The first Elder Scrolls game I played was Skryim, almost a year ago. It gave such a good impression on the Elder Scrolls to me, and the lore makes me want to go back to the very beginning. I've completed every quest and every DLC. Got all achievements and explored every corner of the place (at least that's what I think). Now I want to try something different.

I'm here to ask you guys if you can tell me the pros and cons of Morrowind & Oblivion. I want to make sure that I get my money's worth for these games. I honestly feel like I will, but I just need assurance. If I do get these games, it will be GOTY editions.

Thank you everybody in advance

No one here can answer unbiased, everyone here sees things differently, the ONLY viable thing that you can be told is that Morrowind and Oblivion are amazing games.

IMO, I LOVE Oblivion because i believe it is a great in between of Morrowind and Skyrim

Be ready for very different playstyles. I was actually about to try hopping back into Morrowind for the first time since getting Skyrim today myself actually. In any case, The first time I played each of them they felt like entirely different games, but Oblivion is much more similar to Skyrim than either are to Morrowind. You probably will get frustrated with the combat system of Morrowind since whether you hit an enemy is dependent upon character skill and luck, I actually got mods long ago to stop that. But with the right mods (the mods I have currently IIRC change the combat as I mentioned, add a little bit of graphical quality to environments, and get rid of the glow of unique items) Morrowind is still worth playing, even if only for the joy of exploring Vvardenfell if nothing else. It's a really exotic and indepth setting completely unlike Skyrim's, and even if I consider Skyrim to be the best game in the series so far I still have to acknowledge that Morrowind's style and setting is absolutely stunningly amazingly better and the story contains much more intrigue and lore-delving than Oblivion's or Skyrim's.

Haven't played Morrowind for a decade, but from memory even a rat is a deadly adversary at low levels. Also, dialogue was handled differently than Skyrim and Oblivion so make sure you have your reading glasses ready.

Let's see...We could rate the 3 latest games - I have not played the first two - on a five-parameter grid. The parameters can be:
-immersion, consisting of graphics,audio,life simulation
-gameplay, consisting of combat, magic, stealth
-world, consisting of setting, lore, freeform interaction
-story, consisting of plot, npc, quests
-roleplay (which to me is the game-supported capability of playing in-depth as many diverse roles as possible with different characters), consisting of growth diversification (how much can my characters feel and PLAY differently from each other, stat-wise?), content diversification (how much can they choose differently within major or minor questlines,and how in-depth are those branchings developed?), game rules (are there sensible skill checks?are there sensitive consequences to my choices?is there context and moral grey background to my choices or are the latter just for the sake of it?are there logical npc reactions?can i see visible world changes?are there disposition-fame infamy-reputation systems?are my character stats more important than my twitch skills,as it should be but without making the game boring?)

Having outlined that,I'd say (I will also choose the single mod which in my opinion makes the best enhancement in each category):

GRAPHICS
Vanilla
S > O > M (it is to be expected,right?)
Modded
S > O > M (an Enb such as TrueVision is phenomenal,so is A tweaked enb for Oblivion)
Biggest improvement
M (Mgso)

AUDIO
Vanilla
S > O > M (talking about sound effects and voice acting here,which are arguably more important in-game than music)
Modded
S > O > M (Audio overhaul and Sounds of Cyrodiil)
Biggest improvement
M (Mgso)

LIFE SIMULATION
Vanilla
O > S > M (random conversations really help make cities feel alive in a natural way,unlike Skyrim's one-time scripted sequences and of course unlike Mw's staticness...oh and O had better npc schedules,they could travel from city to city)
Modded
S > O > M (mods like Immersive patrols,Radiance and Inconsequential npc really add a lot to the feeling of being in a dynamic world,but honorable mentions go to Children of Morrowind and Enhanced daedric invasion)
Biggest improvement
S (Immersive patrols)

So, IMMERSION wise, SKYRIM wins
but that is to be expected due to technological advancements.

