you must. When you finally clear a cave or ruin and return to town to sell some loot having already learned the practical way as most players do about that little thing called ‘encumbrance’, you are joyous that you have made a little bit of gold. And now the game begins to kick off. Further explorations, travelling to new places, and that occasion when you check your world map for the first time.
“Okay so from here to here took me ten minutes, so from here to…. here should take… $#!@”
The game is huge. No quick travel for the weak as in Oblivion. And it’s the movement by foot that makes you discover new places and people. It may take a while to finally feel as though you ‘belong’ in Morrowind, but when you do, the game reaches a new level. Adventuring goes from being dangerous to being FUN. And that is a majority of the game too from then on. Levelling gives you more advantage over the non levelled creatures and baddies, and your hardened resolve and grit, will see you becoming the crypt raider, the beast slayer, the demon and nemesis to every bandit, and the master of every ability that makes you a true hero within the game. Not having conquered just enemies, but having conquered the larger part of a country, which was foreign to you at the start.
Every player who gets this far in Morrowind feels like a hero, feels a sense of accomplishment and reward. When a new friend starts playing the game and shows off their first prize item, you can humble them by revealing your array of acquired loot throughout your days lost in Morrowind.
This game is huge. This game is epic. Screw the fact that bugs still exist. Screw the fact that the graphics are no longer on par with today’s games. The immersive experience is the diamond under the dust of the few faults. Scrub that dust off and see Morrowind for the gem it really is. For anyone who has only played Oblivion, and is contemplating Morrowind. Burn Oblivion. Throw it away. Break the cd. For the price it cost you to buy Oblivion for any platform, you and 5 other friends could all be enjoying a better RPG gaming experience surpassed by none other.
I know at least in Australia that many post offices sell Morrowind for pc. It’ll be the best ten bucks you EVER spend.
Get Morrowind and play it. It’s totally worth it.
absolutely love it. i will continue to play it forever. I have played it for years and years and i still find new things. Like when you go to kill dagorth ur there is a imperial vet called wulf in the tower of dusk. He gives you a old mans lucky coin. when you come back he has disappeared. when you ask about him no one how he is and have never heard of him. Oh and he looks identical to casius casaduis (i can’t remember how to spell his name) coincidence. I think not.
Oh and there was an update so you can play morrowind on the 360 huzzah.
morrowind is better cuz its biggerald
Oh for someone who morrowind doesn’t have children there is a awsome mod called children of morrowind that loads of children and childrens items,clothes and stuff. You can also get pregnant women teenagers and teen clothes and items and women with babies on there backs.
Yep its awsome
PSmodding makes morrowind unique!
who wants to have children ?! xDD
Absolutely love this. I still play Morrowind to this day, and I’ve become my own master at modding, so it’ll never get old (I do tend to spend more time making new content than playing it, god what a nerd). However I noticed this fan is missing one of the most critical part of every game, no matter who you are and what style you play: the boots of blinding speed! Running into a rock or signpost at +200 speed never gets old!
I agree on Morrowind’s awesomeness. I never beat the main quest on Morrowind. That’s because there’s just so much to do besides that! And exploring never gets boring like it does in Oblivion because it’s all so DIFFERENT. Even though everyone has one of about five faces and hairstyles for their race they somehow still manage to be more interesting. Boots of Blinding Speed: you know a game is realistic when there is a way to be blind in it. : )
yep…. there is just too many thing in morrowind to describe why is this game so good
Sigh. You have just persuaded me to go right back and install it again. Kiss off, Oblivion; I want to get called ’scum,’ in that sexy gravelly voice again, as I stand in front of the Palace of Vivec.
Wonderful sum up of Morrowind. There was only one game I’ve ever played that was better than Morrowind. And that was the Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall. I think Bethesda really lost their luster when they went mainstream. Oblivion and Fallout 3 seem to me like they weren’t made with the dedication and the idealistic nature that Bethesda used to have. My friend told me that Bethesda were attempting to make the Elder Scrolls 5 have a gigantic explorable world, kind of like Daggerfall did, so maybe there’s hope for them yet. Oh and if you enjoyed Morrowind you really must try Daggerfall. It’s textural design doesn’t have as much quality as Morrowind, but the world is much bigger and it almost feels as if you’re in a simulation of Tamriel when you play it.
