I'm sure at this point you're going "Huh?" or "What a strange question!", but let me clarify.....

One of the most common complaints of long time fans of the series was that Oblivion was too bland. Many have compared it to a Tamriel version of Middle Earth or even a generic high fantasy game. In fact even people who began the series with Oblivion (such as myself) but have played all the other games as well see the validity in such an argument. After the political complexity of Daggerfall and Morrowind it seems that Cyrodiil missed out on having similar depth to it's game world.

Take the Pocket Guide to the Empire for instance, which speaks of a far more interesting Cyrodiil with it more varied substropical invironment and interesting peoples. The Imperials are so generic in Oblivion compared to what is read about in the PGE such as evident here: http://theskyrimblog.ning.com/group/lore/forum/topics/the-imperial-divide-colovian-and-nibenese.

Now back to the original question. When I say "Did Oblivion take place in the wrong setting? I'm not basing that around the main quest but the direction Bethesda chose when creating this game. As I stated before, Cyrodiil is supposed to be a far different place than it's portrayed in-game. Most likely in an attempt to cater to an even larger audience than Morrowind, Bethesda decided to make Cyrodiil into a Tolkien landscape and created some last minute lore to cover that decision.

Now as to what I believe the proper location to be? High Rock. I know that just two main games before Oblivion we had Daggerfall which pretty much took place in High Rock so that seems rather redundant. If one looks at the fact that Daggerfall was not only released back when TES had a small following (so it would be new to most) and the landscapes and randomly generated design along with dated graphic actually left more to interpretation than anything. Also considering that in terms of Elder Scrolls lore High Rock is the perfect place to attempt a Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter feel then naturally it would be the the better suited province for the direction Bethesda has gone with Oblivion.

Agree or disagree? I'd like to hear other's takes on this inherent flaw with Oblivion's design.

I would not say it was an inherent flaw in Oblivion's design. You hit the nail on the head yourself. Bethesda went with a generic "Merry Olde England" approach to make it more accessible to a wider audience than Morrowind. As much as some people loved Morrowind's alien atmosphere, there are many who play the game and give up after a short while precisely because it feels so strange to them. The same is true of the Shivering Isles. Some people love it because of it's alien landscapes (which are really the same as Morrowind's), and same cannot play it for the same reason. I have seen numerous people say that on these forums. So Bethesda wanted a setting that people could more easily relate to. The end result was a game that sold more copies and made more money for them than Morrowind did. It is not the avante garde approach, but it was a very successful one. So I cannot say that they made a mistake.

Sign me up with the Merry Olde England crowd. I love the beauty of Oblivion. If it looked all foggy with giant mushroom houses I would have sought another game. I'm a fan of Oblivion but not necessarily TES.

That said, if Mehrunes Dagon is going to strike at the very heart of the Empire to bring it down, why would he consider anywhere but the seat of its power: The Imperial City in Cyrodiil (you know, where the Emperor hangs out with his fancy gate-stopping bling).

It wouldn't make sense to have Oblivion set anywhere else. The game portrays a catastrophic event that threatens the entire continent, and ultimately leads to the fall of an Empire. It wouldn't make sense for this to happen anywhere other than the seat of Imperial Power - the Imperial Province.

As for the 'land is too bland' idea ... I honestly don't agree. Perhaps it's not the same as in lore, but Cyrodiil has varying environments - the swamps of Blackwood, the Gold Coast's plains, the Great Forest, Jerall Mountains and county Cheydinhal. I don't understand this obsession with 'everything needs to be wacky and alien'. After the alien landscape of Morrowind, and the unusual landscape of the Shivering Isles to come, it was probably best to have a more subdued landscape.

At the end of the day, I enjoy a stroll through Cyrodiil more than a stroll through Morrowind or Skyrim. The peaceful, warm and stunning environment is an absolute joy to play in.

This. After the glamour of Skyrim, I find myself drawn more to Oblivion due to the rolling grassy plains and the green forests. Skyrim has no decent forests, apart from the ones around Riften and they are realllyy tiny.

