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Seeing the title, presumably many friends PTSD are going to commit. It's been a full 5 years since Bethesda first announced the "The Elder Scrolls 6" project at the E3 Game Show on June 10, 2018, during which almost no new news has leaked, and it is really difficult to say when this pie will be eaten.
Oh, and we can't wronged Bethesda. Some time ago, when Microsoft was fighting with the US Federal Trade Commission in court about the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Phil Spencer, head of the Xbox department, really revealed a little related content. He said The Elder Scrolls 6 is at least more than 5 years old, which means it won't be released until 2028 at the earliest. Ah this... Boys and girls are really going to be "old things"! (Annoyance
At this time, friends who have not been in contact with the "The Elder Scrolls" series have to ask, isn't it an open-world RPG, now there are alternatives everywhere, can brothers commit an IP? In this regard, I would like to say that it seems, seems to be really impossible to find meal replacements and replacements. Taking this opportunity, let's talk about this long-sealed game series to see where it comes from and what the charm is.
>>> all stories start with a technical brother who is engaged in communications
Back in the '80s, Christopher Weaver attended Hobart and William Smith College, where he demonstrated amazing mobility and helped improve campus radio and television studios. The brother recognized his talent and founded a technology company specializing in the development of aviation simulation trainers.
A few years later, the pace of study led Weaver to graduate school at Columbia University. He was then hired by ABC, where he demonstrated his technical prowess and was later appointed chief engineer of the Congressional Communications and Technology Subcommittee. At this stage, he did some "little things", such as breaking the monopoly of industry giants on telephone technology.
This seemingly "tall" successful person originally had nothing to do with video games, but fate is often so magical, a colleague introduced Weaver to this entertainment during work, and at first he was bored, but "real fragrance" always comes quickly. Max's older brother who has been active since childhood is naturally not satisfied with the experience, and after a while, he began to imagine creating more realistic gameplay by combining physical elements.
Just do it, Weaver found a few like-minded friends and began to study the physics engine, and it can be said that from this moment Bethesda has begun to take shape. How to overcome the technical difficulties is unknown, but in the end, a football game called "Gridiron!" came out, and real physics was its biggest selling point, so we should probably foresee Bethesda's future engine path.
Starting a company has long been nothing new for Weaver, and now with the work "Gridiron!", Bethesda was born in 1986! The name Bethesda Softworks comes from the town of Bethesda, Maryland, where the company was founded, and the main members of the current phase are Weaver and a Danish programmer named Julian Lefay, whose other name is probably better known to players as "The Father of The Elder Scrolls".
>>> The Elder Scrolls series was not originally conceived as an RPG
Gridiron! didn't end up being a big hit, as the game didn't have that many fans at the time. However, this work was favored by the North American manufacturer EA, and immediately cooperated with Bethesda to develop another work called "John Madden Football", and the physics engine used Weaver's research results.
In the years that followed, Bethesda made a mark in sports gaming, including football, ice hockey, and hockey, and when everyone thought they were going to dive into a single genre, young people came up with different answers.
Dungeons & Dragons in the '90s wasn't as popular as it is today, but Bethesda employees already host weekly adventures of swords and sorcery. They were mesmerized by this legendary board game IP, which apparently planted the seeds for The Elder Scrolls.
In 1991, Weaver won the rights to the Terminator adaptation after some lobbying, and Bethesda developed their first non-sports game, Terminator. Coinciding with the release of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, this action RPG has undoubtedly taken Bethesda to new heights.
That's when Weaver realized that maybe it was time for that seed to germinate. Over the years, Bethesda has created a mature physics engine that has many practical tools, and Dungeons & Dragons inspired them to apply these "magic weapons" in the role-playing field.
The new project was eventually developed by core veteran Julian Löffy, with the participation of the company's main designers, Ted Petersen and Vijay Lakshman. It is worth mentioning that during the development of this game, the now famous Todd Howard (Todd Howard) also joined Bethesda.