Good times, Reminds me of playing world of warcraft for the first time not knowing that quests give you experience. Killing things to level 7 and having your brother tell you that is a waist of your time just do quests it gives more exp….
Great blog you got here…keep up the good work.
I liked your blog a lot.
Have to agree about Daggerfall. Best of the series. But I digress. Morrowind is tough to beat. I love making telekinesis potions and sneaking in to steal something from afar.
Nords are awesome!
I think single player rpgs own MMORPGS anyday. There isn’t the pressure to be the best, you’re your own man. You can hardcore grind for 10 hours a day and reach lvl20 then look on the leaderboards and find lvl120s and you think whats the point. With morrowind there is never the pressure to kill monsters to get that vital bit of XP, you can do what you want!
PS Runescape sucks. Bigtime
The first time I ever played morrowind was in a game lounge…. I had spent 3 hours playing Allied Assault (anyone remember those days?), when my friend appeared from the shadows and said hey, try this game out… he was talking about Morrowind. I went with him to a little dark room with about 6 PC there was nobody in that room. I sat next to him in the corner and booted up what would become the GREATES GAME OF ALL TIME FOR ME. Morrowind. I was stunned by the amount of detail that went into the character creation… I didn’t want to waste all my time so I quickly made an avatar. I had made an Aragonian, I had little knowledge of anything about the game the skills that are required and proceeded out of the census office. Right away I was having so much fun running around punching random people…. until I climbed a building and jumped to my death… It was time for my friend and I to leave the game lounge anyways but that little time I spent playing Morrowind I was hooked for life. Later on about a couple of month’s later my friend had told me that he had bought Morrowind at the local 20/20 Store.
I had then spent most of my time at his house were we would take turns playing this game. Until the day when I got enough courage to go to the Red Mountain Region. There in a Dwemar dungeon I came across the Keening Blade. I had some kind of predetermined knowledge that I should not use this weapon. I was right when i had returned to the city I tried to equip the weapon and I had died. Then I figured out a glitch with the game I was randomly cycling between weapons and I had the Keening Blade in my inventory that had permanently increased my stats
to that of a god. I still play Morrowind to this day it is by far the best game ever.
Oblivion suck nothing to say about it.
Love the Art work, great job on it, was this done on the computer?
OMG, all u peoples that wrote, u totally ripped the entire speech i was about to give right out of my mouth. Kudos to the artist, this is positively the work of a genius.
Oh, and i really like the proportions of this, it reminds me of Cortex Command, really cool, u should look at the drawings from the Cortex Command website and compare it to this, complete, unadultarated awesomness
I play video games since… 1982 I think? This is the best game ever for one specific reason in my opinion: not only it’s damn good (many other games are damn good), but it’s an artistic materpiece. All the architectures, the cultural background, the coherent political and religious system, the history behind…. It’s the only game that recreated a world AND real people, not only a bunch of interesting individuals but a complete and realistic society. And the freedom in this game, all these things to discover… Oblivion is more a pale caricature than a successor, it’s just a scenarized FPS in my opinion. Even exploring the caves is useless, you have daedric stuff by killing any road thug after a while. Thugs who don’t have 3 penny but ehay can all afford a complete Daedric Set. Ridiculous.
First time I played Morrowind was something I played first without opening the manual as usual, then went out in the countryside with a dagger totally unadapted to my skills. I picked up a fight with a Rat and… I was loosing! I had to run back to Seyda Neen. And I realized that this little pest was running after me! Once back in the village, the cops killed it for me. First time I actually feel pathetic and humiliated in a game…
Want something hard to discover? On the South West of Seyda Neen, one of the really tiny islands has an underwater door. And there… Wow. Be ready to stay a while underwater though.
