These games are too different to have a best on objective grounds.

The Elder Scrolls is the best Elder Scrolls.

There's so much to these games that, for me, it's difficult to go into specifics over a general question. I'm also not that nitpicky over Morrowind (I hardly think it's a bad game) that I have a list of complaints I can bring up anytime someone just mentions Morrowind. It's easier for me to discuss points that are brought up than to list what feature was done best or worst in what game of the series, save for a couple of the most notable points.

I wouldn't say Morrowind is THE best, but it has certain aspects of it that are the best out of the series. Just like Oblivion and Skyrim have certain aspects that they are the best in.

However, I think the series has been made easier to play as it progesses. For example, today I was redoing the Oblivion vampirism cure quest, and it got me thinking the Morrowind and Oblivion cure quests are 10x harder than Skyrim's. They clearly just wanted to make it easy so people wouldn't complain about it, and I don't like this line of thinking because it seeps into some of the other aspects of the game.

I started with Daggerfall and LOATHED IT and dismissed TES. Years later just before Morrowind came out my wife got me Redguard and I loved it and it made me hungry for Morrowind. I've loved all the TES since. They each have their strengths and weaknesses and I enjoy each for what it is. That being siad the gameplay has aged enough in Morrowind I can't play it for long periods of time but Iz've sunk 100s of hours in it anyway.

The truth is each game is different enough that people are going to have definate favorites. Heck I have a friend who loves ObLivion to death, loved Knight of the nine and completely hated shivering ISles. The only reason he didn't uminstall it is because so many mods use it. In all three games people ignore details, differences, features and depth they find uninteresting and maginfy the stuff they like in their prefered game.

I love them all since Morrowind.

I've played a little bit of Morrowind, but the big problem I have is that it's hard to overlook lots of the stuff I hate about the game. The world is fascinating; varied, a challenge, fun to explore, creative, and political. It seems to have good quests and a good story, but it suffers in the gameplay, especially to someone like me who has only been playing games for the past 6 years or so. Overall, I wouldn't say it's better, but equal just in different aspects.

Is there anywhere I could play the first and second game? I know years ago they released one of those for free, but no idea if its still around.

http://uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:Files.

http://uesp.net/wiki/Arena:Files.

I started with Daggerfall and my favorite is Skyrim.

This is my opinion on Morrowind. I feel that Morrowind is a totally fantastic game. It's not my worst, it's my least favorite out of all the TES games. And I love all TES games. I can pick up any TES game and have a great time.

Yes... Exactly. Has not much to do with nostalgia, yet this is often brought up.

I would say, in some areas it's a matter of taste, and in some areas it's a matter of what you prioritize. Some flaws annoy you more, and some you care less about. Some positive things you love and don't want to miss, while others you see as a bonus. Such as the static NPCs in Morrowind I agree is a flaw, but the forced quests in Skyrim bother me more.

That I can't zoom out in third person and that my character can't sit on the chairs, bothers me more than the "static" (they aren't static. They can walk! they just don't walk as far.) NPCs or the dated animations.

I also think it has to do with in which order the games come. If Skyrim had come first, then Oblivion, then Morrowind, I would be annoyed that they had taken dual-wielding, smithing and cooking out of Oblivion and Morrowind. Because I still have this idea that new games should improve upon the old. Perhaps this also makes me "forgive" the flaws of old games easier.

I feel like each game has it's own pros and cons and, while I have my favorite, I can see why people like each game for what it is. I like and dislike different things in each game.

You cant judge a game before you played it. Especially when comparing it to others. Its like trying to compare the mysteries of time & space with tuna fish.

My advise and answer to your question? Play the game, ignore fan boy opinions, form your own opinion.

I love Morrowind. A lot. Both the setting and story are beautiful, and the nonlinear feel of the game and its factions are beautiful. On the other hand, it's not perfect. It's full of exploits (although to be fair these aren't exactly easy to find without online help), and it allows and pretty much encourages you to buy your levels and skills. I was never a fan of the whole attribute-raising mechanic either, although it was certainly easier to handle than in Oblivion.

But overall it's a great game.

I started with Daggerfall, but Morrowind is my favorite. I absolutely loved Daggerfall at the time, and still rank it among the greats, but the procedural generation of dungeons and landscape, as well as the clumsy combat, make it impossible for me to "go back". I wish that some of the game features would make a comeback, though, like an improved faction system.

Morrowind wins for me because of a combination of world-building, atmosphere & art design, story, and characters. Skyrim is up near the top for similar reasons, but story-telling has come down a few steps (in Oblivion, too), and the streamlining of the magic system (especially lack of spell making), and attributes (not a big loss for vanilla, but hampers the development of sophisticated combat mods) is a huge disappointment to me.

Oblivion had some big problems: level scaling, generic medieval cultural hodgepodge, (partially) procedural landscapes. I would have been done with Oblivion after 50 - 60 hours if not for mods. As many people have said before, mods improve Morrowind and Skyrim, but are required for Oblivion.

One thing that people often overlook is that Morrowind is where the lore started. Daggerfall actually had a pretty good story, but it was a semi-coherent mashup of common fantasy elements. Morrowind was where TES became a unique universe of it's own. Oblivion largely (not entirely) threw this out, and Skyrim seems to have come to life again.

I'm with you brother, you know rats don't miss flying. ANYWAY, very well written. THANK YOU for letting me know I'm not alone.

