What inspired Bethesda to create this wonderful series? Where did the get the idea of TES series from?

Tamriel existed as a DnD campain before the games, if I remember correctly. Arena definitely gives off a pen-and-paper vibe while you're playing it.

DnD? I don't know what that stands for. Could you please explain it?

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Articles.Detail&id=12


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_&_Dragons. That what started on making role-playing popular.

Thanks. Who originally developed the first Elder Scrolls game?

Also, I know about the Elder Scrolls, but they don't seem all to important. Elder Scrolls sounds really good as a title, but why was it chosen for the title of the series?

Like most fantasy credit must be given to both classical mythology (various fields) as well as the work of J.R.R Tolkien. Oblivion is certainly Tolkienesque.

From what it said in the interview, I assume http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,6760/, http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,16020/, and http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,6759/.


Randomness, as in the interview.......

You mean who developed Arena? Bethesda did, though it was waaaay small time then. "The Elder Scrolls" as a title actually got tacked onto things simply because it sounded cool, and no other real reason. Arena was, as the name would imply, originally supposed to be a RPG-lite game where you just went around to other arenas with a gladiator team and fought. And then slowly, side-quests started working their way in, and then more customization options, until the whole "arena" thing was completely scrapped. But they had already committed to the title, "Arena," so "The Elder Scrolls" got thrown into the mix to attempt to balance it out, and the "arena" got explained away as being Tamriel's nickname due to the bloodiness of living there.

I know it was Bethesda, but I want to know who at Bethesda developed TES series.

Are any of Arena's creators still working at Bethesda?(or any of the original members of Bethesda?)

Actually, most of them are. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_history_of_The_Elder_Scrolls_series#Arena_.281992.E2.80.931994.29 majorly important developers. I imagine their team wasn't much larger than ten people or so. Todd joined later in the development to test the CD-Rom version of the game as his first assignment.

Todd gets payed to play Bethesda games as a tester? :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: I want a job like his.

Once again, Congratulations Bethesda. Bethesda makes the best games, in my opinion.

Dude, seriously? Todd is at the moment the lead designer of TES (or project manager, I don't remember the actual name of the position, on the top anyway:P), he gets paid to make those games...but yes, there is a job - tester, that consits of sitting before the screen for hours and hours to track bugs, test improvements etc. and it's as hard as any other job in such project...

Seriously what? I knew he developed games. I just really want a job as a tester. That would be the best part of that career. I can play for hours upon hours, but I have to go to school, preventing me from doing so. Now, a job as a tester would be like going to school to play video games for hours upon hours while getting paid, and I would love it.

Executive Producer, actually. He was Lead Designer for Morrowind, though...

And yeah, QA testing is not playing games all day. Dan Ross and the other QA guys who poke around here could certainly attest to that. In all honesty, I can't imagine wanting to legitimately play a game after QA testing it... The testing would ruin the whole experience for me.

Hey, you know the words! :foodndrink: And if I were to compare QA testing to something, it would be taking your favourite food, eating it, then vomiting, eating it again, vomiting, eating once more and repeating this horrifying cycle until you swear you'll never even look at that food again...that's one of the reasons I put "seriously" in my previous post (although I actually meant "is he for real??", since all of the information contained in this thread can be found on wikipedia...).

Hardly.

It's inspired by Tolkien, who took most of his ideas from Norse and Gaelic mythology. There's a lot of stuff that's been added in from many cultures, from the Mongols to the Native Americans, and a lot more that Bethesda has created.

To the point where now it's a singularly wonderful mash-tpgether of cultures with no set 1:1 equivalent to anything in the real world's mythologies, religions and cultures.

You have to spend all those hours tracking down and noting bugs and errors. You do not enjoy the game as a tester, it's a job and it gets pretty boring. I've tested my share of stuff to know that I'd rather play the game for no money at all.