Picked yes because I will almost always prefer to have more content, but really in Oblivion I felt there wasn't enough to do aside from the MQ... maybe it was right that was, still want lots of extra content aside from a good MQ

I voted yes because I think that it was the amount of groups to join that really made Morrowind feel like a real world. It provided ~50% of the immersion into the game.

I voted no. Here's why: most of morrowind's quests svcked. Example: the Telvani faction - if you were doing favors for the mouths a lot of them were go to the store, buy five of whatever, then come back to me. It was an awful quest! And there were like 5 of them in Telvani alone! I much prefer more in-depth questlines. Honestly after going back and playing morrowind I liked Oblivion better. If we can have maybe one or two more factions than oblivion and keep all with good quest lines I'd like that. None of this 15 factions with very few unique quests stuff.

One of the greatest disappointments for me, in both MW and OB, is that once you become the leader of a faction, basically, all quests and interactions with that faction (other than maybe buying consumables [like potions, scrolls, ingredients, etc], or training) is over.

I don't know about *more* joinable factions, but one thing I'd like to see is at least some of the factions become *part* of the main quest. Now, I know it's part of the Elder Scrolls philosophy to allow the player a high degree of freedom of choice, so you might wonder how that might work? Well, it seems to me that some portion of the main quest could remain inaccessible until you were the leader of one of a subset of the factions, but you could choose which particular faction to become the leader of. At that point, the 'faction' storyline and the 'main' storyline could kind of merge together (at least, for awhile, then they might diverge somewhat too). There would be some differences between the different factions (maybe some of the quests after you become leader are different for the different factions), but in the end, they all get you to the same point in the main storyline.

Also, while I wouldn't make the factions completely mutually exclusive, I think you should only really be able to be the leader of one faction (there *might* be some leeway in allowing the player character to be the leader of a 'public' organization, like the Mages Guild, Fighters Guild, Imperial Legion, etc, and then possibly the character could secretly be the leader of a 'shadow' organization like the Blades, Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, etc.

I'd also like to see more 'un-factioned' quest/storylines outside of the main storyline. Both Morrowind and Oblivion have a lot of 'one-off' quests with little story to them, and basically one location that is part of the quest, and those are still good to have, but I'd like to see more 'story-arcs' which aren't necessarily part of a faction, involving multiple different NPCs, groups of villains, and multiple dungeons/locations.

Yes, and one thing that i think would really enrich the game would be to give the player special skills depending on which guild he/she/it joins. For example, if joining the necromancers, the player will recive a super reanimation spell thats usable on all corpses etc.

Yes it should, and these factions should have beef with each other, just like in Morrowind.

There's a really good idea, linking and branching between the faction and main quests. If you're a member of X faction, it opens up the corresponding MQ option. If you're NOT a leader or at least a ranking member of any of the relevant factions, then there's a "generic" path that you get instead. It would make faction membership and rank seem "significant" in the game, not like it's totally unrelated to the rest of the game world. Faction leadership should open up at least one or two more quests, not effectively "end" your participation in that faction as it did in the earlier games.

Personally, I wouldn't want leadership in one faction to totally rule out the leadership of another unrelated one, but it should make it more difficult to meet both sets of demands. Heading up any more than two of them should be either impossible or pretty close to it.

I haven't voted yet, mainly cause I am confused is the topic wanting more stand alone factions or factions that are within a faction. An example is like in Morrowind namely the Fighter Guild there is a distinct inter-faction sides which ultimately led to a faction war that centered around the main character killing off most of the sub-leaders and the leader himself. Personally I want more depth towards factions, perhaps less stand alone factions and really work out rivalaries within a faction, namely you join the camp of one faction sub leader and a certain member of the same faction doesn't like you very much.

I can't say for sure, but I don't think that was done for lack of ideas. The Telvanni are jerks, and probably lazy. If they get a new member, whos also an outlander, they're gonna make him go to the store, clean the bathrooms, take care of their yippy little dogs while they go on vacation.

And I don't mind a couple boring quests over half a dozen factions. Because when you have an in depth, exciting questline like the Dark Brotherhood of Oblivion, but you play it with every single character, because it's one of four factions...it becomes boring.

And besides, look at how many people pay monthly to play WoW and EVERY quest is the some variation of the same goal, just with incrementally increased difficulty and incrementally increased rewards. Psychologically, that kind of gameplay has proven to be addictive, literally.

I think a great benefit would be additional randomly-generated quests. When you're through with the guild's main quest, you could still do odd jobs for them.

Fighters Guilds would have you clear out some monsters somewhere. The Assassins guild would have you kill a randomly-generated NPC in some town or camp. The Mages Guild would allow you to become a magic teacher to earn some extra gold. The Thieves Guild would continue being a good source of income from stolen goods. The Legion and guard services would allow you to continue catching lawbreakers and arrest people. The political factions would require diplomatic missions.

Well there were similar quests for the Imperial Cult. Any faction that tells me to fetch Muck is annoying. One that wants me to go to the otherside of the island to get it is very annoying.

