Difference between revisions of "Elder Scrolls"
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Revision as of 21:27, 6 December 2012
The Elder Scrolls is a multi-platform action RPG video game series published by Bethesda Softworks. Elder Scrolls games are famous for both their visual appeal and an open-world style which gives players almost complete freedom within the game world to play their character as they see fit[1]. The series currently consists of 5 games, beginning with the release of The Elder Scrolls: Arena in 1994, which was followed by the release of The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall in 1996. The latest release, The Scrolls V: Skyrim was released on November 11, 2011 for Windows, the Xbox 360, and Playstation 3.
Contents
World
The world of the series, Tamriel, is based on the world that the developers of Arena used in a Dungeons and Dragons game they played[2]
The Elder Scrolls: Arena
The Elder Scrolls: Arena was the first game in The Elder Scrolls series. Its name derives from early in its development cycle when it was concieved of as a purely combat-oriented game. [3][2] The game became an open-world RPG as the developers added more role-playing aspects and reduced the player control characters down to a single individual because they felt these choices made the game more enjoyable. [2] However, the game retained the ill-fitting name "Arena" because game boxes and promotional materials had already already been printed.[3] Despite influence from similar predecessors, Arena distinguished itself by combining first-person action with a very large immersive world. It introduced a unique control scheme where attacks were performed through slashing gestures of the cursor rather than single mouse clicks as in previous games.[4]. The world was distinguished from other games by the fact that the user interacted with towns and villages by walking through them in first person rather than by using a menu.[4] The world also featured a calendar with corresponding seasonal weather, and both days and nights [4][5]. However, it also set itself apart through technical issues. The large number of bugs in the game was a severe problem both because it could make the game difficult to play, and because widespread internet access was not available as a method of distributing patches.[5] The game also suffered performance issues on most machines due to high system requirements. [3] Despite these issues, the game became a cult success.
Story
Arena introduced Emperor Uriel Septim VII of Tamriel, a recurring character of the series. The first game of the series shows Septim kidnapped and imprisoned in the plane of oblivion while Imperial Battlemage Jagar Tharn impersonates him on the throne. The player is tasked with gathering the eight pieces of the Staff of Chaos to expose Tharn and save the Emperor.
Impact
The Elder Scrolls: arena was groundbreaking in that it became an action RPG that was more than just standard combat. There was a place to explore, skills to be learned in order to level up, and a story to experience. It was something new and exciting that gamers hadn't experienced.
The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall
The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall takes place in High Rock, the Breton homeland. The Emperor sends the players to High Rock to track a letter which holds the location of the Mantella, a gem created from the soul of the Underking. This gem is the key to awakening the Numidium, a massive, iron golem. Everybody wants the Numidium for their own selfish gain, but the player can choose from six possible endings to determine the fate of Tamriel, and The Elder Scrolls history.
Impact
The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall's game world gave the player the ability to explore a world that would equate to about half the size of Great Britain. And While many other games have specific endings, the ending to "Daggerfall" was dependent only on how the player navigated the game.
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind begins on a stormy night on a boat. The player character is jarred out of a dream by nightmarish visions. It is revealed the player is actually a prisoner freed by none other than Uriel Septim VII. The Emperor wants the player to rendezvous with one of his agents, who inducts the player into the Blades, a secret order dedicated to the extermination of the evil deity, Dagoth Ur. The player continues to have odd dreams, which are revealed to be agents of Dagoth Ur attempting to infiltrate the player's mind.
The nomadic Ashlanders prophesize the reincarnation of Nerevar, the only force strong enough to take down Dagoth Ur. The player is Nerevar incarnate. After traveling to Red Mountain, the player and Dagoth Ur do battle. After Dagoth Ur is defeated the player breaks the Heart of Lorkhan, destroying the source of Dagoth Ur's power and killing him in the process.
Two expansion packs were made for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls III: Tribunal and The Elder Scrolls: Bloodmoon. They were both originally released as expansion packs and subsequently included in the release of the Game of the Year edition, which was released on October 31, 2003[7]. An important feature of these expansion packs is that they do not require the player to have finished, or even started the main quest of Morrowind.
The Elder Scrolls III: Tribunal
The first expansion pack to be released, Tribunal takes place in Mournhold. A player cannot reach the city until they are randomly attacked by a member of the Dark Brotherhood in their sleep. Following this, if a player talks to any normal guard in the game and mentions the attack, they will be directed to Apelles Matius in the town of Ebonheart. He will then direct the player to Asciene Rane, also located in Ebonheart, who can teleport a player to the city. Tribunal introduced the ability to sort a player's journal by quest, making the objectives easier to identify and re-visit. Prior to the expansion pack, a player would have to search their journal for quest-specific information. The second important addition in Tribunal is the Museum of Artifacts. It allows the player to sell rare artifacts for half their value (up to 30,000 septims) which is more than typical merchants in the game can afford[8].
