Ok, so I'll be all over the place and my point won't really be clear until the end. So, please read the whole thing if you wish to reply.

One thing every TES game has in common:

After I make my very first character, I am thrust into, not really a video game in the traditional, expected sense, but a living, breathing world (seemingly) that is unwelcoming and intimidating. After a few weeks of playing, when I start to realize how scripted and clunky everything is, the wonder wears off. And this is true for Oblivion, Morrowind, Daggerfall and Arena.

However, I can keep myself immersed for months with that initial feeling of wonder still lingering in my head. One thing that Bethesda does really well is atmosphere. That fleeting, yet overwhelming feeling of pure immersion and engagement that you only get very rarely. Because a game doesn't just have to be well-designed to produce this feeling; it also has to be special.

I have to admit, Oblivion gave me that feeling, too. I shrugged off the pointer and kept nirnroot as my active quest and it really didn't phase me, much. There is nothing quite like running through the woods of Cyrodil in a heavy rainstorm, jumping over logs and dodging the strikes of an angry minotaur. Stumbling across an inn out of the dark and just staring up at that foreboding stone structure before you.

Of course, after you sneak your way past the innkeeper, seeing as you're strapped for cash, and prepare yourself for some well deserved rest... "cannot sleep in an owned bed."

Now, there were tons of stupid immersion breakers like that in Morrowind. But, why did it bother me so much more in Oblivion? We could go on forever and ever about all the little things that one game did better than the next, quests, travel, yadda, yadda...

But what's the point when there's a much more blatant trend apparent in these forums. People pretty much seem to generally prefer the one they played first. When a game makes the kind of impression on you that I described, especially when you're young (I think it's safe to say most people played their first TES game when they were under 18, let me know if I'm wrong), then the idea of Tamriel it presents will make an imprint onto your brain. And no one wants their personal Tamriel tampered with.

So maybe Oblivion fans are too distracted by physics and combat, and maybe Morrowind fans just like to wander around aimlessly, listening to cliffracers and asking everyone they pass for "a little advice" like some tool.

Or maybe it has nothing to do with the actual games at all.
I have to admit, I loved Oblivion until I started being reminded of Morrowind on these forums and it didn't really become unplayable to me until the first time I popped Morrowind back into my Xbox.

Vote in the poll and let me know if I'm right.

I was just playing Morrowind and I walked out of the Mages Guild in Vivec and looked at the smith across the plaza and was temporarily transported back to when I was 16. That's why I had to post this.

Morrowind was my first TES game.

Morrowind is my favorite TES game.

I view all of them as the same game. I'm just worried about the game I played later evolving in the wrong direction. I guess I would have felt it in any order. They are still the same game for me but I'm afraid next level in this evolution could be something I wouldn't play.

I played Oblivion first, but I much prefer Morrowind. Well, that's true to an extent. I first played Oblivion in 2009, and Morrowind in 2010, quite long after both games came out. Because of this, the graphics of both games influence how much I enjoy playing either. Don't jump to conclusions now, let me explain. I enjoy good graphics, but I can and do often play older games with very dated graphics. I most recently started played Deus Ex and enjoyed it quite a bit. But with TES games, where the point of the game is to explore the vast worlds in them and do quests, the quality of the graphics are in my mind much more. I really like Morrowind more as a game, but I enjoy playing Oblivion more because the graphics makes exploring more pleasant. If TES V is more like Morrowind and less like Oblivion, but with modern graphics, I'll be like a kid in a candy store.

Long story short, I like Morrowind much more, but enjoy playing Oblivion more.

But I love Fallout 3 :fallout:

(And yes, I've tried MGE and other graphics enhancers, but honestly they don't help much for me).

I think that there is nostalgia factor involved that makes people remember their first TES game more fondly. However, that rule doesn't really apply to me because I played Oblivion first yet I like Morrowind more (I still really like Oblivion though).

Morrowind was my first TES game.

Morrowind makes the others look like crap, yes it's my favorite.

I think it has a lot to do with just a good game. TES II was a great game, but Morrowind actually kind of revamped it. It was brought to the "modern gaming world" with new graphics and yada yada ya. Now Oblivion was good, but Morrowind was great. I think it had a lot of things we all just loved and cared about. Oblivion changed. Its like a sequel to a great movie. The first one is amazing. And we might like the second one. But the first one will always be the best. Now this isn't always true. But it seems to work with this. Especially with the magical formula Ive come up with. The more we get into the future the crappier games become. Not to say they're bad games, just not as good as they're predecessor.

