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AvidRPG
Guest
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| Morrowind just cannot hold my attention |
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I bought Morrowind the day it was released, the Collector's Edition no doubt. I have the rig to play this thing smoothly with all details maxed. Nothing stutters and the game has never crashed.
And while I am in constant awe of the scenery and technical accomplishments of the game, it cannot hold my attention for very long. I find myself playing for about 15 minutes and then shutting it down, saying that I will play longer next round.
I think it might be because of the fact that nothing is very interesting in the game. While there are thousands of NPCs, they all seem to be the same. The same voice clips are used over and over again. The same face and clothing textures seem to repeat time after time. The choices given to the player to ask about are the same, and the responses are always the same.
It starts to feel that the world is not really that large at all, but a small world has been set between two mirrors. I start to feel that I am repeating the same quest many times over.
The "ninja monkey" idea was a devastating design choice. The monsters scale according to my level! If the monster was easy to kill when I was level 3, it is still easy to kill when I am level 20. Again, the I start getting the sinking feeling that the old smoke and mirrors have been used instead of intelligent monster placement.
And the combat really doesn't require much input from the player at all.
I remember reading an interview where the developer's boasted that the game would be "easily accessable to children". I do not know exactly what this means, but I get the sinking feeling that this was one of the main design criteria. Does this mean that the game would be easy? No adult content? Both?
Anyway, I still can't help but marvel at the graphics. I like to go into 3rd person mode and pan around my character, for the graphics are really well done. While there may be thousands of quest to undertake, thousands of NPCs, hundreds of dungeons and towns and thousands of items, they all start feeling the same after a very short amount of time.
I am not giving up yet, I still reserve hope that Morrowind will win me over. But the outlook is bleak. |
Mon Jun 10, 2002 6:18 pm |
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Joey Nipps
Orcan High Command
Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 849
Location: Outer Space |
I agree completely. I WANT to like it, but it is simply boring and tedius. It is extremely repititious with little or nothing to draw me into the game. As he who started this thread, I keep trying to play (and in fact have finished the game with one character), but the quests are so mundane and simplistic and repititious that boredom is built into the game. Yes, the graphics are pretty. That's about it. Mist was pretty too - and boring.
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When everything else in life seems to fail you - buy a vowel. |
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Mon Jun 10, 2002 7:27 pm |
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Fireteddy
City Guard
Joined: 24 May 2002
Posts: 148
Location: Windsor, Canada |
Different strokes for different folks, I guess. I like the way Morrowind makes me feel like it's a complete other world, with all its intricacies and details (replete with political intrigue and strip clubs!). And I like how I'm in no rush to do things, and I can defeat the evil lord if I feel like it.
Freedom in games isn't for everyone, for sure, and Morrowind is like anchovy pizza. You gotta have the taste for it. Wait, that was a really terrible simile. Let's strike it from the record.
*strikes it from the record*
*kills the entire continent with a single Uberfireball*
-Matt
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"What Plato is about to say is going to be a lie." - Socrates
"Socrates has just spoken truly." -Plato |
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Mon Jun 10, 2002 7:54 pm |
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Jung
Guest
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Fireteddy: I don't think that the freedom to wander around as you please is what the previous posters are complaining about. The lack of much unique or interesting content is the problem. |
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Mon Jun 10, 2002 8:17 pm |
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Joey Nipps
Orcan High Command
Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 849
Location: Outer Space |
quote:
Originally posted by Fireteddy
Different strokes for different folks, I guess. I like the way Morrowind makes me feel like it's a complete other world, with all its intricacies and details (replete with political intrigue and strip clubs!). And I like how I'm in no rush to do things, and I can defeat the evil lord if I feel like it.
Therein lies the problem - it only APPEARS to be complete and detailed. Very little can be interacted with and little if anything you do makes any difference. Your strip club for instance - they do nothing. You cannot talk to them about "strip club" topics. You cannot hire them, they do not need you at all to do anything for them to either help them in their stripping or to get out of stripping. The designers couldn't even be honest about what to call their profession (acrobats????). There is NO interaction - thus they are just fluff window dressing.
Yes, you are right, you can move all around the world freely - but essentially nothing you do matters (unless you happen to kill the wrong npc that is critical to the main storyline - which is bad in and of itself). The guilds don't even restrict you from joining competing ones (I am top level in Thieves guild, Morag Tong, Fighter's guild, Mage's guild - nobody cares).
Yes, you have detailed mountains and detailed houses - and nothing matters. I kill an npc and the one standing what can be at most 10 feet away doesn't even notice??????????????? Yes, that is detail all right.
_________________
When everything else in life seems to fail you - buy a vowel. |
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Mon Jun 10, 2002 8:27 pm |
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Llama
High Emperor
Joined: 11 Oct 2001
Posts: 509
Location: Earth |
Jung, the arguement that Avid brought up seems to blow over people for some reason. Usually the diehard fanboys are the ones that turn a blind eye to the flaws in MW, bringing up other statements about the game, rather than addressing the problems a person lists. |
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Mon Jun 10, 2002 8:29 pm |
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bman
Guest
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Thus far I have been challenged, but I am not playing a tank more like a mage. I do get VERY tired of the abundance of the birds... they seem to be everywhere and it gets boring fighting them all of the time. it's a big island, doesn't the fauna vary? |
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Mon Jun 10, 2002 9:20 pm |
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Farseer
City Guard
Joined: 30 Apr 2002
Posts: 131
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I also agree with original posters. The game is pretty to look at but little to no effort was put forth to draw you in. Yes it is open ended in game play,but on occasion it would be nice to fall into,trouble,and mystery. Example, walking along I find an npc who has lost a ring in a pond, I the good samariton find it and fight them to death end of story..... Alternative you find the ring give to the girl, screen gos black...you wake up hours later with all your goods and armor missing....Now find them and retrieve your things without your uber items while opening a storyline of intrigue,murder,and betrayal... Much more fun to have a few suprises and challenges. This game beyond lvl15 gives you none. IMHO |
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Mon Jun 10, 2002 9:25 pm |
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Lordr31z
Captain of the Guard
Joined: 11 May 2002
Posts: 190
Location: United States of America |
NO WAY!! I can play this game forever. Just admit you have short attention spans.   |
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Mon Jun 10, 2002 9:36 pm |
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Joey Nipps
Orcan High Command
Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 849
Location: Outer Space |
quote:
Originally posted by Lordr31z
NO WAY!! I can play this game forever. Just admit you have short attention spans.