The Elder Scrolls III: BloodMoon
The setting of Bloodmoon is an island called Solstheim, which is located Northwest of the mainland in Morrowind. It can be reached by:
- Crossing the water separating the island from the mainland using levitation, water walking, or swimming.
- Taking a boat across the water after speaking to the Khajiit S'virr in the town of Khuul.
A key change introduced by Bloodmoon is the ability of the player to become a werewolf. A player may become a werewolf via[9]:
- Contracting the disease Sanies Lupinus in combat with a werewolf and waiting three days.
- Progressing through Bloodmoon's main quest and not curing the disease after contracting it during the quest, the Siege of the Skaal Village.
- Completing Bloodmoon's main quest gives the player Hircine's ring, which turns the player into a werewolf while worn.
- Rather than fight a werewolf, a player can give their character the disease through the console and then wait three days. Hit ~ then type Player-> addspell "werewolf blood"
Impact
This was the first game in the series to be on multiple platforms: PC and Xbox. Although it was not the first game to break ground with this The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is the first game in the series to feature character creation and the ability to swap between third- and first-person views. “Morrowind” also took their multiple story lines to a new level, allowing up to hundreds of different stories to play out. “Morrowind” was also the first game in the series to have legitimate commercial success, selling over 4 million copies.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
The Elder Scrolls history is completely upset within the first few minutes of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The Emperor, Uriel Septim VII, entrusts the player with the task of finding Cyrodiil's lost heir, just as an assassin stabs and kills him. A covenant that kept the realm of Oblivion at bay was only in affect while a rightful heir wore the Amulet of Kings, which Septim gives the player with orders to find his long lost son. Players venture in and out of the realm of Oblivion, where hordes of demonic beasts are preparing to enter Cyrodiil, making sure to seal the gates, if only temporarily.
The Player finds Martin Septim, the rightful heir, and brings him back to the Imperial City only to find it under attack by the Daedric Prince of Destruction, Mehrunes Dagon. In a final act of epic redemption, Martin shatters the Amulet of Kings and merges with the Dragon-God of Time, Akatosh. The player and Martin, now an avatar of Akatosh, destroy Dagon and seal the gates to Oblivion forever, killing Martin in the process. This leaves the throne open once again.
Impact
“Oblivion” offered much of the same style of gameplay as its predecessors. Its one big change was that now the characters that were the environment of the game actually had roles. They no longer stood still; they slept, work, ate, etc.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The game takes place 200 years after the events of Oblivion. The game takes set against a background of a civil war between the Nords, the largest ethnic in the titular province of Skyrim. The player begins the game shortly after the murder of the High King of Skyrim by Ulfric Stormcloak, the leader of the Stormcloaks, a rebel faction named after him. The murder is unusual because Stormcloak is rumored to have murdered the king with his voice. In addition to the king's murder and civil war, dragons have also returned to the land of Skyrim. Some characters believe a legendary dragon named Alduin will return to consume the world while others believe the a hero called the "Dragonborn" will appear as prophesied in the Elder Scrolls.
Impact
Continuing in The Elder Scrolls fashion the creators developed much more area for the player to explore. The biggest additions to these areas were the dungeons. They reportedly added over 150 unique dungeons for the players to explore.
Modding
Adult Mods
User created content, called a mod(short for modifier), first became a part of the Elder Scrolls games with the release of Daggerfall.[11] Players can make their own items, dungeons, cities, races, etc. with the use of official toolsets or their own software and add them into their games. Sharing mods over the internet is extremely popular as well, but this freedom has led to some controversy. The term TTP, or time to penis, is an unofficial term used by game developers to describe the length of time before a game that allows users to create content to represent male genitals [12]. The Elder Scrolls games, particularly Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim, are infamous for having low TTPs[13]. Adult content mods - featuring nudity, prostitution, animated sex, and the ability to kill children - quickly grew to be some of the most popular mods available [14].
See Also
References
- ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elder_Scrolls
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 http://web.archive.org/web/20070609185149/http://www.elderscrolls.com/tenth_anniv/tenth_anniv-arena.htm
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 http://www.giantbomb.com/the-elder-scrolls-arena/61-7513/
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 http://renaissancegamer.blogspot.com/2011/03/ive-decided-to-start-excerpting-bits.html
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 http://www.1up.com/features/best-worst-elder-scrolls
- ↑ http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/83359/lets-play-daggerfall-part-9-in-which-we-steal-and-fight-walls-nsf56k-nsfw
- ↑ http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q2-2003/051003b.html
- ↑ http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Tribunal:Tribunal
- ↑ http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Bloodmoon:Werewolf
- ↑ http://junglebiscuit.com/node/91
- ↑ http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:AndyFall
- ↑ http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ttp
- ↑ http://www.dualshockers.com/2011/09/19/sixteen-things-modders-will-bring-to-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/
- ↑ http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/topalltime/?adult=0