At that time, Todd's brother was only a little fan of Bethesda, and he was rejected many times when he "applied to join the team" when he was a student. But fortunately, it paid off in the end, and Todd's persistence impressed the company's senior management, and he immediately successfully joined the company and participated in the development of the mysterious new work.
To get back to business, at first Bethesda wanted to develop a work that simulated medieval gladiator fighting, which was a realistic fighting game in layman's terms. But as the development process progressed, the legendary designers became increasingly dissatisfied with the status quo.
Originally, the game outline was that players challenged gladiators in one city after another, so why not add a little side story to this? Just do it, after a toss, the game has become completely different, and in the end, the fighting game can no longer summarize the work, and a large number of role-playing elements, side quests and dungeon exploration have become the main selling points.
Due to the repeated addition of "bootlegibles", the game was not released in time for the 1993 Christmas holidays, which was basically equivalent to missing the best publicity window for that era. Finally, in March 1994, everything was finally released, and the game was named The Elder Scrolls: Arena.
From the perspective of that era, many of the designs of this work are very advanced. The first-person action game is novel, and WASD movement, high resolution, and mouse controls are easy to understand, lowering the barrier to entry. The huge map is divided into nine provinces, and the world is filled with many races and terrains, and even a diurnal cycle. Add to that a wealth of main side quests, cold weapon melee combat, magic, power-ups, and even custom characters, and the RPG elements are absolutely complete.
Despite the high quality, the actual release of the original "The Elder Scrolls" made Bethesda encounter unprecedented difficulties. The scantily dressed female warrior on the cover of the package caused a lot of controversy, plus missed the best publicity window for the Christmas holidays. The initial sales results of this work are very ugly, far less than their own "Terminator" series. So much so that publishers have advised Bethesda to think again to see if it can reverse the decline.
According to designer Ted Petersen, the creative team felt that they had screwed up, and this kind of sales was a disaster that led to the company's collapse.
However, today we naturally know that Bethesda did not go out of business in the end, and The Elder Scrolls: Arena became the beginning of the legendary series.
After a period of fermentation, the quality of the game is still the hardest sales guarantee. Players recognize the RPG's rich elements and huge worldview, and the quality feel ensures that the gameplay part is fun enough. So under word of mouth, sales performance actually rebounded.
Seeing the signs of a resurgence, Weaver, the company's boss and ultimate businessman, realized that the time had come to turn the tide. Originally available in The Elder Scrolls: Arena on CD-ROM and floppy diskettes, Bethesda introduced a special Deluxe Edition in late 1994, which included a tinker to the latest version of the game, a mouse pad with a map printed on it, and a detailed instruction manual or playbook.
The subsequent story was a Jedi turnaround, with rich game content and physical peripherals driving sales significantly, and the demanding press realizing that it was a fascinating work. In the end, The Elder Scrolls: Arena won Computer Game World magazine's RPG Game of the Year award, and as media reviewers at the time put it: "Although there is no revolutionary innovation in the field of role-playing, the huge fantasy world it builds is amazing, and the rich mission system far exceeds the competition." ”
Now there is no point in evaluating "The Elder Scrolls: Arena", its achievements have long been made without anyone to make a gold body, and the legend of the "The Elder Scrolls" series has begun.
>>> "glorious tradition" of the Bug begins with The Elder Scrolls 2
You and I both know that if a work is successful, it is natural to launch a sequel as soon as possible to squeeze out the small money in the user's pocket. Weaver did not jump out of the laws of business, and the sequel to "The Elder Scrolls" was established in the second year of the original release.
The company's internal resource tilt is also very obvious, Julian Le Fiy continues to be a producer, the previous generation of designer Ted Petersen will also return to development work, and our brother Todd has finally changed from a junior fan to one of the designers.
Starting a series is naturally difficult, but sequels are often even harder. Several designers considered retaining the rich RPG elements of their predecessors while using a vast worldview to tell a more legendary story. To this end, they learned from a number of science fiction and fantasy novels, and finally decided to let the protagonist explore a giant world that had never been seen before, and use story missions to further deepen the player's immersion during the journey.
