One of the most delightful elements of a good open-world RPG is the way you can bend and sometimes break systems to your will, giving you the freedom to approach and think about obstacles independently from the intended design. The Elder Scrolls games have been masterclasses in emergent gameplay for decades, as evidenced by a fun new anecdote from Bethesda Game Studios veteran and The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered art lead Dan Lee, who joined the studio shortly after OG Oblivion's announcement way back when.
Talking to Nintendo Life, Lee shares one of his early memories from working on Oblivion as a play tester. Testing persistent AI behavior, Lee chose to use an NPC's hunger mechanic against him instead of tackling the quest head-on as scripted in the linear path.