Now, in order to appreciate this game at all you have to understand it is very sparse. It is intended to be a small diversion, not something you sit down and play for a long period of time, so you can’t expect it to be very involving. Some people (especially D&D players, it seems) start the game and do an adventure or two, then stop because they just don’t see the point. I can understand why they find it annoying, but if you go into it knowing to expect a simple, mostly passive game and stick with it through a few adventures, it becomes downright addictive.

The basic setup is this: you create character, choosing from one of the preexisting race/class pairings, give him or her a name, and send him or her on adventures. You cannot customize your character’s abilities or skills, although you can see what their stats are. You also cannot do much while they are adventuring, although there are a few options. You can make them drink potions they brought along, and equip and unequip items your character finds or that you buy from the store. In later generations (after you have ‘retired’ a few characters, playing them all the way to level 11) there are rudimentary powers you can use once per adventure (heal wounds, spells to increase your stats, etc).

Mostly, what you do is keep track of what your character is doing. Each adventure has 6 to 16 or so stages, which update about every 10 minutes. Like I said, this isn’t a game you sit down to play exclusively. It’s meant to be something you run while you’re doing something else, and every so often you come back to check up on your character and see how they’re doing. This, I think, is actually why it’s so addictive. You don’t have to pay a whole lot of attention to it. I will be doing something dull, like writing a paper or studying, and every 10 minutes I’ll take a miniature break to see what the last update was and if my character needs a potion or found anything cool. This game allows you to build some diversion into your preexisting routine.

It also rewards you for playing it long-term. Each character only takes a week or two to get to level 11 and retire, and each time you retire a character you unlock a new feature of the game (class powers, the ability to pass down an item from character to character, new classes, etc). Every time you start a new character there’s something just a little different about the game, enough to keep it from loosing its appeal.

So no, this isn’t the most brilliant or exciting online game, or even the most extensive Facebook application. But it does what it is meant to do well. It’s something fun to do when you don’t have time to actually relax and play a more involved game. It’s well made, and the adventures are well-written (quite a few of the updates are funny and/or make sly references to movies or clichés). Usually it runs smoothly, although the designers are currently working out a few bugs from their latest expansion, when they added some new classes and adventures.

Bottom line: A simple but surprisingly addictive game that lets you inject a little fantasy into your everyday routine.

Quests

 While the main quest in Morrowind was fairly interesting, it was hardly the point of the game. It was all about the sidequests, and this trend continues with Oblivion. The main quest is actually pretty dull, and very short. But there is no shortage of options to choose from. While I missed the political opportunities in Morrowind, you can still join the Mages, Fighters, Thieves, or Assassins guilds, or any combination. You can fight in the Arena, take dangerous quests from daedric gods, or venture into the hell-like plane of Oblivion. In addition, it seems like every other NPC has a problem for you to fix.

All totaled there are nearly 200 quests, not to mention the dozens of locations you can explore unrelated to any quest (ruins, caves, etc). The leveling system makes it possible to complete any quest at any time, giving you maximum control over the gameplay. It’s up to you want you want to do and when, with very few exceptions. Some of the quests are even humorous, and a few are truly unique. And while this isn’t the most cerebral of games, it’s far from being a brainless hack-and-slash.

The quests themselves are easier to deal with than they were in Morrowind, although I would submit they’ve become too easy to complete. The journal is much easier to use, and NPCs are more helpful than they used to be. In Morrowind you were often unsure where to go to start or complete a quest—not so in Oblivion. There’s a compass that points you directly to where you need to be to complete your active quest (which you select). This takes some of the challenge and thought out of the game; all you really have to do is follow the arrows. Thankfully you can select a quest you aren’t working on so the compass doesn’t give too much away—I did this most of the time. The NPC instructions are clear enough without it in most cases, though when they aren’t the compass is a very handy tool.

NPCs

And what about the NPCs? Well, there are about as many of them as there were in Morrowind—a good manageable amount. Granted, a real city would have a lot more people living in it. But there are just enough characters to make things interesting and provide quests without becoming overwhelming. Each NPC has its own schedule; some even go on occasional visits to other cities, which is irritating when you need to find them but definitely adds to the realism. As you travel from one city to the next, you might run across patrolling soldiers, bandits, townspeople, and small camps and outposts. NPCs have varying personalities, and the ones you interact with for quests have enough to say to be interesting. They don’t have the complex backstories and dynamic interactions of a game KOTOR (Knights of the Old Republic), however. They do have amusing, stiff conversations with each other on the streets, which sometimes give hints into the locations of quests or master trainers.

