Morrowind vs Skyrim - More Is Less

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Morrowind vs Skyrim - More Is Less
In this video I compare the differences between Morrowind, and Skyrim and try to determine if the changes made to the RPG systems made Skyrim a better RPG. I am not by any stretch of the imagination saying that Morrowind is the better game, because it isn't, but I will argue that it is the better RPG.
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[@Reverend_Revenant]

Next thing you know The Elder Scrolls 6's armor will just be separated into 2 pieces, the helmet, and the rest of the armor.

[@Aewon84]

If Fallout 4 is any indication, no. As I said in another comment it's engine limitations that's the cause for much of the streamlining of The Elder Scrolls. Increased hardware capability will allow them to have an increased number of armour sets without having to combine them. Not to mention that TES VI is not only completely skipping the 8th gen, but it'll also have a new engine.

[@nexus3756]

hopefully new as in new not gamebryo/creation 5.0 with all the same base problems and even worse optimized because the engine hit its ceiling like 12 years ago

[@magusperde365]

And many of skyrims decisions seems to have been made for a wider public.. what's makes it genius is how it's stil lgreat like any other Elder Scrolls game. I think the fact that everyone is now already hooked may let them go more into a Morrowind like feel.. not everything was dumbed down either, compare fast travel in skyrim with fast travel in Oblivion, in Skyrim at least you have to explore before being able to fast travel ( even better if you are me and are stupid enough to not notice the caravans..) also, I would not play a game with a map the size of skyrim's without some kind of fast travel... Morrowind had one too.. you just had to make it yourself with planning your mark, recall, almisivi intervention and divine intervention

[@mushroomdigital13]

They already did that with the Dark Brotherhood armor in Oblivion. I remember putting it on for the first time and being confused about how it took off all my other stuff.

[@marmalade627]

DeadDudeGaming Yeah, but in Fallout 4, they de-simplified it, and I think added more depth than Oblivion.

[@Captain_Hapton]

The thing I really miss from Morrowind the most was faction promotion being tied to the level of your skills. You could have done all the side quests available, but if your longsword skill was only 50, your ass is staying as a journeyman.

[@virtualismundi1862]

Additionally many quests are equally tied to rank promotion, so your character must level up factions favoured skills to simply access most quests.

[@Osric24]

This and dispositions. Made speechcraft worth a damn if you didn't wanna go with illusion. Having to actually earn your way up the ranks and prove your skill made the promotions actually feel rewarding.

[@dominicballinger6536]

Yeah, I like that about Daggerfall too! You can't just do 50 fetch quests and become the master of every guild, you have to prove you're worthy of it.

[@Nervar]

This was good up until like lvl 70 though those last few skill levels get ridiculous

[@CrackDCat]

Meh, I hate this aspect, I got expelled from the Dark Brotherhood in Daggerfall for completing a quest. I can understand from the realism point of view, but from a story telling and gameplay point of view, it feels restricting and irritating, not being able to progress the mages guild because I don't use anything other than restoration for example, That's a whole ass chunk of the story I have to waste at least 3 hours making a new character, doing the stuff I literally just did just to hear that story I was already halfway through lol. This isn't me bashing on Morrowind btw, it's me 3rd fave Elder Scrolls, Oblivion #2 Daggerfall #1

[@alexanderrahl7034]

I remember playing morrowind. And in Seyda neen, (the starting town) i was exploring around the outside killing scribs, mudcrabs, and slaughterfish. And i came upon the corpse of Processus. I took his gold and tax records and because ive been conditioned so much by modern games, i didnt think too much about it. An hour later i was still in seyda neen and happened to talk to a guard and mentioned finding his body. Which lead to a quest to find his killer. No big thing popped up to tell me *YOU STARTED A QUEST* And all i was given to go on was "find his killer" ....oh and also "return the gold you spent from his corpse, cuz thats tax money you stole" lol. I honestly felt better doing that quest. I felt like a detective, like i had to really find clues to his killer. So i checked his tax records. And saw that one character paid him 200 gold in taxes. And he had 200 gold on his body. So i figured that was the last character he spoke to and i started there. That guy lead me to someone else who knew him. And after talking to her, i find out after some dialogue sleuthing, that he argued with another person who accused him of being dirty. So i went to find that guy. And when I did, i accuse him of the crime. The guy flat out confesses proudly to the murder, and insists the guy was stealing tax money and skimming off the top. I didnt care though, so i killed the guy. And turned in the quest. And to add insult to injury, i stole the dudes house 😂 That quest honestly felt so much better than any quest ive done in Skyrim.

[@BrolyDIFF]

Bro that is called a masterpiece of a game you are welcome

[@huntershonour2433]

@@BrolyDIFF i hope he returned the tax money to the census office for a nice 300gold bonus and the ring to his wife for some pots.Really good starting quest.

[@acel6951]

And that quest is in the first hour of gameplay

[@historiousedward4145]

Hmm I should proceed to play morrowind I guess...it kinda feels more alive

[@Medicesca]

Fun fact: if you find the dead tax collector, then head straight to Foryn Gilnith, kill him, then go to Ergala, you'll get the 500 for killing his murderer, and keep the tax money guilt free.

[@Weldedhodag]

morrowind puzzle: Read a text with cryptic hints until you figure out you literally have to drown yourself to advance the quest Skyrim puzzle: a 'match the picture' game for toddlers

[@MaxPower-ke5rq]

I remember that quest! I locked myself out of it because I did a perma enchant for water breathing on myself 🤦🏽‍♂️. I set myself so far back (don't remember if I had to load a really old save or if I had to start a new game)

[@void9399]

Do you really consider that Morrowind puzzle difficult? Or at least complicated enough to make a difference between that and one from Skyrim? Never play the first Silent Hill games, your head will explode.

[@user-ms5tq1dh7i]

@@void9399 tbh, bethesda's games are easy as heck. Morrowind, even though it needs more adaptations needed from oblivion and skyrim, still to easy. Arx fatalis is harder, or to this day i prefer Gothic 2.

[@void9399]

@@user-ms5tq1dh7i And?

[@user-ms5tq1dh7i]

@@void9399 my point is, i agree with you. It's still easy.

[@simonhowe8897]

I feel like these are all symptoms of one big problem in RPGs these days; games are built for a single playthrough rather than more than one.

[@StratEdgyProductions]

I agree. I think that is why they would rather cram a game full of boring content, then put in content that is varying, and different, and can be solved in different ways because fetch quests can be written quickly (and at times, procedural generated) whereas branching dynamic quests take a lot more work to ensure there is no way to break the logic, or ensure that you cannot break further quests and lock yourself out of beating the game.

[@minerva9104]

Simon Howe At least we have New Vegas!

[@smexizool]

I feel like Fallout New Vegas brought back a lot that made the older games in the series good back.

[@Apkans]

My Skyrim warrior was able to become archmage.. that's how devs feel on locking out content these days.

[@mccarney4207]

You can become the leader of the Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild, College of Winterhold, AND the Companions all in one play through. You can even do all the quests with the Blades, then do the main story and spare Paarthurnax. The only things you can't do both at once with are both sides of the Dawnguard DLC storyline, and the Destroy the Dark Brotherhood and become the leader.

[@PlanetDiablo16967]

"You never murder people who don't deserve it." You literally kill an extremely polite woman at her wedding.

[@tylerh2548]

A God Damn Dragonite She had it coming.

[@zayanwatchel8780]

ITs CALLED SAAAAARCAAASMMMMM

[@Sceptillio133]

Melchior Magni And somehow the Companions and Thieves' Guild don't care.

[@Sceptillio133]

Melchior Magni I'm just pointing out that it doesn't really make sense that the game flows that way. Don't get me wrong, it's fun to play. But sometimes it feels like the character I play is a somebody, yet a nobody. Respected and known throughout a small circle or an organization for awesome things that happen. But outside of that, nothing changes, except for small passing dialogue that I hear from guards, and random encounters with thieves and assassins that come up to me while I catch a few butterflies or pick blue flowers. Like time stands still while I do these quests. Sure I won't be able to make a game better than this, but I figured it's something to point out. Light criticism, or poking fun, if you will. I could go into detail, but I rather just settle it here. In any case, have a nice day. :) P.S. Btw, I know that some of the bigger things change throughout the game that matter. However, a little detail could go a long way in some areas, is all I'm saying.

[@Kalmo_]

Sceptillio Lustershot I mean many of the Thieves Guild members have connections to the Dark Brotherhood. Hell, you even need their help in the DB questline to get the necklace looked at. If I remember correct Delvin Mallory (or whatever his name was) used to be a member of DB

[@dimas3829]

Oh, Vivec city, a place where I secretly stashed my Obsidian armor so well that I couldn't find it and to this day have no idea where exactly I hid it there.

[@zubbworks]

Lol. You're why dungeons exist for adventurers to raid. "Where did I put my loot?"

[@terryhinkemeyer3857]

Obsidian armor doesn’t exist in Morrowind.

[@dimas3829]

@@terryhinkemeyer3857 ah, yeah, it was ebony one. My mistake.

[@MadAlienArt]

@@dimas3829 meh, it's the same thing almost , but one is harder and magical

[@deathscam7628]

@@terryhinkemeyer3857 you contrarian lol

[@confusedcossack2885]

When a game has less voice acting, the moments that do use it tend to be more memorable. That or Dagoth Ur truly is epic.

[@coito5307]

Dagoth Ur truly is epic. He has the sexiest voice of the sexy voices

[@nicholasmorgan7609]

"Omnipotent! Omniscient! Sovereign! Immutable! How sweet it is, to be a god!" one of my favorite lines. The delivery was great

[@shaynehughes6645]

Tfw the dragon son of a god is less memorable than a jackass with a pot on his head. Why Todd?

[@Frac.Razoer]

Dagoth Ur truly is dat nerevarine

[@_Tzer]

@@shaynehughes6645 He is also a harder fight.

[@Awesomeisme7000]

I prefer better writing with less voice acting over worse writing with more voice acting,.

[@varvarith3090]

Your Imaginary voice is the best voiceactor.

[@mccarney4207]

Виктор Тюрин Making up voices for characters in games like Pokémon and Legend of Zelda are some of my funniest experiences with video games.

