I LOVED Morrowind for the fact that I could do w/e I wanted and get to the MQ eventually and not feel I 'had' to hurry up and beat the MQ. In Morrowind the threat was Dagoth Ur, but he wasn't going anywhere, he was stuck in Red Mountain. You could take your time, level up, get some gold, take leadership of a faction etc, infact you were encouraged to do so in the MQ. But Oblivion and Skyrim the MQ seems...rushed. From a RP standpoint you wouldn't be going around helping the companions in Skyrim while dragons are ransacking the country side, or stealing a Elder Scroll while Oblivion Gates are opening everywhere and Dagon is seconds from entering the realm. To me it made more sense in Skyrim and Oblvion to beat the MQ first then you could do all the side stuff and tbh I don't like that.

In Morrowind I could do Fighters, Legion etc etc while doing the MQ and feel like I wasn't dawdling. When I play Morrowind defeating Dagoth Ur is the final thing I will do, when I got to defeat him I'm leader of every guild, done alto of SQ etc. Then I do Tribunal and BLoodmoon. In Oblvion I tried that and as I was doing quest I would come across Gates and would think "I should really get that taken care of first". Same with Skyrim, I would do the Thieves Guild and a dragon would attack, or a guard would mention how a place was attacked.

Idk, maybe I'm just rambling but I'm hoping the next game will flow like Morrowind. Where yea, some big bad world ending event is gonna happen. But you got time to do other things. [From a RP point of view]

Agreed. It also made it easier to get into the world of Morrowind. You were really "thrown in there for you to do whatever you want". In Oblivion and Skyrim, sure you're not forced to do the mq, but well like you said, you'd feel like an ass not to. It's much more natural in Morrowind to not hurry up to do everything. So you had more time to get a sense of the world before going deeper in the main quest. Plus, I don't know, I prefer lower-key quests. I don't find such hugely "epic" quests that interesting to be honest. The neverarine prophecy was much more interesting and unique to me, and it was rooted in the culture of the people of Morrowind.

I'd like to see a game without a MQ at least until an expansion adds it or you reach a fairly high level.
I can see why linear games have them but I don't think they are neccessary for an open world and if you're railroaded into them it actively subtracts from the virtues of an open world.