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Morrowind Game of the Year (GotY) Edition for the Xbox will include the original version of its award-winning RPG The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, along with content from the two Morrowind expansions: Tribunal and Bloodmoon. This new product will allow gamers to continue their existing games of Morrowind and experience the new quests and areas offered by the expansions, while players who have never played the Best RPG of 2002 can experience Morrowind on Xbox for the first time with all of the added content.

We got a chance to ask a few questions of Todd Howard, project leader of the Elder Scrolls series, to see what his thoughts are on the success of Morrowind as well as his overall thoughts on the Xbox. Here is what he had to say.


First of all, give us a brief history of who you are and your responsibilites at Bethesda.

Todd H: I am Todd Howard, and the brief history is that I have been with Bethesda since '94; designing, producing, and leading various titles, including most of our Elder Scrolls and Terminator games. Right now I'm in charge of the Elder Scrolls series and loving every minute of it. I knew playing D&D and Atari all day as a youth would pay off some day. My parents are still stumped.


"The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind" received very good reviews when it was released on both PC and Xbox. Are you pleased with the scores? Were you expecting such a success?

Todd H: Very pleased, I think the gaming community really embraced our game and the things we were trying to do with it. In particular the Xbox community, which I now consider myself a hardcore member of (all I play is Xbox now). They really took to the game. Xbox players are a lot more sophisticated than most developers give them credit for. They want deep games that challenge them, games that try new things. I wasn't expecting the level of success we had and are still having on Xbox. Morrowind was still a top 10 Xbox game for May, June, and July of this year -- a full year after release. That's pretty amazing. It's just one of those games that people feel they need to see what it's all about, then they tell their friends to try it.

When did the idea to create an expansion to Morrowind come about?

Todd H: From the initial stages of Morrowind, we wanted to build game architecture that supported mods really well and expansions at the same time. So our whole data-set is made to work that way. Anyway, we hoped early on the game would be popular enough to warrant an expansion or two.


Several times you were asked if you were planning an Xbox release of Tribunal and your answer was "No, it's a PC only product." What made change your mind?

Xbox gamers across all boards have complained about the original version of Morrowind being buggy. The PC version could be patched, but that's not available for the Xbox version. How have you addressed these concerns for the Xbox version?

Todd H: The new version does include many of the enhancements that we made in the PC patches, especially many of the quest paths that players discovered on their own and we hadn't anticipated.


How does the Xbox version of both Tribunal and Bloodmoon differ from their PC counterparts?

Todd H: They're pretty much exactly the same. A few changes to make things work even better for the Xbox, or other small issues players had with the expansions on the PC.


Can we expect to see any visual improvements in Tribunal and Bloodmoon for Xbox?

Todd H: To the original Morrowind content, no. But the new stuff is really good. I think the creatures in Bloodmoon are the best we've ever done.


Tribunal


What is the storyline of the main quest in Tribunal?

Todd H: Tribunal finishes up one of the story threads from Morrowind dealing with the Tribunal, who are the God-Kings that run Morrowind. In the first game, you only get to meet one member of the Tribunal. Now you get to meet all three.





Where does Tribunal take place?

Todd H: It all takes place in Mournhold, which is the capital city of Morrowind. Underneath the city are massive dungeons. Tribunal is much more a linear, dungeon-based adventure than our previous open-ended outside stuff.


How many hours of added gameplay are there in Tribunal?

Todd H: Between 20 and 40, depending on how much of it you do.


What new creatures and other characters are being included in Tribunal? Why did you decide to include these new creatures?

Todd H: One of the main ones we included was the Dark Brotherhood, who are the assassins from previous Elder Scrolls games. They come to kill you in the beginning and finding out why they want you dead sets everything in motion.


Press info mentions "Powerful new armor and weapons"; can you elaborate on this?

Todd H: We have some pretty cool new weapons, and ones that visually look great with flame particles and such. You'll meet some guards that have some great new armor.

Bloodmoon

Could you just outline the premise and plot of Bloodmoon?

Todd H: Snow, Nords, Werewolves! That was our one sentence design that we started with. Basically we wanted to do something big that felt and looked very different from the original Morrowind content. I see Tribunal as an extension of Morrowind, and Bloodmoon as a new experience. Oh, and werewolves. You can become a werewolf and maul people. Who doesn't like that?

