LogInThe game was released 20 years ago and has influenced many developers' careers.
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is one of the classics that every gamer has played or at least heard a lot of great things about. It was released 20 years ago, on May 1, 2002, and inspired many people. Some of them are now working for the company that created the game.
To celebrate Morrowind's anniversary, developers from ZeniMax and its studios shared their first encounters with the game and how it inspired them.
"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 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),” said Janet Priblo, Senior Content Designer at Zenimax Online Studios, “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."
Morrowind was the reason behind some career choices and determination to work for the company that made the game.
"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," shared Hendrik Nieuwdorp, Lighting Artist for MachineGames. "It convinced me that videogames have a ton of stories worth telling and I wanted to be a part of that."
"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," said Bethesda UK Community Manager Nika Tufnell. "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!"
For some, Morrowind was not just a game, it was a way to escape reality in difficult circumstances:
"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."
Check out what else the developers say about Morrowind on Bethesda's website and don't forget to join our new Reddit page, our new Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we are sharing breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.