Apparently the name of one of the most famous RPG series of all time was a last-minute band-aid: 'I don't think he knew what it meant any more than we did'

Here at PCG towers we've recently been unearthing a bunch of classic interview material from our publishing company Future's decades-long history in print media. Earlier today I wrote about a 2014 interview in which the design lead on the first Elder Scrolls fondly recalled the days when Bethesda would finish a game, then the team would "assemble boxes, inserts and use the heat gun" to get it shipped.

This led me down a rabbit hole towards an even older interview with designer and Daggerfall lead Ted Peterson, conducted with GameSpy in 2001, in which he answers a question I'd never thought to ask—why's it called The Elder Scrolls: Arena anyway?

"I was one of two designers on it, the other being Vijay Lakshman, who along with Julian LeFay really spearheaded the initial development of...