I too am a fan of Oblivion's bucolic scenery. Morrowind's exoticness was nice for the short-term, but it's not a place I'd wanna call home for any length of time. Daggerfall is the only TES game created at the proper scale. All later entires fail by comparison...but the graphic quality (or lack thereof) and general barrenness of the 'wilderness' largely negate the otherwise overwhelming advantage of a huge landmass. Would you really want to walk or ride in real-time from one end of Daggerfall's game-world to the other? Skyrim has the advantage of more sophisticated vanilla graphics...but for me thus far doesn't feel as 'welcoming' as Cyrodiil.

All this talk about where Oblivion should or should not have occurred reminds me of something I've thought on for some time...the awkwardness of "Oblivion" as a title. Think about my opening sentence: "I too am a fan of Oblivion's bucolic scenery". Oblivion most definitely did not have bucolic scenery. It was Cyrodiil at the time of the Crisis that had bucolic scenery. Those who point out that Oblivion in these instances refers to the game's title rather than its Tamrielic locale are or course correct. But you have to admit that it can lead to some unintentionally humorous statements. I sometimes wonder if the game might be better thought of as "Cyrodiil in Crisis", but that's not quite right either. While the Crisis as reflected in the game was centered on Cyrodiil and the Empire, its consequences, had things gone the other way, would have affected the whole of Tamriel and indeed Nirn.

It is neither Middle Earth or a "generic high fantasy game". Cyrodiil is Cyrodiil. What some consider "bland", I consider very rich. Colorful, and vibrant. The only thing I'd change is I would add more wildlife. Birds. Rabbits. Flesh out the environment a bit more, basically. Other than that, it's fine.



This again. It has been explained in lore. Cyrodiil was a sub-tropical environment, and at some point (I forget what happened exactly) it switched to a more deciduous zone with a temperate climate. It's been explained, basically. Next.



TOLKIEN? Sorry.



Disagree. I'm not seeing any "flaws" in my game. svcks to be you, OP.

I didn't think Oblivion was bland. It's not exotic like Morrowind, but that doesn't mean it's automatically the polar opposite in Blandsville. It is kinda Tolkienesque but I don't have a problem with that.

I live in England, and most of Cyrodiil looks nothing like it. There are some grasslands near the IC that do, kind of. Some of the medieval style Imperial buildings are similar to what you'd expect in Merrie Olde Englande but that's to be expected, and they looked like that in Morrowind anyway. Randomly, the Imperial City reminds me of Bath a little. That's it.

This. I played MW, and then immediately followed it with Oblivion (started both a year or so after OB was released). I didn't have any problem with Oblivion being in a "generic" fantasy setting.... of course, I also don't read up on lore about the world, so I've no idea what the other places are like. (I've no preference for where the next game is, for instance - wherever it is, will be interesting. Just like MW, OB, and SK were.)

Looking at Cyrodiil's location on the continent, its landscape makes sense.

It would be very strange for the majority of it to be rainforest or whatever the hell the old lore said.

Poor OP. Lance Avion probably doesn't realize he's in the wrong forum.

Try the Elder Scrolls forum, OP. You'll get a lot more sympathy and empathy there, from folks who would agree with you. We're all fans of Oblivion, here.

Oh, and what part of Maryland are you from?

I may be in the minority here but I don't consider the Pocket Guide to the Empire to be 100% reliable. I consider the authors of the PGE to be potentially http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreliable_narrator. The PGE is not a book Bethesda wrote about its own games. It is a book written by fictional characters living in a fictional world. As such, I take anything in it with a grain of salt.

But beyond that, I'm glad Bethesda did not follow the description of Cyrodiil given in the PGE. That's right: I'm glad they changed lore! There, I said it. I'm glad they turned Cyrodiil into deciduous forest and rolling, grassy hills. I hate jungles and I would have hated Cyrodiil if it had been a jungle in Oblivion.