..then playing Morrowind, you realize how much of a superior game it is in every conceivable way. I mean, I played Morrowind back in 2002 I thought it was great spent 100's of hours on it but there were some noticeable flaws like exploits and some dullness but I gotta say that it took Oblivion to make this game really seem like one of the greatest games of my teenage years.

The exploration, the guilds, the atmosphere, the lack of compasses, the varied quests, the lack of fast travel, the feeling of ease of exploration at your leisure without the main quest looming over you, the non-level scaled enemies, and pretty much everything else.

Anyone else feel this way?

Pretty much. When Oblivion came out, I was impressed by the voice acting and the graphics but after a year or so (and some good mod enhancements to Morrowind) I found that I'd rather play Morrowind. I'm not complaining, a year is a lot of time to play any game. I did go back to play Nehrim for a month and that was totally worth it and I'm tempted to give it another go when Vilja 4.0 is released just because that's such an awesome mod it's almost like an overhaul itself. Overall, though, I feel that Oblivion has aged worse than Morrowind and that Morrowind is the better game.

Yep. I still haven't finished Shivering Isles (3 darn achievements left) or a couple of Fallout add-ons and here I am on yet another Morrowind play-through. I think it's a better game than either of them.

It's just a matter of preference. We are here in the Morrowind forums right now.

I really like Morrowind, but I happen to prefer Fallout 3 the most. I really enjoy Science Fiction over High Fantasy. So, it isn't that I think Fallout 3 is a better game, I just enjoy it more.

"You don't really know what you have, until it's gone"
I have no idea who said that, I got it from Conker: Live and Reloaded, but I think it applies here.
You need to get away from Morrowind; play other games, before you can appreciate it.

Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi.

I tend to agree, Morrowind was far superior to Oblivion. In TES: IV there were a lot of gameplay updates and the voice acting was really nice, but the story didn't feel as in depth. The layout of guilds was certainly improved, but the removal of skill requirements took a lot of the effort out of ranking up. In fact, there is not effort in Oblivion, you just have to complete the quests in order. I long for the day in which the modders of the world come together and reproduce Morrowind on the Oblivion engine, or even the Skyrim engine. Although I fear that such a thing would lead to my reclusion from society.