Edit: Fixed slight oversight in polls earlier.

So upon realizing that I personally like the world design/storylines of Shivering Isles/Dawnguard/Dragonborn more than the world design/storylines of vanilla Skyrim, and Vanilla Oblivion, basically that I like the expansion content more than the vanilla content in Skyrim and Oblivion, I wondered how many people felt the same way.

In Morrowind I liked the official expansions world design and storyline equally as much as vanilla Morrowind's world design and storyline... Yet in Skyrim and Oblivion I find myself liking the storyline and world design of the expansions way more than vanilla Skyrim and vanilla Oblivion. I personally like the Official DLC worlds in both Skyrim and Oblivion a lot more than the vanilla worlds, because they feel a lot more creative to me, a lot less generic, and a lot less predictable, and at least to me anyways, it feels like the plot is a lot more well designed. Though perhaps that's just me.

I like the Official DLCs of Skyrim a lot more than vanilla Skyrim in general... With perhaps the exception of Blackreach and Markarth- my two favorite things about vanilla Skyrim by far.

My favorite to least favorite designs are all in this order about... Morrowind as a whole->Dragonborn Skyrim tied with Shivering isles Oblivion- both just seem to have a lot of this... Creativity to it, eccentricity and unpredictable plots that I like so much->Dawnguard Skyrim->Vanilla Skyrim->Vanilla Oblivion.

This all begs the question of why, why do I like the Official DLCs so much more than the vanilla worlds of the two most recent TES games? Does it have something to do with expansions having to break monotony in some way? Does Bethesda just do a certain design method with it's expansions that I happen to like a lot? I'm not 100% sure how to put it in words, though whatever it is about the methods Bethesda makes official DLCs with- makes me wish Bethesda tried to use more similar methods for designing the base of an entire game.

Or... Maybe it's just a "Save the best stuff for the last DLCs" kinda thing, and that's all this working as intended??? Which I think I'd understand but that's just another wild guess on my part. Or maybe my own personal tastes are just especially peculiar?

Although I do feel like what Morrowind, Shivering Isles, and Dragonborn all have in common, is unpredictability all over the place, hardly anything is generic... And you're frequently left in astonishment left and right having second guesses all the time. That's my personal impression anyhow. Ah who knows... Making this poll and topic for a reason to see how other people feel about that.

I wonder, do a lot of people here have similar feelings? Or contrasting feelings? I made a poll to try to better figure this all out. It does indeed seem to be a subject I never seen brought up much really, so I figure this may be a fascinating subject. Anyways tell me your feelings about the official expansion worlds, and how you think they compare to the last three TES games vanilla worlds.

I liked the stories/world design of the base games the best, in all three cases.

In Skyrim I still adore the vanilla world, but Solsthiem (sp?) gives it a run for it's money. Dawnguard just had a fancy fort and the Snow Elf temple.

I voted other on the previous games because I've only played about 20 hours of Morrowind so far, and I'm only going to play Oblivion for the first time on Wednesday.

I personally got a ton of enjoyment out of Shivering Isles in Oblivion. I loved the vanilla game as well, but for different reasons. Oblivion as a whole to me, felt like a world that seemed typical and mundane on its exterior, but once you delved into it deeper, you would find a world of oddities. Although I did very much love the oddness of Shivering Isles substantially.

For Morrowind, I haven't played it but I've seen numerous LPs. I really like the culture and political layout of Vvardenfell and the main game.

For Skyrim, I disliked a lot of the main game, but I did like the DLC and I think it improved a few of the areas that the main game was missing on.

From oblivion and skyrim shivering isles hands down.

I loved Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim vanilla at first sight, but the design of Shivering Isles is amazing, my favorite in the whole series.

For Morrowind, nothing beats Vvardenfell, as much as I like both Mournhold and Solstheim.

For Oblivion, I seem to be among the handfull that didn't really care for Shivering Isles.

For Skyrim, I can't say I much cared for the base game or its expansions, though to be fair I haven't played much of either Dawnguard or Dragonborn.

Blaspheme! Go now and atone for your sins heretic!

Seriously though, I like the story and world design of Morrowind best.

They take more creative risks with the post-Morrowind DLC's. From most stand points, they play with stranger concepts that really make TES what it is. They're also far more focused, since they're only focusing in on a few specific things as opposed to a full game.