[@colbycox5436]

I understand why people think that but I actually prefer everything to be voiced because if I have to read most of the dialogue I get taken out of the game and don't feel as immersed.

[@eskoelo1037]

I generally agree with that statement but when writing and voice acting are both stellar, as is the case with the Witcher III, the voice acting makes a big difference.

[@rikacomedyletsplays2581]

Colby Cox so what do none of you people read books these days? What is with this "My immersion breaks if I have to read a basic dialogue tree between two characters?" ADD must be in all the kids these days.

[@sonpacho]

"With this character's death, the thread of prophecy is severed. Restore a saved game to restore the weave of fate, or persist in the doomed world you have created." - *this is what made Morrowind so good.*

[@dolphinboi-playmonsterranc9668]

Even though the game is completable as long as that dead character isn't the Dwarf

[@pretztel1551]

@@dolphinboi-playmonsterranc9668 still completable even if Yagrum is dead

[@yoboi267]

dude tbh I've never played Morrowind until this year and I think it's way better than Skyrim

[@sonic-bb]

Bro, elder scrolls 2 dsggerfall tho 😌😌

[@AzGrahm]

Same

[@looinrims]

Well no you don’t think so You know so, because *it is*

[@planescaped]

Skyrim's a fun game... Morrowind is a great game that is also fun.

[@kato1kalin]

@Mediocre Dispense tribunal was a wasted opportunity but blood moon is great. Also Todd Howard started his influence during Morrowind. So we can see elder scrolls downfall from there.

[@garrettlathey4915]

*Me, watching the Morrowind footage*: For the love of christ, please drink a fatigue potion!

[@billmurray5160]

Yeah that bugged me really bad.

[@caconutnuts]

I don’t think he had one in his inventory. Probably just started and didn’t buy from Arrille’s Tradehouse.

[@nicholasmorgan7609]

I never drank any fatigue potions in my first playthrough

[@Weldedhodag]

@范德萨阿斯顿发大水发大水发阿斯顿发大水发大水发范德萨我和你吻别我爱你他妈的翔宇我和你吻别元的钱破开该 you fail checks for landing attacks and casting spells more often with low fatigue.

[@markusmitchell8585]

Or spell

[@DrArku]

The lack of voice acted lines in Morrowind also contributed to mods. I remember a bunch of great quest and adventure mods which added lots of content and they managed to fit into the game very well. Easier for modders to make mods, easier for players to enjoy them.

[@StratEdgyProductions]

Didn't even think of that, but you're right.

[@3lloGuvner]

Arku nothing bothers me when I'm playing modded oblivion than inconsistent voice acting. It's to the point that I out right avoid any mod that adds completely new characters which massively limits the mods I can enjoy.

[@MrChickennugget360]

@@lemonzazz122 you are a douche-bag

[@xxSKAGhosTxx]

@@StratEdgyProductions really? New quests was one of the first things I ever searched for in PS4 Skyrim and fallout.

[@xxSKAGhosTxx]

My point being there wasn't really new quests but in fallout 4 there was at least one that had no voice audio. I always thought a few quest packs would be obvious go-to ideal mods

[@wendhynovizar3926]

Welp you may have heard the saying, "as wide as a lake, but as deep as a pond

[@markusmitchell8585]

More like puddle

[@Vimdraa]

On voice acting, I feel as if the penultimate way to go about it, is how it was done in games like Neverwinter Nights and Fallout 1-2. When you meet a new NPC, you have them give their introduction and KEY dialogue in a voice. This is so that you as a player will have a voice and a personality to associate with that character, when your internal voice takes over and reads the rest of their dialogue. Harold the Ghoul is an amazing example of this. We know how he sounds like, and even the parts that aren't voiced HAS his voice and personality embedded in it. Another great example is Deckard Cain. Even back in D1 we knew exactly what he sounded like, and could eaasily read all his quest dialogue IN his voice in our head. And that dude became a legend! Less can be more. :)

[@Patcheresu]

That's what Beth npcs generally do lol

[@nerowatson9331]

@@Patcheresu no they dont, in the newer games they voice literally everything.

[@imma5269]

“Penultimate” means “second to last”

[@animore8626]

Baldur's Gate is another example of this.

[@companylovesmisery1463]

One thing I really notice is how every highway robber that comes up to you in Morrowind is actually named. Whether you find them in caves, ruins, or again they are present just on the road, they are all unique NPC's. I don't know how soon after I started both Oblivion and Skyrim I just stopped paying attention to random enemies, because they're all called bandit or bandit chief or whatever. There are no such things as generic NPC's in Morrowind. Everyone has a name and, I like to think, a story.

[@seanaugagnon6383]

Except for the guards... I think.

[@FriedMetroid]

@@seanaugagnon6383 I think those guards might be unique too Because sometimes if you ask them about background they will answer "I am Guard, a Guard for blahblah"

[@knightofnightside]

and what good did that do? you do not get to know most of them and other than being named they still remain just random npc to kill

[@companylovesmisery1463]

@@knightofnightside Of course I regret that most of the NPCs have no unique dialogue, and how you could only ask them about quest information or get the exact same dialogue about the game world. I appreciate that the NPCs of Oblivion have their own schedules and preferences and move around the accomplish them, instead of slightly moving left or right or walking jerkily around like Morrowind.

[@knightofnightside]

@@companylovesmisery1463 that is also a thing i did not like about morrowind. The world felt so...dead... Besides your occasional rat and cliffracer that accompany you every few metres, most of the world is a empty grey or messy green area

[@Imperatia]

All this talk of Bethesda laziness reminds me of when my level 50+ Dragonborn, Archmage, Listener etc. character went to join the Companions. They treated me basically like I'm a random nobody lvl 1 noob who just arrived in Skyrim. Just one scripted dialogue for all possible characters and no accounting for *anything* I've done since the start of the game. I stopped playing for a few months because of that one.

[@MeenToss]

Or when you walk into town wearing full deadric armor, a flaming sword in your hand and magic whirling around you and a guard goes "Oh no, did you lose your sweetroll?"

[@benishmael9451]

TelVi ^truth

[@HolyknightVader999]

Of course they did. They don't give two shits about everyone. The Companions pride themselves as the best. Assassins and mages aren't necessarily what they'd call "great fighters". One casts spells, another kills you from the darkness. The Companions, meanwhile, value brawn over brains. Tell me, would a knight see a mage and an assassin as his equal? Would a guy who spends all day fighting with his hands, sword, and shield have a high opinion of some dude who hides behind spells or who kills in the dark? Or to pose the question from a different angle, would a Samurai have a high opinion of a ninja or a sorcerer? No, they won't. They'd see ninjas as cowards and sorcerers as people who hide behind magic.

[@fangorn9826]

HolyknightVader999 It's not that they don't know you cause the don't care about mages or assasin's, it's because it was really bad work by Bethesda.

[@ethanbrock5453]

HolyknightVader999 I would at least expect them to acknowledge that the greatest hero of all time is talking to them

[@samarman1634]

I just remembered something about Morrowind I wanted to share. Too many times have I tried to sleep out in the woods and my sleep gets interrupted by A FUCKING SCRIB. Not an actual threat, a fucking SCRIB

[@StratEdgyProductions]

They crawl in your ear when you're asleep and lay eggs. You can thank Todd Howard for warning you.

[@upinyoursafespace8444]

It's been a while since I played morrowind. I don't remember Scribs being able to wake someone up, and also how they aren't even aggressive. Most of the time, its usually Nix-hounds, kwala foragers, those beetles, and god damn cliff racers.

[@adamg6453]

They would wake you but not attack iirc, just be there annoyingly. Then you'd have to take em out to be allowed to rest or face the "enemies nearby" dialogue.

[@myguydied]

Up in your safe space yeah been woken plenty of times by a scrib, little buggers. But no my biggest problem in morrowind apart from cliff racers was forgetting to swap out and run into battle armed with a Lockpick of Doom lol

[@amouseplottingworlddominat8679]

I'm playing morrowind as I watch this video and just got woke by scrib, and I'm like. "Bud let me sleep or I'll kill u and take that scrib jelly."

[@talongreenlee7704]

Skyrim has you doing more execution problems, and Morrowind has you do more thinking problems. Also, if you look at the UI, Morrowind has a compass, an icon showing your equipped weapon and spell, icons for your current effects, and your health bar. Skyrim has a health bar and a quest bar/compass. Morrowind’s system is used to show you quick reference things you check every once in a while to make sure nothing’s changed since you last looked. Skyrim’s UI is used much much more than that. I have done entire quests just looking at the quest bar because I didn’t care enough about the world and what was going on. It does all the thinking for you, while Morrowind’s UI gives you information you need to make your own decisions. I have played Skyrim, Oblivion, and Morrowind for a couple hundred hours each, and I believe that Morrowind is the finest crafted game out of all of them. Egorapter once compared games to either junk food to be eaten without thinking while giving some level of enjoyment, or a high class dessert to be eaten once and be done, but also to be entirely satisfying in and of itself. Morrowind is the high class dessert, and Skyrim is the junk food. I eat them both, and I like both of them, but I will always think more highly of Morrowind.

[@anafu-sankanashi8933]

oblivion is the take-out food from some random street food store that is fun to revisit every now and then.

[@gabegrafton3467]

Skyrim gives me indigestion

[@tremblence]

skyrim gave me the shits morrowind is like thai food in the fridge from last night- not the most attractive at first sight, but heat it up and give it time and the flavors reveal themselves as rich and complex

[@jamesamaral8185]

I've been saying it for almost 15 years. The desire for mass appeal and voice acting killed The Elder Scrolls. Morrowind sure as hell wasn't perfect; it was littered with bugs and poorly-tested and game-breaking mechanics (Int-buffing potion-stacking, anyone?), but it felt like a fully-realized, if technically limited, world. Recently, in the interest of acquiring the achievements, I played a single playthrough in Skyrim, half of it while considerably drunk, proceeded to skip 99% of the dialogue, and typically had no idea what was actually going on. Despite this, I still managed to complete all factions, expansions, and 100% the game. It took me just under 100 hours. I have played Morrowind on and off since its release, amassed well-over 1,000 total hours in-game and, while some of that time has been spent completing certain storylines multiple times, I STILL have not seen everything Morrowind has to offer. I still haven't collected all the Threads of the Webspinner, I still haven't completed the Grandmaster Writs with the Morag Tong, and I still haven't completed all of the Vampire Clans. Morrowind was something incredible. It asked you to go out and explore the world around you. To ask questions and to pay attention. And, unfortunately, I don't know if we'll ever see it's like from a AAA studio ever again.

