Thanks to technological and civilization improvement of the last years there is more gamers, so it's natural that even if the pure percentage of RPG players was still the same there'd a larger number of players.
There are people that were unable to experience older games while their were the highest technological possibilities. People should rather be proud that more people enjoy the same entertainment medium rather than act like their elite of gaming.

I dont get that "Only new players like skyrim"
I have been a fan since morrowind.And its still my favourite elderscrolls game,Then oblivion came out,i loved it but was still dissapointed,Now skyrim is here and i like it more then oblivion.
SO please stop that "There are people who are new to tes who likeskyrim" sure they are new and like it,but i am an old fan and like it.

Pfft... Newbie. Go back to Daggerfall, to appreciate the open world of Skyrim.

What? didnt you read what i said?
And yes,i actually player daggerfall yesterday.

I kinda did. I should have elaborated on what I meant more... but I can't explain it without ruining the worse-than-intended joke. (You're not an "Old" fan of the game if you've only been a fan since Morrowind!)

Okay,But i played daggerfall and its amazing,And who cares if people are new fans or old fans? Being a old fan doesnt mean you need to hate skyrim,and being a new fan doesnt mean you need to like skyrim.
There are people that love all elder scrolls games like me,There are people just liking skyrim and oblivion,there are people just liking daggerfall and morrowind,and so on..

No it has the best potential but the worst delivery...hence it's a good game but far from great

no, yes.

(This is from a Daggerfall vet.)

Oh and to clear things up Oblivion was the last tes game developed for pc and ported to consoles, im pretty sure about that.

No, Morrowind was the last one, and it was only a few months difference. Oblivion came as on both at the same time, March 20, 2006

I have no idea why there is so much 'blabla oblivion is bad'. It was just their way back then to expres a bit of lore and I enjoy every single word spoken about it! Don't judge the game only by its graphics and stuff. That's my opinion and THAT's a reason why someone in 2012 can appreciate Arena or Daggerfall - because of the great lore --- but I repeat, that's just me and my opinion, so do not call the night mother.

No. It's potentially better then Morrowind apart from the lack of spellmaking. I'd say give it time...

Best Morrowind
Daggerfall
Skyrim
"Worst" Oblivion


Oblivion wasn't bad, but a few big design choices really soured the experience, such as the leveled world.

Skyrim suffers from the same things that hurt Oblivion, just not to the same extreme. You can still feel yourself get more powerful, but it's just not enough to be a deciding factor.

Except for the fact I only have about 470 hours in Skyrim, this holds true for me too.

It's hard to judge in between games that use user made contest - without it Bethesda would have much more trouble fixing stuff for game of the year editions, which are still not without fault. All those games aren't meant to be perfect, cause their mean to experiment within the genre - people should be glad that Bethesda keeps releasing games, instead writing blog post about how to improve TES to be perfect game. [like Leonardo da Vinci started drawing sketches instead of paintings, and then writing notes instead of that too].

It's all about exploring the possibilities, and upgrading to a certain technological standard. Advancing graphics takes from game content, but if Oblivion was released with Morrowinds graphics then the people wouldn't care about the whats inside. After the 3d graphics were able to render fingers it still takes time to actually make it, so the team still have to focus on creating the world physically beside writing lore and leveling and quest systems. Imagine you do 3D models 8 hours a day, and people still expect you to come up with brilliant, innovating ideas at the same time.

I understand personal preferences, but objectively it's hard to compare all TES games.

No, Skyrim improves on alot of things Oblivion failed on and I don't care what people say... It's an improvement over Morrowind as well.

Not the worse, but second best.

1st. Morrowind,

2nd. Skyrim,

3rd. Oblivion.

The reasons: Needless changes and lots of dumbing down; no story quests depth, everything made easy and shocking lack of weapons or skills depth.

Never played Daggerfall.

Out of the ones I've played, I'd say yes and no. Each game had it's pros and cons, I feel that Morrowind excelled in the majority and have argued that it's the best of the series (That I've played) but I wouldn't say Skyrim is the worst, I'd give it a tie with Oblivion to be honest.

sorry for not keeping my answer short, but you can't expect people to generalize an entire game and their perspective on it in a single word can you?

I think this says it all and it applies to all videogames.

This is true.

Each TES is a different game. Lore doesn't change (other than progressing), but the rest does. Of course personal opinion on each game can change, but trying to change someone opinion by giving many reasons is ridiculous like arguing in which mario game the stomping of gomba is most satisfying.

No, Oblivion deserves that dishonor.

Skyrim is better than Oblivion, but worse than the first 3 games. Redguard and Battlespire need not be discussed.

No, it is not worse than the first 3 games. The only things Daggerfall does better is the dungeon design theory (Skyrim's actual dungeons are better than Daggerfall's actual dungeons), the cityscapes (The inhabitants are terribly bland), and the main quest's open-endedness.

Arena doesn't do anything as well as the later games do.

I haven't played Redguard or Battlespire, but Redguard was more a linear adventure game, not an rpg. Battlespire was a multiplayer game. I've played both Arena and Daggerfall a bit, but not enough to rate them. I couldn't stand the unresponsive controls. From what I hear, I'd easily become a Daggerfall fanatic, if the controls would've worked. Oblivion was a huge letdown, except for the thieves guild and the dark brotherhood. I recently started playing oblivion again, but after I finished the dark brotherhood and the thieves guild quest lines I got bored.

In Skyrim, lots of quests were cool, but there was too few. The dark brotherhood was a joke, and I was really disappointed with it. The thieves guild was cool the moment when you became a nightingale and when you returned the skeleton key. The College of Winterhold was cool, but short. Too short. What I'm missing the most is the journal from Morrowind, plus journal enhanced. That shouldn't be too hard to put into the game. Also, a menu overhaul. And where did the numbers/stats/guild ranks go?

Morrowind was my favorite (yeah yeah, I'm a really devoted fan but honestly, I strongly believe that I would've loved daggerfall if I had been able to play that), what Morrowind lacked came a little in Oblivion and a little in Skyrim, but everything that Morrowind had, got removed. Remove what works and fix what don't isn't the right way to do it. The few faults Morrowind had, was fixed in Oblivion, but then again, it lost so much.

Keep an eye out for DaggerXL. It'll be finished one of these days.