These ideas were already great, but the final result was still beyond everyone's expectations. The powerful physics engine of the ancestors underpins these grand ideas, using the program to generate a large number of landscapes and thus build a real continent. The game map covers an area of about 62,000 square miles, which is an exaggerated number today. In fact, this sequel held the record for the largest game map for many years, and it was only in recent years that No Man's Sky squeezed it into second place.
In addition, the character customization system that the previous generation already had is now more complete. The new class creation system provides players with a way to control their character's growth and learn more skills.
Compared to the apprehension of the original game, this sequel took more than 3 years, and when it finally released on August 31, 1996, all developers looked confident! Its name is also very personal – The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall.
Unfortunately, talented creators tend to overlook reality. There are 15,000 cities, towns, villages, and dungeons to explore, and stability is the hardest problem to overcome for a huge program.
Not to mention the 90s, even today no one can guarantee that there are no bugs in the giant map. Unbelief? If you look at Cyberpunk 2077 at CDPR next door, you can probably understand what I'm talking about.
At first, everything was still good, and it is said that Bethesda initially produced only about 120,000 copies of the game, and within two days sold more than 100,000 copies everywhere. Empty alleys! I'm afraid it's not an exaggeration. However, due to technical limitations, almost all players encountered more or less problems and bugs after the release of The Elder Scrolls 2: Dagger Rain, and the filters accumulated in the previous generation were completely insufficient to offset these negative experiences.
Gradually, player word of mouth and media evaluation also showed a polarizing trend. On the one hand, the media believes that this work is not perfect, but the revolutionary huge map, highly customized characters, class creation and other elements have an incalculable impact on future generations. Real gamers believe that Bethesda doesn't offer a game that works well at the moment, and our experience is terrible.
Despite Bethesda's best efforts to save it, rolling out patches and optimizations back then was nowhere near as easy as it is now, and in the end, The Elder Scrolls 2: Dagger Rain didn't turn out what the designers dreamed of, and the legendary company's good fortune seemed to come to an end.
>>> two gaidens and Bethesda's broken rebirth
The commercial results of "The Elder Scrolls 2: Dagger Rain" is definitely not bad, after all, there is the original pearl jade in front, once released, players almost sold out the finished game, but the price is Bethesda's credibility, and maybe longevity...
Due to the poor reputation of the 2nd generation, the boss of the company Weaver is one head and two bigger. As for how to win back the hearts of players, it is natural to launch more good games. It is too late to spend another 3 years to develop the main work, and the game engine is very mature after iteration, as long as the volume of the work is reduced, it must be able to run stably. As a result, short and fast gaiden became almost the only option.
Several designers rushed to work, and it took Bethesda less than 1 year to develop The Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire, the first spin-off in the The Elder Scrolls series, which was finally officially released on November 30, 1997.
Abandoning the massive map and exploration elements to focus on the combat experience, the game is somewhat closer to what the fighting game looked like when the original The Elder Scrolls was designed. There are almost no story-oriented NPCs throughout the game, and mechanics such as buying items and collecting resources have been removed, and the new multiplayer mode shows Bethesda's determination to change.
Unfortunately, perhaps the engine update speed is too slow, and the material modeling is becoming more and more detailed. Even with a lot of content cut, The Elder Scrolls: Tower of Battle still had a number of bugs when it was released. In addition, the monotonous gameplay cannot attract players and fans who are accustomed to eating the main meal, and in the end, it can be described as a failure in word of mouth and sales.
The failure of one spin-off was not enough to bring down Bethesda, and another title called The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard was paralleled that year. Although it is also a gaiden, the development of this game takes twice as long as the "Battle God Tower", so the game, released on October 31, 1998, has once again changed drastically in gameplay.
Abandoning the series' classic first-person perspective and custom characters, Red Guard further restricts player freedom and uses established characters to tell a linear story.