COMBAT
Vanilla
S > O > M (the latter is atrociously bad - because of lack of miss animation and no point whatsoever in using two of the three base attacks - and boring too - click,click,click and basically no enemy AI, so the lesser of two evils is Skyrim's, having more weight to the attacks)
Modded
S > O > M (Deadly combat and Enhanced enemy ai keep S on top while a combination of Adul advanced combat, Blocking reflex - a modification made by Arcimaestro Antares for me that adds timed blocks - and Combat enhanced add a bit of strategy to M)
Biggest improvement
O (Deadly reflex)

MAGIC
Vanilla
O > M > S (M would have won here if only it had had some form of magicka regeneration,and S,why it greatly improved the feel,took the magic out of magic - not the spreadsheety. O's wins as a result,with a viable system)
Modded
O > M > S (Mastering magicka and The last altar save the day for M and S,but O still reigns thanks to itself having improvements such as LAME)
Biggest improvement
M (Mastering magicka)

STEALTH
Vanilla
S > O > M (self explanatory)
Modded
S > O > M (all the three feature great mods such as,respectively, Sneak tools,Thieves arsenal and Enhanced stealth, so the rank remains the same)
Biggest improvement
O (Thieves arsenal, for starting from a slightly worse base than Sneak tools and for being the first)

So, GAMEPLAY wise, SKYRIM wins
both because of technological advancements and because the shift towards player twitch skills is better than having too much reliance on character stats which are not accompanied by much more strategic involvement on the part of the player than M has)

SETTING
Vanilla
M > S > O (S has more of a handcrafted feel,especially dungeons, but M is too creative to lose here.Don't get me started on O's genericness)
Modded
M > S > O (once again ranks don't change because all the games present incredible mods which are more or less on the same level of awesomeness, such as,in this category, Mountainos red mountain/Tomb of the snow prince and flora overhauls)
Biggest improvement
O (Unique landscapes, a true saving grace for the game,especially when combined with Better cities)

LORE
Vanilla
M > S > O (some of the best pieces of lore in the series are tied to M's culture,religion,politics,history,metaphysics,not to mention the fantastic ties to the main quest. O scrapped some of its planned lore about landscape, Colovian/Nibenese cultures and absence of power struggle in a situation of Empire vacancy. S is sort of in the middle)
Modded
M > S > O (it's where mods can't do much because lore must come from the developers, but Lore 300 updated brings back background dialogue for those who did not play M, and Civil war overhaul is the civil war as it should have been. Most of all, though...)
Biggest improvement
M (Vivec's fate really feels like the natural conclusion to the best main quest in the series)

FREEFORM INTERACTION
Vanilla
M > S > O (even though it lacks the crafting system finally added by S, M had the best offering in joinable factions very well contextually-integrated in the world and lore. O lacks both crafting and wide variety of factions)
Modded
M > S > O (Morrowind crafting brings crafting to the table, and so does Craftybits, whereas mods like Become a bard, Pit fighter and Hunting in Skyrim add factions which totally fit the world. Not saying O doesn't have its highlight guild mods, but its weak lore has its negative repercussions about smooth integration)
Biggest improvement
Morrowind crafting (not as user-friendly as S's, but very versatile)

So, WORLD wise, MORROWIND wins
and arguably by a larger margin on the others - especially vs O - than the gap between S and the rest in the immersion and gameplay departments

PLOT
Vanilla
M > O > S (the great thing about M is the fusion of lore and plot, and that your role is all up to your interpretation in a morally grey environment. O slightly prevails over S because the chosen one stuff is less prominent, you are in fact a sidekick which is a nice departure from the usual cliche)
Modded
M > O > S (can a plot be improved by user made modifications? Yes when you have such a brilliant companion commenting on it as Julan. For O and S you must take into consideration The elder council and Fight the Thalmor respectively. Both add some quests to some underdeveloped aspects relating to the main subjects - the vying for power and the arrogant Elves)
Biggest improvement
M (Julan)

NPC
Vanilla
S > O > M (they may be annoying, but S's certainly don't share the wikipedia syndrome affecting M's, and they have a bit more differentiation between each other than your generic O npc - not talking about single specific digital person here, talking about the whole package)
Modded
S > M > O (one of the few cases where the sheer brilliance of a mod can overcome the brilliance of another one or two of another game. M and S have the huge and majestic Less generic npc project and Interesting npcs, which O has no counterpart of - Let's talk's focus is completely different... Oh, and I was almost forgetting Vilja in O and S... ok it's a single npc, but what a tremendous achievement!)
Biggest improvement
M (Lgnpc, because M starts off with a worse npc base than S. I prefer improved already existing content than added one. The downside is the mod is less than 50% done, resulting in less homogeneity from city to city, but what a huge difference it makes! Lgnpc and Inpc must be two of the best user made mods of all time)

QUESTS
Vanilla
O > S > M (not talking about guild and side quests from lore, rpg, or gameplay-enjoyment point of views - just story here, I feel S has the edge over M, and O has the most original quests all-around)

Modded
O > M > S (Oblivion arguably has got the best quest mods too, even though the previously mentioned Lgnpc and Inpc both deliver a lot in the integrated quests department)
Biggest improvement
O (Malevolent, for the single questline, but what about Kragenir death quest for a - creative - quest work similar to Lgnpc and Inpc?)

