Oddly, Bethesda issued a tweet on the occasion of The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall’s 29th birthday! A certified classic in the RPG genre is growing older by the day while a few of its players play Starfield today. The reaction? Well, it ranged the full gamut crazy-not-for-just-any-one-things Bethesda does lately.
Now moving on to their actual wishes. There certainly still seem to be some gamers out there who are fond of this old-school title. One player called it his “all-time favorite game,” and he carried on about this giant map where you just lose track of time on horseback with the epic melodies and all those medieval-fantasy life sim features like borrowing money, spell creation, and vampirism. He just outright said that the freedom in Daggerfall should make all the new games look ridiculous; honestly, I agree: really, if you think about the way some RPGs have been streamlined.
Vortigen Gamer threw out a simple: “My 1st TES game. Ah, the memories,” which really hits a different perspective considering how many people truly started their whole franchise back in those days with Daggerfall. Sam Thrower then said, “Wereboar for the win!” accompanied by a good image to remind people of certain classes we remember even after all this time.
But here comes the mess-and you knew it was coming with Bethesda. Several of the replies aren’t even about Daggerfall. They’re in reference to some other sooner-than-later post, one purportedly made by Bethesda and then deleted? A litany of users, including duxzenji, say things like: “Not buying anything from your company after you refuse to acknowledge that distasteful post.” Triggered Boomer even asks quite plainly, “Do you condone assassinations? @Microsoft,” which is like, what?
A truly odd thread ensues, with conversations about “Charlie’s killers” and one user stating, “Your studio stands with Charlie’s killers,” which is, um, concerning to say the least. ScreamerRSA states, “Unfortunately those devs are long gone. Replaced by useless activists that celebrate murder,” which reads as though they’re referencing some present-day political issue rather than actual game developers who worked on Daggerfall back in the 90s.
Some requests for gaming experiences actually have some weight to them, such as a remake or remaster, as Speed God suggested, “A remake for the 30th anniversary would be dope,” while TJ Sorinake just said, “Remake this jewel.” Carnivol was looking for a console port with an eyes emoji, therefore she must be aware it’s a long shot but would nevertheless like to put pressure on it.
Downtown mentions that for those wanting the modernized version, Daggerfall Unity exists, with GazinTrandoshan pointing out, “There’s daggerfall unity and a few packages you can get that are easy to put together,” then warning, “It’s a tough game though to get into if you never played.” Can’t really dispute that one-old school RPGs don’t hold your hand at all.
Then there are answers like AudioGoddz requesting “Skyrim on PSVR2 please” because, of course, another Skyrim port request had to be initiated by now. Jack Touchdown said that Daggerfall and Starfield are two of his favorite Bethesda RPGs, which is… peculiar, for sure.
Anybody would never have guessed that such a simple birthday tweet for a 29-year-old game would evolve into a strange bouillabaisse of political accusations, remake demands, and nostalgia. Every single time Bethesda attempts community engagement seems to follow an almost identical pattern- a brief moment of celebrations followed by complete chaos. But hey, at least the people still remember Daggerfall all these years later, even if some have decided to use its birthday as a launch pad for another old-fashioned vent.
The game in question actually became freeware now, as JagerDanger pointed out to someone complaining, “Fortunately the game has been FreeWare for years,” so if they are so angry with whatever deleted post, big whatever that was, then they can just go and download and play it without having to shell out any money to Bethesda.
Anyway, happy birthday Daggerfall – still remembered 29 years after its conception, albeit somewhat messily during the celebration. Perhaps for its 30th, there will be an actual remake, as much as people are clamoring for it. However, with Bethesda up to their ears in patches for Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6 even further away, I practically have to hold my breath. But hey, a gamer can dream!