The conversations, as I mentioned before, are simpler and more streamlined than they were in Morrowind. You have fewer options—at times not enough. Conversations with NPCs feel pretty stiff and constrained. All the dialogue is voiced, which could have really added to the game. However, it seems they hired about 5 voice actors, which makes the voiced dialogue silly and repetitive rather than immersive. At least persuasion is easier; you have to play a minigame but raising people’s dispositions is much easier than it was in Morrowind. Another improvement is that necessary NPCs cannot die the way they could in Morrowind—they can only be knocked unconscious. Yes, this is unrealistic, but it is far better than accidentally killing the guy who gives you main plot quests.

New Stuff

So what else is new in Oblivion? Horses, for one. This was probably my favorite addition, though I admit steering those things is nearly impossible. Still, it is pretty cool to be able to own your own horse and ride it cross-country. As I mentioned briefly, Bethesda also added a fast transit system. This was absolutely the smartest thing they could have done. Morrowind was a great game, but having to spend a half hour (real time) walking from one place to another nearly killed it for me—in fact it would have if I hadn’t downloaded a mod from the internet that let me travel instantaneously.

Oblivion has found a happy medium, where you must first travel on foot to a location (except major cities) and after that you can travel to that location instantly. This way you get to see the excellent scenery and experience random encounters while avoiding hair-pulling frustration. I do miss the other travel options Morrowind offered, like Silt-striders and the Mages Guild transportation service, but they were eliminated because they are no longer necessary.

The dungeons are quite different in Oblivion, more like those in other RPGs. There are traps, which is great fun (there’s nothing like luring an enemy onto a square of floor that springs up and crushes them against the ceiling). Also, the dungeons now include treasure chests. This is less realistic, yes, but such a staple of video games it feels natural. And it provides incentives for you to explore dungeons thoroughly instead of going straight to the goal. Of course, this means you end up with even more stuff than you did in Morrowind. By the end of both games, you have so much money and so many possessions that finding new items can be more annoying than exciting. However, this is a common RPG problem, hardly unique to the Elder Scrolls.

The other most irritating aspect of Morrowind (besides no fast-travel) was that neither your health bar nor your magic bar regenerated. In Oblivion, as in most games, your magic regenerates, which allows you to cast spells to increase your health. On a related note, the fatigue bar no longer goes down when you run. Sleeping is also simpler now that there is one option instead of two, although you do have to sleep in a bed to level up, which can be inconvenient since there are so few beds you can legally use. Spell casting is no longer determined by a percentage but by your skill level in the relevant area of magic, eliminating much frustration. The systems for enchanting and potion-making have been improved, and the combat system is somewhat more realistic (the best improvement there is the ability to block at will).

And last but not least, in Oblivion you can buy houses. In Morrowind you could build a stronghold, which was actually pretty neat because you could watch it develop through three stages. In the world of Oblivion each town has a house to sell, ranging from dirt-cheap shacks to grand mansions. You can buy upgrades for your house and use it to store your items, and a few even come with associated quests.

Bottom Line: Oblivion has its flaws, but it really is the best fantasy PC RPG out there. It’s incredibly immersive, and while the main quest falls short there is plenty of other content to take up the slack. For anyone who has ever wanted to live in a fantasy world, this game is as close as it comes.

And though Oblivion improves in many ways on its predecessor, it took its share of steps backwards, too. Morrowind is still well worth your money if only for its detail and realism (and for the sigh of relief when you find what a smoother, easier play Oblivion is). It may be another five years before Elder Scrolls 5, and when that comes out I’ll be the first in line, but until then numbers 3 and 4 are more than enough to satisfy. 

Disclaimer: All the following information relates to the PC version of the game (though most of it probably applies to the console version as well). This kind of game is intended for and best on the computer, not only because of the different gameplay experiences but also because it’s much easier to apply patches and mods on the computer version.

