Hey Everyone!   Welcome to my Morrowind Journal.

Morrowind is a truly wonderful role playing game made by some very creative people at Bethesda Softworks.
The game was released  for the PC on May 1, 2002 (X-Box on June 7, 2002).

     These pages are about my actual experience in playing Morrowind, so this is sort of a review of the game, but from the eyes of a RPG newbie.  Please remember that this is my very first role playing game, and that all the difficulties I encountered at first were due to my complete lack of any RPG experience and not the fault of the game itself.  This is an account of how I have actually played Morrowind from the beginning.  You'll notice that I'm not a "power gamer" by any stretch, so this took me a very long time.

*** Caution: I really tried to keep things pretty general at first, but even my first chapters include a few little spoilers.  There's a lot more spoilers after page 10, when I found it difficult to write much without them.  So you probably should not read further than your own game progress.
 

     My Morrowind Character

"Lady Arwen Evenstar"

     Game screenshot of my Bosmer (wood elf), my main journal character.  (Arwen's New Look MOD created by "Paedric")

     As you progress through my Morrowind Journal, you'll notice that my character's appearance changes rather dramatically.  This is not because I started a new character, but was due to a couple of MODs which were made for me.  This enabled me to play the game with a character that resembled my avatar. 

     In the first chapters I just used a default Bosmer, with blonde hair.  In Chapter 20 I was given a MOD that changed her hair color to pink and gave her blue eyes.  Somewhere during Chapter 38 my Bosmer had a complete make over and looked like the wood elf in this screenshot.   There have been other minor changes to her appearance since then, as other MODs were released.  (See my MODs Page for more about MODs)

     Some Morrowind Statistics

I should probably first try to explain just how complicated the game of Morrowind is.

The island covers over ten square miles, with over thirty towns,
plus there are miles and miles of underground caves, with over 300 dungeons.

And you can go anywhere!

You are not stuck on trails and there are no invisible barrier walls.

Every single building (and room) can be entered.

Sometimes doors are locked, but if you have the skills, they can all be opened.

Almost every small object can be picked up. And there are thousands of these objects.

Plus there are thousands of plants and animals which provide ingredients for making potions.

There are 3,000 NPCs (non-player characters), six novels worth of text,
more than 500 basic spells and over 300,000 hand-placed objects in the game.

And there are 300 quests, or missions to complete.

Morrowind is a wonderful game, but now maybe you can better understand why
I was a bit overwhelmed and often totally and completely lost at first!

     Why I Wrote my Morrowind Journal

Writing this journal has been a lot of work for me, as writing is difficult for me.
When I first started, I never expected to do more than a chapter or two.

But I received so much supportive email, that I decided to just keep writing,
because I just wanted to give something back to the Morrowind community.

I'm also doing this for all the other girl gamers out there, who love games
but often get intimated by them (or just by some of the guys who play them).

It's really important to remember that most games are geared toward guys,
and most girls don't even think the same, being that we're from Venus and all.

So guys, don't expect me (or your wife or girlfriend) to play a game like a guy,
or to immediately understand some things, just because they may be obvious to you.

When playing a game, some of us might even appear a bit clueless at times,
but that does not mean that we are not just as smart as you.

Besides being a female, I really am wired a little different (see my Bio Pages),
so my game play might be a bit unique, due to the way that my brain works.

~ Warning: My writing tends to be a bit quirky for this same reason. ~

     MW Journal & Site History

March 21, 2002: Today I discovered a new computer game, which is due out this spring. It's a fantasy roll playing game, called Morrowind.  This game sounds like something that I would really enjoy, so I join the Elder Scrolls Forums (this is the first time that I have ever joined a forum).

May 2, 2002: My copy of Morrowind arrives by UPS and I immediately install the game and start playing.  The game was extremely difficult, but I totally loved it.  Within a week, I decided that I wanted to write a journal about my experience at trying to play the game.  So I started keeping notes whenever I played and I added the my Morrowind Journal to my personal website.

May 24, 2002: my site has recently been linked from Morrowind.nl - which is a Netherlands site. I went to the site to try to thank them, but I can't read Dutch.  Anyway, welcome guys and Thanks!
     -  I've been getting lots of very nice email lately, but I'm finding it completely impossible to keep up.  If you sent me email, I promise that I will reply as soon as possible, but I do have a life and I can answer only so many in a day.
     -  Oh, one more thing.  Please don't send me email with spoilers on how to do things or what's ahead. I know that I often may appear very frustrated, but I'm really enjoying doing this on my own.

June 4, 2002: I added Arwen's Morrowind Tips page.   This is not a spoiler page.   It just has some things that I've learned about playing the game and how I made it run better on my own system.

