» Sun Aug 11, 2013 1:21 pm I am currently running Morrowind wiith my level 5 Imperial Bard Nameless.
Nameless the Bard, heh. As most of my stuff it is multireferential, multilinguistic etc, can you figure it out?
Hint it is none of the obvious ones like the Man With No Name or Planescape Torment.
He is in the Imperial Cult, Blades and the Mages Guild and among other things has two daedric wakizashis, both which he got at level 4.
If he could dualwield them he could break the combat even more than than toting even one daedric wakizashi does.
Some would claim that having even one daedric weapon at level 4 is OP, but that's Morrowind baby!
It got me thinking(big surprise there!) about his class, every time he goes to Balmora he will play the lute at the Eight Plates, but if I were to make a custom class with the same race, sign, skills, speciality and starting stats but instead of calling it Bard I would call it Playa, what would be different?
Turns out nothing, besides the name.
It is almost like as if the class system is entirely superflous and unecessary.
Hint:*stagewhisper* It is...
Does he play the lute for money, or to please and entertain the people there, for the art or the pleasure of self expression?
Heck if I know, I have to metaroleplay my motivation with my imagination since there is no dialogue about why he does it.
This is not bad however since it gives the player huge creative freedom in a way.
Being a bard gives him no unique bardic content, any mage or warrior with a lute and the right stats and skills can play the lute and get the same result, though having the book the Battle of Molag Beran would undoubtably help, just as it would for the Bard.
You can be a leatherclad Barbarian swinging a claymore become the Arch-Mage of the Mages Guild without even having cast a single spell as long as you can find one Master Trainer for a guild skill and cough up enough gold to abuse the training system and meet the stat requirements, which many characters do at level 1.
That is if you are ruining your own immersion and suspension of disbelief with your metagaming instead of playing the game as intended.
You all know Wayn, right?
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Wayn
He is the Balmora Fighters Guild blacksmith, you can buy some sweet magic weapons from him, good trainer in Blunt, Armorer and Heavy Armor.
So, I kill him.
Does anyone feel any emotional response? Grief? Sadness? Anyone crying over him?
If you do I admire, praise and respect your ability for immersion, the strength of your imagination. your capacity to feel and care about people and your empathic ability.
What do you miss most about him? His personality, his quirks, likes and dislikes?
His sense of humor, how he will never reach his lifelong dream of opening a sweetroll shop, how he was a snarky jerk to the other guildmembers or his great love of life and family?
I asked him about the Mages Guild and got a longwinded reply that nearly everyone else in the city would repeat word for word when he could have just said: Yeah, it is right nextdoor.
Guys and directions, eh?
Oh, and I suspect I have found THE most annoying person in all of Morrowind.
This guy:
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Ernand_Thierry
He is not involved in any quest, has no unique information and he spams his greeting phrase in his annoyingly shrill voice:
Ho friend! How about a potion today!?
Just commenting how shallow and flat most of the NPC's are and the Nerevarine as well.
This didn't bother me back when I first played Morrowind years ago, but in retrospect this game doesn't hold up well in that regard, most of the walking information kiosks in this game aren't even one note characters, but in the games defense those who have personality are gaming classics.
Vivec, Uncle Crassius, Dagoth Ur, Almalexia, Caius Cosades. Divayth Fyr and his "daughters" to name a few.
I think Kirkbride said it best:
"I can safely say that Vivec is the most realized character in videogame fiction. Period.
If a hermaphroditic, bug-armored, bipolar god-king existing in multiple universes who has his very own bible with *actual* magic strewn throughout it is your idea of a cliche, then I really would like to live in your world. It sounds fun and new.
But, wait, then I'd have to inexplicably make snarky and insulting comments in a forum where creators often tread. And that would quickly make me boorish and prone to cliched Angry Youngster Angst. That's the interwebs for you and good luck with it.
I can also say that Morrowind is the finest novel written in videogame fiction. A 40 hour narrative whose main character is only ever referenced is almost Nabokovian in aspiration, and prophecies whose truth is determined only by the player is akin to Borges if he only had been born with a USB port in the back of his beloved neck.
There is a fine line between celebrated tradition tuned to masterstrokes by its crafters and cliche'd demons underneath volcanos. Morrowind is the former, Selbeth, and nowhere near the latter. Except, again, when wrapped 'round electric peanuts tossed from the back row with bright'n'shiny underscores for effect."
Well said, man. Well said.
That said, anyone else feeling the lack of emotional investment in this game?
Is there anything more immersionbreaking than NPC's who walk into each other and keeps on walking even though they are in each others way?
Unless it is the mass copypasted NPC "dialogue", or finding that NPC you just escorted to the Fields of Kummu standing in the air without the aid of a levitation spell or seeing a nearby rat being unable to crawl under a bit of rope hanging between two sticks and then suddenly stop attacking for no reason when it cannot get to you?
Rope! The best rat deterrent ever!
Or skooma and moonsugar which is built up as these extremely dangerous and addictive narcotics, but when you use them skooma gives you a 60 second stat buff/debuff and moon sugar just fortifies your speed but is otherwise harmless.
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Skooma
Whoever said that drugs are bad for you was clearly wrong, drugs are good for you!
No explanation why you are immune to addiction of any sort.
Vendors won't trade with you if you are carrying skooma or moonsugar, but putting the stuff on the counter in front of them in plain sight of any guard is perfectly socially acceptable and makes it OK for them to trade with you.