It seems that Bethesda is indeed exploring the possibility of the IP of The Elder Scrolls, but it is definitely not a good thing to abandon its own longboard. This third-person title also failed, players don't care whether they innovate or not, whether it's fun or not is the key!
The two gaiden died one after another, which directly led to Bethesda's cash flow rupture and difficulty in capital turnover. Faced with near-bankruptcy and even legendary designers struggling to turn things around, Julian Le Fiy, the "father of the Elder Scrolls," left Bethesda after 1998.
Weaver is naturally in trouble at the moment as the leader of the company, but since he was a child, he did not choose to directly peddle the company and run. (PS: On the other hand, Activision Blizzard today... ）
After some consideration, the successful man decided to break his wrist and break the cauldron, he found a partner to form a new company called ZeniMax Media, and then took Bethesda as a subsidiary. In 2001, the two divisions within the company were split into separate operations, with Bethesda Softworks responsible for distribution and publishing and the newly formed Bethesda Game Studios responsible for subsequent game development.
Weaver As a business-savvy boss, Weaver has successfully pulled in more investment and cash through the above initiatives. Whether it's for personal gain or a sense of accomplishment, Bethesda has actually turned the corner.
Unfortunately, the influx of foreign funds also distracted Weaver from speaking, and although he was still the nominal founder, his position changed from CEO to Chief Technology Officer. A few years later, the successful founder left the company he founded.
Since then, Bethesda, born in 1986, has lost his father Weaver, and the "father of the Elder Scrolls" Julian Le Fey has long since passed away. The "small workshop" that used to develop works with passion and creativity no longer exists, and all that remains is a group of excellent and mature developers, as well as commercial game companies that have touched the laws of the market and the preferences of players.
>>> The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind represents Bethesda's Jedi turnaround!
The successive departures of the boss and the legendary designer are not without pain, and life will continue after several twists and turns. Bethesda intends to hold its ground and urgently needs a quality title to save the hearts of players. So that little fan brother carried the banner, and Todd Howard was promoted to production director with his previous work experience, and he was non-stop ready to develop a more perfect "The Elder Scrolls" series.
In fact, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind has long been established within the company, but years of turbulent personnel and development work have led to the game being in the concept stage. After Todd took office, the project officially entered the development phase.
Due to the failure experience of 2 generations of bugs, "Morrowind" no longer uses "big" as a selling point, but hopes to enhance the game screen with a new 3D engine, and the character modeling that was once full of jagged polygons can no longer capture the audience, and it is urgent to improve the quality of the picture.
In addition, Todd and the designers added an open editor to the development process. At this point, you should know where "players help Bethesda make games" comes from. In Morrowind, we can create new missions, stories, and even maps ourselves, which greatly increases the game's replayability.
Bethesda tripled its headcount and after intensive development, The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind was finally released on May 1, 2002. It is worth mentioning that the previous decision to operate the two parts of Bethesda independently also generated benefits, and despite the help of external publishers, Bethesda employees are confident that no one knows the game better than themselves, so the publishing colleagues are full of fire and the momentum is not unfurious.
The quality of the game itself goes without saying, and once it was released, players and the media gave a lot of praise. However, the editor system, which was highly valued during development, was spit on by some media, who considered it an opportunistic act to use player-made mods. Most of the players who developed mods around the turn of the millennium were core users, so mods were far from being as open source and popular as they are today, so this was at most a fruitless design at the time, but in the future we can see the forethought of brother Todd.
In addition, this is the first time the series has landed on the Xbox platform, which turns out to be a good move for Todd. Let's not talk about the fact that Bethesda has been acquired by Microsoft, and as of 2015, at least 2 million copies of the more than 4 million copies of "The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind" were sold from the Xbox platform, which is undoubtedly very important for a work that shoulders the "salvation" attribute.
