[The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind] Юбилейное интервью к 20-летию игры

“Morrowind was a great game that did a lot of things well, had a great setting and sense of place, and kicked open the door to RPGs on console like nobody before or since,” says Hines, “but I still think it was releasing the tools the devs used to make the game that put Morrowind on another level and really set the Elder Scrolls series on a whole new trajectory.”

“It wasn't long after I was hired that I was tasked with drawing the printed map for Morrowind,” says Michael Wagner, now Senior Marketing Art Director at Bethesda Softworks. “Now back then, we didn't have an automated way to see the whole game world at once, so I had to load up the TES Construction set and go section by section, drawing the map out with a Rapidograph pen onto paper.”

“When I interviewed with Bethesda, (now-Senior Vice President of Development) Todd Vaughn showed me an early version of the game and I was amazed by it. It really made me super excited to work at the company. Really, Morrowind saved Bethesda and gave us the ability to make so many great games later on and to become the company we are today.”

“We released the Xbox version and not long after, found out that everyone at Xbox was talking about the game and people were just amazed by it. It was super exciting at the time because you just knew that Morrowind would be remembered as a classic and it would have a big impact on future games.”

“Somehow it worked out,” he says, “I will always remember that map art.”

“I was the QA Lead for the game for the outsource company that was being used at the time. We had a team of 10 people to test this gigantic game on two platforms,” recalls Rob Gray, QA Director at Bethesda Softworks. “It was a welcome change from the family-oriented games that we were primarily doing at the time so we were all excited to work on it - both for the change and because we were all excited for the game itself.”

“It was really the freedom the game gave me that made me love RPGs again. The landscapes are almost alien looking, the lore is super deep (but understandable) and the quests are so unique while still feeling familiar,” Gray says.

“From a career perspective, it’s what ultimately got me in the door here. The QA Manager at the time hired me as one of the first batch of QA people in-house and I've been here ever since. I'm incredibly proud to say that I worked on it in some capacity and it will always be one of those keystone moments in my life I'll forever talk about.”

“Morrowind was my first game programming job,” says Bethesda Games Studios Senior Programmer Mike Lipari. “I'd played Arena and Daggerfall and loved the massive worlds and flexibility of the Elder Scrolls games. I'd even written in asking if Daggerfall could have some sort of plugin system like 3DS MAX so users could flesh out the jail system to actually put the player in prison to let them escape.”

“Then a series of miracles occurred, and I end up a junior programmer working on Morrowind and helping develop The Elder Scrolls Construction Set to help make my (and every other modder’s) dreams come true.”

“In Morrowind, most forms did not have numeric IDs. Things like cells or areas in the exterior world just used their name, or editor ID, as their identifier,” Lipari explains. “Then the game was translated, and character generation completely broke because for some reason the city of Seyda Neen (a totally made up name) had been translated into ‘Sehda Nihn’ for the French version of the game. There was much cursing and scrambling for fixes.”

“Oblivion was suddenly slated for numeric IDs,” Lipari adds – the focus on player expression and offering player not just the ability to live in, but change, their worlds proved to be a major hit with players.

“At level one you can get glass armor if you are willing to look for it and patient enough to steal it. You can Levitate over plot blocking barriers or jump them with Icarian Flight, (just make sure you save a scroll for landing). You are free to kill NPCs critical to the main quest as long as you are willing to sever the thread of prophecy and with a pile of home brewed ultra-powerful potions, you can defeat the main bad guy without all the items the main quest ‘requires,’” Lipari recounts.

“That kind of freedom is pretty rare in games and is probably worth a Cliff Racer battle or two (hundred).”

“When I was first cast in Morrowind, I had only voiced animations and one game in which I basically played over 200 people dying in many painful, extravagant ways. A four-hour session of screaming and death gurgles couldn't have prepared me for the massive experience that Morrowind set before me,” says Wes Johnson, voice actor for Boethiah, Malacath and Molag Bal in Morrowind and known in The Elder Scrolls community for his role as the Daedric Prince of Madness, Sheogorath

“The real impact of these sessions, which were directed by Todd Howard, came later once the game came out. Playing Morrowind was a revelation to me. Whereas doing voice for animations was fairly straightforward in regard to later viewing, this game world was such an immersive experience that I would dream that world after playing,” Johnson says. “I gained a real respect for how intimate the interactions between NPCs and player characters could be. The world was alive in my mind and imagination, and I carried the full weight of my playing experience into the next Elder Scrolls project, Oblivion. When I lived the characters in Oblivion, I was deeply immersed in the 800 hours or more I had invested in Morrowind. The world lived and breathed for me, and I truly feel my work in video game voice acting benefited greatly from the experience.”

“When recording the effort sounds, I asked how my Breton characters would react to being hit with a broadsword. I was told that they were mages, fairly effete and to respond accordingly,” he recollects. “So my Bretons reacted as I think more people would when being bludgeoned and stabbed - they cried out in a high pitched squeal. I was later told by some players that they didn't appreciate that - Their mage would be rough, tough and take those slices and dices like a stoic stone warrior.”

“Of course, that is where the real beauty of Morrowind and the Elder Scrolls lies - we don't have to be ourselves. We can be anything we want to be. In Morrowind’s open world, we were able to live a life that felt real, heroic, adventurous and fun. The Elder Scrolls has the power to transport us to a different world. A world in which someone could very possibly steal your sweetroll if you're not careful!”