So, first things first.... I need to tell all the plots so everyone knows what they are voting for..

Arena Plot - Arena is the first game in the Elder Scrolls series. Emperor Uriel Septim VII is betrayed by Imperial Battlemage Jagar Tharn and imprisoned in another realm. You alone are left to travel the vast continent of Tamriel in search of the legendary Staff of Chaos that will allow you to rescue the true Emperor and restore peace to the Empire.

Daggerfall - Daggerfall, the second game in the Elder Scrolls series, takes place in the provinces of Hammerfell and High Rock. The Emperor recruits you to exorcise the walking spirit of the late King of Daggerfall, but soon the story unfolds to something far greater than avenging the death of a noble...

Morrowind - A rising-in-power demi-god is seeking to take control of Vvardenfell, and when it seems all hope is lost... You, the Nerevarine is discovered, travelling across the province in pursuit of stopping the dreaded blight, becoming the Nerevarine and defeated the dreaded Dagoth Ur.

Oblivion - Oblivion, the fourth game in the Elder Scrolls series, is set within the province of Cyrodiil, the heartland and Imperial capital of Tamriel. Emperor Uriel Septim VII is assassinated in flight from his own palace, but just before he dies he passes to you - the foreordained of his dreams - the mystic Amulet of Kings. The adventure begins with the quest to find Uriel's lost and illegitimate son, the only heir to the throne. In a world where the forces of darkness seek their ultimate dominion over the ranks of man and mer alike, you alone stand between the future of Tamriel and the gates of Oblivion.

All but Morrowind was taken straight from Uesp.net because morrowind's page doesnt say anything like that...

What did you vote for? Why?
I picked Oblivion just because the plot seemed so "big" to me.

I like Morrowind's the best.

Morrowind's plot for me. There is no TES game with a plot "bigger" than Morrowind's. Oblivion's plot is just small compared to it. It's so predictable and cliche it's just not fun to me. I played Oblivion's MQ one and a half times, second time, I was just fed up with the nonsense and started doing guild quest.
Morrowind? 8 years into it, probably 10 times completed, and I still find it gritty and entertaining.

You should try Daggerfall's.
Like Morrowind, it starts small, you don't really know what will be the outcome of your actions and when the story unfolds, you see that your character has a lot of trouble in his hands.

My favourite goes for Daggerfall, then. I love the stories of treacheries, rivalries in the kingdoms, having to pick sides and, most of all, you are not "the one". You are simply one of Uriel's "friend" who gave you a task, without telling you what he was actually after.

Arena's story was not deep enough. It was an average storyline. The Emperor has been captured by his evil Battlemage, collect 8 pieces of an item, beat the Battlemage and save the Emperor. It felt like a child's tale.

Morrowind, I like as well, but the very cliché base story does annoy me. But at least, compared to Oblivon's even more clichéd storyline, Morrowind had all that tremendious amount of lore and culture wrapped around the story. Which truly helped. And not to forget the large amount of main quest-related NPCs who had a lot to say, and had different point of views of what was going on.

Oblivion is my least favourite. It plays like an Hollywood B Movie. The Emperor is dead, the daedras open portals to Tamriel and you are the only one standing between the victory or defeat of the Empire. So go kick the daedras' asses and save the day. The characters didn't tell enough. I wished I spoke more with the NPCs involved in the Main Quest. If only some politics like in Daggerfall or Morrowind instead of all-out action could have been mixed, it would have been much more interesting.

Daggerfall's plot was so much better than all the others. Nothing like constant political backstabbing fought amongst morally gray rulers for a giant robot of doom!

I liked the grey moral in Morrowind, I haven't done much of daggerfalls main quest, so I can't comment, but I liked that you weren't the special one in Oblivion, Morrowind wins with depth though.

Very nearly a tie between Morrowind and Oblivion, with Morrowind being given the edge. Both games have a nearly identical story when it's boiled down to the essentials-- "You are the Chosen One, realize your destiny and defeat the Bad Thing." There's sort of an illusion of moral ambiguity in Morrowind, but it doesn't really affect anything. No matter what you think of Vivec or Dagoth Ur, Vivec is still your ally, and Dagoth Ur is still the Big Bad that you have to destroy. However, Morrowind's story is wrapped up in far more interesting characters and locales, so I'm going to go with that.

EDIT: @Daydark- That was actually my favorite part of Oblivion's story as well, and I sometimes think Bethesda doesn't get enough credit for it.

I've played it.

I prefer Morrowind's main quest. Though, the only other I have experience enough to compare it to is Oblivion's -- I'm still working on Daggerfall (though from what I've completed of it, I like it better than Oblivion's as well).

I really think you guys are judging the poll based off of something I didnt intend..

Forget everything you every thought about the gameplay. Dont even let the image of Morrowind or Daggerfall into your head. Just, think about the plot. Not where you stood in it.

In example...

Morrowind - Blight Plague, Dagoth Ur, such...

Oblivion - Oblivion Crisis, Mehrunes Dagon

And it seems to be a repeating occurence in the TES Storyline that you alone beat a powerful force..
Hence my signature.

The blight plague and Dagoth Ur are just the surface of Morrowind's plot.

The real story is all the different factions and the role they play in the crisis and how all their stories come together to influence the PC's eventual victory.

I couldn't decide between Morrowind and Daggerfall. They're both very much about political strife and conspiracy. I really like Morrowind, but I can't decide until I've gotten through all of Daggerfall, which does get better every quest.

It was really only like that in Morrowind and Arena. Not sure about Daggerfall, never beat it. But in Oblivion, you didn't save Tamriel. Martin did. You were just his errand boy who closed some gates and got some artifacts, which anybody could have been sent to do. Granted, you did deliver the amulet, but that's something that anyone could have done. Uriel could have just as easily sent Baurus or another blades member to Jauffre.

