Oooh! This has gone far enough off topic for me to safely vent my feelings about Skyrim and actually get intelligent feedback and counter arguments!

Here it goes.

First thing that comes to mind has already been mentioned; its a player focused game, where my skills often take priority over my character's skills. I don't exactly hate this, but it just feels very....wrong. I really don't think combat was as boring in Morrowind as people say it is. Sure, its no hack n' slash, but it doesn't need to be. Hell, I still find Daggerfall's combat fun. A few tweaks to Morrowind's combat like positioning, locational damage, greater elemental damage variation, the ability to use the environment to your advantage, and improved physics would be much better than Skyrim's system, in my opinion.

Secondly, and probably the most common complaint, is the quests. Morrowind's were not better. In fact, they were usually worse. Oblivion's were better. They took a step back in this area. Guild Quests are the worst offender. The Thieve's Guild aside, the questlines are short, terribly paced, and just all around lackluster.

Another big thing is aesthetics. TES games rely heavily on aesthetics. This is something completely subjective, and thus I can't provide an argument for it. I don't like the Nordic themes, even if it does fit lore.

Then there are all the things that were cut, i.e. a [censored]-ton of spells, mysticism, acrobatics, and athletics. Acrobatics and Athletics could have just been merged, and I see no reason for getting rid of mysticism. They didn't even give an in-game explanation for it.

Must....resist... temptation...to write.....ship...

You know what you must do.

Then I must ship Haute with Lady N!

IT SHALL BE GLORIOUS.

Lady N is already dating MK. You violate canon. I sentence you to atmospheric immolation.

Intrigue! So much the better!

Haute could reach heaven by violence.

By unleashing his Muatra and piercing the second aperture.

I don't think they could ever come out and say 'this is a hero you played from a previous game', that would ruin the 'make your own character' ideal.

However, I personally, feel that Jauffre is the Eternal Champion from the first game, but that just my opinions. This is why:
- Very close to the emporer, knows his sercets and at the top of the Blades order.
- Very strong warrior despite older in years.
- Older in years, as the event so Arena happened 40 years earlier (plus the ten years for the events of Arena). If he started in his 20's it puts him at the right age.
- The eternal champion (if he was alive) would be involved deeply in the oblivion crisis.

Of course that is all just what I think. There is no actual proof.

Yeah, I suppose if your character wasn't in 'Arena' it would be a rather safe RP assumption, even if its not official.