Skyrim - Bringing back "what made Morrowind special"

[Dhruin]

In an interview at OXM, Pete Hines discusses how they are building the Skyrim gameworld and saying they are bringing back "some of what made Morrowind special":

"With Oblivion, we're dealing with the capital province, and we wanted to get back to the more classic Arena and Daggerfall feel of a fantasy world that felt more refined and welcoming," Howard reflects. "A place that you instantly understood.
"But in that, we sacrificed some of what made Morrowind special; the wonder of discovery. With Skyrim, we're trying to bring some of that back and walk the line between Morrowind and Oblivion. Where it's at first familiar looking, but has its own unique culture and spin on it.

The Bethesda veteran summarises Skyrim's aesthetic as "epic reality", mystical yet "grounded". The wintry province is among the more venerable of Tamriel's human civilizations, and Bethesda wants to convey the impression "that this province is the original home of men, that they built things long ago that seem fantastical, but are very real, and could be built here on earth given enough time.

"We stay away from high fantasy elements in the art itself, and keep it grounded in whatever the reality of the world is."

More information.

 

[Thrasher]

Too bad. I was hoping for some significant innovation in art direction/design to make exploration more rewarding.

EDIT: meant to say "significant" over and above the minimal approach they describe in the article

 

[Dez]

Too bad?

I find this news piece quite heart warming. Most tes fans adored Morrowind and if they can bring some of the old magic back...all will be well

Compared to resent DA2 dissapointment I keep my fingers crossed that Skyrim wouldn't let us down.

 

[Nerevarine]

Too bad?

I find this news piece quite heart warming. Most tes fans adored Morrowind and if they can bring some of the old magic back…all will be well

Compared to resent DA2 dissapointment I keep my fingers crossed that Skyrim wouldn't let us down.

I agree, I also have high hopes for Skyrim and like what I'm hearing so far - especially the "trying to bring back some of what made Morrowind special."

 

[Thrasher]

Yes, but if you read carefully it says it looks the same except when you dig in to the lore. Lore is not visual.

 

[Wulf]

Indeed lore is not directly visible but you can feel it, lore can be directly related to "gameplay".

A big sword - big armour - big hack-n-slash, not really interested - give me gameplay every time, is what i yearn for, what i crave for - lore is beautiful but has to be correctly implemented and progressively relational to the game driven storyline, get it wrong and it ends up a big confusing mess.
Daggerfall was almost right but too sandbox repetative (read: regenerative) and therefore much storyline unrelated (read: oversized) it breaks up causing loss of progressive momentum.
Played Daggerfall continuously for over 3 years - Morrowind continuously for over 2 years so quite hopeful for Skyrim.

 

[rune_74]

Well, this is the major game I'm looking forward to this year, seems a lot of what they are writing is what I want to hear. Then again I liked Oblivion, so if it's at elast as good as that I'm somewhat happy. I know one thing for sure the graphics are awesome.

 

[Zloth]

Graphics AND music are awesome!

 

[rune_74]

Graphics AND music are awesome!

Agreed....animations looked good too but that could be considered graphics

 

[DoctorNarrative]

It wasn't just how the game looked and the alien world, it was also how designed it was. Oblivion was put together by a random generator and it showed.

 

[Arkadia7]

I'm not sure about ditching high fantasy elements, maybe he means it in a different way than I'm thinking.

Because in the game trailer I saw there was an attacking dragon and it looked like high fantasy to me.

 

[kalniel]

This show to me that they're still listening to fans, and hopefully they're beginning to listen longer term as well - some of the past games have slightly over swung in response to complaints of the previous game, which are always going to be more vocal than the compliments, so then the next gen game attracts complaints from the people who were fine with the last one, while the other people are quieter.

I was one of the ones who preferred Daggerfall to Morrowind, especially in the feel of the world, and I preferred Oblivion's setting to Morrowind for that reason. But the lore really sucked in Oblivion compared to Morrowind - if they're addressing that, and bringing back Morrowinds feel of lore then I'm going to be even more happy with this one.

Shame I'll be missing some lush vistas I can't help it - I want to imagine I'm living in these games, and snowy barren places aren't ones I want to spend as long in

 

[Tragos]

Ok we got it they are trying to make something between MW and OB with FO3 aspects like levelling , i think it takes a master chef to mix a fine salad and Todd isn't one.

 

[screeg]

They've said elsewhere all the dungeons will be hand designed, not by the cookie cutter approach they used in Oblivion.

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

They've said elsewhere all the dungeons will be hand designed, not by the cookie cutter approach they used in Oblivion.

They were "hand designed" there too (as in, not by an algorithm) - the problem was that there was just maybe not enough tilesets, but mostly not enough time allocated (or not enough talent present) to making them interesting. It wasn't the engine, Nehrim testifies to that.

 

[screeg]

By "cookie cutter" I meant they were each assembled from one of four sets of tiles, not that those tiles were placed by a computer algorithm.

 

[Dajjer]

we wanted to get back to the more classic Arena and Daggerfall feel of a fantasy world that felt more refined and welcoming," Howard reflects. "A place that you instantly understood.

What???

All that unique architecture of Morrowind, the giant tics for land travel, the world filled with abandoned dwarven artifacts. The unique looking humanoids. I didn't understand that place at all and I loved it.

 

[crpgnut]

Well, since that quote was about Oblivion and not Skyrim, you could still get your wish, Daijer.

 

[Dajjer]

Ya think so??? I saw the quote as more of a trying to tie things together. More a meshing of Oblivion and Morrowind, only moving towards more of what Morrowind had. And when the quote ends with a "stay away from high fantasy elements", I'm really not convinced they are moving more towards what Morrowind only that they are into spinning.

 

[Kostas]

Sounds like exactly what we would want to hear, have to be suspicious since it's Todd Howard..