I know people who have worked on precisely the same assembly line for 40 years too.
_________________
When everything else in life seems to fail you - buy a vowel. |
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Mon Jun 10, 2002 9:39 pm |
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Jung
Guest
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My dog can chase his tail forever  |
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Mon Jun 10, 2002 9:40 pm |
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Garon
Guest
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Perhaps instead, Llama, these diehard fanboys just realize that some people have different tastes from others. Perhaps diehard fanboys realize that these game worlds are finite products of just a few minds. These fanboys understand that in the development cycle, there is only so much time to put events and content into the game.
The developers of Morrowind chose a very large world with a reasonably rich history. Many quests were included and many details, but the details are those of breadth in many cases, not depth. Bethesda could either generate a very large, relatively shallow world or a smaller, deeper world. They chose the former.
Diehard fanboys who really enjoy Morrowind, such as myself, appreciate the grand scale of the game. They appreciate the fact that there are many great houses to join, each offering a significantly different tone. Fanboys love the idea the you never know what will face you in the next town. Will it be someone looking for a lost love? Perhaps a murder or two to solve? Or maybe even someone who has fallen on hard times because of gambling depths. You never know. The stories aren't deep, but they are numerous.
Of course we realize that each event isn't scripted out to an infinite level. That is the price you pay for the grand scale. This is where the concept of free form and shallowness are linked. In my opinion, free form games need to be large. Why? Because no devices are available to make the world seem larger than it really is.
In a more linear game you are obviously confined to a small portion of an ostensibly larger world (most of which you are not allowed to see). The world is then as large as the storyteller says it is, but they only need to show you a small portion of this large world. Since the actual playable world is much smaller, the developers of this linear world can place many more details into it, and the events in the small world can be more tightly linked.
Bethesda gave us a whole continent to play in, on the other hand, and they let us play anywhere we like in the continent. It is a large continent with many places and with many people and monsters. They had to sacrifice some depth for this.
What separates diehard fanboys like me from others like you, Llama, is that we enjoy the grand scale of Morrowind enough to look past the lack of that personal depth of each NPC that you seem to crave. It isn't because we are stupid, or narrowminded, or naive. It is merely because we have different tastes than you do and place our priorities on different aspects of an RPG.
Perhaps we are not diehard fanboys at all, but are instead gamers just like you who enjoy Morrowind so much because of what it does provide that we are willing to look past those things that it omits.
Is this concept really so difficult to accept?
Regards,
Garon |
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Mon Jun 10, 2002 9:42 pm |
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Lordr31z
Captain of the Guard
Joined: 11 May 2002
Posts: 190
Location: United States of America |
As we speak i am chasing your girl around my house mindlessly. Sorry to get off topic Naa i am not a die hard fan boy. I am very sceptical of any game that i play. I have constantly put this game down for the lousy graphics engine. But its a great game reguardless. Hold up i have to go chase some tail. |
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Mon Jun 10, 2002 9:51 pm |
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GhanBuriGhan
Noble Knight
Joined: 03 May 2002
Posts: 208
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Well, I am not level 15 yet, so maybe my opinion will change later on, but until now I feel very much drawn in, and Morrowind gives me a feeling there is lots to discover. *minor spoiler ahead* Just hours ago, I found Koal Cave, where Vivec defeated the Ruddy man, a myth that I had heard about long ago on the main sites "lore" boards. I found out now that he was the god of the dreughs, and sure enough I saw a dreugh as I was diving into a tunnel. I was to scared to advance, though... Felt cool. While accompanying the pilgrim who wantd to go there, I had to fight off many animals, great work for my ranger character. Got waylaid by a bunch of magic using thugs on the way, that proved way too tough for me.
I loved each new town I found. Its true, I wish there was more unique dialogue for NPCs, but I have some hopes regarding the mod community in this respect, there allready is the "less generic NPC" mod and another one that creates schedules, then the love mod, lets you buy the favors of those strippers someone mentioned in a post above. There will be more in that vein, I am sure.
For now, I just like the exploration aspect of the game so much, that it overshadows everything else, and while not all quests I did were great, most of them were fun enough. I also like that there are quest you can set yourself, or only find hints about, while noone acutually tells you "you have to go there and kil that". I like these, because they give me the feeling that I am really free to decide if I want to follow this hint or not. And I thought there is a lot to find in the wild, so the world does not feel small at all, not yet at least. Just collecting herbs and trying out new potions is a fun little subgame to me. And I havent even begun the main quest yet. |
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Mon Jun 10, 2002 9:53 pm |
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Farseer
City Guard
Joined: 30 Apr 2002
Posts: 131
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I dont think anyone said fanboys were naive or lacked depth...On the other hand to say those wishing for a bit more challenge have short attention spans is inaccurate and incredably Naive. Edit add-on....The game from lvl 1 to 20 was vry enjoyable to me but as many know after a certain point there is no challenge and no real suprises. ( so why have it possible to reach lvl70??)
Last edited by Farseer on Mon Jun 10, 2002 10:02 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Mon Jun 10, 2002 9:54 pm |
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