He can't talk about it until he is told that he can talk about it, violating the NDA is a big no-no.

Todd Howard is posessed by the malevolent spirit of Martin Septim! :ahhh:

Guys calm down. You wouldn't be on TES Forums if you did not like Bethesda and enjoy their games. Oblivion was, believe it or not, a huge success. It had a higher average rating on Metacritic, which Bethesda apparently uses for their data, and has sold more copies already than Morrowind has, and will probably sell more with the upcoming bundle with Bioshock. Though I think Todd Howard should have been able to accept some of the problems with Oblivion, he obviously has his reasons for feeling the way he does about some of the gameplay elements adapted into the game to make it more accessible. What I hope for in TES: V is the option for the player to turn off such features as quest markers and locations on the compass. It is for this reason (the quest markers) that I kept Mehrune's Razor as my active quest for a very long time. Also, I far prefer my console Oblivion to my PC one, so implementing some of the features and ideas that the wonderful modders around the internet have turned into reality, like those mods within FCOM, and including them in vanilla TES V would make it a far superior game. Oblivion was nowhere near as challenging as Morrowind.

Kinda dumb question in a way. What can anyone answer to that excpet what TH did, without making a PR disaster.

Also, i would have formulated the TES5 question more like "Is there currently anything at all you can share about the future of TES series?". That way he could have for example described Bethesda's TES-related aspirations in general so that the reader would know whether or not they intend to ever continue the series. Although i guess that's relatively certain, given the books, Daggerfall release and all that.

I think TH is a good guy to be a TES head designer, but imho he needs to see the value in deep lore. Dumbing all of oblivion down to Deadlands and not calling it that is annoying. I don't think replacing "a gate to oblivion" with "a gate to deadlands" would make things any more confusing to lore newbies (also giving any kind of an explanation as to why Peryite's realm and Boethiah's tournament of ten bloods are in places that look exactly the same). It's not that difficult to please old timers too with little details like that.

Believe it or not, sales don't actually tell us anything about the quality of the game.


His comments on "everybody else hates reading" why are they choosing to play an FPS? The game is like 15+, so surely anyone who's that old is unfazed by the written word? Todd's just saying what he thinks people want, not what they actually want.

Holy mackerel, I can't believe that Todd has been executive producer since Arena .

He hasn't.

Bleh, ok. He's WORKED WITH Bethesda since Arena.

Yes - and after Redguard, he grew mad with power and banished all the old Bethesda staff members, and brainwashing those that remain into thinking that progressively more simplified and mainstream-friendly games are cool.

what is the mod found in this morrowind pic from the interview?

http://pnmedia.gamespy.com/planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/images/static/15years/3138473997_5e113375fe.jpg

I see Vality's grass and...I forget the name of that mod. Adds travelling merchants and other interesting characters to the roads, but I forget the name.

morrowind comes alive?


thanks, i should have specified the grass i was just looking for

I cant find the d/l for Vality's grass

Popping in to say that I like this.

Also @Tarvok Spellbind...and @Daniel_Kay and @GoddamnHippie


When have you ever seen a hard hitting interview of an industry figure in the gaming media?! Interviews are just verbal press releases, with questions like 'how good do you think your new game will be!?'. Really, when it comes to gaming media, it is still very very amateurish, and the gaming industry takes advantage of this by having practically no customer service whatsoever.

After all, when you read the following:

"For the 10th anniversary of The Elder Scrolls series, ES: Arena was released as a free download. Will you be doing something similar to that for the 15th anniversary? Would you be doing it in 5 years for the 20th anniversary?

I’m happy to say yes! We’re releasing Daggerfall for free on the web today, just like we did with Arena. I have no idea about the 20th anniversary yet, we’ll cross that bridge in 5 years.

...Did you really think this article wasn't produced with the full knowledge of everybody involved that it was in relation to Daggerfall become available for free?! I doubt few of us did!

This interview, therefore, is one of those 'feel good' editorials, to show how cuddly and wonderful the industry really is (the editorial comment that says 'constant improvements in the series over 15 years' is a little subliminal message thrown in by PES, for example!).

Of course gamers are their own worse enemies too, with 75% of posts about a new, highly hyped game just saying 'can't wait!!!', or 'this will be excellent!!'. If anyone tries to say something like 'shouldn't we wait until the game is released?', or even when the last game was substandard, 'Given the last game, I will wait and see' and they get flamed!"

But I am playing Daggerfall at the moment, which reinforces how dumbed down, politically correct and console orientated Bethesda titles are now. I also bought Star Trek Legacy. So Bethesda aren't prefect and some paragon of virtue, as interviews like this try to show, and we should be much more circumspect and demanding as gamers,of both our media and the publishers we give our money to!!

Re: Vality's Grass mod, I would go to the Morrowind Graphic Extender threads on this site where that mod has links to the grass mod as it has an animated version for MGE.

Not impressed at all. New skills wouldn't work, the original players and hardcoe RPGers only make up "1% of the fan base" (Not likely besides, part of this "1%" STARTED Bethesda off and the other, well if they can stop trusting Bethesda to make good games and stop buying them too you know) compared to the "99%" that, for the most part, don't know its a series or don't care enough to make a free account here and post their opinions or requests then really, why is it Bethesda goes for their opinions? It will sell better. It doesn't instantly make it a better game but it will sell better.

I would like to know why new skills don't work though? Would it make the game to complicated (Far too simple in Oblivion) or what? New races I fully understand and back though. You can't just randomly come up with some new race and add it in this series.

