blog 001: morrowind

i recently played morrowind for the first time- it was my first elder scrolls game.. since then, i've put in about 30 hours in oblivion but i can't help but look forward to my next morrowind run..

i can't give morrowind a rating out of 10, sorry if you were skimming for that (the best i can do is complain about oblivion).. but it seems to have very high replay value.. perhaps that is an outdated and gameinform-y way of valuating game, but i stand by it! although it starts off so LITERALLY slow (i already dread the first 10 hours), it seems timeless and i can think of a few things i'd do different next time.

i loved the thieves guild because it aligns with my style of gaming: cheap kills and stealing to get rich quick! the mages guild was interesting too but i mainly did that for the travel and enchantment perks :-)

there are very few games i've played as an adult in which reality is suspended for a few weeks: i found myself waking up in the morning thinking, "today i need to go talk to vivec but first i need to run a few errands for the mages guild," in contrast to the weeks i woke up and thought "today i have to play baldurs gate 3." when i finished it i couldn't help but feel it was one of the best games i've ever played. even though it was largely empty and kind of banal, it was endlessly charming, especially considering it's age. now what excuse does oblivion have for being empty and banal? o__o

morrowind pros:

• broken enchantment system
• constant effect levitation.. c'mon..
• environments were stunning and trippy
• the combat was never too challenging
• the mud crab merchant
• dagoth ur memes
• only 3 cutscenes, but the dialogue is heavy handed enough that the plot made sense
• i never had to cheese any sort of leveling except for sneak
• traveling being dangerous and slow is a nice artificial nudge towards operating within the scope of the questlines.. this was originally a "con" but i moved it :-)
• the conversation topics that artifically expand the game without adding new characters, rooms, or region.. i'm sure this is an older feature and i'm happy it has persisted..
• the guards are somewhat easy to avoid, especially if you go outside the city limits.. unlike oblivion >_>

morrowind cons:

• broken enchantment system
• its empty and predictable in the BOTW way but that might just be a product of it's time; i loved running into NPCs in the wilderness because it meant something cool was about to happen.
• pickpocketing system is bad
• unarmed combat was a nightmare for me so i gave up and just dealt with the consequences for killing people
• journal system is so annoying
• i didn't like not having a home and chests. i used a permanent corpse
• i had to look something up on reddit almost every step of the main quest and very much of the side quests- maybe this is a "get good" situation.. and i should have just bought the guidebook..

anyways..

i have a hard time roleplaying so i always make a character that is as close to how i play grand theft auto as possible (i think my grand theft auto alignment is neutral chaotic evil o_O).. meaning, i largely ignore the main quest and cause a lot of chaos to push the limitations of the engine and see how the world reacts.

i think it's fascinating to play games like this (meanwhile, mr. hero is someone who is afraid to be mean in games..) because when you cause chaos in someone's environment you can learn about the design decisions they made and how they negotiated the hardware and software limitations of the time. seeing what was done with such constraints fascinates me and (i think) led to more interesting video games; i'll follow up with this thought when i finish my baldur's gate 2 campaign.

how are punishment/consequence systems balanced?

• where did those cops come from?
• how did they see me do that?
• where can i hide? how long do i need to hide?
• is killing this cop going to make everything worse?

how are combat/movement/physics resolved when i'm trying to exploit it?

• can i animation cancel enemies? can they do that to me?
• can i jump while sliding? (important for climbing mountains and other boundaries of the map)
• can i swipe at their body from across a half wall?
• can i stand on their head and hit down?

other things i think about:

• is the damage relative to the location of injury (i think all good games should have this)
• how many of the non-hostile mobs can i kill? it's such a treat to take down rats and birds.. like they really didn't need to do that LOL
• is stealth fair?
• are consumables necessary and part of the balancing the difficulty (like bayonetta.. relying on consumables gives me a lot of anxiety)
• can i go anywhere? how does the game incentivize me to staying on the path (literally and figuratively) (usually games will have hard or impossible enemies positioned in end game areas.. this is why elden ring fucked me up so bad and i never beat it.. but i admire that it challenged my worldview LOL)
• how sticky are the weapon/armor builds? does the game punish respec-ing? (i swear i used the same gun for my entire cyberpunk campaign.. and the same fire build in assassins creed odyssey..)

is this a weird way to play games? maybe o_O i think this is why i am so bewildered when people say "i watched a letsplay" when i ask if they've played a game before- because i play games to explore its limitations, outside of "what happens".. i'm realizing now that some people treat video games as "i'm observing and participating in someone else's world" as opposed to "this is a toy and it's not real and i can play with it however i want, like the sims, or legos." and i never followed the instructions for lego sets either.. interesting.. if this is a topic that interests you, i will be back with a simant post someday. it is a perplexing video game software toy that was brought to my attention recently by a friend and it's been kicking my ass!!

i will be playing daggerfall unity soon..