The World

Morrowind was an incredibly detailed world, with sudden shifts in the weather and daily cycles of sunny days and starry nights. The folks at Bethseda had five years to improve on their graphics after that release, and they did just that. Oblivion is a truly beautiful world, satisfying to merely explore and look at. As you travel, you can see the city walls and the spire of the Imperial City in the distance, and closer in you might stumble across a marsh or waterfall. It’s also a darker world, and though the blood is minor and not obtrusive, the zombies inhabiting some dungeons are downright disturbing.

The physics engine is pretty advanced—objects can be set on top of or inside other objects, and those lying on the ground can be kicked away. The downside to this is that bodies tend to flop around in unnerving ways after you kill them, and sometimes elements of the environment interact in strange ways (say, when you see a deer walking under the water of a lake).

The world isn’t perfect—the graphics are so detailed they develop bugs like that pretty often, and it’s amusing to watch the grass pop up as if by magic as you come towards it. Without the patches the game tends to crash, even on a good system. The environment is also a bit less varied than Morrowind was. Every city in Morrowind looked unique. One was situated in the trees, one was a vast, confusing collection of manmade islands, and a third was made up of giant crab shells. And different areas had different weather patterns—persistent fog, for example, or dust storms. In Oblivion all the cities look pretty much the same, and the weather is consistent except that some places seem to get more rain than others. The sky does turn red when you’re near a gate to Oblivion, but there are no dust storms.

But while it lacks some of the depth of the Morrowind world, Oblivion is still more than immersive enough to satisfy. You could spend hours just reading through the hundreds of books lying around in buildings and stores, or arranging your favorite items along the shelves of your house. Though it is possible to fast-travel from one city to the next, I would often ride my horse or walk just to take in the surroundings. In fact, Oblivion is so immersive you might find it hard to shake off. You know you’ve been playing too long when you see a bright plant in the real world and consider picking it to make a potion with.

Character Creation

Character creation is Oblivion is more streamlined than Morrowind’s was, with fewer and broader options. For example, Long Blade and Short Blade have been merged together into a single Blade skill, and Medium Armor was cut out altogether. Still, there are enough options to ensure a very customizable character. I highly recommend creating your own class, as this allows you to choose your own major skills. The major skills determine when you level, and there are 7 instead of the 10 you had in Morrowind, so it’s important to pay attention to what you’re choosing. Oblivion rewards careful, thoughtful character design choices, and harshly punishes poor ones.

There are extra rewards, though. One really nice addition is the leveling bonuses. When you level skills up to 25, 50, 75, and 100 you receive special abilities, which enhance and improve the game in many ways. The combat abilities, for example, allow you to use special power attacks, which helps jazz up a combat system that is fairly simplistic (the ability to block attacks manually is another such addition).

Gameplay

Just as with Morrowind, Oblivion has a fairly steep learning curve. The most difficult part of the game is making it through the first fourth or so, and the mandatory ‘tutorial’ level doesn’t help much. Money is hard to come by at first, and the world seems so big it’s overwhelming. But if you stick it through those first few missions and join a guild or two, things will even out. It helps that the NPCs are easier to deal with—each person only has a few things to say. In Morrowind there was so much available information it was hard to tell what was most important and what was just filler. In Oblivion, those boundaries are much clearer.

In Morrowind, the first half of the game was too difficult and the second half was too easy. Bethesda tried to avoid this problem in Oblivion by leveling everything in the game. Nearly all the monsters and enemies you encounter have a level relative to your own, so the game gets harder as you get tougher. The loot you find improves as well. For the most part this was a good move, although it’s frustrating to complete quests in lower levels and know that if you had waited you’d have received a higher reward. It’s also pretty funny when at level 25 you encounter bandits wearing the most expensive armor in the game.

But does the leveling actually make the game harder? Some people seem to think so. On the Elder Scrolls wiki there are pages devoted to how to avoid leveling up to keep the game from becoming too hard. Perhaps because I paid close attention to what skills I leveled up and when, I didn’t have this problem. In fact I still thought the game was too easy near the end, though experimenting with the difficulty slider eliminated that problem. If you design your character intelligently and level up your skills on purpose, rather than letting it happen randomly, the game should not be too difficult.

