My poor Xbox controller, it started squeaking after a while.

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Ok, pay attention because this is truly a beautiful thing if you can see it my way.

"Killing essential NPCs can really screw your game" IF you're not prepared for it. 99% of games would never let you kill a character you need to beat the game, so in Morrowind, it takes you by surprise.

One of the many things that made Morrowind the BEST RPG EVER not IMO but FACT, is because it is a totally unique, different, unexpected world that completely catches you off guard and owns your first character. And even when you screw one quest line, you've got a ton of other quest lines to pursue. It only screws your game if you cannot bring yourself to accept the fact that not every character you create is cut out to be Nerevarine.

You see, so many people got mad at this game because it was the first time, ever, in their lives that they had to live with the consequences of their actions because they just couldn't press the reset button to fix this one.

My advice to you is to stop needing complete control. Let go and get immersed in the world, instead of trying to passive aggressively control the world by experimenting and reloading over and over. It makes gaming a whole different experience. And that's the whole point of the TES series: to give you a whole different experience from the mundane.

In short:
Unkillable essential NPCs: mundane
Killable essential NPCs: Beautiful [censored] Poetry

The only complaints pretty much came from xbox players. PC players could add and fix whatever needed be.

You know what; I'm just gonna come out and say this:

If you get mad because you can't complete the main quest, due to a killed essential NPC, then you are the same kind of person who gets so frustrated that you end up tossing the controller and breaking something.

You don't play video games for fun. You play them because you want to win and then show off.

You know what I did the first time I played Morrowind and I couldn't beat the MQ because I had killed Sharn a few saves back? I laughed because it's just a game. Get a life!

There was a glitch in the character I invested the most time in. I only started the MQ after getting bored of everything else (took literally a year playing at average 2 hours a week) The Soul Bow wasn't where it was supposed to be, I checked online guides etc, it was effed. Then I realized. I was an Argonian. The Dunmer earned Dagoth Ur. They can get rid of him, I'm not going to solve their problems when my people are still enslaved.

And THAT is what makes a great roleplaying game. When you have enough thought put into your character to give you a reason NOT to do something.

My knight character in Oblivion doesn't use soul gems or soul-trapping since his values don't approve of the destruction or enslavement of souls. My knight character also doesn't communicate with Daedra(which means no Daedric artifacts) and my character in Oblivion doesn't join the Arena because he doesn't believe in killing for money. My character, as a follower of Arkay, respects the living and the dead in two of the ways I mentioned. My character refuses to help Sheogorath in any way due to not communicating with Daedra, and so I don't do much with the Shivering Isles with this character. My battlemage respects the Daedra and communicates with them, but refuses to help those who ask of more immoral acts. He is a good person, but has no problems, as a Dunmer, with trapping souls, but as a Dunmer, dislikes other forms of necromancy, making the Mages' Guild questline perfect for him. His most prominent flaw is his biased view towards necromancy(agrees with Traven, unlike many other Mages' Guild members and the law of the Empire). My knight's most prominent flaw is his biased view towards Daedra and their worshippers(hates them all), but within Azura, he sees some good in that she shows some concern for her followers, but knows that she only seems to care for them as long as they please her and knows she is not truly good. Both characters do not complete any quests or join and factions that don't represent their specializations and values.

My Dunmer knight in Morrowind worships Daedra, specifically Azura, and traps souls, which fits perfectly with one of the skills of a knight in Morrowind. He worships the Nine as well, though and, as an outlander who has some Dunmer values and some Imperial values, finds some of the practices and values of his own people in Morrrowind disturbing, including slavery. He also does not complete quests or join factions that go against his specialization and values.
I have put thought into characters in both games.

Well when Morrowind first came out I complained how The Elder Scrolls Morrowind is the greatest game in the history of the universe. in character creation prossess. I hated how alot of abilities were taken out. I hated how camping and medical was taken away. I hated how instant travel was taken away. When working over 40 weeks at that time, play time was hard to come by so quick travel would have been so much better for me so I didn't have to waste precious time just walking when I didn't want to, I just wanted to explore dungeons and play, not walk or run. For those who don't like Instant Travel don't need to use it. I hated spending half hour walking and then only 20 minutes of actual combat or playing and then another half hour of walking back again, the next day.

But I was really pissed at all the choices we had in character creation that was in Daggerfall. People were pissed in Oblivion that lots of weapon and skill were taken away. Well alot were taken away in Morrowind from Daggerfall. I use to say Morrowind was dumbed down. But Oblivion was way dumbed down. I just hope TES V isn't dumbed down even more, but more options.

So people do not get upset with the wording dumbed down, it's a saying most people used in those days. Morroiwnd was easier than Daggerfall, Oblvion was easier than Oblivion. Bethesda even admitted that they made Oblivion easeir to play so it would appease to the masses and made the game simplier. They didn't say "dumb down" but they did say make it easier and less complicated for the cassual gamer. At least Bethesda still let the game be do what ever you want when ever you want and open ended for us hard core TES fans wich we feel got a bit neglceted so Bethesda can have appeal to the Instant gratification, less attention span kids, wich I am shure Bethesda actually used these names in their interviews.

I see your point. However, not everyone does unfortunately. Some players simply do not like having to start over because of a mistake they did in the past. Some players do no enjoy having to "live with the consequences of their actions" because they play the game to, you know, have fun.

I think adding the option to disable the immortality of essential NPCs in the setting should make everyone happy.

Wow, that's a really great perspective, never really thought about it like that before. The first time I played MW, it did really catch me off-guard, and I did kill a main-quest NPC and was gutted about it, but I did what any gamer would do and reloaded a previous save, with a whole new outlook on the consequences of slaughtering the innocent, ha! But your take on it is great, seriously. I'm doing a new MW play-through with a ton of mods now and it is still taking me by surprise.

IIRC, doesn't Morrowind give the player a kind of pop-up message whenever an essential NPC is killed?

Edit:

Found it:



I'd say if you managed to ruin yuor game after such a warning, there is no one to blame but yourself.

The time I ruined by main quest by killing sharn, I had already done her llevule adrano quest, so I just disregarded the pop-up message.

But then, Cauis was mad at me and refused to give me anymore orders.

He was like, "I don't care about the emperor or some prophecy anymore." That's why I laughed. Good stuff.

But anyway, yeah, it was my own fault. I have no right to murder the whole mages guild. So, to yell at Bethesda because I'm a murderous sicko would just be silly.

But anyway, if you really want to avoid that kind of thing, just play redguard (which only had one quest line to begin with), until Bethesda comes out with a new TES action/ adventure game. And, in the meantime, I'd really like to see a return to every NPCs being killable in TES RPGs.

It's a really cool feature that's unique to TES and adds layers of substance to the game experience. And it's only a problem if you happen to break the main quest and get yourself expelled permanently from EVERY guild (which would make you some sort of reject). Otherwise, there's always some way to entertain yourself, even when one or two questlines become unfinishable.

While I'm at it, here's a real life anology to help further emphasize the coolness of killable essential NPCs:

Real life (Morrowind style): I kill my professor and get expelled from school and sent to jail

Real life (Oblivion style): I kill my professor and he gets right back up and says to me, "I saw a mudcrab the other day, nasty little creatures."