"go diaf"? What does that mean?

And my apologies, the "censored"s made my post seem more insulting than it actually was meant to be. These forums censor some strange and innocuous things.
But it wasn't meant to be totally polite. You seem intent on pissing people off. Saying "those scores are wrong, because the majority is usually wrong." is logically ridiculous, and combined with the inflammatory tone of your post, it's understandable that Ranry would dismiss the thread for it. It was a bit rude to make a post just to point that out, but it was far more rude for you to respond with those attacks.

The majority is usually wrong (and I think most people would agree with this, which brings up an interesting paradox), and it's perfectly fine to say that Oblivion and Skyrim don't deserve their scores (I have countless criticisms of them myself), but to say that they don't deserve their scores simply because they got those scores is insane. If they don't deserve those scores, it has to be for some reason other than mass opinion being automatically wrong. People liking something doesn't make it bad (although it's true that very often people like things that ARE bad).
Ranry had a point, and wasn't being a shallow egalitarian Jersey-Shore drone.

Daggerfall is remembered and cherished so fondly by some gamers (including myself) because the sheer... EMPTINESS of it left ample room for our imagination to cultivate. Just like the Pen-and-paper RPG the series evolved from, the game gives you so little feedback as to the world around you that it was always possible (even encouraged) to make up your own story as you went along. Y'know, kinda like a "Role-Playing Game". To most people who haven't grew up with the series this quality imparts the game with a kind of sterility or dullness - mostly due to the hideously large dungeons and wasteland landscape - but to me the immense amount of patience and attention the dungeons required made even the most trivial "kill this werewolf" quest more substantial, as if each quest was a massive undertaking that my character will no doubt end up risking life and limb to accomplish. As my character grows in abilities, I become more comfortable in his skin, and with the game's seemingly large holes where actual content should be, I take the liberty to fill in the blanks myself and abstract them, gauging my character's reactions and desires along the way. Roleplaying.

As the series progressed, more and more of these blanks were filled for you and the experience became more akin to that of a fantasy-themed "amusemant park" where you're free to explore whatever you want, but within the confines of various predetermined setpieces. Lord knows the majority of Skyrim's quests railroaded your character all the way through, with the result almost invariably being you hacking your way through a linear cave or barrow with a locked or barred door near the entrance that you conveniently return to after beating the big bad Level-appropriate Draugr Murderdeathlord, reading the Word Wall, and getting dat phat loot from the big chest.

Now, I'm not hating on Skyrim or anything - I've garnered a fair amount of enjoyment from the game, mostly because they made combat so damn visceral and satisfying that its an engaging experience in its own right, but I daresay it becomes extremely predictable at times. This isn't helped by the pretty, detailed graphics which tend to make the "sameness" of the dungeons more pronounced than even Daggerfall's, in my opinion.

People who enjoyed Daggerfall will likely also enjoy this little game called Dwarf Fortress. Much like DF, DF (heh) gives the player nothing but the most archaic feedback about the world around him (in the form of ASCII symbols) and the basic idea of the game is that the more you invest your imagination in these little ASCII dwarf dudes and keeping them alive, the more fun the overall experience will be. And that's essentially all it boils down to when it comes to RPGs in general.

I think you've hit the nail on the head, and I have to strongly endorse this statement:
Dwarf Fortress is amazing.

diaf=die in a fire. just making a pun on silly internet flame wars.

anyhow, you do make an interesting point. i was trying to express my frustration with how new games that lack innovation keep getting such high scores, it seems like first-impression gushing, its kind of inexplicable to me.
i'll conclude that different people simply see things differently and there's no way around that.

I have to say I don't see what's particularly complex about any of these "choices". The first one is just "do the quest and get paid, or don't and don't get paid". The second is just "do I get greedy for more money or not". And the third is just "do I give up on a long quest just to save the life of a cute fictional kid or not" which, while it might be considered controversial these days (hence all the immortal kids in current games), isn't really much of a big decision to make either.

I can certainly sympathize with that. Personally, I think it's just that games cater to a different audience these days, for business reasons. Marketing and corporate influence. Innovation is risky, and artistic endeavors don't sell as well as shiny re-hashes of familiar successes. See: Call of Duty.

The point, I think, is just that they actually present choices. Too many quests in the recent TES games fail to do that in any significant way.

the biggest perks of morrowind and oblivion, is the construction sets. a huge boon to those that wish to create and improve, due to it's simplicity. from a gameplay standpoint, this is a step back, as many parts were likely simplified so that it's more accessible to modding.

i think it's only within the RPG genre that things are 'dumbing down', almost all the other genres games are getting better.