The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind was also the first expansion concept introduced in the series, with the "Judgment Bench" on November 6, 2002 and the "Blood Moon" on June 5, 2003, greatly extending the life of the game, and players having new content discussed every once in a while, which was beneficial to IP visibility.
I believe that the 3rd generation is also the first time many Chinese players came into contact with the "The Elder Scrolls", this work was introduced into China by Tianren Interactive, although the genuine version was not popular at that time, but the pirated disc was definitely widespread. Regardless of the right or wrong of piracy, at least we finally have the opportunity to access the IP of "The Elder Scrolls", which was undoubtedly a fortunate thing back then.
Speaking of which, in fact, the terrier of "old rolling" is also derived from this. "The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind" contains a lot of text content, and there are not enough people to translate it step by step, so a large number of machine flip content made a lot of jokes when it was introduced.
Internet rumors say that Tianren Interactive also mistranslated "The Elder Scroll" as "Old Man Scroll", but in fact this error came from an unofficial translation made by a player on an online forum. But the "old roll" meme is indeed very funny, and over time Chinese players have become accustomed to this banal name, so much so that it has been passed down to this day.
"The Elder Scrolls 4: Annihilation" >>> towards the threshold of God's work
From the beginning of the 3rd generation, it is not difficult to see that Todd Howard abandoned the "big" route, and the delicate and exquisite graphics and the world of things became the key design to capture the player. The design idea has received praise, and it is natural to continue walking.
Development of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion began shortly after the release of Gen 3, and Todd decided to take realism even further. The most important element that makes up the world is people, which translates to NPCs in the game. The 3rd generation of rigid character dialogue was criticized, so Bethesda developed the Radiant AI system for the randomness of character behavior.
The system is definitely a key success factor, and the NPCs in "Annihilation" are designed to be more human. They make different choices about player behavior, rather than rigid, established scripts. Although artificial intellectual disability has caused a lot of fun, it is undeniable that the system also guarantees the playability of "annihilation".
As mentioned earlier, picture quality is Todd's brother's obsession. Annihilation underwent an engine upgrade during development, and the high dynamic range lighting brought by the Havok physics engine ensured increased scene realism and more vivid character modeling.
The Elder Scrolls 4: Annihilation took more than 4 years and was finally released on March 20, 2006. This game continues the tradition of the series of open-world maps, players can freely travel through the world. This time, in addition to the PC and Xbox platforms, the game also developed a Sony PS3 version.
Objectively speaking, "Annihilation" is not as vast as the 2nd generation of open world maps, and the number of NPCs and side quests is not as good as that of the 3rd generation. But instead, the NPC behavior logic makes more sense, the quest text is more literary, and when you are immersed in the game, it seems like reading many fantasy novels at the same time. This gaming experience is undoubtedly quality and fun, players also vote with their feet, and "Annihilation" sold more than 3 generations in the same period of nearly 1 million copies is the most authentic game review.
It is worth mentioning that the editor system buried by Todd has also blossomed, and more detailed editor and mod support is provided in "Annihilation", so a large number of high-quality mods have begun to emerge in the player community. The power of LSPs cannot be underestimated, and those beautiful female characters seduce otaku boyfriends to experience. Young writers even use mods to tell their own scripted stories in the game. It can be said that the excellent player community is also one of the important factors in the success of The Elder Scrolls.
Player enthusiasm was at an all-time high after the game's release, and the volume of DLC launches was naturally loud. Todd did not choose to launch a massive DLC, he continued his plans for a large expansion. On November 21, 2006, the PS3 platform "Nine Horsemen" was released, and a year later, the expansion pack 2 "Trembling Island" finally came out.
The main body + two expansions successfully blend RPGs, adventures, and action games, and "Annihilation" is arguably the largest generation of "The Elder Scrolls" of various elements to date. Until the appearance of that famous masterpiece in history...
>>> The Elder Scrolls 5 12 years ago is still out of date today
According to past practice, Bethesda should have started the development of the sequel in full swing, but it took 3 years to acquire Interplay, the developer of the "Fallout" series, and produce "Fallout 3". As a result, development of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim only began in full swing in 2008.