~Regards, Wolf-Lord

I understand what you mean with this.

Lately I've found myself scoping out games from 2000-2004 that I haven't tried, rather than playing new games anymore.

Morrowind was my second game

Morriwnd is my favorite.

Not only was Morrowind my first TES game, it was my first video game. Not the first I ever played, but the first that was mine. I didn't have to share it with four brothers or friends. And it let me be whatever I wanted to be. Unless I'm sorely mistaken, no game will ever have a hold over me like Morrowind does. And I freely admit that the biggest reason I come back to it is nostalgia.

Morrowind has never been topped. My first TES game, and the best game I've ever played. Daggerfall comes in close, but Morrowind takes the cake.

My first Elder Scrolls game is Oblivion. My favorite game(out of all games, not just Elder Scrolls games) is Oblivion. My second Elder Scrolls game is Morrowind. My second favorite game(out of all games, not just Elder Scrolls games) is Morrowind. My third Elder Scrolls game is Daggerfall. My third favorite game(out of all games, not just Elder Scrolls games) is Fallout 3. My fourth Elder Scrolls game is Arena. My fourth favorite game(out of all games, not just Elder Scrolls games) is Daggerfall. Arena falls out of my top 5 list, but the order I have played Elder Scrolls games in lines up with which I prefer over others.

You are right about that feeling. I love Oblivion more than the others not necessarily because of specific game mechanics, but because it is what first introduced me to the series, to Bethesda, and to the current generation of consoles graphics. I first experienced that immersive wonder of do whatever I want whenever I want with Oblivion, and the graphics that absolutely stunned me when I first played it helped the impression it made on me. While trying to keep that initial feeling I had, I am genuinely happy when just roaming the Cyrodiilic countryside on my horse, remembering the feelings I had when first playing the game. For nostalgic and sentimental value, Oblivion is my favorite.

Daggerfall was my third Elder Scrolls game, and it is my favourite. I played Morrowind first, when I was really young, so I could not play with it properly. My first TES game, I properly played, was Oblivion, and now I think of it as one of the most boring games I've ever played. It lost its charm quite quickly, for me. The vanilla Oblivion, at least. Shivering Isles is just plain awesome, that' why I still consider Oblivion a great game. I hope TESV will have that unique atmosphere Shivering Isles and Daggerfall had. One can only hope.

I started with oblivion and when I first got it I was amazed with everything I loved running through the forest and hearing the battle music look around and see nothing and then out of nowhere a minotaur attacks and I loved running around towns on killing sprees and the character creation was the best of all the tes games(with daggerfall's and morrowind's close by)and I felt part of the story in oblivion(but almost all tes games do that)so it is my favourite game but morrowind comes after that but no one can make me hate oblivion.

Just out of curiousity, what do you find to be in common between Daggerfall and SI's atmospheres? It seems to me as if Cyrodiil is more like Daggerfall and SI is more like Vvardenfell than Daggerfall is like SI.

Morrowind was my first Elder Scrolls game too, and I loved it. In time, it began to not be quite as impressive as it first seemed, and I don't just mean that in terms of graphics, though obviously, the graphics are rather dated by modern standards, that's to be expected, and it's something you learn to deal with if you play older games. A lot of the things in Morrowind that first made it seem so special have later showed up in other games as well, and have at times been done better, things like the level of customization and freedom in the game, or even just the idea of an RPG played in first person were rather novel to me at the time, but now, I've seen it done elsewhere, and not just in other Elder Scrolls games. Mostly, though, I think it's just that as the initial awe of seeing Morrowind for the first time began to ware off, I began to become more aware of every flaw and imperfection in the game, and began to become annoyed with every aspect of the game that wasn't done how I'd want it. Still, Morrowind, I suppose, still is a special game to me, for one thing, it was the first Elder Scrolls game I played, and while some of the gameplay mechanics I wish could be done differently, in terms of the actual design of the world, it's the closest to how I feel the Elder Scrolls world should be presented we've seen to this day (In other words, we need more unique and interesting art design and less generic fantasy garbage.)