[@dingisdongis6917]

The introduction of fortify skill in Tribunal really broke the potion-stacking thing. Boosting alchemy by 800 points is just wrong and very fun for a while.

[@Zzay08]

YES, you're so damn right

[@aversiac-2]

Imagine spending 100 hours in a game you don't like just to get the achievements for it, yikes

[@ryanminaker9461]

I also felt that way when i went from 3 to 4. 4 felt souless. I beat like every quest in 3 plus expansions.

[@gothenmosph5151]

If by 'killed' you mean became more and more successful you'd be right.

[@SasheCZ]

It's funny when you think about the quest markers and dialogs. The NPCs in Skyrim don't even tell you how to get to the place you are supposed to go, they just tell you the name of the place and "mark it on your map". And sometimes you look at the map and tell yourself: "Ok, I can go here and here and I'm there." And then you get near the marker and find out, there's a f*cking mountain in front of you! And you have to go around it and it takes twice as much time then if the NPC told you how to get there, like in Morrowind.

[@StratEdgyProductions]

Yeah, I mean, the alternative like what you see in The Witcher 3, is to have the dotted line on your mini map that updates as you go, and it pretty much always gives you the shortest path to an objective, but you miss everything on the way there because you are staring at your mini map.

[@ZGGuesswho]

I found myself ignoring the arrow in the witcher 3 because it was so fun to get lost.

[@ZGGuesswho]

not as true in Skyrim, I find

[@bashersully7667]

Who goes around the mountains? You just command your horse to defy physics and jump over the mountain...

[@YohSou]

Alex Löw I usually just mash jump and try to make it up there by sheer strength of laziness tho it takes even longer then going around you are right about thay

[@jaernihiltheus7817]

Dagoth Ur actually does have a reason for doing what he does, he tells you himself... Although he could easily be lying. And Vivec, Almalexia, and Sotha Sil are all characters that reside in a heavy moral gray area as well (just like most characters in Morrowind, as there are very few truly 100% good characters on Vvardenfel it seems.) But yeah, I pretty much agree with everything you said.

[@alstroemeria]

The only true good character is Tarhiel. He's a pure cinnamon roll.

[@jaernihiltheus7817]

Esados with a Lettuce That's very true.

[@irishcream9004]

Jaer Nihiltheus Dagoth Ur is a mad ran by his madness, a nationalist, and a velothi supremacist, he is a man who is obsessed with his former friend, the Dwemer, and his vision if the future, he tends to have trouble with the day to day military planning as he is absorbed in the long-term, a flaw that can be attributed to his defeat, he probably is not that deep into the lore though

[@irishcream9004]

Jaer Nihiltheus Dagoth Ur is a mad ran by his madness, a nationalist, and a velothi supremacist, he is a man who is obsessed with his former friend, the Dwemer, and his vision if the future, he tends to have trouble with the day to day military planning as he is absorbed in the long-term, a flaw that can be attributed to his defeat, he probably is not that deep into the lore though

[@Kos4Evr]

Dagoth Ur was Nerevars best friend who sought to destroy the 3 who would become the Tribunal after they betrayed Nerevar. He used their own treacherous means to gain power against them and while this same power drove him mad He wasn't really a bad guy at first.He is a more literal depiction of how taking power corrupts a person essentially becoming what he viewed the tribunal to be. To be fair this makes him a much more interesting villain than in other games because there is actually a good reason behind why this started even if it has since jumped the tracks.

[@Christian_Bagger]

This reminds me of my 82 grandpa who was a colonel in the Air Force. He absolutely love the flight simulator... and when the new one released, he upgraded his pc, internet and everything around it to indulge in the new experience. Almost immediately he went back, he said that the game looked absolutely amazing, but he didn’t cared, because the experience has gotten streamlined to the masses and was no longer a legitimate simulator experience.

[@HateMachinist]

Dagoth Ur is one of the best villains a video-game have ever seen. He is wise, charismatic, and equally deranged. The story behind how he got there is strangely believable, in spite of the fact that there are multiple accounts contradicting eachother. They just dont make games like that anymore. Morrowind is just...unique.

[@granolapancake]

Dagoth Ur is one of the best written antagonists period. He's so well written within the framework of ES: III, that once the player has a firm understanding of the history and context of his actions, there's a good chance that the player would want to side with him and reform the sixth house themselves.

[@HateMachinist]

@@granolapancake Preach. Vehk: "God sleeps, and we are his Dream." Dagoth Ur: "I'm dreaming. I must be God."

[@TheVioletBunny]

Very true with everything you said

[@CynicalAnomaly205]

Alduin: "I want to eat the world because motives and logic don't apply in this game!"

[@aggiefan88]

Skyrim was my first Elder Scrolls game. It burned me out after the first two playthroughs. I started Morrowind about 2 weeks ago, and I'm hooked. No mods or upgrades, just the vanilla steam version. After I learned the different combat system, I wasn't rage quitting nearly as often as I did before learning it lol. Also, having to read dialogue, take notes on paper, draw directions given to you for a location, is kinda refreshing. I feel like I have more invested into the story and world. Also, Vivec city is a pain in the ass. Took me forever to learn how to navigate that place....

[@StratEdgyProductions]

Holy shit, Vivec is a nightmare. On the flip side, exploring that place leads to some cool discoveries.

[@aggiefan88]

Strat-Edgy Productions like accidentally bumping into the secret morag tong hideout o_o I backed out slowly lol

[@minerva9104]

Strat-Edgy Productions not as nightmarish as wolverine hall, I can't navigate that place without levitating up to the towers

[@Panzerkuchen]

It is dumbing down in terms of player choice, weapon choice, skill choice, number of npcs in the game, number of quests, depth of game mechanics, leveled content. The game is centered around player choice, thats literally the interesting thing about the elder scrolls, but they are removing choices left and right. Also the impact the player character has on the world is different, there are less factions in the game and in general it seems like the questlines for factions are also shorter. There is no significant drawback for joining one faction, you can join all the factions and nobody in the game will think any different of you, now im not saying that this is all perfectly done in Morrowind, but at the very least I expected them to build upon these systems, instead of removing them. This doesn't mean that Skyrim hasn't improved on some points over the older versions, it would be completely ridiculous if it didn't. I mean Skyrim is a great game, but the first thing I noticed when playing Morrowind again after so many years is how casual the game has become. How there are a lot less options and how some of these systems to streamline the game are sometimes really taking away from the experience. Especially if you just play unmodded vanilla skyrim.

[@bowenrevels9876]

By Talos's beard, I hate Vivec.

[@sergiuszs]

hah, I still remember when i met daedra who said that it'll kill me and rape my corpse. wish to something like that in skyrim...

[@i_am_minifat]

It's not against the law...

[@Pots2k1]

This is why Loverslab mods are made :D

[@Sceptillio133]

minifat I would think that those sorts of interactions wouldn't be tame enough for the target audience, which was "Keep the old fans, but don't overwhelm the newcomers" as of late. Dialogue and actions like that wouldn't be tame, but it indeed gives npcs, enemies, and allies more character and gives you better insight into the world that you are exploring and trying to understand.

[@Molotov49]

Gotta be politically correct.

[@Vohaul86]

Also, no daedra seducers or covens of topless witches from Daggerfall in modern TES games. Bethesda became afraid of its own vision?

[@pawprint6677]

I love your points, especially the VA ones. One of the few exceptions though Is Cicero from Skyrim. He's annoying and bothersome but his Voice Actor nails that role so well, he makes everyone else in that game seem like cardboard in comparison.

[@KarmasAB123]

Even Max Von Sydow barely sounds interested, which speaks even more to how rushed it probably was.

[@cosmogoblin]

10:55 "I absorb so much less ... when I am listening to someone talk as opposed to when I am reading" The word you're looking for is *irony* ;)

[@FaolanHart]

It would also receive a great deal less attention if people had to read it themselves. Which is a shame because he wrote a great script here.

[@martinkirbits4752]

aah.. the great conflict: voice acting(realistic emersion) vs reading(emotionally engaging).

[@SonicTheFrenchHorn]

@@shadowtime91 State of affairs, bro.

[@Sneezac]

@@SonicTheFrenchHorn I wish they just went for a middle ground, no voice acting for the generic folk and witcher quality acting for the important one

[@arx3516]

@@Sneezac Just keep the voice acting and cinematic cutscenes for the main quests and use text for the secondary ones.

[@Kabeliel]

I think you can have both, it's double work but it can be done. Divinity: Original Sin did it.

[@pisscvre69]

“Emotionally engaging” thinks back to how emotionally egaged I was in saving those kwama eggs at that mine Jk of course I wasn’t engaged, text based isnt a garentee of quality, I personally find Oblvions quests to be the most memorable and think it found the best balance of both worlds so far

[@EddtheRexMan]

When I started Oblivion (the first ES game I played), I didn't know there was a map in game: I spend more than a week using the paper mao that came with the game before I found out there was an in game map. I still sometimes go back to Oblivion with the paper map instead, because it's that little bit more immersive. :P

[@HFV_Junkyardin]

edd dib that would take so much time. So many quests almost require fast traveling

[@apollojustice5338]

Hondanumber9 that in turn would provide more immersion.

[@CTHD13]

Hondanumber9 I’ve never really used fast travel in Oblivion or Skyrim, because my favorite part of the game is discovering random things, rather than going where I’m supposed to.

[@user-ms5tq1dh7i]

@Julio Cesar bad idea. The purpose of a pointer is actually to point you out for EACH turns you make. But there are disadvantages. In morrowind, at least you are TOLD where you supposed to turn, but in oblivion, the guide is so vague, it jus tells you to go to a place, not the details. The pointer is all it needs.

