It occurred to me the other day that I played Morrowind for more than 3 months without a single mod, and only after beating the MQ did I go into the editor and make myself a restore magicka ring. And while I played Oblivion for a while without many mods, I realize now that there are several that I just couldn't play the game without anymore. DarnUI is definitely at the top of that list, for example. So many of the mods I have now actually seem to bring Oblivion up the level of Morrowind, the better game in my opinion.

So I started wondering, why does Oblivion have so many game-changing mods (OOO, MMM, "extras" like OBMM, OBSE, Wrye Bash, etc.) and Morrowind didn't? Or did it too? These are my ideas:

1. Morrowind did have all this stuff and I just never got involved with it.
2. Morrowind didn't have as big of a modding community as Oblivion, so these things were never made for it.
3. Oblivion had so many problems that needed fixing (possibly as a result of being a console game) that it was necessary to mod it, whereas it was not necessary for Morrowind.

I'm hoping it's *not* #3, but I have sort of a feeling that that's a big part of it. I'd like to hear what other people think about this. If it's the case that Morrowind really did have these types of mods, then my point is moot, but otherwise I'd love to know why Oblivion is so heavily modded whereas Morrowind didn't seem to need to be.

"VS" threads aren't very popular...

And Morrowind has the "Creatures" mod. Epic one.

This isn't meant to be a "which is better" thread. I'm just curious about what the reasons might be for Oblivion having such a huge modding community and Morrowind not (that I know of).

While morrowind didnt have radically popular overhaul mods like OOO and MMM (At least to my Rememberance), it does have Morrowind Script Extender (MWSE), Morrwind Extended (MWE), Wrye Mash, and Morrowind Graphics Extender.

Maybe its because Morrowind was so popular already, that there were no extremely popular overhaul mods. But dont discount the Morrowind Modding Community. Its not a thing of the past, and it has many things the Oblivion modding community has Such as those listed above.

EDIT: I forgot about Creatures. Haha

Wow, see, I had no idea there were things such as MWSE and Wrye Mash. That helps to render my question irrelevant somewhat.

Morrowinds major flaws in need of mods were seriously ugly PC & NPC models & textures.

Oblivions major flaws in need of mods were game balance issues.

Well, have a look at the PES and Eric Melnibone sites and you'll see your assumption that Morrowind wasn't as heavily modded is quite wrong.
Morrowind modding has slowed for a couple of reason - the age of the game (2002) and the fact that apart from every increasing improvements to MGE and the continuing work of the Morrowind Patch Project just about every kind of mod imaginable (or necessary) has been done.
I'm quite certain that once Oblivion has reached the same age you'll find a noticeable drop off in new mod releases and updates to current works.

Actually, this *is* a "Morrowind vs Oblivion" thread. Why? It's simple, Morrowind was a very good game, so people felt less like modding it. Oblivion, besides the graphics, didn't really have much going for it, so people felt not the desire, but the NEED to mod it.

Nope, I didn't make that assumption when I started the thread. I thought of it as one possible option, and if that was the case, then so be it. But that doesn't mean it has to turn into a "vs." thread as a result, as long as there are real reasons for why someone would say Morrowind didn't need modding as much as Oblivion. But apparently it did have a lot of mods anyway.

Well, this is a Morrowind vs. Oblivion thread. It makes no constructive statement, comment, or request related to any Oblivion mod, so it is off topic on this forum. It is being used by some members as a pretext to post flamebait about Oblivion. Closed as off-topic and flamebait.