Right maybe I’m the only one here who discovered only after 3 years playing to Morrowind….
Thank you for explaining to me the reason behind my obsession with Morrowind. It is good to know it was not caused by mental inadequacy or something like that, as people around me tend to think. To me the game has one more great aspect - as I’ve always been quite interested in mythology, I would never have expected to find fantasy, and what was more surprising, the game, not a book, that wouldn’t look somewhat silly and poor compared to real myths of real nations. The mythology and things supernatural in Morrowind have the feeling of real civilizations’ myths, while being quite original, at least to my knowledge.
Was just prepping myself for Dargon Age: Origins, hoping to find an experience as deep as Morrowind, but knowing I will dissappointed. Every time a new fantasy RPG comes out I pray for it but it never comes. I just had to come back and look at this picture again, and comment again. The best game ever made, Bethesda I love you, you are the true gods of gaming. Todd Howard and Ken Rolston you are the true gods of gaming. Shigeru Miyamoto (Shiggy), Will Wright, Sid Meier, Peter Molyneax you guys can all go to hell.
The single greatest open world RPG of all time. This game was more than a “role playing game” it was a Life Playing Game in so many ways. I played that game for hundreds of hours, making myself a God, just to find a new challenger waiting in the midst, with truly challenging scenarios. Something Oblivion has not been able to duplicate is that Morrowind actually felt like a totally new world, unparrallel in depth and quality. This game was original, not some knock off.
P.S. I’ve loved oblivion too, just Morrowind more
Morrowind was the first fantasy game I ever really played. I bought it with a new computer. I researched between Morrowind and Icewind Dale, or something like that. I must admit that I have never enjoyed another game at the same level that I did MW. I think I don’t expect to again. But who knows? As it is, I will plug away at MW ever more creating different characters that I have loved from various books. It’s a good life.
Morrowind for life! Oblivion was fun for ragdoll related reasons but I was way richer in morrowind in 1 hour than 10 hours in Oblivion. Check my youtube channel it is full of morrowind stuff I am the most up to date.
BTY love the picture!!
Morrowind is my favourite game ever, ita has all a game needs, it gives you freedom of doing anything you want, from mayny many quests to just walking the countryside and enyoying the world of Vvanderfel.After Ive started playing it no other game was good enough for me, either it lack the freedom of Morrowind or the story was just dull! I ve never stopped playing it, cause you can always after 2,3,5 years still find something you missed and thats when you just think you saw everything. I love this game.
Great pic:)
Oh yes my Brethren and Sistren. Was there anything cooler than looking at the giant boulder suspended over Vivec? Or running away from an ancient piece of Dwemer craft? I recently re-installed this most epic of games (I have the PC GOTY edition) and have lost myself in its wondrous lands. I played Oblivion and was very surprised at the view distance until I realized it was a hell of a lot smaller than Morrowind. Some of the Elven ruins were ok but as nothing compared to the Dwemer ruins. Long live Kagrenac!!!!
Wow, this blog was great, I’m 23 now, I was 15 when Morrowind came out, I was a huge fan of Daggerfall and I clearly remember the hype buzzing around the next Elder Scrolls game, it was amazing. As far as that goes 2001-02 will go down in history to me as 2 of the greatest years for PC gaming for me. You touched on so many of the feelings I still feel today when I drop in Morrowind. I remember one of the first things I did in Morrowind was to go to the lighthouse in Seyda Neen and try to kill the lighthouse keeper, just to ‘test’ the game, lol I still will never forget getting owned so quickly. I also remember traveling to Balmora for the first time and coming up on Fort Moonmoth I thought it was a dungeon until I saw the Legion soldiers lol. The nostalgia of playing is almost painful for me, gaming on the pc just isn’t what it used to be.
nice my boys
esta chilo el juego todavia no me acabo la parte de solsthiem recuerdo que cuando era pequeño me dava scary jjwwjwj
Great game.