[@razahrtelvanni2018]

18:10 Well, to be fair, this happens in Morrowind too. You can join both the Mages guild and the Telvanni, who are supposed to hate each other. Also, aside from like 1 quest, the Thieves guild and Fighters guilds don't conflict much either.

[@DrasticSkuba]

With Skyrim, it is a case of meta-gaming vs role-playing. Meta-gaming players will want the option to do everything and aim to maximise their in-game skills or rewards. They do this without caring about what fits their character. They may also be cheesing game breaking exploits to gain an advantage and make OP characters. The role-play really comes down to the player because of the metagaming availability. If you join the Thieves Guild, it is up to the player to NOT join the Dark Brotherhood because it is incompatible with the story they are forging

[@DBumple]

I role-play with Skyrim, make my character who I want on my own accord. I get mods to tailor that experience, and it is the most amount of immersion I will ever have with a game. Morrowind personally is my Meta-game.

[@giorgiannicartamancini3917]

The problem comes when none of your actions are accounted by others though, Skyrim was the first RPG I sticked with unfortunately and I was trying to be a super boring good guy and a freedom fighter, yet I was constantly frustrated by the lack of agency I felt at every step... As an example, I would constantly run into the same Imperial commander who I couldn't kill, or I couldn't talk to the good dragon anymore because some wankers told me to kill it and the only way to not do so was to never see him again (couldn't even kill said wankers ffs) In summary, if the role playing has to take place entirely in my head I'd rather do it with some friend on pen and paper

[@noctrk161]

Thieves Guild in Skyrim is basically a street gang, not some weird pseudo-criminal group with stupid no kill rule from Oblivion and earlier games. So a character can be member in both guild without breaking roleplay. Actually a character can be a part of all the guilds without breaking roleplay, because non of them contradict each other. A character will be evil though for joining Thieves Guild/DB and doing quests for good guys would break roleplay (like helping Mara followers to unite lovers or stoping skooma dealers in Riften).

[@giorgiannicartamancini3917]

@@noctrk161 I'd say being an excellent warrior who can't cast the simplest spell does contradict becoming head of the magic academy or whatever

[@noctrk161]

@@giorgiannicartamancini3917 In D&D it does. Not in the Elder Scrolls game though. For example a level 30 character in Skyrim (15 level equivelent in D&D) can master 4 skill trees: 1) One handed weapons - for figting in melee and become The Harbinger of the Companions 2) Sneak - to infiltrate every place he wants and become The Listener in Dark Brotherhood 3) Lockpicking - to get into other people's possesions and become Master Thief 4) Illusion - to control people's minds and become Arch-Mage. In the end we have an evil Jack of All Trades, Master of All, a very sufficient character.

[@drewblubber5879]

Yeah I was just replaying Skyrim the other day and did a quest where I helped rescue some guy who was from the Greymane family (even I am with the imperials, and this guy was a Stormcloak supporter). I DIDNT EVEN HAVE THE OPTION TO TELL THE BATTLEBORN FAMILY THAT THIS GUY WAS ALIVE AND HELP THEM INSTEAD OF HELPING THE STORMCLOAKS (whom I was fighting against). Really disappointed me, especially when I save him and he says he will join the Stormcloaks. Like wtf, why couldn't I kill him instead or help the other family to do the quest (as I should, since I was taking out tons of Stormcloak forts).

[@chaka3781]

Yeah, aside from the lack of choices, the game really rubs the lack of recognition of the things you do in the game on your nose. In Morrowind on the other hand, there is quite a bit of recognition. People react to your clothes, pity you if you wear crap, and greet you with awe if you wear extravagant jewelry and robes. Ordinators attack you if you wear their armor, while in Skyrim guards will neither recognize you as a guard nor as a guard killer for wearing a full guard armor. After getting your name a bit out there people in Morrowind are all shy and nervous when you speak to them, and they greet you with honor. In Skyrim, guards from Whiterun see you suck the dragon's very soul dry, but back in town they still mock you with the same old "someone stole your sweetroll". -.-

[@RangerJackWalker]

Drew Blubber The game makes it pretty damn clear that the Greymanes support the Storm cloaks and Battle-borns oppose them. It also makes it pretty damn clear that the Battle-borns are helping the Thalmor to help keep this guy captive. And here you are, complaining about lack of choice when you consciously decided to help the family that supports the Storm cloaks. I think you just need to pay more attention to the game. What a nonsensical complaint.

[@larriyrnir5756]

you can talk to tulias to release him if already an imperial

[@BologneyT]

+RJwalker Your response is what's nonsensical. The only meaningful choice a player gets to make in Skyrim is whether to join the Imperials or the Stormcloaks. That's it. There's not a single individual choice you get to make anywhere in the game besides that that has any impact on the way the story goes at all. So by the time the game is over, you got ONE choice, with 3 options: Stormcloak, Imperial, or neither. No other choices matter. That's an extreme lack of choice.

[@ethanbrock5453]

RJWalker It's not nonsensical. If it was a good rpg there would be more than one way to resolve the quest. That's what he has a problem with.

[@dikkeroege]

Funny how much I could relate to what you're saying. A few days ago I started playing Morrowind again after not touching it for 12 years. And I immediately knew where to find all the guilds in Balmora, the best merchant in Caldera and the location of all the great houses. Even small stuff like the friendly guar that shows up on your first trip out of Seyda Neen, the mage that didn't quite think his flying spell through or the 2 naked nords betrayed by the evil witch. It's really weird how Bethesda managed to do that.

[@liquidsleepgames3661]

The Toxic Avenger dont firget cloud cleaver

[@TragicTester034]

My guy never heard of the Mudcrab merchant

[@3therspark63]

Finally someone who understands my frustration about map markers, voice acting and lack of mathematical formulas to drive the combat system.... Skyrim was a great world to explore but never sucked me in has Morrowind.. this later game will live forever in me just like reading a book.... Great video man!!

[@WitherAndrot]

I just started to watch your video and you've already set my ass on fire. Dagoth Ur wasn't "ruining the world because "reasons". He was some sort of noble knight and participated in global events of TES lore and was betrayed by his fellow comrades and murdered. He was pretty decent and deep character and antogonist

[@SephTheHuntress]

He wanted to make Morrowind great again

[@seanaugagnon6383]

It's going to be a beautiful place where people love me ok.

[@0potion]

Both dagoth and nerevar were betrayed by the tribunal. But technically the first to be betrayed was nerevar.

[@drunkredninja]

sweet vid, not sure what you were talkin bout cuz i was just passively engaged

[@StratEdgyProductions]

What you did... I see it.

[@drunkredninja]

just working my way through your video essays, hopefully i retain something

[@mattvancamp764]

This should be top comment imo.

[@StratEdgyProductions]

Do people not understand sarcasm anymore? Dagoth Ur understood sarcasm. He knew it well.

[@mr.hankeythexmaspooteamhea6136]

+Strat-Edgy Productions If you get too risky with the sarcasm, you're basically treading on thin ice.

[@LarryJL]

Strat-Edgy Productions For most people this is probably the first video they see from you. They have no idea what your style is. Stupid sarcasm, especially when the video was 30 minutes, especially when the sarcasm isn't over the top and you mix actually good points in there. Morrowind

[@mr.hankeythexmaspooteamhea6136]

+Larry And im still not sure if the video is sarcastic or which parts are & which parts aren't.

[@StratEdgyProductions]

So I thought it was super obvious I was being sarcastic about Dagoth Ur, but apparently including a clip of dance dance Dagoth wasn't enough....

[@LarryJL]

Hahah :) Nice video tho

[@Rachaer]

if someone broke into my house at 3 am and asked me to draw Balmora down on a peice of paper, i could. i have less than 70 hours in that game. in skyrim i have more than 500 hours and yet i still get lost in Whiterun. that city is smaller than the fucking dunmer settlements in morrowind and i could not for the love of my life remember what it looks like.

[@pavelthefabulous5675]

I feel like Skyrim had a very deep and detailed story, and the lore behind the rebellion was great. But the quests themselves did not dig very deep into the story. Whether you join the Imperials or Stormcloaks, you're doing the same thing, killing scouts and capturing areas, and so on and so on. Imagine if the fighting was more asymmetrical. Imagine a quest where the Imperial legionaries march in close order along the roads, and you have to walk in the vanguard to fight off Stormcloak ambushes and disarm Thalmor runes that are placed along the roads. If you play as a Stormcloak, you would be the one ambushing the Imperials. Even in city battles, the Imperials would fight more conventionally, while the Stormcloaks would use guerrilla tactics. With the inclusion of horses in Skyrim, I'm disappointed that you never encounter Imperial heavy cavalry who occasionally have to bail out the infantry when they're pinned down by archers. You also never see Stormcloaks on horseback throwing javelins and riding off. Ideally, the Imperial quests would involve decisive and large battles, while the Stormcloaks would have many smaller ambushes and guerrilla activity. The Stormcloaks would tend to lose major battles, while the Imperials would be weaker at the political game and clandestine operations, and both sides' quests would involve taking advantage of the enemy's critical vulnerabilities. The civil war quests also did not get political enough. For one thing, if you become a notable faction member of one side, all cities owned by the other faction should have a bounty against you that increases as you climb the ranks. But there would also be quests that explore the darker side of each faction and give the factions their own flavor. So the Imperials might force you to raid towns to feed the legions, and you might be forced to kill suspicious Nords who may or may not really be guilty of anything. You might also secretly fight against the Thalmor, who would be secretly supporting the Stormcloaks with plain-clothed mages who lay runes and conjure the occasional frost atronach. You might also have to stage false-flag "Stormcloak attacks" to get people on your side. If you join the Stormcloaks, they might make you commit some war crimes, and you'll get the idea that the Stormcloaks like Ysgramor a little bit too much. The Stormcloaks will also infiltrate the Companions and turn them into a pro-Stormcloak organization that will eventually stage a coup against Jarl Balgruuf, with the priest Heimskr becoming a highly effective propagandist. Either they play along, or the Stormcloaks will expose the Companions to be werewolves. If you become a top Imperial champion, you will fight more and more clandestine operations, many against the Thalmor. As a top Stormcloak champion, you might be asked to kill off they Grey Quarter and assassinate a few top Forsworn leaders.

