All that's really a matter of opinion. I personally thought Morrowind was better than Arena and Daggerfall. I didn't care as much for Oblivion, but there were some major improvements like combat and even the AI was a lot better (even if it was nothing like Radiant AI was supposed to be). To me, the alien feel of first stepping out of the Census and Excise office and into the strange world of Vvardenfell with no real sense of direction was absolutely wonderful. I really liked the whole idea of being a stranger in a strange land. I think the feel of the world was simply amazing, and much more captivating than any other TES's game world has been so far. I don't know yet if Skyrim will live up to that, but I have doubts. However, it most certainly looks like it will be a great game, just like every other entry in the series has been. :tes:

I think this one may have a good chance, No TES game is "better" then the last, but i beleive skyrim has the best chance to beat MW for peoples no 1 slots.

I'm playing Morrowind right now and I can give some of the pros and cons of the game so we can tell whether Skyrim will be better or not.

Pros:

• Varied environment
  
• Decent leveling system (and yes, it has one)
  
• More armor pieces than the next games
  
• Beast races look like beasts
  
• Varied weapons, such as spears, crossbows, thrown weapons, and Akaviri weapons
  
• Better glass armor than Oblivion
  
• Better Daedric armor than Oblivion
  
• More and more powerfull artifacts
  
• Staffs usable in actuall combat
  
• In-depth story
  
• Story that gives you time to explore by not sounding too urgent
  
• Mod-able

Cons:

• Old graphics
  
• Rather slow combat system
  
• Some skills that don't really make much sense (As in having a 100 long blade skill but not being able to hit a thing with a shortsword or axe)
  
• Quests with poor directions
  
• Being able to acidently stumble upon a future quest sight and killing most of the key NPCs
  
• Bad mechanics for ecumberance (but face it, the whole series has this problem)
  
• Difficulty placing objects
  
• Having to use TCL to get un-stuck many times
  
• Bad animation
  
• Cliff racers
  
• Unbalanced magic system (though, most of the series has this problem too)
  
• Overwhelming confusion, especially at the beginning of the game
  
• Very static dungeons where a level 1 can stumble into a level 25 dungeon

Observations: There are more cons than pros in the list and several of the cons listed have been "fixed" in either Oblivion or seem to be fixed in Skyrim.

Edge: Skyrim

I think Skyrim will (systematically speaking) be the better "game" but no one can say whether the plot will be better, Morrowind's plot is truly something grand and puzzling,

Yeah. Morrowind was more detailed and had a better storyline than Oblivion by far, but Oblivion's combat system and graphics as well as AI completely dominated Morrowind, albeit only because Morrowind was made way before. But on that note Daggerfall would completely dominate Morrowind if it was made at the same time.. I would like to see Daggerfall with Skyrim graphics, AI, combat etc. Amazing...

On topic, I think Skyrim will be MUCH better visually, probably in details this time around from what I've seen, not sure about the story so far.. Combat is completely dominant. Less armor slots doesn't bother me at all, or lack of weapon choices (though I wouldn't mind more weapons).

For me, personally, Skyrim almost can't not be a better game than Morrowind. I never played Morrowind, but was recently looking for a classic RPG to play on my PC. I thought Morrowind would be a shoe-in for me until I read that there were no directions provided to quest locations so after receiving a quest one had to wander in the general direction and often get lost for hours before finding the quest location.

While this particular game mechanic is something some folks adore, it's a mechanic I find torturous. That one thing alone stopped me from getting Morrowind.

Every game is different, and has a different atmosphere. The atmosphere in Morrowind was great: Overall it was one of the best games I have ever played. However, Skyrim appears to be at least just as awesome as Morrowind was to me when I first played it. I guess Skyrim will be better.
It's actually a matter of taste. I personally love mountains, snow and pine forests. And Nords. And that is why I think Skyrim will be "better" than Morrowind, if you can even say it like that. Morrowind is still a great game, even with mods, and Skyrim is going into a new direction which I really like, so yeah, why would it not be better in its way?

I think that the opinions vary greatly depending on when and in what order you played each of the ES games. People who played Morrowind when it came out tend to favor it more. That's because, like said earlier, Morrowind was amazing for its time and its complexity and difficultly made it it appeal to the more self-labeled hardcoe classic RPGers. However, when Oblivion came out, those players were too upset about the things that the lost from Morrowind to realize how great of a game Oblivion was. Meanwhile, loads of new players attracted by the more action/adventure elements in Oblivion (or people who were just looking for their first real next gen experience) became new players and when they now go back to try and play Morrowind they're too spoiled with graphics and gameplay mechanics to realize how great of a game Morrowind is.