Daggerfall was my first TES game... but randomly generated dungeons that sometimes can't be finished eventually made me stop playing out of frustration (although I have a very fond memory of summoning Hermaeus Mora).

Morrowind was the second game I played and I was blown away by it. Stepping off that boat and into a huge beautiful world to explore is a feeling I will never forget. I will even admit that every time I play another TES game I am basically trying to get a glimpse of that feeling back. But what made me really love the game in the end was the mage's guild which came alive with amazing characters and quests. Ah... discovering the mystery of the disappearance of the Dwermer... House Telvani and Tribunal quests also contributed to making the "mage experience" really enjoyable in Morrowind. Spell customization and a way too powerful enchantment system also made it unforgettable. For that reason my mage persona will forever have a home in Morrowind (Balmora's mage guild basemant to be exact.)
However, I can't say that I enjoyed playing TES3 that much with anything other than a mage. Stealth and combat were nowhere as good in my opinion: both in the combat and stealth systems and in the houses and guild questlines.

Oblivion got my attention with the combat system and the stealth-poison-bow combination. I found the thieve's guild questline to be quite memorable in Oblivion. The mage stuff in oblivion was still good, but felt a bit like a drop from Morrowind. The fighter type playing style was a bit better than in Morrowind, but nothing to write home about. The fighter's guild questline in Oblivion was pretty horrible however.

Although I loved the thief style in Oblivion, Morrowind won overall because of its great mage questlines and gameplay.
Then came Skyrim... The mage's guild was a major disappointment for me so I don't even want to talk about it... So Morrowind wins that battle as far as I'm concerned. However, I eventually fell in love with the combat and stealth systems. I also think the Skyrim leveling system is much better than both Morrowind and Oblivion. The perk tree system is very well implemented. I really don't care about the loss of certain attributes given that I didn't find them that useful in Morrowind and Oblivion. (I think FONV was better than all of these in that regard).

Actually what really made me love Skyrim more recently and place it above all the others, was playing with a self imposed rule: dying = must restart with a new character. Or more generally: no reloading from a saved game under any circumstances. Playing as a thief with this rule created an amazing experience for me which surpassed any other TES memory. Sneaking past a dozen sleeping draugrs creates a whole new list of implications when one is not allowed to reload... I also played with this rule as an orc-fighter and it felt like a whole new game (beware of bears i tells ya). It made me appreciate the race powers a whole lot more and see how well implemented they were. In general it made me appreciate how this game is really well constructed.

I tried to reproduce the experience by playing with this rule with both Morrowind and Oblivion and was very disappointed. Because of that, I finally put Skyrim above all the others.

I loved Morrowind as a mage and Oblivion as a thief, but overall, Skyrim takes the gold for my experience.
My only real disappointment with Skyrim was the mage's guild, but I got over it pretty fast. I only hope that the next one will find ways to make the magick seem mysterious again. Only in that aspect do I miss Morrowind.

What is it that you don't like about it? (Just curious).

Myself, I didn't know of the series until around 2006/7. I now own all of them except Red Guard and Battle Spire. I seem to like them best in reverse order, but I've not played any of them that all much. On the surface I'd say Morrowind seems to be the best RPG [IMO]; best being least stripped mechanics-wise, and the one with the most potential... Not the prettiest. Though Morrowind does have some pretty http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AiB-hz2tMM.

Out of curiousity - what were the improvements of Oblivion?

I played Skyrim first, then Oblivion and then Morrowind.
Honestly, Morrowind doesn't quite live up to the standard set by Skyrim and Oblivion for me. It just doesn't hold my attention in the same way. It's a great game, but it's certainly not my favourite game.

I find Morrowind to lack life. Every NPC in a town - rich or poor, warrior or mage, male or female, Argonian or Dunmer - will say exactly the same thing. A handful of the characters with personalities are among the most developed in the series, but your everyday townspeople have the personality of a piece of cardboard.

But I wouldn't put everyone's enjoyment of the game down to nostalgia. Different people look for different things in video games, and are willing to overlook different flaws.

You know why I still play Mario on the NES sometimes?... Because it's a great platformer game.
Why do I still play morrowind today? because it's a great game.

It's all about expectations and preferences, people don't like morrowind because they think it's 'better' than the other TES games, they like it because it's good at what it does, it offers them what they want. Would you go and play skyrim or oblivion for a racing game? would you give it bad reviews for not adding in cars?... I wouldn't because that's not what I'm searching for in the games. Morrowind is a great game because it offers people an unique world and culture that you can immerse yourself in, or maybe for the diverse mechanics and options such as spellmaking and equipment slots, or maybe the intriguing quests and no handholding that is liked by older/more mature audiences... or maybe all of those, or maybe none of those or just some, depends on the individual.

For example, I like the written dialogue more than the voiced ones, strange? but I love the depth it added to conversations, and it's absolutely seamless to me, so much that I don't even notice the little voice in my head changing depending on the characters I'm interacting with.

So is morrowind some god-emperor of the TES?... No, not at all, far from it, it's just a simple old game in the TES franchise that's appreciated for what it does. I like morrowind because it's morrowind, just like I appreciate skyrim for what skyrim is and oblivion for what oblivion is. If I expect the same things I enjoy in one game from another game even in the same series, I wouldn't be able to enjoy any game at all.

Morrowind is just one of the 5 divines of TES, nothing more or less.

I feel the same way about morrowind but I'd rank mine with oblivion first.