Just got the TES bug after buying Skyrim so I blew the dust off a very old copy of Morrowind, added the MGO mod pack and I'm blown away. Some things have lept out at me in the first couple of hours mucking about in Seda Neen -

(1) In MW I feel very "unsafe"....the atmosphere and sounds seem very oppressive and everything feels very alien...stepping outside a town just feels so risky...
(2) No handholding - nothing to say "STEAL" when you mouse over an item
(3) Feels very hardcoe...I really do feel like a complete child struggling to kill mudcrabs
(4)

So far so amazing...gonna play them both in parallel but I would def. say that Skyrim is missing "something" that sets MW apart.

That's one of Morrowinds charms, or pitfalls, depending upon who you ask. The game doesn't hold it's punches, and the hardest time you'll ever have is trying to establish your character in the first dozen hours - when almost anything can and will kill you. It's a very fun game, and my all time favorite in the series. However, that doesn't mean that Morrowind did everything right. The combat was atrocious, and sometimes the 'no hand holding' aspect could be taken too far. I still don't know how to craft a potion in Morrowind, in spite of owning the guide and several manuals for the game.

I agree totally with everything said. Morrowind is a fantastic game, and created an incredible atmosphere right from the start. If anyone has any gripes with graphics, Morrowind 2011 looks pretty snazy and plays the same.

I agree fully on the unsafe feeling of Morrowind and i know why. This is for me, Fast travel. I know i don't have to use it in Skyrim.. but the very fact i can just fast travel anywhere so long as i escape any close by enemies takes away the feeling i had when out exploring in Morrowind.

MW doesn't lead you by the nose either, you need to find your own way around Oblivion changed that of course, with it's built-in walkthrough, apparently in response to gamers complaining they didn't know what to do or where to go. And thus missing the core of the game. So rather than retain that core they tossed it and gathered in the lost players.

I dunno. Getting lost and bewildered wasn't a barrier to gameplay, it WAS gameplay. When you achieved something, got somewhere, found someone, it felt like you did it. Now, you don't need to do anything more than follow the ingame instructions to play the game.

At least I now know how to disable a lot of that handholding stuff though.

1. I got the same feeling with Skyrim as well, but a different type of danger. I enjoy both atmospheres in both games, but yes, I agree that Morrowinds alien like feel notches over Skyrim by a tad.
2. Eh. Hand holding, no hand holding. Honestly, Morrowind was just a dumbed down version of Daggerfall that introduced some hand-holding elements to the game. My point is as time passed, there were changes in how games were played. Unfortunately that would include tags on items like "STEAL" and such.
3. As far as the Mudcrab argument...could that be because you miss 99% of your swing at the beginning of the game (even if you clearly HIT the crab physically on the screen)? If they had the new system where a hit was a hit, I wonder how Morrowinds difficulty would fair.

IMO, Skyrim is the better game. I did the same thing you did, I only did it 1 week before Skyrim was release (Played and beat both expansions). Even though the setting in MW was amazing, the lack of life and feel going on in that setting/atmosphere detracts from it. Also, the NPCs are lifeless and stand pretty much in the same spot day and night. Not to mention the bugs.

Games are ultimatly just getting easier and will continue to cater to the "casual" crowd because they bring in the most money.
Eventually, like music, games will be generalized for the masses.
/Hippie rant

I just started Skyrim, and I've noticed things Morrowind doesn't do as well.

As if Morrowind getting gushed about in the Oblivion Forums on release wasn't enough, here we are a decade later with Skyrim, still gushing about Mororwind.


It was a decent game for it's time, but really?

I remember the first time I played Morrowind, I got to the orc-lady with the rat problem. Got absolutely [censored] by the rat.

Hated the journal in MW though. Was hell to navigate. Especially if you hadn't played for a while and forgotten what you were doing.

Morrowind was a great game. As was Oblivion. And Skyrim too.

I think it's nostagia talking. Back when it was released...for the first year, it was dubbed the worst in the series. People finally warmed up to it AFTER mods. But if you have to mod something to make it good...was it good to begin with? I think MW was amazing, but back then people hated it forever...basically calling it Daggerfalls B****...on a good day (yes the fourms were that bad...skyrims reception is tame compared to MWs reception).

Another Morrowind praising thread.. move along....

This.

I loved Morrowind back in the day, but really, why is it still being talked about on the Skyrim board.... I know it's a comparison, but frankly it's an old debate. I don't think I will play Morrowind ever again, because I get the feeling I would hate it, and I want to keep my memories of that game fond.

lol relax "really devoted fans"! The op did not flame Skyrim! You can stop being insulted now. He just pointed out some aspects of Morrowind which have eclipsed from modern games because of all the milk drinking gamers nowadays.

Vanilla morrowind was terrible. I played it for about 10 hours and then I said screw this, not worth it. The min-max upon leveling, the high chance of failing to hit an opponent in front of your face and the very chunky combat all drove me away from it. Never going back to it, if a game needs mods to be great, it's not a great game. The mods are what is great.

