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This week’s Throwback Thursday features a title from one of the most recognizable RPG series in the history of gaming – The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind GOTY Edition.

Elder Scrolls is the ultimate freeform adventure with epic tales of knights, thieves, dragons and magic. It is where enormous open worlds await and offer you a blank slate to make your own story. Morrowind is no exception and takes you on an epic adventure to explore a unique world full of strange and deadly creatures, different quests and stories where you make decisions that matter.



Let's hear from one of the GOG team members what are her's experiences with the game and why she loves The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.

Recommended by Anna, Product Communication Manager at GOG

[i]Morrowind is a game that started my love for cRPGs. I discovered this game by chance as a kid - I was wondering what to play next (and I’ve just begun my lifelong adventure with PC gaming) and this game was added to my newly bought graphics card. I installed it and after the first minutes in Seyda Neen I knew that it was it - unique setting, weird monsters, and the freedom to just walk around Vvardenfell, visit different cities, read (a lot of) books, and do quests for different factions.

I go back to this game quite often (appreciating the music in the game even more) and go on an adventure with a newly created character. Morrowind is definitely a must play for everyone who loves cRPGs or looks for an unique open world setting and I hope that you will like it as much as I do. Just watch out for the cliff racers as they really want to follow you wherever you go ;) [/i]

Check out Piran Jade playing and streaming the game on GOG’s Twitch channel later today (Thursday, November 11th at 8 PM UTC).

The Throwback Thursday series is done in cooperation with The Video Games History Foundation – a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving, celebrating and teaching the history of video games. If you want to support them, we encourage you to check their donation page
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ShadowWulfe: I never did much nodding in Morrowind besides fixes and level uncapper. Maybe some minor texture buffs.

The big thing I always go for is the content. Still have not been able to get into TR though because it has a major conflict with Beyond YsGramor.
Level uncapper just lets me level up infinitely and playing The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind for the rest of eternity.
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truhlik: OK GoG, I'll wait to 31/11/11 to re-re-re ... wait-for-it ... re-re-re-re-edition of Skyrim. I believe you can do it:)
you can wait , the next calendar will be based on skyrim releses
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Loger13: Generally, it is possible (with very complicated management), except for Great Houses (only one) and vampire clans (also only one). In all other factions (which you can join), it is possible to be at the same time and have the highest rank (I did it, it's really difficult, because some of the quests overlap and/or are opposite in purpose in several factions).
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karnak1: I suppose those design decions were still connected to old-school roleplaying, where it was assumed that combat classes would only align with fighting guilds, magic users would prefer magic-focused factions and stealh-based characters would inevitably stick with the thieves & assassin's guilds.
No. A character is limited to only one Great House, but it can be ANY Great House - the player decides and the character's class is completely irrelevant.
I specifically wrote that if you try hard enough, you can join and become the head/highest possible ranking leader of all the factions in the game (despite class). My character was simultaneously the head of the Fighters Guild (Master), the Mages Guild (Arch-Mage), the Thieves Guild (Master Thief), Blades (Operative - the highest ranking Blade in Vvardenfell after Cosades leave the island), Primate of Imperial Cult and Patriarch of the Tribunal Temple (yep, at same time), Imperial Legion (Knight of the Imperial Dragon), Grandmaster of the Morag Tong, Hearthfriend of Ashlanders and one of Great Houses (chosen by the player, nor by class). Perhaps some title I had forgotten over the years. )
And it just goes to show that none of this is tied to class.

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karnak1: Maybe it was Oblivion (and other famous RPGs which I don't remember now) that helped establish or solidify the current "do what thou wilt" trend on RPGs.
It was Daggerfall and Morrowind (not Arena (TES1) - that one was more classic RPG, so it didn't become particularly cult classic, unlike TES2 and TES3). Oblivion didn't bring anything new to this part, it just greatly simplified the solution of such a task.
ummm skyrim tomorrow???
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StrongSoldier: ummm skyrim tomorrow???
Next Thursday.
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karnak1: So... Instead of Skyrim as some people were hoping, we get some good old GOG trolling XD
I don't get the hype over Skyrim. I played it at release, and it's just a mediocre ARPG. I never could finish it, and I tried a few times.
Lol skyrim.
Another Morrowind install.

It's been too long.
Morrowind, oh Morrowind. What an experience. Janky as all hell in so many ways, and yet superior in others to many later offerings.

When I first started playing way back in 2004 I had no idea what to expect. It was so foreign to my RPG sensibilities at the time that I quit not long after starting (like I don't even think I made it far outside Seyda Neen).

