ResearchThe Elder Scrolls - one quest to rule them all!
Role-Playing Games have a history even since before computers became common in the household. From the fabled TSR games done with paper and dice through primitive PC games like Rogue, Nethack, Angband, and Moria, on up to modern PC games such as Blizzard's Diablo series, role-playing games (RPG) have had a loyal fanship.
What's so special about RPGs? In a word, depth. In an RPG, you start out creating a character. You can detail everything about them from race to profession to class. You then go on a lengthly series of quests, meeting a fantastic assortment of creatures and obstacles. Frequently, the quest map is randomly generated. Between the near-infinite number of variations of characters and the skills and tools they will use to solve dilemmas, and the fact that the game itself changes each time, RPGs have replay value like nothing else. Compare that to a first-person shooter, where you basically have one track that you play through every time. There's only so many times you can run down the same maze of hallways blasting the zombies who never duck.
The Elder Scrolls series, only for the Xbox, now includes Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, and Oblivion. It's game world is known for its attention to detail, realism, and a sense of history. The history represents a vast, interconnected structure of various societies, cultures, and religions - much more than what you would even find in other role-playing games. The background of it is so immense that there is no one compilation of all information pertaining to Elder Scrolls. In the games, historical references are often vague or unsure; players are encouraged to draw their own conclusions about events and situations for which the records are missing or in the case where competing viewpoints obscure the truth. This has spawned a subculture amongst the player community of history and philosophy aficionados affectionately called "loremasters" who act as tribal bards of the Elder Scrolls culture.
The game is set in a land called Tamriel, which is divided into multiple provinces under different governments and control of different races. Like Ankh-Morpork of "Discworld" or Middle Earth of the "Lord of the Rings", Tamriel is a vast world sculpted of magic and myth. It can take weeks just to explore the whole map the first time, and it's mythology can take months to digest. The races should sound familiar to any Tolkien or Dungeons and Dragons fan: Orcs, Elves, and men are the heavy players, but reptilian and feline "beast" races are playable as characters, too. The classes (professions that a character can play) include fighters, thieves, mages, assassins, gladiators, and spies. In addition, characters may play in alignment with a Tamriel religion, or join a guild which may be associated with their class.
This article, of course, is not even one-tenth of the introduction to the game, and coes not come close to doing the story justice. But it is meant to whet the curious appetite. Fans of the Elder Scrolls assert that it is the grandest possible interpretation of the role-playing game ideal.