Morrowblivion

This is interesting for me since I keep hearing about how great Morrowind is, but I don't want to play it due to dated graphics. I really don't like playing 4:3 on a 16:9 screen.

Anyway, this project updates Morrowind to use Oblivion graphics.

Welcome | Morroblivion: The Resurrection of Morrowind

I think I'll give it a try.

 

Morrowind is a VERY deep game. This looks pretty interesting.

 

with Skyrim coming and now this...

I guess i won't be seeing much of the wife for the next 6 months

 

damn why did they have to release at the same time as Skyrim?

Well, I suppose it was a smart way to generate interest. Probably worth checking out some time in late 2012 after I spend a year trying to finish Skyrim.

 

did the put voice acting in?

 

Looking at the site, it

A) doesn't look like they did release it at the same time as Skyrim, but rather that it's been in an ongoing beta stage for quite a while.

and

B) looks like the project is on Bethesda's bad side, and as such is one email away from being shut down and relegated to the boneyard of copyright-infringing mods. Seriously, if the developers of 'remake' mods like this had any foresight, they would spend a couple months hammering out the legal issues before spending five years developing a mod only to have it shut down two days after release.

 

Seeing how Bethesda is acting lately, it is quite possible that they could shut it down if they really wanted to. You only need to look as far as "Scrolls" to figure it out.
In my opinion though, it wouldn't be a smart move. Reigniting interest for older games such as Morrowind would only benefit them. That is why I don't think it would happen. 1$ sale games won't cover for the expenses of going to court and rambling about stuff like this. Just my opinion...
And I think it was Todd Howard himself who said that they are quite curious what the community can come up with after Skyrim is released.

 

The Morrowblivion FAQ basically reads like this to me:

Q: Weren't you guys shut down by Bethesda before?
A: Yeah, but after we disappeared we replaced the copyrighted textures, so it's cool. Only, uh, don't mention this project ANYWHERE that Bethesda might get wind of it. No reason...

It's really common for a remake/tribute mod to be shut down by the owners of the IP. Sometimes they shut it down or send notice early in the development process, as soon as they catch wind of it, but sometimes they don't learn about it until release or simply want to spite the mod developers who are blatantly copying their IP, so they serve notice after release or just before release just to spite them. Sometimes those get worked out with name changes or credit given, sometimes they get released under a different name with everything in the game renamed, and sometimes they disappear for good, or get tossed around on BitTorrent for a couple months before there's nobody left seeding them.

The bottom line is that Bethesda owns the video game rights to the Morrowind game and everything in it, and they can serve a writ for nothing more than the half hour's salary of one of the lawyers they have working for them. Is a motley mod team composed of poor programmers and designers scattered around the world going to be able to pose a legal threat to Bethesda? Especially when they're blatantly breaking copyright laws? No, there's zero risk for Bethesda shutting the project down, and if they choose to release a modern remake of Morrowind, or even just refresh it with slightly better graphics for XBLA or something, they stand to sell more copies than they would if a free equivalent was already available.

Bottom line for remake mods: get permission before you waste five years of your life on something that'll never see the light of day.

 

This looks good but November 2011 is one of the best months in the history of gaming for epic releases that I don't have the time for this one. I doubt it will get shut down again though.

 

awesome

 

Actually, the project's been around for about four years, but only really got rolling in 2010. Currently there have been 48 releases in about the last year.

However, it is only just recently (couple days ago) that we put together a complete installation package that is a LOT easier to install.

There is an additional mod for voice acting, but it's a work in progress, so not everything is voiced, and the actors are amateurs. From the FAQ:

Obviously that is for lols but yeah, it would be an enormous undertaking to voice everything.

While the project was once on Bethesda's "Bad Side", it is NOT an issue with them AS LONG AS we always make it abundantly clear that the project is not a Bethesda project. They licensed textures from another company for making Morrowind, and in that license they were only permitted to use those textures in one (1) game. If it looked like Bethesda was endorsing a game port, it could be seen as a breach of the licensing agreement, and possibly cause a lawsuit between Bethesda and their licensor.

All this is a moot point in any case, as the current project doesn't use any original Morrowind textures (which are low-res and ugly by today's standards anyway). We also are very careful to err on the side of the notoriously ambiguous "Fair Use" exemption, which is why we have copy protection built in to the mod, and why we do not collect any advertising revenue, donations, or membership fees.

Agreed. Bethesda benefits greatly from the Mod community as it is a free pool of content and ideas that they can use to make their next games better. I could write a very long list about how mods of previous games have been incorporated into new ones.

I wrote most of that FAQ and I object to your facetious paraphrase.

Yeah that already happened back in February 2008. Then the project did disappear for quite a while, before being resurrected in 2010.

Yes they sure do own the rights. No one is disputing that. However, given the EULA/TOS of Oblivion's Construction Kit, there is nothing that explicitly forbids the Morroblivion project or anything similar. Which is why Bethesda freaked when people started developing the project - they hadn't written anything into the EULA/TOS about it indemnifying them, and were therefore vulnerable to a potential lawsuit from their texture licensor.

In any case, Bethesda already has enough PR problems, and the NPV on stopping Morroblivion is probably negative considering the story would get posted to every video game blog out there and really damage their reputation as being a 'mod-friendly' game company. And if they did, you can bet we would set up Morroblivion.cc or .me or .cd or whatever in a few days anyway...

Sometimes if a game is good enough, it's worth doing anyway. And no one has wasted five years of their life, that is a gross exaggeration. More like a few dozen people have wasted maybe a few hundred hours each. If I ate more fiber, I could eliminate more wasted time than if I stopped working on video game modding lol...

It sure is. Skyrimmmmmmmm!