Morrowind will forever be my favorite game. I wasted days upon days of my life playing Morrowind but it was all worth it. I never completed the main quest until at least a year or two of owning the game but that was fine because there was so much content packed into the game. The best thing about the game was the freedom to play it anyway you want to.
There is no bether way to sum up the morrowind feeling than you did.
I would have to agree. When you compare the total density of both games you get a lot more for you dollar when it comes to Morrowind. It is by far the BEST game I have ever played. Even though yes they did make things a little better in Oblivion, like non static items, hit-box detection for combat, not being able to fail a spell cast or the creation of an alchemical potion, that’s what made Morrowind unique and difficult. In my personal opinion that’s what a game is supposed to be… difficult. It makes it more entertaining and fun, to an extent. Dare I go on about the number of quests… I didn’t think so. Although Oblivion is fun in its own right, I just don’t get the same rise out of it. Hell, when the game first came out (Morrowind) that was the sole reason we bought a second Xbox, because me and my brother were fighting over it all the time. =P In my book, from a 1 to 10 its a certified 20!
Morrowind was and still is the greatest RPG of all time! If I could just get the random crashes to stop, I would be playing it everyday again. Words will never be able to describe Morrowind, and I don’t think any other game in the world could compare. I don’t think I will be a truely happy gamer until a game identical to morrowind comes out again. And maybe Arx Fatalis… that game was pretty neat as well.
Morrowind will forever be the best RPG of all time!
One of the best games played in which I board! so many memories of when especially angry to find weapons that can kill Dagoth ^ ^, but good memories,
PS: I was level 87 when I board sold my Xbox
DUDE!!!!!!!!! Its me again! Yeah i got Oblivion, and after about 3 hrs. of playing it, i switched back to Morrowind. LOLZ
Morrowind and it´s addons are awsome !!!
Lol 8 years playing it yesterday… NEVER beaten it…
oh.. also, @Jake: i agree with you almost whole heartedly, except for the will wright part… spore was a pretty crazy game… even if it was a bit small..
This is one of THE most awesome places I’ve been to on the internet. When I first played Morrowind it was after I played Oblivion. I was expecting cool graphics and awesome features. But when I got it I was sorely dissapointed, I thought I had bought a washed up old-good-for-nothin’ game with crappy facal customization and a character that looked like he had a 10 foot pole up his ass, and tossed it and went back to oblivion. But after awhile oblivion felt hollow, I even began using the exploits and GOD FORBID, roleplaying. I decided What the hell and dusted off Morrowind, slid it into my old Xbox, dug out my contoller, and played the game. I fell absolutely in love with the game! Now I admit we had a few falling outs, what with the constant crashes and difficult situations, but I always came back. It was the thrill of adventure, in a world I have never seen or imagined. I was always excited to see what lurked around the next corner, or under the waters, or even in the next house. Morrowind kept it unique. Everywhere you went there was something interesting to see. Thats what I fell in love with, I saw the dimond under the old and rusty shell, the beauty of it’s workings, and the amzing story behind it. I always remember the first time I played, standing on the port in Sayda Neen unsure of where to go or why. But that made the adventure all the more exciting.
this background is so cool
YES!
Reading some of the other comments, I agree with the general consensus that while Oblivion may have much nicer physics and visuals, Morrowind had such a more distinct, exotic feel to it that really made it such an exceptional game. I mean who in Cyrodiil can say, “Yeah, I herd giant floating jellyfish for a living.” What?!?!?
Don’t ask questions… *facepalm*
But for cereal, I think one of the big factors in it for me is fear. Everything you fight resembles either an aquatic creature, a dinosaur, or a huge bug. No matter where you are. And as much as I hate cliff racers, when I have to go too long without hearing their screech, unsheathing my sword and looking overhead I really miss the annoying bastards.
One of the nicer things about Oblivion was the improved combat system. It’s nice being able to block with a sword while simultaneously casting a spell, and to be able to block with a weapon when you want instead of having to use a shield and hope it blocks when you need it to. Also, the lockpicking was nice. But no levitation? WHY???
