One thing I loved about Morrwind and didnt like at all in Oblivion was just how compulsory the main quest felt.
It's a very simple fix, but please, in Skyrim, can us roleplayers have an easy way out of the main quest if we'd like to immerse ourselves in the world, either permanently, or just temporarily until we feel we're ready to take on the main plot elements?

((*Edit before I go on, I'm not asking for the main quest to not be prevalent in everyone's minds (cos otherwise you'll be open to criticism from the casual gamers again about lack of direction). All I want is for there to be some option that gives us players the chance to breathe for a second, and if we so wish, explore the world a bit first without the nagging feeling that we really should be getting back to the main task at hand.))

In Morrowind, it was beautiful. I arrived as a prisoner to be freed in return for service, and after some basic introductions and work, I got the whole "now go and get yourself established here, build your skills, you'll need them, and make yourself known". That was brilliant. It gave people who just wanted to play the main quest to carry on with it and do just that. It gave anyone else who wanted to immerse themselves in any way the ability to do that for as long as they liked.

In Oblivion I couldnt stand it. Whilst I loved the game and even the main story, I felt restricted in an RPG sense. Everything was about "OMG emperor assassinated, find son, stop evil, yesterday! why are you still here!?!?!". The quests never let up. Just when you do one and think you might get some breathing space to develop your character, you get another urgent 'do this right now and dont do anything else because the universe will end'. Doesnt leave any room whatsoever to do anything else.
And if you do progress all the way to the end, complete the main quest and then want to do some immersion, it feels kinda empty as you're already some invinible walking superpower, and suddenly, doing a quest in your full daedric to help the local traders with that pesky local undercutting them seems a bit beneath you.
Conversely, you dont really get a chance to act on that suggestion at the beginning of "or go wherever you want, it's a free world", because you've got a big red arrow marker and a journal entry that says you're the one single thing right now between the survival of the world and those crazy cultists.

They're trying to tell a compelling story, for those that will only play once.

If you can't shrug that stuff off, your a crap role-player.

Sorry, that was mean. Just shrug that stuff off, it sounds like there is going to be some wieght in this installment, just remember you don't have to do anything you don't want to.

I don't care what that guy is telling you, you can wait if your not ready.

Compelling story for Skyrim or are you talking about Oblivion? Because I agree with Acolyte of Nocturnal that the main quest in Morrowind was great the main quest for Oblivion not so great. I want to able to explore the world.

I think there needs to be some sense of importance for completing the main quest, otherwise it just wouldn't feel right. I agree that with Morrowind, there was less pressure to get it done all at once, which was great.

Don't do the main quest until you want. This is one of the simplest solutions, in the history of this world, that anyone can do.

I think you must be playing a different Elder Scrolls Oblivion to me, as I have NEVER felt the feeling you're describing about escaping the MainQuest.

As soon as I left the sewers I felt the whole of Cyrodiil was open to me. I started exploring without feeling the neccessity to even touch the mainquest. At NO POINT did I feel pressured to 'get back on track'.

This subject has been mentioned before, and although everyones entitled to their own opinion I do feel that you are exaggerating somewhat. At what point does the game 'softly' push you to do the MQ?

I think the problem for me is that I can forget about the main quest if I try from the beginning, but once you go do the first part of the quest, Oblivion gates start to open up everywhere.

It's hard not to remember that the end is nigh while trying to do a thieves guild quest when I have to past right by a fiery gate to hell spewing demons.

This.

And just because you can explore in Morrowind that does not make the MQ good. No correlation at all.

When I played Oblivion I really felt like I was "Rushed"... and that if I didn't "Close shut" the jaws of oblivion soon, I'd just be dikeing around and letting people die. I don't like that feeling.