So, STORY wise we face our first true dilemma. Who wins? M in main quest, S in npc and O in non-main quests. I'll give OBLIVION the edge because of the awesome Shivering Isles expansion.

GROWTH DIVERSIFICATION

Vanilla

S > M > O (one reason alone for this: being able to max out all skills and attributes should not be possible in a ROLE playing game. So, despite being hideous for the most part, perks are better than nothing - they also add some excitement which is totally absent in the counterparts' systems. It's true that character creation is indeed important, and it is absent in S, but imo character growth is more important. O comes last because of the added nonsense of loot and enemy scaling which makes challenge the same whatever the character you play - provided they level "efficiently":-( , which is added sadness. Anything is better than that, even becoming godlike in later character levels like in M)
Modded
S > M > O (mods like OOO or Frans are another O's saving grace, maybe used alongside OXP. BTB and Training limits hels M deal its problems, but the award goes to...)
Biggest improvement
S (Skyre. ...the game which already did it best. Alongside Character creation overhaul, which does what it says and can even allow your major skills to improve faster than the others, Skyre's main module takes care of perks and does it magnificently, with true branching specializations to truly empower replayability in this aspect of the game)

CONTENT DIVERSIFICATION

Vanilla

M > O = S (not a strong point of the series, which puts much emphasis on quantity of quests rather than quantity of quest routes; this is a huge minus in my book, because it totally hurts roleplaying (game-supported ability of playing as many in-depth different roles as possible) if, when I enter a questline, it's like a tunnel which will always be the same no matter who I play that with. At least in Morrowind there is a backpath in the main quest that is very intelligent because it caters to a possible player-character interpretation which is absolutely logical from a role-playing point of view - it's not just there for the sake of it, but it is there for who thinks differently about what's going on about the prophecies... Way too little, but still way better than nothing. Moreover, M has some alternate ways of finishing some quests which is also the case for O and S, but for less quests for sure. S has the advantage of the single choice between Stormcloacks and Empire over O, but, if I recall correctly, O has some more alternate ways of doing quests than S)

Modded

M > O > S (helped by the weave of lore actually displayed in-game - which is actually very very important in order for the choices to have weight and not have choices that are there just to be there -, Great House Dagoth outshines everything that CAN be done with O or S. It's already good we have Servant of the Dawn for the former, with the ability of "redeeming", so to say and if we wish to, our character AFTER (not much of a branching if it's there only at the end of a tunnel, admittedly) the main quest, and explore the other side of the barricade. S has very little going for it, probably we have to wait for the Main quest overhaul project to have something about the main quest roleplay; as of now, we got The Paarthurnax dilemma which at least takes care of the fuss about that subject. About side content, for O we have the Blackwood company for those who choose to side against the Fighter's guild, and... that's about it. In S, instead, we have a mod that lets us shut off the Thieves' guild (other than that, there may be minor things, but nothing major) Dialogue wise, again the series was piss-poor and there's not much mods can do in a substantial manner without months or years of work, but I can say that Lgncp project did very well in the instances it allowed branching dialogue)

Biggest improvement

M (Great house dagoth, for the reason stated above)

GAME RULES

Vanilla

M > O > S (M: disposition system is a filter for additional information and ways of solving quests, and can be affected by different methods of persuasion; skill checks are not as used as Fallout's and the dialogue system leaves a lot to be desired; character skills are way more prevalent than player skills, even though the latter are not stimulated at all (and that's a no-no from a gameplay point of view, since tactical and strategical player skills are almost irrelevant too); fame system which has too few applications, even though where it IS used, it makes a lot of sense; faction reputation system is an intelligent idea but very underdeveloped (why let players join all factions then?); great guild skill requirements system, even though a bit too abstract and, once again, gaining ranks in factions should have had way more consequences; speaking of consequences, too static world; the baseline for an incredible roleplaying is all there, but why not using it to its true potential?

O: take the above and butcher many of those, plus remove the importance of some stats and add stupid minigames that don't solve the player skill vs. character skill debate

S: take O and butcher some more (disposition anyone?)

