I don't know what I aim to achieve here, but I thought that I had to say something, however unpopular my thoughts will be.

I didn't like Morrowind.

The "feel" of the setting, the art direction, the architecture, the people, I lump these into one sentence because they gave me one feeling. They all made me feel completely, utterly turned off. I understand that it was the developers intention to make you feel like a foreigner, and they certainly achieved that, a little too well, perhaps? It was more like complete isolation, more like an alien from a different planet, rather than a different country. Everything was so radically different from my own world to the point that it was impossible for me to relate with. Why should I bother with these people (orcs, elves, cats, lizards, whatever) and their problems? I just couldn't bring myself to care.

At first I thought that I felt disconnected because I was playing it on the computer. I have never understood how people can play anything other than strategy games or point-click-adventures (Monkey Island, whoop whoop!) on the computer. I guess it's because I just grew up with a controller in my hands (Super Mario World on the SNES, whoop whoop!), but even after trying out Morrowind on the Xbox, I still got that feeling of "This is weird, and I don't like it."

For me, the weapons, leveling system, and combat in general was pretty much the same from Morrowind to Oblivion. I don't play games for their combat anyways, strange as that may seem. If anything it seemed like the options were tighter and better fleshed out. Admittedly, things were lost (spears OMG let's have a cow), and some streamlining didn't make much sense (blunt axes), but I think that by getting rid of a few things, the stuff that was left was of a higher quality. Like I said though, not a big deal for me, and I don't give things like that much attention in games.

Then I tried Oblivion. Never have I sunk so much time into a game. Hundreds of hours lost, and this was without all you people and your fancy "mods" that you're all so fond of. Never have I felt so free in a game! So much to do, so much to interact with! Break into shops at night, svck blood, drop wall ornaments onto unsuspecting heads! Oblivion made me want to delve into the lore, which can be incredibly confusing and daunting, but I loved it! I felt life in Oblivion, something I never got from Morrowind.

Others have spoken about Morrowind having that certain "it" factor that Oblivion doesn't have. For me, it is the other way around.

Does anyone out there feel the same? Anyone at all? Does anyone else like where the series was in Oblivion, and where it's going now?

I sort of have a similar feeling to you, though for entirely different reasons. I love the world of Morrowind.

I suppose it depends what you're looking for in a game. Personally I found Oblivions depiction of Cyrodiil way too generic. I'm not a big fan of what has come to be known as the "standard fantasy setting" anyway. It's something I've seen so many times before and I was disappointed that Oblivion didn't really do justice to the province.

Oblivion is a great game, but instead of constructing an interesting province I felt like we got a Nirn version of Epcot.

YES! I hear people say Morrowind was a world to live in, where Oblivion was just a game. Well to me it's the other way round. I used to think it was first game nostalgia that did it but i think it's purely personal preference. If it wasn't for Oblivion i would never be into this series so much.

I've lived in them both. Thank goodness I'm adaptable enough in my preferences to enjoy both. each had things they did poorly and each had things they did excellently. The excellent things pulled me in more than the poor things pulled me out ( or they were modded out sometimes I almost forget how bad some vanilla aspects of both were LOL)

In Oblivion you had much to DO, but in Morrowind there was a lot more to LEARN.. About the world, or those "catz and lizards", for example.

As a general difference in emphasis I'll give you that's true but I did lots of really fun things in Morrowind and learned lots of cool secrets and lore stuff in Oblivion.

I guess one of my biggest objections is when the complaint is " its all the same "when its just not. On the other hand we all do this to some degree. Most "deep and meaningful" dramas seem cliche' and formulaic to me but I realize its I'm just not interested enough to notice the sublties. Oblivion was way more standard fantasy and many on these forum just find that boring.

Nope, cant say I felt that at all. If Oblivion made you want to delve into lore then you would have seen a HUGE reason why alot of us Lore-heads didn't like Oblivion, because its 100% different than what was presented in Lore. Oblivion was lacking in lore, where as Morrowind was filled to the brim with it. As it is, its always going to be a personal taste. Oblivion did it for some, while Morrowind did it for others, you don't HAVE to love Morrowind, it was just eons above Oblivion to me.

The games each had a direction, a focus, and a "look", and they definitely appealed to different senses of taste.

While some players "breathe" generic fantasy, I find it boring. While some focus on combat, others on exploring, and still others on solving "dilemmas", I enjoyed the sense of having my character find a place in the scheme of things, and eventually excel at it; I found Morrowind's game mechanics ideal for struggling to "build" a character over time, where Oblivion seemed to just hand you everything and then adjust the entire world to match, making any "progress" irrelevant.

Sadly in my eyes, we're about to go from one "generic fantasy" combat-oriented world to another (where was all of the "intrigue" and "politics" in Cyrodiil?). I had hoped for a venture into Summerset Isles, Valenwood, Elsweyr, or even the dark swamps of Argonia, but it's going to be Skyrim, another "mundane" setting. One "generic action" game I can deal with, but two in a row makes it tough to keep an interest in the series.

Obviously, opinions will vary from one player to another, and the OP won't understand my sentiments, just as I can't relate to his.