To avoid the strains of the main quest on my RP experience... I had to completely avoid Kvatch and Weynon Priory... and every time I found myself plotting ways around those two cities... I felt a little robbed like... "I have to knowingly avoid these areas just so I can RP that I don't know"

I preferred Morrowind's main a lot more because there wasn't that urgency. You took things at your own pace. You were encouraged repeatedly to go off and explore the world as part of your "cover story"

I felt so much more free in Morrowind... like there wasn't a ticking stopwatch above my head...

But hey, maybe I'm full of [censored]

Don't deliver the amulet.

In Morrowind you more or less were forced to be involved in the factions in order to progress through the main quest. In Oblivion, you weren't forced to do side stuff. Then again, in Morrowind everything was leveled independently of the PC, so it was essential to become more powerful before you could face the powerful minions of Dagoth Ur and of course the bad dude himself. In Oblivion you could do the main quest with not too much difficulty right at level 1. I of course preferred Morrowind because it just felt right the way you had to level up quite a bit and get experienced before delving into the main storyline and its quests.

I do hope Skyrim takes more of the Morrowind approach. In Fallout 3 I had to level up and become more powerful before I could charge right into the DC ruins and face off with all of those Super Mutants wielding mini guns, and I imagine Skyrim being similar in this respect, which I greatly prefer over Oblivion's approach at leveling and diving into the main quests.

The gates don't pop up until after you visit Kvatch.

Exactly.

Why would the main quest not be the MAIN thing happening in the game? What oblivion lacked was pacing, not the fact that the main quest was urgent

Main Quest should be a minimum of 25 to 30 hours of gameplay - longer is at lower level

The main quest should not advance until you have reached a certain level

To make the main quest involving is a good cause from a game design perspective. The balance to make it right is hard though. Blight was a good idea, I would expected blighted creatures attacking villages and causing mayhem which we could witness from first hand, we could've helped villagers build walls for that for example or just went and defeated the cause itself. That would be nice. A number of repetitive gates, that's just lazy for them and boring for me.

Anyways, I think everyone should do the main quest, a lot of thought and creativity goes there. And it should be optional at the same time. Not forced artificially but justified by in-game events. For encouraging MQ, big timed events is not a bad idea. Like Kvatch. But how static is that?(Must be on fire after 200 years, I'm sure) PC(or Dragons) destroying mills dynamically affecting towns' economy sounds very dynamic on the other hand. Dynamic dragon fights sound amazing too compared to static Oblivion gates.

Agreed. I have no problem with the way the MQ was handled in Oblivion, because the gates don't pop up until a certain point. I'm hoping the dragons are handled the same way too

Some people dont get it, and I think that's because they havent read the post. Thankyou to those who have and have responded (even some of the people who have different opinions have at least read the post and understood it).

The issue is not at all about whether I am literally forced to partake in the main quest immediately in Oblivion. Of course that is not the case. The issue is where it falls in a roleplay sense.
Solutions like "just dont deliver the amulet", or to just ignore it completely and do something else are plain silly. Even if I'm playing a total dike, it doesnt make sense for my own sense of self preservation to avoid the main quest.
The EMPEROR of all Tamriel has just prophecised his own death, which has come true. He then prophecises about needing to close shut the jaws of Oblivion, and gives me the AMULET OF KINGS, one of the most powerful artefacts to exist.
There is quite clearly "bad stuff" going on, and acutally (to reference the first responder) to willfully ignore this I would say is bad roleplay. Because you're not roleplaying at this point, you're breaking any sort of character to be able to go off and do what you'd prefer, despite the story not really lending to that.

All Oblivion needed was something very simple, such as a;
"you know what, this closing Oblivion is going to be an epic task. How about you get yourself toughened up whilst I sit here and research how to stop Mehrunes Dagon". Maybe you could take out a few sleeper agents in the mean time, and then you're basically under cover again until you decide it's time to pay a visit to the Blades temple or wherever and continue things.
This option was never available though, nor anything like it.