June 13, 2002: I added a counter on this page on June 1st and have been amazed to find that this page is getting over 500 hits every single day.  Yesterday there were 808 hits!  At my little site!  I still can't believe this little journal is so popular.  I'm still getting lots of email and I promise that I really will reply to everybody, but I'm like six days behind at the moment.

June 24, 2002: Bethesda just add my site on their Elder Scrolls Morrowind Fan Site Page!

July 1, 2002: This page had over 27,000 hits during the month of June!

July 7, 2002: I updated my entire site with a new heading, thanks to some art work provided by "Dinin Xantavian". I also included an newly updated avatar image, provided by "WizardGrey."

October 4, 2002: I updated my Morrowind Journal Index to include all the section titles below the page title.  Arwen's Morrowind Tips Page: Section on shields and large section on magic added.

March 7, 2003: I haven't used many MODs, other than the official ones, but I discovered a really amazing MOD, called "NPC Replace 3.0"  It really improves the appearance of many of the human-type NPCs and was made by Motoki.  It contains the wonderful artwork of Rhedd & Allerleirauh, Eternum, Arathrax, Hellkitty, and Nomad.   Unfortunately version 3.0 doesn't replace many Bosmer, but version 4.0 is due out pretty soon.  Example Images:  Original Nord Females    With NPC Replace, showing the same Nord Females  The NPC Replace MOD can be downloaded from Motoki's Website.

March 14, 2003:   I redid some of this Intro Page for a new look and added a new Index Page so I could get the journal's index off this page (it was getting a bit long).  I updated my Avatar Page, as I was given a wonderful new avatar MOD.  I also updated Arwen's Morrowind Tips Page to correct a few errors that I had in my Magicka section. 

March 23, 2003: added Arwen's MOD Page which has some tips on MODs and information on my currently installed favorite MODs.

June 14, 2003: added Thanks Bethesda and ES Forum Page

October 4, 2003: I decided that chapter 39 will be my last chapter in this journal.  My life has just become too complicated, with all my medical issues and surgeries and doctor visits and stuff.  My free time is just too limited now.  But since the ID forum, where I was a moderator, recently decided to end it's focus on Morrowind, I just opened my own forums, as an extension of this website.  So I'll still be around.

April 25, 2004: I just opened my new forums, as my first forums sort of fell apart due to support problems.

February 5, 2005: Started redoing my Morrowind journal to match my new home page format.  I wasn't really going to bother with this, but this page still gets ~ 1,000 hits each week, and I'm still getting plenty of email.  But this is obviously going to take me a while.

    Final Chapter and Next Project

October 04 , 2003: Chapter 39 is my final chapter (well it was going to be . . . see below) and I probably won't be adding any more.  I will keep my completed journal available as long as there is an interest.

Since my surgery, on May 30th (see my Bio pages), I just find that I have too many other real life quests that aren't leaving me with enough time to spend on updating this journal.  I've work really hard on this journal and each chapter takes me hours to put together.  But now I barely have time to even play anymore, because playing also means spending hours working on my next journal entry.

So my favorite game just wasn't any fun anymore, because I just didn't have the time I needed to both play and work on this journal.  So I have been doing neither for a while now and that's no fun at all.   Since my gaming time is now so limited, I need to be a little selfish and just spend the time I have just playing Morrowind, and get back to just having fun again.

March 2004 update: I finally completed the Main Quest in Morrowind!  I'm thinking about adding a Chapter 40 to this Journal, just to wrap things up.  But it's probably going to be a while.   Now I'm playing the Tribunal add on, which is very hard!
 

June 8, 2006 update and news:  I'm slowly updating my Morrowind Journal, to match the improved format of the rest of my website. (Chapters 01 through 28 are now completed).  Once it's all updated, I'm thinking of adding a Chapter 40 - as a final chapter (since Chapter 39 just leaves things hanging - and I always hated that).

If you've enjoyed my Morrowind Journal, you might also be interested in my current project: Arwen's Oblivion Journal, which is based on my actual experience in playing Oblivion, Bethesda's sequel to Morrowind, which was released on March 20, 2006.  Chapter 6 just went online this morning. 
 

August 10, 2007 update: I just finished updating all the remaining chapters in my Morrowind Journal.

August 14, 2007 update: Chapter 40 is finally online.  This is by far my longest chapter in the entire journal.  There will also be a Chapter 41, where my Wood Elf's adventures in Morrowind come to an end - with the completion of the Main Quest.  But it may take me a while to complete it.

Even though I'm not doing a Tribunal or Bloodmoon journal - her adventures are being continued in a sequel - called Arwen's Oblivion Journal - "Trials of a Semi-Clueless Wood Elf"