Point is, they're both great games and Skyrim will be a great game too.

In a word. Yes.

I have no idea where you get that from, but I don't know too many people who think grahpics are more important than gameplay, story, etc.

Will Skyrim's story be better than Morrowind's? I have no idea, but so far it sounds promising.

Will Skyrim have better gameplay than Morrowind? Most probably.

Will Skyrim be a overall better game than Morrowind? We'll just have to wait and see.

EDIT: Of course, that's just my opinion.

Combat in Skyrim is already weightless and boring , guys are taking a sword slash in the face and they only make a step back ....how this is better than Morrowind's ?

In some respects yet in others no. I think the biggest thing will be Morrowind will still hold appeal to dice roll fans, along with Morrowind's pure unique and strange aesthetics which Skyrim can't replicate(And the birthplace of Men wouldn't make sense lore-wise to be such anyways)

Individual game mechanics will shine, others Bethesda will fail at.

Personally I'm waiting to see what everyone has not mentioned: Dialogue and writing. That's BGS's make or break.

Whoever wrote that was blantantly lying, never played morrowind or didn't know how to use the journal. The vast majority of directions were very detailed and sometimes took up the majority of a journal page, not to mention that NPCs would even tell you the quickiest way to get there. The few quest that didn't have detailed directions were designed that way on purpose.

It's an RPG. They can't have you cut the man's head off the instant you strike.

Yeah. I've noticed.
Skyrim will be fun though.

I don't understand some people here that are comparing graphics of a game from 2002 and a game that's not even out, focus on the aspects like gameplay, story etc.
just saying

Not exactly, I mean there's individual likes on the games but there's a mass appeal.

The large divide between TES fans started WITH Morrowind. It was a major simplification and streamlining of Daggerfall and Arena, which are simplified versions of Wasteland(Base mechanics)

Morrowind's ace was not gameplay as many seem to think but largely the lore and the world. And possibly even the World won out to the lore. Morrowind itself is the star really. Oblivion's dialogue failing was a curcumstancial one as Bethesda had never worked on a fully voiced game before plus the small pool of voice actors didn't help.

And if we're taking mechanic -killing- that'd be Fallout 3 because by god, the RPG mechanics FO, TES, and the RPG genre in general share were slaughtered in BGS's FO3.

As I mentioned Skyrim will probably be better received as it's more attention to detail and hand crafted as Morrowind was however lore-wise of coarse the place is low fantasy and cannot be like part of Morrowind's odd little island(Vvardenfell)

We have to see on he other things though.

yes and no
too many factors to say 100% either way

Yet Morrowind's plot was called out for being the rather simple fantasy flair it was.

As much as Oblivion is put forth as the "mainstream" TES game it was truly Morrowind. The divide between Daggerfall and Morrowind show this. Plus it sold fairly well on the Xbox.

Morrowind's ace in the hole as mentioned above was the fully hand-crafted Vvardenfall and the written characters.

Which isn't to say voiced is worse to written. It's just the hilarious fact that BGS's first fully voiced game was in 2006 with Oblivion.

Anyways, issue is a majority of people on these forums aren't TES fans, their plainly Morrowind fans.

As an Brian Fargo-era Interplay fan, this makes me laugh.

Nah.

1) I was one of those people who liked reading the books to get hints about where to go, liked the other-worldliness, etc. I don't believe that will happen again. Especially the alien feel. Yes, I attacked the first Silt Strider I saw :toughninja:

2) With the huge emphasis on improved combat and window dressings (gore, finishing moves, scars, etc.) I'm betting that the game will be too action/graphics oriented for my taste.

3) MW was my first first person perspective game, so the nostalgia factor's there as well.

actually it was Redguard.

Can you explain your opinion in more detailed way?

The answer is no, Morrowind will always be the defining elder scrolls game. Will skyrim be better than oblivion? The answer for that one should be obvious.

Personally, I think I will enjoy Skyrim more than I did Morrowind.

If so Oblivion becomes a worse excuse. However Redguard was a mobile game was it not. In which case I wouldn't say it counts.

You understand the point I'm trying to make though with that statement. It's a very large shift from the experience others such as Obsidian or Bioware have.