(Concluded in Part 2)

Terry Brooks is one of the most prolific fantasy authors of our time, having written over 30 books (22 of which were New York Times Bestsellers). Suffice it to say he really knows his stuff. And while he isn’t one of my favorite fiction authors, his non-fiction book Sometimes the Magic Works is the best book on writing I’ve ever come across—and I’ve read a lot of them.

Sometimes the Magic Works is a little hard to define. It’s part autobiography, part writing advice, and part inspiration, and although that might seem like an odd combination it works perfectly. The first part of the book is devoted mainly to exploring those parts of Brooks’ life that made him into the writer he is: from early childhood to his first major publication, his disastrous second manuscript, and his first autograph signing.

There’s no ego here and no false modesty either, nor does he expect you to be interested in every little detail of his life story. He writes about those parts of his life that shaped him into a writer, and that taught him the lessons he needed to make it in this tough business. In a way it’s very individualized, but the stories he tells are incredibly valuable for anyone who wants to write. In what other book do you learn about the dangers of writing a movie novelization, or the true purpose of a book signing?

After he draws you in with his stories, however, Brooks really starts to make you think with some hardcore writing advice. He covers a lot of topics (how writers get ideas, characterization, beginnings and endings), some common and others not so much, but he spends the most time on something he is well aware many of his readers do not want to hear about—outlining. I owe an enormous debt to him for being the first person to make the value of advanced planning clear to me. So many experienced writers tell you they just sit down to write without thinking about it first, and maybe there are a special few who can do that. But for most of us, the kind of outlining Brooks describes can keep the writing process from being much more difficult than it needs to be. “Let me begin by repeating that you need to forget all about the kind of outlining you were taught in grammar and English classes as a kid,” he writes. “We don’t want that approach…We want organization, but not conformity or rigidity.” (p. 89)

Interspersed throughout the second half of the book are chapters less easy to place, but no less valuable. Granted, the chapter about writing the novelization for The Phantom Menace will be of most interest to fans of Star Wars (of which I am one). But the chapters “Lessons From Hunter” Part 1 and 2 are two of the book’s real gems, stories about what Brooks has learned from his five-year-old grandson. All writers, particularly those of us who write speculative fiction, could benefit from spending a little more time with children. After all, don’t they know better than anyone how to pretend? And isn’t that exactly what we do when we write?

In the end, all these various sections and focuses fit together masterfully. The cumulative effect feels something like sitting at the knee of a wise old master as he imparts to you the secrets of your trade—it’s thoughtful, practical, and inspirational all at the same time. I’ve read this book over and over, and each time I put it down with renewed focus and desire to write and write well. Sometimes the Magic Works is such a slim little book, but there’s so much to it you can’t take it all in on a first read. Young writers just starting out should read this book, and so should experienced writers who know they can still improve. Fantasy writers should definitely read it, but it should be just as valuable to any writer of long (and probably short) fiction.

Bottom Line: I call this book my “Writing Bible,” and my friends and family are sick of listening to me quote from it. It’s that good.

I read the book The City of Ember before seeing the movie, and for anyone who has yet to check out either I highly recommend experiencing them in that order. The book is brilliant, but a lot of it hinges on the gradual revelation of the purpose of the city Ember. The worst thing the movie did was reveal the overarching point of the story in the first five minutes. I can’t say too much without giving things away, but what is revealed at the beginning of the movie is not revealed in the book until the very end.

And this is what makes the book so special. It’s so unlike most recent fantasy adventures, which are written with the fast pacing and scene changes of the big screen. City of Ember is slow and gradual, a mystery you understand along with the characters. Experienced fantasy readers will get an inkling of what’s going on fairly early, but will still have the pleasure of little details along the way that make the city’s past more and more clear. The story has such a unique feel to it, as absorbing in its own way as a fast-paced thriller. It’s one of those books you finish with a quiet, reflective feeling that doesn’t go away for a while. Even if you’ve already seen the movie and know how things turn out, it’s still well worth the read.