Basically, I want Bethesda to listen to their original fan base and their intended audience in Morrowind or Daggerfall but, since we are in lower numbers then the Silent Majority who really don't care enough about the series or don't know that it is a series we automatically seem to lose any argument with them. If you look on the Morrowind vs Oblivion threads here Morrowind is always the winner though Oblivion has some votes and, IMO, they should listen to these players (Here on this site) first since they actually care enough to come on and make a free account even if it is just to make a request then those who don't even know that this is a series or don't care what direction it takes. It basically feels like the Alienating their older fan base and the hardcoe RPGers to get a new fan base that wants really simple, dumbed down games with dungeons for the sake of dungeons. Oblivion is even listed on having dungeons for the sake of dungeons for the most part and if your going to do that, just make them as massive as Daggerfall. It also Dropped a Bridge on Morrowind since they comment about how ruined and destroyed Morrowind is by the weakest (and only) Daedra Invasion which the player can easily crush. All the powerful ones were sent to Vvardenfell apparently despite the fact that the game takes place in Cyrodil and M'aiq was basically unkillable, mindless propaganda that walked around saying how great Oblivion was and that it was better off without any of the things fans wanted and better off having the things fans didn't want. It really just bugs me that Bethesda is alienating their fan base like this which could cause them to completely fail on a game if the fan base stops buying and the casual gamers go buy something different instead.

I sent an email the day this appeared pointing out a link to their gaming site didn't even have an Arena or Daggerfall review. so I wondered how much they actually supported the history of Bethesda and PC gaming in general beyond, this one article!

Planet Elder Scrolls didn't have a review for Daggerfall or Arena? Maybe it has something to do with Daggerfall's accessibility? Quite a few users there prefer Morrowind to Oblivion I think so its not a huge bias against those but it couldn't have been there since Arena since there would be no reason for it (It holds the games mods, soon enough it might hold a Daggerfall mod section). I wish they would replace Todd and put someone else in charge though. He really seems to not care about their original fan base (Not me but the original fan base and the Morrowind fan base (I prefer Daggerfall but Morrowind is great too) seem to have similar preferences for the games and Todd completely ignores them) and just go with whatever the casual gamers will say. I wonder how long they can last until the casual gamers find something better. Maybe then, they will listen to the original fan base and hardcoe RPGers if they still have them. (If this continues to much longer they probably won't)

It's a generational thing. Bethesda was far less well-known back in the 90s, and back in those days getting DOS games to install and run was a challenge in and of itself (it was kind of an "anti-idiot" filter that allowed games back then to maintain some complexity). Nostalgia also adds heavily to which game people enjoy the most. Most of us were wee kids when Daggerfall came out, which, in retrospect, made the experience even more enchanting for us.

As for the casual gamers and hardcoe RPGers, if Bethesda keeps this up, the casual gamers will run off and find something new to play, and we'll be long gone. They'll be screwed.

I know, that's why they should go back to their routes, who cares if casual gamers don't like it. They probably aren't a very dependable fanbase in the first place. Oh well, we can find a different RPG creators that will listen to us if Bethesda keeps ignoring us. Also, what do people think of redesigning Oblivion how we want just keeping the basic plot?

No, they won't. Developing a game that cost many millions of dollars only for the hardcoe RPGers is suicide. Troika made excellent, if rather buggy, RPG games, but none of them were any financial success and then they died. While Oblivion and Fallout 3 sold many millions and gamesas is larger than ever.

You may not like it, but you're in the extreme minority. And this forum is where the vocal minority is, well, vocal.


Goodbye then?

I've long since given up on them making the exact TES game I want. That's what mods are for. Play Oblivion with OOO and the Darnified UI mod in. It instantly feels more like Morrowind, but with all of Oblivion's awesomeness. I added a neat combat mod at one point too. It was fun, although the Oblivion Script Extender leads to some weird glitches and instability.

The thing to appreciate is TES games by their nature are BIG. Not a single one of them has all the things I want. Mods help with that a lot. I'm just happy they keep making more games. They're all fun. I blame Oblivion's failing on the existence of console gamers and not devs. I spent a lot of time slinging mockery at my friends who buy consoles for this reason. It will get me nowhere (many of them play PC games too), but venting is good for the soul.

Im getting tired of the recent thread necromancy!
EDIT-I like how people are saying once they leave that gamesas will wither away because the casual gamers go find something else to play.
It's not like they get new fans from those "casual" gamers or anything right?
Keep up the excellence gamesas!

Doesn't mean that they were good RPGs and I thought that Daggerfall and Morrowind did relatively well and Arena even had modest sales. The truth is, Bethesda is alienating their older fan base and the hardcoe RPGers which makes me want them to make the next Elder Scrolls game a casual game and have it flop so they can get back on track. Also, Keltic Viking, me , and StoneFrog have also made good points about this. The truth is that if they were even remotely listening to their original fans (WHO ACTUALLY GOT BETHESDA SOMEWHERE!!!) and trying to accept their criticisms as well as that of the hardcoe RPGers it would be better but Todd seems to be showing that he feels that it doesn't remotely matter how their original fans feel and no one should support his behavior on this for any reason. (Why can't they even add SKILLS !? Which wouldn't need adding if BETHESDA WOULDN'T REMOVE SKILLS IN EVERY GAME! Ugh, seriously? Why can't you do something small like that or actually give us choices? A lot of fan requests wouldn't make the game too much less accesible, putting a toggle on the quest compass and adding directions, for example, is fine. It just takes slightly longer)



I never said I was leaving or that anyone else was, I said it might be worth considering the idea of leaving if Bethesda decides to continue completely ignoring us. If even 1% of your fans actually care enough about the series to come onto the FREE forums they should listen to them instead of those who don't care about the series all that much. Todd's point was that since "99%" of the other players don't really care about the series all that much it doesn't make their opinions stupid (That's true) nor less important. (That's debatable since they clearly don't care about the series that much) so why does us being in the minority make our opinions any more stupid or less valid?