This time with a development team of more than 100 people, Todd Howard continued to serve as game director, and the game engine switched to the Creation Engine that produced Fallout 3. To make the open world more believable, the makers would manually adjust and design the general landscape after the program had generated it, just like a small mason pounding a jade. Skyrim also contains more than 200 main side quests, each of which refines the credibility of the open world with its own story.
In addition, Brother Todd continues to learn from the lessons of his predecessors. Although NPCs in "Annihilation" also show different personalities through AI, time pauses when the player talks to them, and the camera focuses on the character's face. Despite the emphasis on the narrative, it makes it difficult to read the body language.
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim changes this rigid logic, players and NPCs can interact in real time, and with more than 70 voice actors, players can completely treat each NPC as a living "person".
After 3/4 of the two successful works, Bethesda at that time had already come out of the quagmire of broken capital chains, otherwise it would not have been big enough to acquire the "Fallout" series. As a result, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim was officially released on November 11, 2011 with confidence.
The depth of this work is a well-deserved generation of legends. The game's setting and worldview structure are even comparable to Lord of the Rings, and the gameplay part is enough to be called the benchmark for RPGs. Its unique and mature open-world gameplay is in the ceiling, and it can be said that there are almost no alternatives on the market.
Unfortunately, the ancestral bug problem of the canon reappeared. Even after years of technological advancements, no one can guarantee that a large open-world game will be bug-free. Fortunately, the rapid development of the Internet is better than patch push, and version upgrades no longer need to spend so much energy. Bethesda actively addressed a number of technical issues and improved overall gameplay with patches. In the end, the game stabilized and kept the reputation of players who were hard to recover.
On its first day of release, Steam was online by more than 230,000 people, and as of June this year, the game has sold more than 60 million copies worldwide. Look at how widespread the memes in "Skyrim" are, and you can see how popular it really is. For example: "I used to be an adventurer like you until I got an arrow in the knee." ", the song of the Dragonborn sings in a low and powerful voice, the melody of Far Horizon.......
As for the award, "The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim" is even softer, it is a work that must be written into the history of the game. Otherwise, over the years, in addition to the three large-scale expansions of "Dawn Guard", "Fire" and "Dragonborn", there will not be a large number of players "one more" every time the reset version, special edition, and tenth anniversary edition are launched, and even the VR version launched on a whim can win the "best VR game" at the Golden Joystick Award, and the gold content of "The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim" is self-evident.
This level of work, you asked me to find a meal replacement, where can I find it?
>>> patiently waiting for the distant "Old Roll 6"
After The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, Bethesda's reputation has been resounding in the gaming world. So in 2020, our Rich man Microsoft spent $7.5 billion to formally acquire its parent company ZeniMax, which can't help but recall the original founder Weaver, the golden cicada shelled Bethesda and merged into the parent company.
Of course, the nature and outcome of the two things are completely different, at least the staff, including Todd Howard, probably don't have to worry about the capital chain this time.
In that case, don't keep players waiting too long. Looking back at "Skyrim" is more than 10 years ago, and it has been a full 5 years since the official announcement of "The Elder Scrolls 6". Although Bethesda also launched the MMORPG online game The Elder Scrolls OL in 2014, it was never the much-anticipated orthodox sequel.
If you ask if The Elder Scrolls 6 will be released around 2028 as the Xbox executive says. Then I can only say that you better pray that Bethesda and Brother Todd's "Starry Sky" will land smoothly, otherwise we will fix the bug for a few more years, we will really see you again in our lifetime...
Well, the story of The Elder Scrolls has come to an end for the time being. Don't know what first generation of games you first came into contact with? If you think we're doing a good job, you can like it. Of course, comments and suggestions are also welcome, and we will see you in the next article. Whoops~
(The pictures in the article are all from the Internet, if there is a copyright problem, please contact the author to delete)