我常把《晨风》比作《白鲸记(Moby Dick)》而把《湮灭(Oblivion)》比作《泰坦尼克号(Titanic)》。《晨风》是一个庞大而且充满野心的项目,游戏各个部分都光彩夺目——但是可惜时运不济,梦想终成泡影。这部作品并不叫座,只因它过于奇怪,过于自命不凡,也不会迎合玩家期望。于是做《湮灭》的时候我们便更小心翼翼,努力的去迎合玩家受众。
I often liken Morrowind to Moby Dick, while Oblivion is Titanic, the movie. Morrowind was a vast, overly ambitious project, but glorious in many ways — but tragically inaccessible as a result. It had a much smaller audience because it was odder and less generic and less what people expect. With Oblivion, we knew what people expected and deliberately made our product a lot more comfortable for them.
Ken Rolston
《晨风》首席设计师Ken Rolston,
Morrowind's lead designer
交通刚开始非常缓慢,战斗刚开始也显得十分笨拙。整个游戏世界仿佛于游戏玩法之前所设计,没有任何游戏指引告诉你应该怎么走,怎么穿过那些道路和村庄。名字拗口难读,而且没有万能的任务指引告诉你该怎么做,并且无论你到哪都还有一大堆的艰难险阻等着你。
只有你的冒险精神和意识到自己将会成为瓦登费尔之神的主线任务会指引你前进的方向。最后,等你到了 10 级,一些强大的属性发展会使得战斗和行走速度变得更快,而在此期间,你对于瓦登费尔的理解也会大有长进。那些名字拗口的城镇和地点也会尽数掌握。
Transportation starts off slow. Combat starts off incredibly awkwardly. Since the world seems like it was designed before the gameplay was designed, it doesn't lead you through roads and villages that are cleanly organised to funnel you in the right direction. The names are hard to pronounce, there are no omnipotent objectives prodding you this way or that way, and wherever you end up there will be just way too much stuff there.
What gives you guidance is your own sense of adventure and a brilliantly self-aware main quest that tasks you with becoming the omnipotent God-king of Vvadenfell. Eventually some overpowering stat progression happens after Level 10 that makes combat and walking much faster, and during that time your understanding of Vvardenfell will also increase immensely. You'll come to learn the hard-to-pronounce names of its numerous towns and locations.
你将会了解这片大陆上的部落、议会成员、政治和宗教。因为主线任务中需要你会见他们并且将他们为你所用。
很快你便可以快速穿越整个地图,以迅雷不及掩耳之势从一座城市飞到另一座!你将会忘掉公共交通系统,就好像所有主线任务文本中所暗示的一样,你将会成为一个神一样的战士诗人,无形之中对这座岛了如指掌。
《上古卷轴 3:晨风》做的最出色的转变便是你有一个可参考的心理框架,从而体会到一步步变的伟大的感觉。这并不单单是提升一些属性这么简单。这是发自于对一个如同我们现实世界一样复杂,一样巨大、令人生畏的陌生异世界的不断的理解中得到的成就感。
You'll get to know its tribes, its council members, its politics and its religions because the main quest tasks you with meeting and manipulating every last one of them.
Soon you'll be able to teleport across the map, fly from city to city, and sprint with blinding speed! You'll forget about the public transit system because, just as all the flavour text of the main quest suggested you'd do, you'll become a godlike warrior-poet who knows this island inside and out, whether you were trying to pay attention or not.
The most brilliant twist The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind takes is that you'll actually have a mental frame of reference to know how great your progression feels. It's not about increasing numbers on a stat sheet. It's about thoroughly understanding a large, intimidating and alien world that is almost as complicated as our own.