What I want in Skyrim isn't for some wishy washy main quest that you can decide might be best when you can be bothered. Nor is it for a main quest that forces you to be racing toward the finish line.
I want a strong main quest that at some point in its early stages implements a reason for (those who want to) players to go and explore the world a bit, without any pressure to be getting back to the capital in time for tea.

You know what? Oblivion is like having a well paid job that involves a lot of travel. Everyone envies you for how much you get to travel the world, but what they dont appreciate is that you just get to see airports and hotels.
That's the same in Oblivion's main quest. It sends you all over the place, and you'd think you get the chance to go and do lots of side quests, but actually you're just going north of Cheydinhal for that daedric artefact before whizzing back to Bruma to get stuff sorted asap.

I'd disagree, but maybe I'm just arguing semantics. I'd rather the main quest have static difficulty levels - early on it's easier, then as you progress you face stronger and stronger opponents. I mean, granted, there's no functional difference between not being able to advance until you're level 15 and the main quest being full of level 15 monsters that would happily devour an overconfident Hero, I just don't like the idea of actually having to level up before I get given a quest, because then I don't even get the chance to try and figure out a clever way to get around my level handicap.

Not that I'm that good at that anyway, but I always enjoy hearing stories in RPGs of how someone or other managed to accomplish goals that vastly outscaled their character's mechanical ability.

Edit: A couple solutions to the Oblivion forced pacing problem: Firstly, you could install a mod to change the character creation process/opening scene to something other than the race through the passageways with the Emperor, therefore avoiding the problem of ever knowing there's an impending crisis. Hell, it could still be worked in without breaking the narrative in this mod that you come across the Amulet of Kings washed out from a sewer grate (as you ARE still a prophesied/destined hero, after all, so chance is going to favor you) and after inquiring into a bit, you end up sent to Weynon Priory, thereby starting along the MQ proper.

Or, if you don't want to mod the intro or can't because you play on a console, here's another idea: give yourself reason to wait to progress on the main quest until you're stronger. Maybe play up until the assault on Kvatch and, seeing just how serious this is, realize you're in over your head - and set off on your own for a while to make certain you're strong enough to handle things, so you don't get yourself gibbed the first time Martin actually needs to depend on you.

I kinda see the OP's point as I've felt the same way. I still found a way to free myself from the main quests though. I tend to wait with the amulet until I joined a some guilds and gained a few levels, then when I get to chorrol I give it to Jaufree, after that I head to Kvatch (doing some quests in Skingrad), save them, bring Martin to Cloud Ruler Temple, and then I tell Jaufree that I had enough fun for a while. Then I do a lot more sidequests until I get bored, or the Oblivion gates start to annoy me.

It's not like only Oblivion is at fault here many other RPGs to this as well, like in Mass Effect I always have to find an excuse not to save the universe and just explore everything...

Its really not hard to give the amulet to jauffre and just go walkabout.

Sometimes the argument that you should just ignore things and use your imagination does start to feel like a stale cop-out...

Yes, you CAN ignore things, but that doesn't mean the way the quest dialogue in MW wasn't better than in OB. I hope something akin to the Greybeards not giving you the next task "Until you are ready" (have the right level, skill levels, etc) is in Skyrim.

They could have easily delayed the MQ in Oblivion simply by having Jaufree not know where Martin is at first, and then find out where he is once you've reached a higher level/skill set (also having Kvatch intact at first and then burn down while you are talking to Jaufree about where Martin is). Then have Baurus not be waiting in the inn getting new information until you reach another milestone. Then have the sign showing where the Dagon shrine is not appear until a "specific day" which actually isn't a specific day, but the day when you come near it when finally at the right level. Instead of it taking "2 weeks" to open the portal to paradise, it should have taken until you reached yet another milestone. Instead, they opted for everything prompting you immediately to the next step instantly as if the characters were all ready and waiting for the next step ahead of you and your mere arrival is the trigger for the event. I didn't like feeling hurried either, even though I can and did ignore it, it was still annoying.