Post – May 7, 2002

After recently complaining that there aren’t enough open-ended computer games out there, I’ve been playing “Morrowind.” It’s a 3D role-playing game, where you create a character and then wander the lands, fighting monsters and completing quests. This is the first game of this type that’s held my attention. It’s incredibly open-ended; there’s a main storyline, but there’s nothing keeping you from just wandering around, exploring and talking to people. The world of the game is huge, and the graphics (although they run slowly on my 2.5-year-old computer) are immersive – day/night cycles, weather, etc. It’s much closer to an alternate, living universe than I’ve ever seen in a game. Yesterday I found myself “ducking my head” as I went down a narrow staircase in a temple. It’s not the holodeck, but it’s as close as we can get at this point. If you have a computer with major muscle, you might want to check it out.