Does that mean the movie isn’t worth watching? Not at all. In a way it’s very faithful to the book, but it’s a whole different experience. It’s faster and more succinct, and there are menacing creatures and roller-coaster moments added to keep younger audience members entertained. But it still has the heart of the original story. The city is beautifully realized in all its decaying glory, and the music and dim lighting adds just the right atmosphere. The characters are well played and, for a wonder, not terribly attractive. And while the story is condensed there are a lot of details worked into it. Ember is a radically different world from our own, but everything from the obese mayor to the ironic “Day of Singing” to the blasé Believers hold echoes of our everyday world.

There’s more I could say about the themes and plot elements, but most of it gives away too much. Everything really hinges on that crucial bit of history—where did Ember and its Builders come from? Trust me when I say you come away from this story, in either incarnation, with a lot more to think about than some people expect from a Young Adult book (a misconception I’ll probably devote a whole entry to in the near future). And City of Ember is only the first book; there are three sequels. I haven’t read them yet but I’m eager to. There is a lot of room left for new developments, and questions left unanswered by the first book. Most of all, you come to care for the main characters in the first book, and you want to know what happens to them next. Isn’t this what a good story should do?

Bottom line: The book is the better of the two, but both it and the movie are very well done. If you can, read the book first, but if you’ve already seen the movie read the book anyway.

Public perception of fantasy is a little better right now, with the explosive popularity of Harry Potter and similar books and movies. Still, those are considered largely for children, or as a pastime. ‘Serious’ movies and literature are still those that are realistic, as close to our experiences as possible. “Based on a true story” will make more money than “a story about wizards” any day.

I think this is too bad. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with realism—in fact we need those stories to better understand what goes on around us. But the truth is that we already know how things are. We already know what the real world is like, and most of us aren’t too fond of it. When I read a book, it’s rare that I read something about our world because there’s little such a book can show me that’s new. I want to read about possibilities, about what could be or might be or even what seems impossible.

Why?

Because that’s how we make progress and move forward as people and as societies. No one ever invented a revolutionary device or discovered a new property of science or founded a new country by just thinking about how things are. You imagine what’s possible, and when you like what you see in that imaginary world you go out and try to make the real one as close to your dream as possible.

So, how is fantasy going to improve our real-life situations? Isn’t it too exaggerated, too unrealistic? How can we apply reading about magic and dragons to the real world? For one, just being exposed to new ideas of any kind broadens your mind, gets you to make new connections. That’s sound neurological science—the more new ideas, the more little pathways your brain creates for information to flow through. More importantly, though, not all fantasy is as out-there as you might think. Some of it is almost realistic, with one little detail about the world we know added or changed.

And the books about wizards and dragons? Take a closer look and the good ones are always about a lot of other things too. They’re about relationships, politics, science, psychology, and philosophy. They explore questions in unique ways because they don’t confine themselves to the world we know too well. This world is our box, and fantasy is our way of getting outside it. There are so many applications and possibilities here, from large scale to personal levels. Fantasies that create many different societies allow us to play with different political possibilities, and maybe stumble on a system better than our own. In Lord of the Rings, we can look at Aragorn and say “That is the kind of leader I want running my country” and this can affect who we choose to support.

On a personal level, fantasy explores many themes we don’t get from other places. In a world where dysfunctional relationships are almost celebrated, fantasy movies and novels often portray very strong friendships, relationships, and groups. Those relationships are so strong partly because they are formed under conditions of great stress, but also because the characters are worthy of them. Those are the characters we want to emulate, not the run-down celebrities we see in our own world. Fantasy teaches us about coming-of-age, about responsibility, and about power. The way a wizard carefully practices his art for the good of others can teach us a ton about how to use our own gifts wisely and responsibly.

And the best thing is that these lessons come packaged in great stories, exciting ones with characters and events that grab our attention. They aren’t ‘message books.’ Remember those, the one you read in school all the time? Most people don’t learn much from them because they don’t care enough, aren’t interested enough. The best fantasy books, and I should add the best science fiction books as well, are not ‘message books.’ They are great stories that happen to teach us a few things along the way, the way we learn through our own experiences.

I love fantasy because its fun, because its exciting and because I would love to be able to shoot fire from my fingertips. I love fantasy video games because they allow me to do just that. But most of all, I love fantasy because it inspires me to live more fully, to be a better person and to think outside what we believe is possible. And, of course, it inspires me to write, whether it’s another fantasy story or a love letter in the form of a blog entry