Confession: I Once Thought Morrowind Sucked

Morrowind: Not exactly love at first sight.

With the recent release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, I've been thinking back to the olden days of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. I love The Elder Scrolls now. It's one of my favorite series for the sheer amount of things you can do. But years ago, I played Morrowind for the first time on the original Xbox.

And I hated it.

I was probably about 13 or 14 at the time. Most of my gaming experience had been with action, adventure and survival-horror titles. The first RPG I ever played was the amazing Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. I adore that game. It set the bar for all other RPGs I played after it.

So, you can imagine the confusion I felt when I played Morrowind. I thought creating my own character was cool. I liked pilfering items from houses in the town where the game begins. But after that, I had no idea where to go. I wasn't big on listening to what people told me to do, or reading quest instructions in the journal, I guess.

By chance, I found my way to Balmora, the first major city of the game. When I arrived, I couldn't believe the  size of everything. Buildings were spread out as far as I could see. Where was I supposed to go? I finally checked my journal. It told me to visit some guy and join the Blades, I think. Well, that was nice to know. But where was this guy I was supposed to visit? Was I supposed to just wander around town until I found him?

The game basically forces you to explore everywhere. That freaked me out. I was so used to hand-holding and linear levels in games. Morrowind restricted nothing at all. If I wanted to leave the city right away and explore the world on foot, I could. I could also inadvertently enter some random person's house and accidentally kill a character central to the main storyline, thus requiring me to reload an old save or never beat the game. This happened, by the way. I lost about three hours of progress. It was awful.

Anyway, at first, I never found that guy or joined the Blades. I was so lost and confused that I left the safety of Balmora and headed into the wilderness with nothing but a crappy iron sword and some fur armor. I was very quickly killed by a persistent cliff racer, some pterodactyl-type bird that made a an annoying squawking noise to announce its presence.

That was enough for me. This game was just too much. I hated the openness and uncertainty. So, I regrettably returned it to the store.

Years later, I found Morrowind for sale for about $5 in a bookstore. At that point, I guess my gaming tastes had matured a bit. And so I gave it another shot. I'm so glad I did.

This time, the freedom amazed me. I fell in with the thieves guild almost immediately, and I loved picking locks and stealing stuff as I climbed the ranks to master thief. I joined the mages guild, where I promptly learned how to fry those cliff racers with fireballs. The fighter's guild taught me how to swing a sword. I traveled the land and became powerful and wealthy.

The lore and history within The Elder Scrolls series is so detailed, it almost seems real. I'd sit and spend hours reading the books scattered throughout Morrowind. I still do this now, in Skyrim.

In the end, Morrowind does indeed have its flaws. Glitches that can break the game, for example. Or a skewed level-up system. Nonetheless, I love it, and I always will.

Now I'm playing Skyrim, and its beauty astounds me. I know I'll be spending over 100 hours here, maybe more, simply exploring the world, doing quests, and chatting with the locals. I really owe this all to Morrowind. I hated it at first, but it changed the way I look at RPGs.

So, thank you, Morrowind. I promise I'll be back to visit again someday.