My favorite plot is that of Daggerfall. Pretty much what Cliffworms and Hellmouth said about it.

My second favorite would be Morrowind follow by Shivering Isle.


There isn't a "powerful force" per say.

@Nextmastermind

Ehh, I see in a much weirdier (and bad) way. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K5rGUBUnnQ

I still think that the CoC was an errand boy that anybody could have done. Sure no one in Cyrodiil was able to close a gate, but are you telling me that they'd never figure it out? I find that unlikely. And Baurus or someone else could have easily given the amulet to Jauffre, and found Martin in Kvatch. Baurus might have been able to close the gate, or he might not have. Or he could have been fast enough to get there before the attack, or have gotten there after someone closed the gate. And another blades member could have infiltrated the Mythic Dawn, went into paradise and so on. In fact, why would it have to be one person? One person could go close some gates and spread the word. One or a few blades could deal with the whole amulet thing (delivering it, recovering it, etc) and some others could have gone and gotten artifacts, etc. But if it was a blades member delivering the amulet, Jauffre might have let him keep the amulet, go get Martin, and do the Dragonfire ritual.

I did just that, and my choice still remains the same.

Yeah, the plot of Daggerfall is a lot more intreging than "Save the world from ultimate doom" which is both Morrowind and Oblivion, with the big difference being one wants to keep the world (mostly) intact, and the other wants it completely annihilated.

You are a friend of the emperor sent to originally stop a ghost from haunting Daggerfall. From there, it unfolds to be MUCH more than just a simple exorcism. The Agent of Septim is thrust into a major political situation where many political powers are competing for a giant robot of doom to use in other to pacify and dominate the other nation states (Orsinium, Daggerfall, Wayrest, etc), become a god (Mannimarco), or become whole again (The Underking). The mission isn't a run of the mill save the world scenario, it's a mission to get a bunch of city states to stop their bickering.

Nah, in Daggerfall you don't beat any powerful force. Nothing like that.


Most of that is what I would try to forget about Morrowinds plot, the player went around begging these factions to allow him to defeat their mutual enemy, and they made him run errands for the privilege of saving their lazy hides. The errands weren't very good either. You shouldn't have to bribe people for them to let you walk up a volcano, hack and slash to get two mythical weapons, and defeat an elflord by yourself. It was all meaningless padding in that section.

@Qawsed Asap If that's really how you see Oblivion's story, then I'm sorry. You missed out on a great game.



Of course, but there's a lot of RPGs where anyone could have saved the world. If not Commander Shepard, some other highly decorated Alliance marine would have eventually been chosen for the Spectres. If not Divayth Fyr at the Imperial Battlespire, eventually someone else would have come along who could have defeated Mehrunes Dagon. It's not the player's origins, it's his actions that make the difference. Your character became a hero because he was the first to successfully close an Oblivion Gate. He, alone, did the work of an entire order of elite warriors (the Blades). Because you're right, if they worked together, maybe they could have mustered up enough redshirts to eventually squash the Oblivion threat. But they didn't need to, because your character was marked by destiny (something that Uriel Septim saw, and Martin as well) to do so. There's a lot of "maybes." Just like maybe if the Nerevarine Prophesy hadn't come true when it had, the great houses could have mustered up a warrior or a mage to match Dagoth Ur to be named Hortator and lead their combined forces against Red Mountain. One or a few house Redoran elites could have taken back the tools and overwhelmed Dagoth Ur by sheer force of numbers. But that didn't happen, because a person appeared who was, again, marked by destiny to do what needed to be done. There were plenty of racially-pure Dunmer who had spent their entire lives training in the service of the Temple who could have, in time, united the people of Morrowind without relying on the name of a dead hero. So really, the Nerevarine's not any better.

All I was saying is that in the end it was Martin who saved the day. Sure, the CoC helped, but if it wasn't for Martin our actions would have been useless.

Actually you could say that if the player had gone into the paradise when he first met Mankar (sprinted in), they could have cut the main quest in half with no danger of Dagon. Hindsight is 20/20 though.

Honestly, that was my favorite part of Oblivion's quest, that at the end of it, I was just "that guy who knew Martin." I knew the truth, that without my efforts none of it would have been possible, but the people didn't and I had to swallow my ego and accept that this once, I wasn't going to be the hero who went down in legend. I understand that it's kind of a polarizing design choice, though, in that you either love it or hate it. I guess we should just agree to disagree

No, I actually do like how in Oblivion we aren't the hero. I was just pointing out that we aren't the hero.

I get the story. They execute the whole main quest in a very a crappy, crappy way ingame.


It wasn't Divayth Fyr at all. He just a weapon collector.


At least the guards of Kvatch did something afterward; the Blade should have been more involved ingame rather than just sit around, drinking beer and sleep. Even if "mark'd" by destiny, it does not give an excuse that the CoC have to do everything. They could at least have the Blade fetch one component while the CoC fetch the other.


Except the situation wasn't as threaten as the Oblivion Crisis. The Nerevarine Prophesy was a bit too vague to a point that Ashlander Wise Woman accept some revision to make it that the stranger is the "chosen one". The Houses have their own problem to settle; Vivec rather prefer that the Devil of the Red Mountain did not exist to a point he would not send troop to try and do the deed of the Nerevarine (not to mention seeing the player as a bad guy up to the point of meeting him, if I recall back from my memories). The Nerevarine wasn't really mark by destiny; either he was puppeted by Azura or its all for lulz from the player's perspective (and creating his/her own destiny).