However I knew even then that there was something special going on, so after a time (a few days to a few weeks, I cannot recall) I gave it another go. This time I discarded any biases I brought to the game and just allowed myself to experience it as it was. And now I can never go back to the before-times. The biggest change I loved was the ability to create custom spells and the ability to spec a character with whatever skills I wanted. From that point on I could never look at JRPGs or any based on a system like D&D the same ever again. From that point on unless they gave customization options like Morrowind I considered them inferior when it comes to customizing one's character. It is through that prism I analyzed all RPGs since. Even subsequent Bethesda offerings. Spoiler alert: the subsequent offerings offer less :-(

As for my playthrough, that second character ended up joining House Redoran, completing that quest line, the main quest line for base Morrowind and both expansions, both the Fighter and Mages guild lines, the Imperial Legion line, and the good Raven Rock line. I rarely used my stronghold. Rather, I took over the house in Balmora that belonged to that one orc you have to eliminate as part of an early Fighter's Guild quest since it was such a central location. And that tiny place held at least one copy of everything I encountered in the game during that playthrough. Needless to say, the place was cluttered (and a would-be thief's dream heist, provided they could carry it all LOL)!

I even tried to 100% remove all fog-of-war on the map the old fashioned way! (spoiler: I didn't LOL)

I have yet to complete (and in some cases even start!) the quest lines for the Thieves Guild, Morag Tong, House Hlaulu, House Telvanni (though I have tried several times), the Imperial Cult, the Tribunal Temple, any of the vampire clans, the werewolf side of Bloodmoon, and the bad side of Raven Rock. I even have yet to clear out all the Dunmer Strongholds and collect all the Propylon Indexes! Ditto on finding so many of the named gear that is just laying around the world. In short there is still much for me to do in just the vanilla GotY edition of the game.

But I confess I am trying to hold off until both OpenMW and Tamriel Rebuilt are finished, so that that level of polish and expansion of the game world make the playthroughs that much more carthartic :-)
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jackster79: However I knew even then that there was something special going on, so after a time (a few days to a few weeks, I cannot recall) I gave it another go. This time I discarded any biases I brought to the game and just allowed myself to experience it as it was. And now I can never go back to the before-times. The biggest change I loved was the ability to create custom spells and the ability to spec a character with whatever skills I wanted. From that point on I could never look at JRPGs or any based on a system like D&D the same ever again. From that point on unless they gave customization options like Morrowind I considered them inferior when it comes to customizing one's character. It is through that prism I analyzed all RPGs since. Even subsequent Bethesda offerings. Spoiler alert: the subsequent offerings offer less :-(
Worth noting that this comes at a cost: Morrowind is unable to offer the player a consistent challenge, as it's way too easy for the player to do things that could not have realistically been considered by the developers when balancing the game. In other words, the customization comes at the expense of balance.

Compare this to Final Fantasy 4 (2D versions), which have a much tighter control of balance, allowing the game to always have a reasonable level of difficulty. With that said, this comes at the expense of the customization that you enjoy in Morrowind.

Game design has its trade-offs, and there are places for both types of games.
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StrongSoldier: ummm skyrim tomorrow???
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karnak1: Next Thursday.
yes???
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karnak1: Next Thursday.
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StrongSoldier: yes???
I didn't mention the year, though.
you could at least fix the basic typo when you copy and paste text into a forum guys


anyway yes Morrowind is worth the effort to play at least once... imo still the best from an art layout point with the feel of a strange planet full of odd things, unlike other games that could just be down town with a few Elf \ Ork running around
Like Anna, Morrowind was the start to my love for CRPGs. Before that, the only RPG I had ever played was RuneScape. A friend on there recommended Morrowind to me, so I gave it a go and ended up loving it.. though it took me a long time before I understood any of the actual systems. All I knew is that I was loving the ability to just wander, do whatever I want and just live in the game world. After Morrowind, I tried Oblivion and loved it even more. After Oblivion, it was Skyrim which I loved almost as much as Oblivion. After that, it was the Fallout franchise (starting with 2, though NV was the first one that I truly LOVED), Mass Effect, Dragon Age and from there, my RPG addiction kinda just spiraled out of control haha. I'm still so far behind on my RPG backlog but I'm not complaining because I love this genre and don't regret a second of enjoying it!
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victorchopin: let's say if you wanna dig morrowind in 2021... vanilla or modded? why? thanks again
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vv221: Vanilla, but with the modern open-source engine OpenMW.

I’ve been playing Morrowind for years, and never felt I ended up with a better experience when adding mods to the game. A different one of course, but not a better one.

If you really want to add some mods for a first contact with the game, I suggest sticking with mods from this list: I Heart Vanilla | Modding OpenMW: A guide to modding and modernizing Morrowind with OpenMW.
hey thanks!!!