What stops you from modding Skyrim into having more vicious sounds, tough enemies in the beginning and no pop-up text such as steal when looking at an objective?

This is EXACTLY why I played it before and not after I played Skyrim. I played MW to death; well over 1000 hours over the years. That's enough MW to last me a life time. Time for me to move on...Skyrim it is.

And it was released 10+ years ago. Think about it. You have aged 10 years since. Your body / mind as it ages will lose a bit of the endurance to play any game for this long......

I think Morrowind was a great game, but times have moved on; it's looking increasingly anachronistic to keep making comparisons now that we're looking at the successor to its successor. Sure, some of them are still valid, but in other ways it hasn't aged well; as I found to my disappointment last time I fired it up a few months back and just couldn't get into it any longer.

First off, I love Skyrim and Morrowind and I do feel Skyrim is moving forward in the right direction. I will lump 1 and 2 together. Music and atmosphere wise, both are oppressive and unsafe. Skyrim in many ways does this very very well and the updated graphics and npc behavior is getting more interesting. However, I agree with things like the red "steal"-that should not be there. If it seems like theft, it probably is and we do not need anyone to tell us so. Besides that is the fun in it, can we or can we not get away with it?. now we know things we can get away with taking and what we can't-because lets face it if there is no steal button, even outside barrels are iffy now.

3. I mostly was frustrated with the fighting mechanics of Morrowind..here I come with my miss miss button. Can't say I miss that. I had no idea why I would miss a giant mud crab with an ax. I could see doing less damage because I'm not skilled..but missing? It just made me grind forever until I consistently hit things..same with spells.

I'm beginning to think you keep describing your self with all the bitter posts you make.

I just thought of something I miss from Morrowind-I like knowing what kinda soul I have in my soul gem. If it's a really awesome one I would put it on display in my house. I keep wondering if skyrim knows this but doesn't say. Notice how they stack separately? Like I will have 20 filled lesser soul gems and they are in inconsistent groupings, even though they all have lesser souls in them. It makes me wonder if they are separated by what is in them but doesn't tell.

This is a little feature but it makes things interesting because it becomes more important to me to get that named boss I hate in the gem so I can display it proudly later.

I find people whinging about "the general masses" and "casual gamers" paticularly tiring.
How do you think Beth could be able to afford producing a game like this?

So there's fast travel... don't use it if it spoils your game. I use it, not always though.
I enjoy exploring and taking my time as much as anyone else. The thing is though, most people have jobs and social lives to attend to and when they play a game they don't want to spend 80% of the time walking back and forth.

Honestly, if it hadn't been for the "Boots of blinding speed" and waterwalking, I don't know if I would've played Morrowind as much.


As for the danger feeling... I just rerolled a Nord Warrior on Master, the plan was to play unarmoured, just painted face and bare chest (basically a celtic/germanic barbarian type is what I'm role playing)... unfortunately I realised that shorts/trousers and tops are not seperate. Still, the Fur Armour is just as good. Skills used are (or will be) Bows, Shield+One-Hand, Alchemy, Sneak. As for Weapons... I'll be smithing (ie upgrading), but only Leather, Iron and Steel. Although I might use an ebony axe when I find one, for example... not sure yet.

I only played for a short while with him and it's incredibly rewarding, very tactical approach on combat.
Dangerous enough thanks, was killed by a pack of Wolves when I wasn't cautious enough.

this is tame?



But yeah, I've played Morrowind for months just before Skyrim's release and I honestly can't see the difference.

1. i don't know what was so "unsafe" in Morrowind. Certainly not the monsters as the variety and their strenght were pretty similar. Not the fast travel as you had to walk everywhere to fast travel there. Not the health regen, because it doesn't help, at all... So unless you find cliffracers scarier than bears this doesn't make much sense.
2. Oh believe me, there's quite a lot of hand-holding in Morrowind. You get several thousand gold just to start out the main quest, you get directions to all blade trainers that(not only train you at a lower price, they also give you free, expensive items.
Most of this "hand holding" seems to be about features that add conviniance, like the "steal" thing. Yes, it would be nice to know what item I can pick up, what bed can I sleep in and where can I enter without problem (oh, that's basically everywhere)
3. More like the combat svcks. You have no input how the combat will roll, it's all about luck. No, this isn't about "character skill" either, you still need a feasible amount of player skill to actually get close to the enemy and hit them, even worse with ranged combat.
This isn't about "feeling achievement" thing either, you shouldn't suffer dozens of hours so in the end combat will be finally fun!

I think it does. It will be like Greater Soul Gem (Petty) if you have a petty soul in your great soul gem. I've seen this before. Compare to a Greater Soul Gem with out a soul.

You'll notice more things Morrowind doesn't do as well as Skyrim than the other way around, once you've played both equally. Morrowind was great for it's time, a definite classic, but Skyrim is better despite the areas in which it takes some steps back in. I've also had some moments in Skyrim when I felt a bit like a kid playing Morrowind again, it took me awhile before it happened though, had to get past a number of frustrations(console port UI/controls, combat balance issues) to stop and look at the bigger picture I think.