Daggerfall - Released for Free

A very entertaining, if unrealistic, post. He does make a lot of good points about Daggerfall, but he also chooses to ignore the gazillion bugs and design flaws.

Well, to be fair they are comparing DF with Oblivion.

Also how buggy is the patched version of DF? My impression is the real show stoppers like falling through floors are fixed.
 
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Also how buggy is the patched version of DF? My impression is the real show stoppers like falling through floors are fixed.
Goodness no (but then I've also fallen through the floor in Oblivion) - but it's easier to recover from in dungeons with the later patches.
 
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Goodness no (but then I've also fallen through the floor in Oblivion) - but it's easier to recover from in dungeons with the later patches.


Thanks, good to know. Fortunately I don't have time right now and I can wait for daggerxl.
 
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Nice post by Vvnik. Daggerfall certainly was better than Oblivion and, IMO, was even better than Morrowind (despite Daggerfall's clear flaws, the least of which were its technical glitches).

That's because Daggerfall was made back when Bethesda "got it" and saw itself in the business of creating it. Just consider some snippets from the Daggerfall manual:

This is a game designed to encourage exploration and reward curiosity....What's the story? It is not for us to answer...role-playing games are plays in which the stars are members of the audience. Given a large, well-appointed stage, a supporting cast of improvisationalists, and an alert backstage crew, they are capable of anything. And the best thing we game designers and programmers can do is give you what you want and get out of your way...Follow your own spirit and tell your own story in your own way. We hope only to help you make it real.

In the world of computer role-playing games it is considerably more diffficult to create a book with blank pages than one where the story is complete. Daggerfall is a heartfelt group effort by all the programmers, writers, artists and designers who worked on this project...

The TES games that followed compromised computer-game potential and intrigue for video game novelty and coolness. Bethesda gradually sacrificed RPG goodness for the sake of arcade game hotness.

Just my opinion.
 
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They embraced the idea of making up your own story in a sandbox.

At least DF had a fairly interesting main quest line, the rest being just filler to make up your own story. That part is pretty shallow and almost a grindfest.
 
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I'm not sure if I could agree on Daggerfall being better than Morrowind, at least for me it wasn't. I can agree that the potential was certainly there, but the execution fell way short.

In fairness I must admit that I never advanced very far into DF, so I don't know what the game is like in the later stages. I got burned out on the repetitive quests and cookie cutter dungeons even in the demo.
 
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I think they really need to update these laws now that digital distribution is cheap and easy. Games' out of print for fifteen years and is impossible to get, why *shouldn't* it be abandonware? If the company wants to throw it up on Steam (like LucasArts just did! I'm buying all of their games next pay check :) ), then great, I'd like to support them with money for their great work; but if a company chooses for whatever reason not to make the product commercially available after a decent length of time (I'm talking a decade or so) I think it should be fair game until they decide to profit off of it again.

Not condoning piracy, just saying these laws should be looked at.

Hear hear. Copyright law has drifted way, way, way off from its original mission, and digital technology has completely overthrown the basis it was built on.

If I was world dictator, I'd limit copyright to three years for software, five for music, film, and text (and have violators shot, or perhaps shut up in a monastery somewhere where the only copying being done would be by hand).

That would, IMO, be a reasonable compromise between creator's rights and the rights of society to build on existing ideas.
 
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I'm not sure if I could agree on Daggerfall being better than Morrowind, at least for me it wasn't. I can agree that the potential was certainly there, but the execution fell way short.

In fairness I must admit that I never advanced very far into DF, so I don't know what the game is like in the later stages. I got burned out on the repetitive quests and cookie cutter dungeons even in the demo.

I have to agree.

Personally, I think Morrowind is worse than Oblivion, but it's definitely a lot more solidly executed than Daggerfall.

It actually works, for one thing :)
 
If I was world dictator, I'd limit copyright to three years for software, five for music, film, and text

This would lead me to publish nothing at all.

I'm for 10 years at least.
 
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This would lead me to publish nothing at all.

I'm for 10 years at least.

Well, the thing is you can make it renewable ... that way if someone wants to protect it they can, otherwise it reverts to public domain ...
 
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