I just watched the interviews with Mark Lampert and it got me thinking. He confirmes what I was suspecting previously, that the team loves Morrowind as any other game from TES series and that Oblivion was simply the next step in the direction they wanted the series to take. It seems pretty clear to me now that they will try to use much more from Morrowind's approach in Skyrim than they have in Oblivion (since Cyrodiil is the main province it had to be imperial to the core and that even somewhat explains the turn to classic fantasy theme). I see Skyrim as a game that will carry on the flame of previous game with most visible elements from the games that caught most players (yes Daggerfall fans, I think among the stuff that is yet to be uncovered there're treats for you too). That said, will Morrowind fans accept that Morrowind is "gone", that no other TES game is going to be exactly like it, but in all of them we will feel it's spirit? And will Oblivion fans be as mature as they ask Morrowind fans to be if (or rather when) it turnes out Skyrim is not Oblivion 2, but yet a different experience? We know for a fact it will be a lot like TESIV with it's adventurous heart, we now know it will draw directly from Morrowind too (main music theme, sphere centurion and who knows what else), so can everyone be pleased this time? I really hope so and I'm looking forward to see how this game turnes out more and more with each sip of information poured by GI to the horn of our curosity (couldn't resist the image of Nord warriors waiting for the next adventure sitting in a tavern, drinking from horns :foodndrink: ). Please share your thoughts, can Morrowind, Oblivion and other TES games be mended to form something amazing or will this be a Frankenstein's monster?

Edit: Added the poll question for fun...and to attract more people :wink_smile:

You miss an I don't know option, I literally don't know :shrug:

EDIT: pretty optimistic though

No it doesn't. Cyrodiil was supposed to be a jungle. I have absolutely no idea why they went and made it into a temperate forest out of England. The best they came up with to explain that was "Oh, right, Tiber Septim decided he didn't like jungles so he made it temperate.".

Nobody knows-knows, you never know untill you try it, what I'm asking is what are you guessing by what you've seen in Morrowind, Oblivion and what we've been shown so far about Skyrim.



Todd has said it over and over again, they were under big influence of the LotR movies during the most of Oblivion's developement and they wanted to go with something a lot more realistic and familiar than Morrowind. It is not a bad concept nor did they loose TES spirit in the process, the only thing that can be complained about is that they contradicted the geographical part of the lore. :grad:

Wait I am the only one who voted monsterous?

Didn't you meant that in a good way? Like it's going to be badass?

Oh, and incidentally, in TES III even they described Cyrodiil as a jungle. TES III took place only a few years prior to Oblivion, both long after Tiber Septim's reign.

people insulting oblivion aside, I think they can bring what I loved technologically about oblivion, with the spirit of morrowind quite successfully .

I definitly think the "Soul" of Morrowind is going to get carried somehow into Skyrim. Main theme is an awesome step in the right direction. So is sphere centurions, And with Dwemer machines back somehow I'm not sure how its related but hopefully, SPEARS!!!! Morrowind was freedom, customization, free roaming, backdoor quests and mostly, the past. The game was centered on the reincarnation of a hero long lost, of events from previous centuries, etc... it gave the game truly epic proportions. And Skyrim seems to be following it its footsteps.

As for the heart of Oblivion? Oblivion was a lifeless husk of corporate product to me... no heart.... jk.
I really couldnt say what was Oblivion's heart though.... what the game truly hoped to be? The scope it envisioned to reach??? It just felt all surpassed by the previous games, but I'm a bit biased against Oblivion so I'll let someone else figure out what the heart of Oblivion was.

That would be a no, I meant it in the Frankenstein's monstrous kind of way...and now I've noticed the typo :facepalm:



True, but the damage's been done already, the lore has been altered and it's not THAT bad, most people seem to like it (not me in particular and clearly neither do you, but there's lots of people who have been influenced by LotR to the extent they don't care what previous lore said, same as devs).

What do you think I'm complaining about? It's not like that is just a small thing. So what if Todd says that? I don't care about the reason, I care that they totally changed a major thing and then came up with the flimsiest excuse of a retcon in the world. And, personally, I think having the game take place in generic fantasyland out of nowhere because of a movie you liked is a pretty bad concept. And my point still stands. What you said explained things in your OP did not explain anything. It would have if Todd said that before, not after. I don't think he said it before, if he did, please give me a source.

We already see Daggerfall in its random quests. We see Dwemer ruins like Morrowind and also political sides like both Morrowind and Daggerfall had, and it seems like a next step in the combat from Oblivion. But we also see stuff like less skills. Now.. I'm sure I'll enjoy it. What I'm also seeing is that it will keep on the trend most TES games have of becoming more focused. That's probably a good thing to most, and makes them better games, but I'd like to see a game that tries to be big again. Yet something tells me this could be a step above from Oblivion. Perks can broaden the scope as far as character is concerned. And freedom to equip each hand seems a good approach for freedom. We'll see how they'll do it.

