I'm thrust into a world which needs my help, Martin Septim needs to be saved in Kvatch urgently,he's in grave danger! And I go to join the Mages' Guild to get discount spells. Or, Jearl's Orders say an imminent attack on Bruma whilst I go beat up some bandits. OBLIVION IS TOO FAST-PACED. It feels like there's no time to train or join a guild, whereas Morrowind was slower, Caius Cosades advising you to join a guild, come back when you're ready-Those were the days!
Can anyone help me make sense of this?

Bethesda wanted Oblivion to be more fast-paced and focused than previous games. I actually prefer this, but you're not in a rush to do anything. You can take as long as you want, the Oblivion invasion will wait for you.

The rush to save the world thing annoyed me too. By the time I've saved the world, I don't really feel like being a lowly underling in some guild, but as far as RP goes, it's pretty hard to justify delaying the MQ. Fortunately there are mods that fix this, and hopefully TES V will give you a little more breathing room. If not, well, there will be mods for that too.

Shame I'm on PS3...

Yeah I like how Morrowind's plot started slow, your first few missions were just leisurely low-pressure strolls to some dungeon or city to fetch or investigate this or that. It encouraged you to stop and explore along the way.

i hate how you cant choose to cut the emperors throat and help the invasion not everyone wants to be one of those lame good characters

Or even Daggerfall for that matter. Get out of intro cave and the Main Quest does not even start at all.

Yep, Oblivion is way too fast paced. The whole chargen process is nothing but a massive guilt-trip on the player to immediately start the MQ; it's damaging to the consistency and believability of characters who aren't self-absorbed yet who you don't want to jump straight into things. It forces people to use mods or to RP that the chargen process never happened, neither of which are preferable to legitimate mechanics.

There are precious few breathing room moments in the MQ either. So the guilt-tripping continues there. At no time are you told it's OK to get your skills up and come back when you are ready. You're given a few outs once or twice to do just that, but it's more along the lines of, "What? You can't handle this right at this moment? Why not? OK, fine, go get better prepared and then come back, but make it snappy, the world's gonna end here!"

I hate the fast-paced nature of Oblivion's main quest. It was designed to svck people in, to make their adrenaline run and make them feel like a part of something important. And while those aren't bad things to strive for, they are bad things to strive for at the very beginning of an open-sandbox do-whatever-you-want RPG. That kind of emotional pull needs to be saved for the later stages of the MQ, and then all the stops can be pulled and the player can be guilt-tripped to no end. It fits then.

The entire empire would be hunting you down.

Now that,would be interesting.

hey they already are

The only person hunting me down is that bloody adoring fan, I can't escape the horror of him.

i told him to wait inside a prison cell

. . . hmmm what?

I got out of the cave because the Emperor himself asked me to personally investigate King Lysandus and into his own private .

It sounded pretty urgent to me.

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Game stories that start with the world going to hell in a handbasket is a standard fantasy trope, like the "doodad of doom" and the "foozle ascending to godhood."

I agree with you, btw. I just think it foolish to get upset about it. Might as well get upset at the way fantasy games treat magic - "I need me some magic. Let's go the mall!"

SirV

Does not really sound urgent to me. More of a favor from Picard rather then a direct order.

I like that pop up that comes up when you come out of the tutorial. The one that says go drop the amulet.... or just wander around and explore.

I always pick 'B' and I've never felt rushed or that things were too fast paced. :shrug:

You are correct sir. Oblivion wasn't meant to be played by the hardcoe gamer just the average gamer who wants to play the game for 200 hours or less.

Heh... I've got an RP explanation for the whole "let's go explore despite having this urgent thing to drop off!"

I tend to play a classic bad-to-good character. Therefore, the events in the cave are just a "prolouge"... sorta "Who am I and why was I in jail? Well, it all started when..." and viewing everything between me leaving the cave and me handing the amulet to Jauffre as one extended "Flashback." Of course, by the end of this I'm kinda the leader of the DB and TG, so... er... there's good reason why I got sent to the Imperial Prison...

When are some good parts of the main quest that allow a break from the main quest that actually makes sense? I have delayed meeting Baurus in the Imperial City for about 1 ingame week now.

There are lulls in the MQ (I usually get Martin safe and not bother until late) but I do agree that the very beginning is too focused. Even if you just want to be a guild mage or something, it basically forces you into the role of Empire's Last Hope.

I'd recommend trying to take a break when you get the . Who knows how long it will take your character or ? Or, at any stage that feels somewhat appropriate and has the least amount of urgency, reason that your character must go off to increase their skills if they are to tackle bigger challenges. Or RP that you must earn the aid of the various factions to contribute to the cause. I'd suggest after as one of those less-urgent moments.

If the character I'm playing happens to be something other than a total goody-goody, ALL steps of the main quest allow a sensible break.

What. You really want me to step into that flaming demonic portal. And you just met me. REALLY? Screw you.

Could I justify not meeting Baurus for the Path of Dawn for a while? It's been an ingame week. The reason I am not doing it is because I want him to live through

Probably. Perhaps he doesn't currently have any leads, or he needs you to adequately prepare for the dangers of the mission.

Or maybe he went and got totally [censored] drunk and he's passed out in the back the board house....