TES forum user "glargg" recently made a comment in the Oblivion General Discussion forum that really got me thinking:

I have to say that I agree completely with this, and it helps to sum up my reasoning for liking vanilla Morrowind more than vanilla Oblivion, yet why I've spent almost twice as much time playing Oblivion than Morrowind.

I enjoy living in Tamriel. In Oblivion, it goes above and beyond in that category. Cyrodiil feels like a real living, breathing world, whereas Morrowind doesn't match up in that category. Morrowind NPCs stand around and wait for the player to come by, whereas NPCs in Oblivion move around and eat, sleep, lock their houses at night, go shopping, change their schedules if it's raining, visit friends, the list goes on and on. But Oblivion kind of screwed up with the leveling system, with creatures and loot leveling up around the player.

However, I fully think Morrowind is a game better played than lived in. It has more rewarding loot with unique artifacts in scripted locations, everything in "Tamrielic Lore" can be found, the leveling system is better, and it is, in general, more rewarding to play. But I just can't shake the feeling in Morrowind that the whole world is revolving around me, so it's easier for me to roleplay and to "live" in Oblivion.

So I don't intend for this to be a Morrowind vs. Oblivion thread by any means, and I'd ask you to refrain from directly challenging the examples I gave, as I only offered them as my opinions, because now I ask you: what are your feelings toward this? Do you come at The Elder Scrolls games with the intent of living in the in-game world? If so, how much does gameplay affect that experience? Or do you come at Elder Scrolls games with the intent of playing a game with a little bit of roleplaying on the side? And how do these things affect which Elder Scrolls game is your favorite?

Again, please try to keep on the topic of immersion and gameplay mechanics without turning this into Game-A vs Game-B. Thanks! :happy:

This is why I think many people think SR is only removing stuff, because things like Radiant AI and other things that help create a living believable world are not important to them.

These kind of things are very important to me and that is one of my main reasons for liking Oblivion more than MW. MW's world felt lifeless. Even now after playing OB, and the FO's I am still impress whenever playing a recent Beth game and coming across npc's fighting each other in the world. It really makes me feel like the world is alive and exist independent of my actions.

I want the holo deck, so to me SR is adding far more than taking away. Because Beth is trying to really make the most believable game world yet.

Yeah, it certainly put it into perspective for me. A lot of people seem outraged by things that I think are great, and I think this is a good explanation as to why that is, that's why I'm testing it out with this thread to see if people agree.

While I think Morrowind felt more alive because of it's culture, I think that Cyrodiil felt alive because NPCs did stuff. Sometimes stupid stuff, but they moved around.

Hopefully, Skyrim will merge the two.