In any case I'm sure it will be a great game, and no matter how good it is mods will make it even better since we can tailor it to exactly how we want it, something I don't think any company can do. So I'm quite excited about it.

I am not insulting Oblivion. I am expressing how I was disappointed that "jungle" became "mild woodlands" and how it was even more disappointing to find the in-game reason for this was "Because Tiber Septim changed it".

I'd rather it have the soul of Morrowind, the heart of Daggerfall, and the skin of Oblivion.

Skin of Oblivion as in graphics and combat... well maybe not the graphics. Every single race looked like an abomination. The weapons looked like plastic Halloween toys. I guess the grass was pretty though? Eh who cares seems like Skyrim nailed the graphics part down from what I've seen anyway.

meh, I'm just a little annoyed that you decided to change this thread from "can skyrim combine what made morrowind and oblivion great into one game" into complaining about trees.
honestly? like the trees being slightly larger and more dense would make a huge difference -_-

Exactly. Oh and when Mark started to say "sphere..." for a moment I thought he said spear and that spears are back :frog:



I was like that too, but then I grew to understand the thought, the intent behind Oblivion. Its heart was the main story, the adventure, heroism in pure concentrated form. That's something that Morrowind lacked even in my opinion, I almost felt the whole Nerevarine idea is being pushed on me and someway along the way it will turn out I'm not the one. Oblivion was all about making you really feel it, making you, not your character the true hero.

Where did you watch this interview at? It seems I'm missing out on all the good stuff.

In any profession, progression is the mark of success, learning from past mistakes and being consistent in applying successful techniques. Oblivion was in my opinion an attempt to make the Elder Scrolls experience more alive and tangible, over the Mechanically sound yet somewhat lifeless Morrowind, with dynamic NPC's and several cosmetic additions. I believe that in order for Skyrim to be a success Beth must take the strengths of Morrowind and the new grounds broken in Oblivion and merge them together.

I deeply and sincerely hope you are right. Morrowind is done and over, but I think it is a very big stone in foundation of the series that should not be discarded in spirit As for Oblivion the visual approach to things was great, with a little adjustment here and there it can turn in to fantastic.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/01/14/the-sounds-of-skyrim.aspx, you need to visit Bethesda's Blog more often :wink_smile:



He probably never said it before, but that is not the point. When they saw LotR they must've seen how an empire should look like and they probably realised that what they had imagined when they thought of Cyrodiil was much more similar to this than to how they depicted it in the past. Maybe the whole jungle idea was a mistake from the beginning? In fact maybe that was a commercial move for the sake of making something different than everybody else but it didn't come from the same source that the rest of the lore did? I'm just guesssing here, true, but if you forget about your rage and think about it for a minute, it makes sense.

Cyrodiil was first a forest, then a jungle, then a forest again. It started off as a forest. Arena protrayed it as a forest, it was stated to be a jungle in Redguard, and it was portrayed as a forest in Oblivion. Both times that Cyrodiil has actually appeared in an Elder Scrolls game, it has been a forest.

I always thought this debate was silly. Morrowind was great and was my introduction into TES. The reason I like Morrowind better has nothing to do with nostalgia, but because it was more of a complete game than Oblivion. Had Bethesda had more time with the hardware and a better understanding with next gen technology, Oblivion would have easily been just as great as Morrowind, if not better. Considering Skyrim will not have any of the issues of development that Oblivion did, I'm looking forward to Skyrim replacing Morrowind as my favorite TES game.

So, you think your opinion is right and that Morrowind is, inarguably, a better game? Anyone else see why this may, just may, anger a person who prefers Oblivion juuust a bit?

Right, because the difference between "jungle" and "temperate forest" is only the size and number of trees... No. It's not. Try the radically different fauna. Try the radically different landscape and climate. Try the completely different architecture that would be required for a jungle environment. It's like saying that by going to Labrador and leveling an entire forest and then planting a few palm trees you have now turned it into a tropical paradise, despite all the same animals living there, the temperature being the same, the landscape being the same, and literally everything else still being the same thing.

Right. So the excuse of them being THE ORIGINAL CREATORS OF THE LORE ITSELF is a flimsy excuse as to why they changed it.

As stated, they're the creators of the damned lore. If they wanted to, they could say Skyrim is a desert and we'd have no choice but to accept it. It's their lore and their games, so they can do whatever they want with them.

As for the subject at hand, I see it being a great combination. And so far, with Dwemer stuff returning, the new theme, and just the feel, I feel a very Morrowind-ish vibe with it.

Yeah, I'm a bit relaxed about the whole thing. Sources do depict reality in a faulty matter all the time. It's the real (game) world that matters

Edit: Perhaps they can add a book to the in game library that refutes an old source referring to the 'forest' of Cyrodiil as a 'jungle'....

sorry if a fantasy game isn't realistic enough for you