[@boethia7367]

That sounds freaking awesome.

[@dolphinboi-playmonsterranc9668]

But the Empire is with the Thalmor.

[@metroplexprime9901]

Hell, if we're getting into it, why not let the player join the thalmor if they are a wood elf or high elf? The player could refuse, but it would be an excellent role play opportunity.

[@pavelthefabulous5675]

@@metroplexprime9901 That would be great too.

[@aidanwhitfield110]

@@dolphinboi-playmonsterranc9668 they are controlled by them not allied

[@notthedroidsyourelookingfo4026]

I think Morrowind's dialogue system very much allows for unique characters. Think about Baladas Demnevanni. Or Divayth Fyr.

[@larriyrnir5756]

walls of text don't show emotion

[@TERMINATOR3900]

I guess you've never read a good book then

[@lanceuppercut6168]

Aegon The Conqueror Repeat: I guess you've never read a good book then

[@lanceuppercut6168]

Notthedroids Yourelookingfor True, Galbedhir from Balmora's Mages Guild is another example, she stands out from other enchanters and guild members easily

[@MildWilliam]

Or good old Uncle Crassius Curio, the friendly neighborhood sex offender.

[@reniorjd]

You don't kill innocent people in the Dark Brother? You may want to recheck that or look up: The gourmet Beitild Narfi Papius Lurbuk Agnis The empire's niece Victoria There is some other but I think you get the idea.

[@PlanetDiablo16967]

Or that lady who you kill at her wedding. To be honest, the emperor didn't really do anything either and you kill him as well.

[@anime-cu7sq]

In Oblivion you kill innocent people.

[@TheAlamla]

WeebMaster69420 Dat quest where you slaughter a family...

[@anime-cu7sq]

hahah yeah I loved tracking them down and killing them! Hail Sithis!

[@Rajoovi1]

@A God Damn Dragonite You could argue that the emperor did do wrong in many people's eyes. Many saw The Emperor's signing of the White Gold Concordat as treason, like ulfric, and most redguards, since hammerfell was given to the Aldmeri Dominion as one of the terms of the Concordat. If I remember rightly, the guy who actually hires you to kill the emperor is a Breton, from high rock, the province north of Hammerfell. To say he did nothing would be false in the eyes of many people.

[@pisscvre69]

AF It really bugged me that you were saying “LOOK AT THOSE FACES” and other such things without corresponding footage x,D

[@OpposingReflection]

I admit I love skyrim. But damn the roleplay isn't really that good in terms of persona. Plus I wish you could fail!!! If you don't beat alduin imagine skyrim ruled by dragons once more!! I realize that wouldn't be lore friendly but for a video game holy crap. I praise RPG's that allow real failure.

[@DBumple]

I agree with this completely. This is something not even Morrowind had. I love ES but I would love something like this ^

[@OpposingReflection]

@rasuru I'm now studying game design philosophy while saving for college! I just feel like fail states add way more meaning to player agency in games like these.

[@Varyalover]

At least Dagoth Ur had motivations that were warped by his insanity; revenge against the Tribunes, the avenging of Nerevar, and vengeance against Nerevar for betraying his trust in turn, and even moreso than the nationalistic Dres and Indoril, starting a hypernationalistic war against the Empire to free Morrowind from "its yoke". The slow corruption of Morrowind and the authorities of both the Temple and the Empire recognizing the struggle as a losing battle, as their resources wanes as Dagoth Ur's wax and the conventional methods of dealing with Dagoth Ur are circumnavigated, you're dealing with an island dying of corruption, with the commoners unaware of the fact that the Temple is about to give up hope, and the Empire is on the verge of evacuating(after quarantining) Vvardenfell. In many ways though, in spite of how *fucked* Dagoth Ur and his Ash Vampire kindred are, you get a sense that he believes what he's doing is right, and even says that he wishes he could take the Nerevarine as a brother(or sister). Oblivion's main antagonist was generic, but the lore behind it was decent. Mehrunes Dagon isn't necessarily just the Lord of Destruction, but the Lord of Change. Even though his army is shown to be a(albeit badass) hodgepodge of Hell and Demons, using the lore and Mankar Camoran's conviction, one is likely meant to ponder if the inevitability of change is in fact something to be accepted, and even though the initial results are hellish, with Paradise one may ponder if, past the first months, Mehrunes Dagon acquiring his so-called "birthright" may not be bad after all. Skyrim goes along with the "inevitability", but in the most dreadful main quest ever conceived of in a Bethesda game. We're presented Alduin, a son of Akatosh, who, in spite of saving Tamriel at the end of Oblivion, decides that a Dragon- but not just any Dragon, a big dragon with dark scales, is going to eat the world, and re-start a Dragon Heirarchy that can be averted with a combination of Mary Sue, and Dragons accidentally brushing some flames onto some Giants or Mammoths. To begin eating the world, he begins eating the Nordic afterlife, though no one really cares. And then, unlike Oblivion which gives us a finality to its ending, we get "Alduin was defeated, but only temporarily, so he came back. Now he was defeated again, but could come back, and eat the world, because... He's the son of Akatosh!." What the fucking hell is this?

[@StratEdgyProductions]

Yeah, I was being sarcastic, but not wholly... I would say that the best antagonists are after the same thing as the protagonist which puts them on an inevitable crash course. If you didn't bother to read all the (terribly written) books up to the point of meeting him, you wouldn't really know the why of what he was doing. At least not in a proper expositional way. He is one of the more fascinating aspects of Morrowind, but you gotta do the work to figure it out.

[@thekranman2882]

Varshava Kadnikov I agree with the majority of this, though I must correct you on the Alduin bit. Alduin is not a "son of Akatosh." That line was a taunt towards him. Alduin is actually the end of time, he brings about the end of a kalpa. He's a fragment of Aka, just like Akatosh and Auri- El. The reason he will return is because he manifested early. He's literally a god. If he had manifested at the time when he was destined to, it wouldn't matter how much of a Mary Sue the Dragonborn is. He will always devour the kalpa to start the next.

[@wakkosick6525]

all these boil down into one emotion that is the only emotion he represents and that is anger. he doesn't care about anything, he doesn't want anything, he is just angry.

[@jamesfowler489]

yup! I remember reading every book in every area I ran across. so when I got to areas that had like a hundred laying around I thought fuck! yeah important little things of note like that would have been nice to easily stumble upon in multiple ways -- as to not miss it.

[@HolyknightVader999]

You do realize that Ulfric Stormcloak also exists, right? He's practically the main reason Alduin is back. Alduin's return only happened because Nords are killing each other, which fulfills that part of the prophecy. He's a former Imperial legionnaire with PTSD who came back home from the war, while seeing the Empire he fought so dearly for backing down before the hated Dominion and allowing the persecution of Talos worshipers. He then uses the Voice to murder his king and start a civil war that tears the country apart and keeps Alduin fed with more souls. Ulfric also thinks that he's doing what's right, for his god, his country, and his people, and unlike in Morrowind, where there's no choice to join Dagoth Ur, in Skyrim, you can decide that yes, Ulfric is right, and you can join him and defeat the Empire that players back in Oblivion fought for, and "free" Skyrim from Imperial "oppression". Dagoth Ur is just another Isildur: a man who was corrupted by the playthings of the gods and driven slowly to evil. Ulfric is a PTSD-afflicted war veteran turned renegade, whose actions are driven by what he sees as righteous fury and conviction, despite the fact that A) he's unknowingly helping the very same Thalmor he hates by waging war on the Empire and B) he's making Alduin stronger by killing Nords loyal to the Empire. Ulfric is everything good and bad about the Nords rolled into one person, whereareas Dagoth Ur is just an Isildur knockoff who decided to combine the plots of Resident Evil and Mobile Suit Gundam. So yeah, give me Ulfric over Dagoth any day of the week.

[@SugaryPhoenixxx]

The voice acting & Dialogue in The Witcher 3 was outstanding. It CAN be done. Bethesda is just lazy on that part. Even the dialogue in Fall Out 4 was better than TES. But, I would prefer to read interesting dialogue than hear boring dialogue.

[@PolishGod1234]

Imo Witcher 3 had the Best dialogues in all of rpg games - if not games in general. The interactions between characters were So engaging, and they felt like Real people. Some dialogues felt like Real-life Polish conversations.

[@oisinhutchinson2476]

The bit at 9:12 is made funnier by the fact that that NPC trains speech

[@arthaal]

I'd much rather skim through a whole essay of npc dialogue in a short time getting key points than wait 15 minutes for a spoken dialogue with generic voice acting to end. Morrowind was great

[@stephenward2743]

This was Bethesda trying to pander to the mass market, single playthroughs, less armour, more restrictive dialogue etc. the average player who doesn't frequently play rpg's has no interest in investing so much time into the game and doesn't stay interested in the game for long.

[@StratEdgyProductions]

This is true. Part of me wonders why developers like Bethesda don't add a multiplayer option for replay-ability, especially in a game like Skyrim, and let the single player be pure. I think Doom did a good job sticking to it's roots but that is because Doom OG had a solid core gameplay loop as it was. I think, honestly, if anything, that is what Elder Scrolls is missing. A fun and interesting core gameplay mechanic. Right now all the mechanics they do have are sort of stale. Combat isn't all that fun. Exploring is just a linear path through dungeons... Eh, here I go writing another video.

[@SugaryPhoenixxx]

So what if they don't stick around? They already purchased the game. Bethesda got their money, & we the players got an awesome game. I personally think that mass media is getting it all wrong. I think that if they did make a game that was more difficult & required time & effort to understand, it would go like this: 1)Casuals would quit. (meaning the dumbest of the dumb) 2) semi-casuals would get frustrated & put down the game for awhile 3) TES fans would be in their glory 4) TES fans would go online & gush about how amazing the new TES game is 5) the semi-casuals & certain casuals that put down the game originally would read the gushing & decide to give the game another try 6) the semi-casuals would fall in love with TES all over again Hence why so many people that started the TES series at Skyrim have gone on to play Morrowind, just because of all the online gushing by die-hard fans.

[@noahmiller8042]

^ this so much lynn

[@glitchhunter09]

It's not a good idea to let your Fatigue fall that low during combat in Morrowind. It makes you miss a lot more.