In which way is Bloodmoon connected to Morrowind and Tribunal? How big is Bloodmoon?

Todd H: Bloodmoon is on an island Northwest of Morrowind's main island. It's about one fifth the size of the original Morrowind.


What kind of quests can players expect in Bloodmoon?

Todd H: There are three basic kinds - the main quest, which deals with the werewolves, the colony quests, where you get to manage the construction of an entire mining colony, and tons of side quests.


The press info mentions the following: "You can decide to join the werewolves and become one of them, opening up a whole new style of gameplay." How does this alter the experience of playing Bloodmoon? How do you become a werewolf? How do your werewolf abilities affect gameplay?

Todd H: You become a werewolf by fighting one and contracting the disease. It's a whole new experience. When the sun goes down, you change to a werewolf until the sun comes up. As a werewolf, all you have are your great speed and claws, and can do massive amounts of damage. As long as no one sees you change back or forth in form, you can wreck havoc without ever getting in trouble for being a werewolf.





Besides werewolves; what new creatures will there be in Bloodmoon?

Todd H: We did a lot of "natural" creatures, like bears and wolves. We also added some previous Elder Scrolls creatures like spriggans, which were very popular in Daggerfall.


What movies and games have influenced the development of Tribunal and Bloodmoon?

Todd H: We looked at the original Aliens vs Predator game. I think they did a great job with the Alien. You felt like you were a beast running around in first person. Some Norse mythology played into Bloodmoon as well.


What games have you been playing lately? What are your thoughts of Star Wars: KotOR? Are you waiting to play Fable?

Todd H: I think KotOR is great. Really great. Everyone here is playing it. I love that it's a true RPG and not like Final Fantasy or all the other Japanese stuff. I think they should remake Baldur's Gate 2 with that engine! KotOR really is structured like BG2, which is one of my favorite games. I can't wait to play Fable, I think it will have some really fresh ideas in it.


Now, after developing these two Xbox games, what is your overall impression of the Xbox?

Todd H: I love it. Best system ever. Seriously, it's all I play on now, and developing for it rules.


Now that Xbox Live has been around for over a year; what are your thoughts?

Todd H: It's cool, but still not as cool as the Internet PC gaming scene. Not even close. They need a Battlefield 1942 style killer app to get people over to it. Halo 2 may do that, it remains to be seen.


Will you consider develop a MMORPG in the future, for Xbox Live?

Todd H: I'd consider it, sure, but I doubt I would do it. That's not really my forte. I prefer to play and make single-player games that really focus on my experience and entertaining me.


Morrowind Game of the Year Edition GameInfo Page


Todd H: Well, the expansions, as stand alone products, really are only an option for the PC. I know that's just semantics, but until we had a clear path on how to get these things on Xbox, we really couldn't say publicly what our plan was. We always wanted to get them on Xbox in some fashion, and ultimately we found this to be the best way for everyone involved. It's cheap and easy to get them, and it also services people who have never ever played it before. It's also kind of a first in the console space, and we were really coming up with a new model for how this can be done. It's key that when you pop in the Morrowind: GotY disc, the experience is seamless. You just see your old save games there and can load them as you used to, but now you have all this new stuff to play with.


How long have you been working on these expansions?

Todd H: We spent about a year total between the two expansions. About 5 months on Tribunal and a little over 6 on Bloodmoon. Our development tools kick ass, so we were really able to get great stuff in a short amount of time.


Do you have to play the entire "The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind" in order to play the two expansions?

Todd H: No, no way. We would never make someone do that. Morrowind is way too big, plus that's really not in the spirit of the open-ended gameplay we try to do. You can go play the new expansion content at any time during your game of Morrowind, and you can move between the areas of Morrowind, Tribunal, and Bloodmoon as much as you want. It's a big, seamless world.


Can you use stored data from the original Morrowind in this new GOTY edition?

Todd H: Yes. That was one of our first requirements. Like I was saying before, it's seamless to the player. You go to load a game, and there are all your original Morrowind save games. You load it up, and everything is the same as the original Morrowind, but there are two new huge areas, plus the other general gameplay features.