We are loosing what made the elder scrolls great lets compare. Morrowind has bad graphics and no dialogue but. You go into dungeons in morrowind not to just level skills, but to explore and try to get a piece of realy good armor or a really good weapon and dungeons were actually scary . In skyrim Dungeons are more appealing for people to go into, people go for the sake of exploring it. There is no use item hunting because the best gear yo have to make yourself( which is terrible for TES, but good for noobs), you go in for quests but it is not as scary in Morrowind it became to much for appealing to new people.

They say "Well I like the new system I don't feel like I am deterred away from dungeons" well guess what when you go into a dungeon it is sapose to be scary you are sapose to feel scared . Why? because it submerges you into the game, it makes you scared for your life, it makes you glade after completing the dungeon you are getting the hell out of there. Political factions in morrowind included the 3 great houses which in my opinion beats out Emp vs Storm. You feel like your apart of the house and are trying to gain superiority over the others, there is no such thing as morality in it,it was just a matter of choice. You could join the legion to help get a stable foothold in an hostile land to the Empire, you could go visit the ashlanders and explore. In Morrowind you could have fun exploring because you only get a general sketch of it. You did not have a 3d map you had exploration to find everything. there was no compass there was directions you had to follow. In Skyrim you choose between Stormcloaks and Empire yes it is a tough choice but those are the only two political factions you can help and they are in open warfare there is no agents there is no closed in warfare like between the great houses. In morrowind you can become a pilgrim for the temple but only if you walk the steps of vivec, you had to go where he went you had to do what he did, you felt something. You were a part of a dynamic interactive world.

Graphics wise Skyrim easily beats of Morrowind, but there is alot more to games than just how it looks, the looks take you in but the story keeps you there, you do not look for how much time it occupies you look for "What can I do next. Look at this book, I want to go hunting for these deadric items. Now everything is best if you build it yourself.In Morrowind you were a prisoner nothing else was known, you were a prisoner who was brought to Morrowind from the imperial prison, you could choose by yourself whether you did something horrific, were just stealing bread, or was wrongly blackmailed because you offended someone.In Skyrim you were crossing the border,What race were you? you could go as far as to say why you were crossing the border but it just isn't the same as being arrested.I liked both Morrowind's and Skyrim's main story but Morrowind immersed you in it more. Morrowind DLC you could go to the capital and help 2 main factions and dosens of people, or you can go to Solsteim and help build a Colony of your choosing and explore a yet unexplored island that is barbaric.I dont like the map now you know all the geography you know exactcly were to go , which shortens the quest, in Morrowind it was a matter of following directions . In Morrowind you could be anti or pro slavery. I see why fast travel was added, the map is quite large I dont see the big deal of fast travel being added, but at the least bring back Daggerfall's fast travel system, were you had to choose to travel recklessly or stable, inn or camping, boat,cart or walking. You don't get that whats that over there! I want to explore something that no one foun yet! in Skyrim.
There is much more to tell but I am not trying to trash skyrim they are both good games, but Morrowind was a TRUE Elder Scrolls game. Skyrim sacrificed too much in the name of simplicity, I do think it should be easy to appeal to new people but at least try and keep the old people.
People like Morrowind because of its depth.
Skyrim people like it because it is a great game with many great features but I say it lacks depth to a degree when you compare it to Morrowind.

PS:I am not asking which one is better .

Yes, there are some great things about Morrowind that Skyrim lacks. I, for one, loved the weird, organic, beautiful architecture in Morrowind that neither Skyrim nor Oblivion had.

BUT, most of what you're saying here just because of your own nostalgia, friend. If Morrowind had crafting back then and now Skyrim came out and the only way to get good gear was from item hunting, I bet you'd be complaining for the opposite reasons you are now.

Just try to let go of your nostalgia and remembrance of Morrowind's game systems and enjoy Skyrim for the good game that it is. Complaints about the how Skyrim messed up some of the lore, story and graphics (*cough* Windhelm's textures *cough*) are legit, but overall, Skyrim is an improvement to the series.

Morrowind had spells too.

I miss magic spells

It also had a deeper weapon specialization. Now we just have "one-handed" and "two-handed". Dumbed down to the extreme.

There were some things Morrowind had that were more niche rpg oriented, which was great. Daggerfall even more so. I never played Arena. But I think many people who say Morrowind was a better game on the whole are nostalgic. Because in exploration terms Skyrim, to me, seems greatly superior. One thing that Morrowind lacked, but is very important to immersion, at least to me, is ambient audio. The environment should have all kinds of little noises. What can I say, I was spoiled by Theif. But Morrowind had crap all for ambient audio. Skyrim is great in that department. Visual of coarse it is far greater, but it's also new. It could stand to have darker contrast, but there's already a mod that does that, and it's great. Makes darkness dark, and quite creepy. Hard to see at night too, which makes the game that much harder. Another strike against Morrowind for exploring dungeons is how the music was handled, that is to say, it wasn't. What you got was that lonely feeling exploration music while in a dark creepy dungeon. It didn't fit.

There are RPG elements missing, of that we can agree on, as far as stats and such go--that and the UI. But on the whole I think Skyrim is the superior game. Not because it's new, but because it brings more to the table for exploration and doing what you want to do. Don't get me wrong, there's lots of room for improvement, not to mention ALL TES games have been buggy as hell. But put your nostalgia aside, and enjoy Skyrim, or go play Morrowind. Just because I bought Skyrim does not mean I will never play Oblivion or Morrowind, or even Daggerfall again. Hell I still play Legend of Zelda, a Link to the Past, still my favorite Zelda game. Still one of my all time favorite games. That and Daggerfall.