[@alexbattaglia8297]

I think it'd be hard to completely remove quest markers completely from TESVI, bc one of the things that let morrowind get away with it was that NPCs basically stood in one place all the time, I do hope they add way more area markers instead, so if a quest asks you to talk to a dude in some city, the marker covers the whole city and you have to search it to find the guy, instead of magically knowing where this dude is

[@user-ms5tq1dh7i]

that's why morrowind tells you to "ask around".

[@112523]

morrowind is at least and actual rpg with role playing elements and character building. something skyrim dumbed down to a point that you barely build a character but rather go down one of the few set paths

[@PolishGod1234]

They try to appeal to casuals these days. Developers don't care about making true rpg games these days. The last one which feels like proper rpg is New Vegas - which was magnificent

[@PCoutcast]

I hope that one day CD Project Red makes a create-your-own-character game. If Witcher 3 allowed you to create your own character/tell your own story, it would have permanently ended my addiction to Elder Scrolls. Unfortunately we all know that TES6 is going to be even more shallow, empty and meaningless than Fallout 4 was.

[@StratEdgyProductions]

You might get that chance. Cyberpunk 2077! Hopefully it doesn't take ten more years to release.

[@NoFunney]

Like he said CP2077 is being built as a Online Open world game, unless we're all stormtroopers they will be a Create your own character game from CD. *Also we should see news on it this E3 or next year on its development, they're not incapable enough to have a it come out in 10 years lool, perhaps 2020 or 2019*

[@superheriber27]

PCoutcast LOL do you even know what the witcher is?

[@shun2240]

PCoutcast i remember cyberpunk has a character creation system

[@whitemale3871]

The witcher is based off a series of books, so that's not likely to happen.

[@davidfalloutbandit]

Bethesda sucks at story telling..and Todd Howard is way to "run and gun" to make a proper RPG..

[@nexus3756]

i think thats ok... its just he shouldnt try. he needs to embrace that and make a game that really works for that. instead it makes the games awkward because hes trying to fit his vision into a genre where it doesnt belong.

[@yustforfun]

Todd is a genius Bethesda would be nothing without him.

[@Aewon84]

Todd Howard made Morrowind too, you know. Also, do you have any idea how difficult it is to make a story-focused open-world game? It's literally impossible with their current game engine. Besides, there are hundreds of in-game books that prove you wrong.

[@anime-cu7sq]

So he had very little responsibility even though he was Project Leader?

[@lycanlube7484]

i think Ken rolston was mostly in charge of Morrowind and Todd howard moved up the ranks since he made the bloodmoon dlc, then he was mostly in charge of oblivion then fully in charge of skyrim from what ive heard.

[@SnootchieBootchies27]

Option of doing the naughty thing in Skyrim: lead Brother Verulus to a dinner where he gets eaten. But it still feels like there's no consequence in the rest of the game. I agree with pretty much everything you lay out in this video. I would have been so happy if ESVI would have used the same graphics and engine as Skyrim and they just made a new map with way better quests and factions.

[@dadrising6464]

On the listen/read topic: Thats one reason i always turn subtitles in games on. Information sticks way better..

[@ShadowSnowLeopard95]

TL;DR: The pendulum of focus has shifted from depth and morality to shiny and aesthetics. The demands of many have changed over the years with people demanding more visually appealing content e.g. like a movie that they can inject themselves via the character they use to interact with that universe. People would rather visually experience something rather than have to use brain power to conjure up a scenario with their imagination. This is actually a natural phenomenon among humans and many other mammalian species whereby the brain operates on a path of least resistance protocol. The market has simply responded to this phenomena through the evolution of graphical fidelity, high production marketing and appearance of depth rather than actual depth. In a way, both parties are responsible for the results of the last ten years or so and this is not even including the subject of politics, nepotism and a slew of other gray area topics that can affect how a project ultimately turns out.

[@haliax8149]

totally.. cause overwatch doesn't look like a kids show at all

[@abyssstrider2547]

Mr. CyborgTM hey! i would take well designed and pretty armour over some crappy medieval looking "can"

[@mikecustoms]

well, it's entertainment, nobody gives a shit about moral and depth in a god damn fucking VIDEOGAME,

[@Thoron_of_Neto]

mikecustoms... Uhm judging by the fact you're commenting on a video about wanting more depth and moral choices, and commenting on a comment about the same, in a comment thread full of people agreeing with the content of the video I think you'll find, you're wrong.

[@thisuser8358]

mikecustoms I'll have to disagree with you there. Life is Strange, Telltale Games, JRPGs, etc. They're all about morality and depth and they're some of the most popular games in the recent years.

[@TheAwesomeKielbasa]

I'm thinking about making a video about how Morrowind is a dumbed down, streamlined version of Daggerfall.

[@StratEdgyProductions]

That would work, simply because it is true. All boils down to graphics though. I mean, the Gamebryo engine is a nightmare. The minute they went to full on 3d graphics, things had to be dumbed down due to system complexity and time it would take to program it, but in the end, I believe most streamlining is done to appeal to a wider audience, which is good and bad, depending on who you are talking to.

[@TheAwesomeKielbasa]

+Strat-Edgy Productions Yeah, and unfortunately, to some extent I'm part of the wider audience. I have spent many hours (over one hundred) in Morrowind, but I always had trouble following their directions and so I still haven't finished the main quest line. I basically spent most of my time in Morrowind looking around, using mods and basically everything but the main quest lines. Same with Daggerfall.

[@Aewon84]

Strat-Edgy Productions Most streamlining is due to engine limitations or, in the case of Fallout 4, just dumb decision making in the first place. This so called 'dumbing down' of The Elder Scrolls to appeal to casuals is a myth.

[@TheSuperQuail]

+Roderic Kingfield Not really true at all that it's a myth. Why couldn't someone take time to write some decent quest objectives? Why is there a blanket no-kill for 'important' NPCs? Why can the player do literally whatever they want with no repercussions? In Skyrim I have killed the Emperor and then joined the Imperial Legion. It would be *very* simple to disallow the player to join one faction after proceeding to far in another. These are just a few examples. It's true that some decisions are due to modernisation, but not nearly as many.

[@glitchhunter09]

Well at least in Morrowind's case it was the first time Gamebryo was used by Bethesda. Before they used another engine.

[@ElfridJade]

What a grand and intoxicating innocence

[@katiekatie6289]

I've realised before that something like fully voiced dialogue isn't necessarily a good thing since that means producing dialogue is more time consuming and costly so it won't be able to go into as much depth, but I haven't thought about "more being less" in games in as much detail as you went into in the video. It's really helped me see this much more clearly.

[@katiekatie6289]

It's like, recent improvements in technology have actually paradoxically been making games *worse*.

[@atlascove1810]

The "locking out" feature is perfect. It sends replay value through the roof.

[@aruthampi]

Completely agree that even after 12-13 years after playing it i still remember many places in morrowind than any other place in later ES games...Also the sense of wonder that i got when i first saw vivec, i did not get from seeing any other place..there was no "fantasy" in l8tr es games buildings, the buildings felt generic

[@jamstonjulian6947]

I would deliberately delay going to Vivec, or indeed any major town, to relish the experience as much as possible. I think I played the game for a week before even going to Balmora.

[@AlessaBaker]

Just some info with regards to development times/workflow: Should be noted here that when you're talking textures, you're specifically referring to The Standard Model. Current/Newer engines now use PBR (Physically Based Rendering - usually Metallic GGX). So, Diffuse is Albedo (Specifically just Color without shadow), Metallic (0-1 mask) defines whether or not a surface is metal or dielectric, and Roughness, which is a gray scale value that defines from 0 (glossy) to 1 (fully rough), specularity is usually handled here. Most of these texturing hours have been circumvented with the advent of Quixel SUITE and Substance, both middleware used to auto-generate realistic materials and then have the artist tailor those to their needs. Both SUITE and Substance handle Albedo, Metallic, Roughness etc... at the same time, so the artist is only ever dealing with the 'final product' and changing values or graphs to give the desired output. These textures are then exported by the toolset. --- That said, really happy to see someone with game development knowledge using that knowledge to inform the end-user with their review and comparisons. Strat-Edgy, you're an awesome dude. Keep up the great work! Alessa

[@StratEdgyProductions]

Thanks for the clarification. I typically do level design and programming now on small titles. I work full time in games, but not in dev thankfully. It's been a while since I have even tried to do 3d but I might be getting back into it soon with the new project I am mulling around in my head. Nice to know automation is in the works.

[@Heeroneko]

Players don't wanna be fed waypoints, they want to hunt!

[@purpleboye_]

Skyrim's main quest was garbage.

[@R.Eres-Queen]

Anaru_ LST and it was to short

[@DBumple]

This I agree with

[@lrb3286]

Morrowind main quest took me 60 hours in that time i did fighters guild and telvani to completion and became wizard in the mages guild, i still havent done the temple, imperial cult or joined the legion doing tribunel now

[@josephc.3192]

What main quest?

[@alexsamho]

Purpleboye_ i have it memorized lol Helgen (Escape) Riverwood (Meet family) Whiterun (Talk To Jarl) Bleakfalls Barrow (Dragon Stone) Tower (where you fight first dragon) High Hrothgar (Greybeards) Receive Horn Meet Delphine Kynesgrove Thalmor Embassy (Party) Riften Ratway (Save Esbern) Go to Blades Temple Meet Pathurnax Get Elderscroll Fight Alduin Trap Odahving Go to Sovnguard Kill Alduin Yeah the fact that I memorized that in two playthrough’s... yeahit’s pretty bland, hopefully ES6 has a longer story

[@HeadsFullOfEyeballs]

I'd actually love to see a big-budget game made with Morrowind's level of graphical fidelity (but taking advantage of modern hardware and techniques to cram more objects and details and NPCs and whatnot into the environments). With modern 3D modelling and texturing tools it's a breeze to put together assets at that level of detail, compared to the late 90s/early 2000s when Morrowind was made. So with a big budget you could instead invest in a huge amount of _variety_. You could easily make every single building in the game its own unique model, for example, or have a massive selection of unique furniture and clothes and clutter items for all the various cultures and social classes. Not to mention weapons and armour. Hell, even with the same (comparatively low) budget Morrowind had you could make a much bigger and more polished game these days, since we've gotten so much more efficient. It'll never happen of course, but a man can dream.

