Due to my age, I came into TES with Oblivion (probably played over 1,000 hours), and have never played Morrowind.

What is it about Morrowind that everyone likes so much?

And would Morrowind work on a modern gaming PC (might try it), or would I have some issues?

Oh man where to start...

I like them about the same personally. The only reason I do like morrowind a little bit more is because oblivion had level scaled loot.

Theres a lot to say, but for me it is the story. I don't wanna spoil it for you but the story in Morrowind is more twisty, surprising, challenging, the pace is perfect, its not the usual cliche stuff you would find in most fantasy RPG, story is really detailed too.

Unlike Oblivion's story where it is "youareinmydreams gotojaufree savemartin dohisdirtywork martinisgod! kthxbai!"

Simply put, I honestly think it's a matter of which Elder Scrolls game you start with. There are always exceptions, but all polls that include both parts of my theory seem to show the two parts (first game and favorite game) correlate very closely. A question that stems from this is why those who start with Morrowind make up the majority of forum-dwellers.

It is also a game that not only requires one to explain why its good, you HAVE to play it.

This is one of those topics where I'll just step in, submit my 2 cents, then kindly step out so as not to frustrate myself.

I am one of the people who enjoy Morrowind more than Oblivion. I think it is far more enjoyable to explore Morrowind, seeing as there are mountains that block certain areas off, so you must find the path around them, there are dungeons that are no always on the map, so you never feel like you've explored everywhere, and there are a lot more unique artifacts to find in random dungeons, making it more rewarding than just random leveled loot. Basically, there was more of a reason to explore and it was more rewarding to do so.

Also, I like the story and the lore of Morrowind more than Oblivion. The Tribunal and Dagoth Ur are incredibly interesting and, I think, more important to the future of TES than people give them credit for. The Dwemer are also one of my favorite things in the lore. However, these are merely personal preferences and I do not expect other games to match or surpass this.

That said, I absolutely adore Oblivion and I think it is a wonderful and fantastic game that I've easily spent 1000 hours on total. Oblivion did a lot of things better than Morrowind, such as combat, AI, and an enhanced sense of realism. Morrowind did some things better than Oblivion, such as the feeling of exploration, better leveling, and a more believable world.

I'll now excuse myself from this thread, as I tend to get irritated when people bash Oblivion as a terrible game, which is no doubt forthcoming.

It works great. And the more "modern" your PC is, the better. Lots of memory and a powerful video card means you can use MGE (to create Distant Land, Dynamic water and shadows, Sun rays, etc)
If you have Vista or Windows7, there is one easy step you must do to ensure mods work, but otherwise there is no problem.

As to why people like it... It just has more of everything. And feels much more like an original RPG .

I started with Oblivion too, only playing Morrowind briefly on the Xbox until recently when I got it on the PC, and I have to say I only enjoyed Oblivion more because I run hundreds of mods with it. For me, it was just so much more fun to explore and discover new things in Morrowind. In Oblivion, right out of the tutorial dungeon you had your magical map and compass to show you exactly where you needed to go and what to do, and then it even let you fast travel right to the town you needed to be at as soon as you walked out the dungeon. Not to mention the sense of urgency in Oblivion's main quest. Everyone made it sound like if you didn't do a quest right when it was given to you that the world was going to end.

At least in Morrowind you get out of the character creation area and it's generally left up to you what to do first. There's no compass or quest markers to tell you where you need to go, and even when you do get to the first part of the MQ, all they tell you is, "here's some gold, go get some nice gear and come back when you get stronger." I just enjoyed having the freedom to explore and try different things, not knowing what the next area was going to be like, since the map is fogged over until you get to a certain area, and not having quest markers made it easier to go where I want and not feel obligated to do something.

I feel I should also mention (at least for Velorien's sake ) that I did think Oblivion was a great game that I've easily put 1000+ hours into and I am in no way bashing it.

Thanks for the replies; I'll have to give it a try.


Another question: would Arena/Daggerfall work on a modern PC?

They do, if you're willing to go through the process of configuring them on DOSBox (a guide is provided). I've heard there are pre-configured versions, somewhere, but I've never used them and don't know where they are. Personally, I find that Arena doesn't run too well, however, but it may just be my computer. Daggerfall runs perfectly fine, though.

The pre-configured Daggerfall is http://theelderscrolls.wiwiland.net/?title=Daggerfall_:_DaggerfallSetup_EN (and yes, it is legal and safe)
It works great and set-up is very simple.

I'm not sure about Arena.

The one thing that I absolutely LOVED in Morrowind was stealing. You can steal anything and then sell it. In Oblivion you can't, because for some reason, when you steal an apple, suddenly every person in the whole world knows that apple is stolen. That is my biggest complaint about Oblivion.
Also, in Morrowind your skills actually mattered more, you can miss with your weapons! In Oblivion, even if you are a mage, you just swing your axe left and right and kill everything. I also hated that simplification, so to me Oblivion was more like an action-RPG, like first person Diablo or something.
Morrowind also had more guilds, spells and skills, interesting landscapes and lore. Oblivion felt generic.