Modded

M > O > S (M: quest mods such as Rise of house Telvanni shows how much Bethesda could have done in terms of structure, rules and consequences for mastering a faction; Strict factions makes sense to me, and also adds replayability and roleplayability; Antares' big mod shows what should have be done when a character masters a faction; I use a little tweak made by Antares for some sensible blocked paths according to who my character is/what chooses to support; other mods implement some added features, for persuasion or for combat/magic/stelath, and the beauty of them is that skill checks are there. For O, Integration is a phenomenal demonstration of roleplaying rules put to good use; Guild Advancement improves a lot pacing, lenght and most of all brings back skill requirements for factions. For S, there's not that much so far, and if it's there, it's minor, but very welcome, like an overhaul of the Companions guild, skill requirements for joining the CoW and theft requirements for being asked to join the Thieves guild)

Biggest improvement

M (Rise of House Telvanni, and I wish everything was so in-depth as this one shows is doable in a very integrated and quality way)

So, ROLEPLAYING wise MORROWIND is definitely the lesser of the 3 evils.

Here are my comparative ratings for the three latest games... I am glad you liked my anolysis, and the following is based on that one...
What do the numbers represent?
X to Y = think of them as 1 to 5 stars. X is for vanilla, Y is for modded. After that I put the name of the single mod bearing the biggest improvement.
A ! is put just to underline some notable improvement (1.5 stars improvement or more).
Every 3 category, you will see a grand category in CAPITAL LETTERS: that is the cumulative result of the 3 sub-category it contains under it -modded versions ratings-. I remind you it is not in absolute terms, but just a comparative result. The game which ended up in second place is without + and -.The game in first place in that category is preceded by a + followed by how much "stars" it is above the second place. Same concept for the third place game,but of course on the contrary. The one game with "!" means that mods did the most improvements.
At the very end, you will find the cumulative end result of each and every rating, to find out who comes out on top.
M=morrowind O=oblivion S=skyrim

IMMERSION -3.5M! O +1S (M=5points vanilla/8.5 modded; O=9/12; S=10.5/13)
graphics
2 to 4 M! mgso
3 to 4.5 O! enb
4 to 5 S enb
sound
2 to 3 M mgso
3 to 4 O sounds of cyrodiil
3 to 4 S audio overhaul
life
1 to 1.5 M children of mw/main quest enhancers
3 to 3.5 O enhanced daedric invasion
3.5 to 4 S immersive patrols

WORLD -1.5O! S +3.5 M (O=7.5/9.5; S=10/11; M=13.5/14.5)
setting
4 to 4.5 M montainous red mountain/tomb of the snow prince
1.5 to 3 O! unique landscapes/better cities/grass overhaul
3 to 3.5 S flora overhaul
lore
5 to 5 M vivec's fate
3 to 3 O lore300 updated
3.5 to 3.5 S civil war overhaul
freeform
4.5 to 5 M crafting
3 to 3.5 O craftybits
3.5 to 4 S frostfall/pit fighter/hunting/become a bard

GAMEPLAY -3M O!S (M=5/8; O=7/11; S=7.5/11)
stealth
1 to 2 M stealth enhanced
2 to 3.5 O! thieves arsenal
2.5 to 4 S! sneak tools
combat
1 to 2 M blocking reflex
2 to 3.5 O! deadly reflex
2.5 to 4 S! deadly combat
magic
3 to 4 M mastering magicka
3 to 4 O lame
2.5 to 3 S the last altar

STORY -0.5S M!O (S=7/8.5; M=7/9; O=7.5/9)
plot
3.5 to 4 M julan
2.5 to 2.5 O the elder council
2.5 to 2.5 S fight the thalmor
quests
2 to 2.5 M less generic npc
3 to 4 O malevolent/kragenir death quest
2 to 2.5 S interesting npc
npc
1.5 to 2.5 M! less generic npc
2 to 2.5 O vilja
2.5 to 3.5 S vilja/interesting npc

ROLEPLAY -4OS M! (O=3/6; S=5/6; M=6/10)
growth diversification
2 to 3 M btb
1 to 3 O! fran
3 to 4 S skyre/character creation overhaul
content diversification
2 to 4 M! great house dagoth
1 to 2 O servant of the dawn
1 to 1 S paarthurnax dilemma
game rules
2 to 3 M antares big mod/strict factions/rise of house telvanni
1 to 1 O persuasion overhaul/integration
1 to 1 S even better quest objectives