[@colbyjt85]

Name of the last song in this video? I can’t seem to find it anywhere..

[@kuikyroje]

"The pay was S H I T" *subscribes

[@Spencerdoken]

3:09...what? The motivations of Dagoth Ur make him one of the single most complicated, multifasceted and interesting villains in gaming.

[@HolyknightVader999]

Ulfric Stormcloak makes Dagoth Ur look pedestrian in comparison. The latter is just another Isildur who decided to combine the plots of Resident Evil and Gundam. The former is a PTSD-afflicted war vet who killed his king with the power of dragons.

[@caramel7050]

HolyknightVader999 is a madman dead god whose physical form is no more than his own dream seeking to use another brass-giant-robot to drive the imperials out of his beloved resdayn, who is also notably obsessed with the fall of the three traitors who killed who was one of his closest friends, that genuinely thinks he's doing a good deed not good enough? a lot more interesting than ulfric, imo you KNEW dagoth is fucked up and he's just making a shitfest out of everything, but as twisted as they are, his reasons to do so are understandable

[@HolyknightVader999]

+MissyMuffin Actually, no. He's just another Isildur gone nuts and turning into Napoleon. And his reasons for opposing the Empire is stupid because Dunmer culture is more inhumane compared to the Imperials. The Imperials are trying to end the Dunmer-controlled Argonian slave trade, while Ulfric, on the other hand, rebelled because the Empire PREVENTS HIM FROM WORSHIPING HIS GOD OPENLY. I'm pretty sure that's a harder charge than "muh Dunmer culture" ever was. Especially when Ulfric fought the Empire on the grounds of freedom of religion, while the main reason Dagoth fought the Empire is because the Empire is trying to remove the more barbaric aspects of Dunmer culture. Also, the tale of Dagoth's fall from grace is as cliche as Isildur, hence the comparison. He was corrupted by the Tools of Kagrenac, whereas Ulfric was a loyal warrior of the Empire who turned against said Empire for making a compromise with the Thalmor that struck at the very heart of the Empire's culture. Ulfric was more understandable than Dagoth ever was. Who's more sympathetic: some dude who got corrupted by the magic tools he was guarding, who turned into a wannabe Napoleon who hates the Empire because it interferes with the more barbaric aspects of Dunmer culture, or a PTSD-afflicted war vet who turned against the Empire because it turned against his god and prevents him and his kin from worshiping said god openly, down to the point where they let Thalmor forces come in and persecute Talos' faithful?

[@BigK0003]

I feel like you are downplaying Dagoth Ur and putting Ulfric on a pedestal.

[@andrewklan8371]

And there it is friends! The ugly truth: your children have ascended from the dung of man! I alone have been anointed to spread my ass for you, for I love you!

[@Chrymzon]

TES is one of my favorite series, so I always enjoy when they are looked at from a different perspectives. I would definitely appreciate a Morrowind with modern visuals and combat, but similar game mechanics. I would probably appreciate a modern Daggerfall even more

[@sludge-factory]

Chrymzon There's a mod for it

[@Chrymzon]

You're not specific enough. There is a mod for Morrowind that has updated combat mechanics. There is also a mod that significantly upgrades Morrowinds graphics, but not to a modern standard. Daggerfall does have a version being built in Unity called Daggerfall Workshop, but that isn't built to a modern standard either.

[@sludge-factory]

Yeah, I was talking about the mod for Morrowind that improves the graphics, but I didn't know there was one for the combat. I've never played Morrowind, but I want to.

[@PorkpieJohnny]

Also fewer Cliff Racers

[@thisuser8358]

Chrymzon I would LOVE a modern Daggerfall. I hated the controls in Daggerfall but the world was so good. However, it was so big, meaning that it would be harder to make the graphics better on lower systems.

[@verifiedbobcallahan7972]

Takes a very smart person to be able to break down things this in depth. Subscribed

[@RobsW23]

I remember killing a key character early on in Morrowind, not realising what it meant I carried on happily. Probably about 30 hours I get to the stage he was required for...

[@tech6985]

I have just read a studie that says. That around 64 procent of all game purchase are influences by graphics sadly enough.

[@shun2240]

Enclave grunt but skyrim had pretty shitty graphics even at its time

[@interweebs7408]

@@shun2240 Not really. 2011, take a look at other games from around that time. Skyrim looks pretty good other than the distant scenery, but it doesn't matter when you can always walk all the way there to see it up close rather than just have it as decoration.

[@BigBangPinapple]

I have more voices in my head then Skyrim has ingame

[@Liam-B]

When I see Dralora Athram's face, I knew what was happening. That was the moment I stopped playing the main quest line. That technical bit about text vs speech and brain engagement was really fascinating. This channel is fucking amazing!

[@liamadamson]

I remember that in Morrowind, while in a thieves guild mission, when i killed someone by either accident or on purpose in order to make the mission easier, there was pretty drastic punishment in the guild when I went to collect the payment. I actually ended up losing more money in killing things to make a mission easier. Wheras in Skyrim, what happens? You lose a "bonus," and no other penalties. In Morrowind, you learned to follow the stinking directions that you were given, and respect the nps's giving them, or you get put in your place like the worthless outlander you are. Wereas Skyrim says: "you're dragonborn you can do whatever you want, and all you'll get is a minor scolding and maybe a light slap on the wrist."

[@tankvinl9805]

nice lie buddy, Its easy to glorify a game anyone can do it until you actually play it and realize how dogshit morrowind is

[@solidkoala7073]

When you point the fact that you can join both the Dark Brotherhood and the Thieves Guild, I think devs just thought themselves : "if it annoys people, they just don't have to join them both''. Which brings the question of self-roleplaying (forcing limitations on you) VS forced-roleplaying (through game design). I'd like to hear you opinion on this, maybe you could do a video about it :) That's what annoys me with Fallout 4, you can't even self-roleplay because of the main story plot (a.k.a you looking for Shaun). However I have to say that the way the world is built and the density of locations to discover is just a huge step above what Bethesda has ever done, and that's the thing they're the best at.

[@clarencegutsy7309]

I think the problem with self-roleplaying is that you have to willingly go out of your way to put logic where the developers should have in the first place. From the narrative, if someone were to join both the Dark Brotherhood and Morag Tong, they'd be dead within an hour since those are factions that are in direct opposition of one another. In gameplay, you're never in that conflict because they let you do just about anything. That freedom is good for the "one and done" crowd but horrendous for those that enjoy a world which has their own rules to abide by. The Elder Scrolls games actually has an interesting world which is being hampered by design decisions that makes a lot of it seem like sheer bullshit. If you betray or alienate yourself from the Dark Brotherhood yet still choose to employ their techniques, that should catch their attention and see them hunt you down and kill you in your sleep. Such things like that should bring a definite 'game over' from the narrative perspective and have the player review what they could have done better. If you get involved with the DB, then you're committing yourself fully. If you choose to leave them, then you better know how to change your entire identity and you may want to throw that Blade of Woe down into a spider nest and forget it ever existed. Bethesda would do well to make a game which does these things and while it is forced roleplaying, it is also internal consistency. You can't be a friend to everyone because then you're the enemy of no one and that makes things drab and dull in the long run. While many players enjoy the power trip fantasy, it leaves a stronger impression when you hammer into them that you're still a guy that bleeds red and as vulnerable as anyone else in Tamriel.

[@HolyknightVader999]

You do realize that the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves' Guild in Skyrim are allies, right? When you ask Mercer Frey about Gallus' death and you posit the possibility that the Dark Brotherhood was behind it, he tells you that he has a long-standing alliance with the Dark Brotherhood and they keep their prospective trades to themselves. When you become Dark Brotherhood Listener, one of the Thieves' Guild members helps you decorate your new sanctuary with things like escape hatches and torture chambers. Also, people have joined different, opposing factions of Morrowind and survived.

[@HolyknightVader999]

+Fade And why shouldn't you be able to join both factions? Why not? In fact, one of the Thieves' Guild members WAS a former Dark Brotherhood assassin who left and joined the TG because it pays better. Plus, neither side knows that you work for both of them unless you openly tell someone. Like Delvin Mallory. If you're a TG guildmaster and he suddenly sees you giving him a letter from Astrid, he comments on how you've made friends all over the place. Plus, this isn't like the Oblivion Thieves' Guild where it was more like Robin Hood, the Skyrim TG doesn't give a wet fart about killing, so since the two are practically allies, someone working for both sides doesn't bother them. Also, Oblivion allowed you to do the same thing as well. I became the new guildmaster of the Thieves' Guild, then I joined the Cheydinhal Dark Brotherhood. Neither side gave a wet fart. So this whole "join multiple factions thing" isn't a Skyrim phenomenon. It's something Oblivion already had. I did all 4 guild quests before doing the DLCs, and then I did the main story quest last. I literally hung onto the Amulet of Kings as I killed Mannimarco, wiped out the Blackwood Company, stole an Elder Scroll, and became the new Listener of the Dark Brotherhood. Really? Astrid backstabbed me rather easily. Also, the Skyrim Dark Brotherhood is a bunch of cutthroat assassins who don't really give a wet fart about the Five Tenets. And once Astrid dies, you become the unquestioned leader of the Dark Brotherhood, meaning that you can go ahead and be a thief if you want because the DB belongs to you by then, since only you can hear the Night Mother.

[@tobitaktlos3241]

A bit late but look into the "start me up" mod. Available for Fo4 and Skyrim. It basically lets you start the game apart from the main quest and you decide when you want to begin it. I can't even play fo4 without it anymore.

[@zenithquasar9623]

SolidKoala I try avoiding replaying games. I don’t like alts much. So illogical accessibility in RPGs help me enjoy content without having to replay the chore of the beginning and going through the same shit over and over again.

[@fake-kj2dz]

morrowind ftw

[@marmalade627]

fake What does ftw mean? F*** the what?

[@AlyMar1994]

...for the win.

[@mr.hankeythexmaspooteamhea6136]

+AlyMar1994 I think it was supposed to be a joke... Quite a great one as well!

