The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
How Morrowind inspired a generation of developers
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind released twenty years ago on May 1, 2002.
Introducing players to the world of Tamriel like the series has never done before, the island of Vvardenfell was a fully 3D world with interconnected stories, characters and events – threads of prophecy that could be strengthened or even severed entirely by a player’s actions.
Morrowind wasn’t just a major step forward for role-playing games, it was many’s introduction into The Elder Scrolls and the level of freedom the series could offer. Without Morrowind, it’d be hard to say if The Elder Scrolls community would be one it is today – one where players could even one day go on to work in the video game industry themselves!
“I picked up Morrowind on a whim at a store in the Netherlands in a special branded box,” says Hendrik Nieuwdorp, Lighting Artist for MachineGames. “I recalled the name from my high school's newsletter (some students made some mods in their spare time) and was hooked from the main menu theme onwards. It was one of my first real in-depth RPGs, after Dungeon Siege introduced me to the genre.”
“Morrowind is one of the games that pushed me to becoming a dev, mostly because of the way the world was built, the freedom in exploration and character development as well as the sense of immersion it had overall,” he continues. “It convinced me that videogames have a ton of stories worth telling and I wanted to be a part of that.”
“Late 2002 or early 2003: a friend said, ‘you need to play this game,’” starts Janet Priblo, Senior Content Designer at Zenimax Online Studios. “Without knowing anything, I opted to be a Dunmer and stumbled out into Seyda Neen.”
“I played Morrowind for years, messed with modding and that led me to the Bethesda Game Studios forums, where I lurked - but joined after Oblivion was released - and where I eventually become one of the active forum moderators (by the username Leydenne),” she continues, “and in 2010, I changed up my career/life, moved to the Baltimore area and joined The Elder Scrolls Online as a QA tester in the very early days. In less than a year I had moved into content design.”
“There is a straight line from the Bosmer wizard Tarhiel landing at my feet to me ending up as a senior content designer,” Priblo says. “It was no mistake that the early quests I put into ESO was "The Naked Nord".”
“Morrowind is one of the few games that forced me to find my own way and live with the consequences,” says Evin Coukos, Security Engineer at Bethesda Softworks. “I slayed a god-king integral to the story, and the game told me to live with it. I created a spell that catapulted me halfway across the map, and survived. I hiked through mountain pass after mountain pass, trying to avoid a screeching sound that gives me chills to this day. I summoned holy knights to guard me like I was the President. This game let me do whatever I wanted, to my own detriment or otherwise.”
“I recently dug out my old original Xbox and found Morrowind inside. Seeing that game in an old bag full of stuff from when I was barely a teenager was surreal,” he recalls. “I now work for the company that made that game! I help our teams develop and publish new Elder Scrolls games! Life has a funny way of coming full circle.”
“Morrowind has always held a special place for me in my past,” says Scott Chipman, Lead VFX Artist at Zenimax Online Studios. “I was deployed serving in the US armed forces way back during 2002 and all I had for entertainment was a laptop with Morrowind installed. I could escape the harsh realities of my military life at the end of the workday by exploring the strange lands of the Dunmer and the stories they had to share.”
“Years later, after spending some time at other places in the game industry, I had the wonderful opportunity at Zenimax Online to once again return to Vvardenfell, working on the Morrowind expansion,” he says. “It was special being part of that as the original game had meant so much to me.”
“Morrowind was my first open world (and PC) game. My cousins introduced me to the game and we shared the stories of our adventures every time we saw each other,” says Bethesda UK Community Manager Nika Tufnell. “I couldn't believe the size of the world and there was always something else over the horizon for me to see. Complete freedom of where to go and which quests to do and how to do them meant our playthroughs were quite often different. It felt like we were writing our own story. I still do a yearly playthrough of Morrowind - I know, it's a lot, but I still manage to find new things I've never seen before.”
“It introduced me to gaming and made me want to work in games industry. My dream job since then was working on The Elder Scrolls in any capacity and two years ago, nearly 13 years later, the dream became a reality,” she adds. “I think a younger me would freak out if she found out.”
“It was one of the first games I've played where I could play as a woman and saw lots of other women in power which was extremely cool for a young me to see!” Tufnell says. “I also love the books in Morrowind. I still recommend them my friends, even those who don't play The Elder Scrolls, because I love plot twists and lore. They like them too!”
“Morrowind was my first experience with PC gaming,” recalls Charles Somerville, Bethesda Softworks User Researcher. “I was around 12 years old at the time, and an employee at a computer repair shop that one of my family worked at would play Morrowind in the back room when there weren't any customers or orders to fill. I asked what he was playing, and he let me try it out.”
“A customer walked in so he had to step away. He told me to stay in a corner and just cast fire at this kwama hound, while jumping, while he was gone (and I later learned that he was basically asking me to grind his Destruction and Acrobatics at the same time!)”
“Naturally, I followed instructions - except for the staying in a corner part,” Somerville continues. “I ventured around the cave, taking in the alien sights of dendritic kwama nests, gargantuan mushrooms and yawning caverns that checkered the landscape of Vvardenfell. I had never seen anything so totally bizarre yet utterly enrapturing. Fifteen minutes later he returned and I sheepishly stepped away while he tried to figure out where I had taken his character to.”
“Later that week, I was surprised by a copy of the game by my mother, and my own journeys into the Elder Scrolls began in earnest,” he says. “Well, I'm here, aren't I?!”
“But, in all seriousness, it sparked the lifelong urge to seek out enthralling stories and share them with others. What started as roaming across ash-strewn wastes in search of a prophecy later became hosting tabletop RPGs with friends, creating campaigns and narrative arcs in games of the time like Neverwinter Nights and now working as a user researcher to help bring the creative vision of our games to more people.” Somervilles then concludes with some sage advice all players could use: “I do not recommend stealing from Divayth Fyr.”
“Morrowind was the first video game I ever played on my own (and not looking over dad's shoulder as he played DOOM and Age of Empires)” says Irina Andreev, ANZ and Southeast Asia Senior Product Marketing Manager. “I always found fantasy worlds compelling, but this was my first experience being the hero in the fantasy stories I loved. I was 12 when I first played Morrowind - borrowing an Xbox copy from a school friend - and that first day I spent about eight hours straight in it; I was absolutely hooked.”
“When I started working in marketing (agency-side), I told myself that while I enjoyed the work, my dream job would be doing this client-side for a video game company. Lo and behold, the opportunity came along and I literally used Morrowind (as well as a bunch of my other favorite games) as a hook in my cover letter to get the interviewers to notice me,” she adds. “They did and the rest, as they say, is history!”
“I used to restart the game so often, that my wife would hear ‘Stand up. There you go. You were dreaming. What's your name?’ from Jiub and ask me ‘Are you starting a new game?’” says James Lowe, Senior Technical Designer at ZeniMax Online Studios. “This became a running joke when I did the same in Oblivion ("I was born 87 years ago") and is now a meme for everyone with Skyrim's "Hey, you. You're finally awake."
“Joke's on her,” he laughs, ‘she was in QA on The Elder Scrolls Online and probably started more new characters in that job than I ever did playing Morrowind.”
Of course, it wasn’t just players taken on a journey with The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Many who worked on the game are still at Bethesda today, with the game’s development and release being just a big a part of their careers as the players it inspired. Check out their stories in our companion article here