Man… Morrowind is such a classic. It always will be. Playing oblivion is like playing DnD with a bunch of beginners. Playing Morrowind was like playing DnD in an aquarium on acid. no comparison.
I really loved the unbalanced game play in Morrowind. I’ve been playing the same character for 5 years now and while he’s developed some problems with certain guilds or can’t start certain quests because I killed one of the characters for some quick cash I still love it. It’s insanely gratifying to slaughter a pack of daedra near the nomadic camps and flying away with barely any damage.
That’s one of the games best qualities. Like everyone else I love the history and the culture shock and the complex plot, but there’s a simple pleasure to being able to fly away from a threat.
It’s the little things in this game that make it so great.
MW kicks Oblivion @$$ in Oblivion you can’t wear a shirt with armor and a robe in Oblivion an argonian male can run around naked with no underpants on in Oblivion an argonian can wear boots wich makes it less fish Oblivion does not have the awsome sound effects of MW plus you do not expect a elf to fall out of the sky i mean the dark brotherhood is pretty sweet and you can custum your cahiter but you don’t get to free your own race from slavery(in MW and Oblivion i tried to copy the argonain i made named grax i orrgenly got from Oblivion) but in Oblivion you could do all the quest lines on about 1 hour in morriend it could takes infinete to do all the quest it was a good feeling to free slaves and go into someones house and murder them and take all the stuff i have no mods because i play it on the 360 but to loot someone and take all there clothes and then go to someone who complement for looking good i mean in oblian i had 5 graxes one died in the mountains of the nourth during the day because he was a vamp another became fish sticks in Oblivions lava the 3rd basicly i gave up on aslong with the 4rth the last i still play every now and then on MW i had a i don’t know amount of craheters that were test and died all the time they should make a game with all the of the land from tamreil with all the graphics and custum stuff from Oblivion and the surprise of MW all the guilds of elder scrool games plus new ones and all the spells of all the elder scrool games but in Oblivion you do not get suiside stuff like the falling wizards scrools will the sums the stuff up i will go play MW at 6:00 or 7:00
Kia ora fellow Morrowind Inhabitants,
Like yourselves I have been visiting this grand island for the last 4 years and it never gets old. Having played through the game several times with several characters, the life of this game never shortens. I mean when i first started I had no idea how important the skills you choose are, so ended up being a Bosmer that wore heavy armour, tried to throw fireballs and sneak around.
Safe to say the first bandits mopped the floor with my ass.
After realizing race and attribute importance I created a sneaky Nord warrior that got so beefed in everything that after I explored the majority of the island and slaying Dagoth Ur, I took on Vivec and slayed him too.
Then I went for a Temple abiding monk build and focused on unarmored, hand to hand and staffs.
No other game has given me this much freedom to do and play as I choose.
And I must agree on the fear of this game. The first time I went into a crypt and the eerie ghosts noises started up I was genuinely afraid.
A game that can immerse you into it that far is pure gold.
Hopefully ESV will be a vast improvement from ESIV.
Thanks Bethesda, and thanks for sharing this awesome artwork with us all.
My favorite game of all time.
I’ve played alot of RPG’s in my time but none have come to compare. One of the amazing things that made it immersive was that there was no real “quick travel” option like in oblivion. It wasn’t “you’ve been here therefore you can return without using any effort whenever you want”, it was “find a way back if you want to go back - i’m not helping you”. Similarly it didn’t ever really help you by putting a ‘mark’ on your map for quests. It forced you to find ‘the cave near a fence by a rock to the south west of Gnesis’. This added to the emmersion of the game, somthing that just didn’t happen in oblivion. In Oblivion, you would pretty much walk/ride in a straight line to the map maker. In Morrowind you would explore around the place, finding new plants, creatures and maybe even a completely unrelated cave.
I remember doing a quest where I was ment to find a smugglers cave but instead I found a vampires nest, this then lead me into the vampire questline and I was amazed at how there was so much work put into an aspect of the game most people would only stumble their way onto by suprise.