But I agree. It didn't matter that most factions had a couple of boring quests and with that many factions there wasn't the repetitiveness factor of Oblivion. I thought a lot of the Oblivion quest writing was good (not all of it though. The MQ particularly was disappointing and repetitive). I really enjoyed a lot of the quests first time I did them but it didn't have anything like the replay value of MW

Personally both games did well. Morrowind had lots of guilds, but many quests where basically the same. Oblivion's quests where more varried, but there wern't as many quests or guilds as in morrowind.
I think the next step would naturally be to mix it up. You join a guild and get the occasional "go kill some rats" quest. But every once in a while you get a quest that's special.

Edit:
Personally I preferred Morrowind's questlines,. simply because there was more of it. I don't want to be able to complete a guild questline in 20 minutes

Yes, because when you first join a guild, you should be given the most important duties in the whole guild. You should be sent to kill a coven of necromancers, or wipe out a cult of religious crazies.

[/sarcasm]

Small, unimportant quests where what gave Morrowind life. It's why I felt for the world, whereas in Oblivion, there was danger everywhere, and someone was always in the middle of a life or death situation. This just made it so cheesy, and I couldn't feel for it.

Think of it this way: If you get your first ever job in MacDonalds, you won't be doing manager duties on your first day. You'll be cleaning up/working the tills/making food. You never start at the top and be the most important person ever. It should be the same in TES.

Actually all the mouths had similar "fetch this" quests, even when I was an equivalent rank to them, so I don't think it was just initiate gets junk assignments, which would have made sense. I agree that you shouldn't get save the world quests right away, but I think what the fighters guild quests in both oblivion and morrowind had it right. Example: they had you go kill some rats. Piece of cake. That was better than going shopping though. Only other thing I would say is I liked Oblivion's journal and quest tracker much better than morrowinds journal. I felt like I never got anything done in morrowind after doing quests. In oblivion it helped track your progress (by logging quests completed and showing your rank on that one screen). I still say I liked Oblivion's set up better. If there could be more quests with depth like Oblivion then great! If it's one or the other (depth or breadth) I'll take Oblivion's.

TES V should have more rival factions. There should be factions that when your part of one the others will hate or even attack you. I believe there was something similar in Morrowind. but with there new factions they should be more outland based, rather than in big cities, or have entire town based arround that faction.

Also i would like to see little outlandish Cult type things, with wierd rituals that actually effect the players psyche, popularity and reputation.

they should make 2 sides of the game or atleast a large expansion so u can join darker side factions so like mythic dawn, necromancers, blackwood company and if u hav knights of the nine perhaps a group opposing them? instead of holy things u could hav the opposite, black armor and stuff would look kool. also they should hav elite guilds like and extension of the mages guild, thieves/assassins

Basically, this. Little things like the Thieves guild vs. The Fighters Guild and Comonna Tong or the kerfuffle between the Morag Tong and Redoran (I was just doing my job! He wasn't even that important! Come on!), and the choice of which Great House is always a hard one (actually, with LGNPC project it isn't so much but you can't anticipate things like that).

Those little conflicts let you decide how to play. I was so frustrated during the Mages Guild Quest in Oblivion. I either play a former Khajiit slave who adopted the Temple Faith, a crazy ex-slave, or a cosmopolitan Dunmer, so it isn't that I am a necromancer. Not at all! But the Archmagister was a freakin' tool and I'm generally for tolerance (Necromancy is legal and I've got a soft-spot for Mannimarco from Daggerfall days -- I was totally gonna give him the Mantella when I played DF back in the day). I never really got what they did wrong. Once they were outlawed, sure. But before then? Nothing. The Dark Brotherhood and KoTN were well done, I will say.

Basically, if there is a conflict where an available choice makes sense, let the choice be made. Or at least start to develop it that way. In Morrowind, the Sixth House has some indications that at some point it was going to be a joinable faction. I think that really deepened the Sixth House. Sure, it was dropped at some point. Release dates and all that, I get it. But if you could maybe join them, it makes them more believable. You can't have the big bad be a totally evil entity if the hero might join them. Misunderstood? Sure. Going about it the wrong way? Absolutely! But still basically sensible. Mix that in with some great throwaway villains like the guy from KoTN and good-to-go.

yes, i want Daedric Cults

The more Factions the better. I would like to see more houses fighting and scheming for power.

In Oblivion, there were "enough" factions only because there was nothing stopping you from doing ALL of them with the same character, and becoming "Head of Everything and Everything Else".

I wouldn't mind having the same approximate number of factions *IF* there were rival "cliques" within each faction that you had to choose between. That way, you could play a different character and take the other side of the issue, leading to a couple of previously unseen divergent quests before it tied back into the main faction quest. If some of those "forks" resulted in friendly or hostile interactions with other factions, while others didn't, THAT would be impressive. The initial playthrough could be the same depth, but the replayability would be far higher.

No, and I also want to see the Imperialized, sanitized, we're-all-in-this-together Guilds gone and replaced with factions more relative to the city or dominant culture of the area. So maybe an assassin's guild of Mauloch-worshiping orcs, in one city, and in another, a Nordic, cult of Shor. Something like that.