It's nice to know there's at least one person out there that feels the same! :foodndrink:

I see that many people complain Oblivion was a "generic" take on the fantasy setting. See, I didn't get that, although admittedly I haven't spent much time in any kind of fantasy setting before, and most of what I've seen has been of the Tolkien variety. In comparison, they seemed different enough to me.

Have you read Cyrodiils lore? you'd see just how generic it is compared to what it was supposed to be.

I think I can relate to what the OP is saying, even though Morrowind is my favourite game.

Being alien, being an outsider, is a huge theme in Morrowind.

Oblivion is almost the opposite... you are quickly given a very important role and a vital task to complete. You quickly gain friends and enemies, places to call home and places to avoid, and those roles are fairly stable and uncomplicated throughout.

I think this is why people tend to have strong feelings about Morrowind vs. Oblivion. With respect to game mechanics etc. they are similar, but the game design philosophy, especially with respect to how the player gets info, is very different. Morrowind isn't really a welcoming game, Oblivion is.

There's quite a lot of ambiguity in Morrowind, on all levels (from the sometimes vague directions to the motivations of the main factions). Oblivion tried something different, and I can definitely understand why some may prefer that route.

Yes Oblivion was very generic. Skyrim is generic in certain ways, but compared to Oblivion, Skyrim is not generic whatsoever. Todd even said that with Skyrim they wanted to go back to how they presented the world like they did Morrowind, and I'm all for that. Skyrim also has a unique twist on your regular fantasy, it has viking influences, ancient japanese influences, so calling Skyrim generic is flawed.

There were many people, even at launch, that didn't like the bizarre landscapes of Morrowind. For me it hit the perfect balance of familiar looking locations (Ebonheart, Pelagiad, Caldera) and the strange (Ashlands, Skar, Telvanni cities) but there are other settings that are too weird for my tastes so I understand.

I enjoyed TES IV but the setting never caught my attention. Hopefully Skyrim will find a middle ground between TES III and TES IV so fans of both enjoy it.

Some people don't really "see" or at least get bothered by generic settings, because they get that title by being the most common and popular representation. Obviously, that status requires that most people prefer it. Of course, no one feature is preferred by everyone, and it's an unfortunate side-effect of business that the minority gets ignored and/or screwed over because they're not as profitable to target. The unique vs generic arguments between the games get exaggerated, I think, because the minority market is always starving for something that's actually targeted at them. They get drawn in by Morrowind, and then Oblivion immediately goes back in the other direction and they all start throwing stuff.

I thought that Oblivion was WAY better than Morrowind!

I didn't dislike Morrowind, but I wouldn't want to go back to it after having played a game that is so much better than it!!

EDIT: I like uniqueness. But Oblivion was still a better game.

I feel the same. I can understand why some people prefer it to Oblivion, Morrowind certainly has something magical. The atmosphere is so thick you can cut it with a knife. After being out on a long and difficult dungeon quest, finally returning hurt and tired to Balmora, and hearing that lonesome and eerie cry of the stilt strider as you walk over the bridge to Balmora - absolutely nothing can compare to that, in my opinion. It's simply magic.

But I can only play Morrowind in small bursts, because it's too alien for me. Too barren and gloomy. When I get into a fantasy game, especially an open-world type like TES, I do it because I want to immerse myself into a great world that I would love to live in. I would never want to live in Morrowind. Cyrodiil, on the other hand, is my kind of place. To me, it isn't generic, it's lush, colourful, rich, and familiar enough so that I can truly relate to it and want to live there. Morrowind is a great game, in some aspects better than Oblivion, but the setting is not for me.

Thats probably what they were going for when they created Oblivion, something unique people can relate to, but I can't say I agree with it since Cyrodiil was sooo much more interesting before Oblivion.

I kind of feel like the more jaded you are, the more likely you are to appreciate MW over OB. I don't mean that perjoratively either way. Just that those who tend to prefer MW (which, by the way, includes me) tend to be the ones who are sick of hacking and slashing orcs and goblins in Middle Earth. Like all those people who start banging on about Planescape: Torment every time you mention Dragon Age

I liked MW because it was fully fleshed out, had atmosphere etc.
I don't dislike the familiar in games. One of my favourite PnP games is Pendragon which is Arthurian and is full of familiar stuff but it isn't generic, its very specific and it uses the familiar to create a specific setting. Oblivion just felt bland to me.

Yeah, I do too, but I still like Morrowind, I play it, just if I play it for too long at one time, I get tired and very apathical.

They should just make oblivion 2. Then I'd be happy

Each to their own really. For me, it was that very alien feel that got me hooked in the first place. I can see how that could get in the way of roleplaying to a degree, but it was this very thing that made exploring Morrowind so compelling for me.

Liked Daggerfall, Morrwind and Oblivion all for different reasons.

I love morrowind now, but the first time I played it I sort of felt the same way. I downloaded mods that added more traditional European-medieval stuff like knight armor and whatnot because the setting seemed so weird to me. After playing through it once like that and reading some of the in-game books that helped me understand the world, though, I started to love the setting. I played Imperials and Nords less and began playing a Dunmer and did Temple quests for the first time and really got into it. Maybe you should read some of the books and do quests for the redoran, telvanni or temple (all the best dark elf stuff seems to be in these factions) and see if it changes your mind.