They really matter to me, but I could go without them.

While the main storylines were not among the strongest aspects of past TES games, nor were they an integral part of the TES experience, I feel that abandoning them altogether would leave the games feeling generic.
Main storylines give the games meaning and drama, and pull the whole experience together in my opinion.

I'd like to have a main quest line that you have to discover. But also have the main quest time limited - ie.

The BADGUY is building an army and starting to descend on the game world. If you discover the main quest but ignore it for long enough he will start to conquer towns and area's thus removing all the side quests available in those areas until you reach a point where you are FORCED to act. Also I quite like the idea that you are not SPECIAL in any way other than that you are willing / able to take action.

The main quest should also allow for multiple choices / outcomes. You can be good, neutral, bad or SUPER-bad. The BADGUY offers you power and riches and glory if you serve him - you say yes - then stab him in the back and usurp his power and destroy the world - or are destroyed by a last alliance of unsung heroes - well you see where I'm going with this.

Actually, playing a game without a main quest, where you're not a huge hero out to save the world, is a great idea. I think that'd be great.

Thanks JovBlackheart - nice bear hunting icon btw.

I actually enjoyed both Main Quests, of Morrowind and Oblivion. Morrowind's was good because you're given some pretty complex things to do on your way to become Nerevarine, and you're making as many enemies as you are allies.

With Oblivion, it was a great twist to do the Main Quest only to find out that while you are important, you aren't the main hero of the story. It was pretty unexpected the first time to watch someone else take on the Daedric Prince. Nice twist there. Normally in many a game, it would be you trying everything in your reperptoire to defeat him.

With the next one, I would hope there are plenty of both, things to surprise you on your MQ, and things to deter you from doing it right away.

The Main Quests are pretty important to me. Stuff actually changes during the Main Quest. You make an impact on the world. Feels good, man.

I think there needs to be a main quest or something equivalent to one. I suppose it could be looser - rather than having a quest line then around certain levels you encounter specific important events and then eventually tie together in to an ending. However this is still a main quest it's just more dispersed.

While these games are fun to play without paying any heed to the main quest I think actually making a game without a storyline like this would leave the game feeling hollow.

I voted other.

I feel that the game needs some kind of underlying direction to make it cinimatic. However, I believe the perpose of the main story should exist to create a predicement, but leave it to the player to decide his involvement, if he wishes to become involved.

I always wished that you could side with the Sixth house in Morrowind, or with the Mythic Dawn in Oblivion (I mean, whats with all the Mehrunes hate?).

It would also be great if the player could work on a trade or craft.

I care about them a whole lot but if they were removed, I would still play the Elder Scrolls video games if they still have character customization in looks and statistics that is.

Yes - if as well-implemented as Morrowind's - which managed not to railroad any of my characters into becoming the Nerevarine, but eventually imbued them with the sense anything else they did was pointless and prelapsarian in the face of what dwelled on the other side of the Ghostfence - the feeling of fulfilling the prophecies was great, especially with the interpersion of different sorts of missions along the way which seemed innocent enough,

Oblivions wasn't as terrible as people make out - whilst it was less grey (Dagoth Ur's vision of a free Morrowind is shared by most conservative Dunmer in House Redoran, Dres and Indoril...they're just squeamish about the tentacle-faces and perverse fiddling with Aedra bits) and more evil demons vs heroic everyone else, it did seem to have a certain pull. I did get very bored of Oblivion gates after the first few though. Again, I'll parrot what many people say - having my character see the Emperor die and be handed the Amulet of Kings makes any RPer feel forced to do the quest; a more open-ended Morrowind style entry would be nicer (Hey, go talk to this guy Caius Cosades...he's basically your parole officer..)

Being able to choose from several sides demands a certain story - joining the Mythic Dawn is revealed to be idiotic and, frankly, I don't remember being given the option and I doubt they wanted me until I'd got a name for myself. On the other hand, being Nerevar reborn and joining Dagoth Ur to smash some false gods sounds awesome - Dagoth Urs happy, the Dunmer are happy, Azura is temporarily happy....

I like it if it doesn't start you out on:
"THE EMPEROR'S BEING ASSASSINATED BEFORE YOUR EYES, TAKE THIS AMULET TO JAUFFRE OR THE WHOLE WORLD WILL BE CONSUMED BY THE GATES OF OBLIVION."
:shrug:

If it was a nice, peaceful, "Ah, there ye are... it's hard to tell under that heavy coat ah yers. Are ya a lad or a lass?" and then the Race Menu opened I'd be happy.

Where then the person sent you off on a small errand like delivering your letter somewhere, and you slowly got more and more involved with things.

So then if you didn't want to start the MQ, no worries, there's a whole world out there to explore.

Personally, I think that the series needs some sort of a main quest. I mean, if they took out the main quest, I'd feel like I was playing the Sims, only much worse, because I went into that Elder Scrolls game expecting to be tossed into a series of events that will ultimately affect the rest of the world - I'm sure we all know that the Sims had no set goal from the time it first came out.

It doesn't even have to be all in-your-face like Oblivion; Morrowind pulled it off quite well, and I loved how it was all so ambiguous to the point where it was literally up to the player's mind to figure out whether the Nerevarine was really a prophesised reincarnation of a legendary hero, or simply some random person who somehow managed to accomplish what he/she did, or possibly even a combination of the two.

What I'm trying to say is that it wouldn't really be a true Elder Scrolls game without a main quest; because every other Elder Scrolls game beforehand was about a lone person who got involved in very major events - The Imperial Simulacrum, The Warp in the West, The Nerevarine Prophecies, The Oblivion Crisis - so what would an Elder Scrolls game be without conveying a milestone in the history of the world it takes place in?

I've only done Morrowind and Oblivion's main quests once. I didn't think either one was worth playing a second time. If another Elder Scrolls game was released without a main quest I wouldn't miss it.

If by main quest you mean Oblivion or Morrowind style main quest (mainly linear, follows the same pattern every time at least) then I think there is room for improvement, because obviously when there is the same story every time the lore only follows one path, but I would like to see some drastic changes and difference in the changes made based on a certain path taken in the quest (think Mass Effect). In other words there should be a main story but the player should be able to choose a side and drastically change the outcome of events.

I just voted that "I care about them a little, but .....".

I like a free-form game. In my ultimate fantasy, I would like quests to spring up based on my doings. If I steal from someone, I would like news to be on the street about the theft, and maybe even have guards start tracking me, following me, forcing me to find a way to lose them.

As for actual story-lines.....some are really, really weak. "Recover a lost mug," "kill some lions" etc, all boring. Shivering Isles's MQ and Oblivion MQ were allright, and had fun moments, but did I really care whether Martin lived? No. Do I care if a bunch of marriage-breaking wenches from Anvil are stopped? No.

There is nothing that I sincerly care about, past the reward at the end. Perhaps if Daedra invading Cyrodiil really affected my experience, like having Daedra walking down the main street of Chorrol, maybe I would be encouraged to stop them, just to get back to daily life. But other than that, they interest me for a while, but I could easily go without them.