Would I say it's my favorite Elder Scrolls game? To that I ask, do I have to choose? I've played Daggerfall, I've played Morrowind and I've played Oblivion, and I liked all of them, they were different games, yes, and of course there were things I would have prefered to see done differently in each game. But if you have a game as big as any given Elder Scrolls game, there's bound to be something I can find fault in. Still, I loved each of these games, and it would be hard for me to choose just one that I like above all the others, so I just enjoy each for what it is instead of constantly trying to compare them, that works for me, and I'm sure Bethesda wouldn't object to that mentality either.



It sounds to me like the poster wasn't so much saying that the atmosphere of both games were similar but just that both games had fairly unique atmospheres, which I still can't agree with, Daggerfall was about as generic as fantasy can be, as was Oblivion without Shivering Isles.

Morrowind was the first TES game I played, and it's my favourite. On top of that I first played it when I was ten, so it's had quite an impact on me over the years as I do tend to judge other RPG's by it.

Of course that doesn't mean to say that I don't like Oblivion.

By atmosphere I meant the overall feeling, not the scenery(of course, I'm not saying that the scenery is not a part of the atmosphere). That is why Cyrodiil is totally different than Daggerfall, and that is why Daggerfall and SI has certain things common between each other. Cyrodiil was generic, boring, it was mediocre in almost every respect. Daggerfall and SI had unique feelings to them. Daggerfall=awesome story, music SI=pretty much the same
So, in short, they are similar, yet totally different and that means they are awesome. Err... I hope I was clear, because actually, I did not really think about this, until you asked. It's a thing you know, but have difficulty expressing it with words. Feel free to point out if I was... illogical.

Technically, I played Daggerfall first, and I love the IDEA of Daggerfall. Oblivion is the first game I've played fully in the series, and it's my favorite for a number of reasons. Mostly, two factors:

1. intuitive mechanics. It requires a lot less effort to accomplish mundane non-quest tasks (in other words, no reply to me should include blah blah quest markers blah blah hand holding). I'm talking about the number of steps needed to make an ATTEMPT at a routine task while doing whatever. Make a feather potion? Repair my gear? Pick a lock? Just getting to the attempt stage is easier in Oblivion. aaaaaand...

2. Oblivion actually rewards "learn by doing", which is infinitely better than rewarding people for having an excess of gold and finding a trainer. Mind you, I'm all for training being part of the game, but shouldn't actually using the skill be, you know, important to getting better? Oblivion is the first TES game to nerf the training loophole, and all I can say is "it's about time that Mastery isn't based on how much loot you acquire"

Daggerfall was my first.


Morrowind is my favorite by leaps and bounds.


Also, I was over 18 when I played Daggerfall. I'm one of those fabled older gamers haha. I liked Morrowind for many reasons, and Daggerfall had many advantages over it as well. But for me, Bethesda struck a particular chord with Morrowind. Vvardenfel had an atmosphere and a culture unlike anything I'd ever seen before. Dunmer culture was foreign and intriguing and exotic. It felt magical. Oblivion was more european and as a result, its culture bored me -- after all, medieval european settings are a dime a dozen. Vvardenfel was something special.

MW was my first TES game and remains my favourite TES game
Then again it wasn't my first CRPG and it remains my favourite CRPG

This.

Morrowind was my first ES game, but I wasn't a teen when I first played it in 2004 or so. It was amazing to play a sandbox game like MW. I didn't have a computer that could play "Oblivion" until last year. I enjoyed Oblivion a lot and I'm currently playing it, but it's not as immersive as MW. I'm not sure how much of that is nostalgia, so I'm going to try to play MW again later this year to compare, not having played it since 2005.

I've never had to resort to training in Morrowind except for the sneak skill and one particular character who switched from warrior to mage halfway through his life.

I think a lot of what you spend your time doing also depends more on you than the actual game. It is a sandbox.

But Morrowind definitely doesn't force you to spend a lot of time training up skills unless you let it.

EDIT: same goes for Daggerfall, also. I read so many guides that say, "train train train, you gotta train."

I barely ever train in Daggerfall, and I'm fine. The only time I ever train in either game is when I happen to be passing by a trainer anyway.

The first TES I played was Morrowind. I didn't understand it at all, so I quit. I bought Oblivion a few years and started to understand what the Elder Scrolls series was about Then, I went back to Morrowind, and I actually got what the game was about. Still, Oblivion will always be my favorite. I voted the second option, but I could also vote the first. Since Oblivion was really my introductory to the series.