I must say, Morrowind is really different from Oblivion. IMO, Oblivion has better combat, but Morrowind has a better overal feeling, exploring a dungeon and find something valuable gives more satisfaction than finding random loot in Oblivion. Mods fix it, but it should be fixed in vanilla Oblivion. Skills have more impact on your life. If you aren't skilled in a certain weapon, like blunt, you won't hit that many times. This is very frustrating for new Morrowind players. The lack of direction and text based dialogue turn some people off. Magic is also different. You can't cast spells and swing a sword simultaneously. You must ready yourself to cast a spell. There's a chance to "fail" the spell. Increasing your skill will decrease the chance of failing. Handy link to see the difference between Morrowind and Oblivion: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Morrowind_for_Oblivion_Players. Last but not least: DON'T EVER LOOK ON UESP UNLESS YOU'RE COMPLETELY STUCK ON A QUEST. Trust me, it spoiled my whole Oblivion experience. I didn't knew my grandfather bought this for me as a birthday present, and I had read all kinds of stuff on UESP, such as the main quest, items, questlines of the mages and fighters guild, etc. Don't make the same mistake!

IF YOU WANT FIND THINGS OUT YOURSELF, DONT LOOK AT THE TIPS BELOW.

My advice to you if you're serious about buying: Take it slowly at the beginning, save often (there's no autosave when entering every door, only when sleeping), choose at least one weapon skill (blade, blunt, spear, axe, destruction or marksman, H2H is a better skill here because fatigue has a bigger impact on everything you do than in Oblivion, but still I won't recommend it), mysticism and alteration as minor skills (Mysticism has better spells in Morrowind, such as teleportation (mark, recall, divine and almsivi intervention) and alteration also has some useful spells (the infamous levitate, jump, slowfall, swift swim, water walking and water breathing) and maybe athletics as major/minor (Morrowind is smaller than Oblivion, but the walk speed is way slower). As a warrior, carry some sujamma around when things get a bit tough. One sujamma bottle can turn anyone in a fearsome warrior, but you also will become as dumb as a guar for one minute. Don't try casting spells when you just drank some.

Look on http://www.uesp.net/wiki/File:MW-Map-Vvardenfell.jpg map. The places suited for the first few levels are the bittercoast regions Beware of the other regions! As NPCs say, those regions are dangerous, especially the Ashlands and Sheogorad. Stay clear of daedric shrines and dunmer strongholds! It's possible to loot a few dwemer ruins, but some contain dangerous baddies!

TIPS END

Damn, talking about morrowind again gives me the urge to start playing again. Yes, Morrowind was my first Elder Scrolls. I saw my friend running around Balmora as an Argonian. A few days later, I borrowed his copy of the game. I was hooked from the beginning. I bought it at the local store and I turned my xbox on with the disc in it. The few first days were tough (I died at least twice walking from Seyda Neen to Balmora with my little Dunmer) but a few days later, after a lot of advice from my friend, my Dunmer was ready to take on Vvardenfell.

Doing the quests especially the MQ and the Mages Guild discovering the lore is an integral part of the questline
The larger number of factions helps keep the game fresh
eg House Redoran, the Imperial Legion and the Fighters Guild are all factions oriented to a warrior-type of character but although the skill requirements are similar each feels very different
As said no quest markers. You can get lost going somewhere and stumble on something completely unexpected

many people prefer Morrowind Over Oblivion because.


despite its crap graphics to todays standard, one line dialog, hilariously frustrating combat system and stand in place go nowhere NPC's.

the game still tells a story, even though factions aren't doing anything, infact no one is doing anything you still get a feel of the world and whats going on, you can clearly understand the tensions and rich history permeating the island, things are going on before you even got their, your the new guy and its your place to fit in somewhere or die. so many are involved in so much and its all easy to understand at a glance and even more thrilling when you dip into it. the amount of detail in the world shows how much attention the devs were paying to making the game.

Oblivion sacrificed 80% of that in exchange for Graphics, Combat, and voiced dialog, when it didnt even have to since all that morrowind was could have been even greater in Skyrim WITH the graphics, Combat and voiced dialog.

Here's what I wrote in another thread on why I prefer Morrowind:

I think everyone's already said why Morrowind's awesome, and yeah, it runs great on modern PCs -- waaaay better than Oblivion. I love Morrowind and Oblivion about equally, but for different reasons: Oblivion has good gameplay and it's fun just wandering around, while Morrowind has much more depth and interesting quests. Because of this, I found Morrowind a bit harder to get into than Oblivion. It took me a while to get hooked on it way back when I played it for the first time, and it took me a while to get back into it when I started playing again recently. Be patient, join a few factions, and you will eventually love it just as much (if not more) as you do Oblivion.

Long story short; Oblivion is too biased towards consoles.

I guess it's always had more charm, and has more depth, than Oblivion.

Let's face it, Oblivion's story was s***

For the world and lore.

I don't think any other game, that I will ever play, will replicate that feeling of stepping off the boat into Seyda Neen for the first time.

Just a tip - play Daggerfall first, then Morrowind.

Daggerfall is a tricky game to get into because of it's age. Some get into it, others don't... but even if you only try it for a couple of hours before switching to Morrowind, it'll make it a lot easier to appreciate Morrowind's graphics afterwards. Going from Oblivion to Morrowind, the graphics will look kind've crap and there's a chance that you'll feel the need to install a load of visual mods to appreciate the game. Going from Daggerfall to Morrowind on the other hand actually makes Morrowind's vanilla graphics seem pretty decent.

I gotta agree with this. I love Oblivion, but MW, just actually felt like a different world