GRAND TOTAL
-2O S +0.5M

Here are some considerations that stem from these results:

- Mods seem to make the most improvements for M and O (maybe for Skyrim we'll see some more groundbreaking mods in the future, whereas the picture is set on stone for M and O, after a decade of mod work)

- Morrowind is the game to look for if you prefer roleplay and a deep virtual world, whereas Skyrim is the game to look for if you prefer immersion and gameplay; what about Oblivion? It seems to be left out, but it's good on its own (and even better than the others) if you prefer all of the following together: original stories, colorful worlds, good gameplay, good immersion, and you want to smile (npc's chatting is certainly a big part of its charm): it's true that the end result awards Morrowind (and Skyrim) and not Oblivion, but O is (apart from roleplaying and world, where it is weak from an objective point of view - world not per se, but by Beth's standards) a solid middle ground between S and M (it doesn't share the excellences nor the weaknesses of his "brothers")

- Skyrim seems to be the best OVERALL when considering vanilla games (but definitely not the best if you take immersion and gameplay out of the equation and you prefer hardcoe game elements)

- Morrowind seems to be the best OVERALL when considering the modded games (slightly above S and definitely above O) (but definitely not the best if you take depth out of the equation and you prefer action and dynamism)

- world and immersion departments are, respectively, some of O's and M's weakest aspects, and here mods acted like band-aids, granting the most improvements in these areas over the other 2 games' mods; despite the huge help, they were not enough to surpass the results of the other 2 modded games.

- M's gameplay and O and S's roleplay didn't receive the same lustrous "patch" treatment, probably because of the inherent difficulty in overhauling those weak departments.

- vanilla wise, the ratings indicate, as expected, that Bethesda's strongest point is its world building, whereas its weakest point is roleplay.

- most mod groundbreaking improvements:

*O and S stealth and combat systems

*M and O graphics

*O setting

*M content diversification

- M vanilla = 36,5 stars total (more or less it could be a 7 out of 10); M modded = 50 (9 out of 10); O vanilla = 34 (6.5 out of 10); O modded = 47,5 (8.5 out of 10); S vanilla = 40 (7.5 out of 10); S modded = 49,5 (9 out of 10)...

- ...which confirms that M and O seem to be the most improved so far (+13,5 both, vs. +9,5 by S)

Wow, that's what I call an answer to a question.

I can agree with this.

In my own words, though, both Oblivion and Morrowind had far better magic (and spell making!) while the leveling and combat was terrible in Oblivion and Morrowind, respectively.

Morrowind is very, very different to Skyrim when it comes to NPC interatctions and questing. You have to read. I mean, you have to. It's weird i have to say this about an RPG seeing as how it's a prerequisite for playing them (or it should be). No quest markers or fast travel. You do have many more ways to get around though. Guilds also have skill prerequisites. Pretty neat, IMO.

Race and gender also matters in both of them, in a way. NPC's treat you different depending on your race vs theirs. Your starting attributes are dependent of race and gender; something you have to consider when making a character.

On that note, builds aren't as flexible as they are in Skyrim. It's far easier to cripple yourself, especially in Oblivion.

Either way, if you have the time for it, I'd recommend you get them. They're tons of fun and unique in their own way. I got both of their Deluxe editions for around 20 dollars and they're well worth the price.

Here's my feelings on pre-Skyrim TES:

-Best lore/story - Morrowind

-Best Quests - Morrowind

-Best-Looking landscapes - Oblivion

-Best Trees - Oblivion (Those trees were so good, I just had to mention them!)

-Best PC/NPC interaction - Morrowind (Generic Wikipedia-like dialogue is unpleasant, but there's a better/more useful persuasion system and Oblivion's voice acting was just horrible)

-Best NPC/NPC interaction - Oblivion

-Best Melee combat - Daggerfall, no question there

-Best Magic - Oblivion

-Best Archery/Stealth - Oblivion

-Best Dungeons - Morrowind if you don't like dungeon crawling, Daggerfall if you love dungeon crawling and nonsense dungeons

-Best Automap/worldmap - Oblivion

---

My rating of pre-Skyrim TES, from best to worst

Morrowind, Daggerfall (gains bonus points for being free ), Oblivion, Arena (also free, but it svcks)

Aren't there forums for Morrowind and Oblivion as well where this could be asked?

Wow...

best answer on the internet ever! we got an award for this? Very well thought out and informative.

if anything they should probably be in Elder Scrolls series discussion, since it covers multiple games of the series

True.