Yeah I agree OP.

I'm 90% sure that if Skyrim kept all the same gameplay elements, but used Morrowind's physics and graphics, everyone would choose Morrowind.

Skyrim is great, and I'm addicted thoroughly, but when you boil it all down, Skyrim as a game is a lot of smoke and mirrors without a lot underneath.

wrong forum...Morrowind's graphics weren't 'bad' in it's day either

How to win=use mods that make morrowind look better then modern graphics. Amazing what people can do eh?

I remember being scared the first time setting foot into dweomer ruins in morrowind, and the ability to use spears

I think they′re match, cause they′re both unique in their own way. I cant state who′s better or worse. I love both.
So, I would vote both... as I cant... no vote.

Nostalgia plays a big role.

Mods made Morrowind great

Skyrim is totally superior

:D

Spears and medium armor.

so you mean forcing endurance? Endurance and Luck in Oblivion too?

It's not as dumbed down as it seems though, once you consider the perks, specific to axe, maces, and blades, in each of the two handed and one handed trees.

Morrowind is win when you get off tha ship, but is old now
Skyrim is great, i'm only 37 hours in so far so good =)

Fine with me.

I would have a hard time even playing Morrowind in it's vanilla form at this point...maybe with all the modded updates and add on programs I'd enjoy it, but the vanilla game...nope.

I remember having a blast with it back in '02-'05 though, even made a ton of mods for it, some in the hall of fame on PES. It's a great game as was Daggerfall but it's nothing I would devote much more time to, sadly. Great memories though, much more so than with Oblivion.

I loved Morrowind and consider it to be one of my favorite games ever. Morrowind was much deeper and had greater freedom. I would say that it had the most freedom out of any game I have ever played.

With that said, the combat and quests are not anywhere near as fun or interesting as Skyrim. Also, don't completely disregard graphics because they defiantly help to make the world more immersive and alive.

They both have their pros and cons.

Skyrim wins in combat, graphics, environment and dungeons (less repetitive). However, many aspects of it are dumbed down and the quests aren't as deep.

Morrowind wins in storyline and customization, but had horrible combat, ugly environments (not because of graphics - just ugly in general) and a poor dialogue system.

They're both great games, though I didn't like Morrowind very much overall so I'll have to go with Skyrim..

As an open-world RPG, Morrowind is simply better.

I think they're both great, but in different ways. It seems like apples and oranges to me as at the end of it all, it just boils down to do you prefer apples or oranges? I do still get a kick out of the "Rose colored nostalgia glasses" dismissal though. Seems it's not possible that someone could actually prefer any game in the World over Skyrim, especially if that game also just happens to be older.

If someone says they prefer Moonlight Sonata, or some song from their youth over the latest dubstep track, then that's obviously just rose colored nostalgia fooling their ears. Case in point. If I tell you that 30+ years ago when I was a kid, candy bars were bigger and actually ( adjusted for inflation) cost less, that's not nostalgia, they actually were. If someone says they prefer Morrowind ( or daggerfall, or Arena or Halo, etc,etc) that's not nostalgia, that's their preference.

To you.

I'd say it's a fairly irrefutable fact actually.

Some people might prefer Skyrim, and even consider it a better game... but comparing the two purely as open-world RPGs, there's really no contest at all.

I first started playing Elder Scrolls with the GOTY release of Morrowind. Back then I was just looking for a new RPG to keep me busy and didn't really understand the full scale and scope of the game until several years later during repeated replays. Morrowind has this nostalgia attached to it because it was the first truly epic thing I (and probably many others here) had ever experienced. The vast array of possibilities and paths for play made the game a rare gem in an era full of extremely linear RPGs.

I picked up Oblivion shortly after its own GOTY release and thoroughly enjoyed it, but I was often left with an itch like something just wasn't quite the same or right about it. For the most part, that little doubt remains in Skyrim as well, but I'm not so sure its because Elder Scrolls has lost something. I think the real difference is the rose tinted shades through which we see past events. Morrowind was a glitchy bug fest full of ways to screw yourself out hours of content or even completing the game at all. I can't even begin to count the endless CTD errors, inconsistencies and general lore breaking short sights the game commits. But, it did have a little something that the later ES releases did not. Morrowind was more exploration rewarding than Oblivion or Skyrim.

There were multiple instances in Morrowind where certain quests would only show up if you purposely went out of the way or attempted to break the game. Fast travel was significantly more limiting and thus the world felt larger and more grand in its design. Leveled lists were handled significantly different as well allowing for procurement of exceptionally grand equipment should the player see fit and have the skill to obtain it, something the current game's leveled list system altogether prevents. Still, the core of an Elder Scrolls game, for me at least, lay within its quest system. And, while Morrowind had more quantity, I can't really say it had more quality.

Most quests in RPGs are cliche to a fault and break down into gather X of Y, kill A, or go to B type events. The real play difference comes in how you approach the challenge as a player. For the most part the quests I've experienced from Skyrim these last couple weeks have been better than any Morrowind ever presented me with. The only failing I have with them is seeing how much more they could have been. One of the most apparent instances of this were from the final contract offered by the Dark Brotherhood:


Maybe that example and my re-imagining are a bit over the top, but its that type of immersion and experience I really wish Skyrim had. Morrowind of course never really came anywhere near that level of interaction, but it was rather impressive in its time.

So, my final thought is just that, impressive in its time. Is Skyrim impressive for its time? I don't really know, but it is certainly not nearly what I hoped it would be.

I say Skyrim is better as an open world RPG so its not a fact