[@BologneyT]

This video was so good I came back a year later AND WATCHED THE WHOLE THING AGAIN. How the F do you make a rant that good?! * +subbed*

[@michaelemouse1]

Thanks for giving us information about the approximate number of hours required for different production steps. Near the end of this video, you mention encouraging signs from indie games. I'd love for you to share your current indie games and for you to analyze what's good about your favorite indie games.

[@SugaryPhoenixxx]

I agree with just about everything said in this video. Subscribed. Although, I personally thought that Skyrim was garbage in a pretty wrapper. The modding community can fix just about anything except the shitty quests & storyline. Which are ultimately what makes a game fun to play. All Skyrim was was dungeons filled with Drauger & vast open areas filled with wolves & bandits. Good lord I just can't bring myself to kill any more wolves, draugers, & bandits.

[@PolarbearYGT]

the graphics on the witcher 3 is fucking fantastic but NOTHING suffered for it... so, there are exceptions...

[@StratEdgyProductions]

Especially when people are paid roughly half of what they are paid in america. Hence why EA shifted resources for animation in Mass Effect Andromeda to their Romania studio.

[@PolarbearYGT]

Strat-Edgy Productions yeah what you said in this video was true... I heard that in me: Andromeda, they had so much dialogue that the voice actors didn't pay much attention to the context.... the "fully voiced" trend is taking up half of the budget in aaa rpgs imo...

[@ZMCFERON]

Ray 27 Witcher 2 > 3

[@benjaminhoff5004]

That was an incredible point made here on the difference between hearing and reading dialouge. I think that might explain why I always play with subtitles.

[@spartanq7781]

That is also why I have no problem reading subtitles in subbed anime.

[@greegeree]

I have always done separate playthroughs per faction. The idea of my dawnguard paladin joining the thieves guild or not wiping out the dark brotherhood bothers me too much to do it because I can.

[@Nyxnik]

if better graphics = less content what about witcher 3? and it was made by a company smaller than bethesda

[@StratEdgyProductions]

Witcher 3 took 3 and a half years to make. Skyrim took about 4. We are also talking about a company with a smaller team, which means less overhead, less expenses, and, being that they aren't based in America with high salaries, (Compared to poland). To contrast this, Poland average incomes are on average about 18,000 less a year. That is pretty damn considerable. This means you can get x done for half the cost. I also imagine that CD Projekt Red contracted out a lot of their work, as most companies do, so... But even if you disregard this, The content in Witcher 3 was a bit samey, save for The Witcher main quest, and the witcher contracts. All those question marks on the map are pretty much the same. Go here, kill x number of things, loot for reward, and since it was an open world map, without a lot of Dungeon diving, it got away with minimal level design. Because of this, the side quests required less work on the part of designers. The Witcher also managed to get away with more content simply because they didn't utilize anywhere near as many exploreable dungeons as a game like Skyrim. Skyrim is an exploration game first, and an RPG at a very distant second, which meant a lot of dungeons, which needed set pieces, props, and level designs (more modelling and concept art), but also required level design, and testing. Witcher is an RPG first, exploration distant second, and by comparison, doesn't need as many varied set pieces (since it takes place in an open world map, for the most part). Also a lot of the models in The Witcher 2, acted as a base for models in The Wicther 3 (since a lot of the characters are the same), so less concepting, less design work. Cd Projekt Red also didn't need to redo their entire method of generating faces. In Oblivion, the faces looked like potatoes. They hired a bunch of new talent, and overhauled their character creation tools, as well as the method for creating NPCs. They took a lot of time just to get updated shaders in their antiquated engine, instead of using an engine that was up to date. Lots of reasons that don't seem obvious.

[@keinscheimann2777]

Skyrims Dungeons were 90 % very boring and streamlined - about 3 typs (drauger, dwarven and grey holes for vampires/bandits/other )

[@EliteLeEstetique]

Witcher 3 actually has less content. The world might be big but you have relatively few indoors locations. Whole game has something like 3 dungeons of the Skyrim size. They also leave huge parts of the quests in text messages or recycled lines (like all treasure hunts or monster dens). Doing *everything* in Witcher 3 requires less time than in Skyrim. Plus there's no diversity of playstyles. And if we're talking about Skinner box mechanics - Witcher 3 is still guilty of it by using open world with points of interest everywhere, most of them without any story. It's just they added interesting central storyline and big complex sidequests

[@zayanwatchel8780]

Nyxnik witcher 3 was like a small gem. It has little content but that which it has is amazing, beautiful, and just some of the best stuff in gaming history.

[@kanebunce3791]

Actually no. Bethesda Game Studios had just 95 or so people working on Skyrim. It was only in the last year or so that they started expanding by creating a second office that started with 40 people and then expanded while also expanding the main office. When you think of Bethesda being big you are thinking of the corporate wing, Zenimax Media, who owns BGS, Bethesda Softworks, id Software, etc. But even now BGS is very small for a AAA studio. Many AAA teams are 150-200 or more people whereas *if* rumours are true the entire development staff of both BSG offices is about 200 people.

[@Amonny]

Congratz on the video! It should have way more views. Right at the point, but it's not us that we are losing, but them, the "go to the marker and smash" crowd. May your special trips always come with low prices. A Morrowind player

[@StratEdgyProductions]

It's true they are losing, but I just feel like we lose as well in that every new game is designed to the lowest common denominator. I am hoping indie devs take note of the lack of meaningful RPGs in the market and do something about it, because they are, unfortunately, the only ones who can afford to lose a chunk of the rpg audience.

[@AVerySillySausage]

10:58 I cannot listen to audiobooks for this reason, I always tune out and don't comprehend what I'm listening to.

[@kyleochoa9004]

I remember being genuinely excited to go on quests in Morrowind. It was dangerous outside of town, and you could easily lose your way making it a big deal when you headed out to quests outside of town. Especially early to mid-game. You also never knew what you could be running into. You may be looking to retrieve a ring from a normal ancestral tomb or Kwama burrow and you accidentally miss the foyada where you were supposed to turn right and instead turn at the next one and end up in a 6th House stronghold facing down an ash vampire or a dark cave facing down a regular vampire, or just running smack into a daedroth or golden saint in the wild.

[@MonkeyspankO]

I find this debate fascinating...I went from playing Ultima 6&7 back in the day, to skipping pretty much everything until Oblivion (bachelor+masters). Its like finding out you slept through the industrial revolution. Now I've played all the new ES and Fallout games and actually want to go back and experience what I missed. Should be a fun ride. My two cents, I hear what the video is saying, but I doubt that the text based thing will make a comeback anytime soon in a AAA title. Indie, sure, and PoE. They just involve too much money and games will only be as hardcore as they have to be, to reach the mass market. Hardcore rpgers may bitch online, but they probably already bought the game. Filthy casuals won't buy the game in the first place, if they think its too hardcore. money talks

[@StratEdgyProductions]

Pretty much this.

[@breechare]

was that an actual error in the voice acting at 9:21?

[@StratEdgyProductions]

Yeah, it was left in the game.

[@dakota.1270]

“Collecting question like Pokémon” is my favorite quote about Skyrim

[@curtisgagnon2871]

I find that Skyrim's most compelling method of building tension and atmosphere is in the environments. There are unmarked locations that leave so much to the imagination. A miner struck gold in Solsthiem and in his euphoria, drank too much and lost his footing while pushing his cart. The cart and the payload brought the man to his ironic demise. The thing he searched so long for to live a longer and happier life ended him. All of this already happened and has no additional markers, quests, or dialogue about it. Its just there to find and unravel for those who come across it. The layers of Skyrim make it deeper for those who want to see it. It allows an more literary minded person to enjoy a different type of engagement; a more dimensional world where sometimes the player isnt a part of the stories being told. Just because you cant have the story in front of you in words or in questionably voiced NPCs, doesnt mean the story and depth isnt there. Great video man. I really like your essay and "How To..." videos on ES. I think it's important to talk about how the games could be better and as someone who loves these stories and the universe they take place in, I can understand feeling frustrated about not getting the game you want and deserve. We should all find fun in what we have but make sure our discrepancies are heard.

[@JACK123101]

This reminds me of the first assassins creed compared to the later ones, in terms of missions, you would have to actually pay attention to the quest givers directions, instead of a waypoint.

[@helswake]

Great video. Really hit the nail on the head with the voice acting vs. reading in games.

[@Spellweaver5]

"You can't add depth to the game by taking elements out of the game". Err, yes, you can. For instance, say we have a combat system that is complex and deep, but then we have a special move that just kills everything. By taking out this special move we add depth because no one would ever bother using the complex combat to achieve what they can with a single simple move. The same goes for the aforementioned persuasion. The system is actually deeper when the only way you can affect what people think of you is with meaningful choices, not just offering them bribe or telling anecdotes. It means that your choices in dialogues actually have an impact on your relationship that can't be easily neglected.

[@xcaluhbration]

Great video dude that's a lot of work editing, writing and formulation of arguments. How long did it take for you to make this?

[@StratEdgyProductions]

A couple of weeks. Most of the work has been done in my head and it just took writing it down, I guess.

[@Cammie010]

Good analysis but Witcher 3 contradicts alot of your arguments such as voice acting and graphics being a hindrance to RPGs.

[@disgaealikerasapOG]

Witcher is an RPG but not an open RPG. You roleplay as geralt, and as such you cant do several things because it is something geralt would never do. It's a different kind of experience. (An experience I still love)

[@nicholasmarchese5017]

what's your background music in this video?

[@ByTor1212]

Your bit on voice acting was excellent because it makes me think back to moments in Fallout 1 & 2. The writing enforced their emotion and I could easily imagine them saying things in a genuine way rather than through a voice actor. They felt more real and in depth because I saw them as more genuine characters concerned with their situation because the writing was excellent and could easily help you understand how they felt about you and what results each dialogue choice would have. It's the only game even now that I can think of where I would reload dialogue portions to see if the characters would react how I though they would based on what I could pick up from the writing and nearly every single time I was right. That is true depth right there from a writing combined with gameplay standpoint.

[@waaaaaaah5135]

You've made some arguments I've never heard before! Good work!