The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, also known simply as Morrowind, is a first-person computer role-playing game in Bethesda Softworks' The Elder Scrolls series. Morrowind was initially released for PC on May 1, 2002 and was subsequently released for Microsoft's video game console Xbox on June 6, 2002.

Morrowind differs from many other recent PC-based RPGs by focusing exclusively on the single player, offline experience. The game environment of Morrowind is huge and richly detailed, with real-time weather effects and a landscape in which most areas are accessible. Gameplay is open ended, allowing the player to roam, steal, quest and explore. This includes, but is not limited to, the ability to make or buy custom spells and weapons with unique effects. You can harm or kill major characters, even friendly characters (although it is possible to break the main plot of the game by doing so). This open-endedness is liberating and exciting, but shrewd players can find ways to unbalance the game and produce either weapons or abilities that can make the game's tasks easier to complete.

The storyline progresses exclusively through the decisions of the character, it is non-linear and can be discontinued at will. This type of open-ended role-playing gameplay is one of the hallmarks of the Elder Scrolls series and is the main basis of the game.

Morrowind is well known for its ability to be changed by plugins (called mod by users). These plugins are easy to install and can change almost everything in the game. For example, plugins can include new creatures, weapons, stores, and cities.

Along with graphical improvements, one of the most obvious differences between Morrowind and the older games is that Morrowind takes place only in the Vvardenfell district of Morrowind (a province in the land of Tamriel), whereas Arena in particular had given the player the opportunity to visit any province, at the expense of immersement.

The international language Esperanto made an appearance in Morrowind in the form of a book called N'Gast! Kvaka! Kvakis!.

Bethesda Softworks, the developer of Morrowind, offers gamers the ability to recreate the world with a variety of mod making tools.

Expansions

There have been two expansions:

• The Elder Scrolls III: Tribunal (November 2002)
  • This put the character in a self-contained walled city, and drastically increased the number and complexity of dungeons and caves (one of the criticisms of the original game was its paucity of such). The new city was not connected to the original Morrowind land mass, and you simply started the game by being transferred to the new city from Morrowind. The storyline continued the story of the Tribunal deities.
• The Elder Scrolls III: Bloodmoon (June 3, 2003)
  • This was a much more complete expansion than Tribunal, and actually created a large island with a sub-arctic climate that was included into the original Morrowind land area (i.e., you could seamlessly move from Morrowind to this island, by boat or other method).

In 2003, Bethesda released a Game of the Year edition for both PC and Xbox, which included the original game with both expansions. This is notable because beforehand, neither expansion was available for the Xbox. Reviewers note differences between the PC and XBox versions.

Note: Bethesda Softworks will not release a multiplayer version for Morrowind, although many fans have asked for it.

See also: Dagoth Ur, Tamriel, Vvardenfell

External links

• The Elder Scrolls (official site) http://www.elderscrolls.com/
• Morrowind Summit http://www.rpgplanet.com/morrowind/
• Gamers Roam http://www.gamersroam.com/
• iladrion's Place - Morrowind Mods and more... http://iladrion.de/
• Morroring http://www.rethan-manor.net/webring/ringmaker.php WebRing with many Morrowind-Sites
• UESP http://www.uesp.net/morrow/espmor.shtml Unofficial Elder Scrolls Page entry on Morrowind